Even gambling execs were living in tents by the river in late 1970s. (I filmed them.) Growth spurred by the openings of the MGM Grand (now Grand Sierra) and five other new hotels made the area burst at the seams. Speculators from California were driving around with suitcases full of cash looking to snap up properties at any price knowing they could make big bucks on a quick … [Read more...]
Selling propaganda about Jan. 6
I disappeared into one of those famous YouTube rabbit holes researching my grandfather’s role in engineering the Burma Road during WWII. I emerged thinking about Jan. 6 and the brazen political attempt to manipulate what happened that day. If you search “Burma Road” you will find dozens of vintage war films, some of them narrated by Ronald Reagan. These films are interesting … [Read more...]
Playing ball at Golden Eagle is hazardous to your health
BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH. Nevada is a great place to dwell if you don’t have to breathe. As my old football coach once noted, breathing is voluntary. Today’s fearless leaders are like my coach. Only worse. FOWL BALL. That fluttery squawking you hear is Sparks City Hall playing chicken with your kids’ lives. The chickens are now coming home to roost. Don’t say I didn’t … [Read more...]
Dilbert is dead
Well, that was quick. Nationally syndicated cartoonist Scott Adams, creator of the popular newspaper cartoon “Dilbert” was dropped enmasse by newspapers last week, including the Las Vegas Sun and its container newspaper, the Las Vegas Review-Journal.) The cultural sin that brought on his cancellation came in a podcast in which Adams commented on a Rasmussen survey that … [Read more...]
Selling sex in morally righteous Mississippi West
Nevada opened for business this week in full swagger and strut. CLINGING TO THE LEDGE: On Monday evening, Gomorrah South Assemblymember Venicia Considine, D-Clark, hosted a preview showing of “Storming Caesars Palace: How Black Mothers Fought Their Own War on Poverty.” Silver State civil rights legend Ruby Duncan, now 90, twice organized thousands to march down the Las … [Read more...]
Phone-O-Vision
I believe every generation has problems coming to grips with the new things that are invented by the generation coming of age. The industrial revolution was to me the age of invention that will never be out done. There are though some things, now that I am of a certain generation, that I am amazed by. Not only amazed but sometimes a titch uncomfortable with. One of those is the … [Read more...]
Do Nevada’s senators think we’re stupid?
I’ve noted this in previous columns. Allow me to underline it again because it is important. After Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto saw her political life flash in front of her in the last election cycle, there’s been a marked increase in press releases from her office extolling the hard work she’s doing on behalf of Nevadans. So the same from our other alleged senator, Jacky … [Read more...]
Abandon hope all ye who enter here
The Nevada Legislature has started its retro-19th Century, every-other-year scramble to adjourn with minimal damage to the body politick. This year, the lineup is stocked with starry-eyed newbies proposing windmills of laws worthy of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. It’s all a hangover of President Ronald the Vague’s fabled and fatuous pronouncement that “government is the … [Read more...]