Las Vegas Nv

Aside from the Regis Philbin slots, underdressed cocktail waitresses and overpriced room service, there's one thing that every hotel on or near the Las Vegas Strip has in common: a pool. Or, in the parlance of the resort business, a "water feature." But not all water features are created equal in Las Vegas. Some are inventive expanses with sandy beaches, waterfalls and bubbly hot tubs.

If time-lapse photos existed to illustrate the movements of the crowd during the first two nights of the Electric Daisy Carnival this past weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a bird's-eye view would show clusters of human ants, an estimated 80,000 for each of the three days of the annual electronic music festival, moving in packs within the grounds of the 1,200-acre complex as if by mysterious force. Zoom in, and patterns would begin to emerge. Within the facility's 1.5-mile oval track, home on most weekends to racing events like the Kobalt Tools 400, thousands of bobbing heads gathered in darkness around five booming, crystal clear sound systems, bouncing among carnival rides and strobing lights to the sounds of some of the world's most popular DJs -- including Benny Benassi, DJ Tiesto, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, and Skrillex -- and some of the genre's most innovative and forward-thinking masterminds, such as Richie Hawtin, Green Velvet and Rusko.

Before folks in Las Vegas offered up the $1,000 round of golf, I refused to be sucked in by any suggestion that this might be a place to tee it up. Before the $1,000 round, I relegated any notion that this might be a "golf destination" to the same dark corner as that "family destination" nonsense. As in: Sorry Siegfried. Sorry Roy. Good try, but I ain't joinin' you in no foursome no time soon.

On a tumbledown stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, next to a dairy belching stench, the mourners made their way through yellowed grass, leafless trees and rows of modest headstones. They huddled under two green canopies in a corner of Woodlawn Cemetery, clutching bright pink programs for the Children's Memorial Service. The midmorning wind rustled a bouquet of balloons. Mourners fished through their purses for tissues, though most had no tangible connection to the 63 children being lamented.

This was the end of Martina Bauhaus' job interview for one of the most sought-after positions in town: She put on black velvet high-cut briefs and a tight, low-cut bustier. When her name was called, she walked out of the fitting room to pose in front of a mirror--and half a dozen silent, staring men who measured her up like cattlemen at a livestock auction. She didn't get the job. "Maybe," said the slender 28-year-old, "they didn't like my body in their outfit."

In a city that is usually impossible to shock, the savaging of Roy Horn on Oct. 3, 2003, onstage and in front of a live audience at the Mirage, created one of those rare moments where all locals can say where they were when they heard the news. Steve Wynn, who spent millions to have the theater at the Mirage customized for the "Siegfried & Roy" show, remembered his first reaction in an interview this week: "I could not believe one of Roy's cats attacked him."

If time-lapse photos existed to illustrate the movements of the crowd during the first two nights of the Electric Daisy Carnival this past weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a bird's-eye view would show clusters of human ants, an estimated 80,000 for each of the three days of the annual electronic music festival, moving in packs within the grounds of the 1,200-acre complex as if by mysterious force. Zoom in, and patterns would begin to emerge. Within the facility's 1.5-mile oval track, home on most weekends to racing events like the Kobalt Tools 400, thousands of bobbing heads gathered in darkness around five booming, crystal clear sound systems, bouncing among carnival rides and strobing lights to the sounds of some of the world's most popular DJs -- including Benny Benassi, DJ Tiesto, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, and Skrillex -- and some of the genre's most innovative and forward-thinking masterminds, such as Richie Hawtin, Green Velvet and Rusko.

A California National Guardsman from Stanton has sued the Las Vegas Metropolitan police, alleging that injuries inflicted by two police officers have prevented him from deploying to Iraq for a second tour. Sgt. Mark England, a medic, said he suffered three fractured ribs and was hit by a Taser stun gun three times by the officers during an altercation at McCarran International Airport on March 10.

While my mother's French cousins were visiting her in Denver before traveling on to California, they expressed a desire to see Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. With a tenuous grasp of geography, Mom offered my services as a tour guide, telling Tomy and Janine that from Santa Monica (where I live), Las Vegas is only a three-hour drive and the Grand Canyon just a couple of hours beyond.

On the morning of Nov. 21, 1980, the sound of sirens stirred Rafael Patino from bed. "Usually when you hear sirens, they come and then they go," he said. "But these were coming and staying." When he looked out the window of his 16th-floor room, he realized that the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel was on fire. "I woke up my wife and we got dressed to leave," said Patino, an Irvine sales executive. "But when we walked out of the room, we couldn't see anything. The hall was pitch black with smoke.

The 66-year-old disgruntled retiree who killed one person and wounded another at a federal courthouse in Las Vegas on Monday had an extensive criminal history, including a conviction for the murder of his brother in the 1970s, authorities said Tuesday. These and other details emerging about the life of the gunman, Johnny L. Wicks, paint a portrait of an angry, often violent man who more than once claimed that he had been persecuted because of his race. In 1976, he was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison after being convicted of second-degree murder in his brother's slaying in Memphis, said Dorinda Carter, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Corrections.

Grab the popcorn and 3-D glasses and get ready for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the trade event that got its start as a gadget-fest but has emerged as an important showcase for new entertainment technology. In years past, the show has been the glitzy platform from which manufacturers launched such products as high-definition television, the digital video recorder, the compact disc player and the camcorder. This year will be no different. On display Thursday through Sunday will be four technology trends that promise to shape how people get their entertainment.

A 66-year-old retiree apparently upset over losing a lawsuit related to his Social Security benefits opened fire in a federal courthouse lobby Monday morning, killing one person and wounding another in a chaotic shootout. The gunman, identified by law enforcement sources as Johnny Lee Wicks, died from gunshot wounds after fleeing across the street as court officers returned fire. Stanley W. Cooper, a 72-year-old court security officer, was killed in the minutes-long gun battle.

In November, for the first time in 21 months, Las Vegas recorded a year-to-year increase in air passengers. McCarran International Airport saw a 0.1% uptick in travelers that month. It was the first year-over-year monthly increase since February 2008, which had an extra day because it was in a leap year, and only the second since October 2007. Also on the upside, two of McCarran's top five carriers had higher flier counts in November. Southwest, the biggest carrier, served 9.3% more passengers than a year earlier.

He already lived in the shadows, if you could call it living. Most days, for nearly four years, Glenn Harrington foraged for money, smoked marijuana and methamphetamine, and searched for somewhere to crash: a buddy's couch, a deck chair at the Tropicana pool, behind a sign advertising the airport. Last year, after police rousted him and a friend from the sign, they ran into a homeless guy who directed them to the tunnels. Beneath the glossy Strip and a vast expanse of suburbs in the arid Las Vegas Valley are hundreds of miles of crisscrossing flood-control tunnels that stay dry most of the year.

Has a state's psyche ever rested so completely on a single resort complex? In recession-ravaged Las Vegas, the flashy opening last week of Aria -- the hotel-casino centerpiece of CityCenter -- was regarded as either a sign of the Strip's economic rebound or another symptom of its ailments. Most Nevadans are praying for the rebound. The punditocracy cast the unveiling of Aria -- a 4,004-room, Cesar Pelli-designed hotel with a Maya Lin sculpture above the front desk -- in terms more suitable to heroism.

This is a dispatch from the biggest porn event of the year: the three-day Adult Entertainment Expo and its crowning moment, the 2001 Adult Video News Awards. Staged last weekend in a massive convention hall at the Venetian Hotel, it was by turns disgusting, disturbing, decadent, hilarious and sad. Here are a few scenes from this bizarre universe where scantily clad women parade themselves proudly and men drool shamelessly.

FOR a day at Las Vegas' newest spa, bring your platinum credit card and maybe a hand-held GPS device. At 50,000 square feet, the Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Palace -- with its sprawling Roman-inspired pools and 51 treatment rooms -- is so large that even casino workers get lost among the Vichy showers, herbal steam rooms and tea lounges. "We're not claiming it's the region's largest spa," spa director Jennifer Lynn says. (That honor apparently lies with rival Canyon Ranch.

Police were seeking information Wednesday on a British motivational speaker and spiritual healer who was arrested in Ventura in connection with the killing of a Las Vegas woman. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department officers were responding to a missing person's report Nov. 30 when they found the body of Ginger Candela, 44, in her garage. The residence had been ransacked and numerous items had been taken, according to a Las Vegas police statement. Police suspect Michael Lane, 34, of killing Candela.

Eight years after trading in his Stetson and pop music superstardom for domestic life raising his three young daughters, Garth Brooks, the biggest-selling solo performer of all time, has decided to dust off that hat and come out of retirement -- but only on weekends. Brooks announced Thursday afternoon that he'll start a series of solo acoustic concerts in the 1,500-seat Encore Theater at the Wynn casino and resort in Las Vegas as part of a multimillion-dollar deal with Steve Wynn, the hotel's billionaire developer.