A program note, dear readers: We at Various Things & Stuff will be gone Friday, so there will be no “blogification on the Internets,” as President George W. Bush might put it.

As some of you may know, there’s a huge music festival in California going on this weekend known as “Coachella.” It will feature all manner of cool, young-people’s music, and Madonna.

Which is why we’re going to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books! C’mon, can you really see us at Coachella? We’d be deaf by the end of the weekend!

Anyway, all of us here at Various Things & Stuff extend our wishes for a happy weekend. We’ll return on Monday.

ABSTRACT: Today, we talk about a new sports arena in Las Vegas, a little help for two Democratic challengers, the impact of a Hispanic holiday from work, and the government’s evil crusade against the people of California, in a very extra special totally cool edition of Quick Hits.

• Forgive us for saying so, but what the hell is the point of doing a “study” of whether to replace the Thomas & Mack when it appears that elected officials have already made up their minds to do it?

After a news conference on Wednesday, it was clear that Mayor Oscar Goodman and Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid were ready to break ground on a new stadium immediately. The only dispute might be where. (Goodman wants it in downtown, and Reid probably wants it somewhere people in Las Vegas actually go.)

Both Reid and Goodman said it was their goal to avoid using tax dollars to build a new facility. And it’s our goal here at Various Things & Stuff to lose 40 pounds. Who do you think will reach their goal first, people? That’s right: We’ll always be fat, and they’ll always find some clever way to raise non-tax taxes to cover the $250 million to $400 million cost of a new arena.

But you don’t see us commissioning a study about whether to lose that 40 pounds, do you? We know when something is a waste of time. The difference is, we’re OK with our ample ass, while our elected leaders feel the need to spend money to cover theirs.

• Democrats Tessa Hafen, who is challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Jon Porter in the 3rd Congressional District, and Jill Derby, who is running for the seat being vacated by would-be governor and U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, will both get a boost from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call reported Hafen and Derby are among 22 House challengers and open-seat incumbents to qualify in the first wave of the so-called “Red-to-Blue” program, which provides added campaign donations and a mentor from among the ranks of current House Democrats.

According to Roll Call, “Red-to-Blue” candidates in 2004 took in an additional $250,000 in additional donations thanks to being included in the program. (Names of candidates are circulated to donors across the country.)

The fund-raising will especially help Hafen, who is more than $1 million behind Porter, the beneficiary of a presidential fund-raising visit on Monday. Porter took in $440,000 at that event, according to the Review-Journal.

We think her mentor should be somebody familiar with the literary works of H.G. Wells. (C’mon, people! The Invisible Man? Porter, campaigning by proxy every two years? Like he’s never around? Geez, do we have to explain everything around here?)

• How bad would one day in the casino industry be without Hispanic employees? Really freakin’ bad, apparently, as the city’s top casino executives came out on Wednesday with a lame alternative plan to a planned nationwide immigration reform protest set for May 1.

Casinos and union leaders signed a big petition that will be sent to Washington, D.C. demanding immigration reform that allows illegal immigrants a “path to citizenship,” while at the same time gamely trying to tell workers they could accomplish more by showing up at work on Monday.

Yes, you can certainly cook a lot of buffet dinners, make a lot of beds and mix a lot of drinks. And you couldn’t do that at home, could you?

As a great-grandchild of immigrants, we at Various Things & Stuff support our Hispanic friends, and feel compelled to tell them that, while the casino and union leaders are good people, their real interest is in the bottom line. We think they really do want immigration reform, don’t get us wrong. But they want smoothly running casinos on Monday even more.

So while it’s great that the moguls signed the petition, it’s even better that they clearly realize the impact Hispanic workers make to the Las Vegas economy. It might be something they could bring up with lawmakers when they’re signing something else this year: Campaign contribution checks.

Think of the impact of gambling industry dollars going not just to candidates who pledge to keep federal tax mitts off gross winnings, but also to candidates who pledge to back sensible and humane immigration reform.

And if a one-day sickout accomplishes that, well, it might be worth some hotel middle-managers making a few beds and scrambling a few eggs for the morning buffet, no?

• Presidential advisor Karl Rove made his fifth trip to the grand jury Wednesday, saying he’s way too smart to have lied to investigators about leaking the name of a CIA officer for political retribution against her husband. Can somebody just indict this guy already? He’s about to get his own parking space at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C.

• When they’re right and wrong: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the marijuana-trafficking conviction of Ed Rosenthal, a bitter legal verdict given that Rosenthal was licensed by the city of Oakland to grow medical marijuana for the city’s official program to help sick people.

But justices didn’t throw the conviction out on rational grounds — the voters of California legalized medical marijuana and, under the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, they have the right to do so. No, the court tossed the conviction based on an allegation of juror misconduct. (A juror apparently suspected that Rosenthal was growing medical marijuana, and asked an attorney friend if it was possible to acquit based on a person’s conscience and not the law.)

Wait, you say. Why didn’t the jurors know Rosenthal was growing pot for the state? Because the jackbooted federal prosecutors persuaded a judge to prevent him from offering that as a defense. It’s like charging a cop with speeding, and not letting him tell the jury that a.) he’s a cop and b.) he was rolling, lights and siren, to a hot job when the speeding took place.

Anyway, Rosenthal only got one day in jail from the judge, who must have felt bad for being such a dick. Prosecutors wanted two years, because simply telling California voters to take their medical marijuana program and shove it up their asses was too subtle.

The government can still decide to appeal, or perhaps hold a new trial. And judging by their vehemence against a harmless weed, Rosenthal shouldn’t consider himself free just yet. Nor should any of the rest of us.