The Review-Journal is big on the concept that state transportation officials should live in traffic-choked Las Vegas, rather than in bucolic Carson City, where "traffic" consists of waiting at a red light or two. The paper has editorialized on that subject, and Publisher Sherm Frederick (who is also our corporate overlord-in-chief) has made that the subject of one of his columns as well.

So you just know that the paper would never employ somebody who, say, lived three time zones away to write about Las Vegas traffic, right?

Yeah, you see it coming.

It appears that Omar Sofradzija, the newspaper’s longtime "Road Warrior," has been filing his reports from Michigan for at least three weeks, since he left the paper to take a job as editorial adviser for The State News in Michigan. Regular readers may recall that we noted his departure in a blog back on July 11. We linked that day to this announcement on The State News alumni association website, which indicated Sofradzija would be starting his new position "in mid-July."

Well, imagine our surprise when Sofradzija’s columns kept appearing in the R-J, without the usual announcement of his departure, or even a farewell column. His most recent column, in fact, was published today.

Did he decide to stay in Las Vegas? Surely the R-J would never, ever be so hypocritical as to suggest that state officials live in the muck of local traffic but yet publish the road rantings of a columnist who no longer lives in Las Vegas, would they?

Apparently, they would. Without ever telling a soul.

In fact, the only clue that the public might have had that their friendly neighborhood Road Warrior was no longer writing from his desk in Las Vegas was the fact that his column’s tagline changed. On all of Sofradzija’s columns up to and including July 11, his office phone number and R-J e-mail address appeared. But all of a sudden on July 15, the phone number changed to the R-J’s city desk, and the e-mail is simply the generic roadwarrior@reviewjournal.com.

That happened in mid-July, just as had been reported.

Not only that, but Sofradzija’s phone number and e-mail address currently appear on The State News‘ website. A call to that number turned up the voicemail of the outgoing adviser, Perry Parks, who announces his departure and Sofradzija’s start date: mid-July.

Now, it’s not as if Sofradzija doesn’t know what he’s talking about, even if he did move away. He’s covered Las Vegas traffic and transportation for years, while some state transportation officials have lived their whole lives in Northern Nevada, only rarely seeing the mean Las Vegas streets. And we’re sure the R-J is diligently searching for a replacement for Sofradzija, somebody who will live, say, in Nevada.

Then again, it can’t be denied that it’s at least somewhat hypocritical to suggest that Susan Martinovich, the state’s transportation director, spend her time in Las Vegas when the paper’s own traffic columnist now lives in Michigan. At least Martinovich (and all of her employees to boot) live in the state of Nevada.

Why, it reminds us of that newspaper in Pasadena that decided to outsource it’s local news coverage to India. Hey, you don’t suppose any R-J reporters live in India, do you?

» Wait, so you mean to say that people who are white, evangelical, Christian and conservative make up the core of President George W. Bush’s remaining support, given that he is white, evangelical, Christian and conservative? Now that’s a revelation. At least we finally know who that 29-33 percent is…

» Apparently unable to decide between paying for a new jail for low-level offenders twice, or leasing it for four times the price, a befuddled Clark County Commission puts off making any decision. We hate to say it, but at those prices, the R-J just might have a point about tent jails…

» Help us with this math: In order to build the nation’s best example of leapfrog development, uber-powerbroker Harvey Whittemore needs 50,000 acre feet of water. He owns 4,600 acre feet.

What’s he going to do for the 45,400 acre feet difference? Pull what we like to call a "mini-Mulroy," and suck it out of the north, of course! Whittemore is asking the state for permission to siphon water from property he owns north of his development, not to mention a deal with Lincoln County for a aquifer that’s much closer.

Well, what the hell? It’s not like there’s anything up there except for farms, ranches and lots and lots of Republicans. Go ahead. Suck ‘em dry.