The other shoe has yet to drop on Nevada’s transportation funding. The compromise between Gov. Jim Gibbons and the Legislature is barely more than a down payment on what’s needed here in Southern Nevada. And if anyone thought that public-private partnerships were the answer, they should probably think again. An unusual combination of the trucking industry [...]

Already the Europeans are running a brisk trade in carbon off-sets, reports NPR, although there is little or no verification that the acts of penance are actually carried out as promised. There is a booming business there in brokerages that manage the deals to allow some pollution here if there is an equivalent green act or investment [...]

If life weren’t hard enough right now for Realtors with the housing slump and rising interest rates, the New York Times reports that yet another study by economists casts doubt on the role Realtors play in residential sales. This time, two economists at Northwestern University say that a comparison of Realtor-sales with those that were done via a Website that [...]

Cemex’s takeover of Rinker is well on the way to completion, reports the Associated Press. The takeover offer has won just over 50 percent of shareholders, who will now reap some of the $14.3 billion the Mexican concrete giant offered for the company. Rinker management questioned the deal as "opportunistic" because the shares had been knocked down because of the [...]

Inventory, inventory everywhere and not a buyer in sight. That seems to be the message in Las Vegas and across the nation. The latest numbers from GLVAR show the number of homes on the market is now well above 20,000 and prices are softening. And now, reports the Los Angeles Times, the National Association of Realtors has lowered [...]

The conventional wisdom is that the Bush Administration has not seriously questioned any merger or buyout on antitrust grounds. That thought has not stopped the government from throwing a spanner in the works of the Whole Foods buyout of Wild Oats, reports the Associated Press. The agency reports that the Justice Dept. will file suit to block [...]

Just when you thought stock options had become clean again, comes news from the Associated Press that Sen. Carl Levin wants to close the gap between the value the accounting rules assign to options and the value that companies can deduct from their taxes. A Senate sub-committee found that there was a $43 billion gap and [...]

While the Legislature has been racing to meet deadlines in Carson City, the Supreme Court in Washington has set itself something of a marathon to its July finish line. It nonetheless delivered a blow for common sense Monday when it threw out a class-action lawsuit against Geico. The ruling barred the class, which had not [...]

Of course, the courts and the IRS have been knocking out "abusive tax shetlers" for some time now but the pressure for more revenue is likely to persuade Congress to write the rules into law, reports the New York. Times. The rule that will be codified requires that a transaction have "economic substance" and a [...]

Whatever prompted the Legislature to offer big tax breaks for green building in 2005, it’s become more obvious by the day they’re not needed any longer. First it was Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. promising that it would be carbon neutral in a few years. Now comes word that CB Richard Ellis is making the same promise. [...]