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Offer may not be combined with any other promotional offers. jBUSINESS ~OUR~~1 CORPORATE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Lance Bradford -Partner, Bradford & Bradford CPAs Lyle Brennan -Publisher, NBJ Stephen Brock - President, NBJ Philippe Jaramillo - President, Mardi Gras Hotel Dr. Anthony Pollard - President, Rainbow Medical Center Frank Scott - CEO, Sports Media Network ADVISORY BOARD OF DIRECTORS MaryS. Falls - Vice-President, Northern Nevada Business Banking, US Bancorp Somer Hollingsworth - President, Nevada Development Authority Uirry E. Krause - Partner and Director, Arthur Andersen LLP MaryDean Martin - President, MaryDean & Associates Clare O'Brien -Director ofMar keting, McCarran Airport Stan Thomas - Director of Special Business Projects, Sierra Pacific Power Company Carole V"tlardo - President, Nevada Taxpayers Association Scott Voeller- Director ofAdvertising & Public Relations, Silver Legacy Resort Casino Patricia M. Wade- President, Wade Development Co., Lnc. PUB USHER Lyle E. Brennan PRESIDENT Get a bigger machete. Stephen Brock VI CE PRESIDE!IT Ben Falk As the spectacu lar growth of N evada continues, its lush, ASSOCIATE PUBUSHER - EDITOR Connie Brennan fertile business landscape can easily turn dense and impenetrable. Merica Dickerson Advertising is constantly adapti ng to this cl imatic change. ASSOCIATE EDITOR - ART DIRECTOR Barbara L. Moore Through our new affiliate Fa iss Foley Merica, we have dramatically SENIOR STAFF WRITER increased the scope of services we can provide our clients. We now have vastly jennifer Robison expanded government affairs and public relations capabilites to augment our CONfRIBUilNG EDITORS existing creative, strategic planning, research, media planning Bert Blevins I Kathleen Foley I George Fuller & buying and special event services . john Graham I Allen Grant I Dean Heller Linda Linssen I joe Mullicb I Deborah Roush Introducing The Merica Agency. let the safari beg in! R Keith Schwer I jackie Shelton I Michael Sullivan RESEARCH DIRECTOR I TOP RANK NEVADA jennifer Robison THE MERICA AGENCY CORPORATE OFFICE 2127 Paradise Road • Las Vegas, NV 89104 (702) 735-7003 • FAX (702) 733-5953 A ADVERTISING @ MEDIA V P UBLIC RELATIONS & GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS www.nevadabusiness.com (702) 947-7777 ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVES Stephen Brock Ben Falk • Claire Smith • tiz Young Letty Elias • Christopher Evans NORTIIERN NEVADA MARKETING REPRESENTATIVE The Elizabeth Younger Agency I Tiffany Frisch 223 Marsh Ave. • Reno, NV 89509-1626 (702) 329-4200 • FAX (702) 329-4283 Nevada Business Journal is listed in Standard Rates & Data, #20A-Business-Metro, State & Regional. Advertisers should contact Sales at (702) 735-7003 in Southern Nevada, or (800) 242-0164 in Nonhero Nevada, or write to: Nevada Business J ournal, 2127 Paradise Rd .• Las Vegas, NV SERVICES WE OFFER: 89 104. Demographic information available upon request. Month­ • 25 Years of Telecommunications Experience to-month circulation may vary. NBJ is published monthly, bulk postage paid. Subscription rate is - Complete Installation of New & Used Telephone Systems $44.00 per year. Special order single-copy price is $7.50. All contents Q 1998 copyrigh~ and reproduction of material appear­ • Equipment Warranties ing in NBJ is prohibited unless so authorized by the publisher of NBJ. • Data Cabling I Fiber Optics CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please send previous address or mail­ iCkMAN ing l~he l & new addre!O: 'i: . Allow 'i: ix. wee\-.$. • Pay Telephones ............ EDITORIAL SUBMISSIONS: Address all submissions to the at­ tention of Connie Brennan. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accom­ ELCOM panied by a self-addressed stamped envelope. NBJ assumes no re­ www. wimall.com/cplus sponsibility for unsolicited materials. A DIVISION OF DISCLAIMER: Editorial views expressed in this magazine "The Business That Keeps Your Business On Line" COMM PLUS, INC. are not necessarily those of the publisher or its boards. 4 Nevada Business Journal • July 1998 COMMENTARY LYLE E. BRENNAN Publisher Support your competition ... pay your taxes • Deloitte& a recent news conference, the State , s Industrial Insurance System (SITS) the answer Touche A announced its reorganization into 01998 Deloitte & Touche LLP. De loitte & To uche r e fers to a new company - Employers Insurance De loitte & Touche LLP and rela t ed entiti es. Company. A press release announcing the reorganization said SITS has evolved "in Laa Vegaa Reno order to better compete with private insur­ [702) 813·3100 [702) 348-8808 ance companies." SITS chief marketing officer, George Lonas, was quoted as saying, "Our 85 years of experience and expertise in pro­ viding Nevada employers with workers' compensation will give us an edge in the competitive marketplace." Well, George, your "competitive edge" has more to do with government support than it does with experience and exper­ tise. What is our government doing com­ peting with private enterprise in the first place? It makes no sense that a portion of the money private companies send to Insight Aircenter the state coffers is used to take their Sunset business away from them. • 13 Acre Corporate Service E:entet SITS is just one of many government • Near McCarran Airport, entities competing with private enterprise. Fronting Sunset Road, 1/ 2 Mile On a local level, University Medical East of Eastern • 3,500 Square Foot Dock Center has put a Quick Care on virtuaJJy ffi/Grade Lever Units For Lease every comer so they can compete with • 1,800 Square Foot Grade Level Southern Nevada family doctors. For Units years, Nevada Magazine, supported by state government, has competed with For Sale or Lease private publications statewide. Two 30,000 sq. ft. The role of government should be to pro­ Buildings! vide services not available through the pri­ Occupancy Oct. 1998 vate sector . not compete with private FOR INFORMATION CALL: firms, or drive them out of business. • 436-3144 COMMENTS? e-mail: [email protected] July 1998 • Nevada Business journal 5 From the Editor Letter from the Editor LOVE getting letters. But not from and has nothing to do with trial lawyers. attorneys . and certainly not from And, while you would expect lawyers to I trial lawyers. It's kind of like getting a fight legislation that would have a negative personal letter from the IRS. However, over impact on their pocketbooks, none of the at­ the last month, several trial lawyers wrote torneys who wrote accepted any responsibil­ in rebuttal to Congressman John Ensign's ity for raising the cost of healthcare. article in the May issue regarding a bill The fact is, attorneys are a large part of the he recently introduced entitled the Frivo­ problem. But regardless of who you want to lous Lawsuit Elimination Act. blame, we live in a society where everyone's Most of the letters included a lot of paranoid they will be sued. And, it doesn't legal jargon and statistics. Some of them help that on every comer there are signs di­ were even foot-noted with dozens of recting you to a personal injury attorney who sources. And, I felt like I needed an attor­ will be happy to handle your case should you ney to interpret the meaning of a few of the wish to launch a lawsuit of your own. letters. After taking the time to carefully The reduction of unwarranted lawsuits is read each of the letters, it occurred to a major part of controlling the high cost of me that a shovel would be helpful to clear healtbcare. Legislation, such as Ensign's the manure out of my office. bill, is critically needed, and long overdue. According to attorneys that wrote, the I'm sure I'll be hearing from my attorney. high cost of healthcare is because of doc­ tors, hospitals and insurance companies, -Ed. COMMENTS? e-mail: [email protected] Communications Technology I I I meets commitment. 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