We'll start our post today with a look at the RJ's Correction Trifecta.

First Ben Spillman's lack of common sense.

"A story in Tuesday's Las Vegas Review-Journal had an incorrect figure given for a tax on gasoline that would be used to generate money for road projects under a Nevada jobs bill. The correct amount is a 0.75-cent per gallon tax."

We dissected that one yesterday since they didn't correct it on their own: http://www.lvjournalreview.com/component/content/article/41-homepage-highlights/208-pointless

Then we told them about it. And now that they have corrected it, we'll give Spillman another knock in the tally. It's his second this week.

But even that correction is wrong. Spillman's article ran Monday, not Tuesday. Bet they won't run a correction on their correction.

The second correction is priceless. "Lieutenant governor candidate Robert E. Goodman's name was misspelled in a list of candidates in Tuesday's paper."

So, how do you screw up Goodman? Don't know. The RJ no longer shows us its mistakes online, and thankfully, my Tuesday paper was recycled yesterday.

The third one is really the worst.

"A story in Tuesday's Business section contained an error. The Oasis Golf Club is not part of the Black Gaming Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing. Black Gaming owns the Palms Golf Club. The Oasis Golf Club is a stand-alone golf operation."

Not only would the golf club's employees think they were getting axed, but golfers might think twice about heading down to Mesquite.

This comes from a Howard Stutz article on the Black bankruptcy and follows in a dubious tradition of screwing up what's shutting down. This was most notable with front-page stories about Lake Las Vegas economic woes that were completely wrong.

Stutz is among the most reliable reporters at the RJ. This correction actually comes one year to the date of his last one.

**

The paper continued its frothing coverage of those who want to get Harry Reid out of office.

Today's double-byline by the Las Vegas reporter and the new political reporter once again brings up the rumors about the official Tea Party of Nevada with the specious line: "It's a new party that filed its paperwork in January, and some in the national Tea Party movement have questioned its legitimacy, wondering if Ashjian's intention is to split conservative votes."

You can read more of the puffery of GOP candidates here: http://www.lvrj.com/news/tarkanian-joins-republican-field-of-reid-challengers-86087842.html

The rest of the paper shows the RJ is beginning to try to catch up with other press. Today there's a story about cuts at UNLV. http://www.lvrj.com/news/unlv-facing-job-losses-86149617.html

But it's hard to get past the coding typo in the first graph. "UNLV will offer yet another round of buyouts, will eliminate departments and jobs, and will further reduce support services for students in an effort to trim an estimated $9\u2002million more from its budget, the university's president told a huge gathering Tuesday."

Maybe if we took the RJ's math reporting class we would know what "$9\u2002million" means. But since that's a course for failure, we'll just assume Richard Lake meant $9 million. Lake also put together a graphic showing the top 20 "expensive" programs at UNLV with no explanation as to why they're expensive.

Should we just gut civil and environmental engineering because it's the most expensive? Or should we because civil reminds the RJ's readers of dreaded public employees and environmental reminds them of the paper's assault on climate change.

Par for the course.

The far better story about UNLV cuts is in the Sun, with Emily Richmond looking at the successful nursing program. http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2010/mar/03/even-unlvs-nursing-school-steels-cuts/