Nevada casinos busted out some big gaming-win numbers for 2004, breaking the $10 billion barrier for the first time. They might want to bank that money while they've still got it. If a 30 percent gaming-only excise tax (part of the national sales tax backed by President Bush and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert) were law today, the federal government would scoop $4.8 billion right off the top of Nevada gaming's $10.6 billion haul. The bill, introduced in the last Congress as HR.25, continues to accrue sponsors, having well passed the 60 mark by now.
In case the casino industry hasn't figured out that it gave the GOP the gold mine and got the shaft, the fate of Rep. Jon Porter ought to provide a clue. The latter was hoping that two years of dog-like devotion to the Tom DeLay agenda would land him a seat on the House Ways & Means Committee. However, instead of the anticipated pat on the head, Porter got the back of the hand, seeing the plum assignment go to Rep. John Linder (R-GA), author of the gaming excise tax. The message from House Republicans to the casino industry? Thanks for the campaign swag and don't let the doorknob hit you in the butt on the way out.
To: The 44 percent of teens who think the First Amendment grants journalists too much freedom.
Re: Jane Ann Morrison's February 14 Review-Journal column on kissing. (Sample: "... one boy gave me the gentlest, sweetest, loin-stirring kiss on my lips.")
Message: Kids, you may have a point.
Desperate to see Mr. I-Write-the-Songs-that-Make-the-Whole-World-Sing succeed in his new Vegas show, we here at the Weekly strongly suggest the Las Vegas Hilton stock up on what appears to be Mr. Oh-Mandy-You-Came-and-You-Gave-Without-Taking's preferred dairy snack. In an interview with Newsweek, Mr. It's-a-Miracle-a-True-Blue-Spectacle-a-Miracle-Come-True confesses amazement at his career longevity. "I shouldn't be talking to Newsweek right now, I should be playing a Chuck E. Cheese in Covina," says Mr. Could-Ya-Maybe-Gimme-Something-'Cause-the-Feelin'-Is-Gone-and-I-Must-Get-It-Back-Right-Away, who later adds: "I've always walked this fine line between having respect and being cheese. I worried that playing Vegas could push me over into the vat of cheese. But I will not allow it, I promise you that."
What's your pleasure—Swiss? American? Cheddar? Name your cheese, Mr. Rico-Went-a-Bit-Too-Far-Tony-Sailed-Across-the-Bar-and-then-the-Punches-Flew-and-Chairs-Were-Smashed-in-Two-There-Was-Blood-and-a-Single-Gunshot-but-Just-Who-Shot-Who?
They need to know. At the Hilton. Las Vegas Hilton. ...
Martin Stein: I missed it.
Josh Bell: I avoid the Grammys like the plague.
Scott Dickensheets: Grammys?
Chuck Twardy takes off on a new feature of the airport: Southbound Maryland Parkway cruisers have followed the construction of a curious landmark beyond its T at Russell Road—first a couple of pylons, then the superstructure atop them, and finally the crown-like enclosure. McCarran International Airport's new east ramp control tower—for managing airplane traffic on the ground—is part of its $49.9 million D-Gate expansion project, designed by Tate Snyder Kimsey and slated to open early second quarter. The 160-foot tower complements the terminal's latter-day deco motif, but it has a retro-futuristic appeal—a 1950s vision, perhaps, of a Dairy Queen for those flying cars we should have. But then who'd need an airport?
Some guys have all the luck—and then some. Take Bobby Flay, mastermind of Mesa Grill at Caesars Palace. Not only does he have four shows on the Food Network alone, two guest gigs on CBS—and, as of next Sunday, the hand in marriage of soignée actress Stephanie March, best known as ADA Alexandra Cabot, late of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Flay's sheer ubiquity, in-your-face persona and his impending nuptials (his bachelor party was held here a fortnight ago) have all earned him the nom de Net of "Asshat" ... particularly among March's sizable and vociferous lesbian fan base.
Barring any tragic cooking accidents, March will make an honest man of Flay, forcing sufferers of so-called "March Madness" to console themselves with Kleenex and March's one-shot return to SVU in Tuesday night's "Ghost." No doubt the TiVo will be primed to capture further hints of subtextual sapphism between March's Cabot and Mariska Hargitay's Det. Olivia Benson, the slyest romance on network television.
A local radio newscaster announced that playwright Arthur Miller had died of "congenial heart failure."
The Nevada Policy Research Institute takes the Weekly to task in a recent editorial for our article about Wal-Mart, "Big Box O' Poverty" (December 30, 2004). The NPRI, a nonprofit organization "working to defend human liberty, limited government and property rights," sums up its response to our writer's examination of Wal-Mart's low wages thusly: "Wal-Mart serves the nation's consumers, rich and poor, well. Left-wing union shills and professional Wal-Mart haters need to get a life."
Author of the editorial, Doug French, executive vice president of "a Southern Nevada bank," calls the Weekly's take on Wal-Mart "Wal-Martxism."
But calling for Wal-Mart to pay its workers wages that allow them to shop somewhere other than Wal-Mart is hardly Marxism. Writer Lisa Featherstone pointed out that the company told its underpaid workers how to apply for government aid, thereby asking taxpayers to support their business. That's a practice that one would think an organization devoted to defending liberty and limiting government would oppose.