• It’s back! That proposal to keep the Wynn Las Vegas from stealing tips earned by its dealers — which died in the Assembly Judiciary Committee on April 13  — returned from the dead, amended into another bill at the 11th hour Tuesday. “We finally got some backbone,” said a pleased lawmaker this morning.

The bill had originally been introduced by Assemblyman Bob Beers, who, like us, thinks courts and state officials have been ignoring state law that makes management-imposed “tip pooling” illegal. Beers, too, was pleased that his concept survived, if not his bill. He said in an e-mail that the grass-roots campaign by Wynn dealers had turned the tide.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Bernie Anderson, too, was pleased.

“We wanted to send a clear message that people who receive gratuities are not to be interfered with by management,” he said.

That was quite a change for Anderson, who wouldn’t allow witnesses testifying on Beers’ original bill to even utter the name “Wynn,” although that’s the only casino in Nevada to force dealers to share tips with their supervisors. (Wynn executives said they created the “tip pooling” program to induce dealers to take supervisory jobs, where salaries are less than what dealers make when you add tips to their base salaries.)

But doing the right thing, even at the 11th hour, is never a bad thing. The bill will now head to the state Senate, which pro-business Republicans will likely go all Freddy Krueger on it.

Speaking of pro-business Republicans, 10 voted against the anti-tip stealing bill. They were: Francis Allen, Chad Christensen, Ty Cobb, Heidi Gansert, Tom Grady, Joe Hardy, Garn Mabey, John Marvel, James Settelmeyer and Valerie Weber. 

Assembly Minority Leader Mabey said Republicans didn’t have enough time to check with their masters in the gambling industry to decide how to vote on the bill. (No, seriously, he did. Check this line from the Review-Journal’s story on the bill today: “Assembly Minority Leader Garn Mabey, R-Las Vegas, said they [Republicans] did not receive the amendment until 30 minutes before the vote. That was not enough time to consult people in the gaming [sic] industry, he said.”)

Republicans, Mabey added, don’t “want to dictate to businesses how they run their business.” Unless, of course, those businesses want to hire illegal immigrants. Then they put the “dick” in “dictate.” Or, say a K Street lobbying firm doesn’t have enough Republicans. Republicans will definitely get involved then. But, sure, if you want to pollute the air, pay people less than minimum wage, bust unions or skimp on health care, pro-business Republicans have totally got your back.

• But not all Republicans are bad. Take Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, for example. Raggio dropped by the press box on the Senate floor on Tuesday during a lull in the action, where we were chatting with our legislative look-alike, state Sen. Bob Beers. It’s the considered opinion of Nevada’s longest-serving and most distinguished state senator that we are better looking than Beers. That’s not us saying it, people. It’s Raggio. And his opinion counts!

• He’s back! Our favorite ex-state senator, Joe Neal, returned to Carson City last night so he could testify at a legislative hearing this morning. And Neal was still as sharp as he was during his decades crossing swords with the upper house’s brightest minds.

Today, Neal was urging the Legislature to spend $150,000 to audit electronic voting machines used in Nevada, which he said could be hacked. The audit is contained in SB 423.

“This area is very critical to ensuring the confidence of the voting public in this state,” Neal told the Senate Finance Committee. “We do need this to not lose confidence in the voting process.”

State law allows for an audit of voting machines, but doesn’t specify who is responsible to conduct it. However, Neal said the secretary of state’s office should not audit itself because of the obvious conflict.

State Sen. Barbara Cegavske said she had concerns about electronic voting, too, but they were rested when she toured a facility run by the vote counting company. “I do have a better trust than I did in the beginning,” she said.

Neal replied that he’s had conversations with Clark County Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax, but “these things in terms of [vote] changes do not happen when senators are standing around watching how the machines operate,” Neal said. Like we said, he’s still got it.

• Let us also offer a word of praise for the work of the Legislative Counsel Bureau, especially with respect to the Legislature’s website. It’s one of the best, most comprehensive and easiest sites we’ve ever used from a government agency, and it helped us immeasurably during our Carson sojourn. No matter what information you’re looking for, from bills to votes to a list of lawmakers and where to find them, this website is great. They’ve even got a list of bills that died after Tuesday’s deadline up on the web, right now. Excellent work, legislative web people!

• We’re back! Or at least, we’re heading that way. We’re going to take a couple days off from blogging, as we return to Las Vegas, tape a TV show and then head out across the great Mohave expanse to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. We’ll be back, and totally literary, next week.