Nevada's economy typically roars back from recession, but not this time around. We're joined by Mark Muro, one of the authors of the Brookings Mountain Monitors Report. He tells us why Nevada continues to struggle even as the nation inches forward.

Robert Lang, director of Brookings Mountain West, a UNLV-based offshoot of the prominent Washington, D.C., think tank, spoke to the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce this week at the Four Seasons Hotel. His message to the business leaders was essentially positive about the future.

"This region will grow again," he said. "We are due at least one more mini-boom."

Adele Morris is a fellow and policy director at the Brookings Institution, which, in partnership with UNLV, runs the Brookings Mountain West think tank.

Her work focuses on energy and natural resource policies related to the economics of climate change. Brookings Mountain West brought her to the university last week.

Regionalism is too often thought to require government initiative. As a result, progress is associated with full-on structural reform--and so the controversy (and usually frustration) begins.

One week ago marked the true beginning of America’s recommitment to passenger rail service. For Nevada, however, the restart will have to wait.

And because it must, using the requisite wait time well will now be crucial. Essential now is going to be total focus, strong coordination and a full-court press to marry a powerful case for high-speed rail in the Mountain West to top-flight organizing.

There has understandably been plenty of doom and gloom about Nevada’s economy — the indicators are sluggish, from unemployment to foreclosures. However, at the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting to look ahead, there was some tempered optimism.

Several speakers offered some hope.

Here we go again — time to crank up the outrage machine.

For the second time in less than a year, President Barack Obama made an offhand swipe at Las Vegas.

Watching Southern Nevada these past 30 months or so has been like watching a sick loved one wither and worsen, or like watching a continuous loop of an Ingmar Bergman film with dry, unsalted popcorn to snack on — endlessly depressing.

For Las Vegas, the end of the 2000s has been the equivalent of the housekeeper walking into a Strip hotel suite midmorning, cranking some Christian rock, and then Tasing the bedridden guest who is nursing a bad hangover.

A painful awakening.

Rob Lang, director, Brookings Mountain West at UNLV, imagines himself in 2020, looking back to 2010.

Brookings knew Phoenix, Las Vegas were hard-hit, but notes similar trend in Idaho.

The recession and housing collapse have halted four decades of double-digit growth for nearly half of the nation's biggest rapidly expanding suburbs.