A silver TI stretch limo pulled up to Long Elementary and let loose two Sirens and two Pirates, all hair extensions and flesh, tattoos and jingly jewelry. They were here, obviously, to read! And read they did. Who knew? A packed room of fourth- and fifth-graders were entranced as the foursome read aloud from How I Became a Pirate—taking a stab at the new education motto: "It's not so bad to be a kid in the Clark County School District, half-naked pirates read to you." After the book, hands shot up with questions: "Do you live on an island?" "How big is your ship?" and the teacher's: "Well, how DID you REALLY get to be a pirate?" Answers: Gymnastics, dance class, auditions and "I was a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders." Ah, for the love of reading. Note that magician Mac King can also read: He's the head of Clark County Reads reading month.
15 months: Duration of a Las Vegas Housing Authority mold investigation
146: Number of apartments inspected
128: Number of dwellings where mold was found
10: Percent of annual budget dedicated to repairing mold-infested buildings
VIA, the magazine of the California State Automobile Association, features Las Vegas in its March-April issue. There's a bits-and-pieces package with nice little riffs on the usual stuff: Lenin's frozen head, the colored lightbulbs over Fremont Street, Lance Burton. But most impressive is the lead story by Sports Illustrated senior writer Richard Hoffer, which may not break new ground but has a level of restraint and maturity generally (and oddly) missing in national media takes on Las Vegas. Hoffer hits the Manhattanization theme without losing his head over it, enjoys the mayor without making a cartoon of him and calls us a sort-of normal town without acting like that's a shocking discovery. "Las Vegas, after 100 years of marginal citizenship in this country, may be becoming more like any other city ...," he writes. "Yet at its core, this is still a city that genuinely adores nonsense, cultivates the amazement of its visitors, and most of all believes in everyone's right to buy fun." Then he concludes with the very question we've been asking for decades around here: "Is that bad?"
"Sen. Raggio has lived 88 percent of the time Las Vegas has been in existence."
If Assembly Bill 142 passes, Nevada could join dozens of other states that have had scrapes over open-records' laws. The legislation would make confidential assessors' records of nearly two dozen officials, including police, lawmakers, district attorneys, public defenders, judges, and corrections and juvenile officers, as well as the addresses and phone numbers of police found on voter registration records.
Ticket Prices for The Ultimate Fighter, April 9 at UNLV's Cox Pavilion: $350, $250, and, for the more frugal among us, the cheap seats: $150. At least it's the ultimate fighter, not just any punk trying to make a career of locking himself in a cage to brutalize some other guy.
3,271,627: The number of arriving and departing passengers at McCarran International Airport in January 2005.
2,979,524: The number of arriving and departing passengers at McCarran International Airport in January 2004.
500,000: The number of arriving and departing passengers at McCarran International Airport who were so inebriated they don't remember ever being in the airport, and may or may not have been fawning over Wheel of Fortune machines in the terminal.
Few folks would confuse San Francisco with Las Vegas, never mind substitute one for the other, but that's precisely what the BBC is doing. Quake, a docudrama about the 1989 disaster that rocked Frisco, has come to Vegas for a three-week shoot, according to the Review-Journal. An inside shoot, as it turns out, for those who prefer their earthquakes without the threat of inclement weather. Given Frisco's ever-present fog, filmmakers decided to film re-creations inside Las Vegas' Big Pictures Studio, and cast 18 local actors. Now if we could just lure the Giants to town, then flash back a few decades, re-popularize tie-dyed shirts and recall Timothy Leary's remains from outer space.
The History Channel on Tuesday debuted Breaking Vegas, a series profiling "people who took on Vegas—and took it for lots of cash ... sometimes, they got away with it, and sometimes, the odds—and law enforcement—caught up to them." The two-hour episode (future programs will be one-hour) profiled Richard Marcus, who bilked enough money through blackjack and roulette to buy a pad in the French Riviera, and Ron Harris, a computer-security specialist for the Nevada Gaming Commission who served two years in prison for rigging slots and cheating at keno.
Urban-inspired artist Dray is used to battling government types—county critics claim his work inspires graffiti; city code enforcers harassed him over a mural of a naked woman on his Downtown home. So imagine Dray's surprise when he was recently commissioned to do a mural celebrating Las Vegas' Centennial.
Who contacted who?
Actually, there was an artist call for the project, and I had to submit it to the city. And I was one of the artists chosen.
What was your reaction?
My initial reaction was a feeling of accomplishment. I was selected because of the merit of my work.
Did you consider saying no?
It's funny, because since all of the controversy with the mural being not good for kids to see, I've been doing a lot of community-involved projects. The Girl Scouts of Frontier Council commissioned me to do five paintings for their office. Imagine that, the Girl Scouts. And now the Centennial mural.
Do you have carte blanche to do what you want?
It will come down to some different artists. And five will be selected to do murals in the final decision.
How much are you getting paid?
The Centennial Mural paid me a stipend of $1,000 and another $250 for supplies. And I might possibly be doing another Centennial mural for the Las Vegas Spring Preserves.