The report by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found Las Vegas housing prices have declined by 8.4 percent since May 2010. U.S. housing prices dropped by 4.7 percent during that period.

Housing prices in Clark County, where most of the state lives, dropped to 2000 levels last year. In contrast, housing prices were 20.6 percent higher in 2010 than in 2000 across the West.

Despite the gloomy housing news, the report concludes Nevada is on a slow path toward recovery, fueled by a growing tourism market and tepid economic recovery in other states and nations.

“What we are seeing is that job losses from firings, layoffs and firm closures have declined sharply,” said Stephen Brown, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, in a copy of the report obtained by The Associated Press. “What we have not seen is an acceleration in job gains from business expansions and start-ups.”

Las Vegas saw 19 consecutive months of increased tourism as of September, nearly returning the city’s visitor volume to 2007 levels. But the market remains different than that of pre-recession Las Vegas. The city is seeing more foreign visitors who are staying longer and paying higher room rates. During the first nine months of 2011, room rates were 10.7 percent higher compared with the previous year.

Sin City tourists have also changed in that they are gambling less and purchasing less from the retail shops in the casinos compared with previous years. For the first eight months of 2011, retail sales taxes in Clark County hotels off the Las Vegas Strip were down 18 percent compared with the same period in 2010. And the improved room rates seen this year were still 22.6 percent below the rates seen in early 2007, before the recession hit, the report states.

In all, Brown predicts the pace of economic growth will likely remain weak into the second half of 2012, but the United States will be able to avoid another recession.

The economic recovery has been underwhelming compared with those following previous recessions, he said. The gross domestic product has grown by 5 percent in recent years, compared with an average GDP growth of 9.1 percent during the previous ten economic recoveries.

Elton John has returned to Las Vegas for a three-year headlining gig at Caesars Palace.

The five-time Grammy winner performed Wednesday night for the first of 16 shows scheduled through October, the first performances of a new show titled ”The Million Dollar Piano.”

John took the stage in a dazzling, sequined cape and garnered standing ovations from parts of the crowd after each song. John spent about 2 hours going through hit after hit from his lengthy catalogue – though he skipped his top hit, ”Candle in the Wind.”

The remainder of John’s shows during the three-year run have not yet been announced.

John says the show is named for his new piano, which took manufacturer Yamaha four years to build.

He said the grand piano, black with a video screen on its side, is named Blossom, after jazz singer Blossom Dearie, John said.

Cy Waits didn’t appear in court Monday while his lawyer, Richard Schonfeld (SHOWN’-feld), told a Las Vegas judge the 35-year-old former nightclub mogul will enter his plea Wednesday.

Schonfeld said he couldn’t disclose…

Bulger, 81, waived his legal rights when he was arrested in Santa Monica, California, last week and prosecutors said he told FBI agents some details about his travels while running from the law and 19 murder charges during the past 16 years.

The legalized prostitution and lax laws make Las Vegas, depending on your views, somewhere near either Paradise or Hell. Plenty of people trying to get rich quick, plenty of broken dreams, and plenty of neon lights. Despite rumors to the contrary – and the comment in the prior paragraph, prositution is NOT legal in Las Vegas or Clark County. It IS legal in Pahrump. Do not be deceived: the cards being passed out on the Strip are for legal activities such as massage and dancers/escorts.

Prostitution is definitely NOT one of the services that is legal in Las Vegas. While public drinking is permitted (and you will see people walking along the Strip drink in hand), it is not permitted on public transportation and you will be asked to empty or discard your container before boarding. So, if you want to keep it, hide it. They say “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”- and that speaks volumes about the culture of the city.

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The narrator of “Viva Elvis,” the latest eye-popping Las Vegas extravaganza from the Cirque du Soleil, is none other than Colonel Tom Parker, whose arm chair floats across the stage of the massive proscenium theater inside the brand new ARIA Resort and Casino. With a buttermilk accent and a warm smile, he welcomes folks to this colossal, high-tech hagiography to The King and dispenses one Elvis bromide after another.

Now even those who think the Colonel’s influence on Elvis was wholly progressive and benign—a minority position, it’s fair to say—would be forced to admit that the Colonel was, well, complicated. Not here. It feels like you’re listening to the flying voice of the Tupelo tourist board.

And while Elvis is one of the few musical names known the world over, the official-like tone of “Viva Elvis” is indicative of the dangers for the ever-expanding Cirque du Soleil of getting into bed with the estates of celebrities. Those who protect the legacies of stars like Elvis have an agenda to protect the brand. Cirque du Soleil is as its best when it is theatricalizing truth.

Priscilla Presley, who was in the audience at Friday night’s opening along with a bevy of other celebrities from Neil Patrick Harris to Christina Hendricks, must have enjoyed the building-sized wedding cake with Priscilla and Elvis labeled across the bottom and a female singer standing on the top, not to mention the ballet performed inside huge wedding rings that is intended to illustrate their burning love. Fine. But that was complicated, too.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with creating a show for Elvis fans. And given Elvis’ role in the growth of Vegas, you can understand why the city wasn’t so anxious to find a place for fat, late-Vegas Elvis on the multitudinous video screens. But surely Elvis, an iconic American artist who understood the ebb and flow of stardom and sadness, would actually have preferred a more honest show.

“Viva Elvis,” really more of a variety show than a traditional Cirque show in the tradition of “O” and “Ka,” is not as bad as some of the rumors circulating Sin City suggested. The 76 cast members create some genuine pleasures here for Elvis devotees, including several spectacular montages of archival footage and a delightfully funny film-fusion of Elvis’ kissing-heavy movies.

In essence, the show is a series of visual takes on some 30 famous Elvis numbers, drawing from the singer’s life. Most of the songs feature Elvis’ voice, as on the original sessions, souped up with a live, percussion-heavy band playing in concert with the recordings. On a few occasions, female vocalists sing the songs (there are no male voices other than Elvis himself, which is how the show gets around the problem of falling into the trap of those ubiquitous Elvis impressionists).