👋 100k people are out of our hair!

✈️ See Ya, 103,978 People!

That’s how many departing people were scanned at Harry Reid International on Monday — the airport’s largest single day ever. [Review-Journal]

• The worst places to send tourists in Las Vegas! [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

💸 Taking From Children?

A nonprofit organization meant to help kids get medical care is reeling from alleged thefts by two former officials, in amounts totaling more than $300,000. [KLAS]

🏢 Somewhere Else, Please

• A proposal to place a “transitional housing” building in the Naked City neighborhood is drawing fire from other area developers. “It’s not good for the community,” says one, who says residents would feel less safe with a building occupied by former inmates and recovering addicts. City staff recommends the project be denied.[Review-Journal]
• In a similar instance, residents close to a proposed affordable-housing complex at Boulder Highway and Tropicana are resisting the project. One says it will “make the area worse; lower the values of the properties across the board." [Las Vegas Sun]

💪 Union Power

Over the last 20 years, the Culinary Union has become a force to be reckoned with in Nevada politics. Politicians court their endorsement, and their support can sway legislation. So what impact does the union have on our city? How does it wield its influence in Las Vegas — and does it ever go too far? Co-host Dayvid Figler sits down with Culinary 226 Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge for a rousing conversation. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

Usher Was Great, But …

****

Zinger from “The Super Bowl in Las Vegas: What Would Hunter S. Thompson Think?” in the New York Times

Regarding Circus Circus, which the “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” author once portrayed as a “main nerve” of the American Dream:

“The casino where Mr. Thompson found psychedelics almost irrelevant now begs for anti-depressants.”

👀 Press Releases I Didn’t Read

“Survey: 2024 Body Landscaping Habits”

“Best Boredom Busters for Your Dog”

“2024’s Best Cities for Local Flowers”

“You don’t have to live with long-term pain, Scott”*

*You don’t know me, press release!

✍️ The Readers Always Write

🕸️ “When I saw the pro-life spidey story, I thought, "I took a selfie with that dude years ago after he climbed the Aria." He happened to pop up at a CCSD school board meeting on 8/12/21 to promote an anti-mask protest or something. It was a wild five-hour school board meeting with multiple ejections. Oh, the memories. (Brandon Summers)

😬 On the retiring Rancho High School principal having a day named after her, even after the beating death of Jonathan Lewis.

“This breaks my heart. Jonathan Lewis is dead, and that is due to the lack of protocols and policies that should have protected him … and now a councilwoman is rewarding (principal) Darlin Delgado with her own day — go figure. Please tell me what is wrong with people that can come up with these kinds of ideas.” (David Gomez II)

• Context: What the Rancho beating death tells us about violence in schools. [City Cast Las Vegas 🎧]

🐂 Regarding the mechanical bull in Monday’s “Where Is It?” photo:

“Isn’t that a horse … perhaps being ridden like a bull?? Just sayin’ …” (Beverly A.)

Well, I was, er, *testing* you readers … to see who’d notice! You pass! No, actually, it was just a mistake on my part, and you noticed. I didn’t. You pass! I don’t.

What Influence Does the Culinary Union Wield?

Co-host Dayvid Figler talks with Culinary Union boss Ted Pappageorge, fresh from a long season of negotiations with the valley’s casino properties, about his organization’s power in Las Vegas.