$100 million: Amount Steve Wynn is spending on a state-of-the-art showroom—complete with water surrounding the audience—and production at Wynn Las Vegas.
$100 million: Amount spent building Neonopolis.
Dr. Laura, Thanks For Taking Our Call. We've Got a City Full of Strippers and We Think You Might Need a Lap Dance
On April 26 The Review-Journal ran an AP story, "Strip Club Moms Create Sense of Family for Dancers" that extolled the relationship between strippers and the dressing room assistants at Club Paradise and other Las Vegas topless clubs. Too bad the morning paper didn't nab the story on its own—the R-J could've become rich-n-famous-n-spanked on the Dr. Laura show. The radio harpy read much of the AP prose on-air, shocked and disgusted that the maternal bond would be invoked by a strip club.
After all, strippers don't have moms. And motherhood is reserved for loudmouthed, judgmental cranks. Or is that talk radio jobs?
Behind Every Goodman ...
Isn't Carolyn Goodman. Well, at least that's how it appears in court documents concerning her husband's legal duel with terrorism eavesdropper Michael Hamdan—Oscar Goodman publicly disparaged the Legacy Golf Course resident for claiming his cell phone intercepted an attack plot on Las Vegas in July 2002. Hamdan sued the Goodmans for defamation last July. District Court records show that the First Lady is distancing herself—and property; she founded The Meadows School—from her Mayor Mouth.
"Mrs. Goodman expressly warrants and represents that, should plaintiffs prevail in their claims against Oscar Goodman, Mr. Goodman's separate property and the Goodmans community property are subject to plaintiff's judgment collect efforts," reads one document. "Mrs. Goodman further represents and warrants that she will not challenge, obstruct or otherwise interfere with plaintiff's judgment collection efforts against Mr. Goodman's separate property and/or the Goodmans' community property."
And an affidavit notes that, "prior to Oscar B. Goodman making the statements which are the subject of the instant litigation, I did not consult with, discuss or have any other involvement in the same."
The Mercury's Rising, or, You Can't Catch Your Fish and Eat Them, Too
"World-class mercury carriers" is how Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist Mike Sevon describes fish in a 50-mile stretch of the lower Carson River; state biologists say mercury released by 19th-century miners contaminated the river from Carson City downstream to Lahontan Reservoir, (A toxin, high doses of mercury can destroy nerve cells, trigger heart attacks and cause cancer.)
So, of course biologists are shooing folks away from the area, which doubles as the states's only Superfund site. Of course not. That would be sensible and this is Nevada.
Instead, the wildlife department continues to stock the lower river with fish, indemnifying itself by advising folks not to eat anything caught in certain areas.
Happy fishing.
Shotgun Diplomacy
"You spend your life building something, and they come along and say they're going to haul you off to the poorhouse. I won't go willingly. I should go buy a shotgun and let them bury me here."
—Seventy-eight year-old John Sullivan, sullen over the closure of Sky Vue Mobile Home Park, his home the last 40 years. City officials deemed the complex unsafe and gave residents until today to vacate.