Advocates on both sides of the gun control debate are fired up after a new report shows Nevada isn’t doing enough to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.

The National Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence just released its annual scorecard. It ranks states by how effective their existing laws are in curbing gun violence and illegal gun trafficking.

“Gun control doesn’t control criminals. We need to control criminals,” said gun store owner Bob Irwin.

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That figure is about 900,000 higher than 2006, but was still not enough to get the Las Vegas Monorail Co. into the black, according to a story today published by the Associated Press. With 22,000 riders a day during the last three months of the year, the monorail generated about $77,000 per day - however, the system needs 34,000 riders and $123,000 a day to break even.

- Check out past stories on the Las Vegas monorail

That was the number, as reported by Nevada Democratic Party after Saturday’s caucus. It is estimated that the total turnout was about 150,000 people.

A year-end look at the housing market in and around Las Vegas is telling property owners what many already knew.

Home Builders Research says new home sales were down more than 45 percent for the year, compared with the boom in 2006. Existing home sales were just as weak. They were down almost 41 percent.

Northern Nevada home builders are cutting jobs and inventory to survive the coming year and slumping housing market. Perry DiLoreto, a Damonte Ranch developer in south Reno, said he is not building a single house and is waiting until buyers are more confident about their jobs and housing prices and are ready to buy.

Nationwide, home construction starts in 2007 dropped 24.8 percent, the largest decline in 27 years.

- From the Associated Press

Nevada has received a “D+” from an annual report that grades education in every state.

The Quality Counts 2008 report is put together by Education Weekly. It takes an in-depth look at strategies states can use to maximize the full potential of their teachers.

Click here to read the report.

The national average grade was a C.

The average price of a single family home fell 4.9 percent from $273,000 in November and is 15.1 percent off the mark from December 2006, according the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors.

The big drop seems to be related to sales of foreclosed homes or short sales. From the assocation’s press release:

“GLVAR President Patty Kelley said December is traditionally a slow month for home sales, mostly due to the holiday season. She said December’s GLVAR statistics may not, however, be a true reflection of the marketplace due to the high number of local homes that are vacant and owned by investors, banks and other lenders, who sold last month at deeply discounted prices to get the properties off their 2007 books.”

Read the entire press release after the jump.

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Of the estimated 300,000 revelers that made Las Vegas their destination for New Year’s, Las Vegas Metro police reports that only 79 were arrested, compared to 145 arrests last year.

It seems that people took more care on the streets as well, as traffic accidents fell from 98 last year to 36 this year.