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March
3, 2006
Vol. 2, No. 4
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Also in
this issue:
NPRI Monorail Reporting
Resorts
used to launder
money, says government
Nevada
urbanization
drives building costs
Energy independence:
Disaster in the making
GM pays employees
not to work
Government
sector
pension mess worse
The 65 percent
toxic solution
Commentary:
Black flight
Embarrassing the angels
Too big to burst
Press loses people's trust
Executive power
on steroids |
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Recently
from NPRI:
The
larcenous LVCVA
The Las Vegas Convention Center should be sold
to the highest bidder
By Steven Miller
Around
1955, in the still-early days of the Mob in
Vegas, the guys running the joints realized that
business could be a lot better. What was needed
was some way to get more visitors to Southern
Nevada.
[continued]
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Education
Black flight
The
African-American exodus to charter schools
By Katherine Kersten
Opinion Journal
MINNEAPOLIS--Something momentous is
happening here in the home of prairie populism:
black flight. African-American families from the
poorest neighborhoods are rapidly abandoning the
district public schools, going to charter
schools, and taking advantage of open enrollment
at suburban public schools. Today, just around
half of students who live in the city attend its
district public schools.
[continued]
Airports
Embarrassing the angels
Or, that's
no way to treat a lady.
By Peggy Noonan
Opinion Journal
I want to revise
and extend my remarks, as
they say, from last week's column on airport
security. The reaction was great, but I have two
reasons to amend. The first is that I didn't
really get to the heart of what is for me most
offensive about airport security, and the second
is that that thing, the most offensive part,
connects to a larger, and I think more painful,
fact of our culture.
[continued]
The Fed
Too big
to burst
By
Peter Schiff
Euro
Pacific Capital
It is widely
believed that the Federal government has an
unofficial policy that some banks and other
financial institutions are simply too big to
fail. As a result, it is assumed that the
government will take any action necessary to
ensure that they do not. It now appears to me
that there is a similar doctrine in effect for
bubbles, in that some are simply too big to
burst.
[continued]
The media
Press
loses people's trust
By R. Emmett
Tyrrell Jr.
The New York Sun
So we
hear this week that President George W. Bush is taking
delight in the spread of the "alternative press" (read
conservatives on the internet, in talk radio, in print,
and at Fox) and the gentle detumescence of "mainstream
media" (read liberal media, or more precisely Democratic
media). Well I join him in his satisfaction.
[continued]
The presidency
Executive
power on steroids
By Richard A. Epstein
James Parker Hall Distinguished Service
Professor at the University of Chicago
President
Bush's domestic surveillance program against al Qaeda
has spawned multiple controversies. Intelligence
skeptics ask, for example, whether the potential gains
from snooping are worth the hassle. Civil libertarians
doubt whether the warrantless surveillance and wiretaps
can be squared with the Fourth Amendment.
[continued]
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WHY
BusinessNevada
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Public-private partnerships
Money-losing monorail
now offering free rides
Travel
web site users to get ticket vouchers to boost sagging
ridership
By Omar Sofradzija
Las Vegas Review-Journal
Customers of a
travel Web site will be plied with free Las Vegas
Monorail tickets as part of a new marketing partnership
with the struggling rapid transit line that will be
unveiled today.
Starting later this month, vegas.com will offer free
vouchers for one-way monorail trips to the roughly
10,000 people a day who buy travel products through that
site or other sites it runs, including lasvegas.com and
espanol.vegas.com.
[continued]
NPRI
Monorail reporting
In-depth articles on the Las Vegas Monorail project
by the Nevada Policy Research Institute, from the
beginning:
Stalking the Public Purse
From the start, the Las Vegas Monorail project
has been structured so that Nevada taxpayers will
end up paying the bills.
The Moolah Rail
How a scheme to shift costs of the Las Vegas
monorail away from sponsoring hotels and onto
taxpayers led to a hugely inflated project price tag
and fishy ridership numbers.
The Mass Transit Delusion
For rail mass transit to succeed in metropolitan
Las Vegas, says Wendell Cox, the internal combustion
engine would have had to never exist. "The problem,"
says the Illinois consultant. |
Casinos
Resorts used to launder money, says government
Rio, TI, Paris and
Caesars
mentioned in indictment
By David Mckee
Las Vegas Business Press
Major Strip properties are again being brushed by an Asian money-laundering scandal. A
quartet of casinos was used as a conduit for Chinese
racketeers to embezzle funds into the United States,
according to an indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's
office.
Four of the alleged embezzlers were arraigned two weeks ago. The
fifth, Kwong Wa Po, is currently at large.
[continued]
Growth
Nevada urbanization driving building costs
By Tony Illia
Nevada Business Journal
Nevada’s economy
and steady
job growth are attracting record numbers of new
residents, causing a rapid urbanization in the state’s
major cities. Developers and investors are now
fast-tracking projects in order to meet the demand for
services ranging from offices and homes, to shops and
restaurants. The state’s unprecedented development
activity has taxed its contractors and suppliers who are
struggling with industry-wide issues of a shrinking
labor pool and rising material prices.
In Las
Vegas, high-rise condominium projects are being canceled
due to higher-than-expected building costs.
[continued]
Energy
Energy independence:
Disaster in the making
It's been a rallying cry since the 1970s -- but it could
doom the economy, the environment and our position in
the world
By Justin Fox
Fortune Magazine
NEW YORK -
It may be
one of the most dangerous phrases in the English
language. It certainly is one of the most expensive. I
speak of "energy independence," a rallying cry since the
oil crisis of the 1970s and one that has been getting a
ton of ink (and pixels) lately, especially since
President Bush brought up the subject in his State of
the Union address.
[continued]
Idle Hands
GM pays employees not to work
By Jeffrey Mccracken
The Wall Street Journal
FLINT, Mich. -- In his 34 years working for
General Motors Corp., one of Jerry Mellon's toughest
assignments came this January. He spent a week in what
workers call the "rubber room."
The room is a windowless old storage shed for
engine parts. It is filled with long tables, Mr. Mellon
says, and has space for about 400 employees. They must
arrive at 6 a.m. each day and stay until 2:30 p.m., with
45 minutes off for lunch. A supervisor roams the aisles,
signing people out when they want to use the bathroom.
[continued]
This article will be available to non-subscribers of the
Online Journal for up to seven days after it is
e-mailed.
Unfunded liabilities
Government sector pension mess worse By Adam B. Summers
Budget & Tax News
While
private-sector pension terminations and freezes
are grabbing headlines, the situation is every bit as
grave for government pension systems.
Like many of the remaining traditional defined-benefit
pension plans in the private sector, government pension
plans are swimming in red ink.
As of January 25, 2006, the National Association of
State Retirement Administrators and National Council on
Teacher Retirement reported an aggregate unfunded
liability of nearly $296 billion for the 103 pension
systems and 127 total plans in their Public Fund Survey.
A 2004 analysis by Wilshire Associates put the unfunded
liability as high as $366 billion.
[continued]
Education
The 65
percent
toxic solution By Frederick M. Hess
Washington Times
A new fad,
called the "65 percent solution," is sweeping through
school-reform circles. Eager to answer the education
lobby's endless demands for more money, would-be
reformers have embraced the idea that school districts
should instead better focus existing dollars by spending
at least 65 percent of their budgets on classroom
expenditures. The idea has an initial, facile appeal.
But it deserves a second, more careful look.
[continued]
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