Guilty.

It’s the word of the day now that former Clark County Commissioners Dario Herrera and Mary Kincaid-Chauncey have been convicted of the majority of charges leveled at them in the G-sting political corruption trial.

How bad does corruption have to get before notoriously forgiving Las Vegas sends somebody to jail?

This bad.

Remember this day, readers. It marks another evolutionary leap forward in the history of a city that was sired in corruption, reared by the Mob and still struggles with corruptions great and small today.

Today we know that jurors can recognize what voters have seen since at least 1995: The unethical, the corrupt, even the seemingly corrupt, have no place in public life.

But today, we’ve gone a step further, to learn that there are consequences even beyond losing one’s office. There’s the loss of freedom, too, and the lifetime stigma of a felony conviction.

Ex-Commissioner Erin Kenny is going to jail, as she should.

Herrera and Kincaid-Chauncey are going to jail. As they should.

Ex-Commissioner Lance Malone, who goes on trial in G-sting’s second trial in August, may yet go to jail.

Alleged bribemaster Mike Galardi is going to jail, as he should.

Consequences, easily the worst since the FBI’s Operation Yobo rounded up a few unethical politicians of another era.

But even as we rightly rejoice in the justice of the corrupt getting their punishment, there’s still an element of sadness. Not for Herrera, Kenny, Kincaid Chauncey or Galardi — they deserve nothing but our contempt.

No, the sadness is for the city. Anyone who feels any affection whatsoever for Las Vegas must be saddened to see the reputation of the city suffer from the slings and arrows of G-sting’s outrageous fortune. For the rest of the country, and even the world, it will be a reaffirmation of our city’s sordid past and questionable present.

In fact, it’s the opposite of that: It’s the shedding of that past, when people like Herrera and Kenny would never have faced jail time, or even the loss of their offices, for the crimes they’ve committed. Their corruption would have continued unabated.

Today, things are different.

Today, they’re going to jail, as they should.

Mark this day, readers. It’s the day that Las Vegas — and Las Vegans — came to terms with corruption, looked it squarely in the eye, and said “no more.” It’s the day the people continued a campaign begun at the ballot box to claim legitimacy, honor and honesty in public life. And they did it with a single word, repeated over and over.

Guilty.

Oh, yes, readers, we know the G-sting trial verdict is in. But here’s a quick helping of Quick Hits to build your appetite for the main event. Enjoy!

• U.S. Sen. John Ensign is pushing for tort reform. Yeah, we were yawning on this one, too, until we came across his quote in the Review-Journal.

“By definition, this is a medical crisis,” said Ensign, who is a veterinarian and thus qualified to identify a medical crisis. And give cats their shots.

But wait! The Republican Crisis Alert Indicator has just gone off here at Various Things & Stuff headquarters. Could it be a level four Republican Crisis? Let’s use the Feingold Skepticism Scale to find out!

Republican Crisis Level One: Use of the word “crisis.” Check.

Republican Crisis Level Two: Use of lies or exaggerations to justify a foreordained conclusion.

Well, let’s see. Ensign uses the same verbiage that was thrown around during Nevada’s health-care “crisis” back in 2002. He claims doctors, especially ob/gyn doctors, are leaving the profession, declining new patients or practicing defensive medicine.

The only thing is, doctors groups in Nevada made those arguments back in 2002, and they were found to be mostly bullshit: Doctors weren’t leaving en masse, despite strategist Sig Rogich’s clever ad to the contrary. But the myth got repeated in the media a lot.

And Ensign again brought up that 2002 strike at University Medical Center, where doctors walked off the job to protest high insurance rates. (Because the only way to protest high insurance rates is to leave injured patients without medical care!) It’s odd, since Republicans usually don’t support organized labor actions. But when the strikers wear white coats, drive Mercedes-Benz sedans and make political contributions, they’re willing to make an exception!

So, we’re going to say yes, we’ve got a level two here.

Republican Crisis Level Three: Overreaction. Check. Ensign has a bill headed to the Senate floor (without debate or discussion in committee, don’t you know) that would cap pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. Because the only way to punish lawyers is to screw injured patients!

Can. We. Go. All. The. Way? Oh, yes, we can, with…

Republican Crisis Level Four: Some benefit to a Republican-supporting core constituency. Check! Ensign’s bill would benefit the insurance industry and HMOs, which hate to pay for even legitimate medical mistakes. With this benefit, they could do what they like best: Collect premiums, invest the money, make more money, and keep it all!

We’ve got it, folks! A level four Republican Crisis!

• Now, we’ve got nothing but respect for our former colleagues over at the Review-Journal editorial page. But that doesn’t mean we always agree with them, and this is one of those times.

The lovable libertarians spent the entire lead editorial complaining that the march of immigrants down the Las Vegas Strip Monday didn’t have a permit.

Huh?

That’s kind of the point, guys.

Think back to the 1960s. Did the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wait for the crackers in charge of southern cities to give him and his fellows a permit to march? The point of his marches was to peacefully disobey the law, and show that the civil rights movement had strength, support and disciplined, committed people who wanted change.

So, too, did Monday’s protest evoke the same things: Peaceful marchers with a grievance, asking to be heard, and showing the strength of their numbers. (Disputes have raged about how many protesters showed up; police say 8,000, organizers have said it’s much higher. We tend to think 8,000 is too low, but then again, we’re not professional crowd estimators.)

Now, there are differences between King and Monday’s May Day protesters. King was already a citizen, petitioning his government for a redress of grievances, as was his constitutional right. The people who marched Monday aren’t citizens, and they’re advocating for a change in the law to give them rights they don’t currently enjoy, most notably amnesty for illegally entering the country and a path to citizenship.

But the principles and tactics behind the movements are identical. And that gives the marchers an advantage in their struggle.

Against that backdrop, whether they got a permit is hardly relevant. (And let’s not even get into the myriad ways local governments abuse the permit process to harass legitimate citizens, such as Gail Sacco, who was told she needed a permit to feed homeless people in a city park. But when she tried to get a permit, she was told they aren’t available for that park.)

The march may have been the largest protest in Las Vegas history. Whether it was or wasn’t, however, it was a dramatic and important development in city history, and will be looked back upon as a milestone in the history of immigration reform in America.

And it all happened without a permit.