Lawmakers were considering having those red-light cameras installed, which would catch people running red lights, take their picture and then a ticket would be sent to them via the mail.

The pilot program was struck down, but what do you think about it? Is this Big Brother or should safety come first? Would these have been safe? Love it or hate it?

It feels like we’re hearing every day about yet another pulled pet food product. What’s safe? What’s not? What are the signs of a pet in trouble? Please post any useful links you know about, helpful information you’ve come across, or just voice your fears or love for your pet. We want to hear from you.

There is a controversy brewing in Germany about whether Knut, a baby polar bear, should be allowed to live after he was abandoned by his mother. Ironically, the animal activists were the ones advocating the cub be killed, reasoning that he was better off dead than raised by humans. What do you think of their reasoning, and what do you think of Knut?

There’s more legal wrangling in a class action lawsuit against a local gun training facility. A judge has approved, at least preliminarily, the terms of another settlement. This is the second shot at reconciliation between the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Pahrump and the members suing it.
  What do you think?  Click here to read the story.

I know it’s hard to believe, but not everyone in Southern Nevada is excited about living in the 70s in November!  While the rest of the country is donning jackets, boasting their gorgeous fall colors – even digging out from an early snowfall – here we sit in the desert under the golden yellow sun, in our summer shorts and flip-flops, waiting for a leaf to drop. What’s wrong with that? 

So I was actually surprised when I received a "hate-mail" last week barking at me about our beautifully abnormal November!  Okay, "hate" is such a strong word – let’s call it "less-than-like" mail.  This viewer is more than ready to wear their snuggly fall sweaters and obviously Mother Nature is throwing a monkey wrench into his plans.  Since I praise the extra-pleasant afternoons, he decided to take it out on me.  That’s okay, I guess because afterall, I do front the customer service desk for the Weather Complaints department.  It comes with the territory.

We’ll call our viewer, "frantically-in-need-of-a-fall-fix, Fred."  I sort of feel Fred’s pain, but it soon melts away when I walk outside at the end of my day – around 1 p.m. – and feel that sun bathe my face with comfortable warmth.  I can almost forget that blistering ball of fire that fried my skin and heated up my car steering wheel to a toasty 125 degrees as recently as early September.  We need this short little season (which always feels like it only lasts a couple of weeks) to really enjoy our sublime sunshine, without having to run like roadrunners from shady spot to shady spot to escape the burn.  I really like walking barefoot leisurely around my patio, instead of hopping around like a jackrabbit dodging cars on the Summerlin Parkway during the summer.  And I sure has heck don’t want to be shoveling the deck yet like they are back in Minne-snowta already.  Relax.  We wait a long time to get these beautiful autumn afternoons.  But Fred is still not digging it. 

So what can we do to make Fred – and all the other autumn chill advocates out there like him – happy?  We’ll focus on the crisp mornings and the cool evenings.  Those are nice, too.  The temperatures really take a tumble after that sun goes down before 4:30.  I get a shiver in short sleeves by 6 p.m.  Gasp!  It’s almost too cool to wear my summer capris in the evenings now.  AND I even have to throw on a light-weight warm-up jacket on my commute to work at o’dark-thirty in the morning.  AND… AND I flicked on my heater once already last week when we dipped into the 30’s overnight!  There.  Isn’t that enough?  Trust me, as quickly as our bearable fall and spring seasons pop up, they just as quickly evaporate into our high desert marathons of hot and cold.    

So don’t hate me because I’m not ready to flip the switch on the fireplace just yet!  I want our best two-week season of the year to linger as long as possible.  So what if it’s a little above normal – it’s great!  Relax and rake some leaves, Fred.  I’ll be checking in with you in mid-January to see how weary you are from wearing that winter coat. 

Posted by Sherry Swensk

People wonder why we’re a society so obsessed about drugs — legal or illegal. They wonder why today’s youth think it’s OK. They think it’s OK, ’cause we’re a society obsessed by drugs. We get sick — take a pill. Turn on the TV, and inevitably we see drug ads. Kids don’t distinguish. We use the same word for legal and illegal subsances: Drugs.

I think the same goes for problems on our roads and highways. Police, and sane drivers everywhere want all the “rest” of the drivers to slow down, act sensibly, and drive courteously.

It won’t happen as long as we are in a society that promotes individual initiative, aggressiveness, and “me” above virtually all else that matters.

Police may be successful in forcing speeders to slow down, but it’s just a band-aid.

We as Americans didn’t get to be #1 by being “nice” (for the most part). As a collective consciousness globally we’re bullies, and we get our way…because we work hard, yes, but because we’re a culture of pugnacious, assertive, and self-centered individuals.

To really make drivers behave, they have to be considerate, caring, and sharing. Those are lovely words, and they apply to some of us some of the time…but not during a hectic, busy work day when the individual’s needs must be met in a dash to achieve more, have higher status, and if necessary — yes– walk (or drive) all over my neighbor on the road to get where I’M going while I’m on my way to the top!

Speed can be like a drug, actually. It literally raises the endorphins and other esoterically-named hormones that can change our normally calm demeanor into rage when we’re all sitting anonymously protected in our cans (cars).

Oh, and besides drugs, and a narcissistic love of self, our country is obsessed by the culture of cars too.

It doesn’t surprise me that the above combination leads to rude drivers being the #1 pet peeve in Las Vegas.

—–submitted by Dave Courvoisier