I was going to title this "Desperate Times" but decided it's not all about desperation.

Reading through today's Las Vegas newspaper, a few of the stories caught my eye.

A man has been charged with kidnapping and robbery in connection with a scam he came up with: "Authorities said that starting last month, Perez-Sanchez lured landlords or rental agents on five occasions to look at properties. Once there, he threatened them with a knife or what looked like a handgun but turned out to be a BB gun, and tied them up or locked them in rooms." He stole money, credit cards, cell phones, and jewelry. He got caught when his wife appeared on security footage at an ATM trying to withdraw cash with one of the stolen cards. It was a family affair: he sometimes took a small child with him when he was robbing people.

It would be a bad time to own a rental property in a place as recessed/depressed as Las Vegas.

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It's About Time
A committee in the Nevada Legislature has ruled that the state will not pay for lawmakers to travel on the taxpayer's dime between now and February 13 while the legislature is out of session. They are supposed to use teleconferencing for meetings instead of flocking up north to Carson City (by Reno) from Las Vegas down in the southern part of the state. They will still get paid $146 a day when they have those teleconferences, but at least there won't be travel expenses.

I wish more of the government agencies and lawmakers would take this stance. When the economy is rolling good they all fly first class, but now that Nevada has cut as much as possible from state funding to education and health care, they finally got down to this.

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Internet Poker
The Nevada Gaming Commission is promulgating new rules for the regulation of Internet poker so the state will be ready for the day, make that the moment, the Federal government legalizes it. Online gaming has been illegal in the United States, but many American citizens have made millions through sites headquartered in other countries. In April of this year, the feds shut down those sites. This put the American players in a bind because monies owed them (their winnings) were tied up in foreign countries. Some of those poker sites paid them, and some have yet to do so.

It's a matter of time before the United States legalizes online gambling, because they can regulate and tax it, reaping some income. Of course, money-strapped Nevada is looking forward to that. Give it a year or two and we'll be hearing hard-luck stories about folks running through all their money playing online. Of course, with Indian and local casinos dotted all over the country, they've had that opportunity all along. Online gambling will facilitate underage gambling, so look for some problems with that.

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Mortgage Rates Went Up
I was going to paste in the statistics, but here's a summary: the lowest mortgage rates since 1971 have not helped to revive the housing market because banks have tightened their lending requirements, worst housing market since 1963, houses have lost a third of their value, and so on.

It's not new news to most of us (if it is, wake up and smell the coffee), but it's confirmation that things are still bad, so save your money in your mattress. Mine is buried in Mason jars in the back yard. Gee, I hope we remembered to move the ones that were where the generator is now sitting.



Reason Not to Donate
From the Associated Press: "Americans eager to give after the 9/11 terrorist attacks poured $1.5 billion into hundreds of charities established to serve the victims, their families and their memories. But a decade later, an Associated Press investigation shows that many of those nonprofits have failed miserably. There are those that spent huge sums on themselves, those that cannot account for the money they received, those that have few results to show for their spending and those that have yet to file required income tax returns. Yet many of the charities continue to raise money in the name of Sept. 11."

This is why I donate my money to local organizations. My favorite is the Larimer County (where I live) Search and Rescue. For one thing, I might require their services some day.

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New Words in the Dictionary

The list is too long, and I have too many comments to put it here. Read it here..