J. Patrick Coolican

Columns

How we can get in concert to enrich our children: Jan. 16, 2013; When you go to the Las Vegas Philharmonic’s Youth Concert Series and the music starts, you don’t want to watch the stage. The real action is in the audience, where many of the 1,600 fourth- and fifth-graders fancy themselves amateur conductors, waving their imaginary batons and urging on the musicians. This year, about 13,000 students will enjoy one of eight concerts at the Smith Center for the Performing Arts.

Let's reform the state's tax policy that sticks it to the poor: Jan. 11, 2013; We often hear critiques of Nevada’s tax system — that it is unstable and at the mercy of boom-and-bust cycles. But we rarely hear about the system’s biggest problem: It’s regressive.

Jack Nicholson, a murder and water rights: Jan. 7, 2013; A couple of days after Christmas, the federal Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to carry billions of gallons of water from rural Nevada counties near the Utah border to Las Vegas by way of a 263-mile pipeline.

On this, anyway, father and son agree: Turning schools into armed fortresses a bad idea: Dec. 21, 2012; My father and I don’t agree on much. One thing we do agree on, however, is that America’s obsession with security is destructive to our way of life.

Taking a real liking to a bunch of guys under the lights on Friday nights: Dec. 15, 2012; On Friday, we posted a long piece that I wrote tracking Canyon Springs High School’s football season. Now comes this addendum, because I must share with you my personal feelings after having found myself becoming attached to the team.

Culinary head D. Taylor poised for new challenge as national leader: Nov. 25, 2012; After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, Las Vegas became gripped in economic crisis. The tourism and convention business collapsed, and workers were laid off or had their hours reduced. For many in Las Vegas, this is when D. Taylor stepped up big time.

Steve Wynn much better suited to casinos than politics: Nov. 15, 2012; For years now, we’ve been hearing the rich baritone carnival bark of Steve Wynn, who never misses an opportunity to attack President Barack Obama for his economic policies. His passion on the subject is a little obscure.

Republicans nationally can learn from Nevada GOP ... at least in some respects: Nov. 8, 2012; Tuesday was a disaster for the national Republican Party, as President Barack Obama won an election that secured a new governing majority and the Senate remained in Harry Reid’s hands. Elizabeth Warren, pot and gay marriage were just salt in the wounds. In Nevada, however, it wasn’t so bad.

Election results don't bode well for GOP, future local TV revenue: Nov. 7, 2012; Coolican offers his take on the election results.

Dirty politics — in a race for justice of the peace: Nov. 2, 2012; I recently railed against the election of judges as farcical. The timing was perfect, as District Judge Steven Jones faces federal charges this week in an alleged investment scam. A reader sent me another good example of how dumb judicial elections can be.

Who's qualified to vote for judges?: Oct. 28, 2012; The election of judges is an utter farce. Perhaps my favorite piece of data in support of this assertion is that in the 2010 election, 466,000 voters in Clark County cast their vote for a candidate in the U.S. Senate race, while about 360,000 voters made a choice in the countywide judicial races. So, 100,000 people took a pass in the judicial races.

It's time for Nevada to legalize marijuana: Oct. 26, 2012; Let’s talk pot. Perhaps the most consequential decision faced by voters in three Western states, other than control of the White House, are voter initiatives that would legalize marijuana.

Should we turn the old Ambassador Hotel site into a Middle Eastern market?: Oct. 24, 2012; The possibilities seem endless for the seven acre space.

Sorry, Romney — Nevada won't see 6 percent unemployment by 2016: Oct. 24, 2012; Mitt Romney should have learned his lesson from President Barack Obama and not made any promises about unemployment. During a visit to Henderson on Tuesday, Romney said, “How about four years where at the end we get Nevada unemployment down to 6 percent or lower?” Republicans have been hammering Obama for years because his economists forecast that unemployment would peak nationally at 8 percent even though it eventually reached 10 percent.

High-interest lenders need more, not less, supervision: Oct. 16, 2012; According to the results of a recent survey by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., Nevada leads the nation in the percentage of residents who are “underbanked” — meaning they have some sort of bank account but also resort to high-interest loans from nontraditional lenders to make ends meet.

Blog

On this, anyway, father and son agree: Turning schools into armed fortresses a bad idea

Dec. 21, 2012 6:40 p.m.
Steve Wynn much better suited to casinos than politics

Nov. 15, 2012 2 a.m.
Republicans nationally can learn from Nevada GOP … at least in some respects

Nov. 8, 2012 2 a.m.

All blog entries »

J. Patrick Coolican was born in Connecticut to a large, Irish Catholic family and then studied dead white male authors at the University of Notre Dame. He started his career during the 2000 presidential campaign, writing for a Web site he created with two friends. He's written for The Seattle Times, The Nation, LA Weekly and, since early 2006, for the Sun.