If, in fact, everybody is working for the weekend, well, it’s almost here. But before you shut down that computer and head out to find a little romance, here’s a few last-minute Quick Hits!

• The Senate decided to table a bill that would give more power to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, thus reigning in the Bush administration and Republicans who think potentially spying on Americans without warrants is just fine. A "yea" vote on this list is bad, while a "nay" vote is good. Alas, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama didn’t vote, squabbling as they are over Bill Clinton’s legacy or something.
  
• And you just know some editorial writers have gone orgasmic over the return of their favorite arch-nemesis.
  
• A soft landing for a discredited neocon hack. Hey, Madam Secretary of State, is there another job for Wolfie’s girlfriend? High salary preferred.
  
• Corrupt, bribe-proffering, politician-corrupting, perjuring asshole Don Davidson tries to dodge responsibility for his crimes by saying he shouldn’t go to jail because he does charity work and should be free to continue "helping people." That argument merely proves how badly he needs to go to prison, and he should thank God U.S. District Court Judge Roger Hunt only gave him two years.
  
• And shame on anybody who argued for leniency for Davidson.
  
• State Sen. Bob Coffin rails against Gov. Jim Gibbons‘ budget cuts, only my colleague Jon Ralston gives Coffin any credence and, at day’s end, the governor gets away with it while the legislative branch of government is measurably diminished.
  
• Oh, wait: Lawmakers did stand up for a $4.8 million transition center at the women’s jail in North Las Vegas, which Corrections Department Director Howard Skolnik said wasn’t needed. Now, the politically smart thing for Gibbons to do would be to hit lawmakers over the head with this, so he’ll probably just … no, wait, he’s doing it!
  

We’re still not clear on all the details, but according to today’s Review-Journal, Gov. Jim Gibbons issued an executive order earlier this month repealing the use of project-labor agreements on projects involving state funds.

Project-labor agreements, known in the biz as "PLAs," are collective bargaining agreements between governments and unions that stipulate all contractors will adhere to certain rules, and in exchange, unions won’t strike. They are hated by non-union contractors, the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and, tellingly, the Review-Journal.

What the story also reveals is that state Sen. Warren Hardy asked Gibbons to consider signing the executive order, significant because Hardy’s full-time job is president of the Associated Builders and Contractors, a prime opponent of PLAs and, also, unions.

Did Hardy approach Gibbons in his role as president of the ABC? Or as a state senator? Or both? Can we really differentiate between Hardy the lawmaker and Hardy the senator? (He says he won’t seek legislation to ban PLAs, but why would he have to, having convinced the governor to end them on state-financed projects.)

And, perhaps more important, it not a conflict for Hardy to use his position in government — assuming that we can’t separate his full-time and part-time jobs — to get something that his private sector members really want?

Answer: Yes, it is a conflict, but only if he "used his position in government" to "secure … unwarranted privileges, preferences or exemptions" for his members. And with Nevada’s permissive and ethically loose culture, not to mention a somewhat feckless Ethics Commission, it’s unlikely this conflict will ever be condemned.

(Oh, lest you think we’re just beating up on the capitalists, note that we said the same thing about a public official who decided to run for the head of his union, too, as well as the senator/mining lobbyist who unconscionably remains in office to this day.)

In any case, the point of the story is that taxpayers will save money, because project labor agreements drive up the cost of construction. Put another way, it means that the state will no longer have to pay workers what they are worth and get quality construction in return; now they can lowball contractors just like they do in the private sector!

And sure, in some quarters, PLAs didn’t work or were being phased out. But they still remain an important tool to make sure workers are treated fairly, and have some say about working conditions. In other words, they tend to aggregate power in hands other than those of moneyed landowners; hence, the hatred of the Chamber of Commerce and the Review-Journal.

So if Gibbons can do this by executive order (reversing a 1994 executive order authored by former Gov. Bob Miller and in place ever since), what else can he do? What else has he done? We placed a call to his press secretary to find out what other executive orders have been issued since Gibbons became governor. We we learn more, we’ll blog it.

UPDATE: The governor’s office helpfully got back to us, providing a link to the executive order in question. The document asserts that the PLA executive order is being repealed for the sake of "open and fair competition" that doesn’t discriminate on the basis of "labor affiliation," and that doing so will "expand job opportunities, particularly for small and disadvantaged businesses, advance free competition" and "reduce construction costs and therefore save taxpayer dollars."

You know, call us cynical, but when some politicians start talking about fairness and helping disadvantaged businesses, we just can’t help thinking the true purpose is somewhere 180 degrees the other way. But that’s just us.