Story Archive

It’s fun, it’s for Wii, just don’t call it ‘beer pong’

Saturday, July 5, 2008

It started innocently enough. A couple of Las Vegas guys wanted to make a video game out of a simple college sport. You know, beer pong.

Not quite A/C, and one big, hot mess

Fickle rooftop swamp cooler is writer’s bane

Friday, July 4, 2008

Drip drip drip. Do you hear that? It’s the sound of laughter.

Is Pahrump pop king’s refuge?

After The Wall Street Journal reports that Michael Jackson is there, rumors are flying and the local populace is, for the most part ... laughing

Monday, June 23, 2008

Is Michael Jackson in Pahrump? Has it, at long last, come to this? Has the Howard Hughes of Pop moved to the great weird magnet in the desert? Who knows? Officially, no one. So we went to Pahrump to look for ourselves.

Poetic justice doesn’t get much more literal than this

Plaque with poem about desperate character stolen by — guess who

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

You’ve heard of poetic justice. Well, this was poetic crime, a perfect unity of medium, message and action.

Turning away business?

Merchants say strip mall owners letting property wither, but plans are a mystery

Friday, June 13, 2008

The owners of the Tropicana Center strip mall have either $61 million to burn or a secret plan.

At least somebody’s cleaning up in the foreclosure debacle

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Sometimes foreclosed homes are trashed by evicted occupants out of anger or despair. Other times, the occupants are slobs of the highest order. Either way, the foreclosure cleanup business is booming.

Slowdown not sparing many Vegas locales

Housing crash. Credit crisis. Foreclosure fiasco. Fallout evident all over town at merchants struggling or shuttered.

Monday, June 2, 2008

If this were a simpler place, you could go to Main Street, see shuttered general stores and dried-up soda fountains, ask people there how they were doing. But not here. To take the pulse of Las Vegas, you have to find a lot of Main Streets.

Political activism amid bacchanalia

Fremont Street is Vegas’ public commons by default, but revelers are tuned out

Friday, May 30, 2008

It’s one of those Las Vegas problems: Where do you hold a demonstration? There no public space dedicated by tradition to hollering your fellow citizens into enlightenment. So you settle on holding your demonstration on Fremont Street. And nobody notices.

A shoulder, or two, to lean on

Small-business owners get together to share ideas, referrals

Friday, May 16, 2008

A mortgage broker, an electrician, a chiropractor and a funeral planner walk into a bar, but it’s not what you think. For one thing, the occasion is breakfast. For another thing, they came to talk about business, along with 14 other small-business people, no two of them in the same line of work.

The academics of party planning

The young man in this picture is in class. Really. A UNLV class on nightclub management. This was his final exam.

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Some final exams are different. Here’s one for a UNLV class. Throw a giant, adults-only pool party behind the MGM Grand featuring $5 mojitos, topless dancers from Scores-Las Vegas, a volleyball tournament and more.

True sign of the times: Vegas tips are slipping

Service workers report business is down, customers are less generous

Thursday, May 8, 2008

First-quarter room occupancy is down 1 percentage point, Boyd Gaming’s Las Vegas revenue is down 5 or 6 percent, MGM Mirage’s revenue is down 30 percent, and Stacy Taylor’s income is down 40 percent. And as part of the 10 percent of the Las Vegas labor force that earns tip income, she might be considered a barometer of the Las Vegas economy.

Search for suave turns up shorts, T’s

Good news for contestants: Clothes that make the man don’t have to be his

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Sure, many of them looked snazzy in the multithousand-dollar loaner suits and some guys even posed in their own clothes, but did any of them have what it takes to succeed Frank Kelly, Esquire magazine’s Best Dressed Real Man in America (2007)?

‘Some are born great ... some have greatness thrust upon them’

Less than a second into 1946, she became the first Baby Boomer

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Kathleen Casey-Kirschling has a press agent because she was born. Or, more accurately, because of the importance of her birth moment.

Not exactly magic, but pretty unnatural: Liger on the Strip

Friday, April 18, 2008

Enter the liger. Yes, Las Vegas is getting a liger, potentially the most terrifying hybrid to stride the Strip since French-Canadian singer Celine Dion.

Foreclosure hits the big guys, too

Vacant Henderson house practically a steal at $2.35 million

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

With its lightly used 19 rooms — not counting the nine bathrooms, the studio-apartment-sized foyers and the six walk-in closets — and with its four fireplaces, three balconies, two wet bars, pool and spa, 821 Majestic Ridge Court really is what the ad says, a “luxury foreclosure.”

Just try trumping this

Latest Donald triumph feted by pols, glamour gals, industry bigwigs

Saturday, April 12, 2008

The new Trump International Hotel & Tower is the soul of class, cast in bronze, dipped in gold, placed on a marble pedestal and surrounded by mirrors. Which is to say, it and Donald Trump belong here. And judging by the reception he got Friday morning at the second opening of the building (this was the ribbon-cutting one), we seem to want him here.

A motivational speech for ‘Passion’ peddlers

‘Chicken Soup’ creator offers ‘Secret’ to success: Wishing makes it so

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Jack Canfield, motivational speaker and millionaire creator of the best-selling “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series, takes the stage as New Age music plays and success slogans are projected on screens. A woman screams, “I love you!”

One planet, under pinball

In an increasingly divided and chaotic world, advocates pin their hopes on unifying, but waning, game

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

“I’m not suggesting that pinball is going to bring the world together,” Roger Sharpe says, right before he explains how pinball can bring the world together.

Immortality for sale

Just get with the program and pay the price

Monday, March 24, 2008

Meet Mony Vital. He’s immortal, or at least he says he is, and he’ll be happy to teach you how to be, too. Of course, it costs you anywhere from $450 (for six months of immortality) to $2,875 (for lifetime immortality), but who, besides Mony Vital, can put a price on eternity?

Beyond the box

Gehry-designed structure taking shape

Friday, March 14, 2008

Our deconstructionist masterpiece is under construction. Known as the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute and designed by Frank Gehry, the 67,000-square-foot structure will be dedicated to the study of diseases that afflict the brain. The building is supposed to be finished next year, but you can see it taking shape now on the corner of Bonneville Avenue and Grand Central Parkway ...

Heavy machinery, for entertainment

Sure there are dancers and beer, but equipment is the big draw

Thursday, March 13, 2008

There were nine dancers for nine construction equipment drivers. Welcome to ConExpo, the construction convention where 120,000 people meet big machines and the ghost of Busby Berkeley does the choreography.

Our make-do zoo

Exhibit has grown from ex-cop’s bird hobby to full-fledged menagerie of the wild

Monday, March 3, 2008

The Las Vegas Zoo (yes, it exists) acquired two animals this year, a leopard and a binturong. The leopard has already gone from arthritic to dead, and the binturong (also know as a bearcat, although it’s related to neither bear nor cat) smells of popcorn and Fritos, as is characteristic of the species. His name is Bruce.

HEY, BUYERS: ALL ABOARD!

Foreclosure Express buses customers through areas where houses can be had at a bargain price

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Considering that the collapse of the housing market means fewer jobs, families being tossed out of their homes and possibly, just possibly, a recession ... well, considering all that, taking a weekend real estate tour on a bus called the Foreclosure Express might seem a touch ghoulish, like robbing the dead or at least whistling past a graveyard.

Up on the roof, idea takes root, but it may not work in Vegas

Sunday, Feb. 24, 2008

Parts of the International Roofing Expo can make your eyes water.

We're not that fat

A national magazine calls Las Vegas the heftiest city, but its math looks shaky

Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008

Good news, Las Vegans: Men’s Fitness magazine’s grand claim this week that we are the fattest metropolis in America is wrong.

Worn but hanging in there

Downtown joint extends a friendly welcome, as the regulars will tell you

Monday, Feb. 11, 2008

One thing that strikes you about the Gold Spike — the downtown casino on the corner of dirt and despair — is that it’s a friendly place.

Victory is in the bag

Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2008

Well, both, obviously. How could the National Grocer's Association really claim to determine the the "U.S.A. Best Bagger" and the "International Best Bagger" without testing bagger's skills in the two dominant mediums of their art? (O.K., "national" and "international" were fanciful titles, considering that just 24 states and two nations competed, but you get what you get at these things.)

‘Superdog’ makes splash with ‘celebrities’

Winner’s flying leap: 20 feet, 3 inches in the air

Monday, Feb. 4, 2008

Let’s get this out of the way early: The celebrity challenge dog dock diving event Saturday outside the Las Vegas Convention Center was, in several important ways, a fraud.
First, the celebrities were not the dogs but their human handlers. Second, the celebrities weren’t the type of celebrities that you’ve heard of or could recognize. And third, they weren’t the celebrities’ dogs.

Ready for spring?

Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008

Today, the second day of February, is Groundhog Day, at least if you believe about 150 years of tradition and a pack of New England rustics buried under snow and drunk on lies. But in Southern Nevada, it’s Tortoise Day.

Bush is on his way, so beat it or else ...

Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008

When the president of the United States comes to town today to update Las Vegas on the war on terrorism, he will not be standing in a stadium, behind a church pulpit or in a rugged pose in front of Red Rock.

A pack of alpaca lovers

300 breeders and industry members show their wares, learn how to clean up

Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2008

Alpacas are an American story, to be sure. Men and women wonder how they will brave the world and make their fortunes, and then it hits them. “Eureka! A South American camelid,” they cry out.

Brick by brick, quick, quick, quick

Wall-building contest tests bricklayers’ speed, skills, stamina

Thursday, Jan. 24, 2008

One of the highlights, and there are many, of the World of Concrete convention is that it holds competitions.

Capitol Steps tread lightly on politicos

Predictable humor lacks cutting edge

Saturday, Jan. 19, 2008

We’re told that if we can’t say anything nice we shouldn’t say anything at all. So let’s start by saying that on Thursday night, the Capitol Steps’ piano was in tune.
Now that we’re done saying nice things, let’s write the rest.

Yes, he’s really hanging there, pierced. Eww.

Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008

The crowd is waiting for blood but it won’t come.

Vegas: Lots to do besides campaign

Friday, Jan. 11, 2008

For months now we have told you Las Vegas is a normal place with normal people, a fine place for a presidential caucus, duly representative of Middle America and the West.

The quest: To dodge the slings and arrows of holiday cheer

Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2007

There had to be someplace to go Christmas shopping without smelling fake pine scents, hearing robotic toys that tell jokes as good as eggnog and age just as well, and suffering "Jingle Bell Rock" in excess of Geneva Convention rules governing torture. Probably this place sells guns.

Paul camp marches to own beat

Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007

On the day that Ron Paul, the feisty Republican presidential candidate, reportedly exceeded his audacious quarterly fundraising goal of $12 million by more than $6 million, his supporters marched through downtown Las Vegas, hurled tea bags at the IRS and denounced money. They demanded a return to the gold standard and sneered at the unsupported dollar, calling it "fiat currency."

FLIRTING FOR IMPLANTS

Thursday, Dec. 13, 2007

It was a night when competitors met on the nightclub floor of battle, an event solemnized by the celebrity presence of Mario Lopez (that other guy from that '90s show about clean-cut high schoolers). The prize for which they contested? Money for breast implants. Really. It was called "Boobs or Bust 2: Go Big or Go Home," and was like the Olympics but without the athleticism, human dignity and short videos of heartwarming personal triumph.

Is this meth treatment too good to be true?

Sunday, Dec. 9, 2007

A Las Vegas drug court is considering a prescription drug-based treatment for methamphetamine addiction that drug counselors and addicts say works, even though it is backed by little science and has been tried and abandoned elsewhere.

For some reporters, it's just like watching TV

Friday, Nov. 16, 2007

To spend a day with the media covering the debate is to watch candidates go up in flames — at least on screen-savers — and a 12-year-old kid reporter learning about free lunches and economic policy. But first, reporters had to get past the UNLV parking guy in the orange vest.

For some reporters, it's just like watching TV

Friday, Nov. 16, 2007

To spend a day with the media covering the debate is to watch candidates go up in flames - at least on screen-savers - and a 12-year-old kid reporter learning about free lunches and economic policy. But first, reporters had to get past the UNLV parking guy in the orange vest.

Just let those sleeping dogs of cliches lie

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007

After just months and months of driving long, quaint, death-tempting New Hampshire roads and eating in small, quaint, death-tempting Iowa diners, the political media are ready for a break. And so they holler, "Vegas, baby, Vegas!"

SCENES FROM THE CAMPAIGN

Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007

ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS MORRIS

Reach for your wallet, Limbaugh

Saturday, Oct. 20, 2007

Here's how an opera-loving little old lady ended up paying $2.1 million on eBay for a bunch of senators' autographs:

FILM'S REAL EVIL: NOT ENOUGH VEGAS

Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007

A new movie opening this weekend portrays Las Vegas as a desert wasteland populated by grunting, soulless corpses with bloodshot eyes, beasts corrupting everything within reach.

Courtroom drama's Vegas sequel: Dignity-free and off-off-Strip

Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007

Like anything else that was popular 10 years ago, the O.J. Simpson show has landed in Las Vegas. With a thump.

Media snap up new Vegas show: Cirque de O.J.

Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007

By Friday, a cable-news watching nation was suffering. It had had enough of the monotonous (and so depressing) Iraq war updates , and yet it had been days since Britney Spears last embarrassed herself. Could nothing be done?

This is partying like a rock star? You want significance? How about this: in the fifth stuttering year of an unpopular war, as ice caps melt and millions of children go without ponies of their very ow

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007

On the Palms casino floor on Sunday afternoon, under a sign for Fort Knox slots, were a bunch of beery drunks. This was as close as they were going to get to the wild, debauched glamour they thought waited beyond the ropes and security guards of the MTV Music Video Awards. But they were still making the scene and hitting on all the hot looking women walking by. You ever seen so many?

The check's not in the mail

Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007

When Nevada (thoughtfully) provides a searchable list of unclaimed property and you've found out you don't have anything coming to you, there's only one good use for it: snooping on your betters.

Banning beard and yarmulke brings lawsuit for Metro

Thursday, Aug. 30, 2007

A Metro Police officer, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, has filed a lawsuit alleging that his department violated his civil rights by forbidding him from growing a beard and covering his head, as required by his faith.