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Sen. Harry Reid, right, listens as Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood speaks July 2 at a news conference to designate a high-speed-rail corridor.
Saturday, Aug. 25, 2012 | 2 a.m.
Reid announces money for McCarron Airport renovation
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KSNV reports that Sen. Harry Reid announces money for McCarran Airport renovation, while Terminal 3 faces long delays, Aug. 24.
Sun coverage
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has weighed in on renaming McCarran International Airport — he’s for it.
Named for former Nevada Sen. Patrick McCarran, who drafted several pieces of legislation in the 1930s and '40s that became the foundation for today’s aviation regulatory structure, the airport has become the focus of a name change debate among Clark County leaders and the local tourism industry.
But McCarran also had a dark side that Reid says makes him unworthy of the recognition.
“Pat McCarran was one of the most anti-Semitic — some of you might know my wife’s Jewish — one of the most anti-black, one of the most prejudiced people who has ever served in the Senate,” Reid said in response to questions he and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood fielded Friday at a news conference on recent transportation triumphs for Southern Nevada. “It’s not a decision I’m going to make, but if you ask me to give my opinion, I don’t think his name should be on anything.”
The Clark County Commission will be responsible for considering any name change and the associated costs of making it. Some have estimated the price tag to be more than $1 million to make the switch. The topic also was debated by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which likes the idea of using a name like Las Vegas International Airport to extend the city’s brand abroad.
Reid and LaHood summarized some accomplishments for Southern Nevada transportation in a time when many proposals are in legislative gridlock. The laundry list of successes includes the opening of McCarran’s $2.4 billion Terminal 3, which Reid and LaHood toured; the designation of U.S. 93 as Interstate 11, making it eligible for funding to bring it to interstate highway standards; and the passage of a surface transportation bill and Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization legislation.
They also received pats on the back for the Interstate 15 south design-build project, the Summerlin high-occupancy vehicle flyover, the Sahara Express Rapid Transit and Bonneville Transit Terminal projects, and progress on McCarran’s new air traffic control tower.
But one item that’s still on hold is a federal loan request to build a high-speed railroad between Las Vegas and Southern California. XpressWest, a private venture planning the proposed 186-mile system to Victorville, Calif., would connect to the California High Speed Rail line in Palmdale, Calif., through an agreement with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
XpressWest applied for a $5.5 billion loan through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing program in March 2011. Reid and LaHood had little information about the status of the application.
“We have been meeting with the investors and we have a study that’s been completed,” LaHood said. “It’s a study that gives us some very good guidance, and we’re going to continue our discussions. Sen. Reid and I have talked to the investors, and those discussions are ongoing. We know about what it’s going to cost and we’re trying to work through some of the details. Once we finish our discussions, we’ll have something to announce.”
“This is a big project,” Reid said. “This is 20,000 jobs. (California) Gov. (Jerry) Brown has signed off on what we’re trying to do. Obviously, it’s a good deal for the state of California and the state of Nevada because they’ve already started the project in California. I’m very satisfied with where we are now. I wish we could move more quickly, but when you’re talking about billions and billions of dollars, it’s not that easy to finalize the project.”
LaHood also announced that McCarran had been awarded a $17.6 million grant to reconstruct two heavily used taxiways at the airport. A grant from the FAA Airport Improvement Program will be used to replace cracked asphalt with more durable concrete that will stand up to Las Vegas’ extreme temperatures and will require less maintenance.
Reid says "But McCarran also had a dark side that Reid says makes him unworthy of the recognition."
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But Harry Reid also had a dark side that makes him unworthy of recognition.
Never name anything after Harry Reid
Harry Reids name shouldn't be on anything.Pathetic little man.
Harry Reid is right on this, but you Sharron Angle Tea republicans can defend McCarran cause it makes Reid look good. Again.
:-)
How about the Sheldon Adelson International Airport ? it will make up for the anti-semtism but still keep an oily character
We do not defend Mc Carren and
We can never defend Harry Reid. The things that Harry has done the pure means of the man are beneath contempt. Harry has embarrassed Nevada. Harry may well be the reason that Obama is not re elected
Patrick Anthony McCarran (August 8, 1876 -- September 28, 1954) was a DEMOCRAT United States Senator from Nevada from 1933 until 1954,
SAY AGAIN DEMOCRAT MC CARREN -- HARRY REID IS A DEMOCRAT
Airport should be named Obama Airport
How is it you say it: "He's a light skin black man?" How did you mean that, you freckled Mormon.
So, so sad, if Pat were here today, gave you 2 cents for the train to Coyote Springs, you would not say a word about his character. If he wanted to put solar panels on the airport, you'd show him how to do that and get money into your coffers as well. Harry, this is a dirty statement, and the only way to get on with life is for the "haters" to pass on.
You, Senator, are so negative these days, I don't get it.
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Harry will twist a few arms to settle on Reid International Airport as the airport's name.
The money for a name change is a huge waste of precious taxpayer resources. Keep the name and spend the money on highway improvements.
It's lucky Pat's not around today Harry. He'd smash your little weasel face in...
The only thing worthy of Harry Reid's name is an outhouse.
Oh my gosh, you Senator Reid haters are all of a sudden put in a quandary.
You totally agree with changing the name of the airport, but you can't now.
Because the policy of attack, attack, attack, tora, tora, tora, banzai, banzai, BANZAI, hate on him, hate him, detest him, HATE HIM on Senator Reid MUST be followed at all costs. Every single ultra-conservative in Nevada MUST toe the line at every turn. No exceptions.
Buncha hypocrites.....
The way you go on and on, just go ahead and admit it. You want to change the name of the airport here to "We Hate Harry Reid So Much It Causes An Aneurism" Airport.
Who cares what Senator Reid says. Senator Mc Carran's views about race and religion in the 1930s and 40s were not unusual. As a country we have grown up and today most do not hold these views. The airport should be named Las Vegas International and Terminal 3 for Senator Pat McCarran.. End of discussion. Now about that budget Senator Reid, were is it?
Really Senator? Ever since your stroke you have said some very strange things. Why do you keep making stuff up? Admit it, you just want the airport changed to the Pinky Reid Airport.
A name change to the airport would be very beneficial to Nevada in the long term, but most benefit would come from several name changes in Congress come November.
I love the way Harry attacks a dead man. It is an easy target for Harry as the guy can't defend his name, yet here is Harry. History is what it is, you can't change it and any attempt to wipe it out is a desparate. Imagine if we went back and wiped out every name of every person who had a different view than you or I. First we should list all the racists, then all the ones whom were anti-gay, then all the white people that had slaves. Have we eliminated any past presidents, yeah? This is stupidity at it's finest. Go Harry, maybe he can juice his son's name since he wasn't qualified for the Henderson job and he isn't qualified to have an airport named after him. More pandering for votes trying to look like a saint. This makes me want to puke. Harry is nothing but a ......
Harry Mason Reid - His corruption goes back decades to the gaming commission, back-room real estate deals, Mormon contractor no-bid work and just the usual run-of-the-mill insider corruption you would expect from a carpet bagger like Harry.
With that said...Do we change the name to the Dana White International? Sell steroids in the duty free?
There is no financial benefit for changing the name of the airport. Zero!. It would cost way more than $1 miilion dollars so whomever came up with that number is dilusional. And one comment stated private money for the desert xpress? Sadly no. Taxpayer money. No sane investor would use thier own cash for such a stupid endeavour.
Thru his narrow prism of politics, Reid the Red sees everything as Blue or Red; Left vs. Right; Dumbocrat vs. Republicrat. I see the name change issue as an economic one; not a political one. If only politics were the criteria for naming an entity after someone, most would not qualify. I didn't see Reid the Red caterwauling to rename Floyd Lamb State Park and that guy was a convicted felon. He stands up for Harry Claiborne, another convicted felon. "People in glass houses hould not throw stones," Reid the Red.
I do not see anything that says McCarran was anti-Semitic or anti-black, but he was definitely against communism. He also wanted to keep anti-American views out of the country. He even tried to get stricter immigration laws to accomplish this objective!
So since McCarran is not alive to defend himself, nor do any of us have first hand knowledge of the man or his beliefs. I think the anti-Semitic, anti-American, "I will line my own pockets," Harry Reid should shut up!
Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, is the highest office holder of any Nevadan in history. It makes sense that the state's greatest elected official, one who rose from meager beginnings in the little town of Searchlight, should someday have the Las Vegas airport named after him.
Sen. Reid has represented the state with honor and dignity, unlike other some disgraced politicians such as republicans John Ensign and Jim Gibbons.
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There is a failed industrial park in the southwest part of the valley named after Harry Reid. on Sunset near Durango.
Very appropriate that it is named after Reid.
Although I am not from Nevada, I cannot identify with all the hoopla that Senator Reid is creating. I have flown into McCarran Intl. Airport many times, and not once did I not identify McCarran with Las Vegas. As stated, I am not a Nevadan, but I would guess there is not one, not one, politician who has something in their past for which they should be ashamed, including Sen. Harry Reid. Should that negate a name change after sixty or seventy years? What would he want it changed to, the Senator Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas? As a non-resident, but frequent visitor to Las Vegas via McCarran, it is my opinion that a name change is ridiculous, considering all the more important issues facing our nation today.
Why do so many commenters boil nearly every issue of significance or insignificance down to a diatribe against Harry Reid or President Obama? I'll bet a beer that few of them can name ONE thing that either has done that affects them in any personal or financial way. Just hate, hate, hate. "I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear." Martin Luther King.
Just Likr Mr Romney's Taxes - This has Nothing to do With Harry Reid. He's Not the Decision maker on this. The Major question is. Will Renaming The Airport be a Plus or Negative for the Las Vegas Economy, Not Your Political Presuasion. And We ALL should be interested in GREEN as we have one of the Most Disfunctional Single Industry Economies in the Country.
Reid supported and voted for an admenment to ban gay marriage via the state's constitution.
Some consider that to be bigotry.
So we should not name stuff after Reid....right?????
I really could care less what the airport is named but it not a wise game to apply today's cultural standards to stuff that happened years ago.
Woodrow Wilson was an overt over-the-top racist president that should have been called Prez Jim Crow.
So we should trash him now for that and not name stuff after him?????
It is dumb to do this.
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i'm all for changing the name to las vegas international or something along those lines. i seriously doubt that even most native nevadans know who pat mccarran was. i never hear anyone say, "i'm flying to mccarran." for all intents and purposes the airport is "las vegas airport." if the name change helps lvcva promote our fair city and gets more people to come here then all the better.
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If this is the best Nevada can do, it deserves to be - and remain - last in everything.
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Had it not been for the late Senator Pat
Nellis Air Force Base would be located in Tonopah
Do your research Senator Reid
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Harry is looking a little long in the tooth. Why do we not have term limits for Senators? Some of these guys are in there like a king.
Waste of time and money to change the name. Money we don't have. O'hare works fine. JFK works fine. You don't need to re-name it Las Vegas Airport. If someone doesn't know how to book a flight into Las Vegas because it's called McCarran, they probably shouldn't be coming here to begin with. I mean how stupid can you be?
McCarren was a huge anti-communist! No wonder Reid don't like him!
"Had it not been for the late Senator Pat, Nellis Air Force Base would be located in Tonopah"
Help me out, how would that have been a bad thing?
Nobody cares what you say Harry. The old folks home has your room ready and waiting....
We don't have the money. Period.
If you want to change the name, fine. But please bear in mind how much it would COST to do so. Perhaps we can re-visit this issue when, I don't know, we have taken care of things that should be more of a priority in Southern Nevada.
Priorities people! We shouldn't be spending money on an 'issue' like this right now when this city/county is in such a financial quandary!
The Airport shoul be bamed after Obama, Harry Reid or Hank Greenspun.
when Pat McCarren died in 1954 harry reid was only
14 yo, I dont think reid really knew Pat McCarran personally. Pat was from northern Nevada while ried is from southern Nevada, Pat was also out to the senate before ried was born, so what reid is saying, is nothing but wishful thinking or lies. If you want to read more about Pat McCarren google his name, He was against communism, and big government. He fathered the first immagration bill.
He was not a racist or anti-semitic. He was a true American.
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Using the Reid theory many airports, roads and even a few cities around the country are due for a name change.
I do not see anything wrong with hating Harry Reid, most of the pro Reid posters hate Bush. We all have opinions.
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I firmly believe that Reid and all politicians must stay out of issues that we VOTERS should decide.
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Harry Reid thankfully does not have a dark side. No sweetheart land deals, no bribes for fellow senators on Obama care vote. Clean and pure as the new driven snow. YEP, that's harry.!!
Honestly, even if the guy wasn't a world class creep, which he was, I think the airport should be named for the City of Las Vegas. It's called branding.
In my humble opinion, there really is only one Las Vegas aviation hero worthy of having the airport named after him. That would be Bruce Dyer,who I believe back in the 40's was the first man to fly from Thailand non-stop to Las Vegas. You can look it up-he's an unknown local hero!!!
The same could be said about you Harry. I never met a dollar I didn't like. And by the way Harry, Ray LaHood takes black polish on his shoes.
I certainly wish commentators would take advantage of spell check and learn how to punctuate.
I do not see how changing the name of the airport will make the city any extra money. I see it only costing us money. The name calling is unnecessary and unprofessional.
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How to make the tea loons go into foaming at the mouth convulsions: Put on a raincoat and slickers then say "Sen. Harry Reid".
I Did not realize that the name of the airport is keeping people from coming to Las Vegas...
I guess that explains why ONLY 30 Million plus people come to Vegas every year.
Can't wait to pay $80 per ticket one way to ride on a high speed train and be dumped in the middle of the California Desert! Lol..
Is this a little like the succession of Soviet leaders tearing down predecessors
statues and cutting their names from text books?
Pat McCarren lived in a different time. Be thankful we know better now, but lets live in the present and focus on things that actually matter.
Nevada can do alot better than this goofball we call our Senator. What a dummy...
Harry Reid would probably like the Bridge from Laughlin to Bullhead named for him to remind the locals how much money reid made off a $10,000 lAND DEAL
I agree with Harry Reid.
Let's name it OBAMA/REID INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.
After all, the majority of Nevadans voted for
both of these great leaders.
DEMOCRATS FOREVER!
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Desert-XpressWest; "a private venture planning the proposed 186-mile system to Victorville, Calif".
Keep it a private venture funded 100% with private funding from private venture capital otherwise it looks and smells like a fascist corporatist venture between government and private entities with taxpayers on the hook for what will in all likelihood amount to another failure that only benefits politician's purses by-way of special personal side -deals and kickbacks.
Haven't Nevadans suffered through enough buy Harry Reid, for Harry Reid deal$? If Harry Reid was a humble public servant... would he (Reid) now be a multi-millionaire?
When it doesn't smell right, it probably is not in the taxpayer's best interests"
If Desert Xpresst West is such a wonderful and sure deal, than why are casinos'/hotels/resorts not stepping up to fund this venture as they will be the beneficiaries receiving all of the revenue /tourist dollars?
Why ask American taxpayers to subsidize these mega corporations. Who will benefit more, people earning minimum wages performing slave labor service jobs or their corporate CEO's/politician Masters?
These chains gettin might heavy Massa"
Reid... another liberal full of hatred. No news here...
By and large International Airports throughout the USA are named after the City that it's in, i.e SFO,LAX. Your regional airports take on some rather odd names.How about the Draughton-Miller Central Texas Regional Airport....now that's a mouth full !!How about the Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Bridgeport,Ct. ? That rolls off my tongue easy enough.Changing it,I don't believe will change our numbers as far as tourists. It'll sound better perhaps.But how many millions will it cost to do all this.Are our pockets so overflowing with funds this is a good idea now ? Frankly, how about "finishing" projects started and never completed after the bust of 2008.I feel like our politicians haven't learned a damn thing from this mess we're in. I suppose changing the name is a good idea,just not now.Our politicians need to be thinking long and VERY hard on how they're going to bring in new business and not your mom and pop stuff. We need a solid other source of income other than gambling. If the world goes through another one of these near depression situations, towns like Las Vegas will have to turn the lights off and put the FOR SALE sign on the door,we'll never survive it. All I see today is business as usual in this town...never looking past today or tomorrow.When will they all grow up? Maybe I'm just burnt out from ALL the election lies (on both sides)and I'm holding my head thinking we still have a little less then 80 days to put up with this nonsense. GOOD GRIEF!!
Wow....Listen to all the hate. No wonder I fly nowhere.
I don't care what it's called just let the developers pay for it, not tax payers. And I'd vote for Howard Hughes International or Merle Frehner both of whom have historical value to the city and aviation. Frhner being the king of Lv, part of the history museum, a hero to downed air force spy planes and he used to service planes including for Hughes at his motor shop on Las Vegas Blvd.
When you look up a flight (as a majority use the internet) you type in LAS.
Would not a rose smell the same by any other name?
When something is working, and money is tight, why can't a politician leave well enough alone?