Nevada shows West the way

LAS VEGAS - "Vast acreage surrounded by untouched public lands; unique desert terrain teeming with native wildlife; a bustling metropolis; a Jack Nicklaus golf course..." So reads the brochure of the new Lake Las Vegas development designed for upscale retirees or the Lone Eagle freelance professional working from his desert home to deliver services over the Internet.

What is this picture? It's part of the new and emerging Nevada, the subject of last week's conference on economic development convened by Gov. Bob Miller. The old Nevada was rooted in natural resources. Nature left large deposits of gold and silver, which gave the state its start when four Irishmen discovered the Comstock Lode in 1859, igniting a boom that attracted thousands of miners and other settlers and paid out more than $500 million in silver over the next 20 years.

During this century, a new and largely manmade economy enhanced the traditional mining and ranching economy. It began with gaming, divorce and shady characters. In 1936, Bugsy Siegel built the Flamingo, the first big casino-hotel on the Las Vegas strip. Las Vegas gaming now attracts more than 30 million tourists and $25 billion a year in revenues. Altogether, gaming accounts for nearly half the jobs in the state and provides most of the revenue in a state that has no income, corporate or inheritance taxes.

On the surface, things are going well in Nevada. Nevada's politics are squeaky clean by most accounts, and Nevada has been at the top among America's fastest-growing states, with some of the nation