However, that number is likely to climb significantly higher before cooler weather takes hold after Labor Day. Also, the new report only lists cases that were investigated by the coroner’s office, and people whose identities were confirmed and next of kin were notified.

The oldest person reported to have died in part due to the heat between May 27 and July 27 was a 94-year-old man who lived with diabetes. The youngest, a 29-year-old man, died from the heat combined with the effects of methamphetamine toxicity.

The coroner’s office stated that certain drugs, especially fentanyl, exacerbate the effects of excessive heat and function as co-morbidities. This is also true of chronic diseases, mental illness, poor fluid intake, inappropriate attire, excessive physical exertion, and age.

Heat-related illness, which is preventable, occurs when a person’s body temperature rises faster than it can cool down. This can cause heat stroke, damaging the brain and/or other vital organs. Untreated, this usually leads to death.

The coroner ruled every death listed in its report as accidental.

It should be stated that this new data doesn’t jibe with the latest heat death report issued by the Southern Nevada Health District, which lists only six heat-related deaths in Clark County between May 27 and July 14.

The post Record Las Vegas Heat Kills More Than 63 So Far — Report appeared first on Casino.org.

EARLIER: In our July 16 story on what will happen to everything Mirage once the casino resort reopens as the next Hard Rock Las Vegas in three years, we neglected to mention the fate of George. Unbeknownst to us at the time, he’s a duck with a broken wing who lives in The Mirage’s volcano lagoon, which will soon be replaced by a giant, guitar-shaped hotel.

Krista Gifford, a Las Vegas resident and poker pro, noticed and named George while feeding ducks in the lagoon when the Strip went dark due to the pandemic shutdown.

I couldn’t help but to feel like I wanted to help him,” she told KVVU-TV/Las Vegas.

Since then, Gifford claimed, she’s fed the flightless mallard every morning — including when F1 was in town and the lagoon was drained, stranding George while his friends were able to fly to wetter pastures.

If this scenario has a familiar ring, a yellow-billed loon was?removed from the Bellagio fountains by the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDW) in March.

But that bird wasn’t injured, just confused, and it was its rarity this far south that drew most of the media attention.

George’s plight had to be trumpeted first by local social media influencers. Last week, Jen from VegasStarfish posted this Instagram video, which earned 10,600 likes. This website was also set up to save George.

“With The Mirage closing, once the water is drained this time, George is in serious danger of dying,” the website claimed, adding that “despite Krista’s persistent efforts, including meeting with Joe Lupo, the president, they continue to operate under the mistaken belief that all the ducks can fly. I guess they think George has been faking it for attention all these years.”

This last claim drew the attention of Lupo himself. The Mirage’s president left a comment beneath VegasStarfish’s video, denying that he previously spoke to Gifford.

“This story is not accurate,” Lupo wrote. “No one from this website has spoken to Mirage leadership to verify anything reported.”

No Harm, No Fowl

According to Lupo’s comment, The Mirage “will ensure the ducks are safely moved, while adhering and communicating with NV. Dept of Wildlife and LV Animal Control.”

Lupo mentioned George by name to KVVU, stating that the lagoon wouldn’t be drained for some time, but before it is, George would be moved to the Flamingo’s Wildlife Habitat.

That might not end up happening, however. According to a more recent report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Lupo has called in an animal rescuer, who will take George to a vet first and then decide on the best course of action for him.

The post UPDATE: George the Flightless Duck to be Relocated from Doomed Mirage Lagoon appeared first on Casino.org.

The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) recently published its environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding the Koi’s proposed development called Shiloh Resort and Casino. The tribe is seeking to build a $600 million casino on roughly 69 acres of land it purchased in September 2021.

Such tribal projects are required to undergo an EIS pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. The review identifies potentially significant impacts of tribal endeavors.

Environmental Impact Findings

Chad Broussard, an environmental protection specialist with the BIA, wrote in the abstract that the Shiloh Resort and Casino poses numerous environmental threats.

Broussard concluded that the destination would create potentially significant impacts to groundwater and biological resources, public services, traffic noise and congestion, wildfire hazards, and wildlife evacuation. But those concerns could be addressed, he said.?

?All potentially significant impacts would be minimalized or avoided with recommended mitigation measures,” Broussard wrote.?

The BIA is asking the public to review the Shiloh Resort and Casino EIS and submit comments to the federal agency within 45 days. The comment period is underway and runs through August 26.

The Shiloh blueprint calls for a 538,137-square-foot indoor development with the casino occupying 114,000 square feet. The casino plan calls for 2,750 slot machines and 105 live dealer table games.

The resort would include 400 hotel rooms, a spa, five restaurants, four bars, retail shopping, and 74,185 square feet of flexible event space. The destination would offer 5,119 parking spaces.

Local Opposition

The Koi Nation was given 140 acres of land in Lake County in 1916, but in 1956, the federal government said it had erred in designating that property as sovereign territory and took it back. Many of the Koi people moved to Sonoma County about 20 miles south.

The tribe, as mentioned, regained federal recognition in 2000 and has since fought to have its lands restored.

However, the Koi Nation has the support of 18 other California tribes and state Treasurer Fiona Ma.

The federal government, however, needs to take the land into trust to allow Shiloh to move forward with at least a Class I and II gaming destination. California governors, including Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), have a long history of extending Class III gaming compacts to federally recognized tribes that possess sovereign land on the Federal Register.

The post Koi Nation Casino Environmental Impact Report Released, Comment Period Begins appeared first on Casino.org.

Entering the Hoover Dam by car or foot is currently free, as it always has been. From there, visitors can access the scenic walkway along the Pat Tillman-Mike O’Callaghan Memorial Bridge — from which they can get a breath-stealing view of the 726-foot man-made wonder from 164 feet above it — and the 3.7-mile hiking trail through the twin railroad tunnels used to build the dam.

The toll plaza completed earlier this year by the Bureau of Reclamation just inside the security checkpoint opened after 9/11, is currently inactive and unstaffed. However, this is bound to change since government infrastructure is always built for a reason.

“We don’t have congressional authorization to charge an entry fee for noncommercial vehicles,” a Bureau of Reclamation spokesperson told the Las Vegas Review-Journal, adding that she has not been briefed on any plans to charge noncommercial vehicles. Since 2020, tour buses have been required to pay $5 per passenger to enter.

As anyone familiar with government-speak knows, these are classic nondenial denials.

The toll sits on what was once US 93, which crossed the Colorado River by winding along the top of the dam itself.

The relevant lesson here is that the federal government takes a long time to do things.

The post NEW DAM FEE: Hoover May Charge Visitors Just to Drive to It appeared first on Casino.org.

This goal supposedly gets accomplished by keeping the weather station’s temperature sensor in the shade instead of how most of those walking around Las Vegas experience the weather — in the blazing sun.

“Lies and misinformation,” insisted YouTube user @taylorlto806. “It’s ridiculous … The weather DOES and HAS exceeded 120 most summers, but it is no longer announced due to tourism.”

Weathering Heights

Yes, the temperature gauges at Harry Reid are kept in the shade. However, that’s true of all NWS weather stations.

“Historically, all temperatures are measured in the shade to be consistent, as the amount of solar radiation a location gets differs in different areas even when the temperature is the same,” NWS meteorologist Daniel Berc told Casino.org.

He added: “All official National Weather Service thermometers are kept in white, vented enclosures to reflect the sunlight. The shade, vents, and reflective paint allow the air to circulate freely so the thermometer can accurately measure the air temperature.”

The first one began taking observations on Jan. 1, 1937, at Nellis Air Force Base. That was back when it was known as the Western Air Express Airfield and the NWS was called the US Weather Bureau.

That station was moved to Las Vegas’ civilian airport, then known as Alamo Field, on Dec. 18, 1948, two days before it was renamed to honor Senator Pat McCarran. The station was installed outside the Weather Bureau’s office at Alamo, with its sensors measuring the air at about five feet off the ground.

On Sept. 1, 1995, the weather service replaced this station with an automated weather station located a bit east of what is now the middle of the airfield — again, about five feet off the ground. Because it was automated, it no longer needed to be manually read. So NWS abandoned its airport office for its current one on Dean Martin Drive.

That weather station needed to be moved due to the construction and expansion of a new taxiway. So, since April 19, 2007, the official NWS Las Vegas weather station has operated, once again, with its sensors about five feet off the ground in the southwest corner of the airport

Of course, as any Las Vegas resident knows, the eastern side of Las Vegas, around Boulder Highway, tends to get hotter than the rest of the valley because it sits at a lower elevation. And occasional amateur readings of above 120°F may have given this myth some legs.

“While we do not have any official climate sites there, readings of 120°F or above would certainly be plausible, however rare,” Berc said.

Why Always at Airports?

Official weather stations are usually located at airports, Berc explained, because “weather is so important to the aviation community.” (Both North Las Vegas and Henderson, Nev. have airport NWS weather stations recording and reporting their official temperatures, too.)

This would distinguish those pilots of yesteryear from today’s conspiracy theorists, who get their information from social media, fake news sites, and misinformed friends and family members.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. Visit VegasMythsBusted.com to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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Las Vegas had already broken its temperature record when it hit 118°F at 2:33 p.m. the same day, the weather service said, besting the 117°F reading recorded on July 19, 2005, and tied on June 30, 2013, June 20, 2017, and July 10, 2021.

The forecast high for the day had been 117°F, according to the weather service, with about a 25% chance of breaking the record.

While it’s difficult to attribute a single weather event like this directly to climate change, research identifies Las Vegas as one of the fastest-warming regions in the West. Average summer temperatures here have risen nearly 6°F since 1970, and Las Vegas hasn’t broken a low-temperature record in 25 years.

One Degree of Separation

Many news outlets have historically reported Las Vegas’ previous record high not as 117°F, but 118°F, set on July 26, 1931. So Casino.org asked NWS meteorologist Daniel Berc for an explanation.

It turns out, the weather service has never considered that previously published record to be official. That’s because it was measured by?Charles Pember “Pop” Squires, publisher of The Las Vegas Age newspaper, in his Fremont Street backyard.

It isn’t because Squires wasn’t a meteorologist, but that it wasn’t an official climate site,” Berc wrote in an e-mail. “Any observation taken before Jan. 1, 1937, is considered unofficial for the climate record.”

That’s when the weather service, then known as the US Weather Bureau, opened its official weather station at Nellis Air Force Base, which was then known as the Western Air Express Airfield.

That station was moved to Las Vegas’ civilian airport, then known as Alamo Field, on Dec. 18, 1948, two days before it was renamed to honor Senator Pat McCarran.

Don’t be Under the Weather

If you plan to be outside at all in Vegas this week, be aware that cooling stations are open during daytime hours all along the Strip through at least Wednesday. Nevertheless, you must constantly drink water and be on guard against the two forms of heat sickness…

Heat Exhaustion

This can cause cramps and nausea. You may also look pale and clammy, and your heart rate could increase to try to compensate for the fluid lost to sweating. You may also become dizzy, weak, and even faint.

If you think you have heat exhaustion, get yourself indoors, lie down, elevate your feet, and drink hydrating fluids — not alcohol. Applying cool, wet cloths to your underarms and body is also a good idea.

Heat Stroke

This is what happens when your body overheats beyond its upper-temperature limit, 106°F, which is quite easy to do in 119°F temperatures. This condition can denature your body’s proteins, causing internal organs to swell and nerve impulses to stop functioning. This greatly increases your risk of a heart attack. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, seizures, fever, and loss of consciousness.

Heat is the leading weather-related cause of mortality in the US, outpacing deaths from hurricanes by a factor of eight to one. In 2022, 1,714 deaths were attributed to heat-related causes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s a 740% increase over 2004.

The post Las Vegas Hits 120°F, Shattering Previous Record by 3 Degrees appeared first on Casino.org.

According to data obtained from the park service by KLAS-TV/Las Vegas, in the first half of 2024, 19 people have already died in the 1.5 million acre national park about 30 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip.

That’s the same number of people who died there in 2016, in 2018, and in 2019.

This trend seemed to have started last year, when 29 people perished, making 2023 Lake Mead’s deadliest year on record. (The fatalities for 2022 were 21.) But the fatality rate last year didn’t reach 19 until the end of July.

From 2013 to 2023, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, famously the home of Hoover Dam, saw a total of 203 fatalities, according to information collected by the Public Risk Management Program (PRMP). That’s a whopping 1,235% more deaths than the average for America’s national parks, and 6.9% of total national park deaths in that period.

The most common cause of death was drowning in Lake Mead itself, accounting for 56, or 27.6%, of those deaths and 12% of the 466 total drowning deaths across parks nationally.

Four of the people who died so far this year at Lake Mead National Recreation Area are confirmed to have drowned.

Ranking the Other Parks

Yosemite was rated America’s second deadliest national park, according to the PRMP, with 152 recorded deaths from 2013 to 2023. Medical emergencies were the main cause of death there, accounting for 34 fatalities, while falling was the second-most common, accounting for 33.

The third deadliest national park was Grand Canyon National Park, which recorded 136 deaths during the same ten-year time period.

Nearly 5.8 million people visited Lake Mead in 2023, according to the park service, more than the 5.6 million visitors recorded in 2022 but fewer than the 8 million who visited in 2020.

Everyone boating on Lake Mead is advised to wear a lifejacket, to monitor the weather, and not to drink alcohol before swimming.

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Of the 220 people who worked on it, 91 developed cancer, and 46 of them died from it, including both its top-billed stars, John Wayne and Susan Hayward. Make that 47 if you count Mexican actor Pedro Armendáriz, who shot himself to death when his cancer became terminal.

A newly released documentary, “The Conqueror: Hollywood Fallout,” illuminates the negligent production choices and government deception that robbed many in Hollywood of decades of their lives. It also examines the affected “downwinder” community in St. George, Utah, near where the film shot.

“My goal was to see how I can try and do this in the most entertaining way possible, so that a general audience can understand what had happened,” Will Nunez, director of the new documentary, said at a Hollywood panel discussion this week, as reported in The Hill.

Blasts from the Past

More than 100 explosions were conducted in the air above the Nevada Test Site, now called the Nevada National Security Site, from 1951 through 1963. Another 828 explosions were conducted underground until 1992.

Though no atomic bombs were known to have been exploded at the Nevada Test Site in the summer of 1954, when “The Conqueror” filmed 137 miles downwind of it, at least 50 had been by then — including 11 as part of Operation Upshot-Knothole from March through June 1953.

A case for an exclusively fatal link to the still-radioactive sand is difficult to prove for the cast and crew, considering how commonplace smoking was prior to the Surgeon General’s famous 1964 report. Wayne, Hayward, Armendáriz, actress Agnes Moorehead, and director Dick Powell were all reportedly heavy smokers.

However, Hayward, Armendáriz, and Powell all died in their 50s — young for cancer — and it wasn’t in their lungs. (It was in Hayward’s brain, Armendáriz’s kidney, and Powell’s blood.) And Wayne, who lived until age 77, died of stomach cancer.

And the rate of cancer among the residents of St. George at that time was an undeniable three times the national average. The victims included men who developed prostate cancer in their 30s and young children who developed leukemia.

Box Office Poison

The producers were aware of the possible radiation dangers associated with filming where they did. In fact, one photo from the set shows Wayne being taught to operate a Geiger counter with his two sons.

And, before his death in 1976, eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who produced “The Conqueror,” reportedly said he felt “guilty as hell” about the decisions he made on the production.

Those decisions included importing 60 tons of irradiated sand directly from the Utah desert to his RKO Pictures soundstage in Hollywood to shoot the film’s interior scenes.

In their defense, however, all suspicions were pooed-pooed by all the so-called scientific authorities of the day. The Atomic Energy Commission, especially, assured locals and visitors that the nuclear explosions posed no health dangers at all.

Even when sheep began mysteriously dying under the fallout trail, they had the audacity to blame it on rancher negligence.

It was only questions brought up after Wayne’s 1979 death, in a People magazine article, that encouraged Utahns to begin investigating the connection between their proximity to the Nevada Test Site and their medical histories.

Tireless lobbying by downwinders won over former Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch (R), who spearheaded the 1990 passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. The $100 million compensation package offered $50,000 each to the families of all residents of Nevada, Utah, and Arizona able to link cancers and other diseases to their fallout exposure.

The deadline for applying passed only last month. And a bipartisan bill to extend it, sponsored by Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), passed the Senate with 69 votes in March, but was spiked by Mike Johnson (R-La.), who thought it was too expensive and lacked the required Republican support to pass the House.

The post New Doc Spotlights Cast Who Died of Cancer After Shooting John Wayne Film Downwind of Nevada Test Site appeared first on Casino.org.

“The safety of our associates and our guests is paramount,” WinnaVegas GM Tom Teesdale said in a news release. “Our thoughts and prayers are with all those affected by the rising flood waters. Our hope is that all of Siouxland quickly recovers.”

Although the casino wasn’t yet affected when this was published, WinnaVegas officials told KTIV-TV/Sioux City that its entrance road was partially flooded and the water “is expected to continue to rise.”

According to KCAU-TV/Sioux City, first responders and other authorities were on the scene to help get customers and workers to safety.

Storms dumped as much as 18 inches of rain on the area since last Thursday. The flooding has so far affected three million people in the Midwest. It has killed two, sent rising water surging around a dam, and collapsed a railroad bridge crossing the swollen Big Sioux River — only about 20 miles from the WinnaVegas.

WinnaVegas — which was opened in April 1992 by the Winnebago Tribe — said on its Facebook page that it would “reopen when it is safe to return.”

The post WinnaVegas Casino Closes Amid Surging Midwest Floodwaters appeared first on Casino.org.

But it’s a dry 115 degrees ….

Because dry, hot air evaporates sweat, which is how the human body cools itself, most summertime visitors to Las Vegas come assuming that dry heat is safer than the humid kind found in Florida.

This is, of course, a myth, or you wouldn’t be reading about it here.

“Both are equally dangerous,” Daliah Wachs, a Las Vegas doctor of family medicine and host of her own radio show, told Casino.org. “But dry heat may give you the impression you are cooler than you really are, which means you might not move to a cooler area as quickly as you would in humid heat.”

And, because sweat evaporates quicker in dry heat, according to Wachs, “you have the potential to dehydrate faster in dry heat.”

This is especially true if you drink alcohol, as so many poolside Las Vegas tourists do.

Alcohol further dehydrates you and inhibits your ability to sense that you are in trouble,” Wachs said.

Whenever it’s hotter outside your body than inside, your body works hard to keep the temperature inside lower. It produces more sweat and opens blood vessels near the skin to keep your internal temperature from rising.

But if the liquid lost through sweat isn’t replaced, this can lead to the first level of heat illness.

Heat Exhaustion

This can cause cramps and nausea, according to Wachs. You may also look pale and clammy, and your heart rate could increase to try to compensate for the fluid lost to sweating. You may also become dizzy, weak, and even faint.

“You should immediately head indoors, lie down, elevate your feet, and get sips of fluid,” Wachs said.

Applying cool, wet cloths to your underarms and body is also a good idea, “and contact medical authorities if symptoms continue or worsen.”

Heat Stroke

If your body overheats beyond its upper-temperature limit — 106 degrees Fahrenheit — this is heat stroke. This condition can denature your body’s proteins, causing internal organs to swell and nerve impulses to stop functioning. This greatly increases your risk of a heart attack.

After heat stroke, there are no more advanced stages of heat illness before seeing your dead grandmother at the end of a long tunnel of light.

Heat stroke is a medical emergency and can be fatal,” Wachs said.

Symptoms include difficulty breathing, seizures, fever, and loss of consciousness. And losing consciousness means you can’t drink fluids, which is your only hope of recovery.

“If you have heat stroke, 911 must be called immediately,” Wachs said.

Depending on how hot the air is and how dehydrated you were when you entered it, heat stroke can occur in a matter of just a few minutes.

For the week ending July 22, heat-related hospitalizations this year in Nevada, Arizona, and California were 51% above the average level since 2018.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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Jacks Valley Ranch dates back to before Nevada was even founded. The more than 160-year-old, 1,230-acre working cattle ranch is being sold by the estate of casino tycoon John Ascuaga and his wife, Rose Ascuaga. Mrs. Ascuaga died in 2020, just shy of her 87th birthday. Mr. Ascuaga died the following year at the age of 96.

For more than a half-century, Ascuaga owned and operated John Ascuaga’s Nugget in Sparks and continually expanded the resort into the sprawling complex that it is today. Ascuaga sold the casino resort in October 2013.

Jacks Valley History

Ascuaga purchased Jacks Valley Ranch in 1969. The storied property has called several other prominent Nevadans its owner, including Richard Kirman, the seventh governor of the state, oil tycoon Robert Lytle, and millionaire philanthropist Max Fleischmann of the Fleischmann’s Yeast empire.

Steeped in history, Jacks Valley was where John Wayne filmed his final movie, “The Shootist.” The Duke, as Wayne was affectionately known, is synonymous with Hollywood Westerns. ?

During his ownership, Ascuaga permanently preserved most of the land by placing it into the Nevada Land Trust. The nonprofit helped Ascuaga obtain a conservation easement on 1,169 acres, which bars the land from further development.

My desire has always been to preserve the character of Jacks Valley and to maintain the ranch as a working ranch,” Ascuaga said in 2015 after the conservation easement was established.

Jacks Valley Ranch, located five air miles east of Lake Tahoe and just a short drive to Carson City, was the primary residence of the Ascuaga family. Ascuaga raised his children there, and Stephen and Michonne would go on to work at the Nugget and play critical roles in its perpetual development and governance.

Listing Details

Jacks Valley Ranch has four residences, with the main home consisting of three bedrooms, two baths and two half-baths, a study, and a two-car attached garage. The 5,428-square-foot home was built in 1963.

The three other homes are older, each dating back to 1942. They are each two-bed, one-bath units. The property has five barns, 737 acres of irrigated pasture, and 4,112 acre-feet of deeded water rights.

The ranch also features 377 acres of mixed conifer forest and 111 acres of sage and bitterbrush. Jacks Valley Ranch is being listed by Chase International. Additional information can be found here.

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Great Wolf Resorts and Foxwoods reps held a ceremonial “topping out” event this week at the amusement park and 549-room lodge. The family-oriented amenity is being built just south of the casino resort on sovereign land that’s owned by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation.

Secretly, we’re hoping to move that [June 15] date up,” Steve Jacobsen, vice president of development at Great Wolf Resorts, said not-so-secretly.

Once finished, the first Great Wolf Lodge in Connecticut will feature a 91,000-square-foot indoor waterpark and 61,000 square feet of arcade and family-focused entertainment. Great Wolf Resorts says the Foxwoods lodge will be its 23rd property in North America

Resort Expansion?

Foxwoods opened as a bingo hall in 1986 and has since undergone numerous expansions to today where it’s among the country’s largest casino destinations. After reaching a Class III gaming compact with Connecticut, Foxwoods brought Las Vegas-style slot machines and live dealer table games to the Native American reservation when it opened its first casino space in February 1992.

Foxwoods today has four distinct casinos with over 2,900 slots, 250 tables, and a 12,000-square-foot DraftKings Sportsbook. The expansion brought new restaurants to Foxwoods, including Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen, which opened in March 2023.

The bulk of the $385 million investment, however, was directed to the Great Wolf Lodge attraction. The family resort is expected to cost around $300 million to open.

Structure Complete

The building of Foxwoods’ Great Wolf Lodge indoor waterpark and hotel is complete. Construction leads say work will now move inside, just in time as the hot summer months arrive.

Great Wolf Resorts is leasing the land where the lodge is being built from the tribe. The partnership will share in the attraction’s revenues and is projected to bring a new guest demographic to the casino-focused destination.

It’s a perfect fit between Boston and New York,” Jason Guyot, president and chief executive officer at Foxwoods, said Wednesday. It gives families options they’ve never had before.”

Connecticut residents no longer have to drive to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun to gamble legally on a slot or table game, as iGaming went live in Connecticut in October 2021. The tribes possess exclusive privileges to online casino games, though the Connecticut Lottery also runs online sports betting.

Great Wolf Resorts was founded in 1997 in Wisconsin. The company today is publicly traded on the Nasdaq.

One of Great Wolf Resorts’ largest shareholders is Blackstone, the private equity giant that owns Australia’s Crown Resorts and the physical assets of the Bellagio, The Cosmopolitan, Aria, and Vdara on the Las Vegas Strip.

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The city of Las Vegas is the first large city in the country to be served exclusively by renewable energy. Since this announcement was made by Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman on Dec. 12, 2016, it’s created a major misconception about where the Strip gets its power.

First of all, Mayor Goodman was referring only to the city government of Las Vegas, not to its casinos or other private businesses, nor its nearly 200K residential dwellings. More importantly, no part of the Las Vegas Strip lies within the city of Las Vegas, as we explained in an earlier installment of this series.

So while it’s awesome that all 140 public buildings — as well as all the streetlights, city parks, community centers, and fire stations — in the city of Las Vegas proper are powered by a mix of solar and hydroelectric energy, this accomplishment has nothing whatsoever to do with where the Strip gets the energy to power its famous bright lights.

The Good News

Strip resort companies are doing their part to reduce the amount of fossil fuels they burn.

Even before the 323K-panel Mega Solar Array, MGM’s Mandalay Bay was already generating up to 25% of its power from 26K solar panels installed on its roof. According to MGM, its goal is to run on 100% renewable energy sources by 2023.

Similarly, 100K square feet of the Wynn Las Vegas roof is covered with operating solar panels. And, in 2020, the company opened a 160-acre solar power plant that it said generates up to 75% of its peak Las Vegas power.

Caesars Entertainment doesn’t own solar arrays on its property or elsewhere in Las Vegas. However, the Strip’s second-largest resort owner reportedly purchases solar energy on the open market and has officially committed to reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2025 and 95% by 2050.

In 2019, Las Vegas Sands announced that the Venetian and the Sands Expo and Convention Center had procured enough renewable energy certificates from Nevada Energy to cover 100% of their energy use. In 2022, Las Vegas Sands sold those properties to Apollo Global Management, Inc. affiliates and VICI Properties, Inc.

The Bad News

So far, all this conservation hasn’t added up to much.

Nevada’s headed in the right direction for sure. In 2021, more solar capacity was installed in the state than in any previous year, and Nevada ranked sixth in the nation in total solar capacity and generation.

It’s just that 67 more percentage points are required before the Las Vegas Strip running on 100% renewable energy is true.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org.?Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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The tested mosquitos were part of 91 mosquito pools monitored by the agency across 16 zip codes, according to an SNHD press release. Health officials attribute the rise to an increased presence of Aedes aegypti, a particularly aggressive species of biters drawn more to people than birds and other animals.

Exactly what led to the Aedes aegypti’s increased presence isn’t known, but this is the first time any mosquitos of this species have tested positive for West Nile virus in Clark County,

Symptoms, Severity Prevention

About one in five people infected with West Nile will develop symptoms. These can include fever, headache, body aches, vomiting, diarrhea, and a rash.

About 1 in every 150 human cases will prove serious, and 1 in every 1,500 will prove fatal.

Health officials encourage all visitors and residents to take preventive measures during the summer months.

These include:

1. Using EPA-registered insect repellent
2. Avoiding standing water
3. Wearing loose-fitting clothes, including long-sleeved shirts and pants.

Minimal human cases of West Nile virus were reported from 2020-23, with only two last year. However, 43 human cases virus were reported in 2019.

No human cases of that disease have been reported since 2016, according to the SNHD.

While in Las Vegas, the Health District’s surveillance program encourages visitors to report any mosquito activity they see to (702) 759-1633.

The post Record Number of West Nile-Infected Mosquitos Plague Las Vegas appeared first on Casino.org.

The photo was posted on June 6 by the Facebook group Sin City Las Vegas Locals, where it earned 33,000 likes and 2,500 comments.

Here are some of those comments:

A Facebook page called Let’s Explain, which categorizes itself as a science and tech authority, stepped in to resolve exactly what happened.

Except that modern traffic light enclosures aren’t made of plastic. In Las Vegas and everywhere else in the US, they’re made of aluminum alloys designed to resist an average temperature of 600°F.

The hottest temperature ever recorded in Las Vegas was 117°F. It was set on July 24, 1942 and tied four times, most recently on July 10, 2021. Direct sun does heat dark-colored objects to higher temperatures than the surrounding air, but never even remotely close to six times hotter.

Also, that explanation doesn’t cover how — even if this somehow could have resulted from air temperature and/or direct sunlight — one side of the traffic light melted while the other side didn’t.

Shedding Light

The traffic light shown in the photo isn’t from Las Vegas. It melted in Italy due to the heat from a scooter that burst into flames beneath it on July 25, 2022, according to Italy’s Open Online.

The fire occurred at the intersection of Viale Regina Margherita and Via Bergamo in Milan.

We know because Instagram user Simone Lunghi posted a video of himself posing with the damaged light four days later.

In defense of Sin City Las Vegas Locals, it never directly claimed that the traffic light in the photo melted from the Las Vegas heat. The group’s caption merely read “Vegas Summer has arrived,” punctuated by a sun emoji.

We’ve warned you, dozens and dozens of times, not to believe everything you see on the internet, kids. But we’re secretly glad that you never listen, since that leaves plenty more Vegas myths for us to bust every week.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org.?Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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The “world’s tallest thermometer” in Baker, Calif., is a liar.

It’s not that there’s a taller thermometer somewhere in the world robbed of its rightful title. It’s that the spectacle that towers over the Mad Greek Café, a dozen gas stations, and everything else in the Mojave Desert town two-thirds of the drive up Interstate 15 from LA to Vegas isn’t a working thermometer.

It’s just a three-sided digital sign that displays the temperature measured by a thermometer that is real — but much, much smaller — located somewhere inside of it.

And, as far as freestanding digital signs go, the “world’s tallest thermometer” doesn’t even make the Top 10. The current record holder, located 94 miles north of Baker in Las Vegas, is nearly three times its size. And before the MSG Sphere’s 366-foot tall LED outer skin was switched on, the record holder was the Aria sign — also in Las Vegas — at twice the size of Baker’s digital sign.

Bun Warmer

In 1956, Willis Herron became a co-owner of the Bun Boy on Baker Boulevard. According to its roadside sign, this restaurant was the “home of the best fresh strawberry pie & butter thin pancakes.”

A kitchen blaze burned the Bun Boy down in 1990. While Herron rebuilt it with insurance money, he sought to add something more memorable for the public to associate it with than offensive jokes about its name.

At the time, Baker was known to the outside world for only two things — being a rest stop and being hot as blazes. So Herron threw in with the latter and paid YESCO $700K to do its thing.

The Salt Lake City-based Young Electric Sign Co. built Vegas Vic and owns and operates the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign.

After it was built, but before it was switched on, Herron’s sign was snapped in two by 70 mph winds that also trashed a gift shop below it. It was rebuilt and 125 cubic yards of concrete were poured into its steel core as reinforcement. Opening day was Oct. 9, 1992.

Under the Weather

Eight years later, an ailing Herron sold his thermometer — along with his Bun Boy and an associated motel — to a Burger King franchisee. Five years after that, the franchisee sold them to a local businessman named Matt Pike. Pike turned the Bun Boy into a Bob’s Big Boy and, in 2012, switched off the fake giant thermometer to save on its very real giant electric bill: $8K a month.

Yet saddened tourists still stopped to take photos of the darkened sign. So Herron’s widow vowed to buy it back.

After Barbara died in 2022, ownership of the sign passed to her children.

Bonus Tall Tale

Because the temperature in Death Valley was never expected to top 134 degrees Fahrenheit, that’s supposedly the highest temperature the sign is capable of displaying.

Nope. This is also a myth because the sign can go up to 139 degrees.

“The digital readout is set up to go up by 10-degree increments between the balls,” LaRae Harguess, one of the Herron children, told Casino.org. “The highest ball is 130, so 139 is the highest it will go, since there isn’t a 140 ball.”

Could a new computer program be written to accommodate even higher temperatures caused by global warming?

“Not without changing everything,” Harguess said.

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In a press release, the department shared its hope that this investment could return “more than 700,000 acre-feet of water” to Lake Mead.

Despite improvements made in recent months, an historic 23-year drought has led to record low water levels at the nation’s largest human-made reservoir, which supplies 90% of the water for the Las Vegas Strip and the rest of Southern Nevada.

As of June 6, the water in Lake Mead sits at 1,066 feet above sea level. This is better than its measurements in June 2022 (1,043 feet) and June 2023 (1,055 feet), but still 163 feet (12.6%) short of full.

Lake Mead and the Lower Colorado River Basin supply more than 40 million people with water, as well as fueling hydropower in seven US states.

“The Biden-Harris administration is committed to making western communities more resilient to the impacts of climate change,” Secretary Deb Haaland is quoted as saying in the press release.?“Building on our significant efforts to protect the Colorado River System, we are continuing to make smart investments through the President’s Investing in America agenda to strengthen the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River System.”

Desal-oween

The $700 million is earmarked for water distribution structures, advanced metering infrastructure, farm efficiency improvements, canal lining, turf removal, groundwater banking, water recycling and purification efforts, and another potential conservation method we’re hearing for the first time in an official press release: desalinization.

Lake Mead is 272 miles from the nearest large body of salt water, the Pacific Ocean, and constructing a pipeline that long is still not widely regarded as feasible.

Instead, the government is more likely to invest in a desalination plant in Mexico — where the Colorado River empties into the Gulf of California at the base of the Baja Peninsula — and then trade that investment for a portion of Mexico’s Colorado River water rights.

This is the latest announcement of funding by the Lower Colorado Basin System Conservation and Efficiency Program, established through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 to address climate change and the drought crisis.

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That record, set on June 4, 1999, was 50° Fahrenheit. It broke a low of 54° degrees set in 1951. Though two record lows were tied since — on April 15, 2009, and Aug. 3, 2014 — not a single one has been broken in the 21st century so far.

In fact, according to the National Weather Service, the mercury from June through August hasn’t even dipped below 59°F at night since 2000.

Is This Really News?

The desert being hot may not seem like news, but it is when it gets hot enough to ring alarm bells. And half of the record high temperatures in Las Vegas have been set since 2000.

As you read this, an excessive heat warning is in effect for the region this week as temperatures inch up to, and perhaps surpass, 110 degrees.

And that’s because, between June 5-7, much of the Western US, Mexico, and Eastern Canada are expected to bake in extreme heat that, according to climatecentral.org, is “three times more likely because of human-caused climate change.”

If the temperature in Las Vegas reaches 110 on Wednesday, it will be the earliest in the year that the region has ever reached that brutal threshold. (On average, it doesn’t arrive until July 1.)

Since 1970, according to climatecentral.org, Las Vegas has seen an increase in average temperature of 5.8°. That makes it America’s second fastest-warming city. (Reno, Nev. reigns supreme at a 10.9° increase over the same period.)

If the increases continue, and there is no reason to expect they won’t, they can alter the water cycle, depleting the Colorado River of its snowmelt and Lake Mead of its water source. They can also exacerbate human health issues, endanger native wildlife, and increase the frequency and intensity of wildfires.

Check out Casino.org’s recently published tips for surviving Las Vegas’ summer heat.

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The complete collapse of the Hoover Dam, a scenario that’s highly unlikely even in the event of a big earthquake or terrorist attack, wouldn’t flood the Strip or any other part of Las Vegas.

That’s according to every real expert ever questioned about this horrific scenario.

And that’s because Las Vegas isn’t downstream (south) of the dam. It’s 35 miles northwest, as the crow flies. It’s also 800 feet higher in elevation than the top of the Hoover Dam.

Still, it wouldn’t be a good day for countless other reasons.

Hell of High Water

Though Lake Mead is only about 34% full now, 34% of its maximum capacity (9.3 trillion gallons) translates into more than 3 trillion gallons of water suddenly gushing downstream at once.

That’s enough to submerge 10 million acres of land (basically, the state of New Jersey) to a depth of one foot — but only if the deluge spread out evenly in all directions.

Instead, gravity would pull the water southward, along the natural shape of the Colorado, where it would hew to the very same canyon walls that it carved out over millions of years.

This would make the deadly wave much taller (perhaps over 100 feet) and deadlier.

This wall of water would destroy, and then submerge, Laughlin, Nev., Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, and Yuma, Ariz., and much of? California’s Imperial Valley, before eventually emptying into the Gulf of California at the base of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.

Basically, a collapsed Hoover Dam would flood all the communities that the Colorado used to flood regularly, which is what the dam was constructed to prevent in the first place.

Tens of thousands of lives would likely be lost, along with 2 million acres of cropland, though all those farms would be useless without their future allotment of Colorado River water to irrigate them anyway.

Finally, a collapsed Hoover Dam would devastate the habitats and populations of fish and other wildlife that have adapted to depend on Lake Mead and its controlled river flow, and could even trigger landslides and earthquakes.

Last Vegas

Though Las Vegas wouldn’t flood due to the collapse of the Hoover Dam, its days would still be numbered because of it. And that’s because the region currently gets 90% of its water from Lake Mead, which a collapsed Hoover Dam of course, would empty.

Let’s all hope this exercise continues to remain a hypothetical one.

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Director Christopher Nolan’s movie, “Oppenheimer,” throws a spotlight back onto the era of America’s nuclear weapons testing. The biopic explores physicist Robert Oppenheimer’s role in developing the world’s first two atomic bombs.

Following the detonation of those bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which led to Japan’s surrender and the end of World War II, the US government began test-exploding new nuclear weapons at the Nevada Test Site, now called the Nevada National Security Site, near Las Vegas in 1951. This created the phenomenon known as “atomic tourism.”

“That’s a common misperception among our visitors,” said Joseph Kent, director of curation and exhibits for the Atomic Museum, a private national museum operating in Las Vegas since 2005 under the 501 (c) 3 nonprofit Nevada Test Site Historical Foundation.

Why don’t more people realize that the federal government was still exploding nuclear bombs a stone’s throw from Vegas three years after The Mirage opened?

Because atomic testing, much like prostitution in Las Vegas, went underground.

Truth Bomb

The January 1951 detonation of a nuclear warhead at the Nevada Test Site, then called the Nevada Proving Grounds, was the first of 100 similar explosions in the air over the 1,355 square-mile plateau, which was carved out from the Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range.

“The site was chosen because it was a lot cheaper to have one site where the national labs developing these weapons could bring them,” Kent said. “And it made sense logistically because Las Vegas only had about 25K residents back then.”

The biggest atmospheric test was Operation Plumbbob in 1957. That blast packed 74 kilotons, or 74K tons of TNT, which equaled five Hiroshima bombs.

“The goal really was to make the weapons more efficient and powerful, but at the same time, test smaller weapons that could hit specific targets,” Kent explained.

Operation Teapot, a series of 14 explosions conducted in the first half of 1955, measured how houses, household items, food, shelters, metal buildings, equipment, and mannequins (standing in for humans) survived at various distances from a blast.

Nuclear Attraction

The mushroom clouds rising over the Nevada desert, one every three weeks or so, proved a spectacular tourist attraction. Visitation surged as Las Vegas nicknamed itself “the Atomic City.” Copa Room showgirl Lee Merlin posed in a mushroom-cloud swimsuit and was photographed as “Miss Atomic Bomb.” Even the famous “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign, erected in 1959, employed the atomic-age design style known as Googie.

“In the early ’50s, the bomb captured the imagination of the American public,” Kent said. “Everything from company logos to TV shows were atomic-themed. An episode of ‘I Love Lucy’ showed Lucy prospecting for uranium.”

Watching from Las Vegas was deemed safe at the time, though a $100 million compensation package offered by the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 to all residents of nearby Nevada, Utah, and Arizona able to link cancers and other diseases to their exposure to the fallout suggests otherwise.

As part of that package, scheduled to sunset on June 10, 2024, those who were downwind of the explosions can receive $50K each.

“I think people really go the extra mile to normalize things to make them less scary,” Kent said. “Let’s make it something fun and silly, so it doesn’t make it seem as scary anymore. If only people back then knew the consequences of what they were watching, it probably wouldn’t have seemed so thrilling.”

Underground Zero

After a while, the novelty of rising plumes of death wore off and atomic tourism fizzled. By 1963, with the Cuban Missile Crisis over, fears dwindled and the US, Soviet Union, and the UK signed the Partial Test Ban Treaty. This prohibited nuclear weapons tests in the air, underwater, and in space.

The treaty came as a result of the public becoming more aware of the dangers of testing,” Kent said. “There was a call for doing something different, either ceasing testing or finding a safer way to do it.”

The US performed 828 total underground tests at the Nevada Test Site. The reason this wasn’t common knowledge is because none of the tests produced a mushroom cloud or any fallout that anyone had to be alerted about, only the occasional ground rumble and some massive, still-existing on-site craters.

“The Baneberry test resulted in an accidental release of radioactivity,” Kent said. “Like with most accidents, they learned from it and knew what to avoid in the future.”

Two of the workers with the highest levels of exposure contracted leukemia and died. After their widows spent years fighting for compensation, the courts found?the federal government negligent but not liable. No damages were rewarded.

Tests Grounded

The underground tests ceased in 1992 because, by then, the Soviet Union collapsed and Congress passed a test moratorium in response to Russia’s announcing one first. The moratorium has been extended several times since, though the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by the US, Russia, China, France, and the UK still hasn’t been ratified by a number of crucial nuclear players, including North Korea, Pakistan, and India.

“Basically, they test components of the stockpile of weapons that the US has to make sure they’re safe, secure, and reliable because, over time, things change,” Kent said.

The site has also been the recipient of 13,625 cubic meters of radioactive material from Idaho, which the US government acknowledged last year.

While I can’t speak to that specifically, I can tell you that the NNSS has served as a safe and secure waste disposal option for decades, and typically accepts low-level waste that results from cleanup being done at DOE sites.”

Tours of the Nevada National Security Site can be booked at nnss.gov.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org.?Click here to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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DeSantis and the powerful tribe reached new compact terms in 2021 that expanded the Seminoles’ permitted games to include sports betting, both retail and in-person, plus the addition of roulette and craps at its tribal brick-and-mortar casinos.

The bill, called “Funding for Environmental Resource Management,” requires that most of the compact revenue go towards supporting water quality improvement programs, environment infrastructure, and the ongoing acquisition and management of conservation lands.

SB 1638 provides $150 million for necessary repairs and upgrades to the Central and South Florida Water Management System.

I was proud to add to our record investments in conservation. pic.twitter.com/9TACmmg8om

— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) April 4, 2024

Funding Tributary

HB 1638 officially went into effect after DeSantis also signed companion legislation, Senate Bill 7080, on Thursday. That statute establishes the Indian Gaming Revenue Clearing Trust Fund.

Florida’s money from the Seminole compact will first be allocated to the trust fund. The Florida Department of Financial Services will manage the account.

Among Florida’s greatest assets are its natural resources,” said DeSantis. “This revenue stream will further enhance our efforts to conserve our natural resources, protect our waterways, and make our ecological infrastructure more resilient.”

The Seminole compact money is more of a financial tsunami than a stream. The state is projected to receive about $750 million annually from the tribe’s six casinos. HB 1638 requires that 96% of that money go to the Indian Gaming Revenue Clearing Trust Fund.

“In recent years, our state has made unprecedented investments to protect our wild spaces, improve water quality, and preserve our natural resources,” added Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton. “The consistent revenue stream from this legislation will allow the state to double down on its efforts to protect Florida’s natural resources for generations to come.”

DeSantis Signs Another Gaming Measure

Along with the Seminole money going to environmental causes, DeSantis on Thursday signed legislation that allows the state to retain and sell seized gaming machines and assets related to unlawful gambling operations.

House Bill 5203 allows illegal gambling terminals seized by the Florida Gaming Control Commission (FGCC) to become state property. The legislation provides a legal framework for the FGCC to subsequently sell such property and deposit the proceeds into its Pari-Mutuel Wagering Trust Fund, which covers its operating costs.

The FGCC oversees all forms of commercial gaming in the state aside from the state-run lottery. The agency regulates slot machines in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, pari-mutuel wagering, and cardrooms. The commission also has oversight of tribal gaming compacts “and other forms of gambling authorized by the State Constitution.” ?

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The fire became apparent at about 2:30 a.m. Alarms sounded and hotel employees knocked on doors to alert the guests.

Hotel visitors awoke from their slumber and quickly went downstairs.

While firefighters brought the fire under control, guests stayed in the hotel lobby or went to their cars until they were allowed back upstairs to gather their personal belongings.

The fire was quickly doused by crews from the Clark County Fire Department. By 6 a.m., most of the responding firefighters finished their tasks and left the hotel to return to their stations.

Guests Reimbursed

All of the hotel’s guests were told to relocate to another hotel and were reimbursed for the interrupted night’s stay.

One visitor, Craig Hudson of California, told Las Vegas TV station KVVU he first believed the fire alarms were caused by some kind of malfunction. But once in the hallway, visitors revealed to him that the alarm went off because of? an electrical fire.

While in his room’s bathroom, he also could smell what appeared to be an electrical fire.

Ethan Romero, also from California, and his father were in a hallway and spotted smoke billowing from an elevator.

Sacred of Elevator Fire

“We were pretty scared,” Romero revealed. “Thankfully, we saw an exit, and we saw the stairway.”

Romero also recalled the challenges he has faced on his family vacation.

It’s funny, because as we were leaving Northridge, there was flooding and hail. And, now this,” Romero told KVVU. “Who knows what’s next? An earthquake? We’ll see.”

The fire forced the Romero family to immediately evacuate from the hotel until firefighters completely extinguished the blaze.

“We’ve been outside for the past two or three hours,” Romero told KVVU during the middle of the night. “I don’t even know what time it is right now.”

He added that the hotel’s offer to reimburse guests “would make this right.”

There is no immediate word when the hotel will reopen, nor did the hotel detail the damage caused by the fire. It also is unclear how much it will cost the hotel to repair the property.

The hotel is situated in Las Vegas near Warm Springs Road and Route 215. The property is a five-minute drive from Harry Reid International Airport.

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The airborne dust can trigger or worsen respiratory ailments, especially for those who are outside, according to Clark County officials.

Workers at construction sites are particularly vulnerable to breathing hazards associated with higher dust levels.

Also at risk are those who suffer from chronic lung or heart ailments. The elderly and children may choose to stay inside until windy conditions subside.

Health Precautions

The Clark County Air Quality Division released the following advice:

• Limit outdoor exertion. Exercising outside on days experiencing higher dust levels can lead to inhaling harmful particulates.
• Keep windows and doors closed.
• Operate air conditioners in vehicles and residences to filter harmful particulates.
• Install new indoor air filters, if needed.
• Drive slowly on dirt roads.
• Avoid driving or drive slowly on vacant lots.
• Be careful about riding off-road vehicles.

The Clark County Air Quality Division recommends that individuals call the regional dust complaint hotline at 702-385-DUST (3878) to report excessive amounts of dust coming into the air from construction sites, vacant lots, or buildings.

In addition, local officials recommend consulting a physician if a medical condition puts your health at risk when there are higher air levels of air pollution.

Weather Forecast

Las Vegas and the rest of Clark County remain under a high wind warning from the National Weather Service (NWS). It is to remain in effect until Friday morning.

Northerly winds are predicted to be up to 35 mph, with gusts reaching as high as 55 mph.

Thursday’s forecast calls for blowing dust in Clark County between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Winds will come from the north-northeast and are predicted to be between 20 and 24 mph. Gusts may reach 37 mph. Wind gusts at Red Rock could reach 49 mph.

Friday’s winds are predicted to lessen to 10-15 mph with gusts of up to 21 mph. There’s a 30% chance of showers, with much of the day forecast to be partly sunny. The high is expected to reach 59 degrees.

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Because it wasn’t.

While rain barely falls on Las Vegas, it falls plenty in the mountains surrounding it. For more than 15,000 years, runoff from snowmelt and downpours at higher altitudes fed springs and streams that broke through the desert floor and flowed freely (and, during storms, uncontrollably) through Las Vegas.

Rather than a harsh desert, the region was actually an oasis inside a harsh desert when it was founded in 1905. (“Las Vegas” is Spanish for “The Meadows.”)

Today, its underground aquifers are drained nearly dry and the mountain runoff is funneled into concrete flood channels that deliver it directly to Lake Mead. But when they were allowed to (and could) flow naturally, the main waterways — Las Vegas Creek, Duck Creek, and what’s known today as the Flamingo Wash — provided ample water to drink and bathe with, as well as to sustain lush grass and thickets of mesquite and willow trees that supported their own diverse array of nondesert wildlife.

This water source allowed Native Americans to survive and thrive here for at least 5,000 years. Then it made Las Vegas a vital stop on the Old Spanish Trail between Santa Fe and Los Angeles.

In fact, it was while mapping that trail in 1829 that Raphael Rivera, a scout for the first Mexican expedition through Southern Nevada, bestowed upon the region its Spanish name.

Related Bonus Myth

The first permanent European settlement in Las Vegas wasn’t abandoned because of a lack of water. A combination of factors caused 32 Mormon missionaries to ditch the Old Mormon Fort two years after they built it on the Las Vegas Creek in 1855.

These factors included disappointing mining and crop yields, dissension among the leaders, deteriorating relations with the Native Americans they tried converting to Mormonism, and the beginning of what the Mormons refer to as the Utah War against the US government, which they returned home to help fight.

Troubled Water

In 1902, Las Vegas pioneer Helen J. Stewart sold most of her ranch on Las Vegas Creek, and its water rights, to Montana Sen. William A. Clark and his San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Railroad. This allowed the railroad to build a system that pumped running water from the creek directly to the 1,200 business and residential lots it sold in what eventually became downtown Las Vegas.

Five years later, the new city’s residents began drilling wells into the aquifer for extra water. Often, these wells weren’t capped, allowing copious amounts of the precious resource to gush aboveground where most of it evaporated. People didn’t understand where the water came from, and the force with which it gushed gave them the misconception that its supply was endless.

By the summer of 1935, so much more of its water was pumped out than had been naturally replenished, Las Vegas Creek dried up for the first time. This prompted Nevada State Engineer Alfred Merritt Smith to declare Las Vegas dangerously overdrawn.

Smith proposed metering water usage, but the Nevada State Legislature opposed all such anti-development crazy talk.

By 1962, the water table finally sank so low, the Las Vegas Springs stopped flowing to the surface entirely. This killed most of the vegetation its springs and streams had sustained, as well as several distinct species of frogs and fish.

By 1972, the last remnant of Las Vegas Creek was doomed to be paved over for a new expressway. This remnant still quenched a green but slowly dying half-mile swath of vegetation just west of downtown and adjacent to the Meadows Mall. (Get the name? Most people don’t because there aren’t many meadows left in Las Vegas.)

By this time, Las Vegas was drawing most of its water from the Colorado River, via pipes poked into a completely full Lake Mead, so no loud alarm bells sounded.

Until UNLV archeology professor Claude Warren conducted a survey that found evidence of human occupation on the site dating back thousands of years.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District, with the help of concerned citizens, used this surprise to get the Las Vegas Springs added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. And that’s what forced the Nevada Department of Transportation to divert US 95 around the 180-acre site.

To protect, and attempt to restore, what little remains of the Las Vegas Springs, the Las Vegas Springs Preserve was established on the site in 2007.

To date, according to the organization’s website, it has restored seven acres of wetlands, including a stream and 14 habitat ponds.

That may be a drop in the bucket, but it beats doing nothing at all.

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Weather at the airport was so serious that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an airport closure at 10 a.m. PT, according to Las Vegas TV station KTNV. It was expected to end at noon PT.

As of 3 p.m. PT, the airport was seeing departure delays that lasted an average of 1 hour and 3 minutes, according to FlightAware, a national flight tracking service.

Flights arriving at the airport were delayed an average of 1 hour and 9 minutes, FlightAware reported. Some flight delays at Harry Reid Airport extended for several hours.

Airport ground delays were expected to continue through 11 p.m. PT on Monday, according to KTNV.

Low Clouds Blamed

The delays and cancellations were due to low clouds, the airport explained in a post for passengers. Airport officials further advised passengers and those who were driving them to and from the airport to “Monitor your flight status with your airline.”

Light rain was falling in Las Vegas as of 3 p.m. on Monday, according to local weather forecasts. The temperature was 52 degrees. Humidity was 90%.

Looking to Monday evening, Las Vegas is expected to see more rain, some of which is expected to be heavy at times. Rainfall was to total about a quarter of an inch or more.

Monday night’s low was predicted to hit 49 degrees. Winds will be from the northeast at 5 to 10 mph.

The weather on Tuesday is expected to bring more rain during the morning hours, and showers will eventually taper off. Skies will be overcast later in the day and the high temperature is expected to hit 55 degrees.

By Wednesday, Las Vegas will see partly cloudy conditions during the morning. It will turn cloudy by the afternoon. The high will hit 59 degrees.

National Picture

Monday’s flight delays and cancellations were seen in many parts of the US, not just in Nevada, according to FlightAware. The total number of delays within, into, or out of the US as of Monday afternoon were 4,468. Total cancellations within, into, or out of the US were 895.

Among the most impacted cities where flights were delayed or canceled were Chicago, St. Louis, and Seattle.

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That was 25,000 years ago, back in the late Ice Age. And, starting this weekend, the fossils of these long-extinct megafauna can be found in one Las Vegas attraction you don’t have to pass 2,000 slot machines to enter.

Ice Age Fossils State Park is located just 20 miles north of the Strip in a portion of North Las Vegas that was once part of the Upper Las Vegas Wash.

Yes, Las Vegas was once a mucky wetland, not a desert. And after some of its former inhabitants died, mud and plant matter accumulated around their carcasses, forming stone casts that later filled with minerals from groundwater and/or sediment, and — voila! — fossils.

The park’s paleontology lab and fossil repository aren’t ready yet — sorry, Ross Geller from “Friends” — but visitors can tour three trails. The most fossil-festooned is the Big Dig, a 1.2-mile loop named after a 1962-63 interdisciplinary scientific expedition conducted here that was the largest of its kind to that point.

The trails offer views of the fossilized remains of all the area’s Ice Age mammals, including American lions, dire wolves, and ground sloths the size of VW Beetles. (Note: Views are all that are offered. Taking, or even touching, the fossils violates state and federal laws.)

At the visitor’s center, guests can study fossils and artifacts on display, catch a video, and sign up for educational programs.

The 315-acre protected area adjacent to Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument was acquired by the Nevada Division of State Parks in 1958.

Ice Age Fossils State Park, located at 8660 N. Decatur Blvd., will open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays only, beginning January 20.

Admission is $3 for adults and free for children 12 and under. For more information, visit parks.nv.gov.

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The Koi Nation has faced considerable local opposition from residents and county officials, as well as from the powerful Graton Rancheria Tribe that owns and operates the Graton Casino & Resort in nearby Rohnert Park. The Graton casino is about 11 air miles from where the Koi Nation wants to build its casino in Santa Rosa.

In September 2021, the Koi Nation acquired nearly 69 acres along E. Shiloh Rd. and Old Redwood Highway. The property is currently a vineyard and private estate.

Since the tribe announced its intentions to build a tribal casino on its newly purchased land, the Graton Tribe has questioned whether the Koi people have historical ties to the area. That’s required for the US Department of the Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to take the land into the federal trust. Having the property designated as sovereign territory is the first step needed for the Koi Nation to move forward in operating a tribal casino.

Graton placed keeping its monopoly on gaming above self-determination for other Indian Tribes like the Koi Nation,” Koi Nation Chair Darin Beltran told The Press Democrat.

Graton argues the Koi people have historical ties to Lake County another 25 or so miles northeast of Santa Rosa.

Koi Fields Backing

In a press release this week, the Koi Nation says numerous other California tribes have lent their backing to the Shiloh Resort & Casino.

The Koi Nation is overjoyed its proposed project has received overwhelming support from a broad cross-section of the community, fellow Tribes, and the public,” Beltran said. “The coalition of our supporters share a recognition of the project’s immense value potential for the Sonoma County community and?the moral imperative underlying our effort to right historical wrongs and reestablish our people’s Tribal land base.”

According to The Press Democrat, the Koi Nation’s land in Clear Lake was taken by white settlers in the 1870s. The US government gave 140 acres of land located near Lower Lake and Clear Lake Heights to the tribe in 1916. That land was transferred to Lake County in 1956, rendering the tribe landless. Many members ultimately moved to Sonoma County.

Along with 18 tribes issuing their support for the Shiloh project, California State Treasurer Fiona Ma (D) has backed the tribal casino.

The Koi’s would finance the project with support from the Chickasaw Nation, one of the richest tribes in the US, that’s based in Oklahoma and operates 23 casinos there.

Casino Scope

The initial blueprint for the Shiloh Resort & Casino calls for a 538,000-square-foot development with a casino floor spanning 114,000 square feet. The gaming space would include 2,750 slot machines, more than 100 table games, and a possible sportsbook, should California legalize sports betting.

The resort would feature a 400-room hotel, a spa, five restaurants, several bars, and a 44,000-square-foot ballroom.

Among those opposed to the project include the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, the Windsor Town Council, US Reps. Jared Huffman (D) and Mike Thompson (D), and U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D).

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According to Britain’s The Sun, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, both vocal supporters of climate change action, saw the finale of Perry’s “Play” residency at Resorts World last week only because they traveled from Santa Barbara on a Gulfstream co-owned by Michael Herd.

Herd is the president and owner of Herd Producing Company, an oil and natural gas supplier located in Texas.

The nonserving royals’ 40-minute flight aboard a plane that reportedly emits two tons of carbon dioxide per hour has stoked outrage from conservative British commentators and social media.

Princely CO2 Sum

Under the terms of the Paris Agreement, the legally binding international treaty that aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, no person’s annual carbon budget should exceed 2.1 tons for an entire year. Both the US and UK have ratified the agreement.

“Saving the planet one Katy Perry concert at a time!” Kevin O’Sullivan tweeted. On his British show, TVTalk, the conservative commentator continued: “What is the matter?with these people? They keep telling us to try to save the planet, but it’s very much a do-as-we-say, not-as-we-do, isn’t it?”

In Harry and Meghan’s famous 2021 CBS News interview with Oprah Winfrey, Harry called climate change one of humankind’s “most pressing issues.”

“We need to do better about stopping or allowing the things that are causing so much harm to so many of us at the source, rather than being distracted by the symptom,” he said. “These historic weather events are no longer historic. More and more, they are part of our daily lives, and this crisis will only grow worse.”

Brother Knows Best

Hours after the exiled royals flew to Vegas, Prince William, Harry’s brother and heir to the throne, flew commercial on a British Airways flight to Singapore to collect an environmental award.

Commercial airplanes can produce up to 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide per hour, but spread that cost among 350 or more passengers.

Royal biographer Angela Levin told The Sun that Harry should “get the sack” from his own charity, Travalyst, which promotes sustainable tourism.

“This sort of behavior is exactly why we call them eco-hypocrites,” she said.

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Wynn received the blessing of the City of Everett Planning & Development Board earlier this month. The casino was earlier deemed allowed to take its gaming operations across Broadway by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission to the roughly 17-acre site.

The state law requires Tepper’s office to study the environmental impacts of projects that require state permits, financial assistance, or land disposition. The goal of the Environmental Protection Act is to “minimize and mitigate” damage to the Massachusetts environment “to the maximum extent practicable.”

Review Finds Issues

In her office’s review of the Encore Boston Harbor expansion proposal, Tepper’s team determined that the development would result “in the need for significant mitigation” of traffic.

Review of this project change has shown that the Proponent failed to adhere to strict monitoring protocols previously established by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and Massachusetts Gaming Commission and did not meet ‘mode share’ targets designed to minimize vehicular travel to and from the site and into the surrounding roadway network in Everett, Somerville, and Boston,” Tepper’s office wrote in its findings.

The environmental officials said Wynn’s proposal to include three new parking garages with 2,200 spaces demonstrates the casino’s expectation that the expansion will increase traffic. Tepper said “further analysis and consultation” is needed “to ensure that mitigation commitments are commensurate with the increase in impacts.”

Wynn has been instructed to complete a “Supplemental Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) addressing the concerns raised in Tepper’s review.

Congestion and Climate

Traffic is of utmost concern at the state Energy and Environmental Affairs department, as running cars pose the greatest environmental threat from the Encore Boston Harbor expansion.

The key issues, as you might imagine, revolve around traffic,” said Joe Delaney, the chief of community affairs for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. “They [Energy and Environmental Affairs] like to see parking limited somewhat so that people use public transportation.”

Encore’s current casino resort already has more than 2,900 parking spaces on-site and a supplemental 800-space parking garage off-property. Encore’s expansion project, consisting of three additional parking garages, is anticipating a later second expansion phase that would bring two new hotel towers to the expansion property. The preliminary design includes 800 additional guestrooms.

If the state eventually signs off on the two phases, Wynn officials say the total cost of the expansion would be roughly $1.7 billion. Encore Boston Harbor opened in June 2019 at a cost of $2.6 billion.

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NV Energy is building a $2.5 billion solar energy transmission infrastructure system called Greenlink Nevada. The initiative will move the state closer to a future powered by 100% renewable energy and reduce Nevada’s carbon footprint.

Once complete, Greenlink will also improve the state’s electric reliability. Greenlink will transmit and carry electricity generated from solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and natural gas.

When NV Energy, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, proposed Greenlink in 2020, the company assured the public that only its investors and bondholders would bankroll the project.

“Nevada’s job market and the economy will immediately see benefits of this initiative while customers will not see rate impacts for Greenlink Nevada before 2025 at the earliest,” NV Energy said in a project overview 2021.

However, NV Energy is now seeking approval from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to increase its ROE rate from the agreed rate of 9.4% to 10.2%. In the energy industry, ROE refers to the return shareholders receive on their investment in an electric utility. Higher ROE rates attract more investors, raising more capital for the electric company.

Casinos Scold NV Energy

In opinions submitted to the state utilities commission, MGM Resorts, Caesars Entertainment, Wynn Resorts, Boyd Gaming, and Hard Rock International, among others, criticized NV Energy for seemingly going back on their word.

Attorneys representing the casinos said NV Energy must better detail why it’s seeking an increased ROE rate. NV Energy officials claim the petition to increase the rate isn’t linked to Greenlink but is to fund other projects.

“Greenlink is a sizeable project but by far not the only project,” NV Energy said in its brief.

The proposed ROE increase would generate approximately $34 million annually in additional revenue for NV Energy. The casinos, which require and consume massive amounts of electricity for their Strip properties, contend that NV Energy failed to take advantage of near-zero interest rates only a few years ago. They are now trying to pass along their mismanagement to consumers.

Substantial evidence in the record demonstrates that the Utility’s proposed increases are not the result of prudent business management, responsible decision-making, sound fiscal strategies, or efficient operations,” Caesars and MGM’s joint brief read.

NV Energy was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in 2013 for $5.6 billion. NV Energy provides electricity and gas to more than 1.5 million customers.

Greenlink Details

Greenlink will create a renewable energy highway, allowing Nevada to better utilize its resource-rich renewable energy zones.

Completion of the project’s first phase — Greenlink West running from Yerington to Las Vegas — is set for December 2026. Greenlink West includes a 525 kV line running south about 350 miles from Yerington to Las Vegas.

Two 345 kV lines will also run from Yerington to the Reno-Sparks area in a future phase called Greenlink North.

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Caesars in 2018 announced its lofty goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. The Caesars Palace operator is outpacing its carbon emissions reduction timeline after it achieved its interim goals of reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 30% by 2025.

The company has largely focused on Nevada where its many Las Vegas casino resorts in the Mojave Desert require massive amounts of energy. But the company this week announced the completion of a major project that will reduce energy consumption from traditional utility services in Atlantic City.

Solar Pads Installed

Through a partnership with DSD Renewables, a New York-based provider of commercial, industrial, and municipal clean energy solutions, two Caesars casinos in Atlantic City now have solar paneling. DSD funded the installation of four solar canopies, with two each at Caesars Atlantic City and Harrah’s Resort & Casino Atlantic City.

1.7 MW and 886 kW solar garage canopies have been installed at Caesars, and two 1.9 MW solar canopies have gone in at Harrah’s self-park and valet garages. A fifth canopy featuring a 913 kW solar rooftop system is planned at Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center next year. Once the fifth canopy is installed, the Caesars properties will have a solar portfolio of 7.3 MW.

A single megawatt can simultaneously power enough electricity for the demands of about 750 single-family homes. The solar canopy installations, Caesars and DSD officials said, will offset approximately 6% of the casino company’s energy needs in Atlantic City.

These projects in Atlantic City exemplify our pursuit to integrate more clean energy resources into our business and implement on-site renewables across our portfolio nationally while delivering real value locally to the communities in which we operate,” said Eric Dominguez, senior vice president of engineering and asset management at Caesars Entertainment.

“This is a pivotal moment in our clean energy journey,” added John Koster, regional president at Caesars Entertainment. “Projects like this are also about championing the introduction and growth of clean energy resources that deliver jobs and economic development to benefit the local community, just as we’ve done here in Atlantic City.”

Additional Benefits

Along with providing clean, renewable energy for Caesars Entertainment’s Atlantic City casinos, the solar canopy installations provide added advantages.

The solar panels that were installed on top of the Caesars garage are also expected to extend the roof’s lifespan and reduce cooling costs by limiting UV exposure.

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The Koi Nation of Northern California gained federal recognition in 2019. It quickly sought to secure its economic sovereignty through casino gaming, as many federally recognized tribes nationwide have already done. In September 2021, the tribe located land it believes it has historical ties to, with a landowner willing to sell the 68.6-acre plot of land at E. Shiloh Rd. and Old Redwood Highway.

The property is currently a vineyard and estate. The Koi Nation purchased the property on Sept. 3, 2021, for $12.3 million. But to open a tribal casino on the land, the Koi needs the Department of the Interior (DOI) to take the acreage into the federal trust.

The DOI’s review is ongoing. In the meantime, the BIA conducted an extensive Environmental Assessment to analyze the potential environmental consequences of allowing the Koi Nation to construct a casino resort on the land.

This Wednesday, September 27, the BIA will host a public hearing on its environmental review findings. The meeting will be virtual. Sonoma County residents wishing to submit comments can do so by visiting this site.

Three Proposals

On Wednesday, federal BIA officials and reps from the Koi Nation will detail to the public the scope of three different projects from the tribe and the projected environmental impacts of each. The tribe is most eager about a casino resort that would span more than 538,000 square feet of indoor space and feature typical amenities such as a hotel, numerous restaurants, and a spa.

If the environmental harms associated with such a large-scale integrated resort might result in the BIA denying approval, the tribe said it is willing to settle on a smaller resort with an indoor footprint measuring about 406,000 square feet. A third scenario would ditch the casino and instead focus on the winery with an accompanying hotel.

A 1.2 million square foot parking garage and more than 600 surface parking spots would accompany the indoor setting.? ?

Area Tribes Opposed

The Koi Nation claims to trace its roots to the land about 10 miles north of downtown Santa Rosa and about 75 miles north of San Francisco. But tribes with a longer physical presence in the region have contested those claims.

Graton officials have levied the harshest attack, with the tribe saying that the Koi Nation is “reservation shopping,” a term coined by anti-casino groups to disparage nongaming tribes trying to acquire desirable property and place it into the federal trust for gaming purposes.

“The consensus among ethnohistorians is that the Koi Nation’s ancestral roots are in the Lower Lake area of Lake County,” declared Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris in 2021. “The Koi Nation has never been associated with Sonoma County, linguistically or culturally, as a people indigenous to its landscape.”

The DOI and Secretary Deb Haaland, with recommendations from the BIA, have the final say in whether the Koi Nation land is taken into the federal trust.

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“This is urban flooding in Las Vegas!” reports a shocked visitor holding his cellphone camera at a fast-moving torrent of ankle-deep water. “It’s coming out of the parking garage at the Linq Hotel!”

When flooding inundated Las Vegas two weeks ago, 7 of 10 YouTube videos used the scene at the Linq garage to illustrate its severity, including Fox News and the New York Post clips.

That’s because what few Las Vegas tourists know is that the Linq garage was actually designed to flood.

Hell or High Water

In 1959, the Flamingo Capri Motel opened on a concrete overhang above a water feature the motel advertised as a “Venetian canal.”

It was actually an open flood channel called the Flamingo Wash. A branch of the Las Vegas Wash — a 12-mile arroyo feeding most of Las Vegas Valley’s overflow stormwater into Lake Mead — the Flamingo Wash collects rainfall from as far away as the Spring Mountains 60 miles west.

On July 3, 1975, the Thursday before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, a summer monsoon triggered a flash flood overflowing the Flamingo Wash. Raging waters trashed 300 cars in the Caesars Palace parking lot. Some were found miles away.

In today’s dollars, the damage was estimated at $25 million.

To reduce the risk of recurrence, two years later, the Flamingo Wash was funneled into man-made tunnels underneath Interstate 15, Caesars Palace, and Las Vegas Blvd. But Flamingo Capri owner Ralph Engelstad had already built the foundation for a 19-story tower and parking structure precisely where one of the tunnels now emptied.

To dig deeply enough to continue that tunnel underground, all construction on what was to become the Imperial Palace would have had to have been torn down and redone.

Driving Rain

Instead, Engelstad’s engineers came up with an unconventional solution. They made the first floor of the Imperial Palace garage function as a diversion channel. Stormwater gurgles up from the underground tunnel and into the parking garage whenever flooding occurs. Then it heads across the first floor and into a duct behind the ramp that whisks it back underground.

Visitors have no reason to suspect the parking garage’s secondary function whenever flooding doesn’t occur — which in the desert is 99% of the time.

Engelstad’s solution wasn’t a very good one. In 1983, an 8-foot wall of water gushed through the garage. It swept away 10 cars, muddied more than 20 ground-floor rooms and the casino floor, and chased 500 gamblers onto Las Vegas Boulevard. In 2004, two men had to be rescued by firefighters after their car stalled in flood water behind the garage, the same spot where six more people had to be rescued in 2017.

But generally, only parking operations get affected. The garage closes to the public whenever a flood is predicted, and all first-floor cars are removed. Once the rain stops, the floodwaters recede, and it’s back to business as usual. The stranding of cars on the garage’s upper floors for a few hours is the worst that usually happens.

No Better Solution

While the system is hardly optimal, according to a 2010 Las Vegas Review-Journal article, the Clark County Regional Flood Control District determined that it was impossible to install a better one without weakening the foundation of the Imperial Palace.

To this day, whenever the Clark County Regional Flood Control District predicts a big storm, its first warning call goes to the Linq. Not because it’s in danger of flooding, but because it’s supposed to.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on?Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email [email protected].

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“Machine Hallucinations: Sphere” will appear for what Anadol and the Sphere are calling a four-month “residency” on the “Exosphere,” the 580,000 square feet of fully programmable LED paneling that wraps around the entertainment venue.

Anadol’s installation features an AI data sculpture that creates abstract imagery of space and nature, featuring vivid shapes and colors all made with vast amounts of data.

“I am extremely honored to be the first artist to utilize the exterior of Sphere,” Anadol said in a news release. “It’s so exciting to be given such an architectural and engineering marvel as a canvas. This opportunity aligns perfectly with our studio’s long-term mission of embedding media arts into architecture to create living architectural pieces that are in constant interaction with their environments.”

Previous Installations

A native of Turkey who lives and works in Los Angeles, Anadol, 38, launched his career creating permanent digital data paintings as publicly commissioned art. These included “Virtual Depictions” (2015) in San Francisco and the “Wind of Boston” (2017) in South Boston.

The $2.3 billion Sphere is scheduled to open to the public on Sept. 29 with a U2 residency through December.

The post Las Vegas Sphere to Begin Four-Month AI-Generated Art Residency appeared first on Casino.org.

Melco’s portfolio includes City of Dreams, Studio City, and Morpheus in Macau, City of Dreams Manila in the Philippines capital of Manila, and City of Dreams Mediterranean in Cyprus.

In a press release this week, Melco officials said the company will gradually phase out single-use plastic bottles, replacing them with refillable glass bottles across its casino resorts. Melco is incorporating the NORDAQ water purification and bottling solution. NORDAQ is a Sweden-based company that “harnesses patented technology to provide premium, sustainable end-to-end water solutions.”

The Melco release explained that ditching plastic water bottles in favor of refillable glass is part of the company’s “Rise to Go Above & Beyond” pledge, a sustainability initiative launched in 2021.

We have been developing and enhancing our 2025 roadmap to address the root causes of plastic pollution within our operations, and as part of this, we are glad to have rolled out the NORDAQ solution across our properties in both Asia and Europe. Through such initiatives, we hope to continue to inspire our guests by demonstrating that a sustainable future is a better future,” said Lawrence Ho, the founder, chair, and CEO of Melco Resorts.

Ho is the casino group’s largest shareholder by way of his stake in Melco International Development, the parent entity of Melco Resorts. Ho is worth an estimated $1 billion.

NORDAQ System

Melco says utilizing the NORDAQ water purification replenishing system will result in millions of plastic bottles not being discarded at its casino properties.

Melco hotels typically afford guests two complimentary plastic bottles of water. Over the coming months, those plastic bottles will be replaced with glass bottles filled with purified water.

Melco’s casinos will install on-site NORDAQ water systems that purify tap water “into a perfectly neutral result, without taste, smell, or impurities.” The company claims the purification technology removes unwanted flavors while retaining the water’s natural salts and minerals.

Global Leader

Ho says Melco Resorts is the first global hospitality group and integrated resort operator to commit to ridding plastic water drinking bottles from its properties. Melco is a signatory of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative, which is led by the United Nations Environment Program and the World Tourism Organization.

The world produces about 400 million tons of plastic waste each year, a staggering weight considering plastic is, by design, considerably lighter than other common packaging materials.

The UN Environment Program estimates that about 85% of single-use plastics aren’t recycled but instead end up in landfills — or worse, in oceans as unregulated waste. The initiative estimates that Earth’s oceans currently house up to 200 million tons of plastic waste.

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“When God made you and me, before we came out of the womb, you know who you are and what you are,” the 75-year-old rocker told the Etess Arena crowd.

As Santana spoke, his bassist and drummer performed a soft instrumental shuffle as though backing up a preacher’s sermon.

Later on, when you grow up, and you see things and you start believing that you could be something that sounds good but you know it ain’t right, because a woman is a woman and a man is a man — and that’s it,” Santana continued.

When the camera flashed to audience members, about a third clapped and yelled their approval at the message while most sat silent.

“Whatever you want to do in the closet, that’s your business, I’m OK with that,” Santana continued, clasping his palms together and adding: “I am like this with my brother Dave Chappelle.”

Chapelle had been one of the world’s most successful and beloved comedians in the world. Then he came under fire for making transphobic jokes in his 2021 Netflix special, “The Closer.” While his standup career was not canceled, it lost considerable momentum in the following maelstrom.

See the entire clip for yourself below.

Santana Apologies

Santana apologized only after media outlets began circulating the clip widely on Friday. He did so by posting the following carefully worded statement on his Facebook fan page:

I am sorry for my insensitive comments. They don’t reflect that I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs. I realize that what I said hurt people and that was not my intent. I sincerely apologize to the transgender community and everyone I offended,” the post read.

His Facebook page continued:

“Here is my personal goal that I strive to achieve every day. I want to honor and respect all person’s ideals and beliefs whether they are LGBTQ or not. This is the planet of free will and we have all been given this gift. I will now pursue this goal to be happy and have fun, and for everyone to believe what they want and follow in your hearts without fear. It takes courage to grow and glow in the light that you are and to be true, genuine, and authentic. We grow and learn to shine our light with Love and compliments. Have a glorious existence. Peace.”

Not So Smooth

Reaction on social media was predictably polarized, with half expressing solidarity and half outrage.

“He spoke the truth,” commented Twitter user @roller2k3. “The Trans community wants to force us to except (sic) something that’s not possible!”

“F*** Carlos Santana,” wrote Twitter user @heelmanitoba. “While we’re at it, f*** each & every one of these transphobic morons. Got no time or energy to waste on hateful, bigoted bullshit, or those who embrace it.”

Paul Stanley of KISS and Dee Snider of Twisted Sister have also been criticized for describing gender-affirming care for kids as a “sad and dangerous fad.” Snider’s comment got him dropped from the lineup for San Francisco Pride.

This situation seems shocking because Santana, who performed at the original Woodstock, regularly praises peace and equality icons Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and Bob Marley in concert.

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Solar energy would power most of the Sphere’s nightly light shows and other entertainment produced at the $2.3 billion venue. It is scheduled to open on September 29 with a residency from U2.

“From the outset, we designed Sphere to minimize environmental impact and to help create a sustainable operation well into the future,” Rich Claffey, Sphere Entertainment’s executive VP and COO, said in a press release. “We’re proud to enter into this agreement with NV Energy and partner with them to achieve both of those important goals.”

Nothing Like the Sun

Under the proposal, which still requires approval from the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada to move forward, Las Vegas’ public utility, Nevada Energy, would build a new, dedicated solar energy field, called the Sierra Solar Project, and a separate battery storage complex for the Sphere.

Until the completion of these resources, the Sphere’s power would come from existing, nonrenewable sources, and its operators said they would voluntarily acquire renewable energy credits from NV Energy to mitigate the impact of using those sources.

The amount of power produced by the new resources, and the rate Sphere would pay, were both redacted from the filing. Nevada law and commission regulations allow companies to seal rate and usage estimates.

NV Energy has asked the commission to act on the request by Feb. 2, 2024.

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Because of its proximity to Lake Mead, from which it gets 90% of its water, most people assume that Las Vegas is the main city threatened by the reservoir’s alarmingly dwindling water supply. In reality, its proximity to Lake Mead is what ensures Las Vegas its water supply for the foreseeable future.

As of December 17, Lake Mead was at 27% capacity, 1,043 feet above sea level. (This is not a measure of the water’s depth, by the way.) That’s its lowest level since 1937, when the reservoir was filled for the first time.

Yet, Las Vegas will be one of the last Southwestern cities reliant on Colorado River water to be in serious danger of running out of it.

Wet Republic

One of several reasons is the eight years of reserves Las Vegas has stockpiled for water emergencies. Some is stored in a groundwater aquifer where it was injected, and some is part of Lake Mead’s water. In comparison, in a snapshot estimate of its reserves in September 2022, the water authority in San Diego, which gets about half its supply from the Colorado River, said its local reservoirs held a six-month supply.

Some scenarios of climate change and water demand considered by the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s (SNWA) 50-year water resource plan require dipping into those reserves in the next couple of decades. However, not all scenarios do.

These massive reserves owe to Las Vegas being part of one of the world’s most efficient regions at water conservation. Since the current drought was first declared in 2002, Southern Nevada has never completely used its annual water allotment.

This is hardly the cumulative impression a tourist gets from observing the fountains at the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, and Wynn, in addition to all of those golf courses and aquariums that resort designers felt pressure to build over the decades to out-Vegas the competition.

“You could literally go to every hotel room on the Strip, turn on every faucet, flush every toilet, and that’s not going to deplete from the amount of water that we withdraw from the Colorado,” SNWA spokesperson Corey Enus told Casino.org.

In addition, the SNWA, which treats and delivers water to 2.2 million people in Southern Nevada, and which acquires and manages long-term water resources, just imposed new, even stricter water restrictions, and has more in its pipeline. To meet its goal of reducing water use to 86 gallons per user per day by 2035, golf courses must use a third less water by 2024, and no new residential swimming pools can be built larger than 600 square feet.

Intaking Stock

The most significant step the SNWA took to insure a continually wet future occurred in 2017. That’s when it installed at Lake Mead a new deep water intake pipe (Intake No. 3) and pumping station at 860 feet above sea level. ?The first intake, installed in 1971, is no longer operable since it sits above the water line. A second intake was constructed at 1,000 feet in 2000, which is now just below the water’s surface.

According to a two-year projection by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, by the end of July 2024, Lake Mead’s water level could fall to as low as 992 feet above sea level, though the Bureau’s most recent five-year forecast gives virtually no chance that it could reach dead pool (895 feet) in the next five years.

This is why SNWA hydrologists predict that Las Vegas will be able to draw Lake Mead water from its new intake for the foreseeable future.

There are 25 million people downstream of us in Arizona, California, and Mexico,” Enus said. “So, just strictly hydrologically speaking, once it gets to dead pool and we’re no longer able to release water downstream, we are still going to have access to our full allocation of that water because of the third intake and the low-lake-level pumping station.”

Busting this myth isn’t meant in any way to suggest that Las Vegas can’t ever run dry, or that California, Arizona, and Mexico running out of Colorado River water is somehow an acceptable situation.

“Water conservation is a journey and not a destination,” Enus said. “For the Colorado River Basin to continue, it is imperative that every single person in the basin continues to find ways to reduce water use now.”

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Tesla, the company owned by billionaire Elon Musk that designs and manufactures electric cars, SUVs, and trucks, as well as energy storage devices like batteries and solar panels, announced this week yet another tribal partnership. This one is with the Mohegan Tribe and will allow the electric vehicle conglomerate to build and open a “state-of-the-art Tesla Electric Vehicle (EV) showroom” on the grounds of Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

Sometime this fall, tribal officials say the Tesla showroom will open at the tribal casino allowing guests to check out new Tesla vehicles and buy them on the spot. The showroom will also serve as a delivery center where customers can pick up their online purchases.

We’re really excited about this new Tesla EV Showroom opening this fall at Mohegan Sun,” said Jeff? Hamilton, president and general manager of Mohegan Sun. “This endeavor with Tesla marks an electrifying milestone in Mohegan Sun’s commitment to fostering impactful relationships, promoting environmental sustainability, and offering cutting-edge experiences for our millions of annual guests.”

The Tesla showroom will be located inside The Shops at Mohegan Sun across from Todd English’s Tuscany restaurant. Test drives and purchase deliveries will be provided at the Sky Tower valet.

Regulatory Loophole

According to the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to develop and implement federal and state regulations that better allow for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles, 29 states either limit or entirely ban direct sales from manufacturer to consumer. Connecticut is one of 19 states that prohibit direct EV sales.

“EVs are not well suited for the dealership model. There is a lot more information to convey for EVs during the sale process; questions on things like range, how and where to charge, and available incentives. Learning these details and answering questions for each potential new buyer costs dealers time,” the Electrification Coalition explained.

Tesla, however, can get around the state laws requiring a middleman by opening distribution and delivery centers on sovereign lands, which aren’t subject to such state statutes.

“This announcement between Mohegan Sun and the global EV leader, Tesla, creates a first-of-its-kind venture in Connecticut with the premier sales and delivery center operating on sovereign tribal land,” a joint statement from the Mohegan Tribe and Tesla explained.

Tesla Tribal Partnerships

While Tesla’s forthcoming sales, service, and delivery center will be its first showroom in Connecticut when it opens this fall, the EV manufacturer is also opening a similar destination in upstate New York. The Oneida Nation announced in June a partnership with Tesla to bring a showroom to the tribe’s Turning Stone Resort Casino.

Tesla also has a showroom in New Mexico through a partnership with the First Nation of Nambe Pueblo near the tribe’s Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino.

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The study, led by UCLA and published in the journal Water Resources Research, is the first to quantify the rapid rate of runoff reduction and to prove its cause.

While we knew warming was having an impact on the Colorado Basin’s water availability, we were surprised to find how sensitive the basin is to warming compared to other major basins across the western U.S., and how high this sensitivity is in the relatively small area of the basin’s crucial snowpack regions,” said UCLA hydrologic modeler Benjamin Bass, lead author of the study. “The fact that warming removed as much water from the basin as the size of Lake Mead itself during the recent megadrought is a wakeup call to the climate change impacts we are living today.”

Without climate change, the drought in the basin most likely would not have reduced reservoir levels to the point of requiring supply cuts in 2021. That was determined under the first federally declared water shortage, according to the study. In May, Nevada, California, and Arizona agreed to cuts through 2026. The US government is expected to approve the cuts by August.

The Colorado River Basin covers about 250K square miles in seven states across the Western US and supplies water to about 40 million people, as well as supports agriculture and natural ecosystems. The regional drought that began in about 2000 is the driest period in 1,200 years, and has reduced river flow and shrunk reservoirs, increasing concerns about water scarcity as the climate continues to change.

Previous analyses of changing water resources in this region have focused on the effects of climate processes alone, without considering the impact of plants’ complex responses to increased atmospheric carbon dioxide.

To see how the basin’s hydrology changed between 1880 and 2021, the researchers used a land surface model capable of analyzing water, changes in vegetation, and vegetation’s response to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. They used standard data sets to represent atmospheric conditions, streamflow gauges, and other records to capture the regional hydrology, and ground and satellite data to document actual changes in vegetation.

By including all these types of data, “we had all the major players in terms of runoff’s sensitivity to climate change,” Bass said.

Humans Raised Temp 2.7 Degrees

The model analyses showed that from 1880 to 2021, the temperature in the Colorado River Basin warmed about ?2.7 degrees Fahrenheit as a result of climate change caused by humans. This warming has led to a 10.3% reduction in runoff under present-day conditions. Without including the effects of plants, present-day water loss would be closer to 13%, pointing to the importance of including vegetation processes in water modeling, the authors said.

That 10.3% decrease in runoff culminated during the historic drought of 2000 to 2021 when the cumulative volume of lost runoff water was approximately equal to the full capacity of Lake Mead, the largest reservoir on the Colorado River.

The rapid water loss in snowpack regions is a sign the Rocky Mountain West is transitioning to a more arid climate rather than simply undergoing periodic droughts, according to Bass.

Bass pointed out that the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which governs the use of river water by the seven western US states in which the Colorado flows, was written with the assumption that the regional climate was stable.

When the representatives of these states signed the contract, “they expected 15 million acre-feet of water (about 4.6 million gallons) would be provided from the basin, on average, each year,” Bass said. “If they were outlining the compact now, they would need to adjust that value due to the impact of warming. Going into the future, we may get some natural variability, wet or dry swings. But this study highlights that there’s been a decreasing trend in runoff. In the long run, that’s likely to continue if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.”

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