Patrick R. Gibbons
Still free to make fun
Election time often brings out the worst in America with mudslinging, the spin doctoring and the dead rising up from the graves to vote each election year.
Sunburned by the facts
The Las Vegas Sun continues its assault on education budget cuts, this time claiming that the cuts will destroy our economy. Not so fast, Las Vegas Sun editorial board. Let's inject some facts into this debate.
The Las Vegas Sun has published several articles and op-eds, almost one a day over the last week and a half, lamenting our budget and educational fund
Just the facts
The Las Vegas Sun has published several articles and op-eds, almost one a day over the last week and a half, lamenting our budget and educational funding "crisis." Despite all these articles few real facts are actually offered.
Reality and Duty
Carson City Regent Ron Knecht has been engaged in a battle of words with Jim Rogers recently. Read what he has to say.
Defeating the unions
A recent Las Vegas Business Press article notes the growing strength of union membership in Nevada despite the national trend. Across the nation, unions have been greatly weakened thanks to global trade and market competition.
New taxes, same old tune
Reasons for more taxes fall flat.
Jon Ralston recently joined the chorus of politicians and pundits calling for a "restructuring" of Nevada's tax code, which, in plain language, means "raising taxes."
Read it and weep
Jim Rogers' column in the Las Vegas Sun criticizes Nevada for not taxing parents enough to adequately fund education. In his column, he equates Nevada's low per-pupil funding to child abuse and neglect. Mr. Rogers seems literally to believe that "under-funding" education is equivalent to leaving children naked and starving.
The high cost of renewable energy
The world's poor suffer most.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada), along with former President Bill Clinton and oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens converge on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas this week for the National Clean Energy Summit.
How much for a gallon of education?
Arguments for more education spending are out of gas.
When gas prices climbed over $4 a gallon earlier this summer, many Americans were outraged. Whether it is through government action or private solutions, citizens are demanding relief. But the rise in fuel prices over the last four decades pales in comparison to increases in per-pupil spending on public education in America. From 1961-2007, per-pupil spending increased by 293 percent after adjusting for inflation.
