Former U.S. Sen. John Edwards doesn’t want to let current U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton leave the impression that she’s the only one hiring campaign staff for Nevada. Edwards announced hiring some folks for his Nevada caucus effort today. They are:

Bill Hyers, who will be the Nevada state director. He organized Edwards’ 2004 campaign in Iowa, and worked for U.S. Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s successful campaign in New York. He also worked for the Alaska coordinated campaign.

Roberto Rodriguez, will be Edward’s Nevada political director. He was previously the state director of the California Voter Registration Project, and has worked for U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer and U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez.

Preston Elliott will be Nevada field director. He worked most recently as the field director for the Montana coordinated campaign and on former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt’s 2004 presidential bid.

Oscar Lopez will be Edward’s Nevada trip director. He worked as a regional field organizer for the Hispanic areas of Albuquerque and Valencia counties in New Mexico for Patricia Madrid’s 2006 congressional bid.

Kelly Harlow will be the Nevada regional field director. She also worked on Edwards’ 2004 campaign in Iowa, and was a regional field director for the Rhode Island coordinated campaign for U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse.

Notice anything, careful readers? Nowhere amidst the list of states — New York, Alaska, California, Iowa, Montana, New Mexico and Rhode Island — do you see the name "Nevada." In other words, none of Edwards’ Nevada staff is from Nevada! (Not that we at Various Things & Stuff are parochial at all; although we’ve lived in Nevada almost constantly since 1993, we’re originally from California. And yes, that does make us better than you.)

Contrast that with Clinton, who managed to snag Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid as her Southern Nevada chairman, Frankie Sue Del Papa as her Northern Nevada chairwoman, and announced this week the hiring of Nevadans Pam DuPre (former Washoe County Democratic Party executive director), Alisa Nave (former finance coordinator for state Sen. Dina Titus), Hilarie Grey (former spokeswoman for Titus and ex-employee of UNLV and McCarran International Airport) and Brian DiMarzio (former canvass director for the state Democratic Party).

What gives? It’s not like there’s not Nevada talent — Clinton proved that. What about the Billy Vassiliadises, the Dan Harts, the Gary Grays, the Mike Sullivans, the Jim Ferrences, the Kent Orams, the Bilbray sisters? There’s quality Democratic-leaning people out here, candidates! Snap them up!

We start off today with our Political Pop Quiz. Today’s question: How does one spell the last name of the new Southern Nevada political director for the Hillary Clinton for president campaign?

a.) Maze

b.) Naze

c.) Nave

d.) Knave

The answer is below. No peeking!

» We used to run a feature in CityLife called "No Shit," which focused on the unsurprising offerings of the Review-Journal’s Living section. We gave it up, since it was like shooting fish in a barrel using an M203 grenade launcher: A nice explosion at first, but not very sporting.

But we briefly considered bringing it back today when we read the story in which Frank Scafidi, spokesman for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, said "greed" was at the heart of insurance fraud. Really? Greed is at the heart of a moneymaking fraud scheme? Have we ruled out sloth, pride, envy and lust, too?

But seriously, folks, who would know better about greed than an insurance guy? And would we be wrong to suggest that perhaps the reason the insurance industry needs a crime bureau in the first place is that people who are routinely ripped off by insurance companies think it’s OK to steal from them? (We’re not condoning that kind of behavior, mind you. We’re just saying.)

» Justice at last! No, we’re not talking about the previously blogged conviction of Scooter Libby on charges he lied to the FBI about leaking a CIA operative’s name to the press, although that is certainly fun. (Let PardonWatch 2007 begin!) But this particular item is about the arrest of one Michael Hyams, who allegedly stole $20,000 from the city of Las Vegas "Centennial" Committee.

Regular readers know we don’t believe the city of Las Vegas is yet 100 years old. It was incorporated in 1911, and thus will turn 100 in 2011, just a few years away. But that doesn’t excuse Hyams taking two $10,000 checks from the city’s "Centennial" committee in order to purchase TV time touting the premature celebration. The time was never purchased.

"We guard the public trust, and we have an obligation to get the most and best public use out of those funds. If someone takes advantage of you, you have an obligation to get those funds," says Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell.

Oh, Ms. Fretwell, stop! You’re killing us! Did you not hear about how the city was flying tennis fans to the Grand Canyon in helicopters as part of its deal with The Tennis Channel? If that’s not taking advantage of taxpayers, we don’t know what is!

But just because the city is irony-deaf and free-spending doesn’t mean people can steal willy-nilly from the public treasury. (Thank God for that!) That’s why Hyams has two felony counts pending against him. Plus he may have to pay at least some of the cost for that $95,000 Sara Lee birthday cake. (Hyams told the city the cake would be free; later, he admitted he’d made a mistake and told the city it would have to pay, one of many screwups that marred the fake "celebration.")

Look at this this way: By the time the real centennial rolls around, Hyams might be in jail, and the city will have learned some valuable lessons about how not to throw a 100th birthday party. 2011 is going to rock, people!

» We know we’ve been beating up on the R-J a lot lately, but seriously, stop giving us material! Like the photo on Page 7B of today’s paper, over an Associated Press story about a man who went on a shooting rampage at his workplace.

"Los Angeles County Sheriff police investigate a shooting on Monday in Signal Hill, Calif.," the caption begins.

Los Angeles County Sheriff police? That doesn’t even make sense! Was it the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, or the Los Angeles Police Department? Well, it was neither: Clearly printed on the side of the black-and-white police car are the words "Signal Hill Police."

Yes, as Southern California natives, we know that Signal Hill is an incorporated city in Los Angeles County, near Long Beach, and that it has its very own cops. But even if we were semi-retarded aliens who just got off the intergalactic cruiser from Abell 1835 IR1916 (13.2 billion light years away!) we could still read the name on the side of the damn patrol car and get the caption right.

Still, it’s not as bad as the last time the R-J royally screwed the donkey with a photo involving Signal Hill…

OK, no more R-J bashing. For today.

» Now here’s a big surprise: Instead of stamping out smoking, the tobacco banners have only succeeded in kicking off a building boom so bar owners can build facilities that allow them to continue to both serve food and allow smoking, which is prohibited under Question 5, the so-called Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act.

We’d laugh and point at the health nazis, if we didn’t know their secret evil plan was to come back in the future and ban smoking everywhere in the state, including casino floors. That’s no laughing matter; it’s health fascism!

» And finally today, the answer to our Political Pop Quiz: Alisa Nave, Esq., who formerly worked on state Sen. Dina Titus’ campaign for governor, is Hillary Clinton’s new Southern Nevada political director. She’s the daughter of prominent Las Vegas vet, Dr. James Nave and a litigator at white-shoe firm Lionel, Sawyer & Collins.

We at Various Things & Stuff have learned — by reading an e-mail sent to us from the hardworking folks at ABC News — that former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been found guilty of four of the five counts in the CIA leak investigation, including obstruction of justice.