Las Vegas Vacation Blog Blog

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.

Source

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.

Source

It might have been the day before 311 Day, but the festivities were already in full swing Wednesday night at the Jet nightclub at the Mirage Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. The official 311 Fan Party at Jet served as the epicenter for die-hard fans from all over the country to converge — and converge they did.

Fans packed the line in droves even before the doors opened at 9 p.m. Jet let its usual formal dress code slide for the night, allowing fans to show their true colors in 311 T-shirts, hats, and plenty of tattoos. By 11 p.m., the line of fans stretched all the way to the entrance of the Mirage. But you didn’t have to see them to feel their presence — their chants of “311!” could be heard all the way to the blackjack tables.

Inside the club, 311 music was blasting on the speakers — and that’s where MTV News’ guest correspondents Dave Kosin and Lauren Black, (winners of the 311 Day contest) were hard at work. The pair were meeting old friends and new ones from all over the country: ecstatic fans from Lauren’s home state of Texas to a local Las Vegas couple who booked a hotel room to take part in the activities.

But it was a fan from across the pond that proved just how die-hard 311 fans are. He told Dave, “I had to threaten to resign from my job to be allowed to come.” For him, a week without pay ended up being a small penalty for his first-ever 311 Day.

He could hardly contain his excitement. “In England they never play a 311 song, so even tonight, it’s just wow! It’s amazing — tomorrow is going to be the best day of my life,” he said with a smile.

MTV News will have much more from 311 Day for the rest of this week!

Source

Marie Osmond told her fans that her faith is helping her get by after her son’s death, according to The Associated Press.

“Little did I know I would be relying on my faith, especially as much as I did this past week,” Osmond told the audience at her Las Vegas show on Tuesday.

Donny and Marie Osmond to resume Las Vegas show, add extra dates

The singer’s emotional return to the Flamingo Hotel & Casino stage comes less than two weeks after her son’s death and just one day after his funeral.

“I just think that we need to give a big round of applause to my sister for even coming onstage tonight,” brother Donny Osmond said after their opening number.

During the show, Osmond, standing in front of a starry backdrop, wore a robe of white feathers and dedicated a song to her 18-year-old son, Michael Blosil, whom she referred to as “my angel.”

Marie Osmond’s son dies

“God bless you all,” she said. “The way Osmonds survive is we keep singing and that’s what we want to do tonight. I know my son would want that.”

Coroner: Autopsy on Marie Osmond’s son inconclusive; drug tests pending

Blosil died on Feb. 26 after falling from a balcony in Los Angeles. Toxicology tests are pending to determine if alcohol or drugs played a factor in his death.

Source

Ladies first. After drubbing Santa Clara by 40 points in Sunday’s semifinal game in Las Vegas, the Gonzaga Bulldogs’ women’s team is ready to on Monday against Pepperine. Tipoff is 12 Noon the the Orleans Arena in Sin City, and the game can be seen live on ESPNU.

The Zags led 41-17 at one point during Sunday’s game against the Broncos and eventually won the game 87-47 in front of about 2,000 Bulldog fans. It was the Zags’ 17th straight win.

Men to face Saint Mary’s Monday night

The Gonzaga men also made it to the championship game by beating Loyola Marymount 77-62 in the semifinal game on Sunday. Steven Gray had 18 points and coach Mark Few tied with Hank Anderson as the winningest coach in Gonzaga history with his 290th victory.

The Gaels advanced to the conference championship after beating Portland 69-55. It will be the second year in a row Santa Clara and Gonzaga will play for the WCC title. Gonzaga won last year’s battle 83-58.

Monday’s game tips off at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

Source

Evander Holyfield, who has had fights canceled in Uganda, South Korea and Ethiopia, finally has secured his next bout in the most foreign land of all: Las Vegas.

Holyfield, who hasn’t fought in Las Vegas since a loss to James Toney in 2003, will meet Frans Botha at the Thomas & Mack Center April 10, manager Ken Sanders said Friday. Details of the long-rumored bout were finalized Friday, with Holyfield guaranteed about $1 million.

Holyfield, 47, and Botha, 41, were scheduled to fight in Uganda in Feb. 20, but the bout was canceled due to lack of financing. Both recently received one-fight licenses from the state of Nevada. Botha holds the heavyweight title for one of the lesser sanctioning bodies, the World Boxing Federation.

Sanders also shot down recent reports that a possible third fight between Holyfield and Mike Tyson was in the works.

“It’s not going to happen, not with [promoter] Don King involved, and I don’t think it’s going to happen, period,” Sanders said. “Nobody has talked to Evander or me. All we heard was Don King wanted to do it, and we wouldn’t do that with him for $50 million. Let me say this: I don’t think Tyson is ever going to fight again. But I wish he would. I think that fight would make a lot of money, but I don’t think that will happen.”

Source

That was no mirage Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That really was Jeff Gordon riding around the slick, 1.5-mile oval as if he owned the place.

You remember Gordon, don’t you? Four NASCAR Sprint Cup championships. No. 6 on the all-time list with 82 wins.

So where’s he been?

Well, where he was Sunday was in cruise control, dominating a race with such precision it was as if someone had turned back the clock and it was the 13-win, 1998 championship season all over again, a season in which a vintage Gordon amassed an astonishing 19 top-five finishes during the final 20 races.

Although Gordon wound up third on the leader board following the checkered flag, he led 219 of 267 laps, the first time he’s led the field for that many laps since leading 313 laps in a win at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in October 2003.

Gordon also led 168 laps while finishing runner-up at the second Martinsville race in 2007, a race some believe is the last time he’s delivered such a dominating run, and 173 laps in a fourth-place finish at the following race at Texas Motor Speedway. But Gordon said there is no comparison between the Martinsville and Las Vegas races.

“The mile and a half tracks are where championships are won because there’s quite a few of them,” Gordon said Monday during a brief pit stop in Phoenix, where he took part in a Jeff Gordon Day ceremony with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. “Having a strong team and car like that on a mile and a half to me means more than going and dominating at Martinsville.

“So in my opinion, it’s been a lot longer (between dominating races) than Martinsville.”

One thing appears certain. It appears Gordon might be ready to challenge teammate and Las Vegas winner Jimmie Johnson for NASCAR superiority.

“(Sunday) felt good,” Gordon said. “As disappointed as it was to finish third, it felt awesome to be up there. When they dropped the green flag, I was driving by guys and just pulling away.

“The 48 (Johnson) was strong. Had he gotten in front of us any time during the day, he was going to be tough as we were. We knew he was our competition. It just came down to the final pit stop.”

Gordon’s bullish run meant a nine-position jump to No. 13 in the driver standings and only reinforced what he already believed before the season’s first lap, which is he remains optimistic a fifth title hardly is out of the question.

“I really don’t have anything out there I have to accomplish,” Gordon said. “But I really want to win a fifth championship and I’d like to do it before Jimmie Johnson.

“I’ve been optimistic all winter. I feel like (crew chief) Steve Letarte and the team really has been on top of their game and is just really going that extra mile to make us better. I’ve been trying to do the same with communicating with them, working out and doing everything I possibly can.

“So I felt really good about our team just coming into the season. I feel like we ran great at Daytona (26th) and I felt like we ran great at California (20th). Then, we backed it up with a great run and finish (Sunday), where we didn’t have the finishes to show for it in the other two races. But I still felt like our performances were there. We’re definitely building momentum for this year.”

Gordon’s beliefs are a 180-degree turnaround from last season at about this same juncture, even after finishing runner-up at Fontana in February and winning at Texas Motor Speedway in April.

“Even though we won at Texas and we were strong at California, I just don’t feel like we’re going to flatten out t his year,” said Gordon, who never led the most laps in a single race in 2008 and only did it one time last season. “I feel like we’ve got some extra strengths built into the team right now and that’s going to be make us stronger.

“I felt like last year we were at our peak at the beginning of the season. I feel like this year we haven’t reached our peak yet. I really feel like we have a team that can compete with them (Johnson’s team) this year and we showed it at Las Vegas.”

Did he ever.

Mark Armijo is the former auto racing beat writer for the Arizona Republic and is now a frequent contributor to RacinToday.com

Source

Las Vegas Sands(LVS Quote) isn’t selling its casino in Pennsylvania, the company announced Monday, in response to rumors that Sands would be exiting the state.

In fact, the casino operator announced that it is looking to restart construction on a 300-room hotel tower in its Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem property within the next several weeks.

Last month, Sands announced that it could add table games to the casino as soon as this summer.

“With the addition of table games, Sands Bethlehem will become the most complete and convenient gaming destination for millions of New York City and northern New Jersey residents and, at the same time, enhance the profitability of the property starting in the foreseeable future,” CEO Sheldon G. Adelson said in a statement.

Last week, rumors had surfaced that Sands was looking for a buyer of the property just nine months after it opened. In the fourth-quarter, Sands Bethlehem realized a loss of $2.1 million on revenue of $57.5 million.

Source