CARSON CITY — It’s just after midnight, and things are not good.

At three minutes before the hour, Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley announced the Senate still has two agendas of work to finish. The Assembly will be at ease, she said, as there was no further business at the desk.

Translated, that means Buckley led her house in finishing its work early, but the Senate screwed things up for everybody by taking its sweet time.

Assemblyman William Horne just moved to waive the rule that ends the session at midnight and take advantage of the “daylight savings time” exemption, which allows business to go until 1 a.m.

CARSON CITY — There’s 13 minutes to go until midnight, and there’s still not much progress.

Nevada Taxpayers Association President Carole Vilardo just told us that the infamous “theme park district” bill has been passed out of a Senate committee. (That piece of … legislation … was the subject of a Las Vegas Sun story this morning. Last we checked, it was wrong.

Will there be another midnight special, rammed through by special interests? There’s now nine minutes until midnight and just over an hour until the guillotine of time descends.

CARSON CITY — With just one hour to go before midnight, and two until the session automatically ends by constitutional mandate, the process is stalled. Neither house is working, and Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio is unbelievably chairing a Finance Committee meeting and still passing bills, literally at the 11th hour.

In short, it’s the usual mess that occasions the end of a legislative session, as good intentions dissolve into delays.

It seems to us that some simple rules changes might improve things, like a prohibition on introducing any bills after a certain date, say mid-May, and a prohibition on amendments in the final week. These rules could be waived only by mutual agreement of the majority leader and Assembly speaker. But we’re not holding our breath for any reforms of this process. Ending a legislative session is like landing a 747 — it doesn’t exactly stop on a dime.

Our hopes for an early adjournment are gone; now we’re just wondering if they’ll finish before the clock strikes the fatal hour.

THIS JUST IN — A capital insider just told us that things are going to get moving soon. And Speaker Barbara Buckley just brought down the gavel. And we’ve heard the bell calling the Senate into session. But that clock is still ticking…

CARSON CITY — It’s the Legislature’s last day, and bills are flying back and forth between the two houses as lawmakers struggle to finish on time. Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley’s much-repeated desire to wrap things up at 5 p.m. has no chance of coming to pass. The Senate is out until 6:30 p.m. So, we’re pretty much on track for an evening adjournment. We’re still confident that it can be done before the ultimate 1 a.m. deadline.

In the meantime, a little something for you to chew on. The Assembly just passed state Sen. Terry Care’s SB 123, a public records reform act that would put a time limit on how long government can stall before giving up a public record, and make non-confidential portions of records public with some simple redaction.

It was much amended from it’s previous incarnation, but it’s still an excellent bill. Yet there were still people who voted against it, all of whom are Republicans. Color us surprised. (The bill passed unanimously out of the Senate Friday.)

Herein, we list their names so voters can ponder the question that’s usually tossed at Democrats arguing for the privacy of regular citizens: What are they trying to hide?

The secreteers were Assembly members:

Bob Beers

Valerie Weber