Las Vegas Sun

That’s how police union lobbyist Dave Kallas summed up the effort by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce to bring government salaries and benefits in line with the private sector. Studies by the Chamber reveal Nevada’s average government worker makes $47,450 a year while a private sector employee is paid an average of $37,040 a year, and the state’s public retirement benefits rank among the most generous in the nation. Nevada, it should be noted, also employs fewer government workers per capita than other states.

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Desegregation arrived in Las Vegas shortly after my birth. A protest march planned for the spring of 1960 on the Las Vegas Strip threatened to shine a harsh spotlight on the fledgling Entertainment Capital of the World. Hank Greenspun brokered a deal that derailed the march and heralded desegregation. The Las Vegas of my youth, at least on my side of the tracks, was colorblind.

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Like other journalists I was skeptical when Media Mogul Rogers decided to become Chancellor Rogers. Would he preach from the bully pulpit of Channel 3 and its sister stations? Admittedly, as a loyal Channel 8 news viewer, my perception of Channel 3 news comes more from the promos I see during prime time than from actual newscasts. With the exception of a few Channel 3 specials on the plight of education (that looked tailor-made for the boss) Rogers seems more inclined to spread the gospel from the set of Face to Face than from his own programs.

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What’s the point of taking great care to elect judges if lawmakers, in an attempt to pander to shell-shocked voters, tie the hands of the judiciary with laws that rob the bench of its discretion? That was the case during the tough-on-crime, truth-in-sentencing days of the ‘90s. Empowered by catchy mantras like “adult time for adult crime,” legislatures throughout the country passed laws requiring blanket treatment of juveniles charged with certain violent offenses.

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Sixteen-year-old Michael Mosley, in juvenile detention since his arrest more than a week ago at the scene of the accident that killed 15-year-old Olivia Hyten, will be released on house arrest pending the completion of the investigation. Asked by Judge William Voy where the child will be residing, Judge Donald Mosley stated that he and the boy’s mother Terry Mosley share 50/50 custody.

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Judge Donald Mosley, in an interview with my Channel 8 colleague Jonathan Humbert, essentially admitted he is powerless to control his 16-year-old son Michael. Michael was arrested at the scene of the fatal crash that killed 15-year-old Olivia Hyten. Henderson police say Michael was not cited in connection with the accident but rather for DUI.

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The next time you get pulled over by the cops, chances are they’ll run your name through a computer system called SCOPE. It’s a record of your personal information - birthdate, social security number, criminal history - and it’s confidential, available to only a few select agencies. So why would members of the Metropolitan Police Department, the people we depend on to fight crime, take risks that may actually perpetuate identity theft?

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Judge Donald Mosley says his 16-year-old son Michael will not run from whatever responsibility he may have in a crash that killed 15-year-old Olivia Hyten. But Judge Mosley’s statements at his son’s arraignment raise the question of whether the judge is running from his responsibility for allowing his son to drive, despite a restriction allowing the teen only drive to and from school.

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Anya Shapiro Duke is a survivor. She escaped her native Russia on foot during the Nazi invasion but she never thought the real fight of her life would consume what should be her golden years.

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TV ads for Judge Donald Mosley portray the longest-serving jurist on the bench in Nevada as a no-nonsense, tough-on-crime kind of guy. But Mosley’s critics contend the judge sometimes behaves as if he’s above the law.

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O.K. Technically it was the Republican National Committee that did the big spending at Saks and Neimans, but Sarah Palin could have said no.

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It only took me a few election cycles producing Face to Face to realize that many political candidates are woefully unprepared for the office to which they aspire. Even worse, there are some who put their name on the ballot and then disappear, refusing to address the very citizens they ...

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The woman who brought her suspicions about collusion on her homeowners association board to the attention of the FBI says she didn’t get far. Wanda Murray tells Jon on tonight’s program that the feds deemed the issue a civil matter and had no interest. Ditto for the District Attorney, where Murray says she and her neighbors failed to get past the secretary.

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My long absence from this space can be attributed to the most Herculean of tasks - coordinating the schedules of candidates we’d like to see debate on Face to Face. And now, the fruits of my labor:

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Governor Jim Gibbons says he has an apology coming, now that a two-member panel of the Ethics Commission found no evidence to compel a full hearing into charges Gibbons used his office to gain a tax break. At a news conference following the hearing, Gibbons said it’s the obligation of we scoundrels in the media to tell how what he called the Democratic party’s politically motivated complaint fell flat. But as former Elko assessor Joe Aguirre confirms tonight on Face to Face, the person who outed Gibbons’ tax break to the media was a Republican County Commissioner in Elko named Sheri Eklund-Brown. Gibbons seemed genuinely surprised when I asked him at the news conference about the treason within his party. My efforts to reach Eklund-Brown for an interview fell as flat as the Democrat’s complaint.

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