Correction In last week's issue, we misspelled the name of Curl Up and Die guitarist Matt Fuchs. His mom called to say it is not, in fact, spelled "Fucks." Sorry, Matt's mom.

Thursday, January 09, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics

Reid it and weep

Well, it didn't take long for one of our predictions in last week's issue to be proved wrong. The news that Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle has decided not to run for president puts a damper on speculation about Sen. Harry Reid's impending rise to the Democratic Party's top spot in the Senate.

Reid will continue to serve as the minority whip, a high-level position but one that leaves him still largely unknown outside of Washington, D.C., and Nevada. It also could mean Reid will face another tough re-election battle next year, as the senior senator won't be able to use a "potential majority leader" sales pitch. What's more, President Bush reportedly is getting behind a Rep. Jim Gibbons challenge to Reid.--GS

Guinn's tall order

When Gov. Kenny Guinn goes hat in hand to the state Legislature begging for tax hikes next month, he'll not only be bucking a public uproar. He'll be facing the ghost of Jim Gibbons. Gibbons, now safely ensconced in Congress, was the fellow Republican standard-bearer who, a few years ago, pushed through a constitutional amendment requiring a two-thirds legislative majority to increase taxes.

So Guinn and lawmakers will be in political quicksand, with revenue shortfalls that could reach $1.4 billion and statehouse numbers that even Findlay RV couldn't make right. Fully a third of the Legislature represents Northern Nevada, a conservative bastion that shoots down tax hikes like ducks.

That leaves two-thirds representing Southern Nevada, an area almost evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. And many Southern Nevadans are like-minded with their Northern counterparts.

"It's zero. There's no support from my constituents," Assemblyman Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas, says of tax hikes. "They're telling me, `I don't know or care if it's state, federal or local government, half my income is going to the government. Make it work."

Beers wants to review all new state programs instituted over the last six years, including the Millennium Scholarships, the Nevada State College and the dental school. He wants a referendum on the issue. "What's the best course, implement tax programs or put programs on hold?"

But Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, doubts if the cuts will do any good. Cutting the state college and dental college won't save much money, she says. "We don't have anything to cut. There are no programs on the Democratic agenda."

Guinn's blue-ribbon panel last year recommended a mix of tax hikes, including levies on alcohol and tobacco and a gross revenue tax for businesses that rankles the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce. And even that proposal would raise only about half the needed money.

Buckley acknowledges the magnitude of the problem. "We all know we have a huge crisis." She favors a more fair approach to business taxes. "We need a broad-based tax that isn't directed at the working-class folks."

The unions favor taxing larger businesses, such as the big banks, without imposing too much burden on small businesses. And through it all, the casino lobby is waiting in the wings.

Amid the debate, Guinn, who campaigned for re-election on a no-new-tax-hike platform, now faces the biggest tax increases in the state's history. He has not announced any specifics on how to boost revenue, but may do so in his upcoming State of the State address. He's already cut state services 3 percent.

It all promises a pie-in-your-face session that mirrors the famous Marx Brothers' line: "I hate taxes. Give it back to Mexico."--LW

Here comes da judge

C'mon, poets don't become judges. It just doesn't happen. Poets live in stinking little downtown apartments and scratch out their inspirations with stubby pencils on butcher paper. They smoke unfiltered cigarettes and don't shower for a week at a time.

Ah, but there's an exception to every rule, and Dayvid Figler, one of the valley's better-known poets--he prefers the term spoken-word artist--is ours. Figler, whose lawyer salary allows him to live in a nice, comfy house (though it is downtown), was appointed this week to the Las Vegas Municipal Court, Department 6.

Figler, 35, is filling the vacancy left by Jessie Walsh, who in November was elected to the District Court bench. "It's a call to civic duty," says Figler, who does not intend to seek election to the judgeship in this spring's municipal elections.

In other words, Figler will be a judge for about six months, after which he'll do something else, possibly returning to the job he's had the past 5 1/2 years: county special public defender handling murder cases.

On a related note, Figler will suspend writing columns for the Mercury during his robed tenure. We suspect, however, that he will not stop writing poetry, as his stint on the bench meting out justice to traffic scofflaws and misdemeanor offenders is sure to inspire many flights of fancy.--GS

`A stink, a grating noise...'

The Cannery hotel-casino, which opened last week in North Las Vegas, boasts a beautifully rendered industrial theme, but it may be ill-considered for publicists to suggest that the clean, attractive, high-tech $105 million resort is intended to "evoke memories of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row." Sure, it's just publicity, but for those who have read Cannery Row, the comparison might be a little off-putting. Consider the novel's famous first paragraph:

"Cannery Row in Monterey in California is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream. Cannery Row is the gathered and scattered, tin and iron and rust and splintered wood, chipped pavement and weedy lots and junk heaps, sardine canneries of corrugated iron, honky tonks, restaurants and whorehouses, and little crowded groceries, and laboratories and flophouses. Its inhabitants are, as the man once said, `whores, pimps, gamblers, and sons of bitches,' by which he meant Everybody. Had the man looked through another peephole he might have said, `Saints and angels and martyrs and holy men,' and he would have meant the same thing."--GS

Not to be confused with...

With construction humming along on Steve Wynn's latest Strip resort, travelers wanting to stay at Le Reve Hotel in the future are going to have to choose which Le Reve Hotel they want.

It seems Las Vegas' newest billion-dollar hotel project shares its name with a 15-year-old West Hollywood, Calif., first-class studio-suite hotel located off Sunset Boulevard in the heart of the Left Coast's entertainment mecca. The smaller property--four stories and 80 rooms compared with Wynn's 42 stories and 2,700 rooms--opened in 1987 and boasts, on its website: "For a touch of romance, what could be lovelier than a moonlight swim on the rooftop garden pool...or to relax in the mineral spa?"

As amenities, all rooms in California's Le Reve have air conditioning, cable TV, a fireplace, a refrigerator and an alarm clock/radio. By comparison, Wynn plans on each suite having large and opulent bathrooms, fax machines, wireless data ports and flat-screen plasma televisions in the living areas.

Another difference? Wynn's resort--like all the others on the Strip--will still have free parking. West Hollywood's overnighter charges guests $16.50 per day for parking.--FC

Arizona-bound

Our best wishes to Jimmy Boegle, news editor of CityLife, who is leaving Las Vegas to become the editor of Tucson Weekly. Boegle, who arrived at CityLife after a stint as managing editor of the Reno News and Review, starts Jan. 22 at the Old Pueblo's alternative weekly. Tucson Weekly is a sister paper of CityLife; both are owned by Wick Communications.--GS

Gov't

Money on trees

If you think a "greenbelt" is that hip hemp rope you string through your pant loops, or a "conservation easement" is the roomy corridor of dead space between disparate conversations at yet another all-night party with strangers, then perhaps this item isn't for you.

But if you have some appreciation for the natural state of Nevada, then hark: The Division of State Lands is itching to come up with a bundle of rules to guide dispersal of the $65.5 million in bonds Nevadans voted for with Question 1 in November. This ain't no wartime budget--it's a lot of money, to be garnered through the sale of bonds, that cities, counties, state agencies and private nonprofits can vie for bits of in order to prettify and preserve the natural lusciousness that is Nevada. There are going to be workshops throughout the state this month and next in which the state Lands Division will ask citizens for ideas on developing this grant program. The Las Vegas workshop is at 6 p.m. Jan. 28 at the Division of State Parks Meeting Room, 4747 Vegas Drive. Info: Skip Canfield or Shari O'Dette, (775) 687-4363.--HW

NOT fictitiously busy

A year ago, the County Commission adopted an ordinance mandating that holders of fictitious firm names--businesses "doing business as"--filed before Jan. 1, 1998, had to renew their names by the end of 2002, but little did anyone suspect what impact that would have on the county clerk's staff.

Christine Mason and Linus Hyl, the two deputy clerks who run the commission clerk's front office, reached a crescendo of activity New Year's Eve day that resulted in a record 50 names being refiled on that day alone.

"We took in $1,034 today, which made this our busiest day ever," said an exhausted Mason, who kept the Xerox whirring, the receipts flying and the tempers calmed.

With the change, hundreds of thousands of active records will be kept current, which the county had admitted were out of date and had no way of telling whether a particular name was still in use.

Now that all DBAs expire 60 months after issuance, the Dec. 31 rush will come more often than once a year. "It'll be like this every month now," Hyl said.--FC