A vocal contingent of Bay Area residents, doggedly opposing a massive tribal casino near San Francisco, recently released statements urging California lawmakers to scuttle the project. "Opening a Las Vegas-style casino in the middle of the urban area will have enormous social and economic impacts. This project just doesn't make sense for our community."
—Janisha Sabnani, founder of stopsanpablo.com & the Stop San Pablo Casino Community Coalition, comprising 500 supporters including clergy, homeowners and others.
"The money spent at the casino will come straight out of the pockets of my community. There is no good reason to turn a generation of young adults already at-risk into nothing more than an ATM for out-of-state gambling interests."
"The [pro-casino] report was commissioned by the Lytton tribe and based its rosy predictions on the notion that gamblers will just stay home and not travel to rural casinos and Las Vegas. That just isn't true. Las Vegas revenues haven't been dented at all since casinos have come to California. In city after city where gaming has come to the urban area, we see an increase in gambling by local residents."
Think all those Vegas reality shows are taking a toll?
The home of the Bass Pro Shops has now become Hootieville. The Silverton recently inked Hootie and the Blowfish to a deal to brand a nightclub and perform at the south Strip casino.
The Bellagio Conservatory unveils its latest work of floral-surrounded art, in honor of the Chinese New Year: A 500 pound, 10-foot tall rooster that "comes to life with animated sound and movement." Koons' puppy may be 43 feet tall, but we're almost certain it doesn't cockle-doodle-doo.
United Press International recently reported that scores of veterans from the Iraqi war are showing up in homeless shelters across the country, adding to the estimated 300,000 veterans that are homeless on any given night, some of whom end up dying on the streets. According to local homeless activist Linda Lera Randle-El, four homeless veterans died in 2004:
—Carlton Aiken, 46, Marine, died of hypothermia on January 3 at Interstate 15 and the Charleston off ramp.
—John Shindle, 56, Marine, died February 11 of coronary atherosclerosis on Las Vegas Boulevard South.
—Michael Smythe, 51, Coast Guard, died June 6 of end-stage liver disease/heat stress at University Medical Center.
—Patrict Fraley, age unknown, Navy, died August 6 of acute heroin and alcohol intoxication on Swenson Street.
Will those numbers rise once the Iraqi conflict ends and U.S. troops come home? Stay tuned.
Pointers on Vegas excerpted from comments by "Turtle," a participant in the American Mechanics bulletin board site on Google.com:
• Don't get off Fremont and the Strip. I don't know the difference in Fremont and the Strip, for they are tied together in an L-shaped thing.
• Go to the most lights and pull the one-arm bandits. I was told by [a service technician] at the Aladdin that the ones with the most lights have higher overhead and will make up for it by having higher than normal BIG money payouts to draw more crowds to make up for the lights and more overhead.
• The best prime rib I ever ate in my life was at the Circus Circus. Two cab drivers and a dealer at the Four Queens told me [when] the locals want a good steak, they will go there. The prime ribs were huge.
• When you go for breakfast, go to the breakfast bars and not the order-breakfast places. Every hotel has a fair breakfast bars. I think it's all you can eat for $3 and sometimes, between certain hours, it is $1.
You might be interested, or not, to know that Nevada Research Instititute ecologist Mary Cablk has successfully trained German shepherds to sniff out the threatened desert tortoise. The goal of Cablk's research, she told the Las Vegas Sun, was to allow researchers gain insight into the threatened creatures.
Cablk and biologist Jill Heaton conducted the tests, in which dogs were locate tortoises 90 percent of time and from as far as 200 feet away, at the Bureau of Land Management Desert Tortoise Conservation Center. Now, we know what you're thinking. We thought the same thing: Who knew there was such a thing as the Bureau of Land Management Desert Tortoise Conservation Center.
Next week, the annual Sundance Film Festival will be screening the documentary Inside Deep Throat.
According to the press release, "this new documentary examines the chasm between the modest intentions of the filmmakers behind Deep Throat and the enduring impact and legacy that their film left on society."
Though not the original filmmaker, Las Vegas resident Raymond Pistol is the current owner of the 1972 porn classic.
When did you buy the rights to the film and why?
They made me offer I couldn't refuse in 1994.
Is Deep Throat still a popular film?
Yes, it sells thousands of copies every month.
To what do you attribute its lasting popularity?
It has become an American icon, because it was at the forefront of the battle between government and Hollywood on censorship and sexual freedom versus sexual repression.
Were you involved in the making of the documentary?
Yeah, I appear in it, and I gave them a lot of footage.
Why do you think there is still so much interest in Deep Throat, even though the film is over 30 years old—and yet here comes a new documentary?
At this point it is historical. But also because of a "garment malfunction," all of the sudden the same issues have come to fore. It is just like we revisit Vietnam in the Iraq war, we are also revisiting that previous war on adult entertainment now, too.