The Friday roundup

And end-of-the-week collection of random blogbits. And away we go…

• UNLV is hosting a conference on academic freedom today, but failed to invite key players like the ACLU, which has tussled with the academy many times in the past on free-speech issues, or Professor Hans Herman Hoppe, who was at the center of a free-speech/academic freedom debate over something he said in his class.

Perhaps it’s easier to discuss these issues in the abstract?

• Sheriff Bill Young went before the Review-Journal editorial board Thursday to argue it may be cheaper in the long run to agree to a proposed salary package for police officers that will see many cops get 10 percent raises, rather than let the matter go to binding arbitration. In that procedure, both sides must submit to the arbitrators decision, and Young fears costs could go even higher. (Public employee salaries are of great concern to the R-J editorial board, but they’re starting to get the attention of municipal managers as well, who see pay and pension payments absorbing an ever-larger portion of their budgets.)

Young’s ideas for the 2007 Legislature include getting rid of binding arbitration for government labor contracts, which the R-J is sure to support but which has a less-than-zero chance of passing, especially in the Assembly. But Young also may ask to have Metro’s budget delivered directly to the police agency, rather than sending the money through the city of Las Vegas and Clark County.

Something tells us Young is tired of dealing with politicians, who see dollars devoted to Metro as dollars they can’t use on projects people love, like parks.

And who knew that Metro cops, legendary for their above-average pay, have lower starting salaries than the Nevada Highway Patrol, Henderson Police Department, North Las Vegas Police Department and — excuse us? — Las Vegas city marshals? Don’t worry, though, nobody’s starving: Metro’s salaries in later years are higher, which is why agencies like the NHP lose their cops to Young’s force later in their careers.

• Former UNLV Professor Craig Walton, who founded the Nevada Center for Public Ethics, is holding a kickoff meeting from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at UNLV’s Classroom Building Complex, room C-126. The agenda will focus on possible changes to the Ethics in Government laws, open government, protecting whistleblowers and an “Ethics Watch.” It couldn’t be more needed in Nevada. The meeting is open to anyone who wants to join the center.

• Finally, my good friend and colleague Jon Ralston reports today that the former campaign chief for ex-Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera’s congressional bid, Achim Bergmann, hooked up Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson with U.S. Sen. Barak Obama’s campaign chief, Jim Cauley. The rub: Bergmann works for the Democratic Governor’s Association, and Gibson is not a Democratic governor, at least not yet. Taking sides? An interesting question. Speaking of Gibson, he supposedly launches his candidacy for governor on Thursday after weeks of pounding from the only Democrat currently in the race, state Sen. Dina Titus. The good times are soon to roll.