My thoughts and prayers go out to the family of the woman killed in this senseless tragedy.

We obviously don't know all the details, but if it turns out to be as bad as it appears, I challenge the courts in Las Vegas to send a message to all the idiots out there. Lock this felon up and throw away the key. No chance for parole. Quit letting people off easy when they permanently negligently alter other peoples lives.

Oscar Goodman, I challenge you too. Put the development plans you're so worried about on hold and get on to something serious. Get more law enforcement out on the streets. No offense meant to the boys in blue around the valley, but law enforcement around here is a joke. I'm sure it's a matter of budget. But something needs to be done from a preventive standpoint. All it seems the understaffed agencies around here can do is clean up the aftermath and not stop it in the first place. If officers were patrolling and saw half the crap I see on the roads and interstate around here, you wouldn't need to worry about a budget shortfall... you'd have plenty of money coming in. It's time to protect the valley's citizens from stupid drivers.

106th fatality folks. Doesn't that seem too high? I'm sure some of those were just plain accidents that there's really nothing you can do about. But how many are stupid crashes and not accidents at all? Seems to me there should be much more outrage than there is.

(This comment was removed by the site staff.)

I don't think this qualifies as news anymore. May as well save the two sentences until the local economy actually turns around or falls off the map.

Stevem.... right on the head:

"it's like the smart people came in, made money, and split."

Exactly. You know the people still hanging around at the end of a party when the lights come up? Sad to say, but I think the lights are starting to come up on Vegas' party...

I'm not going to comment on the political issues touched on by some of the other posters. Partly because they're sour milk, partly because they're right on and I have nothing to add, but mostly because I don't understand alot of it. My grandmother used to blame Reagan for her apartment being so cold. Alot of these comments seem to use the same logic.

I lived in Vegas for one year, and left a few weeks ago to get back to the east coast. Crappy weather, but steadier income. In that year I paid alot of attention to what was going on in the valley, and as steamed as some of you are at the politicos, I think the bigger issues are being missed.

Las Vegas has, and always will be, a recreation destination. There are no factories or major technology companies here. It's predominantly the gaming business, or services that cater to the people in the gaming business. There is no "substance" here to hang your hat on. There's not alot of white collar professions here, so the dynamics of the local economy are pretty different from most of the rest of the country. It's a pretty clear case of all the financial eggs of the valley being in one industry basket, and as that industry goes, so goes the valley. And that industry is very susceptible to the financial state of the rest of the world. Probably more so than most industries, which makes the underlying surprise around here even more astounding. It didn't take a rocket-surgeon to see this speedbump coming.

The people in power around here did two things that are coming back to haunt this town. They strained the ability of the middle-class consumer to vacation here, and they continued building and expanding like there was no possibility of it changing. Both recipes for eventual disaster by themselves, but combined they will really hit the valley here swift and hard. If people don't feel like getting on a plane and flying 4 or 5 hours, it really impacts the valley. And if people have other places they can go to get away that are alot closer and do alot of the same things that they can do in Vegas only significantly cheaper, well... the consumer will teach Vegas a real ugly lesson about who needs who more.

Say what you want about politics in Vegas... if people can't afford to, or don't want to, get here, it doesn't matter who's in charge here. All the important numbers will go down.

It sure seems to me like just a big nasty case of supply and demand... no matter who you voted for.