People of the Year

Oscar Goodman: Guilty but not intentionally derelict.
Kathy Augustine: Guilty, but she's suffered enough.
Janet Moncrief: We don't know yet if she's guilty, but if she is, we're almost certain someone will speak sternly to her about it, perhaps while making a mean face. And don't get us going on Fran Deane!

Of all the nutty things we'll remember about the year now in its last swirl down the bowl—from the dirty campaigning to the improbable rise of poker as a televised "sport"; from Community College-gate to worrisome mergers (MGM-Mirage and Mandalay Resorts; Harrah's and Caesars; Britney Spears and Jason Alexander)—here's most of what we'll take Andy Wangay from 2004: Scot-free is the new guilty.

Sure, the mayor helped his son's software business by hosting a Washington, D.C., party for it in his capacity as Las Vegas mayor, but his no-stick surface worked on the Nevada Ethics Commission, which concluded that he didn't intentionally cross ethical lines.

If you can credit Goodman's bottomless well of Teflon for getting him off the hook, you certainly can't say the same about Augustine. The portrait of the state controller that emerged in the coverage of her impeachment trial in December (for having her employees work on her campaign during office hours and with office equipment) was of a megalomaniacal bitch. No, the momentary reddening on her wrist seems to have been the result of compassion on the parts of some lawmakers trying her—"I can't think of a reason to remove [Augustine] from office," state Sen. Bob Coffin said. "I can't even think of a reason to censure." You know, aside from those violations of the law and all.

It's too early to say whether Moncrief will be another beneficiary of justice's catch-and-release program in Nevada, now that she's been indicted for campaign-funding violations. But the example of Fran Deane—the scandal-plagued county recorder who began the year as the subject of a scathing audit and yet remains in office—doesn't fill us with hope. Then again, Moncrief's fate isn't entirely up to government types—she'll face voters in a recall election. (Never mind that voters put her in office in the first place.)

The Killers—a mid-year radio staple with "Somebody Told Me," from the big selling album Hot Fuss—are routinely described as being from Las Vegas, but are, in fact, wary about the town. "Our crowd has never been that great in Las Vegas," singer Brandon Flowers told the R-J. "You know how the kids are there." Um, no, Brandon, how are kids here? "A lot of [Vegas kids go to Killers shows] just to basically set their minds straight that we're not worth what's happening, you know?"

Poor Matt Dusk. The Golden Nugget Lounge singer was caught on reality-TV videotape being petulant about local legend Lorraine Hunt sitting in on his act—"cheesy karaoke," he called it on The Casino. Not long after the episode aired in June, he was gone from The Casino and the casino.

More famously gone was Linda Ronstadt, 86'd from the Aladdin in July after riling her audience with pro-Michael Moore comments. If the resulting freedom-of-speech "debate" was mostly boring, it at least gave the R-J editorial page a chance to unwrap the phrase "high dudgeon," a touch we always appreciate.

She was aghast at the sexy effrontery of Hard Rock advertisements as she mini-vanned her children around town, put off by the task of shielding young eyes from a more than life-size helping of shank of hottie—in at least one memorable case, Mom couldn't eat dinner after one such drive. But, while pushing debate on the issue—which put the Hard Rock in front of testy gaming regulators—she frequently prefaced her remarks by claiming not to be a prude. rather, she was only thinking of the children.

Thanks for stopping by, guys, making us feel—finally! momentarily!—important.

Are you the owner of a pro team with dwindling attendance figures or a stadium-funding initiative about to fail? That knock on your skybox door is Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, showgirls and Elvis imitator in tow. He will extol the virtues of Las Vegas as a home for your team, point to the virgin potential of the 61 downtown acres just waiting for a stadium. He tried with the Montreal Expos earlier this year (they went to Washington, D.C., instead) and this winter made the rounds of baseball meetings. The mayor will show you a recent Sports Illustrated article heralding pro sports' thAndy Wang toward gambling and predicting that Vegas would site a pro team within 10 years. But if you are a sports executive, what Elvis won't tell you is this: Your boys had better win more than than they did in wherever you're leaving, because this town has no soft spot for lovable losers.

After spending several weeks here, in June the New York Times uncorked a six-day series about life in Las Vegas that managed the neat trick of seeming to move beyond surface impressions of Sin City while still confirming all the East Coast's preconceptions about it. Then, in July, Time dispatched jokey feature writer Joel Stein here to alert the nation that Las Vegas is sexy again. Back in April, Travel + Leisure broke the stunning news that Las Vegas is no longer family friendly, and scooped the Times with its portrayals of hardened showgirls and guys on the make.

It seemed hardly a day went by that someone, somewhere, wasn't advancing their agenda by thrusting underachieving students into the spotlight. Two constitutional amendments were put on the November ballot to try to address their plight.