As a transient bunch, Las Vegans have historically shunned social connections. But a sense of community could grow from housing bog.

If highfliers such as Nevada and Arizona had not been battered by a troubled economy and the collapse of the housing market, the 2010 Census population counts released Tuesday might have been very different for the whole country.

A new survey released by the U.S. Census Bureau paints Southern Nevada as a more educated and diverse populace — at least according to community data gathered from 2005 through 2009.

A study released by the Brookings Institution and the London School of Economics ranked Las Vegas' economy as one of the world's five worst, due in large part to oversized bets on real estate.

Las Vegas is due for one more “miniboom,” not as robust as previous booms, but enough to become part of a Southwest “megaregion” with Los Angeles and Phoenix, the director of Brookings Mountain West said Tuesday.

You already know Las Vegas has one of the country’s worst economies.

Now, a new report takes things further.

The Brookings Institution, which is based in Washington but has a local research arm, said Tuesday that the Las Vegas Valley has the world’s fifth-worst economy. The think tank ranked the region No. 146 on its Global Metro Monitor, which rates the world’s 150 biggest metropolitan economies on their economic strength before, during and after the recession.

A recommendation by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to limit the mortgage interest tax deduction has pushed a hot button within the real estate industry and could throw the housing market into further decline, some observers are warning.

Pop quiz: Did you know California once banned homework in schools? True. Following a campaign by the magazine Ladies’ Home Journal — which argued that the practice was not, in fact, good for kids — the state briefly halted it in 1901.

Now, most students, some parents, not a few teachers and members of the homework-reform movement will immediately become wistful for such an era (just as I’m wistful for a time when a print magazine could throw its weight around like that).