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	<title>Vegas City &#187; Vegas News</title>
	<atom:link href="http://getvegasonline.com/category/vegas-news/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
	<link>http://getvegasonline.com</link>
	<description>Las Vegas Nevada City Guide</description>
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		<title>Police have DNA, thumbprint in Vegas</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/30/police-have-dna-thumbprint-in-vegas/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/30/police-have-dna-thumbprint-in-vegas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:12:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/30/police-have-dna-thumbprint-in-vegas/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Police say DNA evidence and a thumbprint have linked a 22-year-old man to the sex attacks and hammer slayings of a Las Vegas woman and her daughter in a brutal home invasion that also left the father seriously wounded. An arrest report made public Monday also shows that the suspect, Bryan Devonte Clay, told police <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/30/police-have-dna-thumbprint-in-vegas/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Police say DNA evidence and a thumbprint have linked a 22-year-old man to the sex attacks and hammer slayings of a Las Vegas woman and her daughter in a brutal home invasion that also left the father seriously wounded.</p>
<p>An arrest report made public Monday also shows that the suspect, Bryan Devonte Clay, told police he owned a baseball cap found after a separate sex attack on a 50-year-old woman hours before the family was assaulted April 15.</p>
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		<title>Las Vegas man who smuggled iguana meat sentenced</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/26/las-vegas-man-who-smuggled-iguana-meat-sentenced/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/26/las-vegas-man-who-smuggled-iguana-meat-sentenced/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:48:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=929</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A 38-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison after admitting that he tried to smuggle 159 pounds of iguana meat from Mexico into the U.S. Eliodoro Soria Fonseca admitted in San Diego federal court that he intentionally concealed the iguana meat inside several coolers because he lacked the necessary import permits <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/26/las-vegas-man-who-smuggled-iguana-meat-sentenced/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>A 38-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced Thursday to two years in federal prison after admitting that he tried to smuggle 159 pounds of iguana meat from Mexico into the U.S.<span id="more-929"></span></p>
<p>Eliodoro Soria Fonseca admitted in San Diego federal court that he intentionally concealed the iguana meat inside several coolers because he lacked the necessary import permits from the U.S. or Mexican governments. The meat was to be sold for human consumption, prosecutors said.</p>
<p>Importation of iguana meat is permitted but only under restrictions meant to keep from depleting certain populations of the of the lizard. The iguana is listed as imperiled but not yet endangered, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.</p>
<p>The iguanas had been beheaded, skinned and deboned and hidden under several pounds of fish, according to court documents.</p>
<p>Fonseca admitted that the iguanas came from the Nyarit area of Mexico. A wildlife expert told the court that removing more than 100 iguanas from the region could wipe out the local population.</p>
<p>Iguana meat also often carries salmonella, officials said. Fonseca was arrested attempting to cross the border at Otay Mesa on June 10, 2011.</p>
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		<title>Doc rolls out ‘Hangover Heaven’ on Vegas Strip</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/23/doc-rolls-out-hangover-heaven-on-vegas-strip/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/23/doc-rolls-out-hangover-heaven-on-vegas-strip/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:44:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=920</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[He had a Las Vegas wedding to attend, but Bryan Dalia was hung over from some marathon partying the night before. &#8220;I did two bachelor parties, back-to-back,&#8221; Dalia said, putting his hand to his forehead as he recalled steins of beer and shots of alcohol the previous afternoon at the Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas, then gambling, <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/23/doc-rolls-out-hangover-heaven-on-vegas-strip/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>He had a Las Vegas wedding to attend, but Bryan Dalia was hung over from some marathon partying the night before. &#8220;I did two bachelor parties, back-to-back,&#8221; Dalia said, putting his hand to his forehead as he recalled steins of beer and shots of alcohol the previous afternoon at the Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas<span id="more-920"></span>, then gambling, dining and drinking martinis at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas resort. He remembered &#8220;getting a little lost and finding myself on the floor of the Paris&#8221; hotel-casino, then &#8220;a few more martinis as I gambled my life away.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;How are you doing now?&#8221; medical technician Debra Lund asked.</p>
<p>Dalia looked at Lund, swaying with the gentle rocking of a bus named Hangover Heaven as it rolled down Las Vegas Boulevard. Lund checked an intravenous fluid bag, hung from the ceiling, dripping a saline and vitamin solution into Dalia’s left arm.</p>
<p>&#8220;Better,&#8221; he replied. &#8220;My palms aren’t sweating anymore. I don’t have that, like, cold sweat feeling anymore.&#8221;</p>
<p>Dalia, from Caldwell, N.J., was one of the first patients on the rollout day of a mobile treatment center for tourists who spent the night before drinking in all the nightlife Las Vegas has to offer. For a fee, they get a quick morning-after way to rehydrate, rejuvenate and resume their revelry.</p>
<p>&#8220;I’m starting to feel great,&#8221; Dalia said. &#8220;This is really very cool.&#8221;</p>
<p>Doctor and board-certified anesthesiologist Jason Burke calls his fledgling business a medical practice on wheels, analogous to a physician with an RV offering X-rays, MRIs or mammograms, a mobile dentist, or a blood bank bus set up in an office building parking lot.</p>
<p>The idea, Burke said, is to bring relief to tourists with stomach-churning wooziness, headaches and body pains — symptoms that could ruin an entire day in Sin City.</p>
<p>&#8220;Many people come to Las Vegas with the intent to drink and have a good time,&#8221; Burke said as he moved between patients seated on plush benches in the retrofitted, full-sized tour bus. The casino scenery passing outside the windows, the flat-screen TVs, the ceiling mirror and the aide in the suggestive nurse outfit? Hey, it’s Vegas.</p>
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		<title>Las Vegas Continues Drop In Unemployment</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/20/las-vegas-continues-drop-in-unemployment/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/20/las-vegas-continues-drop-in-unemployment/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:09:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=917</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[State economists say Nevada’s jobless rate fell to 12 percent in March, down from 12.3 percent the month earlier. The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation says Friday that Las Vegas’ unemployment rate is 12.1 percent, down from 12.2 in February. Northern Nevada also posted slight drops. Reno’s jobless rate is 12 percent, down <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/20/las-vegas-continues-drop-in-unemployment/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>State economists say Nevada’s jobless rate fell to 12 percent in March, down from 12.3 percent the month earlier. The state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation says Friday that Las Vegas’ unemployment rate is 12.1 percent, down from 12.2 in February.<span id="more-917"></span></p>
<p>Northern Nevada also posted slight drops. Reno’s jobless rate is 12 percent, down from 12.2 percent, and Carson City’s rate is 12.4 percent, down from 12.6 percent.</p>
<p>State economist Bill Anderson say most of the decline comes from erosion in the labor force as discouraged workers drop out of the job force.</p>
<p>But he notes that the state added a seasonally adjusted 5,000 jobs from month to month, which is more than expected.</p>
<p>Nevada’s unemployment remains higher than the national rate of 8.2 percent.</p>
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		<title>Second man arrested in Las Vegas slaying</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/19/second-man-arrested-in-las-vegas-slaying/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/19/second-man-arrested-in-las-vegas-slaying/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 23:37:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=914</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Las Vegas police on Wednesday arrested a second man in the Tuesday shooting death of a man found in a street in a southeast valley residential neighborhood. Carlos Vargas, 22, was arrested by Las Vegas police Wednesday on murder and robbery charges. On Tuesday, Carlos Garcia, 30, was booked on similar charges. Manuel Torres-Garcia was <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/19/second-man-arrested-in-las-vegas-slaying/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Las Vegas police on Wednesday arrested a second man in the Tuesday shooting death of a man found in a street in a southeast valley residential neighborhood.<span id="more-914"></span></p>
<p>Carlos Vargas, 22, was arrested by Las Vegas police Wednesday on murder and robbery charges. On Tuesday, Carlos Garcia, 30, was booked on similar charges.</p>
<p>Manuel Torres-Garcia was shot about 7 a.m. at the intersection of Vista Del Monte Drive and Hidalgo Way, near Nellis Boulevard and Desert Inn Road. He was taken to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, where he died.</p>
<p>Police said Torres-Garcia and another man were standing near the street when a blue sedan stopped. Garcia and Vargas, who both had guns, exited the car and robbed the men. Garcia then shot Torres-Garcia. Garcia and Vargas then drove away.</p>
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		<title>Ameristar revamps, links to Las Vegas</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/18/ameristar-revamps-links-to-las-vegas/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/18/ameristar-revamps-links-to-las-vegas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:09:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=912</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[As Chicago area casinos slowly recover from the big hit they took in the recession, Ameristar Casino in East Chicago is trying a couple of ways to differentiate itself from the competition. One way is to team up with MGM Resorts to give Ameristar customers a chance to visit Las Vegas in discounted or complimentary <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/18/ameristar-revamps-links-to-las-vegas/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>As Chicago area casinos slowly recover from the big hit they took in the recession, Ameristar Casino in East Chicago is trying a couple of ways to differentiate itself from the competition.<span id="more-912"></span></p>
<p>One way is to team up with MGM Resorts to give Ameristar customers a chance to visit Las Vegas in discounted or complimentary rooms. The other is a $7 million hotel upgrade, with some customer service twists.</p>
<p>Let’s take the MGM Resorts joint venture first. Ameristar is a robust casino company with properties in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Colorado and Nevada, but with no Las Vegas presence.</p>
<p>Now Ameristar has a vehicle to offer Las Vegas stays to its Star Awards members. The exact offer will depend on the player’s tier level based on how much he or she plays while using a Star Awards card. Hotel stays are available at any of MGM’s nine M Life properties on the Strip — Aria, Bellagio, Luxor MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay, Excalibur, Monte Carlo, the Mirage and New York-New York.</p>
<p>Both companies benefit. MGM will get extra customers from the Chicago area, and Ameristar will get access to MGM’s list of M Life members in the region. That means a chance to market directly to local players who aren’t already Ameristar customers.</p>
<p>On the hotel side, Ameristar spent $7 million over a five-month period to refurbish and upgrade its rooms. It’s a top-to-bottom revamp of the hotel that runs at 94 percent occupancy of its 288 rooms. From furniture to bathroom fixtures and artwork on the walls to the new flat-screen hi-def TVs, all was designed to give a comfortable, upscale feel.</p>
<p>The twists? Ameristar has added a few extras to make the rooms more than comfortable places to sleep. In-room Wi-Fi, extra electrical outlets for easy charges of mobile devices and HDTV with dozens of channels represent a change from conventional wisdom. Casino operators long have been wary of giving the customer too much to do in the room, lest they cut back their time on the casino floor.</p>
<p>I cornered Marc Levin, the hotel’s vice president of hospitality, and asked him about the philosophy. He recalled a previous operator.</p>
<p>“We didn’t have Wi-Fi, and I said ‘You have to have Wi-Fi, you have to have the Internet.’ But that was the philosophy of the time. They didn’t want the guests in the rooms. But guests still want the comforts of home.”</p>
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		<title>Boy leads police to bodies in Vegas home</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/17/boy-leads-police-to-bodies-in-vegas-home/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/17/boy-leads-police-to-bodies-in-vegas-home/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:42:55 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/17/boy-leads-police-to-bodies-in-vegas-home/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Las Vegas Metro police said there had never been reports of trouble at a home where the bodies of a woman and young girl were found Monday morning. Officials were also at a loss to explain what led to the killings and did not confirm whether the person responsible was the father of the household. <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/17/boy-leads-police-to-bodies-in-vegas-home/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Las Vegas Metro police said there had never been reports of trouble at a home where the bodies of a woman and young girl were found Monday morning. Officials were also at a loss to explain what led to the killings and did not confirm whether the person responsible was the father of the household.</p>
<p>According to a FOX5 source, a 9-year-old student at Mabel Hoggard Elementary came to school and told adults his father had killed his mother and sister.</p>
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		<title>GSA execs to testify on Vegas spending scandal</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/16/gsa-execs-to-testify-on-vegas-spending-scandal/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/16/gsa-execs-to-testify-on-vegas-spending-scandal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:09:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=908</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[General Services Administration officials involved in a lavish $800,000 Las Vegas conference are expected to speak out about the controversial gathering for the first time Monday before a House committee investigating it. The House Oversight Committee hearing, the first on the spending scandal, will also look to the culture at the agency to &#8220;make sure <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/16/gsa-execs-to-testify-on-vegas-spending-scandal/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>General Services Administration officials involved in a lavish $800,000 Las Vegas conference are expected to speak out about the controversial gathering for the first time Monday before a House committee investigating it.<span id="more-908"></span></p>
<p>The House Oversight Committee hearing, the first on the spending scandal, will also look to the culture at the agency to &#8220;make sure this doesn&#8217;t happen again,&#8221; Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said.</p>
<p>&#8220;What often happens is, an (inspector general) does their job, perhaps some people are held accountable, but the culture doesn&#8217;t change,&#8221; Issa said. It must be clear that there is &#8220;zero tolerance for this&#8221; and that the culture will be changed, he said.</p>
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		<title>GSA Seeks Charges in Vegas Training Scandal</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/13/gsa-seeks-charges-in-vegas-training-scandal/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/13/gsa-seeks-charges-in-vegas-training-scandal/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:03:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=906</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The General Services Administration’s inspector general has asked the Justice Department to consider criminal charges against an official who has been placed on administrative leave for his role in the $800,000 Las Vegas training conference, The Washington Post’s blog the Federal Eye reported.Sources told the Post that GSA Inspector General Brian Miller turned over to <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/13/gsa-seeks-charges-in-vegas-training-scandal/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The General Services Administration’s inspector general has asked the Justice Department to consider criminal charges against an official who has been placed on administrative leave for his role in the $800,000 Las Vegas training conference, The Washington Post’s blog the Federal Eye reported.<span id="more-906"></span>Sources told the Post that GSA Inspector General Brian Miller turned over to federal prosecutors evidence that Jeffrey Neely took such things as an iPod and speakers, GPS tracking system, camera, and Sony tablet for personal use from a storeroom in the San Francisco-based headquarters for the agency’s Pacific Rim region.</p>
<p>The items were intended as gifts for an employee-rewards program. Neely, a career senior executive with the Public Buildings Service, was placed on administrative leave along with four other regional commissioners for their role in the Las Vegas conference that prompted the resignation of Administrator Martha Johnson and the firing of two top deputies, the Post reported.</p>
<p>Four congressional hearing are scheduled next week on the 2010 conference.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, The Associated Press reported late Friday that an internal government memo shows GSA officials knew of a spending problem months before the scandal burst into public view.</p>
<p>The GSA&#8217;s deputy administrator, Susan Brita, emailed agency officials last July that the inspector general found no substantive agenda at the 2010 conference at a Las Vegas resort, the AP reported.</p>
<p>She said that expenses for a clown suit, bicycles for a training exercise, tuxedos and a mind-reader didn&#8217;t lend themselves to the claim of a substantive conference.</p>
<p>Brita also questioned why a regional administrator in charge of the conference received only a disciplinary letter. That administrator was placed on leave just this month.</p>
<p>The email was made public Friday by the House Government Oversight Committee.</p>
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		<title>More fallout from the GSA Vegas shindig</title>
		<link>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/11/more-fallout-from-the-gsa-vegas-shindig/</link>
		<comments>http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/11/more-fallout-from-the-gsa-vegas-shindig/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:30:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>musiclover</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Vegas News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://getvegasonline.com/?p=903</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There have been some further developments in the incredible saga of the General Services Administration’s lavish 2010 Western Regional Conference in Las Vegas, where high-living government bureaucrats threw themselves a million-dollar party at taxpayer expense: One top bureaucrat who missed the big party was Martha Johnson, who at the time was Administrator of the GSA.  <a href="http://getvegasonline.com/2012/04/11/more-fallout-from-the-gsa-vegas-shindig/" class="more-link">More &#62;</a>]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>There have been some further developments in the incredible saga of the General Services Administration’s lavish 2010 Western Regional Conference in Las Vegas, where high-living government bureaucrats threw themselves a million-dollar party at taxpayer expense:<span id="more-903"></span></p>
<p>One top bureaucrat who missed the big party was Martha Johnson, who at the time was Administrator of the GSA.  Why couldn’t she make it?  Based on testimony given to the Inspector General by  regional administrator Jeff Neely, it was because Johnson was in California to attend meetings at… <strong>Solyndra</strong>.</p>
<p>Why was she there?  According to ABC News, which got a look at transcripts of the IG’s interview with Neely, it was because “the Department of Energy was working to help enable GSA to purchase Solyndra solar panels for rooftops of federal buildings, which some critics believed was an attempt to prop up the doomed company with more federal money.”</p>
<p>The GSA blew <em>another </em>$3500 setting up a video conference to put Johnson in touch with some of her assistants.  Neely said he explained to agency honchos that “I had some concerns about this because we were spending $3,500.00 to save $1,500.00 in travel.”</p>
<p>That sounds like the kind of sourpuss killjoy talk that gets you laughed out of the room at a high-rolling federal agency nowadays.  As ABC reminds us, the GSA blew thousands of dollars on “items such as a commemorative coin set, a mind reader, a comedian and a clown” for their big party.  Who wants to hear some penny-pincher grouse about the cost of Winning The Future via teleconferencing?</p>
<p>ABC relays that a GSA spokesman claimed their top Administrator didn’t have meetings at Solyndra on the day in question, but “was unable to explain where Johnson was during the conference.”  <em>That </em>should make us all feel better.</p>
<p>Johnson resigned when details of the conference – known to the Obama White House since May 2011, but kept quiet until last week – began to emerge.  Her replacement, Acting GSA Administrator Dan Tangherlini, posted a video message to his employees on Tuesday, calling the big Vegas party “completely unacceptable,” and a violation of “common sense, the spirit of public service, and the trust taxpayers have placed in all of us.”</p>
<p>He also pointed out that “GSA creates and manages the rules and regulations governing travel and conferences,” making it particularly egregious to find its top management slouched in the corner of a Vegas hotel suite with lampshades on their heads and plates of $20 cheese in their laps.</p>
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