John Katsilometes on the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute’s groundbreaking

Sunday, Jan. 14, 2007 | 7:18 a.m.

This year's "Power of Love" fundraising gala for the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, which last year at the MGM Grand raised a single-event record of $20 million, will have quite an opening act: the ceremonial groundbreaking on Feb. 9 for the Frank Gehry designed Gehry-Ruvo Building at the institute site at the entrance of the 61-acre Union Park project in downtown Las Vegas.

Dignitaries expected to take part the groundbreaking ceremonies for the $70 million brain institute project include LRBI founder Larry Ruvo; Gehry; U.S. Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign; U.S. Reps. Shelley Berkley, Jon Porter and Dean Heller, Gov. Jim Gibbons, Mayor Oscar Goodman and former Gov. Kenny Guinn. (Also invited were the state Board of Regents and Chancellor Jim Rogers, which should make for some challenging seating assignments.)

On Feb. 10 the richly entertaining "Power of Love" event will again be staged at the MGM Grand Conference Center.

On Friday, Dr. Zaven Khachaturian, president and chief executive officer of the LRBI and Keep Memory Alive (the institute's fundraising organization) said, "The building is just a symbol, an icon, a face for what's inside. More important will be the programs inside." As Khachaturian noted, 50 percent of those who reach age 85 have some sort of neurological impairment, and the population is living longer. "Willard Scott has given up mentioning 100-year-old birthdays on TV because it's not news anymore, and the crux of the issue is that we want to allow those who live into their 80s and 90s to have a good quality of life."

NoteMart

Winner, winner! Chicken dinner! For the third straight year Station Casinos has been named in Fortune 500s "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. Stations vaulted to No. 18 from No. 55 last year (it was No. 54 two years ago) and is the only casino company on the list. More than 105,000 employees from 446 companies responded to the magazine's 57-question survey, which accounts for two-thirds of a company's score. (The survey is sent to at least 400 randomly selected employees from a company.) The magazine polls employees about attitudes toward management, job satisfaction and camaraderie. One-third of the score is the result of an evaluation of each company's demographic makeup, pay, benefits programs and general people-management philosophy. Google topped the list, followed by Genentech, Wegmans Food Markets, Container Store and Whole Foods Market in the top five (for the full list, go to www.fortune.com) ...

If you see someone in Las Vegas, particularly at or around UNLV, who looks like Sandy Duncan she probably is. Duncan arrived in town Monday to begin rehearsals for the UNLV Nevada Conservatory Theatre production of "The Glass Menagerie," which opens Feb. 9 in the Judy Bayley Theatre ...

Pity the cashier at Star Nursery at 8725 S. Eastern Ave. who is allergic to burlap. On Wednesday the business was overrun by customers stockpiling long burlap rolls and sheets to cover plants in the high winds we've experienced recently. The embattled worker tried not to touch the treated fabric while ringing up and checking out the crowd ...

GR8 PL8: Reader spots a white Ford Bronco with the vanity plate NOT OJS.