Zound Bites

Michigan Democratic leaders announced they’ll hold their presidential caucus no later than Saturday, Feb. 9, 2008, and may go earlier if other states abuse national party rules.

Former Sen. John Edwards’s (D-N.C.) strong support of prohibiting gambling on college sports is seen as snake eyes for his chances in the Nevada presidential caucus. The Hill
After all, I think we should allow gambling on T-ball games in Nevada so six year olds can learn the real meaning of why we play games. Note that “Mr. Cleanface,” I mean Senator Harry Reid, of course endorses betting on college sports for the revenue it brings the casinos–and the casinos have always bet on Harry and haven’t lost yet. Maybe Nevada needs more than a one dimensional economy and a one dimensional Senator.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently learned that at one Clark County high school the algebra teacher has taken at least one week off for jury duty. With the teacher shortage in math, science, and special education, it seems absurd to take a (hopefully) qualified teacher out of the classroom for a week and replace that teacher with a substiture teacher, euphemistically called a “guest teacher” by Clark County school administrators, who often can’t spell algebra, let alone teach it.

Each day that the regular teacher is not in the classroom there are probably 125 or more students who aren’t getting the education they need. Seems to me a simple solution would be an exemption from jury duty–at least while the teacher’s school is in session.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While in Washington, D.C., for the National Governors Association Winter Meeting, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons announced details of his proposed legislation to improve the tracking and registration of sex offenders in Nevada. The legislation includes:

Global Positioning System (GPS) monitoring of tier 3 sex offenders, or those most likely to re-offend, on parole or probation;

A requirement for convicted sex offenders to register before they are released from prison;

And a requirement for out-of-state sex offenders to submit DNA samples when registering as sex offenders in Nevada.

Maybe we should require all our politicians and candidates to wear those GPS ankle bracelets also, so that we might have known where Governor, then U.S. Representative, Gibbons was in that parking garage on the night he allegedly assaulted the cocktail waitress. It certainly would have helped to keep track of all those Clark County Commissioners so we knew where they were when they were bribed or when questions of residency arose without subjecting them to expensive FBI or union funded surveillance.

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nevada Senate Bill 52 would expand the Millennium Scholarship by giving a near full ride to 100 University of Nevada, Reno students who major in math and science education and to 300 potential special education teachers studying at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

I wonder if there is a requred service attachment to the scholarship, because I can see recipients taking their credentials and heading off to a state with a more reasonable salary to cost of living–read housing costs–ratio. Also, does 400 scholarships address a 1,200 to 1,500 teacher shortage per year, high attrition rate among teachers, overcrowding, and the general dismal performance in Clark County alone?

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Hillary Clinton announced that former Nevada Attorney General, Frankie Sue Del Papa, will lead her northern Nevada steering committee.

Del Papa attended George Washington, graduating in 1974. She served as a staff assistant to U.S. Senator Alan Bible, a Nevada democrat, and then clerked for U.S. District Judge Bruce Thompson. After practicing law for 12 years, she was sworn in as Nevada’s first woman secretary of state. Four years later she became the state’s first female attorney general. Del Papa backed out of a 1998 bid for governor and also a 2000 bid for U.S. Senate.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, is pushing for a $15 million-per-year plan which should lower the number of uninsured Nevadans by 12,000 or about 3 percent.

AB168 would improve health care coverage for low-income pregnant women and children, while expanding a subsidy program for small businesses employees.

According to Michael Willden, director of the Department of Health and Human Services Nevada has an estimated 400,000 to 450,000 people without health insurance.

But other reports suggest that number is much higher. More than one out of three people (36.8 percent) in Nevada under the age of 65 went without health insurance for all or part of the two-year period from 2002-2003, according to the Census Bureau in its Current Population Survey published in Families Today, June 2004.

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Steve Wynn recently revealed that dealers at his Wynn Las Vegas hotel-casino make $100,000 annually. Poor Steve can’t retain floor supervisors because they only make $60,000 a year. A first year teacher with the Clark County School District makes $30,299 and a teacher with a doctoral degree and 13 years experience receives $59,141. Guess who wins?

The Pentagon has abandoned plans for its massive test explosion in the Nevada desert, which would have raised the dust with the first mushroom cloud near Las Vegas since a nuclear test in the 1960’s. No Big Boom?

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)