Thanks to my colleague Jon Ralston for a reference to an article about the Las Vegas Monorail in the Los Angeles Times today. We should have seen this story ourselves, but we have to admit we often forget to check the paper on the web. We’d love to subscribe at home, but the Times just won’t deliver. Plus, it might land on top of the Review-Journal, which means the molecules of each would annihilate each other. And that could be messy on the doorstep, if you know what we mean. (Don’t laugh. It happened once when we used to subscribe to the New York Times. We had to buy a new door!)

We are so totally behind this week, it’s not even funny. Perhaps some of our catching up will be, but we can’t make any promises.

» We asked Gov. Jim Gibbons‘ office recently if a replacement for Rosemary Vassiliadis had been named to the state’s Homeland Security Commission. For those who don’t know, Vassiliadis is the deputy director of aviation for Clark County, who helps run McCarran International Airport. And since the Islamic fascists who flew planes into buildings on Sept. 11, a.) visited Las Vegas, and b.) used airplanes as weapons, we figured, you know, it might be a good idea to have somebody with a little airport experience on the commission.

The answer we got back: Vassiliadis has been replaced with Rick Eaton, director of the state’s Department of Homeland Security and a longtime veteran of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Eaton’s resume, while impressive, doesn’t seem to contain any indication that he’s got airport experience, other than perhaps visiting them when flying for business and pleasure.

In fact, nobody on this list of commissioners seems to have airport experience. (Hell, the list includes Maureen Peckman, who doesn’t seem to have any security-related experience whatsoever!)

Now, the word was that Gibbons tossed Vassiliadis from the commission in the first place because of politics; adman Billy Vassiliadis of R&R Partners helped state Sen. Dina Titus in her 2006 race against Gibbons, and Vassiliadis helped his client the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority attack the governor’s transportation "plan" this year.

But if that’s true, it would tend to suggest that Gibbons puts politics above homeland security, which is incredibly stupid and, perhaps, potentially deadly. And now that we see Gibbons hasn’t selected anybody with aviation security experience for the job — while retaining a political ally in the person of Peckman — those early suppositions seem to be confirmed.

"Stupid and, perhaps, potentially deadly." That’s neither a good approach to homeland security or to governing.

» Despite being shortsighted in the homeland security department, even Gibbons is concerned about the merger of UnitedHealth Group and Sierra Health Services. The Las Vegas Sun found more reasons why.

» The photo of the "Flag of Honor" that ran in Wednesday’s paper is not on the Review-Journal’s website, but we couldn’t help notice the banner bears the names of the 2,996 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks written on the stripes. (It was unveiled at Palm Mortuary.)

We noticed because, according to United States Code Title 4 §8(g) you’re not supposed to write stuff on a U.S, flag.

What does it matter, you ask, especially since we at Various Things & Stuff have argued against the criminalization of flag burning? Isn’t the defacement of the flag — albeit with the names of the victims of Islamic fascism — something fully protected by the First Amendment?

It sure is. We’re just saying the anti-flag burning people and all those who claim to respect and revere the flag so much should be raising a ruckus about this as well. Any takers? Anybody? Well, we just thought we’d ask.

» Now, our conservative friends often accuse us of knowing nothing about economics. But we’re pretty sure that a reliable economic law is that if something is scarce, its value increases. That’s why diamonds are outrageously expensive, while charcoal is sold in bags at the grocery store for cheap. (Ironically, the same basic element comprises both!)

So, wouldn’t it stand to reason that if Las Vegas wanted to reduce the cost of a cab ride, it should eliminate the protectionist legislation that allows only a few companies to operate cabs in the city, and let the remaining companies charge whatever the market will bear? You wouldn’t have to eliminate all regulation, just let entrepreneurs set up shop if they think they can make a go at it.

You know, we’re just saying.

» Did you know that the gambling industry pays for more than half of the state’s general fund budget with gambling taxes? And did you know that sum totaled just more than $1 billion last year? If you didn’t, you can see a public education spot about that here.

Then again, the industry did post wins of $12.7 billion in fiscal year 2007, according to the Gaming Control Board, which keeps track of these things. (Most of that, $10.7 billion, came from Clark County, with another $1 billion tossed in by Washoe County.)

Anyway, the remaining $11 billion seems like a big, attractive target for initiative petitioners who want more more money for education, or to replace property taxes, or whatever. What we want to know is this: Whatever happened to that gross receipts tax that was all the rage back in 2003? That seemed like a good idea to us, inasmuch as it taxed businesses that are paying nothing on gross receipts now, as opposed to casinos, which are paying. (Whether gambling companies should pay more is always a topic for debate, but preferably after we’ve got big business coming to the table, too.)

Oh, hey, you know who adopted a gross receipts tax recently? Texas! And you know why the Lone Star State’s Republican governor signed it into law? To fund schools, that’s why. We never thought we’d see ourselves type this, but we in Nevada ought to follow the example of Texas.

» "Whatever became of iPolitix anyway?" That’s a great question! We wish we’d asked it. Oh, wait. We did.

» And finally today, somebody’s back from her Greek holiday. Here’s how you can tell.