J. Patrick Coolican

Story Archive

The potential for prosperity in Las Vegas

Sure the city has its share of challenges, but two D.C. think tank guys see possibilities

Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009

Things are bad in Las Vegas, but there’s hope if you look in the right places. That’s the assessment of Brookings Institution urban policy scholars Mark Muro and Robert Lang, who delivered a state-of-the-city lecture Tuesday at UNLV.

Mesquite: Feeling pain from Vegas, getting down to business

Hit hard by casino closing, border town looks to sports for economic revival

Sunday, Aug. 23, 2009

The parking lot of the Oasis Resort Hotel & Casino is empty, heat blasting off it, mocking the name of the now shuttered hotel. The go-cart track is silent and the pool closed, its deck chairs stacked, giving the place the feel of a wintry Rust Belt amusement park. For small communities in Southern Nevada like this town on the Arizona border, the troubles in Las Vegas are a contagion.

Recovery in Vegas? Not so fast

Growth, tourism — our economic pillars — show no sign of rebound, keeping upturn at bay, experts say

Sunday, Aug. 2, 2009

Las Vegas will take much longer than the rest of the country to emerge from the recession, several local economists said. And once it does, without major changes, expect flat or slow population growth, higher-than-average unemployment and slow wage growth.

Thieves, drunks and lawyers are why your rates are so high

Nevadans have more accidents, file more lawsuits and have the ninth highest premiums in the U.S.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Nevadans are burdened with some of the highest auto insurance premiums in the country, according to a Sun analysis. The state’s residents spent a bit more than $1,000 per year, per vehicle, in 2006, the most recent year for which statistics are available.

On home defect legislation, lobbyists went to the wire

Some say there’s reason to believe a compromise can be achieved in 2011

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The construction industry had just captured a huge victory, pushing legislation through the state Senate that would limit the ability of homeowners to win settlements against developers for construction defects. Builders needed only a victory in the Assembly to save themselves millions in settlements and legal fees. Their lobbyists, gathered in the hallway of the state’s 1970s-era concrete slab of a Legislative Building on April 16, were ecstatic over the Senate vote.

How we did: A look back at the session

Taxes and budget a big accomplishment, yet Legislature's great failure as well

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The legislative session was impossible. Lawmakers had no choice but to cut services and increase taxes, or see state services, especially education, all but shut down. The Las Vegas Sun reviews their actions on the budget, K-12 education, energy, health care, education policy, human rights, foreclosures, worker safety, F Street, the environment and public employees salaries and benefits. Legislators came in facing the largest deficit, as a proportion of the budget, in the nation.

Home defect law divides Democrats

Bill to pare homeowner lawsuits hasn’t received Assembly green light

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Democrats are locked in an increasingly acrimonious battle over construction defect legislation, which has emerged as one of the most contentious issues this session.

Lawmakers’ huddle with business a step toward tax hike

Sunday, April 26, 2009

A meeting of legislative leaders of both parties and a few members of the business elite last week seemed to confirm, at least in part, the wisdom of the Democrats’ strategy for selling a plan a to fix the budget mess.

Redevelopment staff had role in independent study

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Correspondence, obtained by the Las Vegas Sun through an open records request, reveals a tight relationship between city staff and Applied Analysis as the firm worked on the study.

Senator: You break roads, you buy ’em

With Democrats in power, tax mostly on truckers on the table

Thursday, April 9, 2009

During the 2007 Legislature, state Sen. Bob Coffin stood in the well of the upper chamber and made a memorable speech condemning the Senate for not taxing the trucking industry to build and fix roads.

How did so many experts get their forecasts so wrong?

Difficulty, missed signs and lingering boom-time euphoria all contributed to inaccurate predictions

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Many in Nevada’s relatively small ranks of economic analysts saw conditions as much sunnier than they were, including a prominent economic forecaster, a leading UNLV economist and gaming industry analysts.

Foes under defects law unite to push for its change

Builders, subcontractors agree assured plaintiffs’ attorneys fees spur suits against them

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Another day, another construction defect notice. That’s the routine for Jack Ramsay, a founding partner and vice president of Sierra Air Conditioning, which installs AC units in new homes.

The definition of torture

UNLV colleagues of man who advised Bush on interrogation techniques agonize as they try to reconcile that work with the legal scholar they knew

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Jay S. Bybee, now a judge on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, is described as a gentle soul. So how could he sign his name to a legal document that seemed to sanction the use of torture?

This time, Clark County tops state list for road projects

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Clark County will receive a majority of transportation stimulus spending under a list of proposed projects the state Transportation Board will consider today.

Room tax hike: Sun’s winners and losers

How battle over 3-point increase shakes out

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

The state Senate passed a 3 percentage point increase in the hotel room tax Tuesday, which current projections show will raise about $230 million, making it one of the largest tax increases in Nevada history.

Sponsor of bill is also a beneficiary: Ho hum

Conflict in lawmaker’s light rail proposal not unusual in Nevada

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Sen. Mike Schneider, chairman of the committee on energy, transportation and infrastructure, has proposed a bill to begin the process of bringing light rail to Southern Nevada. But Schneider, who will hear testimony on the bill today, has more at stake than just sound long-term public policy.

A little late, foreclosure crisis addressed

Monday, March 2, 2009

There’s often a horse-out-of-the-barn quality to the work of Nevada’s Legislature, as it is often forced to react to problems months or even years after the original effects are felt.

How we'll live post-sprawl

End of construction boom will reshape valley in ways good and bad

Monday, March 2, 2009

The disco days are dead, that much is certain. No more brokers driving Mercedes, no more crane skyline, no more developments popping up around the desert like toast from a toaster. Construction and real estate, Southern Nevada’s second most important industry, have crashed, and there likely will be little building here for several years. Start with the bad: All those half-empty neighborhoods on the edge of town become exurban ghettoes. These neighborhoods share the worst aspects of suburban life.

Legislature pressed into action on ‘revenue enhancement’

Lawmakers face deadline to hike room tax in this session

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009

Nevada seems poised to enact its first significant tax increase since 2003, with the Assembly likely to approve a 3 percentage point hotel room tax increase today.

Trapped by lawsuits, subcontractors seek relief

Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009

In the fourth quarter alone, Pete King Nevada Corporation received 110 notices of alleged construction defect. The company, like other subcontractors, is a victim of the state’s system for dealing with defects.

Reid: $700 billion bailout not working

Reid speaks at first hearing of congressional oversight board looking in Las Vegas

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008

At a hearing this morning in Las Vegas, one of the cities hit hardest by foreclosures, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told a congressionally appointed oversight panel that the $700 billion Wall Street bailout program is not working.

Opposition to room tax hike building

MGM Mirage, Sands want county to keep issue off the fall ballot

Thursday, June 12, 2008

MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands, two of the state’s biggest private employers, are lobbying the Clark County Commission to keep an advisory measure about raising hotel room taxes for education spending off the November ballot, a county official said.

Obama targets home issues in Vegas visit

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Barack Obama returned to Las Vegas on Tuesday to shore up his weaknesses in Nevada, which is in the heart of a must-win region if he is to take the presidency in November. The freshman senator from Illinois lost the state’s Democratic caucus in January by 6 percentage points.

Mischief-making blockers are signature gatherers’ bane

They holler to dissuade potential backers of teachers union petition

Monday, May 5, 2008

Russ Stevens walks out of the North Las Vegas DMV office and is approached by a woman asking him to sign a petition in favor of raising casino taxes to benefit teachers and schools.

Beers takes center stage

Republican Senator a pivotal character in gaming’s direction of election

Sunday, April 20, 2008

A lobbyist with close ties to the Strip doesn’t mean to be arrogant, and indeed, he isn’t. But his description of the calculations on the Strip heading into the 2008 election, and his gaming out of the possibilities, sounded like a TV director musing about the arrangement of actors on the set, the timing of the comic lines, the timing and pitch of audience laugh track.

State, U.S. preparing loan fraud crackdown

Task force is planned to tackle major factor in foreclosures

Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008

The FBI and the IRS are teaming up with Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, state regulators and Metro Police to tackle a surge in mortgage fraud that is overwhelming Nevada authorities. The announcement of a task force is expected early next month.

Economists: Casinos would shrug off tax hike

Sunday, Oct. 14, 2007

When the state teachers union announced it wants voters to approve a 3 percentage point increase in the gaming tax, MGM Mirage Chief Executive Terry Lanni offered a stark warning: "It would drive investment out of Nevada."

In a bold move, teachers reach for gaming's pockets

Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2007

So now the moment of reckoning has arrived. For years, the political warning signs have been building for Las Vegas Strip casinos: a smaller slice of the population working on casino floors; a fast-growing city lagging in education, health care and transportation systems; and a steady stream of news about record casino profits, stock prices and executive pay.

In time, someone was going to take on the Strip, and the Nevada State Education Association, 28,000 strong, is steeling itself for the fight in 2008.