2022-10-13-Las-Vegas-Weekly

ASTONISHING. UNPREDICTABLE. MIND-BENDING.

Omega Mart is an immersive interactive experience from the groundbreaking art collective, Meow Wolf. Featuring jaw-dropping work from international and local artists, Omega Mart sends participants of all ages on a journey through surreal worlds and immersive storytelling. Discover secret portals or simply soak up the innovative art as you venture beyond an extraordinary supermarket into parts unknown.

Tickets at OmegaMart.com

Chef Kris Yenbamroong takes recipes from the ‘old country’ and gives them a dizzying modern spin. Whether it’s the crispy rice salad or outside-the-box fried chicken sandwich, some of the dishes are traditional, some are evolutions, some are not even Thai at all, but presented together it’s Night + Market.

EDITORIAL

PUBLISHER

MARK DE POOTER mark.depooter@gmgvegas.com

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

KATIE DIXON katie.dixon@gmgvegas.com

EDITOR

SPENCER PATTERSON spencer.patterson@gmgvegas.com

Senior Editor GEOFF CARTER (geo .carter@gmgvegas.com)

Editor at Large BROCK RADKE (brock.radke@gmgvegas.com)

Deputy Editor EVELYN MATEOS (evelyn.mateos@gmgvegas.com)

Sta Writer SHANNON MILLER (shannon.miller@gmgvegas.com)

Sta Writer AMBER SAMPSON (amber.sampson@gmgvegas.com)

Contributing Writers GRACE DA ROCHA,HILLARY DAVIS, MIKE GRIMALA, CASEY HARRISON, KATIE ANN MCCARVER, DANNY WEBSTER

Contributing Editors RAY BREWER, JUSTIN HAGER, BRYAN HORWATH, CASE KEEFER, DAVE MONDT

O ce Coordinator NADINE GUY

CREATIVE

Art Director CORLENE BYRD (corlene.byrd@gmgvegas.com)

Senior Designer IAN RACOMA

Photo Coordinator BRIAN RAMOS

Photographers CHRISTOPHER DEVARGAS, STEVE MARCUS, WADE VANDERVORT

DIGITAL

Publisher of Digital Media KATIE HORTON Web Content Specialist CLAYT KEEFER

ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Director of Strategic Content EMMA CAUTHORN Market Research Manager CHAD HARWOOD Senior Advertising Manager ADAIR NOWACKI, SUE SRAN Account Executives LAUREN JOHNSON, MIKE MALL, ALEX TEEL, ANNA ZYMANEK Sales Assistant APRIL MARTINEZ Events Director SAMANTHA PETSCH Marketing & Events Coordinator ALEXANDRA GEX Marketing & Events Intern ALEXANDRA SUNGA

PRODUCTION & CIRCULATION

Vice President of Manufacturing MARIA BLONDEAUX Production Director PAUL HUNTSBERRY Production Manager BLUE UYEDA

Associate Marketing Art Director BROOKE EVERSON Marketing Graphic Designer CARYL LOU PAAYAS Production Artist MARISSA MAHERAS Publication Coordinator DENISE ARANCIBIA Tra c Administrator JIDAN SHADOWEN Fulfillment Operations Coordinator CASANDRA PIERCE Route Administrator KATHY STRELAU Distribution Coordinator KARLA RODRIGUEZ

GREENSPUN MEDIA GROUP

CEO, Publisher & Editor BRIAN GREENSPUN Chief Operating O cer ROBERT CAUTHORN

LAS VEGAS WEEKLY 2275 Corporate Circle Suite 300 Henderson, NV 89074 702-990-2550 lasvegasweekly.com facebook.com/lasvegasweekly twitter.com/lasvegasweekly

All content is copyright Las Vegas Weekly LLC. Las Vegas Weekly is published Thursdays and distributed throughout Southern Nevada. Readers are permitted one free copy per issue. Additional copies are $2, available back issues $3.

ADVERTISING

LVWeekly

IN THIS ISSUE

SUPERGUIDE

Your daily events planner, starring Hamilton, Steve-O, Bonobo, NASCAR Weekend at the Speedway and more.

FEATURE

A world of discovery awaits at the Office of Collecting and Design.

COVER STORY

The Vegas Golden Knights open the season with a new head coach, a young goalie tandem and hopes for a playoff return.

Double covers this week!

them

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS

SCENE Downtown’s Hard Hat Lounge has new owners—and the same delicious pizza.

NOISE Remember The Higher? The onetime local mainstays are back, with a new album out this week.

FOOD & DRINK

Former Sage chef Shawn McClain launches Balla at the Sahara, and the Coffee Class expands.

THE STRIP

BattleBots co-host Chris Rose talks memorable fights, keys to victory and more as the robots prepare to duke it out on the Boulevard.

by Christopher DeVargas

Jessica Oreck at the Office of Collecting and Design (Wade Vandervort/ Staff)

SUPERGUIDE

THURSDAY

VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS VS. CHICAGO

BLACKHAWKS

7 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

SOFI TUKKER

10:30 p.m., Hakkasan Nightclub, events. taogroup.com.

PAULY SHORE: STICK WITH THE DANCING

9 p.m., the Space, thespacelv.com.

NERVO

With Konstantina Gianni, 10:30 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

13

BARRY MANILOW

7 p.m., thru 10/15, Westgate International Theater, ticketmaster. com.

HUGEL

With Suave, Hitta, Midnight A air, more, 10 p.m., We All Scream, seetickets.us.

TV PARTY TONIGHT

With Atomic Mayhem, Skeleton Crew, 10 p.m., Double Down Saloon, doubledownsaloon.com

THE WRECKS

With Carr, 7 p.m., 24 Oxford, etix.com.

NIFRA

Downtown gets a heavy dose of progressive trance when Elation Las Vegas’ Thursday-night Terminal 51 party brings Nifra’s Follow Me III tour to Commonwealth. The International Dance Music Awards-nominated producer and DJ born in Michalovce, Slovakia, bounces back to the States for a couple of shows from Norway before taking to the skies again to play Amsterdam, Poland and Australia this fall, continuing to spread the captivatingly chill vibes of her most recent mix. Follow Me III features work from Daxson, Sean & Xander, Arjans and more, plus Nifra’s own track “Resistance” remixed by NomadSignal. “Trance with swagger” is a bit of a contrarian soundtrack for Commonwealth; on the other hand, club music on Fremont Street is moving in some daring directions lately. Let’s follow along. 10 p.m., $10, Commonwealth, seetickets.us. –Brock Radke (Photo Courtesy)

NASCAR SOUTH POINT 400 WEEKEND

Thru 10/16, times vary, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ticketmaster.com.

Photo/Steve Marcus)

KAROL G

With Agudelo888, 8 p.m., T-Mobile Arena, axs.com.

ILIZA SHLESINGER

10 p.m., & 10/15, Mirage Theatre, mirage.mgmresorts.com.

ILLENIUM

10:30 p.m.,

Nightclub, events.taogroup.com.

JAUZ

11 a.m., Drai’s Beachclub, draisgroup.com.

MUSIC PARTY

SPORTS ARTS

FOOD + DRINK

COMEDY

FRIDAY

SUPERGUIDE

HENDERSON SILVER KNIGHTS VS. TUCSON ROADRUNNERS

7 p.m., Dollar Loan Center, axs.com.

KATY PERRY

8 p.m., & 10/15 & 10/19, Resorts World Theatre, ticketmaster.com.

DILLON FRANCIS

11 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

JOHN LEGEND

8 p.m., & 10/15 & 10/19, Zappos Theater, ticketmaster.com.

A PUBLIC FIT THEATRE: THREE DAYS OF RAIN Thru 11/6, times vary, Super Summer Theatre, apublicfit.org.

USHER

9 p.m., & 10/15 & 10/19, Dolby Live, ticketmaster.com.

LIONEL RICHIE

8 p.m., & 10/15 & 10/19, Encore Theater, ticketmaster.com.

WUKI

10 p.m., Discopussy, seetickets.us.

READING: JEAN KYOUNG FRAZIER

8 p.m., the Writer’s Block, thewriters block.org.

CARLOS SANCHEZ

With Clouty, Seven, Sotek, Steve Walker, midnight, Terrace Afterhours, terrace afterhoursvegas.com.

IN THIS MOMENT

With Nothing More, Sleep Token, Cherry Bombs, 6 p.m., House of Blues, concerts. livenation.com.

JACOB SMIGEL

From music to medicine, Las Vegas native Jacob Smigel doesn’t do anything halfway. So it comes as no real surprise that when the folky singer-songwriter turned Texas emergency room doctor re turns home to perform here for the first time since 2011, he’ll do so at three separate loca tions on three different nights. The fun begins October 14 at 7 p.m. at Square Bar, where Smigel will share a bill with The Prettiest and The Boulder Highwaymen. The following eve ning, he’ll play with Dreaming of Lions at 6 p.m. at Boulder City’s Cornish Pasty Co. And on October 22, he’ll present an all-ages “storytelling” set at 1:30 p.m. at the Las Vegas Book Festival, inside the Historic Fifth Street School’s Discovery Tent. The trio of gigs, which will focus on music from 2020 album If I Were Me while taking backward glances through Smigel’s catalog of mandarin oranges and boxing gyms, are free, so it’s easy to attend one, or in true Jacob Smigel style, even all three. –Spencer Patterson (Photo Courtesy)

FOR MORE UPCOMING EVENTS, VISIT

SUPERGUIDE

BONOBO

Good downtempo tracks are tough to pull o . If you go too soft, you end up with wishy-washy beats suitable only for background music in upscale restaurants with a babbling-brook water feature, but if you go too hard, you end up with— well, regular old dance music, one supposes; there are so many subgenres now that I confess I don’t know what to call it. Fortunately, I don’t have to in the case of Bonobo. The performing alias of England-born, LA-based producer and musician Simon Green, Bonobo hits that di cult-to-nail squarely on its head. Beginning with his 2000 debut Animal Magic but really hitting stride with 2010’s Black Sands and 2013’s The North Borders, Bonobo has regularly delivered layered, cinematic and flat-out sexy downtempo music that never panders to expectations. His latest album, the January 2022 Ninja Tune release Fragments, is a legit aural journey, perfectly suited for the multisensory fun house of Area15. With O’Flynn. 8:30 p.m., $27, Area15 A-Lot, area15.com. –Geo Carter

SATURDAY

15

NIGHTMARE ON Q STREET

Ft. The Game, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Digital Underground 7 p.m., Orleans Arena, ticketmaster.com.

CARLY RAE JEPSEN

With Empress Of, 8 p.m., Theater at Virgin, axs.com.

25TH ANNIVERSARY

PARTY

10 p.m., Drai’s After Hours, draisgroup.com.

TRAVIS SCOTT 10 p.m., Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

LAS VEGAS

PHILHARMONIC: APPALACHIAN SPRING 7:30 p.m., Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter.com.

WIZ KHALIFA 10 p.m., Drai’s Nightclub, draisgroup.com.

UNLV FOOTBALL

VS AIR FORCE 7:30 p.m., Allegiant Stadium, unlvtickets.com.

MARSHMELLO

11 a.m., Encore Beach Club, wynnsocial.com.

TIËSTO

11 a.m., Ayu Dayclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

ACTION BRONSON

With Meyhem Lauren, 7:30 p.m., Brooklyn Bowl, ticketweb.com.

THE CHAINSMOKERS

11 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

OCT.SUNDAY

16

OKTOBERFEST

BEER WALK

6 p.m., Downtown Container Park, eventbrite.com.

LUPITA D’ALESSIO

& MARÍA JOSÉ 8 p.m., Pearl Theater, ticketmaster.com.

STEVE AOKI

10:30 p.m., Hakkasan Nightclub, events.taogroup.com.

HELL TOUPEES

With Steel Beans, Sick Boy, 10 p.m., Double Down Saloon, doubledownsaloon.com.

POETRY WITH VINCE GOTERA

10 a.m., Winchester Dondero Cultural Center, clarkcountynv.gov.

MICRO TDH

7 p.m.,

House of Blues, livenation.com. (Photo Courtesy)

BEAT BREAKER

10:30 p.m., Marquee Nightclub, events.taogroup.com.

DIPLO

11 p.m., XS Nightclub, wynnsocial.com.

FAED

11 a.m., Encore Beach Club, wynnsocial.com.

STEVE-O

There are stuntmen and then there’s Steve-O. From snorting lines of wasabi to latching a fish hook into his cheek and being kicked in the family jewels more times than he can count, Jackass’ wildest boy has never backed down from doing dumb sh*t. The comedic madcap has even written a couple books about it (Professional Idiot: A Memoir and A Hard Kick in the Nuts) and founded a podcast to speak of his death-heckling past. Now, Steve-O will relive the mayhem with the Bucket List, an X-rated, multimedia stand-up show in which he’ll share footage from stunts he performed that were too outrageous even to be aired on Jackass(!). 7 p.m., $42$125, Theater at Virgin, axs.com. –Amber Sampson (AP Photo)

OCT.MONDAY

17

JAY BLACK

With Amy Shanker, John Caponera, thru 10/23, 8 p.m., Brad Garrett Comedy Club, bradgarrett comedy.com.

GEMINIIDRAGON 10 p.m., Sand Dollar Downtown, thesanddollarlv. com/downtown.

WIL SYLVINCE

With Ian Fidance, Amy Miller, Tony Woods, Michael Yo, 7 & 9:30 p.m., Comedy Cellar, ticketmaster.com.

KEON POLEE

Thru 10/23, 8 p.m., LA Comedy Club, bestvegascomedy. com.

TALEEN KALI

With The Acid Sisters, Mojave Sun, 8 p.m., StarBase, eventbrite.com.

ELECTRIC CALLBOY & ATTACK ATTACK

With Outline in Color, Conquer Divide, 7 p.m., Backstage Bar & Billiards, eventbrite. com.

SUPERGUIDE

HAMILTON

Thru 11/6, times vary, Reynolds Hall, thesmithcenter.com.

(Photo Courtesy/ Joan Marcus)

JEAN DAWSON

With Junior Varsity, 8 p.m., the Space, thespacelv.com.

BATTLEBOTS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Thru 10/30, times vary, Caesars Entertainment Studios, ticketmaster.com.

THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS

6:30 p.m., thru 10/20, South Point Showroom, ticketmaster.com.

PARTY FAVOR

10:30 p.m., Omnia Nightclub, events.taogroup.com.

DESTROY BOYS

6:30 p.m., Eagle Aerie Hall, eventbrite.com.

OCT.

SPYDATEK

With G-Squared, 10 p.m., On the Record, ontherecordlv.com.

HELL FIRE

With Screamer, Haxa, Hands of Oblivion, Damoklez, 8 p.m., the Dive Bar, eventbrite.com.

JUSTIN CREDIBLE

10:30 p.m., EBC at Night, wynnsocial.com.

THE B-52S

If you see a painted sign at the side of the road, it says, “Holy Fred, The B-52s are retiring from the road.” The legendary—that word is not too strong—Athens, Georgia, New Wave band that gave us “Private Idaho,” “Legal Tender,” “Roam” and too many more party hits to mention, has been playing live since 1977, and they’ll probably play the occasional one-o show once this farewell tour is done. But the days of The B-52s dancing their mess around the world for several back-breaking months a year are done. The band says it will go on in some capacity or another— members are working on a documentary about the group’s storied career—but these three upcoming shows at the Venetian may be your last chance to see Kate Pierson (a Taurus), Fred Schneider (a Cancerian from New Jersey) and Cindy Wilson (a Pisces; she loves chihuahuas and Chinese noodles) loose in the wild, playing the music that has motivated several generations of fans to go down, down, down. Fare thee well, fellow travelers, home to Planet Claire or wherever your final destination may take you. October 19 & 21-22, 8 p.m., $125-$275, Venetian Theatre, ticketmaster.com.

–Geo Carter

LOST

WHERE THE THINGS ARE

You’ve never seen a museum like the O ce of Collecting and Design

BY GEOFF CARTER PHOTOGRAPHS BY WADE VANDERVORT

y favorite chest at the O ce of Collecting and Design contains dice. The late actor and magician Ricky Jay collected antique dice throughout his life, many of them in the process of decomposing. He and photographer Rosamond Purcell documented their slow crumble in the 2002 book Dice: Deception, Fate & Rotten Luck. Incidentally, the fate of the O ce of Collecting’s dice, which are neatly contained in corked bottles and only just beginning to yellow and atomize, could be recorded by you.

But there are many other cabinets, shelves and containers you might prefer to investigate rst. Perhaps you’ll be drawn to the enormous jar of sew-on buttons. Or the glass-fronted cabinet of specimen slides, irresistibly labeled “Diatoms,” “Insect Parts” and “Blood Histology.” A “recent donations” display includes tiny plastic toy roulette wheels, wallet-sized 1940s-era photos of doe-eyed sweethearts and an envelope that reads “A single whisker from Audrey Hepcat approx. ten years old, collected on 8/10/22.” Open drawers randomly and you’ll discover unopened packs of chewing gum from other countries, doll parts and funky old transistors arranged by color. Taken as a whole, the O ce of Collecting and Design is a humble monument to the stu your grandparents and great-grandparents misplaced beneath the couch. In our era of impermanent, unlovable junk—items that exist only in the metaverse, viewable only on devices too ugly to save and too toxic to throw away—there’s something life-a rming to the O ce’s drawers full of engraved spoons, rubber stamps and spools of thread. And admission is free; that’s nice, too.

Jessica Oreck, the founder of the O ce and collector of most of its treasures, opened the museum in April 2021—at New Orleans Square in the Historic Commercial Center District

on East Sahara—partially out of necessity. A documentary lmmaker and stop-motion animator, Oreck needed a working space. This O ce really is an o ce; her studio is in the back of the house, hidden away within what could be the world’s most interesting curated collection of things. Not junk; things These are Oreck’s things. They re ect the personality of their collector.

It’s immediately evident that Oreck is immensely curious and creative, but not beyond poking fun at the whole idea that underpins the O ce.

“I was a collector before I could even talk. I mean, I just was gathering little bug carcasses and rocks and all sorts of things all the time,” Oreck says. “My mom was an interior designer who specializes in historical renovation. Somebody will say, ‘I need something from 1920,’ and she’ll create the entire room [with] everything from 1920. … Collections became a part of how I lived.

“I do feel like there’s a distinction between having a collection and being a collector. Having a collection, to me, means that it’s displayed well. It’s appealing, it’s accessible. Being a collector can often be synonymous with being a hoarder. It’s complicated, and it’s a great deep fear of mine that someday I’ll become a hoarder. But I think as long as it stays presentable and organized, then it’s acceptable,” she says. “I hope.”

them to Las Vegas, and Oreck got to know our town at its least characteristic moment.

“I was like, ‘Oh my God, it’s so quiet and peaceful here,’” she chuckles. “Joke’s on me.”

Her career is easily picked up and moved from one city to the next, possible because she largely invented it. A lmmaker immersed in natural sciences—she has studied biology, environmental history, ecology and botany—Oreck has directed a number of acclaimed documentaries, among them 2014’s The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga and 2009’s Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, which later aired as part of the Independent Lens series on PBS.

It’s a bit of a miracle that Oreck and her collection are here at all, considering how much she has moved around. New Orleans-born, but a New Yorker at heart—“my longest stint; maybe 12 years”—she has lived in Germany, South Korea … Two years ago, during the height of pandemic closures, her husband’s Air Force career brought the

But it’s more likely you’ve seen Oreck’s work on YouTube. She made two animated educational series for TED Ed, a subsidiary of the media nonpro t best known for its online lectures. The 26-part Mysteries of Vernacular (bit.ly/3RE5BtF) and the how-things-work series Moments of Vision employ stop-motion animation to entertain and educate viewers in wordy, deep-dive topics they might not have sat still for otherwise.

“That was a blast,” she says. “I love making educational content; that’s my favorite [kind]. But TED changed the way that they work with artists, [and] I was working for a while for a children’s network which then went under, so I have a ton of content and nowhere to put it.”

She laughs. “If anybody out there needs short educational content: Hello, my name is Jessica.”

Oreck says art and science are thoroughly entwined in her imagination, and have been since she saw David Attenborough’s documentary series The Private Life of Plants in a biology class at age 14. That bond strengthened when she went to work for the living exhibits department of New York’s American Museum of Natural History. For 10 years, she tended to the Museums insects, arachnids and marine life—and logged a number of hours in the butter y vivarium.

“It was such an eye-opening experience for me, like a controlled science

(Left) Jessica Oreck and (above) the O ce of Collecting and Design

experiment,” she says of her time in the butter y house. “People from all around the world would come through this exhibit, and the only thing that changed was them. I got to see how di erent cultures were taught to think about the natural world. … It really opened my eyes to the more social aspect of nature perception. All of my lms are sort of about ethnobiology—the way that human cultures interact with the natural world.”

Those lms, in their way, fed into her passion for collecting.

“When I started working in animation, I would collect things for props and sets, and then those became their own collections,” she says. “It got to be quite large.”

And there’s perhaps no better place to execute big, unusual ideas than Las Vegas. When circumstances brought her to our city, she decided to display her collection publicly for the rst time.

Though it’s in no way a natural environment, watching people interact with the O ce of Collecting and Design is a bit like watching them visit a butter y house. They go quiet as docile house cats, moving through the museum with considered steps. They mute their phones, they open drawers slowly

and gently and they approach the displays as if the objects could get spooked and y away.

There are several ways to enjoy the O ce of Collecting and Design, all of them correct. You can simply visit and poke around; free museum hours are Wednesdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., though you can tour the space at other times for a $12 fee. Some visitors spend a long stretch of quiet time here, lea ng through the books in the dark, studylike reading room, or milling around doing live sketches of the O ces’ treasures. And Oreck is open to holding events in the space—photo shoots, BYOB cocktail gatherings, even wedding receptions.

But perhaps the best way to experience the O ce is to make what photographers call a “ at lay.” You’re invited to hand-pick items from the collection and arrange them in a sort of collage, which Oreck or one of her assistants will photograph from above, sending you home with a custom print. The at lay experience costs $50 and takes about two hours, the perfect amount of time for you to experience the O ce. And the print makes for a nice souvenir to hold in case Oreck, and the collection, need to move on.

“Nobody knows the future,” Oreck says. “My husband’s job sort of ends up telling us where we get to go, so at some point, we may have to leave Las Vegas. And when I rst moved here, I thought, ‘Oh, I’ll just open this; it’ll be short-term.’ Really, I just wanted a place for my stu .

“Now, in connecting with all the people that I’ve gotten to meet in creating this space. … We have a community of locals that come here every week. They go to [neighboring bookstore] AvantPop, buy books and then come here to hang out and read. And they bring new friends every time. I’ve really fallen in love with the community aspect.”

In the event that the O ce of Collecting and Design does leave Vegas—and Oreck has a wonderfully out-there plan for that, too, which she calls her “Mobile Museum”—I ask Oreck how fans of the museum can create collections of their own, and she does a bit of a double-take.

“I’ve never had anybody ask me where they should start! I don’t know that I have a good answer to that,” she says. “Start with your gut; start with your intuition. … When I nd certain objects, it feels like they belong or they don’t. The objects tell me where they want to be in the space, and whether they even belong in the space. I just sort of let them decide, which sounds very weird, I know. But it’s a very organic process.”

COUNTING ON CASSIDY

Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy has taken a long hockey journey to Las Vegas

BY DANNY WEBSTER

Bruce Cassidy’s coaching career began a quarter mile north of the St. John’s River in Jacksonville, Florida, of all places.

The Ottawa, Ontario, native had reached the end of his playing career in 1996 after su ering a knee injury during his nal season with the ECHL’s Indianapolis Ice. The Ice’s owner, Horn Chen, then asked the shrewd defenseman if he’d be interested in coaching another ECHL team he owned at the time—the Jacksonville Lizard Kings.

Cassidy jumped at the chance, but his tenure went about as well as you’d expect with a team called the Lizard Kings.

“There’s a GM, I think he was 30 or 31, my age at the time, [who] basically said, ‘Here’s the hockey team. I sell tickets. Here’s your team,” Cassidy reminisces.

The Lizard Kings went 15-25-10 in Cassidy’s rst season at the helm, but the experience meant everything to the new coach. He learned about every role from an organizational standpoint and rebuilt the team, calling other coaches around the ECHL for input and implementing what he felt were the best strategies.

Cassidy improved Jacksonville to a 35-296 record in his second and nal season there.

“It might be the best thing ever to start that way,” Cassidy tells the Weekly. “You’re just diving in, you’re coaching, you’re managing the roster. [You’re also] the GM. You make the trades, you negotiate contracts, you run practice. I thought it was great for me at the time.”

Cassidy has come a long way since his early days in the business coaching obscure minor-league franchises (after Jacksonville, he went on to the Trenton Titans and Grand Rapids Gri ns). He always remained patient, never wavering from his desire to stay involved in the game.

Cassidy got his rst run in the NHL in 2002, when then-general manager George McPhee—now Vegas’ president of hockey operations—tapped him to coach a star-studded Washington Capitals team that included Jaromir Jagr, Peter Bondra and Olaf Kolzig.

“I learned about NHL life,” Cassidy says. “I was a player that was up and down. I was never in the NHL long enough to know

what it’s all about, all the demands—media, travel, hotel, the access to people. I learned that that’s important. There’s a certain way to conduct yourself the right way.”

The Caps nished second in their division with 92 points in Cassidy’s rst year but lost in the rst round of the playo s, and then began the following season 8-16-1, leading to his dismissal. But Cassidy remained undeterred. He believed he had the demeanor to be a successful long-term NHL coach.

“It’s funny, when I was a player I thought coaches were always grumpy, always going to yell at someone,” Cassidy says. “That just wasn’t my personality, and I didn’t want to be that. I always got along with every one of my coaches, I’d be respectful. I just didn’t know if that’s what I wanted to be.”

Cassidy’s approach combines styles of various coaches he played under. He says he took the most from Daryl Sutter in Indianapolis and Brian Kilrea Jr. with the Ottawa 67s. “And there were a couple other guys I played for where I didn’t like what they did,” Cassidy says, “so I said, ‘OK, I’m not going to do that.’”

Cassidy prides himself on being honest with his players, even when it’s difficult. That came across this preseason, once when he called on goaltender Adin Hill to improve after giving up seven goals to San Jose and again when Cassidy spoke critically of the fourth line after a win over Arizona.

The Golden Knights have been accepting of that accountability even as they also adjust to a new system on the ice.

“We got a little bit complacent last year,” Vegas captain Mark Stone says. “You’re going to go through change with every coach. I don’t think it’s changed a ton.”

After Washington, Cassidy became an assistant coach for the Chicago Blackhawks and then head coach for the Kingston Frontenacs of the Ontario Hockey League. In 2008, the Boston Bruins hired him as an assistant coach for the American Hockey League’s Providence Bruins.

Then-general manager Peter Chiarelli knew Cassidy from his days in Grand Rapids. It also helped that Cassidy grew up loving the Bruins, and that his wife, Julia,

was from nearby New Jersey.

Cassidy became head coach in 2011 and ultimately stayed with Providence for eight seasons. During that time, Bruce and Julie’s two children—daughter Shannon and son Cole—were born.

And then, at last, Cassidy got his second chance as an NHL head coach in 2017, when he replaced Claude Julien in Boston. Cassidy led the Bruins to an 18-8-1 run down the stretch to make the playo s—the rst of six straight trips that included a run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. He looks back at those years fondly.

“In Washington, it was just hockey, and your balance is o a bit,” Cassidy says.

“There wasn’t as much of that the second time around in Boston, so you could go home, put hockey behind you, you’ve got a family, [so] go to gymnastics or preschool hockey, doing di erent things.”

The Bruins came within a hair of claiming their rst Cup since 2011, losing in seven games to a St. Louis Blues team captained by Cassidy’s new top defenseman in Vegas, Alex Pietrangelo. Yet despite

consistent success under Cassidy, Bruins general manager Don Sweeney red him on June 7 after a rst-round playo exit. Cassidy nished with a 245-108-46 record with the team.

“I worked 14 years with Don … [and] even though he’s the guy that let me go … I learned a lot.” Cassidy says. “There’s no bitterness there at all. It was just time.”

Cassidy joins a Golden Knights team that missed the playo s for the rst time last season after reaching the conference nals the two prior years. He and Vegas share the same goal: a rst Stanley Cup.

“They were disappointed the way their year ended, I was disappointed with the way my year ended,” Cassidy says. “It’s not easy to win, [but] they’ve got guys in the room who understand what it takes. You’re not coming in telling guys something they don’t already know.”

Bruce Cassidy (AP Photo/ John Locherr)

Vegas’ star center doesn’t deserve the constant criticism he receives—and he’s going to prove it

Jack Eichel (AP Photo/ David Becker)

BY CASE KEEFER

Jack Eichel grins, raises his arms up and wraps them over the shoulders of Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb, pulling his Golden Knights’ teammates tighter into the camera frame at T-Mobile Arena.

It’s a week before the team starts training camp for the 2022-2023 season, and the ice at the home venue is covered by a hard oor holding thousands of temporary chairs and a ghting octagon. Eichel has one of the best seats in the house for UFC 279, and he’s not trying to contain his excitement for his rst major combat-sports experience.

The 25-year-old, who’s heading into his rst full season since being traded to Vegas, doesn’t jibe with the labels with which he’s so often saddled—self-centered star, locker room cancer, permanent malcontent. The more Eichel gets comfortable in town, the more those accusations begin to feel as baseless as the “bum,” “fraud” and “loser” insults Twitter users posted under a photo the UFC shared of him at the ght.

Eichel is none of these things, and the upcoming season sets up as his greatest opportunity yet to show it. He looks to be the single most important player in new coach Bruce Cassidy’s scheme, which emphasizes space and creativity and meshes with Eichel’s strengths.

Mark Stone remains the Golden Knights’ captain, but Eichel is the one anchoring the team’s top line and being counted on to produce the most o ense. With the 30-year-old Stone also coming o back surgery, Vegas might ultimately go as far as Eichel can take it.

“[Eichel is] coming in A) healthy, B) with something to prove, C) with a new coach, and, basically, his rst full year in a whole new organization,” Cassidy told NHL.com. “So there’s a lot for him to get

excited about in terms of, ‘Hey, you know what? This could be a springboard for my career.’”

In a brief two-month span with Vegas last year, Eichel showed glimpses of the talent that made him the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, a three-time All Star and once-hailed savior of the Bu alo Sabres’ franchise. After recovering from neck surgery, he scored 14 goals and put up 25 points—despite playing for six weeks with a broken thumb—but the Golden Knights ultimately missed the postseason for the rst time in franchise history.

That led to more Eichel mockery, as hockey fans from Bu alo and beyond gleefully pointed out that he had now missed the playo s in all seven of his professional seasons. Blaming Eichel for the Golden Knights’ 2021-2022 failure is ludicrous, however, considering the rash of injuries that decimated the rest of the roster.

It’s almost as silly as believing Eichel can’t raise his game further after a full o season to prepare, instead of less than three months after a major medical operation.

“I didn’t have any restrictions, so it was nice to be healthy, a nice peace of mind,” Eichel says. “I knew where I would be come September and knew I’d have my health.”

Eichel missed nearly a year of hockey while he publicly warred with the Sabres over the best procedure to address a spinal disc herniation. NHL peers, including Vegas goalie Robin Lehner, rallied to Eichel’s defense and rationally argued that he should have autonomy over his body. But that campaign only went so far in changing public perception.

It’s no shock sentiment in Bu alo turned against Eichel, but it’s a bit odd that he has become a villainous gure across the league. He hasn’t even been fully embraced in Vegas, where many fans continue to lament the assets it took to acquire him, including fan favorite Alex Tuch and top prospect Peyton Krebs.

The four years and $40 million left on Eichel’s contract also forced the team to trade Max Pacioretty, Vegas’ leading goal-scorer during the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, to Carolina for future considerations in July.

Stone admitted to the Hockey News this

o season that he was aware of Eichel’s negative reputation when the Golden Knights traded for him. But, Stone said, he quickly realized it was unmerited when he “found a hard-worker who is the exact opposite of a bad teammate.”

“We love having him here,” forward Chandler Stephenson added. “He’s set the tone.”

Maybe Eichel did arrive in Bu alo seven years ago with a cockiness not uncommon for an 18-year-old considered a can’t-miss talent. If so, he has grown from the experience.

Eichel endeared himself to his new team last season, starting his tenure by going on an East Coast trip with the team rather than resting at home while recovering from his surgery. When he broke his thumb, he didn’t publicly reveal it, playing through the injury an attempt to push the Golden Knights into the playo s.

His e orts resulted in the Golden Knights selecting him as their nominee for the Bill Masterson Trophy, annually given to the NHL player who “best exempli es the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.”

Eichel continued to demonstrate his commitment to his new franchise— something his critics say he never did in Bu alo—during the o season by bouncing between Las Vegas and his native Boston. In July, he came back for the Battle of Vegas charity softball game between the Golden Knights and Raiders and smiled as widely throughout it as he did during the UFC card.

Eichel blasted a home run at one point and cartwheeled onto home plate. When video of the celebration surfaced on social media, the usual reception to anything Eichel-related commenced—jokes about his record, attitude and even his neck.

The detractors should get their laughs while they can. If Eichel stays on his current course, he’ll get the last one, a well-deserved validation that should start this season.

IN THE CREASE

The Golden Knights will look to two (or three) goalies to stand in for the injured Robin Lehner

BY DANNY WEBSTER

It wouldn’t feel like a Golden Knights’ season if it didn’t include goalie drama. And this year continues the trend of netminder as the most scrutinized position in Vegas, with all new intrigue.

Former No. 1 goalie Robin Lehner won’t play this season after undergoing double hip surgery in the o season. The former Vezina Trophy nalist went 23-17-2 last season, with Laurent Brossoit serving as his primary backup.

But Brossoit’s status going into this season is also up in the air, after he, too, had o season hip surgery. Brossoit has skated on his own with new goalie coach Sean Burke but isn’t ready to practice fully with the team.

That means the 1-2 goaltender tandem going into the year will be Logan Thompson and the newly-acquired Adin Hill.

Thompson nearly saved the Golden Knights’ season down the stretch last year, posting a 10-5-3 record with a .914 save percentage and 2.68 goals against average. The

25-year-old, who went undrafted just three years ago, is closest to being considered the guy in net for Vegas.

“I think I have the con dence in myself,” Thompson says. “I think the guys in the room have the con dence in me, and I think that’s really all I need.”

Hill could be viewed as an insurance policy after Vegas acquired him from San Jose shortly before training camp in exchange for a 2024 fourth-round pick. A former Arizona third-rounder in 2015, he joins his third team with the Golden Knights.

Hill hits all the measurables to be a successful NHL goalie, with a 6-foot-6 frame and plenty of athletic ability, but it hasn’t translated yet. He appeared in a career-high 25 games for the Sharks last year but struggled to a .906 save percentage.

He produced a strong outing late in Vegas’ preseason, saving 50 shots in a 4-3 win over the Coyotes on October 4.

“I’ll take it,” Hill says. “It’s more shots, more action and more reps. You get more

scenarios in di erent shots that you wouldn’t get in practice.”

New Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy went through a similar goalie situation last year in Boston. With longtime starter Tuukka Rask dealing with injuries that eventually led to his retirement, the Bruins signed veteran Linus Ullmark who shared time with then-rookie Jeremy Swayman. Cassidy split the starts to 39 for each goalie, and the Bruins won 51 games.

He might handle things di erently in Las Vegas, however, considering both Thompson and Hill are unproven. “I think we’ve seen LT be ahead of the other guys,” Cassidy says. “I like where his game is. Hopefully he’ll continue to solidify his spot.”

It makes the most sense to give Thompson the chance to earn the No. 1 role with the way he ended last season. But Cassidy also doesn’t seem afraid to roll with the hot hand. Brossoit could also factor in at some point, but to start the season, the Golden Knights will rely on Thompson and Hill.

ON WITH

The Golden Knights aim to ‘go to the next level’ with their production value at T-Mobile Arena

BY DANNY WEBSTER

The Golden Knights aren’t just entering a new era as a hockey team; the franchise is changing things drastically on the presentation side of things, too.

Vegas’ award-winning production team is revamping its game presentation for the team’s sixth season in a campaign it calls “the Golden Age.” The title ts with the Golden Knights’ switch to gold jerseys as their primary home sweaters, but it goes far beyond that. Certain aspects include the Golden Knight pregame character, played by Lee Orchard, donning new armor this season.

And if you’re less than enthusiastic about seeing the same pregame ght scene— the Knight taking on a cloaked gure holding the opposing team’s ag—for the umpteenth time, rest easy. The team plans to switch it up and do something di erent every few games this year.

“We’ll have more evolution of our show than we’ve ever had,” Golden Knights president Kerry Bubolz says. “After ve years, it’s time to go to that next level.”

to the team’s vice president of entertainment. Shunock has been one of the in-arena hosts at T-Mobile Arena since the franchise’s inception and also serves as the in-arena host for the Las Vegas Raiders and a ring announcer for Top Rank Boxing.

“At the end of the day, this is a hockey team,” Shunock says. “It’s all about two points. Our mission is to support these guys in a way that gives them an advantage to win a hockey game. That’s something we’re really focused on this year.”

Shunock has collaborated with VGK vice president Andrew Abrams on several elements, including the siren used before every period. It’s now producing a louder and crisper sound than it has in past years. And after the game when the three stars are announced, the players will throw player-signed pillows shaped like poker chips, rather than game sticks, to the crowd.

what’s going on,” Shunock says. “I’m really in there as an additional team member

di

Legend of Zelda a SpongeBob SquarePants video.

Other noticeable changes will range from new in-game videos on the Jumbotron to di erent in-game music. Fans who attended preseason games have experienced some of the changes including a -themed hype package and SpongeBob SquarePants

“Each year, we do a refresh. The opening is always different,” Bubolz says. “We just felt like this year, we wanted to do more than a refresh—almost like a

reboot.”

“I’m joining a group that’s been here since Day 1, so it’s not like a complete, blind entry to what’s going on,” Shunock says. “I’m really in there as an additional team member that has lived and breathed this organization from Day 1.”

Though the Golden Knights have shown off a few elements of the new production during the preseason, the full unveiling will come in the regular-season opener against the Chicago Blackhawks on

Chicago Blackhawks on October 13. head perspective,”

boot is promoting in-are-

A big part of that reboot is promoting in-arena host Mark Shunock

VGK2022-2023

the

We’re just spinning it a different way.”

“I think [the new] approach is going to create that head tilt, that unique fresh perspective,” Shunock says. “We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re just spinning it a different way.”

RENEWING RIVALRIES

BY DANNY WEBSTER

Scoping out the Golden Knights’

ANAHEIM DUCKS

Key acquisitions: D John Klingberg, F Ryan Strome, F Frank Vatrano.

It’s a new era in Anaheim after the retirement of captain Ryan Getzlaf. The Ducks now run through Trevor Zegras, an electric rookie a year ago who could make the leap to superstar this season. Klingberg, signed to a one-year deal after an eight-year stint with Dallas, could also be a di erence maker.

CALGARY FLAMES

Key acquisitions: F Jonathan Huberdeau, F Nazem Kadri, D MacKenzie Weegar.

Very rarely can a team lose superstar talent like Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk and still be considered a contender. But Calgary, fresh o a division title, retooled in a major way with Huberdeau and Weegar, acquired from Florida in exchange for Tkachuk, and Kadri, who won a Stanley Cup with Colorado last year.

EDMONTON OILERS

Key acquisition: G Jack

SAN JOSE SHARKS

Key acquisitions: G Aaron Dell, F Luke Kunin, F Steven Lorentz.

The Sharks’ most notable move of the summer was actually the shipping out of popular defenseman Brent Burns, sent to Carolina for a package built around Lorentz. San Jose is the one team in the Pacific considered a near-lock to miss the playo s, but veteran pieces are in place to stay competitive under new coach David Quinn.

SEATTLE KRAKEN

Key acquisitions: F Andre Burakovsky, D Justin Schultz, F Shane Wright.

VGK

The Oilers’ 2022 playo run ended in the conference final, where they were swept by Colorado. Do they have enough to go one round further? Edmonton re-signed Evander Kane and brought in Campbell, an all-star goalie with Toronto last year. Connor McDavid might have enough talent around him

ence final, where they were swept by Colorado. Do they have enough to go one round further? Edmonton re-signed Evander Kane and brought in Campbell, an all-star goalie with Toronto last year. Connor McDavid might have enough talent around him

F Kevin

The Kraken likely won’t make the playo s either, but the second-year franchise should improve on last year’s last-place finish. Seattle pried Cup-winning sniper Burakovsky from Colorado to fortify its top six, and somehow nabbed Wright with the No. 4 pick despite him being the consensus No. 1 draft prospect for most of the season. He’s expected to play immediately and could form a lethal duo with Matty Beniers for years to come.

VANCOUVER CANUCKS

Key acquisitions: F Andrei Kuzmenko, F Curtis Lazar, F Ilya Mikheyev.

The Canucks are looking to build o the success they found once coach Bruce Boudreau took over midway through last season. Vancouver wasn’t eliminated from playo contention until the final week, and with Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller resigned, they have their core fully in place.

wasn’t a one-o appearance. The 26-year-old is coming o a career-high 85-point season with Minnesota and should be a good fit on the Kings’ top line alongside Anze Kopitar and Adrian Kempe.

Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault

Dallas defenseman John

THE NEW GUY

Meet Phil Kessel , ironman, champion and Vegas top-liner

BY DANNY WEBSTER

The Golden Knights didn’t have enough cap space to make the splashy moves of past o seasons, but they still added what could be a vital piece to the forward group in two-time Stanley Cup champion Phil Kessel.

A likely future Hall of Famer, the 35-year-old Kessel comes to Vegas after a forgettable three-year run with Arizona. He put up a respectable 133 points in 208 games for the Coyotes, but apart from one playo appearance during the COVID-expanded 2020 postseason, the Coyotes were not a competitive group.

“Arizona had great guys,” Kessel says. “But when you don’t want to necessarily win and contend, it becomes di cult as a player, especially when you came from Pittsburgh. I wanted to win.”

Kessel signed a one-year, $1.5 million deal with the Golden Knights in August. He has skated at left wing on the top line—the spot once occupied by the departed Max Pacioretty—alongside Jack Eichel and Reilly Smith.

Kessel is also approaching history. The 17-year NHL veteran has played in 982 consecutive games, just seven shy of Keith Yandle’s record for the longest streak in NHL history. If healthy, Kessel will set a new mark on October 25 at San Jose.

Kessel also comes into the season 44 points from 1,000 for his career. He’ll likely become the third active player to reach that mark this year, joining Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos and Boston’s Patrice Bergeron.

“When you get the chance to play on a good team that wants to win, you’re always looking forward to it,” Kessel says.

21

STABBING ON THE STRIP Yoni Barrios, 32, the suspect in a mass stabbing October 6 on the Strip, attacked a group of women dressed as showgirls because he thought they were laughing at him and he was “letting the anger out,” according to Metro Police.

DISCIPLINARY ACTION LIKELY FOR RAIDERS’ ADAMS AFTER SHOVE

Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams could be suspended or fined for shoving a photographer to the ground as he left the field following Monday night’s loss at Kansas City.

A person familiar with the process told the Associated Press on October 11 that the league was reviewing Adams’ actions following a 30-29 loss to the Chiefs, with possible punishment including a fine or suspension. The person spoke on con dition of anonymity because the league hadn’t made the review public.

Detectives from the Kansas City Police Department’s assault unit were investigating the incident and will work with prosecutors to determine whether charges are warranted, spokesman Sgt. Jake Becchina said.

He did not provide a timetable, other than to say it could take more than a couple of days. At press time, no decision had been made on punishment, either by the NFL or the police department.

As Adams left the field, he pushed what appeared to be a member of a camera crew to the ground as he headed into the Arrowhead Stadium tunnel to the locker room.

Becchina said the photographer went to the hospital for treatment for injuries that were not life-threatening.

Adams apologized in his postgame comments to the media and later on Twitter.

“He jumped in front of me coming off the field. I kind of pushed him. He ended up on the ground,” Adams said after the game. “I want to apologize to him for that. That was just frustration mixed with him really just running in front of me.

“I shouldn’t have responded that way, but that’s the way I responded. I want to apologize to him for that.”

M RESORT TO ADD 384 ROOMS

The owner of the M Resort announced plans October 10 to add a $206 million, 384-room tower, nearly doubling the Henderson casino’s hotel capacity. The expansion will also include about 15,000 square feet of new meeting space.

3

LIGHT NIGHTCLUB CLOSES

Light Nightclub at Mandalay Bay, one of the best-known and longestlasting names in Las Vegas nightlife, is no more. Its employees were expected to be distributed to Daylight Beach Club and other Clique Hospi tality venues.

FIRE PREVENTION LESSONS WORTH REPEATING YEARLY

About 300 people nationwide die due to fire each year, says Fire Marshal Robert Nolan, and Las Vegas firefighters would like to help lower that number.

And so firefighters and various community mem bers gathered October 9 at a Las Vegas Fire and Rescue station to kick off National Fire Prevention Week.

In accordance with the week’s theme of planning one’s escape, a trailer equipped with hot doors, fake smoke and a loud alarm allowed people to

practice escaping their home in the event of a fire.

Many people make the mistake of not having a rendezvous spot for their family after escaping a fire, knowing two ways out of each room and ignoring or even turning off their smoke alarms, Fire Inspec tor Justin Donovan said.

“Once you have a fire in your home, it’ll never be the same,” Nolan said.

“You will never feel the same way because you will have lost things that are important to you.”

Katie Ann McCarver

SENATOR MAKES RACIST REMARKS AT TRUMP RALLY IN WESTERN NEVADA

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala bama, asserted that Democrats support reparations for the descendants of enslaved people because “they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

The first-term Alabama Re publican spoke at a rally October 8 in Minden featuring former President Donald Trump. His comments were part of a broad er critique in the final weeks before the November 8 election, when control of Congress is at stake, about how Democrats have responded to rising crime rates. But Tuberville’s remarks about reparations played into racist stereotypes about Black people committing crimes.

“They’re not soft on crime,” Tuberville said of Democrats. “They’re pro-crime. They want crime. They want crime because they want to take over what you got. They want to control what you have. They want reparation because they think the people that do the crime are owed that.”

He ended his appearance with a profanity as the crowd cheered. -Associated Press

HOT SHOT

Las Vegas Raiders receiver Davante Adams (17) reaches for the ball in the end zone, drawing a pass interference penalty on Kansas City cornerback Jaylen Watson during the first half of an eventual 30-29 loss October 10 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri. Adams caught two touchdown passes in the game. (AP Photo)

“I get this: I ruined my political career. I never wanted one to begin with. I do not care about politics, I care about do ing the right thing. And I could not sleep at night knowing that we’re going to face a year of upheaval, of chaos in a time where we really needed steady leadership.”

–School Board President Irene Cepeda, on her decision in January to change her vote on the firing of Superindendent Jesus Jara, then vote October 5 to extend his contract with a $75,000-a-year raise

(Steve Marcus/Staff)

Putting more care into your healthcare

Connecting

Health

to personalized care for a healthier you

the Humana

make the most of

listen—and an entire

COMING SOON!

BY SHANNON MILLER

V

accinated Americans

aren’t lining up for the latest booster the way they did for their first few jabs.

It has been more than six weeks since the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer and Moderna’s omicron-resistant boosters—the second set to gain approval since the initial coro navirus vaccines. As of October 7, 68% of the U.S. population had been vaccinated with a primary series, but fewer than half of those have heeded official guidance and received a booster.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 11.5 million Americans received a second booster dose in the first five weeks of the rollout, among more than 200 million who are eligible—anyone who received the primary series at least two months ago and is at least 12 years old. And only 38% of Americans 50 and older have received the updated booster.

“The vaccines that we’ve been using so far are effective in stopping some trans mission and reducing the worst disease of the virus,” says epidemiologist Brian Labus, assistant professor at UNLV’s School of Public Health. “There’s limited information, though, on the most recent booster that we can point to and say the exact numbers. … The numbers, of course, are lower than we want them to be for a lot of groups, especially younger people who are in contact with a lot more people.”

With the new bivalent boosters having been available to the public since the start

which is why we’re seeing low levels na tionwide,” he says. “ A lot of people had to die for us to get there. But right now we’re at the point where there is some resistance in our population to this disease.”

of September, there’s little data thus far about boosted rates among different age groups. Information about the first del ta-resistant booster released in fall 2021, however, provides an idea of how much of the vaccinated population will get the shot in the coming months.

According to the CDC, rates for the 2021 booster range from 49% to 52% for all eligible age groups (5 years and older), except for the 65 and older group, which has a boosted rate of 71%.

As for general vaccination rates, October 5 data from the American Academy of Pe diatrics shows that, among all U.S. children 6 months to 17 years old, 41% have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the Southern Nevada Health District, nearly 61% of Clark County’s pop ulation is fully vaccinated compared to 68% of the total U.S. population.

“You have half the people willing to get the vaccine and the other half not willing,” Labus says of the bivalent booster, adding that the availability of a new booster isn’t going to change many minds about the vaccine.

“We also have to take into account nat ural infection. With the omicron wave, we saw so many people get sick that there is a lot of immunity overall in the population,

At press time, the U.S. was seeing more than 41,000 reported new coronavirus cases per day, low compared to the height of the highly contagious omicron surge in January, when new case averages topped more than 800,000 per day. And although President Joe Biden recently said that “the pandemic is over” on CBS’ 60 Minutes, health officials and doctors stress that staying up to date on vaccinations is criti cal to keeping case numbers at bay.

A recent CDC study of nursing home residents at 196 U.S. facilities found that the bivalent booster was 74% effective at 60 days in preventing severe outcomes (hos pitalization or death) and 90% effective in preventing death alone, compared with a single booster dose.

“There [are] two things to keep in mind: Are you fully vaccinated, and are you up to date?” Labus says. “Fully vaccinated means that you’ve gotten the initial twoshot series. Up to date means you’ve gotten the appropriate number of booster shots for your given age and underlying health conditions.”

According to the latest data from the Southern Nevada Health District, nearly 57,300 bivalent boosters have been ad ministered, meaning about 4.6% of Clark County’s fully vaccinated population 12 and older (approximately 1.25 million) is up to date.

Know before you go

The FDA has not yet authorized a bivalent booster for children ages 5-11, but Pfizer and Moderna are working on it. In September, the companies submitted applications for emergency use authoriza tion for children as young as 5 and 6 years old, respectively. Approval is expected to come later this year.

Aside from meeting the minimum age requirements—12 years old for Pfizer’s and 18 for Moderna’s—patients should have received a primary or booster vaccination at least two months prior to getting the bivalent booster. Official guidance also suggests those who recently had COVID might want to consider delaying their next vaccine dose by three months from when their symptoms started, since infection provides a natural immune response.

Some patients choose to time their shot with an event—like air travel, a music festival or family gathering—when they’ll be around crowds and at higher risk of ex posure. But keep in mind, sooner is better than later; and it takes about one week for the immune response to kick in.

“The best time to get it is before you’re exposed. And we don’t know when that

next [case] increase is going to come,” Labus adds. “The strongest response will be two to four weeks after that vaccina tion. [And that] varies from person to person.”

Also, don’t expect it to be your last COVID booster shot. Because the immune response wanes over time, the updated boosters will likely become as routine as annual flu shots—or at least “the hope is there,” Labus says. “I expect to see the same thing that happens with flu shots, where older people and people with serious underlying health issues are more likely to get it than those who are otherwise healthy.”

There’s also the ever-present threat of new, resistant variants emerging, which would call for the booster to be updated and administered again in the community.

During a recent event at USC, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser, said that, “We should not be surprised” if an other immune-resistant variant emerges this winter and causes cases to surge.

Taking action and getting boosted is the best preparation to help reduce hospital izations and deaths in such a scenario.

“There’s two ways to stop a fire,” Labus says. “You either put it out or you let it burn everything down. Either way, the fire stops.

“If the goal is ultimately to stop COVID, you either do it by preventing it by vacci nating everybody, or everyone gets it.”

BOOST?

GUERRILLA ACTION

HARD HAT LOUNGE Monday, 8 p.m.-2 a.m.; Tuesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-2 a.m. 1675 S. Industrial Road, 702384-8987.

ham and Sidoris have added new, long tables that take better advan tage of the available space, and have made improvements to the wiring that will allow the bar to better host events and live music (“though if we want to do big-boy shows, we’ll put a stage outside,” Sidoris says).

BY GEOFF CARTER

E

xperts call it “sympathetic res toration.” Loosely defined, it’s about restoring something’s working parts—like, say, those of a venerable local bar—while preserving the wear and tear that gives it character. The new owners of Downtown’s 60-plus-year-old Hard Hat Lounge, Robby Cunning ham and Frank Sidoris, have done just that with Industrial Road’s beloved blue-collar local.

“We saw the potential of this place,” Sidoris says. “When you consider how many people have come in here … We’re like, ‘Man, my dad used to come here.’ I was here, in the ’90s.”

There are lots of good reasons to visit the Hard Hat, from the mod estly priced drinks to the classic Frank Bowers mural behind the bar. (The new owners have replaced the lighting above the mural; it looks better than it ever has, with brightened colors and sharpened details.) But the most compelling recent reason to visit—and the one that got Sidoris to put his money down—is that Hard Hat is home to Guerrilla Pizza Co., where Cunning ham has been making his rib-stick ing Detroit-style deep dish pizzas, to ever-increasing popularity and acclaim, since October 2020.

In fact, it’s because of that pizza kitchen that Cunningham now owns half the bar. Guerrilla Pizza, a lessee of the Hard Hat’s tiny kitchen space, needed to replace the bar’s walk-in cooler—a purchase he says the bar’s then-owner was uninterested in making. Plus, “after seeing Guerrilla bring a lot of business to the bar,” Cunning-

ham says, “I was like, ‘I want a cut of that alcohol money.’”

After a bit of asking around, Cunningham learned that the Hard Hat was for sale, and immediately called his friend Sidoris, a rhythm guitarist with Slash’s band (yes, Guns N’ Roses Slash), to ask him if he was interested in co-owning a bar. He readily agreed, and now the two are fine-tuning the Hard Hat—a process that mostly involves “removing extra cables that didn’t need to be in here,” Sidoris says, and repainting the building in a striking brick red.

The de-cabled, de-grimed, de cluttered bar still feels like the Hard Hat in all the best ways. Cunning

The Hard Hat will celebrate its relaunch with a free October 15 block party from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m., featuring DJs, wrestling and a raffle for a signed Golden Knights jersey. In the future, the new owners hope to attract more industry folk and sports fans, who will no doubt fall in love with the Hard Hat’s already-ac complished pizza kitchen in huge numbers. Cunningham says he has no plans to change what works, ex cept to make it work even better.

“I want to get stronger and more consistent” in making Guerilla’s pizzas, Cunningham says. “We only have one little oven; we can’t move in a second. So,” he adds hopefully, “we’re kind of stuck being a spot where we have a line out the door sometimes.”

With new ownership and the same great pizza, the Hard Hat Lounge aims to become your local fave

(Left) Hard Hat Lounge owners Sidoris, left, and Cunningham (Right) Guerrilla Pizza pies (Wade Vandervort/ Staff)

COMEBACK KIDS

Onetime Las Vegas band The Higher returns with a more mature sound

BY AMBER SAMPSON

If you were in any way plugged into the local emo and pop-punk scene of the early 2000s, you surely remember The Higher.

The onetime Las Vegas band, origi nally comprised of Tom Oakes (guitar), Jason Centeno (bass), James Mattison (guitar), Pat Harter (drums) and Seth Trotter (vocals), signed with LA indie label Fiddler Records in 2002. Trotter, then 17, had to have his mom sign him out of high school just to embark on the band’s first tour.

The Higher released three albums and hit the road with Panic! At the Disco, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday and others over the years. They sold out shows. They toured Japan. And after releasing an album, It’s Only Natural, in 2009, they went on indefinite hiatus.

“Eight or nine years into touring the same stuff and playing to the same age demographic of kids, it got to a point where we were all a little burnt out, and we took some time off,” says Trotter, add ing that the band also took notice of how the pop-punk genre was faring. “Those kinds of bands weren’t really touring at the time. So we were like, I think we’re just gonna all do our own thing.”

Oakes left for Hollywood to pursue a career in stop motion animation. Centeno moved to New York. Robert “Reggie” Ragan (who replaced Mattison on guitar) went to Seattle. Trotter stayed in Las Vegas and started a cover band. During the pandemic, he kept in touch with his bandmates and found that many had begun revisiting music. “We had been talking about how we’d all been writing some songs,” he says. “And Tom had sent some demos he had written for his band and was like, ‘These would be great for The Higher. Maybe we should collaborate.’”

The band joined Oakes in a Califor nia studio with producer Rafa Alvarez, and they recorded what Trotter says he

thought would just be a “fun project” to cure their boredom. Before they knew it, they had reignited The Higher.

The band—minus Oakes and Harter—tested the waters, playing a few shows that eventually “stemmed into us saying, let’s get back out there and see if the kids still enjoy the misty old music and want to hear some of the new stuff,” Trotter says.

After years of using MySpace and Facebook, the band hopped on other social media platforms to promote new singles “Free Ride” and “Elvis in Won derland,” the latter also the title of a new EP arriving October 14.

“On Spotify, now each of those singles have over 100,000 views. ‘Free Ride’ is almost on the 200,000 mark,” Trotter says. “It’s crazy. For us being gone for eight to 10 years, not making any new music and not staying active with the old fans, it was shocking.”

Longtime listeners waxing nostalgic will hear early-aughts Higher on “Free Ride.” It’s a bright re-entry into the pop-punk genre, with snappy drum work and a memorable hook. Meanwhile, “‘Elvis in Wonderland’ is more of the newer sound,” Trotter says. “Funnily enough, even though we’re all a lot more R&B driven these days, it’s one of the more rock songs The Higher has ever released.”

It’s a debaucherous single, similar to 2007’s “Insurance,” about going way too hard in Vegas. In the music video, a roguish Elvis—whom the band found on Craigslist—stumbles along Fremont East with a tall boy beer and takes pho tos with tourists. By the end of the song, he’s slumped against the wall, drunk. “‘Elvis in Wonderland’ really signifies what Vegas is,” Trotter says. “It’s the glitz and the glam in a wonderland you can easily get lost in.”

And Trotter recognizes The Higher has had its time in Wonderland, too. But these days, “We’re humbled.”

The Higher’s (left to right) Lind, Trotter and Ragan (Courtesy/Alex Bemis)

ZEDD

Long one of the brightest stars in the global dance-pop landscape and the Las Vegas nightclub residency world, Zedd stepped things up even more when launching his new gig with Zouk Group at Resorts World last year, including appearing in an advertising campaign with Tiësto, Katy Perry and Carrie Underwood. He plays Zouk Nightclub a lot, but Friday night’s set is going to be special: It’s the 10th anniversary party for “Clarity,” the landmark single featuring British vocalist Foxes that went platinum, won a Grammy and remains pretty much ubiquitous. It still gets radio play and certainly pops up in other DJs’ sets when they need the crowd to jump and sing along, and now that you’ve read this, it’s likely “Clarity” will be stuck in your head for a long time to come. Seeing Zedd play it at Zouk is the only remedy.

ZEDD With Charly Jordan, October 14, 10 p.m., $30-$50+, Zouk Nightclub, zoukgrouplv.com.

ZEDD?

BY BROCK RADKE

ZEDS DEAD

It’s a question as old as time: What if two Toronto teenagers, obsessed with 1990s hip-hop and elite beatmakers like DJ Premier and Pete Rock, started crafting their own music without worrying about labels and genres? And what if they named themselves after a Bruce Willis line from Pulp Fiction? The answer is DC and Hooks, better known as Zeds Dead, the drum-and-bass-based duo that has taken up residency at Drai’s Beachclub in recent Vegas summers and now headlines a booming bill at Area15’s expansive A-Lot. Following last year’s release Catching Z’s, the boys recently teamed with Spotify Singles to drop a heavy new remix of their classic “Rude Boy” as well as a “cover” of Bach’s “Fugue in D Minor” just in time for spooky season. Zeds Dead probably won’t be back in town until 2023, so you might want to prioritize this EDM adventure into electro-house, trap, garage, glitch, dubstep and more.

ZEDS DEAD With Deathpact, Kumarion, A Hundred Drums, Heyz, October 14, 8 p.m., $45, Area15 A-Lot, area15.com.

They’re in town on the same night. Make your musical choice

BY AMBER SAMPSON

The metallic arm hammer strikes down with enough force to rattle Sub Zero’s foundation. It knocks a few screws loose and sends a few sparks ying. Shatter’s a stick-and-move type of competitor. It shows in how it darts out of danger, at one point even escaping the fury of a amethrower drone nearby. Everything in this industrial arena is meant to maul you. That’s what makes the hit TV show BattleBots so hair-raisingly exciting to watch.

“It’s three minutes of chaos. You’re laughing at some of the stuff, because it’s inherently funny to watch robots try and kill each other,” says Chris Rose, who hosts the Discovery Channel bot battles with former UFC fighter Kenny Florian. “It’s the perfect scenario for anybody at any age. Who doesn’t like seeing stuff blown up without people getting hurt?”

Rose, who has been a celebrated studio host for NFL Network, MLB Network (Intentional Talk) and The Chris Rose Rotation, joined BattleBots during its 2015 Discovery Channel reboot. “It’s hilarious, because I have the good fortune of working in the NFL, I still cover Major League Baseball and I get asked more about BattleBots than anything else,” the sportscaster says.

Now in its seventh season, BattleBots will return for a live taping of its world championship at Caesars Entertainment Studios from October 18-30, with 50 of the world’s best bots competing for the Giant Nut trophy. Ahead of the carnage, we caught up with Rose about what to expect.

You weren’t familiar with BattleBots before you joined the show. What was your impression after seeing it in action? I thought it was nuts. I was like, wait a second, there’s a pair of 250-pound robots inside of a bulletproof glass cube? Kenny and I looked at each other and were like, this is amazing. As good as it is on television, it’s crazy in person. Just walking around the pit area, seeing all the teams building the bots and the actual ghting, which is way louder than you expect. I felt like a little kid.

RAGING

Can you recall your most memorable BattleBots fight?

Several seasons ago, there was an extra ght between Tombstone and Tantrum. Tantrum had these sts on the end of its robot, and Tombstone sliced it o with its blade going near 250 miles an hour. It ended up lodged in the battle box, in the corner where there’s a bit of padding and the glass sheets come together. It had lodged in there, st out. It was a one in a gazillion shot. So that was a great memory. One of our rst seasons, one of the legendary ipping bots called

Bronco ipped another robot called Stinger, which is one that breathes re. He lifted it, and the thing just cascaded through the air as a 250-pound ball of ame and went out of the arena. It was utterly fantastic.

Local team Vegas Combat Robotics returns with its robot JackPot for a shot at the championship. What are the survival chances? They’ve done great in their few seasons on the show. I don’t believe they’ve lost a regular-season match. The

BattleBots host Chris Rose gets into the nuts and bolts of the robot championship on the Strip

MACHINES

BATTLEBOTS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP VII

October 18-30, times vary, $42-72.

Caesars Entertainment Studios at Bally’s, battlebots.com/tickets.

October at the Library District Is ...

A Whole Month of Frighteningly-Fun Events Just for Teens!

Fright Night Themed Crafts Saturday, October 15 at 3 p.m. Spring Valley Library

Interactive Movie Night Tuesday, October 18 at 4 p.m. Centennial Hills Library

Potion Making!

Thursday, October 20 at 2 p.m. West Las Vegas Library

Thriller Dance Lesson Thursday, October 20 at 3 p.m. Sahara West Library

Spooky Bingo Thursday, October 20 at 3 p.m. Windmill Library

Fright Night Trivia Thursday, October 20 at 3:30 p.m. Mesquite Library

Zombie Party!

Friday, October 21 at 2 p.m. West Las Vegas Library

Teentober Lock-In Friday, October 21 at 5:45 p.m. Moapa Valley Library

Fright Night Themed Crafts Saturday, October 22 at 3 p.m. Spring Valley Library

Glow-in-the-Dark Pottery Monday, October 24 at 3 p.m. Whitney Library

Scary Stories

Tuesday, October 25 at 4 p.m. Enterprise Library

Mask Painting Wednesday, October 26 at 3 p.m. Whitney Library

Mini Pumpkin Painting Wednesday, October 26 at 3:30 p.m. West Charleston Library

rst year is kind of a blur for these rookie teams, they’re hanging on for dear life. You always get one that will shock everyone. But a team like JackPot, they’ve been through it, they’ve won a little bit. They know what it’s like to have to get your robot rebuilt in a short time span.

Chris Rose and a scene from Discovery’s BattleBots

This thing is really won in the back of the pits. It’s not so much won in the box, because even when you win, you lose. You’re going to take so much damage that it’s a question of how much can you get ready for your next ght. I think they’re learning that.

From what you’ve seen, what’s the ultimate key to victory? It’s about a team e ort. Kenny always says it, but styles make ghts. You could be a great robot, but you could get a bad draw. That makes it so much more di cult. It helps to have a great driver. It helps to have a fast robot. But one little wire o , and your match is blown. That’s why you have to watch everything. And that’s what makes it so much fun.

For more of this interview, visit lasvegasweekly.com.

Manga Pumpkins! Thursday, October 27 at 2 p.m. West Las Vegas Library

Haunted Movie and Pizza Night Thursday, October 27 at 3:30 p.m. Mesquite Library

Movie Scare-a-thon Saturday, October 29 10 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. Whitney Library

SCAN FOR EVEN MORE EVENTS!

FAMILIAR YET FRESH

Sage had a decade-long run at Aria as one of the best fine-dining destinations in the city, but equally important was its favored status among local residents; it was worth the entanglement of a trip to the Strip.

The new Sahara Las Vegas would love to become the locals’ favorite Strip resort, consider ing its less-tangly location and welcoming new environs, so bringing in the award-winning chef behind Sage seems like a natural move.

and Sarah Camarota on this new Mediterranean concept, McClain will focus, as always, on hyper-seasonality and satisfaction in every dish, and he’s hoping to reconnect with Las Vegans who fondly recall his first Strip effort.

BY BROCK RADKE

Shawn McClain’s Balla Italian Soul restaurant is set to open October 19 in a bright, expanded space formerly occupied by the Sayers Club back when the Sahara was SLS. Working again with husband-wife team Richard

“We’re definitely getting back into those finer details. It’s always my hope that when you look at the food or the interpretation of flavors, there’s always a fingerprint from me, even though here [at Balla] the space is much brighter and the food is specifically Italian,” he says. “But I would find it a huge compliment if somebody said, ‘This dish reminds me of something you did at Sage.’”

The casino renovations of the past 18 months wisely moved

daytime-dormant restaurant spaces to the perimeter, re-energizing the gaming floor and creating a fun and accessible tour of culinary offerings. That makes Balla feel even more fresh for guests who haven’t experienced the new layout. “It came out beautifully,” says McClain, pointing out that the lighter, brighter design will match the cuisine. The energetic, elongated bar and whimsical Italian pop art—Sophia Loren is having a picnic in one pic—should appeal to various crowds in various stages of a night out.

The James Beard Award-winning Midwesterner says the menu began with an emphasis on Mediterranean versatility before evolving to include Southern Italian cooking. “We wanted to

Shawn McClain sparks the Sahara with Italian at Balla

Balla’s

be on the lighter side but really honor that style of cooking and the craft of it,” he says. “And we’re trying to hit a lot.”

That means antipasti, handmade pastas, pizza done distinctly—evolving from his former Five50 Pizza Bar at Aria—and dishes from the woodfired oven and rotisserie. Get started with marinated octopus with Calabrian chili and heirloom beans, lamb tartare with pickled eggplant and preserved lemon, or a shellfish toast with nduja sausage.

Squid ink shells with putta nesca, mint and squid display a different pasta perspective, and seafood will continue to play its part in dishes such as sea bream with lemon, capers and fresh herbs. Crispy rosemary-Parme

san potatoes or grilled Romano beans with anchovy could be perfect sides for a garlic-kissed 22-ounce ribeye or the pork Del monico steak served with pickled radicchio and cippolini onions.

Vibrant Italian calls for a se lection of signature Negronis and spritzes to anchor the cocktail menu, and fresh finishing moves include an assortment of cookies or panna cotta with limoncello and brown sugar pizzelle.

Sahara’s renovations have brought several notable dining additions to complement Bazaar Meat by José Andrés, the fabulous holdover from the SLS. With Balla, the iconic resort is looking for higher ground, a second true destina tion restaurant, and all of the pieces are there.

Spreading sophisticated java

n Come for the pumpkin pop tarts, stay for everything else.

The Coffee Class first opened on Eastern Avenue just north of the Beltway in August 2019, an elevated con cept for guests who wanted something more than a quick latte on the way to somewhere else. When it reopened after COVID shutdowns in June 2020, its operators turned to some attention-grabbing goodies (and social media) to help rebound.

That’s how the pumpkin pop tart became a phenomenon and best-selling item, but the shop has plenty of other sweet and savory items on the menu.

“We kind of stumbled into the pastry side, but we’ve always made sure all the food is visually appealing and tastes really good,” owner and founder Kyle Cunningham says.

That sensational surge from social has helped the Coffee

Class build a stronger foundation, and next comes growth. It opened a second location last month near Water Street, at College and Horizon Drives, and is preparing for a third store at the blossoming UnCommons development next year.

Cunningham says he received a lot of requests for a Summerlin or northwest version of the Coffee Class, and eventually he’d like to open six stores across the Val ley. Offering a comfortable, complete experience is what caffeinates the concept.

“Sometimes it’s difficult to describe, because when you say coffee shop, people have different ideas of what that means,” says Cunningham, a UNLV graduate and real estate professional whose travels inspired the origins of the business. “It’s about food and ambiance, a place where you can come in and have a conversation.” –Brock Radke

THE COFFEE CLASS 8878 S. Eastern Ave. #102, 709 E. Horizon Drive #100, thecoffeeclass.com. Monday-Friday, 6:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 6:30 a.m.-5 p.m.

BALLA Sahara, 702-761-7000, saharalas vegas.com. WednesdaySunday, 5-10 p.m.

A pumpkin spice latte from the Coffee Class (Courtesy)

Deepak Chopra

UNLV’s annual series featuring

known guest lecturers

AT

Sports

SEASON

MONDAY

NIGHT KICKOFF

EVEN AS STATION CASINOS CELEBRATES DURANGO RESORT CONSTRUCTION MILESTONE, COMPANY EYES NEXT PROJECT

BY KATIE ANN M C CARVER VEGAS INC STAFF

To people driving past it, the Durango Casino & Resort might not look like much yet. The property is still under construction, the main building only a shell of what it will be when it’s com pleted in about a year.

But to the thousands of people supporting the project along the 215 Beltway, including contractors, construction workers, the owners and other stakeholders, the skeletal structure of the Durango is a massive milestone.

It’s proof of the progress being made by Station Casinos, the power house locals gaming brand, following a July announcement that it would demolish and sell land that was home to three of its former casinos, which initially closed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With six sites like the Durango un der entitlement or development, Scott Kreeger, president of parent compa ny Red Rock Resorts, said Station is poised to double its size over the next eight to 10 years.

“We have these old sites in all key areas of Las Vegas,” Kreeger said, “and we’re super excited, once we get the Durango successfully open, to start on the next project.”

In an October 7 ceremony, Station celebrated the topping off of the Du rango’s 216-foot tower and the official end of heavy construction on the proj ect. The foundation of the building is officially in place, and—with the help

of approximately 1,600 construction workers—the hotel and casino will ideally open in October 2023, Kreeger said.

As a beam carrying the American flag, one representing the Durango and another representing general contractor William A. Richardson Builders was lifted hundreds of feet into the air by a crane, construction workers milled around eating barbe cue and signing a commemorative beam, which was also signed by Kree ger and other project leaders.

Posters displayed designs for the resort, showing what the building will

eventually offer—including lavish lounges, dining halls and outdoor areas.

Clark County Commissioner Justin Jones was in attendance and said the project is moving at one of the fastest paces he has seen for a resort in the area. He pointed to the Dream Hotel, an upcoming project on the Strip that he said was approved the same day as the Durango but is still awaiting construction, as a comparison.

It’s exciting to have reached the halfway point, Kreeger said.

“Most importantly, I’m excited for our team members, the ability to grow their career, the ability to create

more jobs in the community,” he said, citing the 1,500 full-time jobs the fin ished project will bring. “At the end of the day, we’re in the people business, both with our team members and our customers.”

The Durango will draw people in with great food, good entertainment and more, Jones said. He added that it will likely bring in not only lo cals but also people from across the country.

The southwest corridor of the Las Vegas Valley is growing rapidly, Jones said. “It’s just booming. And I think when people come here from out of state, they’re looking at a new place to move for themselves or for their business. I think they see this southwest corridor over here and they think, ‘Wow, let’s move there.’”

Kreeger echoed that sentiment, explaining that vibrant growth in residential and business communities in the area makes it the best time to develop a project like the Durango.

And while the 15-floor resort will meet the expectations of locals who are familiar with the traditions of other Station properties, it will also “raise the bar,” Kreeger said. Among other amenities, the Durango will feature four signature restaurants, an 11-unit food hall and 211 hotel rooms.

The Valley has really changed over the past decade, Kreeger said, and incoming Nevada residents are changing the demographic. Station continually adjusts its product to fit the relevancy of the neighborhood in which it develops, he said.

Now is the right time to execute the company’s growth strategy, he said, as the Durango charges full-steam ahead and other sites are prepared for and undergoing development.

“It’s actually a strategy steeped in 45 years of history,” Kreeger said. “It’s always been a core business strategy for us to own prime land across the Valley for development. There’s no one more bullish on Las Vegas than Station Casinos.”

The Durango Casino & Resorts celebrates its “topping off” with the placement of the final beam on the 15th floor, the highest point of the structure (Christopher DeVargas/Staff)

VegasInc Giving Notes

Taylor’s Gift Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to support ing families of organ, eye and tissue donors, announced a partnership with Nevada Donor Network to offer its grief support program, Kindred Hearts, designed specifically for donor families. Donor families from across the country who participate in the program receive personal access to support groups and caring guides, who are trained to help them navigate through their grief journey. The groups are offered both virtually and in-person.

Three Nevada schools have been awarded classroom funding through Navarro Research and Engineering Inc. ’s new Community Commit ment Grants Program. The program supports educational activities that promote learning related to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) in communities near the Nevada National Security Site. The three schools receiving funding are: Carlin Combined School in Carlin; Lied STEM Academy in Las Vegas; and Manse Elementary School in Pahrump. The next application

period is now open for the 2023 Community Commitment Grants Program cycle.

Communities In Schools of Nevada has partnered with Shania Kids Can Foundation to meet the needs of un derserved students at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, a new addition to CIS’ school roster for the 2022-23 school year.

Junior Achievement of Southern Nevada received a monetary gift from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott

It is part of a $38.8 million donation to Junior Achievement USA, the largest gift from a single donor in the organization’s 103-year history. In addition, JASN announced the addition of Ron Kullman to its board of directors. He is chief risk officer at Toyota Savings Bank and has more than 25 years of experience as a financial services executive. Kullman has a long history with JA, starting as a classroom volunteer in the mid-

1990s. He also taught JA financial literacy programming in classrooms in Chicago; Wilmington, Delaware; Bloomington, Illinois; and now in Las Vegas.

On September 24, 300 local girls toured Allegiant airplanes and met the women who fly them at an event celebrating Girls in Aviation Day. The program, hosted by the nonprofit Women in Aviation International, is designed to introduce girls to all things aviation. This is the sixth year Allegiant served as premier sponsor. Women currently make up 6% of the total pilot workforce in the United States, and studies show that the key to increasing those numbers is to increase the visibility of aviation ca reers and role models in those fields.

Merging Vets and Players, a non profit dedicated to providing peerto-peer support for combat veterans and former pro athletes in Las Vegas, has received $46,000 as part of the Community Recovery Grant distribu tion. Approved by Nevada lawmakers to direct relief dollars to organi zations that can make immediate impact for constituents to alleviate challenges caused by the pandemic, MVP will use the funds to increase engagement for programming and positive perception of mental health services.

The Sanctuary will unveil a limit

ed-edition Sacred brand canna bis strain, Pink Ribbon, available exclusively in October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. As part of its “Doobies for Boobies” fundraising effort, a portion of Pink Ribbon’s sales will be donated to Angels of Las Vegas, a local non profit which supports those battling cancer by providing a variety of re sources, including financial support, food donations, clothing donations, wig donations, nutritional programs, counseling and more.

The ALS Association Nevada Chapter raised over $275,000 at its annual Food Is Art Fundraiser on the 108th floor of the Strat. The money goes directly to continuing services focused on sustaining quality of life for over 100 Nevadans and their fam ilies affected by ALS.

Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation of Nevada hosted its most popular annual public event of the year in September, welcoming a record sold-out crowd of more than 1,750 participants and rais ing $325,000 for local families of children and teens diagnosed with cancer. In the past decade, Candle lighters has provided nearly $13 mil lion in financial assistance, emotional support and quality of life programs and services to families to help with the costs of childhood cancer.

Kullman

Discover

primary care that

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Since you will benefit from imagining your life as a fairy tale in the coming weeks, I’ll offer you a few possibilities. 1. You marry a rainbow. 2. You make friends with a raven that gives you savvy financial advice. 3. You invent a new kind of dancing; it involves crying and laughing while making holy prayer gestures toward your favorite star.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In accordance with astrological omens, Taurus, I encourage you to summon a determination to obtain pleasurable treasures. The odds of you procuring necessary luxuries that heal and inspire are much higher than usual.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Shed any worries that your caring and trying and loving have been blunders. Celebrate them, be proud of them, and promise yourself that you will keep caring and trying and loving. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to renew your commitment to your highest goodness.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I don’t think my peculiarity makes me better than anyone. It’s just who I am. I enjoy communicating with unweird people as much as I do with weirdos. Everything I just said is a preamble for my main message, Cancerian: The coming weeks will be prime time for you to give extra honor and credit to your personal eccentricities.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Author Jennifer Huang testifies, “Poetry is what helps me remember that even in my fragments, I am whole.” What about you, Leo? Now is an excellent time to identify the people, animals and influences that help you generate a sense of unity and completeness. Once you’re clear about that, spend quality time doing what you can to nurture those healers.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Virgo journalist Sydney J. Harris described “the three hardest tasks in the world.” Here they are: 1. to return love for hate; 2. to include the excluded; 3. to say “I was wrong.” I believe you will have a special talent for all three of these brave actions in the coming weeks, Virgo.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Give honor and respect to your fine abilities. Salute and nurture your ripe talents. Talk to yourself realistically about the success you have accomplished. If you build up your appreciation for what is legitimately great about you, you won’t be tempted to resort to false pride or self-absorbed egotism.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his play Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett offers us two characters who patiently wait for a man named Godot, who could offer them salvation. Godot never arrives. Near the end, one says, “We are not saints, but we have kept our appointment.” My sense is that you Scorpios may be close to giving up your own vigils. Please don’t! I believe your personal equivalent to Godot will ultimately appear.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Poet Charles Wright has testified, “Emily Dickinson is the only writer I’ve ever read who knows my name, whose work has influenced me at my heart’s core.” Now is an excellent time for you Sagit tarians to identify artists and creators who provide you with similar exaltation.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’ve read and studied poetry for many years, but only recently discovered Capricorn poet Lizette Woodworth Reese (1856–1935). Her contemporary, journalist H. L. Mencken, described her work as “one of the imperishable glories of American literature.” But today, she is virtu ally unknown. In bringing her to your attention, I am announcing my prediction about you: If you have until now not gotten the recognition or gratitude you deserve, at least some of it will arrive.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author Sophia Dembling defines a friend as a person who consoles you when you’re feeling desperate, whose life is interest ing to you and who is interest ed in your life. What’s your definition? Now is an excellent time to get clear about the qualities you want in a friend. It’s also a favorable phase to seek out vital new friendships as you de-emphasize mediocre and overly demanding alliances.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Now is an excellent chance to prove you’re not afraid of