Experts In The News

CNET

On Valentine's Day, millions present flowers, chocolates and cards to their sweethearts. While the holiday's traditions really became cemented in the 1800s, historians link its roots to wild pagan revelries from before the birth of Saint Valentine himself.

K.L.A.S. T.V. 8 News Now

Whether you’re married or dating, this Valentine’s Day is the time to express your love.

Teen Vogue

The origins of Valentine’s Day are pretty obscure. While scholars generally agree that the holiday was popularized in the 1840s in the U.K. and U.S., the specific historical roots of the celebration remain ambiguous. Some say it began with the Roman pagan festival Lupercalia, a fertility festival from February 13-15 involving animal sacrifice, ritualized sex play, and general debauchery. Others point to Roman emperor Claudius II’s execution of several men named Valentine on February 14, one of whom later became a martyr in the Christian faith. Fast forward several centuries and the holiday shows up again in the Middle Ages, with Chaucer’s poem “Parliament of Fowls” (referring to the mating pattern of birds in early spring), and later in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, which alludes to lucky lovers meeting on St. Valentine’s Day. But how do a pagan fertility festival, a Christian martyr, and English poetry connect with this now ubiquitous, commercialized celebration of love?

WRAL

Jolene Sliwka was searching through a thrift store for vintage t-shirts and used records 35 years ago when she picked up a “scratch off and sniff” Valentine’s Day card and added it to her haul.

K.L.A.S. T.V. 8 News Now

Data from what the Las Vegas Valley is flushing shows a deep decline in omicron, but a spike in the so-called “stealth omicron” variant, scientists at UNLV tell the 8 News Now I-Team.

K.V.V.U. T.V. Fox 5

Nurses across Las Vegas have left the area or the profession during the pandemic, leaving critical staffing shortages as the omicron surge swept through Nevada and filled hospitals.

The Nevada Independent

Cesar Silva — who came to the U.S. illegally three decades ago and is the father of nationally-known Nevada-based immigration activist Astrid Silva — is now the subject of a new bill from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) that would make him eligible for legal permanent resident status, or at least temporarily halt the threat of deportation.

The Hill

A record number of Americans plan to spend more than $7.6 billion on this weekend’s Super Bowl as states across the nation race to legalize — and profit from — sports betting.