OJ Simpson's appeal was denied and he will stay in prison. The high court decided also decided that his partner, CJ Stewart should have been tried separately and he will get a new trial.

9 year old Rene-Charles Angelil lost out on over 66% of his potential of multimillion dollar inheritance when his mom, Celine Dion, gave birth to twins.

A 20 year old man was killed in crash on Interstate 15 at Spring Mountian when his vehicle was struck by another vehicle. The dead man's vehicle was a motorized wheel chair.

The first snow of the season on Mt Charleston fell this week. It is at a higher elevation than the ski resort and the recording station, so there is no official report of how much fell. The hot air should leave the state next week when the elections are over.

Crybaby NIMBYs are ruining the goodwill of others. Dr. Lonnie Hammargren has cancelled his Nevada Day open house this year for the second year in a row due to whinny neighbors who moved in to the neighborhood after he started collecting historical pieces of Nevada History. The Paradise Town Advisory Board has decided to recommend to Clark County to NOT allow Wayne Newton permits to allow tours of his home. The opposing residents are relatively new to the neighborhood. NIMBY---Not In My Back Yard.

A man was robbed and stabbed in the Orleans parking lot on Monday morning.

The RTC opened a new bus terminal hub near Bonneville and Third. This will be a center for all major bus lines. It is state of the art, LEED green certified, will serve the new City Hall, and even has bicycle rentals available. It has special parking for bicycles and hybrid vehicles.

The Daily Beast rated Las Vegas as the dumbest metro area of the 55 areas they surveyed. They based it on number of residents with higher education degrees, nonfiction book sales. I look at everything from local news to the senate race and I don't have any ammo to argue their point.

Dwight Jones from Colorado will be the new Clark County Education Superintendent. His salary will be about $250,000 with another $150,000 in perks.

Terry Fator settled a lawsuit with his former manager from the signing of his deal with The Mirage after he won America's Got Talent. Terry will pay the man 10 million dollars. That covers the managers cut for the first half of the 10 year contract.

Arrest records show that George Maloof was driving 72 mph down Tropicana. He almost backed over police vehicle twice, and claims that he drank 5 beers and took Ambien sleep medicine on the night he got his DUI last week.

Why would you drink 5 beers and take ambien, and then GO for a drive? WTF was he thinking?

maybe he is going for an Ambien causes sleep driving defense.

At the time of his arrest, I think he said that he had been to a wedding rehearsal or something like that.

It really doesn't matter what he did. Charges won't stick to him because he has friends in high places. Obama has been known to spend the night at his house when in town. His neighbors have been vocal about the extra security when he visits.

I hate to read about anything happening in the parking lot of the casino. It pays to always be aware of your surrounding. Las Vegas may be "the adult Disneyland" but it ain't the happiest place on earth!
We are always mindful of where and when we park the car in Vegas.

Not much news this week, as I spent most of my time at the SEMA show.

A Clark County teacher died of lead poisoning when he shot himself at Western High School. It was a non-student day, but many other teachers and some sports were active at the time. "They say" he was under a lot of stress.

Not to be outdone by last weeks news, a man in a wheelchair crashed with a garbage truck. The truck won.

A couple was having a domestic dispute in their apartment. The woman started throwing lit matches all over the apartment. Both face first degree arson charges.

Harrah's exec and former Las Vegas mayorette Jan Jones got up on Tuesday morning and saw her shadow indicating 6 more years of Harry Reid as US Senator representing Nevada. Not only was she involved with Harrah's e-mails encouraging all employees to get out and vote, the e-mails specified that the employees should vote for Harry Reid. And there were follow up spread sheets showing every Harrah's employee name, rank, and serial number, as well as whether they voted or not and a place for management to document why they did not vote.

Now that the elections are over, we're counting down months until our next major election when we select a new mayor. The happiest mayor in the universe is not eligible due to term limits.

Harrah's is going public again and rebranding it as Caesars Entertainment.

And the guy that was stabbed in the parking lot of the Orleans was a Fuddruckers manager on his way to the bank with about $7500 on him. The man and woman who robbed and stabbed the guy were his own Fuddrucker employees.

WoW, thats a tough break for the Fudruckers guy! Any word on how the guy is doing that got stabbed?

Over 12 pounds of black tar heroin with a value of over a million dollars was seized at McCarran airport. And it just happens that a North Las Vegas high school junior was caught with an ounce of heroin the same day

A convicted felon and sex offender is behind bars after he tried to cash a hot check at a southwest area WalMart. When the clerk would not cash the check, the man pistol whipped the clerk, then left a backpack with what he said was a bomb. The WalMart was evacuated while the bomb squad discovered that the alleged bomb was a fake hand grenade.

Street thug youths on a rampage. Several gangs of youths have been terrorizing innocent victims in the last couple of weeks. Some related, some not. Sometimes the motive is robbery of money, cell phones, and ipods. Sometimes it is just for brutality.

Woman injured when her car slid off the road on Mt Charleston. A good reminder for tourists that regardless of conditions in Las Vegas, Mt Charleston road conditions should be considered separately. It was suspected that the woman slid off the road on black ice.

The Carnival Splendor cruise ship that blew an engine and had to be towed into port had several Las Vegas residents on board. One did not make it home, and remains in jail in California. It seems that when customs did a background check, one woman had an outstanding felony warrant for grand theft.

Big shakeup in the upper ranks of the LVRJ. I haven't dissected everything just yet. It appears the CEO, publisher, and other key positions are being changed. It is not clear yet if the changes have anything to do with the frivolous copyright lawsuits or the anti-Harry Reid campaign at the paper.

Nevada's population has declined for the first time in recent history.

Over 50 people were arrested in Las Vegas during a nationwide child prostitution crackdown.

After 3 long years for Wynn dealers, they have approved a 10 year union contract offered by Wynn. Supervisors still get the workers tips. Steve Wynn is surprised that a deal was reached.

Is it a win for Las Vegas when Wynn's new president is Winn? Marilyn Winn will leave Harrah's to take over Wynn as current President Andrew Pascal steps down. If that's too much WIN, John Unwin is still Chief Executive of Cosmopolitan Las Vegas.

The 300 wing at the Tropicana, which is the motel style rooms closest to Tropicana Blvd was imploded early Tuesday morning. This was a very small wing and the area will be used as part of a new entrance, a restaurant, and mostly just a parking lot. The other motel style rooms will remain…for now.

On Veterans Day, McCarran airport opened its new USO lounge.

Sorry to hear about the Trop's 300 wing as at one time it was one of the best places to stay along the LV Strip .... especially after the Sands low rise pool area units were demolished.

Many old timers do not like high rise hotel units so I hope that the Trop upgrades the remaining low rise units around the pool area.

Terribles casino on Paradise and Flamingo was evacuated when the escalators caught fire and it spread into the walls. The property is very close to a fire department and the flames were extinguished quickly.

Righthaven, the firm that files copyright lawsuits for the LVRJ, dropped it's suit against Sharron Angle, but is still filing more and more copyright suits against others.

Rumor has it that Bobby Slayton will return to Hooters for February and March weekends.

Harrah's Entertainment has backed out of a public sale of stock that was intended to raise money. The IPO was canceled as Harrah's thought the offering price would be too high. I'm guessing that they will not do the name change to Caesars Entertainment.

After a picture perfect week of fall weather, bone chilling winter will be storming into Las Vegas this week. The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort should open in a few days.

Wayne Newton has won approval from Clark County for zoning his home for tourists. Tour bus entrance is restricted from 8am till 6pm, and must enter from the Sunset Park side.

The Green Valley High School Marching Band will perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Ethyl M's cactus garden is now aglow in Christmas lights. They are free to view and worth a night trip. The pay lights of Opportunity Village and the Gift of Lights at the speedway are lit also.

Metro police shot and killed two men in two separate incidents. In one, a man swinging a walking cane at people refused to obey police orders. Police used pepper spray, taser (twice), and bean bag shots before resulting to deadly force. Police say the cane had some sort of metal thing on the end that could hurt someone. In the other case, a man held a knife at the throat of a bartender and police stopped that situation before it got worse.

Bones found in Red Rock Canyon were thought to be part of a human vertebrae. The next day a search turned up more bones and it was determined to not be human remains, claiming it was an animal. A few days later it was determined to be human remains. Now the remains have been identified as a hiker who has been missing for over 5 years when his car was found at the Silverton.

You know it's Christmas time in Las Vegas when Christmas decorations are stolen from a church.

Record cold weather stormed in as Lee came to town. Locals were not caught off guard. We broke out the parkas and blankets when temps hit the low 60s.

Idiot jumped from 19th floor of Palms tower on Thanksgiving and got his wish.

Stations Casinos is going back to the old 24/7 Grand Cafe coffee shops. They had starting converting to Denny's and Cocos a few years ago. Historically, the Grand Cafe had a decent reputation and the Coco's that I tried were fairly horrible.

Mt Charleston got a healthy dose of fresh snow on Sunday. Very light snow came down to about 1000 ft above the valley floor and that show melted pretty quick. The Mt Charleston Ski and Snowboard Resort opened for it's 47th ski season.

For the 3rd month in 3 years, McCarran airport traffic was up. It was only up 2%, but it beats a loss of traffic.

Harrah's did go ahead with the name change to Caesars Entertainment. Harrah's, Binion's, WSOP, and Caesars will continue to be major brands of the Caesars Entertainment.

A magnitude 3.3 earthquake hit about 150 miles north of Las Vegas on Monday night. No damage or injuries were reported.

110,000 travelers went through McCarran airport on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. That's less than an average day just a few years ago.

Man stabs his girlfriend to death in their apartment, then goes out in his cab and pulls over to the side of the freeway, then jumps out into oncoming traffic and is struck by big rig.

Two police involved shootings this week were shootings of dogs. An off duty police officer shot a neighbors dog when it chased her husband into their garage and started to attack him. A Clark County School District investigation into stolen computers led cops to a home. When the door opened, a pit bull charged out and cops shot it.

A Pahrump school teacher, two aides, and the principal were all arrested for unusual cruel punishment of special needs students.

The home of Heidi Fleiss caught fire on Thanksgiving morning. The attention whore and her birds escaped without injury. The fire started from a chimney that was not equipped with a spark arrestor and sparks ignited a part of her home that was a bamboo aviary. Heidi and the traumatized birds will live in the guest house for now.

Any stats on average, how many jumpers per year? I say , install a diving board, over a rollback dumpster.
I know, I'll probably hear about that comment!

Zappos wants to move downtown to City Hall after the new City Hall is built

A woman at a gun range taking a gun class shot herself in the head.

A man was found dead on Tuesday morning with a gunshot wound to the head in the Silverton parking garage

Steve Wynn proposed to his long time girlfriend at the Sinatra restaurant on Tuesday night.

Vandals spray painted gang markings on petroglyphs at Red Rock Canyon.

The Las Vegas Locos won their second straight league championship football game.

The NASCAR champions are in town for their awards ceremonies. The top 12 drivers drove their cars up and down a closed strip with donuts, burn outs, and a pit stop in front of the Bellagio fountains before heading down Harmon to the Hard Rock.

The cowboys are in town as the National Finals Rodeo takes Las Vegas by storm.

A 16,000 year old Mammoth Tusk was found just north of Las Vegas. Fossils are not rare i9n this area. This one is huge though.

A Metro police officer was arrested for DUI after he crashed his cruiser in Henderson. He was more than twice the legal limit.

Steve Wynn sold a Plaza penthouse in New York that he bought earlier this summer. The price was over $24 million and about a million more than he paid for it. Factoring taxes and fees, Steve just about broke even. The guy that bought it is the person Steve originally outbid a few months earlier.

Lingerie Bowl VIII will take place at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas on Feb 6, 2011

Earthquakes continue to rattle the Reno area with about 25 quakes this week. The largest was about 3.1.

The Donnie and Marie wrap on the front of the Flamingo started coming down as their lawsuit with promoter Chip Lightman was settled. The got most of it off pretty quick, but there's still large portions still up.

Frank Marino, who has spent a lot of time in the hospital lately was rushed to the hospital with a meat ball stuck in his throat.

The Sahara hotel settled a lawsuit of discrimination after an Egyptian employee suffered harassment and was fired when he complained.

A dead person found in the jacuzzi of the Imperial Palace has not been identified.

October gaming revenue was up 11% statewide with downtown and the strip doing well.

The Lingerie Bowl VIII official game uniforms were unveiled and looking good. The game will take place at the Thomas and Mack on Feb 6. One team will be in green with black trim, and the other will be in white with blue trim.

The Stupak Community Center, the Natural History Museum, and Fire Station #10 are now equipped with solar carports to generate electricity for the city. They also have car charging ports that will recharge electric cars.

A new Smashburger will open on Wednesday on Maryland Parkway near UNLV. A new Steak N Shake will open at the SouthPoint on Friday.

The owner of the Lady Luck has revealed more details on the overhaul of the property. It will have a new name and is proposed to open in late 2012.

An animal control officer is in the hospital after being attacked by a pack of pit bulls. The owner had 3 full grown attack dogs and nine younger dogs.

Lots of arrests locally. A teenager that tagged ancient petroglyphs in Red Rock Canyon was arrested. The wife of a Nellis airman that was gunned down as he opened his garage door to go to work was arrested along with 3 of her friends. Two women were arrested in a case from this summer when they killed a 95 year old lady by dragging her around by their car and running over her, just so they could get money to get their boyfriend out of jail. A man was arrested for the murder of a woman 30 years ago.

The Henderson City Council passed a measure requiring all new homes to be equipped with fire extinguishers.

There appears to be a fine element of irony in an Egyptian suing the Sahara.

I feel an element of nostalgia for the loss of the Lady Luck. We first went there to see the place when we were pretty new to Las Vegas. There were two things that made an impression: the two block walk from Fremont Street seemed very scary and on the slot floor, they had little liquor carts being pushed around so you could get you drink immediately made right at your machine.

thief steals 2 million in chips from the bellagio. could be a tough fence or sell on those babies.wonder if the bell has chips in thier chips? or will they just buy new chips?

Eric & ellen,
I remember those to things about the Lady Luck as well! I also remember the horrible taste of some of those drinks. The OJ for the screwdrivers was terrible. Kinda like Tang.
One other slight memory from the Lady, was what I thought at the time, cheap plastic chips with a metal button in the center, but as time moved forward I've seen others use them.

A Nye County Public Administrator was the victim of home invasion where he was tied up and robbed by 6 people. He resigned from his job a few days later. Considering Pahrump politics, this story might not be over.

Cosmo opened with big fanfare, some opening day goof ups, and protests. Most everyone thought it was a beautiful sight to see.

City Center celebrated it's first birthday. The report card shows a major fail. MRI execs see a bright future.

The Herbst family is backing out of management and board positions with their namesake casinos and slot machine operations. The company has been in bankruptcy for about a year and is being managed by another firm.

Binion's has another layoff. Binion's has now closed their valet parking.

Wynn has been ordered to re-hire a dealer who was fired for pushing for union representation.

A mountain lion has been spotted in Boulder City several times and city officials say if you see one to remain calm and don't run away. Their advice is if you encounter a mountain lion: Do all you can to appear large and threatening. Hold your ground. Wave your arms. Shout. Throw rocks if the lion approaches.

It's one of those times when the clouds/fog are low enough that the lights of the strip light up the clouds. It will be that way for about 5 more days.

A lady in a wheelchair is dead after playing chicken with a pickup truck on S Eastern Ave.

A dancer from the Luxor show Fantasy has mysteriously become missing. She was last seen on Sunday and there is no word on what happened to her.

The on again/off again Cloud 9 balloon ride is now off again. This time for good?

Nevada leads the nation in Taser deaths. The latest volunteer tried to run away after a routine traffic stop. The man struggled, ran away, and jumped a brick fence before police shot him with the taser.

Armed robbery at the Bellagio. A man entered the pit area wearing a motorcycle helmet and flashing a handgun. He got away on a black Suzuki with mostly chips from a craps table valued at about $2 million. He is suspected of a robbery at the Suncoast poker room last week.

Garth Brooks will do less shows and charge twice the price of his shows in 2011.

Local Walmart associate arrested for stealing merchandise and selling it on eBay. Just for kicks, try saying eBay in pig latin. Value of the items taken are estimated by the thief to be about $10,000. Store officials estimate the value to be about $250,000,

Two Clark County teachers arrested this week in separate incidents. One for theft, one for threatening a principal.

Attention whore Floyd Maywether Jr was arrested again. Blah, blah, blah.

Random commentary:

When you check in at the Cosmopolitan, are you issued a cat or puppy?

On the Taser deaths, after "The Hangover", Las Vegas has a reputation to maintain.

I doubt that Binions closing their valet will turn out to be a money making move. It can't cost much given that the valets are tipped and there is some fraction of the public that does not like self-parking at casinos due to security concerns.

Between CityCenter and Cosmopolitan, they seem to be adding new room nights at a faster rate than Las Vegas is increasing visitor rates. This would appear to be good news for continuing low room rates but bad news for the survival of marginal properties.

New Years Eve events are planned as usual. The long range forecast for that evening is to be extremely cold with a chance of snow.

Federal officials are talking with Mexico for a water pact wherein Lake Mead would store Mexico's allocation of Colorado River water until they can use it. Mexico suffered a major earthquake in April that damaged canals and reservoirs and is unable to handle it's allocation that it uses mainly for irrigation. Mexico is allocated about 5 times as much water as Nevada.

Locals can give blood before the end of the year and get free Penn and Teller tickets. I did, and I also got 4 compact fluorescent light bulbs from the electric company.

Heavy rain from last Friday through Thursday did lots of damage in the Las Vegas area. Many roads were washed out and closed. The bright side was beautiful waterfalls in Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire. We were lucky because we've had years and years of flood control measures put into place to handle these rains.

Mesquite, Beaver Dam, St George, and other communities upstream have not been as lucky. The Virgin River and the Muddy River have flooded more than most people can remember. Several bridges have been washed out and homes have been washed into the river.

Mt Charleston is suffering from the first winter storm. Over 7 feet of very heavy and wet snow fell in the mountains. Power outages and avalanche warnings have forced evacuations from the mountain. Power has not been restored yet.

The 2010 Census netted Nevada a fourth seat in in the House Of Representatives.

The missing dancer from the Luxor is still missing. Her ex-boyfriend admits seeing her the last day she was seen. He is also charged in a domestic violence incident in October, and failed to show up for court on Tuesday. A burned body found near Lake Mead on Thursday is said to not be the dancer.

A woman named Dorothy was playing a Wizard Of Oz machine and hit for $2.9 million at Planet Hollywood.

McCarran Airport in Las Vegas is going to bag tags that contain an RF ID chip. Bags will be tracked throughout the airport. Currently Hong Kong is the only other airport in the world that has this technology. Eventually, more and more airports will have this system and your bags will be tracked better than ever before.

Pedestrians continue to test their strength against an automobile. At least 3 contestants this week. No winners.

A Piper Cherokee lost power and made an emergency landing on the street near Jones and Cheyenne and was taken to a Family Dollar parking lot, out of the way. It was later towed to the North Las Vegas Airport about a mile away. No people were seriously injured and the plane was not damaged.