Vegas News

LAS VEGAS (AP) — With his trademark flair for spectacle, Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday on the famed Las Vegas strip — just hours after Newt Gingrich’s advisers were spreading the word that The Donald would be anointing him instead.

Trump’s endorsement seemed likely to affect this Saturday’s Nevada caucuses — and the GOP nomination fight in general — about as much as a Sin City breeze disturbs the real estate mogul’s legendary hair. But he managed to create a stir of a different sort, at least for a day.

Donald Trump will endorse Mitt Romney in Las Vegas on Thursday, sources familiar with the decision tell ABC News.

More >

The largest newspaper in Nevada endorsed Mitt Romney’s presidential bid on Sunday, a week from next Saturday’s caucuses in the state.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal credited the former Massachusetts governor for his business experience, arguing his “greatest strength is his command of economic issues and his understanding of what the private sector needs to create jobs.”

In the days before the Chinese New Year celebration began this week, six high rollers sat down at the private baccarat tables one day at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and began throwing down wagers of $100,000 to $200,000 a hand. It was a scene hardly out of place these days in Sin City. More >

Las Vegas casinos have made the New England Patriots favorites to win the Super Bowl thanks to their national following, a decade of winning and the playoff mystique of quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick.

In odds posted Sunday night by Cantor Gaming, the Patriots opened as three-point favorites over the New York Giants after New York beat San Francisco 20-17 in overtime in the NFC championship game, Race and Sports Director Mike Colbert said.

A New York woman who claimed to be a doctor in China is in a Las Vegas court for an evidence hearing on charges she performed illegal eyelift surgeries. Jing Qu (CHYOO) of Flushing in Queens, N.Y., was arrested in November on felony charges, including practicing medicine without a license.

Police arrested the 55-year-old after a resident in a community southwest of the Las Vegas Strip complained about cars blocking his driveway and people in a neighboring house wearing medical scrubs.

Nevada’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 12.6 percent in December, bringing the total number of unemployed in the state to 166,300. This is the second consecutive month that the unemployment rate has declined. A year ago, the rate hit a record high of 14.9 percent. More >

In Chinese astrology, The Year of the Dragon is marked by excitement, exhilaration, and intensity. This January, Las Vegas hopes to capture enthusiasm surrounding it.

The Year of the Dragon fills people with energy, vitality, and unbridled enthusiasm,” said Cathy Tull, senior vice president of marketing for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA). More >

Muffled sobs erupted Friday in a courtroom packed with supporters of a Roman Catholic priest who was sentenced to more than three years in federal prison and ordered to repay $650,000 he acknowledged embezzling from his northwest Las Vegas parish to support his gambling habit.

Monsignor Kevin McAuliffe, 59, stood straight and offered no reaction as U.S. District Judge James Mahan credited him for accepting responsibility for looting parish votive candle, prayer and gift shop funds for eight years, but faulted him for “hedging his bet” by blaming it on a gambling addiction.

A keynote speech by a YouTube executive will be a highlight Thursday at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the largest trade show in the Americas.

More >