Las Vegas Strip

On a Strip packed with colorful, sometimes controversial gambling titans, Sheldon Adelson plays politics a little differently from the rest. The casino barons are a mostly pragmatic bunch, shifting campaign donations to favor the party in power. Not Adelson, the chief executive of Las Vegas Sands, whose family almost single-handedly funded the revival of Newt Gingrich's Republican presidential bid. Other executives may have sidestepped the risk of becoming campaign fodder. Adelson thrust himself into the race last month when he and his wife gave $10 million to a "super PAC" supporting Gingrich.

One of the world's biggest casino operators has hired Los Angeles shopping center magnate Rick Caruso to develop a $550-million retail and entertainment district in the middle of the Las Vegas Strip crowned by an enormous Ferris wheel. Caruso, who is weighing a run for mayor of Los Angeles, was tapped by Caesars Entertainment Corp. to oversee creation of the Linq, a new open-air attraction across Las Vegas Boulevard from Caesars Palace. The outdoor venue would have more in common with Caruso's Grove shopping center in Los Angeles than it would with hermetically sealed casinos.

Reporting from Las Vegas -- J. Terrence Lanni, a casino executive who helped Las Vegas shed its mob-run image and earn Wall Street's respect, died late Thursday at his home in Pasadena. He was 68 and had cancer. Lanni served as an executive with Caesars World before joining Kirk Kerkorian's MGM Grand Inc. in 1995. Under his stewardship, the one-casino company grew into a 17-resort conglomerate, with a slew of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip and a venture in booming Macao. The company is now named MGM Resorts International.

The lights dimmed at the tiny theater and out strode the play's lead character: a bespectacled, bearded, pinstripe-suited, gin-swilling, mobster-defending Vegas lawyer named "Oscar Goodfella. " The budget production traces his journey from Philadelphia to Sin City, where he cavorts with gangsters nicknamed "Pastrami" and "Sloppy Joe" and dotes on his blond wife, Carolyn, who sighs on cue at his shenanigans. Tired of courtroom brawls, Oscar runs for mayor. "They want to meet you, not your policies," Carolyn says of the city's voters.

Michelle Lalonde beamed in the manner of a Vegas tourist about to polish off a yard-long margarita. Only there was no tequila — or neon or showgirls — in sight. She and her business partner, Adriana De Luca, had arrived at one of the Las Vegas area's more offbeat, and increasingly popular, attractions: an hourlong tour of cubicles. Oh, and a lunchroom too. The online shoe and apparel retailer Zappos leads as many as 1,200 visitors a month through its suburban Las Vegas headquarters, translating its quirky customs for the overworked, underpaid suit-and-tie masses.

MGM Resorts International, the casino company founded by billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, will gain control over its Macao joint venture through steps including an initial public offering of some shares held by partner Pansy Ho. Ho will sell as much as 23% of MGM China Holdings Ltd. in a Hong Kong IPO and an additional 1% to MGM Resorts, boosting the Las Vegas company's stake in the Macao casino to 51%, the partners said Wednesday. Through the new majority ownership, MGM Resorts will be able to consolidate the Macao operation on its books.

In a sign that decadence isn’t dead yet, the Encore Beach Club in Las Vegas is opening Saturday, a month earlier than the cushy 60,000-square-foot attraction was originally set to open. A lush oasis with three tiered pools, the Beach Club is one of Sin City's largest and glitziest pool scenes. It offers 26 cabanas outfitted with refrigerators and flat-screen televisions. Eight bungalows, with private showers and lavish furnishings, open out onto the Las Vegas Strip. Reserved seating starts from $150 for chaise longues to $1,000 for cabanas and $3,000 for a bungalow.

The Sahara was once an exotic desert locale where Frank Sinatra could enjoy a cocktail and bathing beauties were paid to frolic in the Garden of Allah pool. In recent years, the hotel-casino has sunk to touting $1 blackjack and a NASCAR Cafe known for its 6-pound burrito. Now the 59-year-old-icon of the Las Vegas Strip is shutting its doors, yet another victim of a deep recession that has squelched the city's tourism for more than three years. In southern Nevada, casinos are frequently bought, sold, remodeled or imploded to make way for new resorts ?

Las Vegas can't stop winning over the New Year's party crowd, Priceline says. For the sixth year in a row, the Las Vegas Strip ranks No. 1 as the place to ring in the new year, according to  hotel reservation requests made using Priceline.com. The online travel company Wednesday released its list of top 50 New Year's destinations . Here are the cities -- and areas of cities -- that made the top 10: 1 Las Vegas, Las Vegas Strip North 2. New York City, Times Square/Theater District 3. Las Vegas, Las Vegas Strip South 4. New York City, Midtown West 5. New York City, Midtown East 6. New Orleans, French Quarter 7. New York City, Madison Square Garden/Convention Center Area 8. New York City, Central Park South 9. New York City, Empire State Building Area 10. New York City, Chelsea Area So where might everyone in Vegas be?

Sacramento shootings: An article in the Dec. 15 LATExtra section about a shootout at a Sacramento strip mall gave incorrect call letters for a local television station. The station is KOVR Channel 13, not KVOR. Vegas casinos: A graphic in the Dec. 14 Section A accompanying an article about tourism on the Las Vegas Strip showed the Mandalay Bay casino and hotel as opening in the 2000s. It opened in March 1999, with an adjacent tower known as THEhotel at Mandalay Bay joining it in 2003.