Deregulator: Alive since '85!

A TASK FOR AN ENTERPRISING BUSINESS REPORTER: Debunk the now-accepted-as-Gospel myth that states "lost" $13.3 billion in revenues from "untaxed" e-commerce last year. An AP story, published in USA Today , my paper and countless others across the country, repeated this bogus factoid. The $13.3 billion figure was derived by University of Tennessee researchers based on e-commerce projections by Forester Research that were, to be charitable, way off. Forester estimated that retail e-commerce transactions would amount to $58.5 billion last year; instead, the total was roughly $30 billion, or half that. I have no clue how accurate the projections were on b-to-b transactions, but I'd be willing to wager they weren't close, either. I'm also not confident in UT's methodology. They estimated that about 28% of e-commerce transactions were "escaping" taxation, but a 1999 study by Ernst & Young concluded that only about 13% of e-commerce is going

RACIAL GERRYMANDERING, R.I.P.: Here's an unexpected surprise: While relatively few African-Americans call Nevada home (roughly 7 percent of the population is black), it turns out that the Silver State has elected the nation's highest proportion of black legislators . About 11 percent of the Legislature is comprised of black lawmakers, and as this editorial I wrote point out, that's not bad for a state once known as the "Mississippi of the West" for the blatant segregation practiced at public and private facilities. Think about it. Such politically correct havens as California has a mere six African-Americans in its 120-member Legislature, and Massachusetts has elected only seven blacks to its 200 member legislative body. It's also worth noting that none of Nevada's black lawmakers hail from majority African-American districts, and three of the seven reside in districts in which less than 5 percent of their constituents are black.

OK, IT'S OFFICIALLY CHRISTMAS: Some people are satisfied merely hearing Vince Guaraldi. That's fine (it's great jazz, after all). But over dinner Saturday night, we listened to Leon Redbone's Christmas Island CD, and on our weekend travels, we heard Buck Owens sing "Santa Looked a Lot Like Daddy" and the late great Charles Brown perform "Please Come Home for Christmas" (not on the same radio station, sadly, but I'll take what I can get). Between now and Wednesday, I'll spin "No More Pretty Presents" by the incomparably swinging Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers (they'll be in Vegas Jan. 9 !), and, of course, Chuck Berry's classic "Run Rudolph Run." Hope Santa's good to everybody.