Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Tuesday will hold two virtual commencements on the same day for two different graduating classes.

A room at Elara booked for Monday through Airbnb is $79 with no resort fees. A nearly identical room booked for Monday through the hotel is $159.80, not including resort fees.

The Commercial Alliance Las Vegas announced its newly elected officers and directors for 2021, with Petra Latch becoming president of the commercial real estate organization starting January 1. Latch, a member of the Appraisal Institute, is executive director of valuation and advisory at Cushman & Wakefield. Other newly elected board members include: president-elect Angelina Scarcelli, CCIM, CPM, senior portfolio manager of Colliers International in Las Vegas; treasurer Bridget Atterbom, CNE, a commercial broker at Keller Williams Commercial; director Wes Drown, CCIM, of Re/Max Advantage in Henderson; and director Andrew Levy, CCIM, ARM, of ERA Brokers Consolidated.

Well before COVID-19 became a household term, Xavier Morgan-Lange, Devon Scheg and Daniel Werth got started to formulate plans for an air purification device.

This past Friday, December 11th, the Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer’s new COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use. On Sunday, the first trucks carrying Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine left a Portage, Michigan factory near Kalamazoo. They carry 2.9 million doses headed via FedEx and UPS to over 600 sites throughout the country including Las Vegas, with the first doses expected to arrive Monday.

During the Ma Ying-jeou presidency in Taiwan (2008-2016), confrontations over relations with the People’s Republic of China stressed the country’s institutions, leading to a political crisis. Nevertheless, as documented in Dynamics of Democracy in Taiwan, a new book edited by Kharis Templeman, Yun-han Chu, and Larry Diamond, its democracy proved to be resilient. In this discussion, several of the book’s contributors will reflect on the politics of this era, and what subsequent developments tell us about the enduring strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan’s democracy.

The growth of esports betting globally through 2020 has been discussed at length. Its potential in the U.S. market alone is vast, but it’s certainly been more of an uphill challenge given the legality of sports betting state to state.

In the mid-1990s, a novel wedding tradition became popular among African Americans: ‘jumping the broom’. As the couple is pronounced legally wed, they turn to the crowd, clasp hands and jump over a broomstick placed on the floor. One couple explained the ritual’s attraction. ‘It’s traditional,’ they said, ‘and we need to bring it back to our culture. Every Black person should do it.’ For them, as for many, culture and tradition were intimately linked to group identity, and jumping the broom symbolised racial and ethnic unity among those descended from enslaved people in the United States. Indeed, couples who did not jump the broom prior to its widespread revival often expressed regret that they were unaware of the custom when planning their wedding.

The Electoral College meets today, and Nevada's six electoral votes are set to go to President-elect Joe Biden, despite attempts by the Trump campaign to overturn the results.