Las Vegas Vacation Blog Blog

So Andy Rooney hates gambling and has no fun in Las Vegas. Not fair, because his money’s always welcome here.

“60 Minutes” viewers who tuned in Sunday night were treated to another exhausting diatribe from the 91-year-old commentator, who this time argued in favor of shutting down the gaming industry.

“How come the government doesn’t protect citizens from losing their money by making gambling in casinos illegal?” he asked, while applauding reports that gaming revenue is on the decline.

“There’s only so much money in the world and if it’s lost at a gambling table, it’s money that isn’t spent on things America makes,” he continued. “I mean who’s best for this country — a machinist at an automobile plant in Detroit or a blackjack dealer in Las Vegas?”

At this point, Mayor Oscar Goodman was likely clenching his fists so hard he may have injured himself.

Make gambling illegal? Somebody cut this man’s microphone!

Perhaps he’d like to help a few hundred-thousand casino workers find new jobs in Detroit, after the city solves its own unemployment crisis, of course.

Gambling produces nothing? Last time I looked it produced this beautiful city in the desert. It also produced a few winners along the way, although Rooney, who said he’s always lost, wasn’t one of them.

Upon hearing that, one can automatically assume he has a bias and a bone to pick with the city.

But the outrage is just our gut reaction. In reality this case doesn’t call for finger-wagging. Instead we should be thanking Andy Rooney.

He’s just given Las Vegas a great endorsement, the kind you can’t buy with billboards promoting pool parties at the Hard Rock. First of all, it’s a safe bet the swimsuit crowd has never heard of Rooney, so no loss there.

As for the rest of the audience, Rooney’s ramblings may actually inspire them to roll the dice in our fair city.

Why? Well, first of all, no one likes to be called a loser or a sucker, two words he used to describe his viewers.

Secondly, everyone knows that when a grown-up tells you something’s bad for you, it makes you want to do it more and more. Frankly, at 91, who’s more grown-up than Andy Rooney?

Rooney’s audience may have just been reminded of what happens when the fun stops, if I can borrow a line from those gambling addiction pamphlets.

Life is short, and if given the choice between watching a roulette wheel spin or listening to a lecture about the problems with manual transmission, I’ll bet most people would reach for the remote.

At least there’s a chance the roulette wheel can give you a return on your investment.

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LAS VEGAS - Oscar De La Hoya has fought Shane Mosley, Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. He lost to them all - Mosley twice.

But what De La Hoya saw Mayweather do to Mosley in a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Saturday night convinced him that Mayweather is the best of this generation and possibly of all time.

“Mayweather is special. We have to respect that,” De La Hoya said.

Mosley rocked Mayweather in the second round and looked to be on the verge of saying to him, “The buck stops here.” But Mayweather survived the round and then shut down Mosley for the next 10.

It was a masterful display by Mayweather. He answered the critics who said he hadn’t ever beaten a legitimate welterweight with the victory over Mosley, a three-time welterweight champion and the current WBA champ.

He answered those who said he couldn’t weather a storm if his chin was tested. After getting hurt by Mosley, Mayweather didn’t fold. And he proved that there isn’t an opponent that he can’t completely shut down.

Even so, Mayweather (41-0, 25 KOs) knows it wasn’t enough to please all of his critics.

“I’m in a no-win situation, because no matter what I do it’s never good enough,” Mayweather said.

Mayweather came up with his fight strategy with his uncle and trainer, Roger, and his father, Floyd Sr. The things he did to neutralize Mosley were in-fight adjustments.

“Mosley has very fast hands, but he doesn’t have a jab,” Roger Mayweather said. “He has tremendous hand speed, but it doesn’t mean anything if you can’t hit the target. He’s fast if he fights somebody who’s slow. How was he going to win if he couldn’t outbox my nephew? I just told him (Mayweather) to keep him in the middle of the ring and box his ears off.”

Mosley said he wanted to end matters in the second round, but his neck tightened up and couldn’t finish the job. As his trainer Naazim Richardson noted, Mayweather gives you a brief window of opportunity to get the job done. If you don’t take advantage, then it’s curtains for you.

Richardson said Mosley was making excuses in the dressing room after the fight, but he told him to stop because no one but his mother wanted to hear them.

Even though he still has the WBA welterweight title, the 38-year-old Mosley (46-7, 39 KOs) said he didn’t know what he was going to do. He said he would go on vacation and think about his next move.

After the fight, most of the questions were about a possible bout for Mayweather against Manny Pacquiao. Mayweather said if Pacquiao is interested in fighting him, then he will agree to Olympic-style testing. If not, then Mayweather said he will move forward without him. Pacquiao turned down a proposed fight with Mayweather back in December because he wouldn’t agree to the testing.

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Casino operator Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS: 25.15 +1.86%) will look to the planned sale of retail outlets and apartments to recoup construction cost on its Macau properties.

CEO Sheldon Adelson said in December that the sale of the Four Seasons apartments, shopping areas in the Venetian Macau and condominiums at the St. Regis would raise enough money to pay Sands debt.

The last available data on the gaming company’s’ debt showed an outstanding amount of $12.2 billion of bonds and loans due next year through 2015.

“That is our fundamental business model — we get our money back from the sale of non-core business assets,” Adelson said in an interview in Singapore yesterday.

With construction resuming now on the St. Regis hotel and condominium tower, Adelson said the sale of such assets will begin within the next 2 ½ years.

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There are telltale signs in the life of a fighter that should not go unnoticed.

When lawsuits begin to accumulate as easily as knockout victories, when a fighter’s headlines can be equally divided between the sports and police sections, when every fight is preceded by a laundry list of legal run-ins — that’s when things can take a turn for the worse, when the steering wheel starts to veer toward the curb and a crash is imminent.

Edwin Valero, who died Monday in a jail cell in Caracas, Venezuela, knew all this. He had hit that curb more than once, sometimes literally. The former Central and South American amateur champion had amassed an 11-0 record (all by first-round KO) when a routine MRI revealed a small blood clot on his brain, the result of a motorcycle accident that occurred years earlier — a condition that initially kept him from being sanctioned to fight in the United States.) One of his last legal problems was a DUI charge that was still pending trial. Fast cars and lots of booze in the life of a boxer? Nothing new.

But Valero had other demons, as well.

The left-handed Venezuelan power puncher was driven by urges he seemed unable to control. His boxing style serves as an example: Valero couldn’t settle for simply defeating his opponents. He had to overpower them, overwhelm them, attack them with blazing combinations loaded with explosive power from all angles, to the point of neglecting his own defense (arms low, mouth open, eyes popping out of their sockets, high-pitched screams with every punch). The fury in his expressions was the fuel for his successes — but was also at the heart of his failures, including his tragic demise.

Valero’s appetite for excess was prodigious, and his struggles with substance abuse (and depression) came to be common knowledge. His troubles ranged from denied visas and pending jail sentences to DUI charges and allegations of having punched or threatened to punch multiple family members. (Valero’s mother and sister were among the victims of his rage, according to a report.) After being charged with harassing his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, last month, Valero was arrested Sunday when, local police said, she was found dead in a hotel room where the couple had been staying. On Monday, Valero hanged himself in his jail cell, according to police.

As tumultuous as Valero’s personal life was, his career was equally vertiginous. After being denied a boxing license to fight in the States, Valero became a traveling act, and his services were rendered all over the world. He traveled to Panama, Japan, France, Mexico and Argentina, putting his all-out style to work toward one purpose only: the destruction of his rivals, with the intent of leaving an indelible mark in the minds of his growing number of fans.

Watching Valero fight was a task in itself. He quickly became boxing’s first Internet legend, a cult hero among hard-core fight fans. The KO artist who was barred from fighting in Las Vegas and New York, the fighter with the power to crush his opponents with frightening ease, became the subject of countless forums and chat sessions. The underground peer-to-peer live broadcasting websites that thrive today overflowed with fans from all over the world. It wasn’t unusual for 20,000 fans to connect to a single site to watch Valero fight.

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ohn Force raced to his third victory of the season and record 129th overall NHRA win, beating Tony Pendragon on Sunday in the Summitracing.com Spring Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The 60-year-old Force had a 4.334-second pass at 284.93 mph in his Ford Mustang against Pendragon (5.630 at 138.34) in the Funny Car final.

“The hardest thing I work for is to be able to compete and show my kids that I can still do it,” Force said. “I want to show them how much I still love it. This is a great win here in front of a lot of family and friends. Now I’m back in the game, and it feels good.”

In Top Fuel, Larry Dixon raced to his third victory of the season and 51st overall, beating Cory McClenathan with a 4.016-second pass at 313.37 mph.

Mike Edwards won the Pro Stock final. Edwards had a 6.751-second pass at 205.51 mph to edge Greg Stanfield.

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Las Vegas Gas Prices on the Rise
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LAS VEGAS - Nevada drivers are paying more at the pump. In the past month, gas prices in Las Vegas have risen 15 cents per gallon. Experts say prices will climb higher as summer approaches.

Nevada drivers say the economy is already making life difficult. Rising fuel prices only add to their financial problems. “It makes it hard, hard to even go to work or do anything,” driver Curtis McOsker said. “At these prices, (I’ll pay) about $85.”

Kesheana Shelby is also feeling the pinch at the pump. “It’s ridiculous how much the prices are going up,” she said. “I believe we’re probably going to be up to about $3.50 a gallon. I wouldn’t be surprised if we made it to four dollars. It’s bad how they’re doing it out here.”

A gallon of regular unleaded costs, on average, $2.90 in Las Vegas. Last year at this time, Las Vegas drivers were paying $2.13 a gallon.

“The trend for 2010 has really been a roller coaster ride with gas prices,” AAA Nevada spokesman Michael Geeser. “They’ve gone up and down and up and down and down again, and now we’re up for the past month.”

Geeser says the global market is driving up gasoline prices. “China’s demand went up 30 percent compared to a month ago last year, which signals a manufacturer country like China is really starting to use more product.”

Geeser says despite global conditions, Nevada drivers did not see price hikes the rest of the country did in the past month. Likewise, while prices are going up, they are still lower than the record prices drivers paid in June 2008.

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Every day a multitude of stars wander through the halls of MTV News to talk about their latest projects and goof around with our intrepid correspondents. But sometimes we catch stars elsewhere, and that’s why we put together Spotted!, a daily compendium of stars in the wild.

“The Hills” will be returning for one last season when it premieres Monday, April 27 on MTV. The final 12 episodes of the long-running series will deal with rumors about Kristin Cavallari, the brief return of Lauren Conrad and the ongoing drama that is Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt. The trailer for the final season hints at both marriage trouble and the controversy surrounding Montag’s series of plastic surgeries, which have severely altered her appearance. The singer, whose album Superficial has stalled despite early buzz, unveiled her new body in Las Vegas on Saturday (April 10) when she donned a bikini to sit poolside at the Liquid Pool at Aria at CityCenter.

She wasn’t the only star showing herself off over the weekend, as the Backstreet Boys showed up at the Silverado Resort in Napa Valley (where they played an intimate acoustic set) on Sunday (April 11) and Khloe Kardashian rolled through Miami on Friday (April 9).

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Just over two weeks ago, the Utah Grizzlies found themselves scratching for the eighth spot in the National Conference and trying to squeeze into the East Coast Hockey League playoffs.

Fast forward to the present and Utah has vaulted to the four seed in the National Conference standings and now holds home-ice advantage in the first round of the ECHL playoffs against the Las Vegas Wranglers. The best-of-five series opens tonight at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas (8 p.m.).

Although Utah (34-29-4-5) surpassed Las Vegas (34-30-4-4) in the standings by only one point, Utah dominated the regular-season matchup, going 10-4 against the Wranglers and even winning six of seven from Nov. 10-22. But Utah captain Ryan Kinasewich knows that the Grizzlies will see a different Las Vegas team than the one they owned during that stretch. Not to mention that with higher stakes now, Utah can expect the Wranglers’ best shot.

“Everything’s just magnified, every mistake, every chance to score, discipline; it all just means that much more,” Kinasewich said.

The Grizzlies traveled from their regular-season finale against the Victoria Salmon Kings straight to Las Vegas on Sunday for the first two legs of the series. Utah, as the higher seed, chose the series format and decided to save its home dates for the final three games. Coach Kevin Colley hopes to steal at least one game in Las Vegas and bring back a series advantage to Utah for games Saturday and, if needed, Sunday and next Tuesday.

The key, he said, is to put pressure on Las Vegas’ defense, prevent odd-man rushes and get strong goaltending.

The Wranglers “have depth, they’ve got defense and they’ve got goaltending right now,” Colley said. “They’ve become one of the hottest teams in the league.”

Hot for Utah right now is Dylan Hunter, who holds the ECHL’s longest scoring streak at 13, scoring 22 points in that stretch. Kinasewich led the league in goals with 48 and finished third in scoring.

Mikko Koskinen or Mike Morrison will be in goal for Utah. Koskinen is 6-0 with the team since joining in mid-March. Morrison played one game for Utah on April 2, allowing nine goals on 32 shots. However, Morrison does have 229 games of professional experience, including 29 in the National Hockey League.

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Nearly 11,000 families in the Las Vegas Valley will be able to experience Easter this year thanks to a donation from Hickman’s Family Farms.

The Arizona-based farm donated 129,000 eggs Tuesday to Three Square Food Bank. The eggs will be delivered to 285 other nonprofit agencies and Churches.

Julie Murray, the President and C.E.O. of Three Square Food Bank, says eggs are the perfect meal for this time of year.

“There are so many families who are unemployed right now who are in need of food. And when you’re struggling with hunger, protein is a really important item to be able to provide for your family.”

Sharman Hickman says she started the donations last year because there are grocery retailers who buy the eggs to sell to the community. We thought we’d like to donate back to the Las Vegas food banks.”

“The eggs that have been donated by Hickman’s farms will allow families a great source of protein and also be able to continue to participate in the great Easter tradition of Easter egg hunts and coloring the eggs,” said Murray.

Hickman’s Family Farms hopes to increase their donation in 2011 to one million eggs.

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The newest downtown Las Vegas venture is now open. A ribbon-cutting ceremony ushered in the opening of Meet Las Vegas on Tuesday. Meet Las Vegas is a three-story, 30,000 square foot convention venue that sits on the corner of 4th and Bridger.

City leaders hope the facility will bring corporate events, trade shows and conventions to downtown Las Vegas. “We have so many things happening in downtown,” Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said. “The one thing that we were really missing, other than an arena or stadium, was a convention center.”

Supporters of the project view it as another step in the city’s ongoing effort to revitalize the area. “I think that what it shows people is that downtown has huge potential,” Meet Las Vegas CEO Dan Maddux said. “A lot of people, to a degree, have forgotten about downtown. There is so much room for expansion in growth in the downtown area.”

Former Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce Chairperson Fafie Moore agrees. “This is the type of thing that our community needs, and it’s going to help us do the turnaround,” she said.

Andrew Leary runs his Super Cleaners dry cleaning business downtown. He sees potential growth in the area. “Just a few years ago, people were turned off about the idea of opening a business downtown,” Leary said. “I think the more the people can see downtown, the more they’ll appreciate it… Hopefully, (Meet Las Vegas) brings in more business, especially with conventioneers.”

With projects like Meet Las Vegas, Symphony Park, the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, and a new downtown city hall, Mayor Goodman says downtown is on the right track. “A lot of things are happening in an economy where, in other places, nothing is happening. We have a new city hall building that’s being built and great plans for the future,” he said.

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