Gore take stands on Nevada issues

Vice President Al Gore has taken stands this week on two issues important in Nevada - plans for a interim nuclear waste storage facility and the proposed ban on college sports betting.

He told a media round table meeting in Las Vegas on Monday he would oppose interim storage of nuclear waste in Nevada, then followed that statement Tuesday by saying regulation of college sports betting should be left up to the states, not the federal government.

"Only Al Gore has pledged to Nevadans that if they help send him to the White House in November he will fight Republican efforts to create a short term nuclear waste dump in the Silver State," said David Cherry, Democratic Party communications director.

Gore last month promised Nevadans he would veto any Yucca Mountain bill that weakens health and safety standards for the repository.

Democratic leaders say this is a huge difference from Republican Party policy and from the statements of GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush.

Senate Republicans have said they will push ahead with nuclear waste legislation in 2001. And the party's national platform criticizes President Clinton for not approving legislation that would bring nuclear waste to Nevada.

In addition, Gore raised the dangers of shipping thousands of tons of waste across the country to get it to Nevada saying he favors on-site storage of the waste at the nuclear plants which produce it.

On college betting, Gore told Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., that not only should the betting issue be left to states, any legislation on the matter should focus on the 98 percent of wagering that is done illegally, not the two percent handled by legal and licensed books in Nevada.

Nevada's delegation has been battling a bill being considered in Congress which would ban college sports betting saying it doesn't even deal with the real problem which is the huge amount of illegal sports betting in every other state.

"Al Gore is right on the issues that are right for Nevada," Reid said. "He has already expressed his opposition to the interim storage of nuclear waste in our state and now supports the position of the Nevada delegation on the sports betting ban."