Candidates for office formally began filing today (they have until next Friday, May 16, to officially declare). Not too many surprises, but here’s a quick rundown of what we know so far:

• U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley has her hands full with Edward “Mr. Clean” Hamilton. Yes, there are three other GOP candidates in her race, but c’mon: Mr. Clean? Dude is going to … you see this coming right? … clean up.
• Veteran Southern Nevada state Sens. Valerie Wiener and Bob Beers filed on opening day. Beers, who will get the female vote thanks to bearing an eerie resemblance to a certain local blogificator, accompanied his filing with a statement that said, modestly, he’s “regarded as perhaps the strongest advocate for Nevada’s families and taxpayers.” Also, he hates taxes.
• Steve Nathan didn’t get the anointment memo and decided to challenge Assemblyman David Parks in the primary for Dina Titus’s old state Senate seat.
• John Hambrick, who was wise enough to get out of the chairmanship of the Clark County Republican Party, filed on the first day for Garn Mabey’s old Assembly seat.
• Plenty of incumbent Assembly members filed on Day 1, including Marilyn Kirkpatrick, Harvey Munford, Morse Arberry, Tick Segerblom, Joe Hogan, Ruben Kiuhen, Ellen Koivisto, John Oceguera, Kelvin Atkinson, Jerry Claborn, Dr. Joe Hardy, Bob Beers, Lynn Stewart, Mo Denis and Harry Mortenson.
• Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins signed up for office on the first day (we hope he parked in the right place this time!) and Las Vegas Councilman Larry Brown made it official: He wants to move offices to the Government Center.
• She may want the state Supreme Court to take her race off the ballot, but suspended District Court Judge Elizabeth Halverson nonetheless filed to fill the seat that she hasn’t been filling for the last few months.
• Family Court Judge Nick Del Vecchio isn’t letting a little thing like sexual harassment get him down; he filed, too.
• Here comes the judge? Mayoral son Eric Goodman is officially vying for Las Vegas Justice of the Peace in Department 11.
• Former judge, former attorney general candidate and PISTOL whipper Don Chairez is running again for state Supreme Court.
• Dean Heller, whom we established earlier today is a congressman, has filed to retain that seat.
• Oh, and in case you forgot, Southern Nevada blog readers, there is an entire state north of Ann Road! And in that part of the state, the dean of the state Senate, Bill Raggio, has filed for yet another term, thus ending the perennial speculation that he won’t run again.
• Also up north, Assembly incumbents David Bobzien, Ty Cobb, Jr., Sheila Leslie and Bernie Anderson filed for re-election.

Seems that even Iraq has got Manhattanization fever these days — what with a $5 billion plan to put a mixed-use development in the Green Zone. Chic stores! Hot nightlife! Urban living in a tension-fraught environment that could explode into violence at any second! The thinking, I guess, is that al Qaida members will be so busy noshing on truffle-bacon lettuce wraps at the new Thomas Keller restaurant they’ll forget to place that IED at the footbridge. Peace ensues! Apple Store gift cards for all!

Here’s a crazy idea: Spend $5 billion on chic, mixed-use, high-rise schools and see what happens to all that terror.

At first, we thought this whole “Internet” thing was just going to be a passing fad. But now, we’re starting to think there’s something to it. And as a result, we at CityLife have redesigned our website. Oh, you’ll still be able to find all your favorite features and stuff, including this blog. Let us know about problems, and we’ll pass them along to the kind folks at the Stephens Media Interactive, who worked tirelessly to bring you an all-new CityLife online.

Check out this photo of our own U.S. Rep. Jon Porter in the Las Vegas Sun today. It looks like he’s getting a divine call or something, which is kind of funny, since Porter could use a little divine intervention right now, having learned last week that he’ll face the feisty Dina Titus instead of that one prosecutor guy in November.

We’ll go with, “Are you there God? It’s me, Jon.” for now, but we know you readers can come up with something better. Submit ideas in the comments!

They’re small, yet entertaining, and always delicious. Here we go!

• U.S. Sen. John Ensign, who apparently is part Filipino, voted against an amendment to grant increased veterans benefits for Filipino veterans of World War II. How could he?  Filipino activists cry. Hey, people, Ensign is part human, too, and he votes against humans almost every day.
• Talk about your Screw Nevada bills. The Review-Journal’s Road Warrior (we call him “Beardy,”) reports that even if the feds ditch the gas tax, screwed Nevadans still get the bills. Guess we won’t be seeing that $37.76 after all.
• The Las Vegas Sun reports Dr. Dipak Desai may be fleeing the state, and in style, too! Somebody call the … oh, wait. Nevermind.
• Dean Heller says he’s “less and less interested” in running for governor, despite saying a year ago that he would eventually run for governor. Heller said it was his successes in Washington, D.C. that inspired him to change his mind, which we’re pretty sure means finally getting ranked higher than non-voting delegates on Washington’s power assessment. But since we weren’t totally sure, we did some research and discovered that, in fact, Dean Heller is a congressman from Northern Nevada.
• Let’s pretend the suggested reform of the 1872 Mining Law were in place today. Based upon the $4.2 billion worth of gold mined in Nevada alone, and calculating for a 4 percent royalty on existing mines, we’d be seeing about $168 million in taxes. But, Nevada’s congressional delegation is probably right: The industry probably couldn’t afford that. Could it?
• Somebody got her feelings hurt when renowned architecture critics said Vegas sucks, or something along those lines. Hey, planners: Sticks and stones may break our bones, but we see you dragged your elitist asses to town for your conference! Oh, yeah, you just got owned!
• Elect John McCain, lest we all end up speaking Arabic, R-J editor says. No, seriously, he said it.
• Terry Lanni for governor, Sun editor says. No, seriously, he said it. (Hey, how about this for a campaign slogan: “Eliminate the middleman!”?)
• OK, it’s officially a recession: The 99-cent shrimp cocktail just went up to $1.99. Next up: A pale horse, whose rider is Death, trotting down Fremont Street…

The state Ethics Commission finally released its advisory opinion in the matter of Steven D. Ross, Las Vegas Councilman by day and Southern Nevada Building Trades Council secretary-treasurer, also by day.

Here’s the line everybody seems to focus on: “If Ross serves as [Building Trades Council] secretary-treasurer while he also serves as a member of the [Las Vegas City] Council, such conduct does not, by itself, violate the Ethics in Government Law.” If Ross discloses his conflict and abstains from votes that would benefit Building Trades Council and its members, he’s legally fine, the commission concluded. And, the Review-Journal reported Saturday that Ross has not abstained from any vote in the past year.

But we choose to focus on a couple different lines in the opinion, which we think missed a great opportunity to tell public officials that they necessarily must choose between the public trust that is elected office and the personal gain to be found in the private sector.

For example, this line, from Page 2: “At all times pertinent to the subject matter of the hearing, Ross served as Las Vegas City Councilman for Ward 6. … Ross is seeking the elected, full-time position of secretary-treasurer of the Southern Nevada [Building Trades Council]. The annual salary for this position is $93,000.”

Got that? First, Ross got himself onto the Las Vegas Council. Then, he sought the job at the building trades council.

(Oh, and by the way, he’s bending the truth like saltwater taffy when he claims on the city’s official website that “Recently, Councilman Ross accepted a position as the Secretary-Treasurer of the Southern Nevada Building and Construction Trades Council,” [emphasis added]. He ran for the job, and only “accepted” it once he won that election.)

Now, the aforementioned Ethics in Government law starts off by saying: “A public office is a public trust and shall be held for the sole benefit of the people. A public officer or employee must commit himself to avoid conflicts between his private interests and those of the general public whom he serves.”

Got that? A public officer (that means somebody such as Ross) must avoid conflicts between his private interests and those of the general public.

What did Ross do? The exact opposite of that! He created — by seeking a private-sector job subsequent to his election to the council — a conflict of interest where one did not previously exist. This is precisely the reason we said long ago he should either quit his job on the council and run for the union post, or forgo the union post until he was finished with elected service.

It’s not that members of the ethics commission didn’t try to persuade Ross not to do it, either. “The commissioners shared the concern that Ross’s dual positions … would require him to serve two masters. This situation may significantly hamper his ability to represent the public that elected him to serve on the council,” the opinion says.

And again: “Although abstention [from votes when inevitable conflicts arise] may be a safe harbor, the commission cautions Ross that frequent abstention deprives his constituents of a voice in matters which come before the council.”

But still, despite being told by the Las Vegas city attorney and the ethics commission that he would be politically gelded by seeking an outside job that created conflicts that did not theretofore exist; despite being told in no uncertain terms that seeking an outside job would hamper his ability to represent his constituents (and thus exercise the public trust of elected service), Ross did it anyway.

Unfortunately, that level of disregard for the voters and public office itself is virtually bred into our system of part-time representation, when conflicts are inevitable.

So why single out Ross? Because while most people enter public office with the conflicts of their part-time job already established and known by the voters, Ross decided it would be a good idea to create more once he was already in office. And that level of disregard for the voters and public office itself is still a unique thing in Nevada.

Let’s hope Ross’s constituents have an opportunity to choose a less conflicted representative when he’s up for re-election next year. Because ultimately, the voters are the ones who have to police ethics.

1. I shot someone with an assault rifle for honking at me. Then I stole his Hummer and drove over his head.

2. I rode around on a motorcycle with a shirtless friend on steroids. Then I accidentally ran into a wall and he flew off and rammed his head into it, but, miraculously, he wasn’t mad at me. Then we went to a strip club.

3. I killed three managers of the strip club, one with a knife and much accompanying dramatic fanfare.

4. I honked at a car in front of me when the light turned green, then, inexplicably, my honking turned into spraying gunfire all over the street in an unprovoked orgy of madness and death.*

5. I drove a stolen Camaro up the stairs of a government building.

6. I rescued my kidnapped cousin from a warehouse full of thugs in leather jackets with the help of lots of indiscriminate shooting and liberal use of grenades.

7. Surprisingly unnoticed, I lied down at the edge of a basketball court in broad daylight with a sniper rifle, and shot one of the guys talking on the court.

8. I picked up a friend’s back pay by ramming his boss off the road and then shooting him with a shotgun.

9. Whenever I was injured, I ate chicken with magical healing properties at a fast-food restaurant called Cluckin’ Bell.

*It became evident a moment later I was pressing the wrong button.