The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority spends millions of taxpayer dollars on high-end entertainment, including top-shelf liquor and $300 steaks, as well as gifts for employees and first-class trips for board members. The agency’s lavish purchases at times have little or no business purpose and routinely violate its own vague expense policies, a Las Vegas Review-Journal investigation found.

Locals needed neither a plane ticket nor a passport to travel the world through the sights and smells of different cultures Saturday at UNLV.
The 30th anniversary of the annual Festival of Communities was held on the Academic Mall to showcase the melting pot that is Las Vegas. People from all walks of life — from yogis to light saber performers — attended the festival, which was held in conjunction with Rebel Preview Day to let high school students and their families experience UNLV’s diversity.

Finally today, the sports lead as March Madness continues as the final four begins tomorrow. Big betting is sure to continue in Las Vegas and this week the city of Las Vegas won a big bet of their own.

The budget has grown significantly, there are building projects from one end of campus to the other, enrollment is up, the most-watched presidential debate in history was carried out, partnerships with local businesses are flowering and the first class of medical students in the school’s history is about strap on their stethoscopes.

UNLV football coach Tony Sanchez likes the idea of sharing a stadium with the Raiders. "Calling a $1.9 billion stadium home can't hurt recruitment," he said in a press conference following the Rebels' annual Spring Showcase on Saturday.

In 1976, when I was twenty-one, I spent the summer living in a rented house in Colorado Springs and working on the grounds crew of an apartment complex on what was then the outskirts of the city. During most of day, my co-workers and I moved hoses and sprinklers around the property, to keep the grass green; then we mowed what we had grown. Watering was like a race.

The idea of high fashion on Fremont Street might seem unlikely in the era of souvenir T-shirts and SlotZilla, but Downtown’s most famous road was once home to a variety of department stores and specialty clothing boutiques. None were more exclusive than Fanny’s Dress Shop. For several generations, stylish denizens bought their wardrobes exclusively at Fanny’s under the watchful eye of Fanny Soss, and in later years her son Maury. From prom dresses and cocktail attire to wedding gowns and even furs suitable for an evening out in one of the Strip’s showrooms, Fanny’s dressed the ladies of Las Vegas.

Pedestrian traffic fatalities are on the rise across the U.S., and Nevada is no exception, a new report from the Governors Highway Safety Association shows. The report released Thursday projects an 11 percent nationwide increase in the number of pedestrians killed in crashes last year using statistics from first six months of 2016 and past data trends. Pedestrians account for about 15 percent of all motor vehicle deaths.

There is renewed faith in the Believer. The arts and culture magazine, whose youthful and idiosyncratic ethos reflect its San Francisco roots, has a new owner. Black Mountain Institute, a literary center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, has acquired the publication, which had been struggling for years. Beset by financial difficulties that have afflicted much of the publishing industry, the magazine has not published an issue since the summer of 2015. It has 5,600 subscribers.