The various efforts to fix the real estate market have become an
alphabet-soup of federal aid and programs. Just this week, the Obama
administration announced new incentives to speed up so-called short sales -
the selling of houses in depressed markets at the current price rather than
waiting for home prices to improve. So who's eligible for the new program?
Who's eligible for other programs? And how do they all work? And the big
question - will any of it work to fix up the real estate market. We talk
with local HUD chief Ken Lobene, a short-sale realtor and a legal aid
attorney who's worked on foreclosure issues.
We meet Judson Phillips the convener of the Tea Party Nation. The group, which recently had its first convention in Ashville, is planning to hold its second meeting in Las Vegas in July.
That's right, medical marijuana has gone from being a cottage industry to be
a fully-fledged corporate industry. The national company is offering
franchises to local entrepreneurs who want to get into the medical marijuana
business.
The United States has only 5% of the world's population but it uses
60% of the world's drugs. That number alone is enough to suggest that
we have no chance of winning the war on drugs or so argues Dr.
UNLV students, faculty and administrators turned to a traditional technique
yesterday to protest their anger at planned cuts of 10 percent or more to
Nevada's higher education budget. Ryan Wallis gathered this audio postcard
of the days speeches and action.
Conservatism has always won its victories from bitter defeats, argues author
Sam Tanenhaus. So will the 2008 election be such another election or have
conservatives already begun a resurgence.
MGM Mirage has announced plans to sell its interest in the Borgata - the
newest hotel in Atlantic City. It is doing so because New Jersey Gaming
regulators have declared the company's Macau partner Pansy Ho an unsuitable
person to be working with a licensee.
The Smithsonian Institution is planning to open the National Museum of
African-American History and Culture in 2015. The still-to-be built museum
already has a director who is lecturing at UNLV on Monday night.
The six piece future-jazz, afrobeat ensemble NOMO brings their driving danceable music to the Aruba Hotel Showroom, Saturday February 6. We talk with NOMO leader, multi-instrumentalist (and van driver) Elliot Bergman about the band's creation process.
The Utah Shakespearean Festival will be presenting public performances of
Shakespeare's classic tale of the battle between the sexes. This new
production has been touring schools throughout the West and has been given a
"Wild West " theme.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority recently lost a major decision in the
Nevada Supreme Court when the court invalidated all the claims the authority
had made on rural water dating back more than two decades. We recently spoke
with the attorney who won the case for the rural Nevadans.
There's a push on to name a significant landmark after the 40th President.
Nevada currently has no such landmark but supporters hope to achieve success
before Reagan's 100th birthday.
UNLV has just hired Jim Livengood to try and revamp the Athletic Department.
He talks about his plans for UNLV's teams and what it will take to get a
winning season in football and even make it to the Final Four.
The rate of teen pregnancy is again on the rise. After the great debate
about whether abstinence or contraceptive education was more successful, it
appears that neither is very effective.
The university regents and higher education stakeholders met most of Tuesday
to hash out possible cuts to the system because of the state's deteriorating
budget situation. Opinion was unanimous that the cuts will spell disaster.
It looks as if the Obama Administration is set to shut down Yucca Mountain.
Is this the end? Will there be any other use for the repository? And how
will the administration square the end of the waste repository with its
promise to build more nuclear power plants? We discuss those issues with
experts and industry players.
Author Timothy O'Grady left the United States in 1973 and he's lived in
Europe pretty much ever since. He recently returned to travel across the country and reconnect with the United States.
Cancer seems to strike all manner of people without discrimination. But
recent research shows that race and class play a big role in who gets proper
screenings and how well they survive if cancer does strike.
