Las Vegas Vacation Blog Blog

Ringing in another year, Paris Hilton celebrated her 29th birthday at Tao nightclub in Las Vegas over the weekend.

Grabbing up prime seats, the former “Simple Life” star was joined by her boyfriend, Doug Reinhardt, and parents, Rick and Kathy Hilton, at the popular Sin City nightspot.

According to an onlooker, neither Paris or Doug seemed to be in a very good mood at first, but quickly got into the flow of things before the presentation of a giant birthday cake in the shape of shoe boxes.

Also in attendance at the Las Vegas bashe were Brian Baumgartner and Charles Barkley, who laughingly gave his buddy a lap dance during the course of the evening.

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President Obama is winging his way back to Washington, D.C., after a tour around Las Vegas, where he was welcomed by most everyone, it seemed - except the city’s mayor.

President Obama professes his love for Las Vegas.
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By Isaac Brekken, AP
Independent Mayor Oscar Goodman refused to attend Obama’s events or meet with the president, saying he wouldn’t do so until Obama apologized for dissing his city by saying people shouldn’t gamble with their college savings during a recession.

Here’s what Obama said earlier this year:

“When times are tough, you tighten your belts. You don’t go buying a boat when you’re trying to pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save on college. You prioritize, you make tough choices.”

Speaking to the Chamber of Commerce, Obama didn’t apologize for what he said. But he made sure to say he has nothing against sin city.

“Let me set the record straight, I love Vegas - always have,” he said.

“It wasn’t meant to be a shot,” Obama said of his college savings remark. “I think everybody would agree that the only place people should spend their college savings is in college. … But I understand how hard things have been here.”

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A 33-year-old Las Vegas man accused of an ax attack that left a 4-month-old baby dead and two women critically injured told police he doesn’t remember a thing, Las Vegas TV station KVVU reported.

Harold E. Montague, 33, didn’t know the woman or the boy he is accused of hacking with the blade of the ax during the rampage a little before noon Thursday on a residential street about a mile east of Las Vegas Boulevard, police Lt. Lewis Roberts said.

Montague also is accused of stabbing his sister-in-law, a mentally disabled woman, more than 20 times with a point of the ax before bursting out of a home into the street.

“We don’t know what set him off,” Roberts said after Montague was interviewed by homicide detectives and taken to the Clark County jail.

“He claims he blacked out. He said he doesn’t remember anything,” Roberts said.

Police found one of the women lying on a sidewalk and an overturned stroller nearby in the street when they responded to a domestic dispute call at about 11:51 a.m. Thursday.

The 4-month-old boy died at the scene, and the woman, who is believed to be the baby’s mother, was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in very critical condition with what Roberts said were disfiguring face and head injuries.

Their names weren’t immediately made public.

The sister-in-law, whose name and age also weren’t released, was reported to be in fair condition at University Medical Center in Las Vegas.

Neighbors saw the attack and shouted at Montague to stop while calling 911, Roberts said.

Montague left the ax in the single-family home before police arrived, and scuffled with officers who tried to use a Taser to subdue and arrest him, said Officer Bill Cassell, a department spokesman. One police officer received what Cassell said were minor injuries that did not require medical treatment.

Montague was being held without bail on charges of murder, attempted murder and attempted murder of a police officer pending a court appearance Tuesday morning. Court officials said it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Montague was described as the caregiver for his sister-in-law, who Roberts said was stabbed repeatedly in torso, stomach and legs.

Roberts said Montague’s wife was at work and two children were in the house during the attack. Another child was at school. The children weren’t hurt.

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The Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas will close May 2, FOX5 has learned.

An employee said notifications were sent out Monday morning and a hotel official confirmed the closing a few hours later.

The resort, which opened in 2003, is among the top luxury destinations in southern Nevada and recently won the AAA Five Diamond award.

Despite the accolades, the Lake Las Vegas area fell on hard times during the recession. Last year, the three golf courses within the resort were closed or went bankrupt.

USA Today said the move will put nearly 400 employees out of work.

The 348-room resort — 17 miles away from the Las Vegas Strip — is owned by Village Hospitality, an arm of Deutsche Bank, according to USA Today.

“They have decided to cease funding the hotel,” Ritz-Carlton spokeswoman Vivian Deuschl said. “We reluctantly agreed to close the hotel.” Deuschl could not say how much money the resort is losing, USA Today reported.

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Forget falling profits and a grim jobless rate. The United States knew for sure it had entered a recession during a football game last February.

How so? Super Bowl wagers in Nevada’s sports books dropped more than 11 percent compared to the previous year. At $81.5 million, the Pittsburgh-Arizona thriller — a 27-23 Steelers victory — marked the lowest handle (money bet on a contest) for the bookies since 2004. The drop in six-figure bets in particular jarred oddsmakers.

As Indianapolis and New Orleans prepare to battle in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami on Feb. 7, sports book chiefs believe the recession won’t sack the house this year.

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The International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which opened on Thursday in Las Vegas, is expected to draw more exhibitors as the economy is recovering from the worst crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The Consumer Electronics Association, which is hosting the CES, predicted around 2,500 to 2,700 exhibitors at this year’s show, with more than 330 of them appearing for the first time in the event, believed to be the world’s largest consumer technology trade show.

“With a record number of new exhibitors, scores of new product introductions, several new spotlights of the show floor and a dynamic lineup of keynotes sessions, the 2010 International CES will be our best show,” said Gary Shapiro, President and CEO of the CES.

According to the show organizer, about 110,000 attendees will come for the four-day show, a drop from 113,000 attendees last year. The show hit its peak attendance of 152,000 in 2006.

“We knew we would shrink, but the standard for tech trade show is to be down 20 percent to 30 percent,” said Mr. Shapiro. “We will be down less than that.”

“The strategy will be for a more dense show that is also more convenient. Despite that is still a very fragile economy, we have a show that is comparable to last year’s. It gives me hope in the U.S. economy,” he explained.

The 2010 show will feature 20 market-specific TechZones highlighting trends and emerging markets, more than in the previous shows.

Apple will be the focus of the iLounge, which will feature products and technologies for the iPod, iPhone and Mac. The iLounge was expected to take up 4,000 square feet when first planned, but demand from exhibitors led to an expansion to 25,000 square feet.

In-car technology will have a major presence at this year’s trade show, as that area of the tech business is expected to rev up more than 9.3 billion dollars in sales last year.

New CES TechZones include eBooks, Experience 3D, Femto, Lifestyle Gadgets, Mobile DTV and Netbooks.

Most major consumer electronics giants from LG to Sony will be at the event, but Mr. Shapiro said there is likely bigger representation of smaller companies.

More than 250 sessions will take place during the show, and 800 expert speakers will be featured, including new-media executives from CBS, Hulu, Sony Pictures Technologies and YouTube.

The top speakers this year are Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Paul Otellini of Intel, Paul Jacobs of Qualcomm, Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo of Nokia, Alan Mulally of Ford, and Zhou Houjian of China’s Hisense. Mr. Zhou is the first keynote speaker from China in the show’s history.

Hit by the financial crisis, U.S. sales of electronics and appliances fell almost 27 percent from Nov. 1 to Dec. 24 in 2008, according to SpendingPulse, a division of MasterCard Advisors, though appliances probably saw a greater decline than electronics.

During the same period in 2009, the sales of electronics and appliances in the United States increased 5.9 percent.

“We’ve turned the corner,” Jason Oxman, senior vice president of the Consumer Electronics Association, said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

“Looking into 2010, we expect a strong show because companies exhibiting in the CES recognize that consumers in 2010 are going to be feeling better about their ability to buy their products,” he predicted.

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Sin City welcomed some 315,000 revelers for New Year’s Eve with fireworks from casino rooftops, celebrity toasts at nightclubs and a traffic-free Las Vegas Strip.

The downtown Fremont Street Experience hoped to host 35,000 partiers as it held a bash with nine bands and a countdown by Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.

Bundled-up revelers began trickling in at 6 p.m. for a block party with plenty of street-side bars and 2010 knickknacks. Bartenders flipped shakers and danced on the bar, while crowds sang along with tribute bands playing hits from U2, Van Halen and Aerosmith.

Elsa Valenzuela, a 27-year-old third-grade teacher from Victorville, Calif., said that despite graduating from high school and college during the last 10 years, she’s glad to move on from the past decade.

“The horrible outfits, the bad hair,” she said as she and her boyfriend wore matching novelty hats and beads. “I really think it’s just more like thinking ahead on the possibilities and the good that we can do and the changes that we can make.”

David Fraley, 56, of Las Vegas, said he’s also ready to get away from the aughts.

“This decade’s over, let’s get a better one going,” said Fraley, who said he lost his job as a supermarket liquor clerk in March.

“My wish is a job. I’ve been laid off. I need work,” he said, sporting glasses that displayed “2010″ in blue lights.

On the Strip, actress Eva Longoria was scheduled to host at Eve nightclub at CityCenter, the newest casino complex in town. Other celebrity hosts at various clubs included rapper 50 Cent, singer Robin Thicke, Nicole Ritchie and Maroon 5, while DJs Mix Master Mike, Jermaine Dupri and DJ Z-Trip were scheduled to spin.

Las Vegas Boulevard was closed to vehicles from the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino to the Sahara.

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The New York-New York Hotel & Casino has its winning Vinny.

The Las Vegas Strip hotel announced the winner of its Vinny vs. Vinny spokesVinny competition on Monday, declaring Vinny Blue “the ultimate go-to guy for all things New York-New York.”

His real name is Thomas Cassell, and he’s originally from New York but now he lives in Las Vegas. Voters cast ballots at the hotel and online.

The battle to be The Vinny included a Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest, an ESPN Zone arcade challenge and an Irish jig showdown at Nine Fine Irishmen.

Cynthia Kiser Murphey, New York-New York’s president and chief operating officer, said Vinny’s job is to give guests an idea where to go, what to do, what’s hot, and what’s not — all in a New York kind of way.

New York-New York is a subsidiary of MGM Mirage.

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On Halloween a year ago, Holly Madison was just the latest arm candy girlfriend of Criss Angel at the opening of his Cirque show, “Believe,” at Luxor. She had just ended her relationship with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, which made her one of the stars of the television show “The Girls Next Door” about life at the Playboy mansion and related environs. A few months later she and Angel split up, and it seemed Madison’s life in the public eye was at an end.

But that is not what happened. Instead, in May, Madison joined the topless production “Peepshow” at Planet Hollywood. The show, created by Broadway producer Jerry Mitchell, opened with Kelly Monaco playing the role given to Madison three months later with the idea of rotating stars every three months. Madison had just enough name recognition, it seemed, to work a three-month run. But Madison soon got herself a one-year contract. Why?

Because Holly Madison, as unlikely as it seems, has become one of the most in-demand and beloved celebrities in Vegas. In fact, as one measure of her popularity, despite her brief time in her Vegas spotlight and being only one of the three original “Girls Next Door,” these days on Twitter she has far more followers than Criss Angel.

Sign of the times: This Halloween Madison was the celebrity host and contest judge at a party at the MGM Grand’s Studio 54. When she arrived, dressed as the Queen of Hearts, there was a red carpet of press waiting for her as well as her own screaming fans, many of them women.

Madison is far savvier in person than she appeared on “Girls Next Door.” For example, she has noticed that blond bombshells like her don’t often attract so many female admirers. And, she notes of her female fans: “I think it is unusual for someone in my category. And that is because ‘Girls Next Door’ was done in a cute, colorful and cartoon way that girls could enjoy, relate to and live vicariously through. A lot of girls would watch it and think if they had the spare time and the cash they would love to do whatever we were doing,” she said in a bubbly mood in the VIP area on the top deck of Studio 54.

Reality fame can be even more fleeting than the old-fashioned kind, but that has not turned out to be the case for Madison, who has become a regular on Vegas red carpets and charity events.

According to Mayor Oscar Goodman: “Holly Madison does a great job promoting Las Vegas. She is a glamorous ambassador for the city. I always have my showgirls with me when I go out, but Holly has a standing invitation to join us in showcasing fabulous Las Vegas.”

And while “Peepshow” is produced by an outside company, a spokesperson for Planet Hollywood now calls Madison an officially “unofficial” ambassador of the resort: Her voice is one of those customers who call the casino hear when on hold.

No one is more surprised by her current success than Madison: “I am totally surprised. It started out with my wanting to do a guest spot in Crazy Horse [at MGM]. But that would not have been a big deal, and then ‘Peepshow’ came along and it turned into a huge thing that I love doing.”

Surrounded by Broadway-caliber dancers, singers and actors, Madison certainly is not the most talented cast member of “Peepshow.” At times she seems awkward on stage. But without fail audiences find her just-one-of-us talents endearing. This also works for the show’s plot (a very light plot, more a theme) since she plays the role of a shy, lonely and inexperienced woman — not a natural fit for the stunning former model.

But Madison’s real success here has come from her relentless work ethic offstage. She lives in Planet Hollywood and unlike some other headliners does not walk about escorted by security. She interacts with hotel guests’ old Vegas style, constantly signing autographs, giving light hugs and posing for pictures with thrilled tourists.

In one of those full-circle moments, Madison’s success in Vegas has attracted E! network, which aired “Girls Next Door,” to start filming another reality show about her (the air date has to be set). “It is about everything I am doing here in Vegas. I think a lot of people are going to be surprised,” she said. In fact, many already have been at the success, resiliency and, say it, intelligence of Holly Madison.

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