Best Description Yet of Mayor Oscar Goodman
"A martini-swilling former mob lawyer with a Santa Claus belly, a rosy pink W.C. Fields nose and a well-groomed Yasser Arafat beard."
Make Way! Make Way! Emergency Case Comin' Through! Clear a Path to the Buffet Table, STAT! She Could Evaporate at Any Moment!
—The Sin City skinny is that matchstick with legs Lara Flynn Boyle is joining the cast of NBC's Las Vegas, playing the new boss of the fictional Montecito Hotel and Casino. Will the pretend-resort build her an entire buffet floor?
Century Mark Looms For Gaming Bucks
According to Gambling Magazine, which cites a Price-waterhouseCoopers report on global gaming that was released earlier this summer, by 2009:
• Las Vegas casinos will be making $15.8 billion from gaming, up from $10.6 billion last year.
• Native American casinos will earn $26 billion, up from $18.5 billion in 2004.
Nationwide, gaming revenue will increase from $47.3 billion in 2004 to $64.1 billion.
And worldwide by 2009, gaming revenues are projected to reach $100 billion, up from $68.5 billion.
Cheetahs: So Malone Is Guilty. So Galardi Is A Magnet For Investigation. What We Really Want To Know Is, Are There Fruit Flies in the Soda Gun?
Apparently, unfortunately, yes.
From the R-J's health inspection reports, July 20:
"Cheetahs bar, 2112 S. Western Ave., received 30 demerits July 5. Violations included fruit flies in soda gun cup; insufficient hot water in dump sink and women's restroom hand sink; and bartender working with expired health card. GRADE: C"
Since Low Marks in Quality-of-Life Surveys Seem Like a Nevada Birthright, Here Goes Another
Nevada is the seventh-worst state for African-Americans, according to blackcommentator.com, a website dispensing "commentary, analysis and investigations on issues affecting African-Americans." The website's main barometer—incarceration rates, i.e., the percentage of blacks imprisoned, per capita numbers of black inmates to black representation in the total population, and racial disparities in lockup rates. Blacks are incarcerated at four times the rate of whites, according to the study, which extracted 2004 data from the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics and the U.S. Census. Though only 7 percent of the population, blacks comprised 27 percent of Nevada's 10,000-plus inmates. The website's associate editor, Bruce Dixon, says changing discriminatory public policy is key to addressing disparate incarceration rates. He writes: "In fact, it is misleading and foolish to portray the problem of racially selective mass imprisonment as one addressable by a million individual solutions, by several hundred thousand family solutions, or by 10,000 black church and small business solutions. The problem is that public policy in America only moves in the direction of addressing human needs when under the insistent pressure of mass movements."
We Didn't Make This Up, But We Wish We Did
Story from the Victorville Daily Press, California, July 26:
"Man Wants Barstow to Be New Las Vegas"
"BARSTOW— A West Hollywood man envisions as many as 206 casinos in the Barstow area, and he's hoping California residents will share his dream.
"David Keith Johnson, a software program manager, has submitted to the state a casino gaming initiative that he hopes to put before state voters ...
"Among the provisions of Johnson's initiative are the following:
"• Gaming revenue would finance areas like education
"• A canal system extending to the Pacific Ocean would provide fresh water (Johnson said he imagines this happening through desalinization or by bringing icebergs down the canals)
"• A tracking system would prevent California residents from gambling more than 10 percent of their incomes ...
"'If we could get a gaming district near Barstow, along with Hollywood's draw, Southern California could become the greatest tourist attraction in the world,' Johnson said."
One critic ridiculed his idea and then added:
"But he's thinking outside of the box."
(Bugsy Siegel, anyone?)
"Tupelo, This Place is Not."
Even Better Than Owning the Brooklyn Bridge
• "It's going to add to the value of the dirt."
• Not cheap: dirt
Take That, Moody's!
• Ninth worst
• "Las Vegas is coming into its own in terms of the real-estate market."
• "Demand remains strong in commercial sectors"
• Up by 4 million square feet.
• Down 2.3 percent
• "That's why we choose to do our due diligence here and not listen to someone from New York."
Furniture Wars Follow the Weekly's Carefully Laid-Out Plan
• LV Weekly, July 21: It's "Vegas vs. High Point, North Carolina. Really ... The only problem is, the center of (the) industry, tiny High Point, N.C., has no intention of giving up the throne."
• Vegas World Market exhibitor Janice Holcom, July 26, Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal: "Our hearts lie in High Point, (N.C.), where we've shown for nearly 20 years. But we felt we had to test the waters here."
• Vegas Market exhibitor Ron Wanek, July 26: "But there is a sense of energy (in Vegas) that is quite nice and could have an impact on High Point at some point."