The MGM Mirage: How green is it?MGM Mirage's new $8 billion CityCenter project is a massive 75 acre, 4,000-room hotel-casino complex with condos and retail space currently under construction in Las Vegas. Its builders are promoting the complex as a model of green construction, and are seeking LEED certification for the project from the U.S. Green Building Council. The Council awards varying levels of the coveted LEED (for "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design") certification. Certification of CityCenter would make the complex eligible for millions of dollars in tax breaks. The only problem is that MGM plans to allow smoking in the casino, and LEED certification signifies that the building is a healthy place to live and work. During a presentation about the complex at a Hotel Developers Conference last week, Stephanie Steinberg of Smoke-free Gaming of Colorado pointed out the hypocrisy of CityCenter being held up as a paragon of green building when one of its buildings won't even qualify. MGM Mirage responded by saying the casino portion of the complex would be exempt from the certification.

"The 25 most media-prominent think tanks were cited 17 percent less in 2007 than they were the year before," according to an annual survey by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). "The overall ideological breakdown was the same ... 47 percent of citations went to centrist think tanks, 37 percent to conservative or right-leaning think tanks, and 16 percent to progressive or left-leaning think tanks." The downward trend "is not necessarily a bad thing. ... Given that FAIR's surveys have consistently found that these supposedly detached experts actually tilt toward the center-right, fewer of them spinning and shaping news coverage may be a net plus for media transparency, if not diversity." The current issue of FAIR's magazine "Extra!" also contains the group's annual "Fear & Favor" report. Among the news outlets mentioned is Portland's KOIN-TV, which CMD documented airing a video news release. KOIN merited mention for its "weekly medical report," which is sponsored by Providence Health Systems and consistently features Providence experts and information.

The oil industry's "nationwide publicity drive to clear up what it calls 'common and surprising misperceptions'" about its record-breaking profits continues. The American Petroleum Institute's (API's) senior economic analyst, Rayola Dougher, was in Denver recently. Her message: "It's not your grandfather's oil and gas industry anymore." She added that API is "trying to reach out to legislators and consumers in 40 locations." API received some unwanted attention on the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. On March 19, the group "No War, No Warming" held a protest outside API's Washington DC headquarters. The protesters claimed that the industry group was changing its name to the "Alternative Power Institute" and notifying the U.S. Congress that, "in light of API's just announced transition to promotion of renewable energy technologies, there is no further requirement to fund the occupation of Iraq," writes David Swanson.