Oh, so that’s the monorail’s new marketing strategy! We’ve got to admit, we were stumped there for awhile. Every month, the Review-Journal’s Omar Sofradzija writes about ever-declining ridership numbers, and every month, monorail spokeswoman Ingrid Reisman replies that, once the new "marketing initiatives" kick in, things will be different.

Of course, nothing ever changes. So now that Sofradzija has reported that the monorail had its worst month ever, that old "marketing" excuse isn’t going to work anymore. So Reisman had to fall back on the old standby: totally divorcing the monorail from reality and claiming that what happened in the past didn’t actually happen.

No, seriously, she did. According to Sofradzija, who apparently keeps pretty close track of these things, monorail CEO Curtis Myles said on Dec. 14, 2005 that "There is an expectation that we’ll see, as a result of the fare increases, some decrease in ridership. We expect to increase ridership from marketing efforts. Hopefully, the two will offset." He continued by predicting an 11 percent increase in riders in 2006.

But according to Reisman, that simply never happened. "At no time has anyone at the monorail ever expected ridership would increase after fares" went up, from $3 to $5. Instead, she said, the monorail expected a 13 percent decline in ridership.

At no time has anyone at the monorail expected ridership would increase? But, Ingrid, Curtis Myles said precisely that! Are you calling the Road Warrior a liar?

Actually, this reminds us of the time that we at Various Things & Stuff wrote a big story on the monorail, interviewing Myles in the process. In that story, we wrote this: "In an interview, Myles said [Henderson Mayor Jim] Gibson may have left eventually, but the string of mechanical failures likely hastened his departure."

Well, as you can imagine, Gibson called Myles and demanded to know if Myles had actually said that. And Myles claimed he’d been misquoted by us! (At least that’s what Gibson said at the time.)

Of course, we assured the good mayor that Myles had said precisely that, and we had the notes to prove it. (Our notes show that, in discussing the "takeover" of Transit Systems Management — the private firm that employed Gibson as CEO — by the Las Vegas Monorail Co., Myles said this: "If the thing was operating perfectly, would there have been an incentive to change? No. Gotta believe that that [the monorail’s string of mechanical problems] had something to do with the incentive for that [the takeover, and Gibson’s ouster] to happen when it did." Our notes further indicate that Myles said "TSM [Transit Systems Management] has to share some of blame.")

So, the Road Warrior’s notes show Myles said something that Reisman now denies he said. And our notes show Myles said something that he later denied to Gibson that he’d said. Hmmm. Interesting.

So, aside from trying to revise history, what’s the monorail’s plan to turn things around for 2007?

"It was always expected that a transit system fare increase would result in a ridership decrease; however, the monorail implemented marketing initiatives simultaneously to boost ridership," Reisman explained. "We expect to see the full impact of these initiatives in the next year or so."

Of course! Marketing! That’s the ticket! That will reverse a clear trend toward fewer and fewer people riding the train, dwindling cash receipts, bleeding off the monorail’s cash reserves, bonds that have fallen to junk status and predictions of default!

Or maybe they could just deny there’s such a thing as the "Las Vegas Monorail" at all. Yeah, that’s it. Try that!

» Quotable: "I think I’ve had a shorter honeymoon than Britney Spears." — Gov. Jim Gibbons, quoted in the Review-Journal. Now that’s funny. Or at least it would be if Gibbons wasn’t the governor, as opposed to a pop star who could fuck up publicly and pathetically numerous times and injure only her reputation instead of millions of innocent residents of the Silver State. 

» So, Clark County is getting into the Media Watch business, eh? We thought that was our job! But the county’s public information office has launched a website "…to set the record straight on a case-by-case basis involving inaccurate media reports." The page has but one entry, for now.

Now, some media types are irked at the county fact-checking their work. We’re a bit more sanguine about it, for a couple of reasons. First, we’ve worked in the media for a long time, and we know it’s easy to make a mistake. Second, once that mistake is made, even if a correction is published, it’s hard to get the correct word out to the public who read the original story but not the correction. And third, since a mistake in a newspaper can easily be repeated by television stations, columnists and bloggers, even if a correction is published, getting correct information out quickly is a good thing.

Of course, the temptation will be for the county to do what all governments want to do: Write the news themselves. Why do you think they’ve got newsletters and TV stations at both the city and the county? Because propaganda allows them to get their version of the news out. (And on days when it’s revealed that a deputy district attorney asked a county official to censor an embarrassing public report on failures to protect abused and neglected kids, you see why they’d want to change the subject.)

But if the county’s staff sticks to correcting errors of fact, then the media has little to fear; we’re supposed to get our facts right in the first place, and correct them even if nobody demands they be corrected. If the intent is to slant the news, however, well the county’s media watch can expect a little media media watch from us at Various Things & Stuff!

How do highly trained U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents search for illegal immigrants at McCarran International Airport? Here’s Lloyd Easterling, supervsiory agent in charge of the Yuma Sector, which includes Las Vegas, in the Review-Journal:

"Agents look for people whose manner is nervous or confused. Clothing and hygiene will also spark curiosity," he said.

Oh, come on, Supervisory Special Agent Easterling! This is McCarran International Airport we’re talking about here! It’s confusing from the time you try to get to the parking lot (watch the colored triangles merge!) to when you come home and try to figure out which merry-go-round has your bag (they change it even after they give you the first assignment, so watch out!).

Got anything else for us?

"For example, if clothes are dirty, like they haven’t been changed for days, or they have cactus needles sticking out," Easterling added.

Cactus needles? Seriously? Are we looking for illegal immigrants or Speedy Gonzales? Hey, you know what else is a dead giveaway? Sombreros and pinatas! Or at least cowboy hats and cervesas!

Boy, we sure feel safe.

» It looks like the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education is prepared to change the name of the Community College of Southern Nevada (and the Western Nevada Community College) by dropping the word "community."

"We just want to be proud of our school," says student body President Presley Conkle. (Conkle has written pieces for CityLife, by the way, although not on this topic.)

Really? Well, if the awful stigma of the word "community" robs you of pride, when, we wonder, why did you enroll there in the first place? And if the academic program is solid — which it must be, since students have plenty of time to petition to change the school’s name — then why does in matter at all?

These questions weren’t really asked by the regents, who ought to go in for a name change of their own (we’re accepting suggestions! Send them to SSebelius@lvcitylife.com and we’ll publish the best ones in an upcoming blog. Remember, the meaner the better!). Instead, regents worried about whether or not "the mission" of the community college would be compromised…

…and then they promptly went ahead and OK’d a plan for the community college to partner with three schools in China in order to supply Las Vegas-based casino companies with gambling industry workers.

Oh, the hell with it. If the "Community" College of Southern Nevada has gone global, we may as well scotch the word "community."

» Quotable: "In meeting with patients at the clinic Friday, Gov. Gibbons said he learned that most of the addicts took drugs ‘not to get high, but to keep themselves from feeling bad.’" — from a Review-Journal story about Gibbons touring a drug treatment clinic founded by Miriam Adelson, wife of Venetian owner Sheldon Adelson.

We just don’t know sometimes…

» According to Las Vegas Sun columnist John Katsilometes, the mistress of ceremonies at Gibbons’ inaugural ball, Lia Roberts, blanked on the name of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki when introducing officials on Friday. We think she was fumbling for "nevăstuică," which she’d more easily recognize in her native Romanian as "weasel."

» And finally today, the big news of the day is that Gibbons bypassed Assemblyman Morse Arberry, D-Las Vegas, in favor of Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly to replace Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

Weekly’s a good choice, although not as good as our pick, former state Sen. Joe Neal. (C’mon, Neal was a pioneer back in the day, and he’s principled as hell.) But Weekly’s done a good job representing his ward on the City Council, emerging from the shadow of a political battle that pitted Mayor Oscar Goodman against then-Councilman Michael McDonald. (McDonald favored Weekly and Orlando Sanchez, now the city’s director of neighborhood services, for two brand-new council seats; Goodman went along with Weekly but thwarted McDonald’s perceived grab for power by introducing Las Vegas to the open ethical sore that was ex-Councilman Michael Mack. Thanks, again, Mayor!)

So, congrats to Weekly, who’s leaving at the perfect time: Filing opened Jan. 23 for his Ward 5 seat, which means that, if the council picks somebody to fill Weekly’s shoes for the period between now at the municipal elections (primary day is April 3, with the runoff June 5) that person won’t really have the advantage of incumbency. Filing closes Friday, so anybody who wants to be a councilman and lives in Ward 5, now’s your chance!

CORRECTION: Our mistake: While Orlando Sanchez was the city’s director of neighborhood services for a time, he was promoted last year to the rank of deputy city manager. We regret the error.

Now, everybody knows we at Various Things & Stuff are members of the Socialist World Workers Party (we only re-registered Democrat so we could vote in the 2006 gubernatorial primary). So, it may be only natural for us to find things that we don’t necessarily like in the administration of Gov. Jim Gibbons.

But we never thought we’d find this many things. Hell, we didn’t know there were this many things.

The latest: Gibbons’ office dutifully announces the appointment of Hatice Gecol as director of the Nevada state Energy Office, and as the energy/science adviser to the governor. (Gecol is a professor of chemical and metallurgical engineering at UNR, but still, she’ll have to stay on her toes, because as everybody knows, Gibbons is also a scientist. He has a degree in geology!)

Here’s part of what the Wednesday news release said:

"’Alternative energy development and energy independence has [sic] been a priority of mine since entering public service and I intend to continue fostering pro-growth policies as governor,’ said Governor Gibbons. ‘I am confident that Hatice Gecol’s extensive experience will provide an invaluable resource to our state’s ongoing efforts to increase our alternative energy capabilities."

 

But after Gibbons met with the Review-Journal’s editorial board, Friday all of his goodwill and confidence were forgotten. Here’s a small portion of that story:

"Gibbons boasted of having ‘hired a very bright lady on energy.’

 

"Asked her name, he said that he couldn’t pronounce it and that she was ‘Indian.’

"Gibbons’ energy adviser, appointed Wednesday, is Hatice Gecol, who is Turkish."

Oh, snap! Not only could the governor not remember a five-letter name, he got the nationality wrong! Thank God he didn’t say she was "Pakistani." Them’s fighting words, to the Indian people, at least.

But let’s just say that somebody in Gibbons’ press shop totally made up that quote and put it in Gibbons’ mouth, thus allowing the governor to avoid having to, you know, actually say the name himself. And let’s say that he forgot, albeit just two days later, who he’d appointed to the job. (He remembered she was a "bright lady," right? That’s something.)

There’s still no excuse for Gibbons to have said what he said earlier in his sit-down with the R-J, which was that the blue ribbon panel on state roads failed to say how to pay for $3.8 billion in backlogged projects. "They never told us how to fund it. All the blue-ribbon commission told us was we need a number of dollars…. It didn’t do what I think it should have done, which is be all-inclusive of all the creative ways to fund it," Gibbons said.

In fact, as everyone who reads the paper knows, the blue ribbon panel had a whole friggin’ list of ways to make up the $3.8 billion shortfall. Panelists didn’t endorse any specific recommendation, but they sure had some.

Don’t believe us? Well, according to the R-J, funding options include: a slight increase in the payroll tax; an increase in the state government service tax, paid via car-registration fees; reducing the depreciation allowance on automobiles for purposes of the personal property tax; indexing the gas tax; doubling the cost of a driver’s license from $20 to $40; increasing the state sales tax by one-eighth of 1 percent; using some of the state’s surplus for highway construction (which Gibbons did in "his" budget, inherited from ex-Gov. Kenny Guinn); increasing the car rental tax by 1 percent; a 3-cent increase in the diesel fuel tax; a 1 percent increase in the gambling tax; using sales tax proceeds from cars for building roads, instead of putting that money in the general fund.

And, just in case the governor doesn’t read the R-J, the recommendations were also included in an editorial in the Las Vegas Sun.

Now, we’re not saying that Gibbons would agree with any of these recommendations, most of which call for an increase in taxes, to which he says he’s opposed. And surely, they’re not as sensible as, saying, selling water rights under state highways to raise money for roads, a plan Gibbons has advocated that would fall far short of fixing the $3.8 billion hole. But you cannot say that the blue ribbon commission didn’t at least identify ways the shortfall could be fixed.

How did we know? By reading the paper. And if we can figure that out, so should Gibbons, or at least somebody on his staff. Don’t you think?

And let’s not even get started on trying to figure out what in the hell he meant when he said this, "If they can get the support in the Legislature to pass a tax, and it will pass my veto, I will pass it."

Oh, if we could only nap until 2010…

» Let’s see if we have this right: Rick Rizzolo runs a tax-evading criminal enterprise in the form of the Crazy Horse Too. The business routinely bilks suckers out of money, and roughs them up when they refuse to pay. In the most famous of these cases, they broke a man’s neck and paralyzed him for life.

But we’re supposed to feel sorry for him because the City Council finally woke up, located a matching set of balls and yanked his liquor license, costing him millions? Please. We think a sentence of one year in prison is far too light for the likes of Rizzolo, even if the government has forced him out of the topless club business for life.

We’ll save our sympathy for Rizzolo’s victims, thank you very much.

» Mayor Oscar Goodman says he wants more than the 86 percent of the vote he garnered in his 2003 re-election campaign. He filed for his third and final term on Tuesday. Or is it his final term? Goodman has mused aloud that he might want to repeat Long Beach, Calif., Mayor Beverly O’Neill’s strategy to defeat a two-term limit by means of a write-in campaign.

As far as we’re concerned, term limits are stupid. Voters here have turned out a whole bunch of politicians they thought unethical or otherwise unfit for office, all while waiting for the state’s term limit law to kick in. We say Goodman should be able to run for office as many terms as he wants, and let the voters decide.

But we think it would be even better if Goodman were to run as mayor of a consolidated government, with city and county under one roof. A full-time, nine or 11-member Board of Supervisors would serve as the legislative branch, while Goodman (or whomever got elected countywide) would serve as a strong-mayor, full-time chief executive. All city departments would be consolidated, including fire, parks, clerks, aviation, streets and sanitation, transportation, etc. We could do away with the Regional Transportation Commission (like they’re doing anything anyway), Regional Flood Control District and the like, since those services would be overseen by our full-time board. The Metro Police department could come under the new government, too. In the long run, we’d save money and get more done.

Of course, the Legislature would have to act before that could happen. We wonder if anybody will bring it up as a serious topic of discussion? Anybody for the City and County of Las Vegas?

» Yeah, yeah, the smoking ban is legal. Whatever. We’re waiting for the appeal.

A member of the media bitching about how public officials don’t respect members of the media is about as common as a celebrity entering rehab. (Good luck, Lindsay!) But it’s time somebody got Gov. Jim Gibbons the memo about dealing the with the media.

That memo says this: Yes, they may be a pain in the gubernatorial ass sometimes. But it’s not really an option: You have to talk to them.

We all know how Gibbons left the Assembly chambers after his State of the State speech on Monday without answering reporter’s questions. (He even told Molly Ball of the Review-Journal he’d answer her queries "in a minute," before making his getaway.)

But now, the Las Vegas Sun reports, he went AWOL on Tuesday, too, along with his press staff. What’s up with that?

And no, you can’t blame it on all the energy that went in to producing this news release, describing in intimate detail the gown that first lady Dawn Gibbons will be wearing to the inaugural balls in Reno and Las Vegas. That was Ande Engleman, the former journalist who went to work as the first lady’s chief of staff and press person.

Now, it doesn’t mean that Gibbons is shunning the media entirely. We hear he’s scheduled to appear on Hardball with Chris Matthews on Friday. And since Gibbons will be down here in Las Vegas for the taping, we extended an invitation via e-mail for Gibbons to appear on our show on KTNV Channel 13, Political Insiders.

Gibbons’ press secretary, Melissa Subbotin, got back to us right away, to tell us Gibbons was all booked up for this trip. We replied, asking when the governor’s next visit to Southern Nevada might be. We haven’t heard back.

We know the temptation is to avoid the media, especially when it’s populated by pesky reporters and commentators constantly questioning, analyzing, quoting, and otherwise scrutinizing your agenda. (The Sun alone ran two front-page stories today raising questions about the education and energy components of the governor’s State of the State message, not to mention some analysis from my colleague Jon Ralston. And we at Various Things & Stuff haven’t exactly been members of the "Gibbons Ground Team" in our critical comments about the governor’s agenda.)

But that temptation is always the worst idea. If you hide, reporters (and their readers) will conclude that you have something to hide. If you dodge them, they won’t stop writing about you. They’ll just do it without your perspective in their stories. It’s simply the way the media works, especially in a 24-hour news cycle. Any consultant, any press secretary, anybody who advises any elected official — much less the governor! — to dodge reporters is guilty of giving very bad advice.

Although Mayor Oscar Goodman has been absent from his news conferences of late, and occasionally walks out of the gatherings in disgust, one of the things we’ve always liked about him is that he shows up and takes the heat. He uses his sessions with the media to talk about his agenda, and then fields questions that are sometimes obviously hostile. (They’re far more hostile that what Gibbbons could expect, that’s for sure.) But he does it anyway.

Even President George W. Bush, no fan of the press, has held his share of sessions with reporters, although not as many as some previous chief executives.

Our point: If Bush and Goodman can do it, so can Gibbons. It might take patience, preparation and a willingness to develop a thick skin, but it’s simply a necessary part of being the elected leader of the state of Nevada.

Hiding always makes it worse, Mr. Governor. So come out of the shadows and meet the press, why don’t you? We promise it won’t hurt. Much.

Gov. Jim Gibbons turned over a new leaf at his inaugural State of the State speech in Carson City last night. He pledged, for the first time, to disagree with people "…with honor, respect and civility."

Oh, come on, people! It was just a joke.

Actually, we at Various Things & Stuff liked the speech. Gibbons didn’t screw up the delivery at all (he stuck pretty much to the prepared text), got plenty of applause and, best of all, didn’t plagiarize a single line!

Come on, people! Another joke. We kid the governor.

Anyway, let’s take a quick look at the speech, discussing some things you may not have seen on TV or in the morning papers. You can also click here to get a copy of the address to read for yourself, and perhaps save for posterity.

Quotable quotes

Gibbons showed some savvy in praising Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, the state’s first woman elected to that high post. It not only was a nice thing to do, it was vintage Gibbons: Say something nice about people who are about to unload on you (as Buckley was, in the Democratic response to the Gibbons speech). Gibbons did the same thing at the Nevada Republican Convention last year in Mesquite, praising Bob Beers and Lorraine Hunt, who then proceeded to beat him up and look mean in the process.

Gibbons also showed some humor, thanking his 200-member transition team and making fun of himself in the process. "And, as my friends in the press have pointed out, for the handful of you who are not on my transition team, I value your input, too."

There wasn’t a whole lot of high-flying rhetoric in Gibbons’ speech — John F. Kennedy he’s not. But there were a few good lines. To wit:

* "In order to sustain this economic growth, I firmly believe we need to form a new kind of government; one that is leaner, more responsive, a combine for new ideas, and most of all, a government that gives Nevada the tools they [sic] need to make the most of their [sic] lives. This is my vision for Nevada."

* "Exercising fiscal discipline demands more than a promise of no new taxes; it requires having the willpower to save in good times for those downturns and unexpected hardships that will inevitably come."

* "Ladies and gentlemen, this [meth] is the colossal struggle of our times, and it will require uncommon collaboration, compassion and coordination."

* "Today, the institution of public education needs bold and decisive leadership to better respond to the challenges that confront us. Our current standings in education on a national and worldwide front are simply unacceptable."

* "There is much to do — and tomorrow the budget committees begin their work. It will require a valiant effort by each of us, and a willingness to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds; to believe that together, as one Nevada, we can do anything."

* "We will not always agree, but I give you my solemn word that when we do disagree, it will be with honor, respect and civility."

Screw you, Kenny!

Gibbons proposed a minor reduction of the payroll tax — from .65 percent to .62 percent, which will save about $28 million. And he proposed eliminating the per-branch bank excise tax of $1,750. Both of those taxes were part of the infamous 2003 tax hikes passed by the Legislature after former Gov. Kenny Guinn’s preferred gross receipts tax alternative was rejected.

By proposing to reduce and eliminate these taxes — although the amounts are minor and the action is largely symbolic — Gibbons sent a wordless reproval of Guinn’s stewardship.

"During the campaign, I promised Nevadans I would save them money. I will stand by my word," Gibbons said in announcing the tax reductions. We suppose by "Nevadans," he meant, "Nevadans who own businesses or out-of-state corporations that own banks," because that’s who’s saving money under these tax cuts. (Our colleague Jon Ralston had the same thought today.)

Guinn also got a silent slap when Gibbons talked about securing the "Guinn Millennium Scholarship," the only time the new governor invoked his successor by name. Without Gibbons help, the program would run dry by 2013. But Gibbons saves the day with $5.6 million from unclaimed property receipts! Yay for Gibbons, as the unasked question hung in the air: Why didn’t Guinn do that?

Imports

Gibbons borrowed plenty of program ideas for his speech. His schools empowerment plan comes from Edmonton, Canada. His tax-exempt bond program to buy affordable homes for nurses, teachers and first-time homebuyers comes from California. (By the way, monorail fans, this is the kind of thing that tax-exempt bonds are supposed to be used for, not toy trains that enrich their builders but fail to work at critical times!) His economic development program comes from Georgia. And his coal-to-liquids alternative fuel idea comes from Wyoming.

Hey, we’ve got one governor. See, down in Venezuela the re-elected president is thinking of nationalizing several industries, including telecommunications. Well, if we did that with casinos, and spread the wealth among the population, see…

No new taxes

Gibbons stuck with his pledge not to raise taxes, and specifically took a gasoline tax off the table. He put $36 million into the state’s savings account, the so-called Rainy Day Fund, for a total of $303 million.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t do a little pork spending, say the $2 million for the Nevada Discovery Museum in Reno. Or was that perhaps a brilliant fiscal strategy, red meat designed to attract the attention of folks like Chuck Muth, who promptly criticized the budget in the Review-Journal and made Gibbons start to look moderate?

Dodging the issue?

Gibbons did not, however, propose a long-term solution for the $4 billion gap in the public employees’ retirement medical plan. He did put some money toward it, but thereafter only asked the Legislature to reconstitute a benefit plan board to investigate solutions. He did not, tellingly, repeat Guinn’s solution: Making newly hired public employees pay a share of their retirement benefits. That was unpopular with state workers, but it would go a long way toward making sure the deficit doesn’t grow larger.

And aside from $170 million to be put toward statewide highway projects (a mere 4.4 percent of the $3.8 billion shortfall in the state’s road budget), Gibbons didn’t outline specific solutions. Instead, we heard about "public-private cooperative efforts," a new "Advisory Panel on Public-Private Initiatives" and having the state transportation director, Susan Martinovich, spend time in Las Vegas. (Here’s a tip, Susan: Despite what you may have heard from the Regional Transportation Commission, the monorail is not the backbone of Southern Nevada’s transit system.)

We’re very concerned about this "public-private" thing. Roads and highways are one of the things that should be paid for by everyone, open to everyone, without regard for how much money you have or how nice your car is. And toll roads, toll lanes, or other wacky ideas that extend the George W. Bush "ownership society" mantra into spheres traditionally under the purview of the commonweal doesn’t represent progress. In fact, they represent the exact opposite. We need to fix our roads, not turn them over to the private sector to lease to the highest bidder. (Ditto for schools, by the way, but that’s another blog.)

Meth

Aside from Gibbons’ actual use of the phrase "seemingly untamed demon drug" — which we found interesting — his speech raised a question for us. If meth is, indeed, the "colossal struggle of our times," what does Gibbons think the war on terrorism is? We thought that was the colossal struggle of our times. That and getting on American Idol.

Eminent domain

Gibbons surprised us by calling for an alternative to Question 2, the anti-eminent domain ballot initiative that would amend the state constitution to make it impossible for governments to steal private land and give it to another private owner. Gibbons called for a measure to appear on the 2008 ballot that wouldn’t interfere with road building, which critics contend Question 2 would do.

Full-day kindergarten: The colossal struggle of our times

"Although full-day kindergarten has been labeled a top priority by the state’s superintendents and others, I respect their opinion, but I believe the fiscally responsible approach is to continue to support the existing pilot program at current funding levels in at-risk schools and, therefore, I have committed $50 million to do so," Gibbons said.

Got that, superintendents and others? He respects your opinion, although not enough to actually, you know, follow it.

In her Democratic response, Buckley said she wanted all-day kindergarten. And thus, the first Battle Royale of the 2007 Legislature has been joined! The line is favoring Buckley at this point, even though the program is very expensive.

Campaign reform

We have to admit, we like Gibbons’ ideas when it comes to campaign finance reporting. The governor wants an online system so that politicians report their contributions more frequently, and making campaign finance reports due before early voting starts. "Voters have a right to know who is financing campaigns before they cast a ballot," he said.

True. After all, would you have voted for Gibbons knowing that his last-minute, high-dollar backers included golf course mogul (and sweetheart deal-maker) Bill Walters? Or desert developer Harvey Whittemore? Or toxic landowner Basic Management Inc. of Henderson?

But we also agree with Buckley, who in her response said the laws need to go even further, requiring disclosure of members of limited liability corporations who make political donations. And could somebody finally enact some reforms that make campaign finance forms easier to read? You can start by requiring cumulative summation of account balances on annual reports.

Overall grade

To close, we think Gibbons hit his mark with the speech, although, as he predicted, we disagree on some things. After a rough start to his administration, the speech helped to calm things down a bit and make him look every bit the governor, which he’ll need going in to the session, which kicks off Feb. 5.

Alas, Gibbons broke with another gubernatorial tradition: The post-speech news conference. According to Molly Ball‘s story in the R-J, Gibbons blew off a question and then scurried out a back door. Bad form, governor, bad form.

Oh, and so much for giving the governor a chance, as Ralston suggested we do in Sunday’s column. The Sun was unimpressed. The R-J’s says Gibbons was "calm and competent." And our colleague Erin Neff traveled to Carson City only to wind up disappointed in Gibbons’ offerings.

If you’re like us, you know watching the State of the State speech is going to be like eating a grand meal at Morton’s, or Ruth’s Chris, or Del Frisco’s, or Fleming’s … damn, we’re making ourselves hungry here! Anyway, while you count down the remaining hours until Gibbons takes the stage, enjoy a few of these delicious morsels:

» Ousted UMC boss Lacy Thomas made a protestation of his innocence late last week. Of course, it came in the form of a written statement released by his defense lawyer. We’re just saying.

» So, does it look bad for Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly to be filing for re-election and going "full-speed ahead" on fundraising when he’s pushing to be appointed by Gov. Jim Gibbons to the seat being vacated by Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates?

Wrong question, people! The real question is, how long can anybody with any self-respect continue to serve in a job where they know they will be asked to sit dutifully behind Mayor Oscar Goodman during his annual State of the City speech like some kind of trained poodle? And when you look at it that way, we wouldn’t be surprised if Weekly wasn’t sending case upon case of the governor’s favorite beverage — we’re guessing caffeine-free Diet Coke — up to the mansion to get Gates’ old job.

» We’re just curious, but do you think that the "source" for this Review-Journal front-page sports section story was, in fact, CityLife’s own George "The Knappster" Knapp? We only wonder because Knapp had it weeks ago. Oh, and because the R-J has stolen Knapp’s stuff before.

Nah. Couldn’t be.

» On reflection, we’re amazed at the restraint of Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, whom DNA tests show to share almost 92.2 percent of the genes of the common weasel.

Krolicki waited what must have been an excruciating 19 days before holding a news conference designed to get himself before cameras. For a man who loves publicity — especially the free kind — the way the rest of us love breathing, it was a Herculean effort.

We wondered how Krolicki was going to garner free press now that he’s no longer treasurer and can no longer paste his face on ads for state-sponsored programs like prepaid tuition. After all, the lieutenant governor’s office isn’t exactly what you’d call a high-profile post.

But there was Krolicki, touting the work of the Nevada Film Office in 2006, including a whopping $106 million pumped into the local economy as a result of TV shows and feature films shot in the Silver State. That revenue has doubled since 1998, according to the R-J.

So, that leads us to wonder if perhaps we’ve been too hard on Krolicki, calling him a weasel all the time and implying that he’s smarmy. After all, without Krolicki…

…we wouldn’t know to thank former Lt. Gov. Lorraine Hunt for all the hard work she put in on the Nevada Film Office! That’s right, folks: In 2006, when all of the good stuff that Krolicki was touting at his news conference took place, Hunt was in charge! And guess who took over as lieutenant governor in 1998, when film revenue started its upward climb? That’s right, baby: Hunt!

So, everybody extend their congratulations to Hunt, perhaps by visiting her fine restaurant, the Bootlegger Bistro on Las Vegas Boulevard South.

As for Krolicki, well, don’t weep for him. It won’t be long before we see him featured in a tourism ad, paddling his way down the Truckee, or riding a Jet Ski in Tahoe, or camping out at Burning Man, or off-roading in some of the expansive desert between Las Vegas and Tonopah. Don’t worry: Where there’s a free ad, there’s Krolicki!

» Quotable: "The movement for smoke-free air has gone from being a California oddity to the nationwide norm. We think 100 percent of Americans will live in smoke free jurisdictions within a few years." — Bronson Frick, associate director of American’s for Nonsmokers Rights.

We told you the smoke-banners had a plan. But nooooo…..

» Quotable: "I can’t understand people who think public employees shouldn’t get a decent retirement. I got to work every day and risk my life. Somehow, public service has become a bad thing in people’s minds." — Assembly Majority Leader John Oceguera

Not everybody’s mind, Mr. Majority Leader. Maybe just the editor of the R-J…

Tonight, Gov. Jim Gibbons takes to the floor of the Assembly to give his first State of the State speech. We won’t go into details, since so much of the mainstream media have done that already. (The stories in the Sun and the Review-Journal are helpfully linked here, and if you want to see the speech live, you can tune in to KVBC Channel 3, KVVU Channel 5, KLAS Channel 8.)

Instead, we’d like to discuss the background for the speech, as cast by our colleague Jon Ralston in his column in the Sun on Sunday. Ralston argues for Gibbons to get the benefit of the doubt in what is arguably the most important speech of his life.

"It is time to forget — if only for now — all of it: MazzeoTreppNannyMunroTremorsPlagiarismGaffes-Dawn’sBoozeBanSmallFingerprints
BigFingerprints. And so on.

 

"On Monday night, Jim Gibbons will have that rarest of opportunities: A second chance to make a first impression.

He needs it. He deserves it. So he should get it."

Pardon us, but why?

If anything, we think the public should be more cynical, more suspicious, and less willing to give out second chances. Because at this point, when it comes to chances, Gibbons is somewhere in the teens.

Regular readers know all about Gibbons’ midnight swearing in, under cover of his first lie — security. They know about the mini-flap over his conflicting comments on the budget — first he said he’d leave "small fingerprints," then he said he was making big changes.

And on Friday, we learned he’s giving conflicting accounts of when he first learned of his inherited neurological condition known as familial tremors. Did he know when he was young, when he was a pilot (for the Air Force, Nevada Air National Guard and commercial carriers) or only after retiring from flying? It depends on when he was asked, or who on his staff was answering questions.

Granted, all these stories could be the results of simple miscommunication. But that still shouldn’t reassure anyone. Gibbons is no longer a back-bencher in Congress, hurling speeches to an empty chamber filled only with hungry C-SPAN cameras. He’s the governor of Nevada. Suddenly, what he says, what he thinks, actually matters.

And so do his actions, past and present. Those things tell us something of the man who will speak to Nevada tonight, to outline a state budget that may, or may not, be a big departure from Gov. Kenny Guinn’s.

We’re asked to overlook the Chrissy Mazzeo incident, in which Metro Police found no credible evidence to sustain a charge of battery and which was declined for prosecution by District Attorney David Roger. But there were gaps in the story that Gibbons gave to police about his actions that night.

We’re asked to overlook the allegations surrounding Warren Trepp, a close Gibbons friend who provided the then-congressman and his family deeply discounted cruise travel, which was initially not reported as required by House rules. But that incident gives us some insight by which Gibbons can, and should, be judged.

The illegal immigrant nanny, hiding the the basement of the home of a man who would later beat up his opponent for her stance on illegal immigration? Totally telling. A speech cut-and-pasted from the Internet slamming liberals and suggesting they be go to Iraq to serve as human shields? A window to the soul.

No, our view is that Gibbons shouldn’t be allowed to slip the chains he’s forged in his political career up until now, including and especially his disturbing tendency to tell different stories, sometimes for no good reason whatsoever.

Instead, Gibbons speech should be evaluated like every other governor’s: Will it move the state forward in terms of the obligations of the social compact, or will it not? Will Gibbons ignore the problems facing Nevada’s schools, Southern Nevada’s roads, health care, budget deficits and the like, or will he tackle them? If so, how? And perhaps most important: Have the obligations of his high office settled in since the election, and has he come to realize that the burdens of the people of the state now rest on his shoulders?

Those are the questions we hope to see answered tonight. But we need not forget the past to get our answers. In fact, the past may provide us a handy road map to finding them.

Now that the jury duty unpleasantness is behind us, and we’re all caught up with stuff at our offices in a nondescript industrial building near McCarran International Airport, we can get back to reviewing the news, with some delicious Quick Hits.

(Oh, and by the way, we’re shocked and outraged at Goldy’s suggestion in a previous comment that we try to shirk our duty! That offends us! And no, Goldy, we didn’t think far enough ahead to find somebody with juice to bounce us from the pool. Next time, next time…)

» Excuses, excuses. No matter what else can be said about the scandal/police investigation at University Medical Center, responsibility and oversight lies with seven people: The Clark County Commission. And no matter how they say they were misled, or lied to, or deceived, the fact is, they are the ones who have ultimate oversight of the public hospital.

Now, having said that, there were so many clues, Stevie Wonder could have played Lt. Colombo on this one. First, according to an excellent piece in the Las Vegas Sun, county auditor Jerry Carroll had the whiff of scandal more than a year ago. His probing, shared with District Attorney David Roger, was enough for Roger to hire a private investigator and, eventually, ask Metro to begin a probe.

During this time, Carroll was painting a pessimistic picture of the problems at UMC, while now-fired CEO Lacy Thomas was saying things were good. "We had professionals giving us two different views on where the hospital was financially. It was pretty confusing," says commission Chairman Rory Reid. Oh, gosh, yes.

Let us help you out here: When you have two widely different viewpoints, and your auditor says something is fishy, it’s called a RED FLAG, which should prompt you to call for more information.

Speaking of that, of course, Thomas had failed to file a required financial report for months. The Review-Journal reported that story back in November (ironically, just a few days after it ran a rosy UMC profile in the Sunday paper.)

Two things about that: First, commissioners were aware, or should have been aware, prior to the R-J story that the reports weren’t coming in. That is yet another RED FLAG which should have triggered a sit-down with Thomas. Second, even if laziness or general malaise prevented a probe before that, R-J scribe Mike Kalil’s story was a wake-up call.

So, while some may want to blame ex-Clark County Manager Thom Reilly (who hired Thomas after an executive headhunter firm recommended him), or Virginia Valentine, who took over for Reilly, or ex-UMC staffers (who apparently shared what they knew with auditors and police), there are but seven people to blame for this: The Clark County Commission.

First, G-sting, now UMC-gate, all happening under the commission’s apparently unsniffing nose. Will they ever regain their credibility?

» Not with this attitude: Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates says she knew there was something up with the G-sting defendants, but it was none of her business. Man, we hope we never walk out of a bathroom with toilet paper on our shoe around her!

» Quotable: "If this man was white, this wouldn’t be happening. He’s an African-American in a redneck state. They hated his guts the day he walked in there. … There’s a lot of racist folks that don’t want him there, and they’ll do anything to get him out of there, including lying." — Bill Taylor, a friend and alleged co-conspirator of fired UMC boss Thomas

This is, in a word, bullshit. It’s not even new bullshit; playing the race card to get out from under serious allegations is one of the oldest and least reputable tricks in the book. It’s designed to scare white people away from demanding equal justice under law. And it shouldn’t be given a second thought. We don’t know if Bill Taylor is guilty of taking a no-bid, no-work contract from Thomas. We do know — from this quote alone — that he’s a charlatan who should never be believed about anything.

» Is Gates’ departure from the Clark County Commission connected to the UMC mess? She says no, and we have no evidence to contradict her, although we do think she should have been more aggressive in overseeing UMC; she’s the chairwoman of the hospital’s board of trustees!

Anyway, we’ll ask Gates’ about that on this week’s edition of Political Insiders on KTNV Channel 13. Gates is a scheduled guest for the episode to air at 11:35 p.m. Saturday and again at 5 p.m. Sunday. Tune in!

For now, however, let’s address a point that’s been raised since she announced she was leaving: Who should replace her? We’ve heard names from state Sen. Steven Horsford (he says he’s not interested); Assemblyman Morse Arberry; Las Vegas Councilman Lawrence Weekly and somebody named Will Watson, who apparently serves on the Clark County Planning Commission. (He’s not to be confused, by the way, with actor Wil Wheaton, who played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Different guy.)

Anyway, almost overlooked in the whole mess was a person who Arberry says is supporting him, but who would make a great commissioner in his own right: former state Sen. Joe Neal! Neal lives in the district; he ran against Gates the last time out, garnering but 21 percent against Gates’ 63 percent. Neal’s retired now, but if he still has the fire in the belly, we think he’d be a great choice. Plus, think of how the Strip would react if their old foe Neal was put in charge of gambling regulation!

Oh, that’s right. They’d hate it. And since Gov. Jim Gibbons is not want to make war with the gambling industry, the chances of Neal being appointed are about the same as Paris Hilton’s pal Kim Kardashian calling us to inquire about Valentine’s Day plans. (We’re booked; sorry Kim.)

» Is U.S. Sen. Harry Reid learning disabled or something? After getting slammed last year for accepting free boxing tickets, Reid claimed he’d learned a lesson: Just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

Flash forward to the Senate’s struggles over ethics, including the wisdom of accepting free private jet travel from corporations. (Sure, we understand: We hate mixing with the mouth-breathing, gum-smacking, American Idol-loving ass-masses, too, senator! But that’s not the point.) The point is is wrong for senators to accept this kind of perk.

After first struggling with the issue ("It’s not an easy issue," Reid said) and defending private jets because they whisk him to the far-flung places in Nevada that commercial airlines don’t go, Reid finally decided that — while corporate jets are perfectly legal — flying on them looks bad and thus should be curbed.

Where have we heard that one before? Oh, that’s right. From Reid. Just a few months ago! C’mon, senator: From now on, have the moral debate in an internal monologue, and then just speak the conclusion out loud.

» Apparently, both the Review-Journal and the Regional Transportation Commission think you are stupid. Here’s part of an R-J story on the deployment of merge-regulating ramp meters:

"The meters use a red light to hold a car for a few seconds before signaling a green light, allowing the vehicle to enter the freeway. Then the cycle repeats."

 

And, a line from an RTC newspaper ad explaining the complex mystery of the ramp meter:

"When the light is red, stop at the line. When it’s green, you’re free to merge safely. It’s just like a regular traffic light — and running it could land you a ticket."

 

You know what? Fuck you. Seriously. That’s what we say to people who come up to us (even in print) to insult our intelligence. We know that red means stop and green means go. Learned it a long time ago. So stop treating the installation of ramp meters like you’re trying to teach us to read Egyptian heiroglyphics or disassemble a plasma-screen TV or some damn thing.

Whoops. Spoke too soon. It turns out 40 people were ticketed for running the red-light ramp meters on Wednesday!

On second thought, we’ll stick with "fuck you." After all, these are Las Vegas drivers. Why should they stop for a red light on a freeway on-ramp when they don’t stop for them anywhere else?

» We personally love the fellowship that ensues after a nasty election. Actually, we don’t. In fact, we find it downright lame. How else to describe the comity between now-Gov. Jim Gibbons and state Sen. Bob Beers, who savaged each other on the campaign trail?

Gibbons called Beers "fiscally irresponsible," but now says this: "If I said that, I was mistaken and I retract that."

And Beers, who said Gibbons was a big-spending liberal who wouldn’t debate because he was a pussy (we’re paraphrasing) is sorry, too. "I would not describe what I’ve seen so far as spendthrift inclinations. Hopefully, I was wrong about him."

Oh, now that’s love, baby. But, we just remembered something. You know who hasn’t retracted something he said about Gibbons? Chancellor Jim Rogers. Remember when Rogers said Gibbons was "not very bright"? Well, Rogers has given Gibbons money and spoken more tenderly of him since then, but he’s never said he was wrong about that "not very bright" thing.

We wonder why…

Anyway, political people, get real: If you really believe somebody is a douche, say so. And then stick by it. (You won’t find state Sen. Dina Titus embracing Gibbons, for example, unless it’s to stab him in the back.) But if you don’t think your opponent is a bad person, then don’t say so in the first place. Because nobody believes it when former foes make nice.

We’re just saying…

So, a few news events happened on Tuesday. Chancellor Jim Rogers explained his decision to not quit after all. Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates announced she was stepping down from the commission. UMC got raided by Metro, while CEO Lacy Thomas got sacked by the commission for covering up a huge debt at the hospital. (He’s also apparently the target of the Metro investigation.)

Alas, we’re still catching up, seeing as we had to put out a little paper called CityLife that you may have heard about. So we’ll make with the blogging a little later today.

» So, Steve Wynn puts an elbow through a painting, and then he sues his insurer, Lloyd’s of London, because they’re not making fast enough with the cash to repair it? Clearly, in a battle between a casino executive and an insurance company, it’s tough to find a side to root for here. (We choose the poor, abused painting!) But we would suggest this to Lloyd’s: Put in a clause saying Wynn must remain at least 15 feet from all insured artworks in the future, or his policy is void.

» Pardon us, but we disagree with Review-Journal columnist John L. Smith’s parting shot in the Jim Gibbons-Kenny Guinn appointment-palooza lame-tacular. Smith noted in his Friday column that Guinn’s pick for the Gaming Control Board, Keith Munro, had quit, thus allowing Gibbons’ competing pick, Randall Sayre, to take the job and head off an attorney general’s opinion that may have found Gibbons in the wrong. He sums thusly: "It appears Gov. Jim Gibbons is better at running the political obstacle course than some have suggested."

Huh? If anybody deserves credit in the mess, it’s Munro, who showed more respect for the Gaming Control Board and the office of the governor than either Guinn or Gibbons. By quitting a job he most certainly would have been able to keep had it come to it, Munro put the interests of the state above those of himself. At least somebody did.

Gibbons? Hell, he created the obstacle course by trying to fill a control board seat that was already legally occupied, and then stumbled — badly — in trying to deal with the fallout. He’s a candidate for the political Special Olympics, if you ask us.

» What’s that? The Community College of Southern Nevada is planning a campus in Macau? Well, alert the student body president who’s trying to drop the word "community" from the school’s name! They can call it the International College of Southern Nevada, aka Harvard West now!

» What the…? Unless we’ve missed some serious construction, there’s something downright misleading about the full-page ad in today’s Review-Journal sports section for the NBA All Star Jam Session, to be held at Mandalay Bay.

It looks like a great event, but what is up with the Las Vegas Monorail logo at the bottom, along with this tagline: "Get there in 15 minutes or less — It’s the fastest way to hit the Strip!"

Now, if we read our handy, dog-eared monorail map correctly, the closest the monorail comes to the Mandalay Bay is the MGM Grand. From there, it’s at least a 15-minute walk to the Mandalay Bay (unless, of course, you use the long-running and fully functional monorail that runs from Excalibur to Luxor to Mandalay Bay!). And, to be technical about it, the monorail doesn’t "hit" the Strip at all; it runs behind the Strip.

Odd. Very odd. Although not as odd as the end of The Drive, the General Motors exhibit that set up shop at the end of the monorail line on Paradise Road in back of the Sahara hotel-casino. GM only committed to a short-term deal on that.

» And finally today, we’ve got a candidate for No Brainer of the Year from the Las Vegas Sun, which reported today that North Las Vegas Planning Commissioner Harry Shull has just been named president of the Southern Nevada Home Builder’s Association.

The conflict is obvious: The man deciding on development plans in one of the fastest-growing cities in America is also the president of a group dedicated to building lots and lots of houses. (And then there’s this gem: He’s co-owner of a homebuilding company himself, Celebrate Homes!)

But both Shull and North Las Vegas Mayor Mike Montandon cleave to their membership in a moral flat-earth society. To wit:

"When I’m looking at the members on our planning commission, I want our planners to be experienced," Montandon says.

Oh, really, Mr. Mayor? Well, if you’re so willing to look past conflicts in favor of experience, why don’t we just make sure every member of the planning commission is a developer like Shull? Who’s more experienced, after all? While we’re at it, why not make sure the members of Metro Civilian Review Committee are all cops? Who has more experience than cops in law enforcement? And the Gaming Control Board and Gaming Commission? Yeah, let’s make sure those folks are all casino executives, well experienced in the ways of gambling.

It makes sense, from a certain warped point of view, no?

For his part, Schull says he’ll abstain from voting on matters on which the association takes a stance (and, presumably, matters in which he has a personal interest), but he adds he’ll still vote on matters involving members of the association. "I could disclose," he says. "Almost every builder in Las Vegas is a member. That wouldn’t preclude me from being able to vote on the project."

Oh, no! Of course it wouldn’t! Just because you’re the president of a group that lobbies for developers (and are a developer yourself) is no reason not to sit in judgment of those exact same developers’ projects!

Please. Shull should be dismissed from the planning commission immediately, and it looks like that call is going to have to come from someone other than Montandon. Anybody in North Las Vegas still have some sense of ethics? Anyone?

It’s not actually a farewell. We hear that now-former university Chancellor Jim Rogers will soon begin some on-air commentary at his television station, KVBC Channel 3, to discuss the regents, school board members and legislators. Now that’s what we call must-see TV! (Credit to — who else? — Jon Ralston’s FLASH for that scoop.)

But how did we come to this place?

To be frank, when somebody has that much "fuck you" money, the odds are they are eventually going to say "fuck you." But this is not a tale of a rich man’s petulance, not by a long shot. As far as we can tell, there are legitimate points on both sides of this debate.

And who’d have guessed that nice, inoffensive Tessa Hafen would touch off a series of events that would dethrone the chancellor? That seems to be where it started: When it was announced last week that Hafen was hired to lobby the 2007 Legislature for the Health Sciences Center (a longtime Rogers pet project) Regent James Dean Leavitt called center Chief Operating Office Marcia Turner, a conversation that apparently turned toward hirings without searches, which have apparently become commonplace at the center.

On Thursday, Rogers issued his famous memo, slamming Leavitt as unqualified to run a big organization and threatening to quit if Leavitt was either elected chairman or vice-chairman of the board of regents, or if he continued to interfere in the affairs of the chancellor’s office.

Referee’s update: In our humble view, Leavitt had every right to ask questions about Hafen’s hiring, but he had no authority whatsoever to interfere in it. If he was simply raising questions with Turner or Rogers, that’s fine. But if the purpose or impression of his call was to interfere in the process, he was wrong. Similarly, Rogers had every right to insist that Leavitt stay out of matters below his pay grade. (After all, if Rogers has the right to fire presidents, surely he has the right to hire and fire positions subordinate to president, even without a search.) However, by threatening to quit should Leavitt be elected a board officer, Rogers crossed a line, too, into interfering with the operations of the board. They are his employers, after all, even if he could buy and sell all of them without having to hit an ATM. And as much as the board could probably benefit by Rogers strong leadership, it’s simply not the way the system is currently designed.

That letter led to Leavitt calling for Rogers to resign, and he got board Chairman Bret Whipple involved. (Well, sort of. Whipple didn’t mind doing some sound and fury at a news conference, but said he’d have to think about calling a meeting to force Rogers to resign.)

"This isn’t about me. This is about if a board can question and challenge and manage the system of higher education," Leavitt said. And, whether the board — sans Rogers — can manage the system of higher education is very much an open question, to our way of thinking.

Rogers, it seems, relied on his usefulness to the board. "I think I’m right. I think my position is sound. I think at this point, there are probably a lot of people who rely upon my being there. I think there are a lot of programs that rely on my being there," Rogers told the Review-Journal for a story published Saturday.

Referee’s update: Rogers is right. While we at Various Things & Stuff were critical of the chancellor at the beginning of his tenure and at various points along the way (like the unnecessary and counter-productive sacking of UNLV President Carol Harter, for example) we have come to admire Rogers for his openness, his common-sense approach to leadership and, perhaps most of all, for bringing some respect to a board that was — and may be again — considered the worst public body in America. But Leavitt, ultimately, is also right: It is the board that oversees the system, and board members should have the ability to question things that go on therein, even if they don’t have the legal power to do anything about them. If a city council is upset that the Department of Public Works has hired an incompetent engineer, they can do nothing in the strong-manager type of government that’s similar to the model used by the regents. They only thing they can do is demand accountability from the city manager, who, if he or she doesn’t act to the satisfaction of a majority of the council, may be sacked as a result.

In the end, it may have been comments like those of Regent Mike Wixom that suggested to Rogers the end was near. "The chancellor can’t pick and choose who he works with on the board. It’s also wholly inappropriate to influence the outcome of a board election. That troubles me," Wixom said.

So, Rogers quit, in a classic, two word member that said not "fuck you" but rather its polite equivalent, "I quit." (Adding insult to injury, Rogers was forced to watch the San Diego Chargers lose to the damn New England Patriots, denying them a chance for a conference championship slot and maybe a shot at the Super Bowl. Stupid Patriots.)

"I’m still the boss, and he is still the employee. If anybody’s going to change, he has to change," Whipple said. But let’s be honest: Rogers has been running the board the way he wants to run the board (to coin a phrase) since he signed on as interim chancellor on May 7, 2004. (Thanks to the R-J for the handy Rogers timeline!) He did it through force of personality, through his ample checkbook, but also through coming up with some good ideas, programs and leadership. It’s not to say everything he did was good — we’ve already mentioned Harter-Gate — but he did do quite a few good things along the way.

So maybe Whipple needs another memo to explain things, but Rogers was never an "employee," at least in the traditional sense. He came in as a leader, and many regents were heard to refer to Rogers as their boss! It was one of the things that we at Various Things & Stuff found so amazing about Rogers: No matter what the board’s organization chart said, everybody knew who was in charge.

So, now what? What happens to the Health Sciences Center, which won $110 million from former Gov. Kenny Guinn, but needs more from the Legislature? Did Gov. Jim Gibbons leave that money in the budget? Will he and the Legislature agree to give more? Did Roger and Gibbons have some kind of rapprochement after Rogers said Gibbons was "not that bright," a statement he’s never amended? (They must have; instead of spending money to trash Gibbons during the campaign, Rogers became a Gibbons donor! Was the Health Sciences Center part of that development?)

What about Hafen? Will she stay on? Republicans — including our friend Chuck Muth — are e-mail campaigning against her, and state Sen. Bob Beers e-mailed a notice that her hiring should be re-evaluated. While her experience can be debated (our view is that eight years at the elbow of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has undoubtedly taught Hafen a thing or two about lobbying) was hiring somebody who was clearly in the Democratic camp the best lobbying move? Especially somebody who may be planning another run for office in the future?

Lots of questions, which will start to get answered when Rogers meets the press this week. We will be part of the clamoring hordes, and will let you know what happens.

UPDATE: We just spoke with board of regents Chairman Bret Whipple, who shed a little more light on the subject. Whipple maintained that, contrary to our view at Various Things & Stuff, Rogers has always taken direction from regents, instead of dictating policy to them. But the letter in which Rogers threatened to quit if Leavitt were elected to chairman or vice chairman of the board was too much.

"It had everything to do with his attempt to control the board and manipulating the board," Whipple said. "That [calling for Rogers to resign] was the easiest call I’ve ever had to make."

Whipple said the situation could have been saved had Rogers simply issued an apology to Leavitt, and tried to mend fences with him. But now, Whipple says, he’s seeking an Open Meeting Law waiver so that regents can discuss Rogers’ departure and possible interim successors.

"We run a system that is much bigger than any person, including myself," Whipple said. And that’s saying something, given that Rogers personality is pretty damn big.

Gov. Jim Gibbons is at it again.

Fibbing, we mean.

It’s been well-documented the Gibbons literally came into office on a pack of lies. What’s surprising is that those lies were unnecessary; had he simply admitted he was taking the oath of office at midnight to void some of Gov. Kenny Guinn’s last-minute appointments, he may have looked petty, but he could have argued he was acting to preserve his executive privileges.

Instead, he gave us a line about how unspecified security threats prompted the midnight oath at his Reno home. (Sadly, it appears we will never learn what we at Various Things & Stuff have long suspected: Guinn’s appointments were valid, and the ones that Gibbons made thereafter were not.)

But wait, there’s more, as the late-night infomercials might say. Gibbons has seemingly told yet another fib. Apparently, Gibbons is planning "significant policy changes" in the budget he’ll submit to the Legislature this year.

As the Review-Journal’s Molly Ball noted in her piece (linked above), this comes after Gibbons told the Associated Press he’d leave "small fingerprints" on the spending place that Guinn left for him, and an interview last week in which Gibbons said he didn’t have time to alter many details of Guinn’s budget.

But as it turns out, Gibbons has actually made what Ball describes as "a radical departure" from Guinn’s policies. "We’re making significant policy changes in how taxpayer dollars are being spent in the state of Nevada," he said. "You’ll see a big difference between the previous administration and mine. The status quo for the last 40 years in Nevada is going to change. It’s going to be very exciting."

Oh, yes, we feel all tingly just thinking about it. (We bet that former Govs. Paul Laxalt [1967-1971] and Robert List [1979-1983], both Republicans who helped make that "status quo" over the last 40 years, are excited about the change, too. And List is on Gibbons’ transition battalion!)

Gibbons refused to give Ball details of his budget, saying all would be made clear when the document arrives at the Legislature. (We suspect that this is yet another lie; Gibbons probably doesn’t know the details because they’ve been written by somebody else.)

Here’s the thing we can’t get over: Why lie? Why say you’re not going to make big changes, and then make big changes? Gibbons ran as a fiscal conservative, promising to be thrifty in the way he spent taxes if he was elected. So if he were to have instead said he was going to radically depart from Guinn’s budget and make big changes, nobody would have been surprised at all. (In fact, political observers were surprised when Gibbons said he wasn’t going to make many changes.)

But by first saying he wouldn’t make big changes, and now going back on that, Gibbons has further damaged his rapidly diminishing credibility. It wasn’t just a lie; it was a totally unnecessary and counterproductive lie. And this administration can’t afford even one more of those, before a nickname like Gibber the Fibber, or Fibbons, or any of the other cute names tossed at the state’s chief executive by creative posters in the blogosphere starts to stick.

Fibbons. Hey, that’s got a nice ring to it.

Man, there’s going to be a lot of speeches today. At 5 p.m., Mayor Oscar Goodman will give his annual State of the City speech (symbolically, at the World Market Center that he brought to downtown). And immediately thereafter, at 6 p.m., President George W. Bush will give a speech from the library of the White House (curiously, the least-used room in the White House since Jan. 20, 2001) about the need to send even more troops to Iraq.

Isn’t that just like president? So rude! Anyway, we’ll still be able to catch both, thanks to the wonders of 88.9-FM KNPR, which we know will go live and carry the president’s speech. (Please carry the speech, KNPR!) If you see our green Honda careening wildly through the streets of downtown, that’s why. Just stay clear, and nobody gets hurt.

Anyway, there are a few other things on the agenda before Goodman gets going. Let’s do the list:

» We at Various Things & Stuff have learned — after we read it in our colleague Jon Ralston’s Flashpoint feature in the Las Vegas Sun — that a grand total of 13 lawmakers have signed the Americans for Tax Reform’s anti-tax pledge. That means that, no matter what, they’ll "…oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes," according to the ATR’s website.

Who are these people, with vision sufficient to see into the future, to know that no tax increases will ever be necessary, come underperforming schools, gridlocked roads, short-staffed hospitals and cop-starved streets? We’re glad you asked! Because we downloaded the list from ATR to find out. They are:

Gov. Jim Gibbons (color us shocked)
Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki (if you’re an interest group, and Herr Weasel hasn’t told you what you want to hear yet, it’s only because he’s still working his way down the list after getting behind while trying to hold on to his old office space)

 

State Sen. Bob Beers (no surprise there)
State Sen. Barbara Cegavske (vision personified, if you ask us)
State Sen. Warren Hardy (oh, Warren, why?)
State Sen. Maurice Washington (with a disclaimer: taxes are OK if they go to pay for his health insurance; that shit is expensive, people!)

Assemblyman John Carpenter (ATR refers to Nevada Assembly members as "House" members, but then again, they’re wrong about so many things…)
Assemblyman Chad Christensen (financial wizard, from what we hear)
Assemblyman Tyrus O. Cobb (dude, you’re not supposed to put your porn name on a taxpayer pledge! Seriously…)
Assemblyman Ed Goedhart (nobody knows the process better than somebody who’s never served in the Assembly before)
Assemblyman Dr. Garn Mabey (he’s the minority leader, after all, and he’s planning to run against U.S. Sen. Harry Reid; how would it look if he didn’t sign?)
Assemblyman John Marvel (Hey! Didn’t Marvel cast the tie-breaking vote for the largest tax increase in state history? Man, when you’re born again, you really go off the deep end!)
Assemblyman J. Harry Mortensen (dude, what? Which