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I got a call from my cousin Wally in Colorado last night right as I was in the middle of heating up my Hungry-Man dinner.

He tells me that people in Colorado are pretty angry with U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) over his comments on the need to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact.

The Senate Republican Conference released a video Monday questioning U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) and other congressional Democrats on their support for billionaire businessman T. Boone Pickens and his positions on energy.

Reid is co-hosting a major conference on renewable energy with Pickens this week in Las Vegas. Pickens, a politically active oil mogul, has advocated for developing renewable energy sources.

But, as the Republican video points out, he has also advocated for expanded off-shore domestic drilling -- a position Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been slow to embrace.

The video calls on Democratic leadership in Congress to take up Pickens whole platform -- including drilling. It's posted below.

A two-day conference on creating clean energy technology -- co-hosted by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Searchlight) -- will bring prominent politicians from around the country to Las Vegas, beginning Monday.

The National Clean Energy Summit will feature presentations from former president Bill Clinton, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and billionaire political advocate T. Boone Pickens.

The summit, scheduled to be held at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, begins with a keynote speech from Clinton Monday afternoon and continues with a series of panels Tuesday.

Western governors, including Arizona's Janet Napolitano (D), Colorado's Bill Ritter (D) and Utah's Jon Huntsman (R), are on the list of panelists, as is state Sen. Dina Titus (D-Henderson), who is challenging for U.S. Rep. Jon Porter's (R-Henderson) seat in Congress.

If you're the new school on the block and the state is facing record budget shortfalls, not actually having a building at the school is akin to putting a "cut me from the budget" target on your back.

But buildingless no more, the Nevada State College now has "its own, permanent, beautiful, state-of-the-art building."

Which right now has Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-Sparks) scratching his head to figure out how we still manage to cut this thing in the spring.

The R-J has the full story here.

What do steak knives, "Bum Fights" videos, and Old Yeller have in common? Find out when you see this week's list... | CLICK HERE

If you aren't lazy, find real numbers at the Clark County website, the Washoe County website, and the Secretary of State's website.

Primary condensed soup for the lazy:

Jon Ralston is reporting that under 10,000 votes have been cast by 10:30am. Adding that to the vote totals from early voting and mail ballots, and turnout is still under ten percent.

Many theories are circulating as to why turnout is so low. The leading one is that it's 105 degrees out and no one gives a hoot.

Today is the primary election, and the polls are open.

Will former Assemblywoman Sharron Angle (R-Reno) unseat legendary state Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio (R-Reno)? Who will emerge victorious in the messy GOP primary in AD-2? Will Brian Scroggins defeat now-ineligible Clark County Commissioner Bruce Woodbury and force a vote of the county GOP central committee to decide the nominee?

Stay tuned.

Showing what you can do when you raise money, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has announced a sizeable expansion of his field team. This quote sums up the gravity of the situation for U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ):

By the end of August, the campaign expects to have 20 field offices and 75 paid staff members statewide, a third of whom would be from the caucus operation. Those workers will be overseen by six regional field directors, with Chicago headquarters keeping a close eye on all of it.

Republican National Committee Deputy Chairman Frank Donatelli and RNC Political Director Rich Beeson will be at the offices of the Nevada Republican Party today at 5:15pm to tour the phone bank operations. They may also spend a few minutes
shrugging their shoulders and scratching their heads with a lack of
response for the latest ad from the Dems that bashes the pro-Yucca
stance of the McCain camp.