» 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.