Thursday, January 16, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics

Dario watch

Anyone heard the rumor that former Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera, who recently lost a bid for Congress, is already thinking about jumping back into politics? Las Vegas City Councilman Gary Reese has heard the story that's been making the rounds. The word reached Reese's ears that Herrera was planning to run against the councilman in this spring's municipal elections. Sources say Reese took it seriously enough that he telephoned Herrera to find out if there was anything to it. Herrera reportedly told Reese that the story was completely untrue and that he had no plans to jump into the councilman's race. Just days later, another story surfaced. Word circulated at City Hall that Dario was planning to move into Ward 1 in order to challenge Councilman Michael McDonald. (Now, THAT would be an interesting campaign.) A McDonald confidante told the Mercury that McDonald wouldn't exactly be quaking in his boots about such a race.--GK

Sprint misdials

The new Sprint phone books are out, and they're messed up. Sprint has moved the business listings, used about 95 percent of the time by people who actually still use phone books. Instead of those frequently referenced listings being in the slimmer book, they have been lumped in with the fat, unwieldy yellow pages, making life miserable for those of us who actually use phone books. If you agree with this sentiment--and if you actually use the phone book, you do--we encourage you to call Sprint and complain. Maybe it can make things right again in the next edition.--GS

Southern Nevada

at the newsstand

Three national magazines on newsstands now report on three of the hottest topics in Southern Nevada. Here's a rundown:

LA REVE: The cover of the February issue of Cigar Aficionado magazine features the smiling countenance of Steve Wynn, Las Vegas' premier resort innovator past and, presumably, future. (Unlike most Cigar Aficionado cover subjects, Wynn is not pictured with a stogie clenched between his teeth.) The impetus for Michael Kaplan's article is Wynn's latest project, the $1.95 billion La Reve, which, the article promises, will be "his greatest accomplishment yet." Wynn says in order to succeed, La Reve must outdo all the other resorts on the Strip, including his beloved Bellagio, which he calls "the ultimate expression of a particular idea." Wynn's new passion is "mystery." La Reve's public face will be a 120-foot mountain that, he says, will entice tourists to find out what's behind it. Once inside La Reve's spell, visitors will find seven "distinct and unique environments" offering big payoffs for those who venture forth. "We are not giving the payoff to the guy on the sidewalk," Wynn explains. "We hook him in with an attraction outside, but the best is yet to come."

Wynn exhibits little bitterness about Kirk Kerkorian's slightly hostile takover of Mirage Resorts in 2000 and, as a result, his temporary exit from the gaming scene. "I got the chance of a lifetime to jump off a train as I felt it was about to go over a cliff," Wynn says. The article notes that Wynn's success in raising capital for La Reve--and the resort's promise of attracting ever more tourists to Las Vegas--has spawned a new building boom on the Strip. Mandalay Bay, Bellagio and Venetian have ambitious expansion plans, while the old-school Frontier, across the street from La Reve, is slated for demolition to make way for a San Francisco-themed resort.

In a critique of modern Las Vegas, Wynn praises the craftsmanship at the Bellagio (naturally), the MGM Grand's Mansion suites, the design of some of Mandalay Bay's restaurants and the Venetian's Guggenheim Hermitage art museum. However, he remarks that "some things done here are hideous and horrible beyond endurance, almost punishingly ugly." If nothing else, La Reve won't fall into that category.

YUCCA MOUNTAIN: The February issue of Men's Journal contains a lengthy article by David Samuels on the proposed high-level nuclear waste dump 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Samuels gets a hard-hat tour of the mountain and an earful from engineers and scientists who think Yucca is the greatest thing since the can opener. To his credit, Samuels remains skeptical almost to the end, concluding that, "on balance, burying this dangerous radioactive stuff in the desert probably isn't so dumb." Well, it is, but Samuels had spent several days immersed in the mindset of engineers and geologists employed by the Yucca Mountain Project. Those folks can be pretty convincing in the absence of informed opposition and wider perspective.

NEVADA TEST SITE: The January/February issue of Orion, a primarily environmental magazine, features an article by William Fox in which he tours the Nevada Test Site. Fox, a former Reno resident who has written extensively about Nevada in books and magazines, gives a blow-by-blow account of a Department of Energy-led trip through the former nuclear proving grounds 65 miles north of Las Vegas. He hits a lot of the site's former hot spots--Yucca Flat, Frenchman Flat, Jackass Flat, etc.--and ponders the carnage left behind by above- and below-ground nuclear tests from the 1950s through the early 1990s. Fox concludes that the test site, largely dormant today, should be turned into a park, which is about as likely as Saddam Hussein admitting his mistakes and relinquishing power. The reporting for this article clearly was done before all the recent talk of resuming nuclear testing in light of the new conflicts around the globe.--GS

Beware the abyss

Saturday, Jan. 18, at noon, march your buns on down to the Bellagio fountains to protest the coming of darkness. There, you'll be joined by (dare it be hoped?) hundreds, thousands, of like-minded peace lovers come to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday by decrying the Bush administration's planned war on Iraq. After an anti-war rally at the dancing fountains, everyone will march along the Strip to Tropicana Avenue and back. It's the National Day of Action. People across the country will be hollering (peacefully) just like you. They'll be bolstered by everything King stood for, and by such King warnings as this: "The chain reaction of evil--hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars--must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation."--HW

Tax PLAN

When the Nevada Legislature convenes Feb. 3, the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada's lobbyist, Jan Gilbert, will be there, pushing for more taxes. Yeah, good luck, you laugh. But PLAN's strategy isn't a joke. It counts the Culinary, teachers and social workers unions among a horde of supporters of its "Two Plus Two" tax proposal to raise almost $1 billion in new state revenues by placing a greater tax responsibility on big business, the wealthy and consumers of cigarettes and alcohol.

"It's just so frustrating in this state," says PLAN's Paul Brown. "We're already at the bottom of all the good lists, and we're at the top of all the bad lists. The poor can't make it here, we have one of the highest rates of suicide, the highest number of children uninsured, mental health is not funded...and there are a lot of people who recognize the problems."--HW

Green light

You may not have heard of the Nevada Conservation League, but it, too, will be busy in Carson City this legislative session, stirring up the pond scum and painting the town green. The group, formed last year, will be lobbying for such things as sustainable energy, more responsible mining and emergency water for dwindling Walker Lake. "We'll also be defensive," says League executive director Grace Potorti, "dealing with bad public land bills, diesel emissions. ..." Besides having two lobbyists in Carson City, the League will publish weekly e-mail updates on bills concerning the environment. And, "this is the biggie," says Potorti, "we're going to do a scorecard."

You know, like the one the national League of Conservation Voters does each year, in which it routinely flunks out that no-friend-of-the-environment Congressman Jim Gibbons. Anyway, should be fun.--HW

Gov't

Welcome to my park

Feeling rather self-important and charitable? Well, if you've lived in Southern Nevada for at least 10 years, and have some dough, you can get a county park named after you. Or a county building, say, or an open space (though, we'd have to say, that sounds a bit airy).

This bit of self-aggrandizement comes courtesy of the Clark County Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee and recent county bigwig approval of a new policy for naming parks, community service facilities, buildings and open spaces. All you need, aside from longevity in the state, is to agree to foot 51 percent of the bill.

County officials say the new naming policy helps "create a sense of individual identity, a sense of community and a sense of pride."

Indeed. And it gets us more parks, perhaps? Also, if you're feeling slightly less proud but still pretty happy with your fine self, you can opt for a name on a specific item within a county park--playgrounds, benches, gazebos, pavilions, ballfields and the like (toilets, perchance?)--although these will be considered on a case-by-case basis. So, old-timers, go forth and name-that-gazebo.--FC, HW

Tight ship

Last year, former Clark County Commission Chairman Dario Herrera steered a loose ship when it came to controlling the tempo, and the sometimes unruly crowd, at commission meetings. Department heads droned on and public attendees droned on--and on and on and on and...

Well, if the first meeting is any indication of what's to come, then newly appointed Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey seems to run a tighter ship. During her inaugural cruise at the helm, the flower shop owner repeatedly told speakers to limit their remarks to three minutes, to use speaker request cards (filled out before the item was called), and to keep their remarks to the issue up for discussion. Yes, a far cry from last year's mutinous melees.

But the coup de grace came when she effectively cut off a monologue on the lack of a pay raise for county employees, during consideration of the justices of the peace pay raise, saying, "We're speaking only on the justices' salary right now. We'll be glad to hear those comments on your issues at the public comment portion of the meeting." With that, the gentleman sat down and the commission quickly moved on to the next item.--FC