Popularity: 2%
On 11.12.09, In Posts, Video of the Week, By Mario Balistreri
On 11.12.09, In Cartoon Of The Week, Posts, By Mario Balistreri
Popularity: 2%
On 11.12.09, In Posts, Shocking! Posts, By Mario Balistreri
Shocking!
Las Vegas Sun
Even the men who hand out “nude girls direct to your room” cards stopped their hawking long enough to do some gawking at the “stripper-mobile” as it rolled down the Strip on Monday night.
It’s akin to a small U-Haul truck but with Plexiglas surrounding the brightly lit cargo area instead of walls. In the middle is a gleaming stripper pole. Swinging around the pole is a scantily clad young woman. Two of her fellow strippers are in the back of the truck too, awaiting their turns.
Puttering up and down Las Vegas Boulevard on Monday night, it was photographed by nearly everyone it pulled alongside, from CityCenter construction workers to an SUV-load of 20-somethings from Colorado.
It’s the ultimate advertising vehicle, said Larry Beard, marketing director for Déjà Vu Showgirls. Having run the truck up and down the Strip late at night and into the wee hours for only the past 11 days, he claims it has doubled business at the all-nude Déjà Vu and Little Darlings gentlemen’s clubs.
“It’s just a great idea that really works,” Beard said.
If a couple of county commissioners get their way, however, it might soon be a late, great idea. Arguing that state and county laws prohibit the use of a public right of way for advertising-only vehicles, as well as the possibility that the distracting nature of the, ahem, advertising is such that it could cause accidents, commissioners plan to discuss it at Tuesday’s board meeting…..
Full Story : http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/11/stripping-strip/
Popularity: 100%
On 11.12.09, In Posts, By Mario Balistreri
Rasmussen Reports
In Las Vegas, house prices have dropped 55 percent since peaking in August 2006, and the foreclosure rate is seven times the national average. Gigantic new condo towers sit nearly empty (real-estate pros call them "see-through buildings"), and unemployment tops 13 percent. The recession has sent casino revenues plunging 20 percent from two years ago.
"Up until the ’90s, we never suffered with the downturn of the economy," William Thompson, a professor at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and an expert on the casino business, told me.
The sad plight of "Sin City" is a morality tale for other municipalities seeking economic salvation through gambling. And it is against this dark vision that Ohio voters just approved casinos in their state.
Thompson thinks that the money will again roll into Las Vegas as the economy improves. But the prospects are not as bright for non-resort cities without a large tourism infrastructure — and never were.
"Half the gamblers have to be from outside the state for it to work" as economic development, Thompson says. The only people who will definitely make money are the casino operators…..
Full Story:
Popularity: 1%
On 11.12.09, In Posts, By Mario Balistreri
From the AP:
Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials’ hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent.
A little under 21 percent of Americans were current cigarette smokers, according to a 2008 national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up slightly from the year before, when just 19.8 percent said they were smoking. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts noted.
The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising. But they are unhappy.
"Clearly, we’ve hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," said Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, D.C.- based research and advocacy organization.
There’s a general perception that smoking is a dying public health danger. Feeding that perception are indoor smoking laws, cigarette taxes and Congress’s recent decision to allow the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco……
Full Story: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/nov/12/us-adult-smoking-rate-rises-slightly/
MB: Can we attribute the increase of smoking to our current economic status? I would not be surprised if their has been a percentage increase in the use of illegal drugs, and alcohol as well.
Popularity: 1%
Google Search
Custom Search