Desert Companion - February 2024

TURN TO STONE

THE PASSION AND PATIENCE OF ROCKHOUNDS

RESTO-RATE

INTRODUCING ‘THE VEGAS DISH’!

HICK-UP

REVISITING VEGAS’ MOST FAMOUS ART CRITIC

FROM NEVADA PUBLIC RADIO

You Time!

Great spas for hair, feet, and everything between

Who Did You Love?

A brief history of marriage and divorce in NV PLUS

A tour of only-in-Vegas chapels Three local chocolate brands for your sweetie

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VOLUME 22 ISSUE 1 D E S E R T C O M PA N I O N . C O M

ALL THINGS 9

EXPLAINER

Infectious diseases have health officials feeling unwell

By Anne Davis

12

EDUCATION

AAPI students ponder college application postaffirmative action

By Lourdes Trimidal

16

FOOD + DRINK

CULTURE

Liberty Plaza statue lifts its lamp beside the Phoenix door

By Oona Robertson

24

29

A tour of new dining spots around the valley

By Lorraine Blanco Moss

Community events you can warm up to

By Anne Davis

20

DISCOMFORT ZONE

My veganism didn’t alert me to the animal cruelty under my nose

By Corey Levitan

FEATURES

THE VEGAS DISH

26

PROFILE

PappaRoti’s Las Vegas location: a friendly affair

By Jason Harris

THE GUIDE

32

MUSIC

Why hasn’t rap gotten its due in Vegas?

By Soni Brown

34

WRITER IN RESIDENCE

52

WE DO

How Nevada became the best state for tying (and untying) the knot

Dave Hickey’s view on local art, 20 years on

By Scott Dickensheets

DEPARTMENTS 36

PASSIONS

45

SOOTHE MOVE

Reviews and recommendations from five spas with treatments for head, shoulders, knees, and toes

The everyman mining fun of rockhounding

By Reannon Muth

40

DROUGHT

Dispatch from the water boss meetup in Vegas

By Alex Hager

( EXTRAS )

( COVER )

60

Tatjana Efimkina

4

EDITOR’S NOTE

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NOTES & LETTERS

I

WELL WELL WELL

W

elcome to Desert Companion’s first, not necessarily annual, love issue! Its release date in February, whose high point is Valentine’s Day, naturally invited this theme. It’s also our first issue of 2024, because our production schedule bundles December and January, which means we technically start the year in February, when unrealistic resolutions have been buried, and people with more feasible intentions are leaning into them for the remaining 11 months. A perfect example: taking better care of yourself! So, we made wellness a secondary theme. After all, what is wellness if not a healthy expression of self-love?

Hence, you’ll find a little romance sprinkled throughout the magazine, such as Sarah Bun’s shopping column on the best locally-made chocolates (p. 16), culminating in the big attraction, Eric Duran-Valle’s feature on marriage and divorce in Nevada (p. 52). If you’ve wondered how our reputation for unique knot-tying (and -untying) came about, you’ll find answers in this fun historical survey. And we’ve got wellness covered, too, with our reviews and recommendations of spas throughout the valley that specialize in hair, feet, and (almost) everything in between (p. 45). For those whose idea of being well is less massage and more medicine, Anne Davis kicks off the issue with an explainer of Nevada’s alarming infectious disease landscape — from the better-known HIV/AIDS and TB to the lesser-known Valley Fever and Candida auris, all of which are on the rise (p. 11).

The good news? Means of preventing and treating these diseases are (mostly) accessible and well-known.

Reading your way through this love fest, you’ll find a few additions to our roster of regular contributors. I’m happy (and lucky) to welcome Lorraine Blanco Moss, Scott Dickensheets, and Oona Robertson, who will be penning columns on restaurants, art, and local business, respectively. Each takes a fresh perspective on their field, opening a window onto the culture of this city that you love.

There’s that word again, “love.” Look, it’s going to be a tough year — it already is for so many. I’m not suggesting we ignore the challenges, but we may as well begin with a little affection for ourselves and this place we call home. Can’t hurt!

Be well, Heidi

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FEBRUARY 2024

If you also have thoughts you want “put on blast,” or a comment about anything else you hear or read from Nevada Public Radio, send them to heidi@nevadapublicradio.org. Thanks!

HEIDI KYSER: BRENT HOLMES

Editor’s Note

n our recently combined on-air/ online/print newsroom, we’re getting the hang of adapting Desert Companion stories to KNPR’S State of Nevada and vice-versa. One such instance, a program on homelessness that Anne Davis produced, provoked listener Sheila Moore to send us this desperate missive: “It was a good show with great ideas, but one, 10, even 50 conversations full of great ideas remains just that, great ideas that, unfortunately, don’t help the situation we as a community, a culture, as human beings are all experiencing.” Moore exhorts us to “pull our heads out of the sand,” stop criminalizing homelessness, and deploy our considerable resources and technology to solve this problem.

She closed with, “Help me put this on blast.” Consider it done, Sheila.

Similarly, doctor of psychology Kevin Osten-Garner, of nonprofit training center Adler Community Health Services, wrote with his thoughts on an SON episode concerning mental health, something we also frequently cover in these pages. Osten-Garner noted that a solution to the problem of insurance reimbursement for mental health practitioners should start at school. “At Adler, we have a number of graduate mental health programs, and none of our accreditors requires us to teach this,” he writes. “If at all, it would have to be an elective course.

I teach about insurance, billing, etcetera to our fifth-year doctoral psychology interns and, without fail, it is the first time they are exposed to this information.” Osten-Garner also has thoughts on reimbursements for telehealth versus in-person care and the Southern Nevada Behavioral Health Policy Board, but those will have to wait. (Something tells me this won’t be the last time we talk.)

INTERIM CEO Favian Perez MANAGING EDITOR Heidi Kyser ART DIRECTOR Scott Lien ASSISTANT EDITOR Anne Davis MULTIMEDIA PRODUCER/REPORTERS

Christopher Alvarez-Aguilar, Paul Boger, Mike Prevatt GRAPHIC DESIGNER Ryan Vellinga CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Scott Dickensheets ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

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Gregg Carnes, Tim Bower, Kaitlin Brito, Brent Holmes, Jeff Scheid, Louiie Victa CONTACT

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(702) 259-7822 marlies@desertcompanion.com WEBSITE: www.desertcompanion.com Desert Companion is published bimonthly by Nevada Public Radio, 1289 S. Torrey Pines Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89146. It is available by subscription at desertcompanion.vegas, or as part of Nevada Public Radio membership. It is also distributed free at select locations in the Las Vegas Valley. All photos, artwork, and ad designs printed are the sole property of Desert Companion and may not be duplicated or reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. The views of Desert Companion contributing writers are not necessarily the views of Desert Companion or Nevada Public Radio. Contact us for back issues, which are available for purchase for $7.95.

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jaguar las vegas looKs to Future its iconic vehicle makes transition to the ev age The exclusive Jaguar retailer in the state of Nevada, Jaguar Las Vegas, is offering the public a chance to come test drive and experience the iconic vehicle before its core engine design transitions into the EV age. The dealership is located at 6425 Roy Horn Way. Jaguar recently announced it would discontinue the F-Type following the 2024 model year.

The Jaguar F-Type, a high performance 2-seater sports car, is the modern take on the iconic E-type from the 1960’s. This transition means the company will eliminate all internal combustion engine (gas powered) vehicles in its current line-up and the Jaguar Brand will become all-electric by the Spring of 2025.

According to Ray DiNardi, the Centre Manager of Jaguar Las Vegas, this change is bittersweet. “Jaguar has a rich history known for a combination of performance, luxury and heritage. So as we look to a very different future for the brand, car enthusiasts will understand that we are at a very unique point in the global automotive history,” said DiNardi. “If anyone is looking to own a piece of Jaguar history, this is the time to do it and we are here to help”.

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Over the years, our business has become a partner and sponsor for many important organizations, including the Boy Scouts, the American Diabetes Association, Clothing Clark County, Adams Place and the American Cancer Society.

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FEBRUARY 2024

A LL THINGS IDEAS, CULTURE, FOOD, AND OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR CITY

Catching On H E A LT H

The infectious diseases defining Nevada’s public health landscape, and the simple solution that eludes officials

BY Anne Davis

ILLUSTRATION K aitlin Brito

B

enjamin Clayton recalls the moment his life trajectory changed forever. “I remember when I got the call ...

And I remember just afterwards being in the bathroom, on the floor, and crying and just telling myself, ‘I just don’t want to live.’” That call informed Clayton that he had tested positive for HIV, an incurable virus that attacks the body’s immune system.

“It took me about three, four years to just get out of that constant, highly depressive stage,” Clayton recalls. Now, years later, the German native has found a supportive community and renewed purpose in Las Vegas, serving as a peer navigator for The Center, a local LGBTQ+ community center and health clinic. Clayton is often the first person with whom patients speak after finding out they have HIV. He connects them to local resources and uses his own HIV experience to show patients that “life does get better.”

Clayton is one of more than 12,800 people living with HIV in Nevada, a state which has the fifth-highest HIV rate in the nation, as of 2019.

Nevada also ranks fourth in the U.S. for STD rates overall. Add to that the rising prevalence of Candida auris (C. auris) and Valley fever (coccidioidomycosis), the constant circulation of COVID, seasonal spikes of FEBRUARY 2024

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influenza and RSV, and the odd tuberculosis scare, and Southern Nevada seems to be a uniquely unwell region.

The explanation for this will be unsurprising for longtime residents. “There’s a multiplicity of things that lead to these numbers here,” says Dr. Jerry Cade, medical director for The Center. “One is, we don’t have the healthcare infrastructure. Two is, we don’t have the insurance, we don’t have the money spent.”

A growing population — and a physician pool that is failing to keep up with said growth — exacerbate the situation.

These three illnesses defined Southern Nevada’s communicable disease landscape in 2023.

HIV/AIDS Standing out among Nevada’s viral infections is HIV/AIDS: The state recorded nearly 500 new HIV diagnoses in 2021 and, since 2012, Southern Nevada has seen a yearafter-year increase in HIV diagnoses. On a national level, 17 percent of America’s HIV infections are in Nevada. These consistent upticks of HIV rates, and data showing that one in five HIV-positive Nevadans aren’t aware of their status, prompted the state legislature to pass SB 211 — which requires healthcare providers to offer optional STD tests to patients — during the 2021 session.

There is no cure for HIV, but experts say that individuals diagnosed with HIV have the same life expectancy as those without the virus if they receive treatment.

“My favorite comparison in 2023,” Cade says, “is, when a patient comes in — because they are all scared, because they’ve always heard these horror stories. Treating HIV is more akin to treating high blood pressure than anything else. You take a pill, and you’re fine.”

TUBERCULOSIS On the bacterial side, Las Vegans have also been forced to contend with tuberculosis, as news of one TB-positive person exposing more than 600 people across 26 Clark County schools broke in December. Case rates for the disease, which is spread through coughing, speaking, or sneezing, have declined in Southern Nevada in the past 50 years because of increasingly effective treatment options.

However, Haley Blake, the communicable diseases supervisor for the Southern Nevada Health District, cautions that numbers are on the rise. “Post-COVID, we are seeing some case rates go up,” Blake says. “We average between 40 and 60 cases a year here in Clark County for active disease.” Yet there’s still no reason to panic, she adds. “It’s not gone, but it’s not very common.”

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FUNGAL INFECTIONS On the other hand, health officials say fungal diseases, like Valley Fever and Candida auris, are cause for concern. The latter, which made national news when the CDC deemed Southern Nevada a Candida auris hotbed, has hit the region hard: In 2022, Nevada’s healthcare facilities housed 16 percent of all Candida auris cases in the U.S. which, according to Brian Labus, an epidemiologist and assistant professor at UNLV’s School of Public Health, poses the greatest risk for already-vulnerable subpopulations. “This isn’t something that we worry about in the general community,” Labus says. “We’re talking about the sickest patients in the hospital, (who) wind up getting infected with this yeast, and on top of the serious problems they are (already) having, it can cause pretty high death rates — a third of people with this can wind up dying from it.” Since 2021, more than 100 Nevadans have.

While tackling our community’s infectious disease spread might seem insurmountable, public health experts say this is a treatable problem — provided that more resources are allocated for it. “We’re dead last in public health funding nationwide,” Labus says. “So, no matter how many times I try to push people, unless you have the entire community say, ‘This is something that we think should be our priority,’ it’s very difficult to do things. We have a lot of problems in Nevada. And so, every time there’s money, everybody’s fighting for it ... It’s the challenge of politics, and I don’t think it’s something that any one of us can easily solve.”

Cade concurs. “There’s a lot that we could do that would make a difference,” he says, “and we haven’t chosen to do that yet.”✦ HEAR MORE from health officials on KNPR’s State of Nevada.

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E D U C AT I O N

Negative Affirmation Local AAPI students ponder college admissions in a post-affirmative action world

BY Lourdes Trimidal

T

he U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision ending a decades-long battle over affirmative action initially sparked division, particularly in the Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, community.

With colleges and universities barred from taking race into consideration in selecting students, thousands of Black, Hispanic, AAPI, and other racial minority applicants lost the assurance of educational opportunity at elite and selective schools, where affirmative action was a factor.

It will be years before data on college admission rates reveal the full effect on campus diversity. In the meantime, over the winter break, as high school students began applying to their dream schools, Desert Companion checked in with students at Sierra Vista High School, which has a substantial AAPI population, to see if it was having an immediate, anecdotal impact on their choices.

Overall, it seems, the change will likely raise little concern in Nevada, where a majority of students attend in-state institutions such as UNLV and UNR. In a statement, UNLV, which prides itself on being highly diverse, reminded the public that the decision would “not fundamentally impact (their) open-access policy ... or mission of supporting a culture of equity and inclusion.” With a roughly 85 percent acceptance rate, UNLV’s student population comprises about 15 percent Asians and 1 percent Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders, according to the school’s fall 2022 statistics.

Reflecting this indifference in regard to the end of affirmative action is Sierra Vista High School junior Vanessa Olaco-Mora, a member of the AAPI community. An aspiring nurse, she plans to attend UNLV or UNR for her general education and isn’t worried about getting into either school. But she does feel her cultural identity could come into play at her top choice for nursing school, University of Southern California (USC).

“Although my racial and cultural background are important as a Filipino American, how I am as a student is equally

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FEBRUARY 2024

important,” Olaco-Mora says. Her mother, Alma Olaco-Mora, feels otherwise, saying that affirmative action is more of a “hinderance, because it shouldn’t matter what her race is ... (Schools) should accept her because of her capabilities.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling may matter more to students applying to competitive schools out of state. Japanese American student Brooke Ushiroda, also a junior at Sierra Vista, is interested in the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, University of Washington, and UC Irvine — on top of UNLV and UNR — for a business, finance, or economics major. UC schools implemented race-neutral admission policies when California banned affirmative action in 1996.

Since then, Black and Latino enrollments decreased by 40 percent, according to a 2020 study by Zachary Bleemer, an economist at Princeton University. In a June 2023 interview with NPR, Bleemer said white

and Asian American students filled those seats, but “there was no commensurate gain in (the) long run.” Despite the policies, university officials say, schools have struggled for the past 25 years to reach diversity goals. Ushiroda worries about the low acceptance rates at UC Irvine, but she believes that “getting good grades, being in AP classes, joining clubs, and overall being a well-rounded student” is her ticket in.

Students often cite being “well-rounded” as their strategy for standing out among thousands, but it’s especially highly encouraged within minority groups, whether it be from parents or peers or the model minority myth. “In the scope of AAPI, the end of affirmative action will force universities to focus on merit and accolades, which doesn’t really change what our Asian parents and students have been doing,” Sierra Vista English teacher Richard Truong says. A recent UNLV grad working at his alma mater, Truong thinks the recent changes won’t affect his high-achieving AAPI students. “I can also see it as a cap being lifted in universities that may only be accepting a certain amount of Asian American students,” he says.

Of course, the end of affirmative action does nothing to address the harmful tendency of viewing the AAPI community as a high-achiever monolith. It also dismisses the struggles of first-generation and

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low-income students, who already have the odds of admission stacked against them. Nevada students are underserved in the state’s public education system, a potential disadvantage to students seeking postsecondary education out of state. An analysis of 2022 data done by scholarship matching firm Scholaroo found that Nevada was the second-worst-educated state in the country, while the Education Law Center ranked our schools 47 out of 51 in terms of funding.

In addition to graduating from this disproportionately ill-funded system, the state’s minority students now also have lost the advantage of their race being a positive factor in the admissions process.

“It’s definitely harder for me to find support as an upcoming first-generation college student, but my counselors have been my greatest resource,” says Jackson Lieu, a Sierra Vista senior applying to CSN and UNLV for 2024. Lieu wishes there were more programs to help students like him with scholarships and applications. For school counselors such as Sierra Vista’s Roy Teng, the ruling introduces new future challenges in advising. “With affirmative action, I was always able to tell my students, especially the AAPI students, to apply and apply, even if you feel like you’re not going to get in,” Teng says. “Without it, while we don’t know the outcomes of it yet, it’s hard for me to just tell them to apply. Now it’s thinking like, what more can we add to the résumé for you to apply to certain schools?”

As possible answers for both students and counselors, he points to the College Board and similar resources that provide guidance in understanding the ruling, along with SAT fee waivers for low-income 11th and 12th graders.

Whether or not the end of affirmative action will have major ramifications on AAPI students in selective out-of-state colleges will depend on those schools’ other race-related admissions policies, if any. But among a diverse student body that already suffers from social and economic inequalities, it’s unlikely to help. ✦

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FEBRUARY 2024

Miles Dickson, president and CEO of Nevada Grant Lab

COMMUNITY

How About More with More?

Nevada GrantLab surveys the state’s nonprofit sector and finds it lacking

BY Isabelle Bellinghausen

A

sk Nevada’s nonprofit directors, and they’ll tell you their unofficial mantra is, “Do more with less.” The prevailing philosophy among donors, they say, is that there’s no reason to keep giving the same funds to the same organizations for the same work year after year if it doesn’t result in different outcomes.

This kind of thinking led to the birth, in 2020, of Nevada GrantLab. Consultant Seth Wongsavit, who has worked on the project, says the nonprofit came about in response to two key challenges, one long-standing and one immediate: “the historic lack of grants infrastructure in the state of Nevada, and the urgent need to uplift that capacity given the flow of federal relief and recovery funds.”

In 2023, the GrantLab published its Nonprofit Sector Analysis. The report compared San Antonio, New Orleans, and Orlando — cities with similar populations,

demographics, and economies — with Las Vegas. Working with Guidestar, a national organization that tracks nonprofits, the GrantLab used tax records for its comparison.

According to GrantLab Analyst Martin Suman, nonprofits were considered active if they had $1 of revenue, $1 of expenses, and at least one employee. By that measure, Las Vegas had 343 active nonprofits. Out of the four cities compared, Las Vegas had the smallest nonprofit sector, with 15 nonprofits per 100,000 residents. New Orleans had 51 nonprofits per 100,000 residents, despite New Orleans having less than half the population of Las Vegas.

“We always blame sales tax,” says Marcia Blake, executive director of Helping Hands of Vegas Valley. “These other places don’t have that either. We’re still taxing people.

We’re taxing tourists … The positive side is that the number of people we serve with PHOTOGRAPHY J eff Scheid

D E S E R T C O M PA N I O N .C O M

limited funds is amazing. When you have $2.4 billion (as better-funded organizations do), you don’t get creative.”

Miles Dickson, president and CEO of Nevada GrantLab, says the numbers quantify local nonprofit directors’ feeling of pushing a boulder uphill. “A big part of why we wanted to do this report was to provide, for the first time as far as we know, real data about how small Nevada’s nonprofit sector is, despite the fact that we rely on it every single day.”

In November, United Way of Southern Nevada and Nevada GrantLab coproduced an event at the Discovery Children’s Museum to discuss the report’s findings and ways to scale up the region’s nonprofit sector.

“It’s so important that people understand the importance of a strong nonprofit sector,” said CEO and President of United Way of Southern Nevada, Julian High. “(United Way’s) job is to bring people together and to find solutions like community leaders and business leaders. Collaboration and partnership are the way forward.”

“When people hear that Nevada HAND has low rents, they don’t necessarily understand how we’re able to have our rents lower than market, and they assume (it’s because) we’re able to keep building costs low or that we’re getting free land,” said Nevada HAND president and CEO Audra Hamernik, who was one of three nonprofit directors on a panel discussion at the event.

“We’re not the three little pigs, we don’t have any construction techniques. We’re competing for land. What makes affordable housing affordable is the financing that we get. Our debt is lower, so we’re able to charge lower rents.”

Another challenge that the nonprofit leaders cited was funders’ wanting most money to go into programming.

“The challenge sometimes is, when we insist on pushing money to programming, we miss this really important opportunity, which is to build stronger nonprofits that can then generate more revenue and more resources,” Dickson says. “Unintentionally we have forced our nonprofits into this starvation cycle.”

On the bright side, he adds, a modest amount of funding in an underfunded sector, along with fewer nonprofits servicing that sector, could lead to “catalytic” change. For example, he says, in Las Vegas, it’s possible to get all 97 organizations that serve healthcare into one conference room on the Strip — unlike in states with hundreds or thousands of nonprofits in that field.

The hope is that the GrantLab can get that ball rolling.✦

CALL FOR ENTRIES APRIL 1

CONTEST DEADLINE

MORE INFORMATION AT: desertcompanion.com

FEBRUARY 2024

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Liberty Plaza THE OTHER STRIP

BY Oona Robertson

W

here better to start than t he s t r ip m a l l t h at i s home to the second-largest Statue of Liberty in Las Vegas, second only to the one that guards New York-New York on the actual Strip, which is itself, of course, second to the real Statue of Liberty in the real New York, New York. Here, we celebrate third place in all its glistening banality, fitting for this series looking at the true icons of Las Vegas: strip malls. I’ll guide you through our concrete oasis pedestrian-style, so that you can zoom by in your car as usual, going to the places you always go, perhaps missing what’s right there outside your window. Don’t worry, I’ll do the walking for you.

This statue was built sometime in the 1980s as an advertisement, almost a decade before the bigger one went up on the Strip.

Today, her base holds a FOR RENT sign, the number to call faded away and obscured by a graveyard of dead bees. What she was originally advertising may have been slices of Liberty Pizza (according to keeper of local lore James Reza). Today, there is a Liberty Tax here, as well as other practicalities, such as places to get signs printed, cell phones repaired, checks cashed, nails done, and to buy any part you may need for your off-road buggy.

On the flipside of practicality is extravagance, and this strip has that, too, in its stores selling wigs, heels, and bikinis — Sweet Seduction Bikinis, Exotic Shoes, Red Shoes, Ana Wet Lace Vegas, and

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PHOTOGRAPHY B rent Holmes

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Studio Lites Wigs & Fashions — all supply stores for the dancers in Vegas, where you can buy everything neon colored and barely existing, all glittered or feathered to the extreme. They do custom.

“You could get a whole look on this one strip,” my friend says, as we sit at The Pheonix accidentally witnessing a drag show. They, like the queens, are on point.

The Pheonix is a gay bar that is in all ways charming, from its mid-Sunday afternoon programming that has filled almost all the tables on the stage side of the bar, to its overloaded Christmas decorations, to its unusually gender-diverse crowd.

Inside its windowless 24-hour hug we become charming, too, ordering strange combinations off the long menu — root beer float, blue moon, fish tacos — standing on

our chairs’ footrails to try to see the show over the bar, taking pictures in front of the lighted sign with two letters blocked out, whether accidentally or on purpose, to spell “A SLUT.” We are also charmed while picking out crystals at The Realms Within by the person behind the counter repeatedly calling us “baby” in the way that evokes the warmth of the right rock in your pocket. This place has them all in their chromatic mineral variety, as well as things to burn, divine, read, cast, and carry.

I leave Grand Yunnan Tea with a single-serving packet each of red tea, white tea, raw pu’er, and aged pu’er, which can all be steeped between 14 and 32 times depending on the type, and an instruction sheet on brew times and temperatures.

Their loose-leaf tea is all produced by one factory in China, the salesperson tells me, from plants more than 100 years old, and some up to 2,000.

Ariana Market, on the other side of this strip, also has a wide selection of tea, plus fresh Afghan bread, Persian sweets, and lots of dried fruit and spices that can be difficult to find at big supermarkets.

We burst from the fire-adorned doors of The Pheonix and stand beneath the littlest Statue of Liberty at the golden hour, when the mountains to the west and the Strip to the east are saturated with late-afternoon light. Decidedly, we’ll take the strip we’re on.✦ If you would like to suggest a site for The Other Strip, email: oonarobertson@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 2024

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SHOPPING

Food of the (Local) Gods Chocolates handcrafted by former Strip chefs make a thoughtful ‘I love you’

BY Sarah Bun

C

onsidered the foods of the gods by ancient Maya, chocolates today have become a cliché Valentine’s Day gift. But you can give your loved one the standard romantic treat without appearing to have ordered it last-minute on Amazon. These three Strip veterans make beautiful artisan chocolates that will delight the love of your life.

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T H E LOV E S H AC K , D R E A M B O X : C O U R T E S Y ; F LO R E N T C H E V E AU : G R E G G C A R N E S

TAKE HEART Chocolate master Florent Cheveau got his start learning from top French chefs. His Las Vegas journey began when he worked alongside JeanPhilippe Maury at his self-named patisserie.

Cheveau and his wife, Audrey Cheveau, opened Burgundy Bakery & Café in November 2020. Their heart bonbons, available only on Valentine’s day, melt in the mouth, and will melt anyone’s heart, too. The red chocolate heart is made of white chocolate raspberry fruit ganache, and the dark one is a milk chocolate crunchy praline feuilletine. At $2 each, a dozen of these beauties is an affordable luxury. burgundybakery.com

PHOTOGRAPHY G regg Carnes

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Best-laid ‘Plan’ FILM

LU V S H AC K C O U R T E S Y L A S V E G A S B A K I N G C O M PA N T Y ; VA L E N T I N E ’ S B O X C O U R T E S Y J M A U B O I N E C H O C O L A T E S ; F A M I LY P L A N C O U R T E S Y A P P L E T V +

THE LUV SHACK Before purchasing L’elysee Bakery in 2019 and renaming it the Las Vegas Baking Company in 2020, chef Cory Fields was a pastry chef and chocolatier for 35 years. Fields says he plans to expand and will offer chocolate classes in the spring. As far as gifts go, you can’t do better than The Luv Shack ($28.99), inspired

by The B-52’s song. Made of dark or milk chocolate, it comes in various designs, accented with a white chocolate heart, and delivered with two chocolate-dipped strawberries. NOTE: This gift requires 48 hours’ advance notice. lvbaking.com THE DREAM BOX Master chocolatier Jean-Marie Auboine opened his eponymous chocolate factory in 2012 and recently launched his line of French macarons. Inspired by gemstones, the Valentine’s Day Couples Chocolate Box ($49.50) was created based on the concept: One for you, and one for me, Auboine’s executive vice president Chanelle Bautista says. The sapphire heart-shaped bonbon is filled with raspberry ganache in milk chocolate, while the white opal is cherry jelly and pistachio ganache in white chocolate. Auboine’s enrobed special chocolates, with combined flavors such as crème brulée and almond macaron praline, scream passion and romance.

This box also includes Auboine’s New York Times award-winning double sea salted caramels — sea salt caramel and sea salt caramel ganache in dark chocolate.

It’s available to ship nationwide and for in-store pickup. jmauboinechocolates.com

If The Family Plan is any indication of the filmmaking Mark Wahlberg plans to bring to Las Vegas, we should prepare ourselves for mediocrity

BY Josh Bell

S

eemingly every time he gets in front of a recording device lately, actor Mark Wahlberg has been touting his plans to make Las Vegas into Hollywood 2.0. Wahlberg, who moved to Vegas with his family in late 2022, is the movie-star version of a familiar Vegas type: the rich out-of-towner who arrives with big plans and immediately starts exerting his influence — or at least attempts to.

Thus far, Wahlberg ’s grand ambitions to transform Las Vegas into a subsidiary of Hollywood have not panned out. As a star and producer, though, he’s been steering some of his own projects toward Vegas, and the first result is the action-comedy The Family Plan, now streaming on Apple TV+. Watching this piece of disposable, prefab entertainment gives a sense of what kind of filmmaking Wahlberg wants to bring to town.

The Family Plan isn’t even particularly good disposable, prefab entertainment, and it’s only slightly more entertaining than another one-time, would-be bellwether of high-profile Vegas film production, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. The movie begins in Buffalo, New York, where Wahlberg plays seemingly ordinary suburban dad Dan Morgan, who sells used cars and leads a humdrum life with his wife Jessica (Michelle Monaghan) and three kids.

Dan is curiously adamant about staying off social media and never having his picture taken, and when he’s attacked at the grocery store, he unleashes some fierce fighting skills that he clearly didn’t learn at the car dealership. It turns out Dan is a former covert assassin who’s been hiding from the dangerous team he wasn’t given permission to leave. Now that he’s been found out, he must go on the run, but since Jessica and the kids are clueless about his past, he tells them that they’re headed on an impromptu road trip to Las Vegas.

“I know it’s not Europe, but there’s a Venice and an Eiffel Tower,” Dan says, trying to convince Jessica that Las Vegas is the perfect destination for their long-awaited vacation. The movie’s view of the city never goes beyond that superficial first impression, and Wahlberg, director Simon Cellan Jones, and screenwriter David Coggeshall don’t have any interest in

FEBRUARY 2024

truly exploring it. Despite Wahlberg’s big talk about bringing film production to town, most of the movie was shot in the Atlanta area, standing in for both Buffalo and Vegas. The climax takes place at the fictional, abandoned Poseidon hotel-casino, with some of its exteriors shot at the Strat, and interiors courtesy of an Atlanta trade center.

Still, there’s value to seeing those glossy images of our city onscreen, and the actual Vegas footage, including scenes shot at Aria and at the Luxor’s HyperX Esports Arena, makes the city look like a fun place for a shootout with ruthless mercenaries.

The action is mostly incoherent, the dialogue is terrible, and the performances are perfunctory, but that’s what you get from a modern big-budget streaming movie. Just as Dan tries to sell Jessica on Vegas’ replicas of European cities, Wahlberg is primed to bring us a meager imitation of soulless studio filmmaking. ✦

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DISCOMFORT ZONE

White Tiger Lies

How Dirk Arthur’s death made me realize the childhood brainwashing holding me captive

BY Corey Levitan

A

s you probably know, Dirk Arthur, the tiger-taming magician, died in October. In 2008, I spent the day with Arthur, “training” tigers for my Las Vegas Review-Journal column, “Fear and Loafing.” The reality, which I fully acknowledged in the piece, was that I merely walked one of his 13 tigers on a leash in a circle and nearly shit my pants.

My genuine fear made for good copy.

“In 2006,” I wrote, “a Minnesota tiger breeder was mauled to death inside a Bengal’s pen. In 2007, a woman was killed by a tiger at an exotic animal farm in Canada. And here I am in 2008, hoping that my life insurance agent doesn’t subscribe to the R-J.” Well, here I am in 2024, wondering how the hell any of that ever happened.

What most people don’t know about me is that I’ve been a vegan since 1985. My journey toward recognizing the horror of factory farming began when I was four years old and asked my parents where steak came from. The “Should we reveal the dark secret?” look they shot each other is all I took away from that experience, not whatever their answer was.

That look stayed with me throughout childhood — until a college course called Physics & Buddhism made me realize that even the smallest of personal choices we make matter. At that point, my gnawing hypocrisy grew too loud to avoid correcting anymore.

So how did a vegan of 23 years not see the evil he was helping to promote in my Fear & Loafing story about Dirk Arthur? What about the self-justifying narratives created by our society allowed me to see animals in captivity as anything other than torture?

“Here’s the thing about holding a leash with a 500-pound tiger at the end of it,” I wrote in my R-J column. “It’s the tiger who walks you.”

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Sabrina was the tiger’s name, by the way.

She was the 15-year-old star of the disappearing-tiger trick that was the climax of Arthur’s show, and she performed on David Letterman’s magic week in 2008. She was stunning to look at.

I suppose I could claim to be a victim of my time. Like all Gen X kids, I watched whatever was on TV. That included chimps — taken from their mothers at birth — riding tricycles in circles on some variety show and tigers performing on late-night TV. I recall my parents taking me to the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus at Madison Square Garden two or three times. There, I saw a trainer actually whip elephants to get them to stand on their hind legs. Not only did I not find it repugnant, but also … I cheered.

Once, on vacation in Florida, I laughed at a zoo gorilla being forced to juggle for food. A gorilla! It was what my parents thought they knew about good parenting.

And it normalized for me that entertainment could appropriately be provided by wild animals tortured specifically to provide that entertainment.

But I wasn’t any better. One of the greatest regrets of my life is that I repeated the indoctrination on our daughter when she was five, taking her to see the very last Ringling Bros. tour with elephants when it played at the Thomas & Mack Center.

I wasn’t just an innocent victim of my time.

As far back as middle school, I knew enough to see through those McDonaldland commercials. I realized that Ronald McDonald was just a cover clown for the mass slaughter ILLUSTRATION R yan Vellinga

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of millions of innocent animals every year.

The thought made me regret eating the cheeseburgers my parents brought home for dinner — though I always got hungry enough to down at least one anyway.

The notion that, 30 years later, I still couldn’t see the hypocrisy right under my nose — or, more accurately, at the end of that 10-foot leash — boggles my mind. All I could think about was how much danger I was in, not how wrong the situation I inserted myself into was, as Sabrina followed Arthur’s cues and circled me.

“Good job holding on!” Arthur congratulated me afterward, as though letting a tiger escape onto the streets behind the Silverton was among my available options.

Maybe part of what scrambled my moral compass was that it seemed possible to

distinguish good animal trainers from bad.

And Dirk seemed like one of the good ones.

I watched him coo lovingly to several of the 13 big cats on the ranch, and even bear-hug a snow tiger named Thurston backstage at his show at the Tropicana. He seemed attuned to their emotions and concerned about their welfare. To him, they were family.

The last time Arthur used his family in his magic act was in 2015 at the Riviera.

That made “Dirk Arthur’s Wild Illusions” the official last big-cat show ever staged on the Las Vegas Strip. It wasn’t for lack of trying, though. As late as last July, he planned to use white and orange tigers, a snow leopard, and a bobcat in a show called “Magic Unleashed” that he had hoped to stage at the Notoriety Live theater in Fremont Street’s Neonopolis.

That was, until animal activists deluged the venue’s owner with 400 emails protesting Arthur’s animal abuse, enough to make him back out of the deal.

As I sat down to write Arthur’s obituary in October, my 2008 ignorance finally struck me like Mantacore had struck Roy Horn five years earlier. If an institution is evil, then that renders irrelevant any of the good qualities displayed by its perpetuators. Celebrating Dirk Arthur as one of the kindest animal trainers would be akin to celebrating George Washington as one of the kindest slaveholders.

All sentient beings deserve to live as freely as they possibly can. Should it matter just how sentient they are? Because tigers lack human intelligence, is that supposed to diminish our compassion for them? Should our compassion be diminished for children with intellectual deficits then?

My views about Arthur’s work had obviously changed since that day we spent together — as they have for the people in charge of circuses and zoos, which are now struggling with the challenge of promoting the welfare of the very animals they’re harming by confining them to cages and swimming pools.

Even now, though, I’m not as evolved as I like to think I am. In a social media post linking to my Arthur obit, I still found it necessary to mention how sweet of a guy I thought he was.

“Not too sweet when it came to tigers,” a Facebook friend shot back. “They don’t belong on stages and led around with a chain around their necks. It’s not entertainment.

It’s a public display of abuse. Glad he’s forever unable to continue trying to make money off the poor backs of tigers. There’s no excuse.”

She was right, of course. There never was an excuse. ✦ FEBRUARY 2024

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“I heard it on NPR.

”

FOOD + DRINK

B R O N S O N LO F T I N C O U R T E S Y A Z Z U R R A C O C I N A

GET THE DISH Fresh pasta and red sauce — like this Chicken Parmigiana from Azzurra Cucina Italiana in Henderson — are having a moment in the local food scene.

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someone who grew up near America’s oldest Chinatown, I can say this place has the best yum cha I’ve eaten outside of the Bay Area. Try the lobster har gow. It’s as tasty as it is Instaworthy; the dumplings arrive with a little extra lobster stock in a plastic ampoule that you can inject into the center. You’ll feel like Bill Nye in the best way.

DISHES DON’T HAVE to be experi-

New spots, locations, chefs, and tastes to try around the valley

BY Lorraine Blanco Moss

W

hen you eat or cook for a living, you’re apt to become complacent, even flippant, about food trends, restaurant openings, or people who self-identify as “foodies.” In this new column, I hope to appeal to everyone who enjoys the satisfaction of that mouthwatering bite, the one that makes you pause or even groan. I examine meals through the lens of a professional chef, a food journalist, and mostly, a person who loves and appreciates good food. That could be an A5 Wagyu strip loin or a tantalizing taco.

IN THAT SPIRIT, my most memorable

NEAR PERFECT Margherita pizza from Amari (above); Chef Roy Ellamar (right); Jjajangmyeon at Jin Jin Korean Chinese Cuisine (opposite page)

food moment at a new restaurant recently happened at a small, unassuming spot in the Spring Mountain Road area. Jin Jin Korean Chinese Cuisine (5115 Spring Mountain Rd #203) wowed me with its addictive jjajangmyeon, a decadent, yet down-to-earth, black bean noodle dish. This version reminds me of a Mexican molcajete served in a lava bowl oozing with cheese. You don’t have to be able to pronounce it to

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bask in the guilty pleasure of each gooey salty-sweet bite.

Bring friends because the portion is meant for a party. In South Korea, singles eat the heart-stopping noodle dish on April 14, known as Black Day, an unofficial holiday when the uncoupled eat their feelings freely.

Apparently, it can help heal a broken heart. Happily coupled, I couldn’t help but fall in love with everything I ate at Jin Jin. The soy garlic shrimp tempura hit every tastebud and texture with its spicy sweet crunch. Even the simple Korean sweet and sour pork felt special with its tantalizing texture and tang.

NEW PLACES TO salivate

over seem to pop up in Chinatown faster than a food influencer can post “food porn.” But Palette Tea Lounge (4601 Spring Mountain Rd, palettelv.com) has the whole food scene buzzing. The dim sum hot spot hails from San Francisco, and, as

A SIGNIFICANT SOUTHERN NEVADA

trend is the proliferation of modern Italian concepts. Some food insiders will say there are too many now, but I’ve dined at three great ones. Amari (6825 Tom Rodriguez St #101, amarilv. com) at the new Uncommons serves a nearly perfect margherita pizza with a gorgeous, airy charred crust and an impressive amaro selection. Your meal will be well-digested. Basilico Ristorante Italiano (6111 S Buffa-

E L L A M A R : LO U I I E V I C TA C O U R T E S Y F I N E C O M PA N Y

The Vegas Dish

mental to stand out. They do need to be executed with passion you can taste. An awesome new addition to the burgeoning Summerlin food scene can be found at a popular outdoor mall.

Fine Company (10970 Rosemary Park Dr, finecompanylv.com), helmed by seasoned Las Vegas chef Roy Ellamar, is as warm and comforting as its global menu. A taste of “mom’s banana bread” helps tell the story of the chef’s Hawaiian upbringing, and the balance of flavor in the Spanish octopus with rancho gordo piquinto beans and piquillo pepper romesco demonstrates his culinary chops. It’s a wonderful start to what could become one of the best restaurants in the area.

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PHOTOGRAPH L ouiie Victa

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OUTSIDE THE HYPERLOCAL food scene,

on the Strip, I ate — no devoured — the best squash blossoms I’ve had since my trip to Rome. The Fiori di Zucca at Fontainebleau’s Mother Wolf (2777 S Las Vegas Blvd, motherwolflv.com) were nearly perfect — crispy and creamy and filled with ricotta romana and parmigiano reggiano. The Las Vegas version of the Los Angeles restaurant feels fun and funky, with peachy pastels and beautiful people peppered across the lively space.

Some of the dishes didn’t come out at the correct temperature, and the music could be a bit quieter, but the staff is friendly and knowledgeable, and the menu is authentic to the Eternal City. With chef Evan Funke at the helm, I look forward to what it can become in a few months after the kitchen and the front-of-house find their Vegas groove.

That’s the dish for now. Until we eat again… ✦ Lorraine Blanco Moss is a classically trained chef who has worked at several restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip and in Los Angeles.

She has also cooked at the James Beard House and Rainbow Room in New York City with the Foundation’s Women in Culinary Leadership program. You can find her on Instagram @cheflorraine.

PROFILE

Family Affair

Two former military buddies bring PappaRoti to Las Vegas

BY Jason Harris

I

magine buying a business without knowing what you’re getting. That’s what Pellegrino “Rino” Caruso did based on trust in his friend Rahim Edwards. The two bonded while working in food service in the Air Force and are now so close that they refer to themselves as “framily,” friends whose families have blended.

During Edwards’ time in Abu Dhabi, he kept seeing military personnel return from off-base outings with PappaRoti bags. Then, someone handed him one and told him to try it.

Inside were roti buns, PappaRoti’s specialty.

They’re sizable, yeasty rolls with a crunchy, coffee-caramel top and a doughy center. Various sweet toppings can include fruit, cookies, and sauces. Signatures buns include Nuts for Nutella, Berries Delight, and Cheese and Honey. There is also butter in the middle, so each bun has both sweet and savory tastes. These delightful treats are meant to be eaten hot.

“Salty butter in the middle? Coffee on top?

I had to taste another one,” Edwards says.

He ate three.

Knowing Caruso’s skills in the kitchen, Edwards implored his friend to duplicate the buns. Caruso, having never tasted them, couldn’t crack the code. Edwards tried sending some to America for Caruso, but they never made it here.

Years later, a retired Caruso got a text from Edwards’ wife, informing him PappaRoti was franchising in the United States. “Want to have

some fun?” she asked.

According to its website, PappaRoti started 2002 “in the kitchen of a Malaysian mother, whose strong passion for baking led her to discover a new recipe while playing with the shape and texture of the roti dough.” The first shop opened in Malaysia in 2003. Today, there are more than 450 in 14 countries. In the U.S., they can be found in Michigan, Illinois, Texas … and now Nevada.

When the Caruso-Edwards framily bought a franchise, Caruso had still never tasted a bun. “It’s his (Edwards’) fault,” he says. “He tasted it, and then we bought it. I just relied on his taste and his desire for this bun to be tried. I couldn’t get it, I couldn’t make it, so we bought it.”

Edwards says they chose Las Vegas — specifically the corner of Tropicana and Pecos — because of “the airport, UNLV, the Strip, Henderson, the Air Force base … We picked Las Vegas because of the diversity and the culture.”

“When’s the last time you said you can bring something brand-new to Las Vegas?”

Caruso adds.

Just as popular as the buns at PappaRoti are the drinks: karak tea, a milk-based chai with saffron, cardamom, and ginger; horlicks, which Caruso describes as, “a meal replacement malt with a lot of vitamins and minerals”; and the best-selling Turkish coffee, which is prepared in person on hot sand.

Caruso finally got his first taste of PappaRoti on the cross-country ride from New York to Las Vegas, when he and Edwards stopped in Chicago. Upon first bite, he, like Edwards, believed they had a hit on their hands.

One word of caution: The menu at PappaRoti can be overwhelming. Perhaps it’s best to let a pal choose for you. It seems to have worked out for Caruso and Edwards. ✦

COCKTAIL OF THE MONTH

GRINGO PELIGROSO AT PINE BISTRO

“Be careful — it goes down easy” is usually said of cocktails that are full of sugar, cream, and other booze-cloaking ingredients. Pine Bistro’s Gringo Peligroso has that dangerous drinkability, but with minimal ingredients and a liquor-forward profile. Made of Dos Hombres Mezcal, Amaro Montenegro, ginger syrup, and a squeeze of lime, the drink’s smoky mezcal flavor is neatly balanced with the amaro’s dusky bittersweet and ginger’s sharpness. The result is simple, yet sophisticated — and entirely satisfying. —Lissa Townsend Rodgers

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G R I N G O P E L I G R O S O C O U RT E SY P I N E B I ST R O ; PA P PA R OT I : G R E G G C A R N E S

lo Dr #100, basilicolv.com) boasts a bountiful indoor-outdoor space with an expansive selection of house-made pastas. And in downtown Henderson, you’ll find Azzurra Cucina Italiana (322 S Water St, azzurracucina.com), where chef Alessandra Madeira’s crave-worthy Italian classics earned Desert Companion’s Restaurant of the Year honors. If you’re comforted by fresh pasta and red sauce, it’s a good time to live here.

E AT T H I S N O W

CEILY’S STACK AT WEISS DELI

WHAT BETTER WAY

to commemorate grandma than with a plate of rib-sticking deliciousness named after her? This was Michael Weiss’s inspiration for Ceily’s Stack, a popular dish at his self-named restaurant and bakery.

PHOTOGRAPH B rent Holmes

Weiss grew up cooking with his grandmother, learning to make the potato pancakes that serve as the dish’s base.

Two giant latkes sandwich tender brisket, also prepared from one of Ceily’s recipes — seared, then braised for five hours. The

tower is topped with melty Muenster and provolone and drenched with housemade brown gravy.

“She never liked cheese,” Weiss says. “She wouldn’t approve of that.

But I think it makes the dish, and when you top it

off with that brown gravy, it just sits right.”

This unruly beast weighs in at a pound and a half of food. Classic latke accoutrements, sour cream and apple sauce, are served on the side.

— Jason Harris

FEBRUARY 2024

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FREE TO BE

yourself.

Express your truest self.

Your neighborhood library helps you to pursue creativity, curiosity, and passion.

It is the place where all are invited and everything is free. You will find learning and personal growth, technology skills, homework help,you smallsearching business andfor?

What are career support, community, culture, art, and live performances.

Visit us in person or at TheLibraryDistrict.org and discover the power of a library card.

D E S E R T C O M PA N I O N .C O M

CULTURE

The Guide

Drive the winter blues away with these electrifying concerts, shows, and festivals

BY Anne Davis

FESTIVAL

Clark County Spring Festival

COURTESY THE SMITH CENTER

FEB. 18

We might be well into the New Year on the Gregorian calendar, but on the Lunar calendar, 2024’s first day is February 10. Celebrate the passing of the first week of the Chinese New Year with the return of the beloved Clark County Spring Festival. The Festival’s 2024 roster is replete with lion dances, food trucks, traditional Chinese musical performances, and an opportunity to spend a day soaking up some good fortune to carry you through the year of the dragon. 11a-2p, free, Desert Breeze Community Center, clarkcountynv.gov FEBRUARY 2024

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For the End of Time FEB. 8

>>> Oliver Messiaen’s life and work make the case that music and faith, when synthesized, can bring people through the darkest valleys. His most famous composition, Quatour pour la Fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time), was created in a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp.

Given a pencil, music paper, and access to just four instruments by his German captors, he composed an homage to the Book of Revelation that was reportedly first performed by Messiaen and three other French POWs to a gathering of about 400 prisoners and Nazi officers on January 15, 1941.

Now, 83 years later, the UNLV Chamber Music Society brings to life Messiaen’s dark and foreboding quartet for current generations of Las Vegans. 7:30-10p, $25, UNLV’s Lee and Thomas Beam Music Center, unlv.edu/pac/ chamber-music

THEATER

Shorts – A Festival of Short Plays FEB. 9-11, 16-18, AND 23-25

>>> Three consecutive weekends full of short plays, all directed by local artists, and staged by the Nevada Conservatory Theatre — be still my beating, theater-nerd heart. True to the “festival” moniker, among its six performed plays, this one has a show for every thespian: comedy (see Prefers Bright Indirect Light by Veronica Tjioe, directed

by Deseree Whitt), mystery (Wave by Jeffrey Lo, directed by Majestic Repertory Theatre’s Troy Heard), and experimental drama (From A to B and Back Again by Jean Ann Douglass, directed

by A Public Fit Theatre’s Ann-Marie Pereth). Also note, for those with sensory issues, the troupe will be staging a sensory-friendly collection of performances on Sunday, February 18.

2, 3, and 7:30p, $30, UNLV’s Black Box Theatre, unlv.edu/nct

MUSIC

Celebración Latina FEB. 18

>>> If your libretto catalog needs a bit of expanding — at least beyond the famed French and Italian productions — Opera Las Vegas’ Celebración Latina is here to assist.

Selections from old-world zarzuelas (traditional Spanish operas), along with contemporary Mariachi productions such as Cruzar la Cara de la Luna and Zorro, paint a vibrant landscape of current and historic Spanish-language opera. 3p, $10-40, CSN’s Nicholas J. Horn Theatre, operalasvegas.com LECTURE

An Interview with Jason Frierson FEB. 22

>>>Black History Month is upon us.

And, while that typically prompts a collective glance back at the progress made toward equality by historic Black figures, there are plenty of contemporary pioneers to celebrate — such as Jason Frierson. As the first African American to serve as the U.S.

attorney for the District of Nevada, Frierson’s live interview with UNLV Boyd School of Law professor Frank Rudy Cooper will trace his career from a local law office partner, through his tenure as a state assemblyman and his time as assistant public defender. It promises to be a thorough and inspiring look at the life and beliefs of one of Nevada’s 21st century trailblazers.

7-8p, free, The Mob Museum, themobmuseum.org

ART

The Art of Theo Tso THROUGH FEB. 24

>>>In the world of comic books, Indigenous characters are either not represented at all, or relegated to supporting roles. Enter: Captain Paiute, the “Indigenous Defender of the Southwest” and titular character of illustrator Theo Tso’s comic series. Tso, who has both Navajo and Las Vegas Paiute ancestry, wanted his hero to serve not only as a beacon of light on and off reservations in Captain Paiute’s fictional world, but also as a role model for Indigenous readers in the real one — a goal advanced by his current exhibit.

Getting up close and personal is the best way to experience Tso’s line work and the culture that he honors. Fri-Sun 10a-6p, Mon-Thurs 10a-8p, free, Sahara West Library, thelibrarydistrict.org

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THEATER

The Lifespan of a Fact

FEB. 22-MARCH 3

>>> Truth or fiction — an easy dichotomy with a clear difference, right? Wrong, at least in the book-turnedplay The Lifespan of a Fact. Based on real-life email correspondence between essayist John D’Angelo, the author of a piece on the suicide of a Vegas teenager, and Believer magazine-employed fact-checker Jim Fingal, the play explores the friction between reality and its portrayal. How do we reconcile the story as it happened and the story we want to tell?

Does accuracy depend on the facts of a situation or the tone in which it is written about? Further, is there such a thing as “accuracy” after all?

See Majestic Repertory’s show to find out. 2 and 7p, $40, Majestic Repertory Theatre, majesticrepertory.com

C A P TA I N P A I U T E : C O U R T E S Y WA R P A I N T S T U D I O S , F O O D I E L A N D : C O U R T E S Y F O O D I E L A N D

MUSIC

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FESTIVAL

FoodieLand Night Market MARCH 29-31

>>>If the way to your heart is through your stomach, you’ll find true love at FoodieLand Night Market. Inspired by the night markets of Asia, this multicultural festival is back in Vegas, this time with more than 200 food, beverage, and retail vendors. To give your belly a break from the vittles, plenty of carnival games and live music will keep you entertained as you walk off your food baby. You’ll be stuffed with options. Fri 3-10p, Sat-Sun 1-10p, $4-6, Las Vegas Motor Speedway, foodielandnm.com/las-vegas

ART

All Film All the Time

THROUGH FEB. 29

>>>“The world through my eyes” is how award-winning filmmaker and photographer Shahab Zargari describes his first solo film photography exhibition, All Film All the Time. More than 200 of Zargari’s photographs show his passion for

shooting on film over his decades-long career. In addition to still images, visitors will also be treated to a continuous loop of the artist’s short films, meaning this exhibit can either provide a quick art hit or a full day’s worth of entertainment — depending on your schedule. And, if a full day isn’t enough, then take home one of the photography prints, stickers, posters, books, or movies on sale related to Zargari’s work to keep the film party going.

By appointment, free, SPCKRFT Studios, spckrftlv.com

OPERA

The Daughter of the Regiment MARCH 1-2

>>>Don’t let The Daughter of the Regiment’s lackluster debut in 1840 dissuade you from embracing its Vegas City Opera run — in fact, in the years since Parisien audiences first saw it, the show has become part of the standard repertoire and an opera geek favorite.

Why it eventually was embraced is obvious once you watch it: a combination of themes that would show up in later stage hits like Les

Misérables, My Fair Lady, and A Little Night Music.

The production, also known as La fille du régiment, is equal parts comedy and drama with a love story to boot — in other words: typical opera fare!

7-8:30 and 3-4:30p, $25-40, Charleston Heights Art Center, vegascityopera.org

duology. If this sounds up your elven alley, then pop

by Black’s Q&A session at The Writer’s Block to learn more about her fantasy repertoire, inspiration, and plans for future novels. And leaving with a signed copy of one of the Stolen Heir books means you’ll be happy as a fairie in an Elfhame meadow. 5-7, $21, The Writer’s Block, thewritersblock.org

THEATER

Ripcord

ART

Post-Invisibles

MARCH 1-17

>>>If you’re looking for a play that channels the more ridiculous aspects of The Golden Girls, Ripcord might be it. Absurdity ensues as part-roommates, part-mortal enemies Abby and Marilyn attempt to one up each other in a bet that determines their room placement at the Bristol Place Senior Living Facility. Spooky clowns and skydiving also ensue. The slapstick-filled play does justice to the enemies-to-friends trope, while demonstrating that sunny and stormy dispositions might just complement each other after all. 2 and 8p, $30, Las Vegas Little Theatre, lvlt.org

MARCH 8-APRIL 26

>>>“We cannot all succeed when half of us are held back,” remarked Malala Yousafzai on the topic of women’s fight for equality. The field of art and culture is no different as generations of women have been “held back” from obtaining an arts education, showing their work in galleries, or gaining the respect that their male counterparts enjoyed for centuries.

The Post-Invisibles biennial aims to correct this by collecting and displaying the work of female artists from around the world. The Las Vegas iteration will feature various pieces by local fine artist Jeannie Hua and Canadianbased photographer Asia Mason. These ladies and their work are part of the post-invisible generation of female artists — a status that will doubtlessly last beyond this seven-week exhibit. Tues-Fri 12-6p, free, Core Contemporary, corecontemporary.com

LITERATURE

Holly Black

H O L LY B L A C K : C O U R T E S Y H O L LY B L A C K

MARCH 9

>>>Royal intrigue, a betrayal arc, an engrossing love story, and a moral dilemma that threatens to disrupt the hero’s sense of self — all elements of a good fantasy novel, and fortunately all present in New York Times bestselling author Holly Black’s Stolen Heir FEBRUARY 2024

If you'd like to browse other events, or submit your own for future editions of The Guide, please visit: knpr.org/ desert-companion/the-guide

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OPEN TOPIC

Beyond the Wu Tang Hip-hop’s struggle for recognition on the Las Vegas Strip

BY Soni Brown

hip-hop acts in the 2010s, performers were relagated to club performances — usually with marquee headliners.

Las Vegas nightlife pioneer Warren Peace, a DJ who was once fired for playing 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” asserts that Las Vegas’ aversion to hip-hop mirrors the argument for excluding Black entertainers such as Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald from the Strip in the 1940s. “There’s always been a fear associated with any type of Black music,” Peace says. “It comes down to ignorance, race, and old people who are in a position where they don’t understand.

All you have to do is look at history.”

In hip-hop’s 50-year timeline, artists, producers, and fans have consistently found

themselves defending the genre against prevailing stereotypes, which are often overhyped in media coverage.

For instance, when I tell people how much I love the music, some counter with their dislike of gangster rap, which hasn’t been a popular subgenre for decades. It’s akin to someone responding to another’s affinity for country music by saying it’s about murderous outlaws, based on the gunslinger ballads of Marty Robbins.

Discounting hip-hop based on the belief that it’s all anti-cop, hyper-materialistic, and misogynistic ignores a nuanced cultural force with deeper resonance. Contrary to the prevailing perception, rap music started as a peaceful reaction to crime, not a catalyst

DA N N Y H AST I N G S /CO U RT E SY A E G

he timing was right. GIMS, the Congolese French rapper, announced a six-city tour with a Las Vegas finale. Online, fans were thrilled about the possibility of experiencing one of the genre’s huge global voices in a city known for fun. GIMS’ music is a testament to the evolution of hip-hop and rap, connecting people worldwide through a culture born from resistance.

GIMS, formerly Maître Gims, is a lyrical virtuoso with the vibrato of an opera singer.

He was poised to dominate the American market, following chart-toppers in Europe and Africa; a Netflix documentary chronicling his journey from homeless youth to the first French-speaking rapper to sell out Paris’ Stade de France; and collaborations with Sting, Lil Wayne, and other industry luminaries.

Then his November 13, 2023, concert was canceled. Was the cause lackluster ticket sales or illness? Perhaps he was protesting the treatment of refugees, as he had done in Tunisia a few months earlier? We won’t know for sure. Neither House of Blues nor GIMS’ representatives responded to my requests for comment.

In any case, the cancellation was unfortunate. Yet it barely caused a blip on the local radar, making me wonder: Why isn’t Las Vegas— where mega-rappers such as Drake and Cardi B get booked for $1 million performances, and where the local hip-hop scene produces both underground and mainstream artists — a hip-hop mecca outranking Atlanta? This city has a 70-year history of creating musical experiences and concert residencies. Why hasn’t it hosted a headlining rap act with a theater residency before?

“What do you think?” replies *CoCojenkins, a local hip-hop musician and founder of the Instagram page There’s Nothing to Do in Vegas. “Because Vegas is racist. It’s in the difference between a shooting at a hip-hop show and a shooting at a country festival. Hip-hop gets banned, and country doesn’t.”

She might have a point.

Hip-hop enthusiasts pinpoint a series of moments through Las Vegas’ entertainment history that define the city’s uneasy relationship with the popular genre. Certain years loom large. There’s 1996, the year rapper Tupac Shakur was shot in a drive-by, and 2006, when Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Bill Young urged Strip properties not to host hip-hop and rap concerts. When the Strip did reopen to

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for it. Frustrated with long-standing issues of racial prejudice, cultural persecution, economic stagnancy, political disparities, and police brutality, young people started rap music as lyrical protest in the Bronx in the 1970s. It grew from the larger hip-hop culture, which includes various forms of counterculture expressions, from music and dance, to fashion and graffiti. It’s hard to accept hip-hop without acknowledging society’s prejudice against and persecution of Black folks.

Still, rap’s proponents agree that the genre does have an image problem. Consider the treatment of rap music in the criminal justice system, where courts admit deRAP IT UP Wu Tang Clan fendant-composed rap begins a multimusic as evidence. In date residency at Virgin Hotels Atlanta, District AttorLas Vegas in ney Fani Willis (yes, that February.

Fani Willis) brought a sweeping racketeering case against Grammy winner Young Thug based on his music. Should Johnny Cash have been indicted for murder when he sang, “I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”? Of course not. We accept that it was art and, importantly, constitutionally protected free speech.

Hip-hop acts have been performing in smaller venues like Drai’s and Brooklyn Bowl.

Rappers such as Kendrick Lamar headline the Life is Beautiful festival. The music’s proponents find workarounds, even if it’s to showcase long-ago chart toppers such as Lauryn Hill, LL Cool J, and De La Soul. But I want Las Vegas to be a bonafide hip-hop city with its own sound in the way Oakland has hyphy music and New Orleans has bounce. I want to take my 15-year-old son to experience local rappers the way I was introduced to it when my brother took me to see live music at a dayclub for teens. We ought to nurture people such as Dizzy Wright so they don’t have to leave the city to be respected.

But this year signals a turning point. The iconic Wu-Tang Clan is set to be the first rap group to secure a theater residency in the tourist corridor, proving hip-hop and rap music are both palatable and profitable.

What has shifted in the cultural landscape, and how has the Strip evolved in its relationship with hip-hop? For Peace, the answer is simple: Hip-hop is too popular to ignore.

“You don’t have many leaders in the world,” he says, “One outlier takes a chance, and then the money numbers get around and then suddenly casino bosses are thinking they need this.” ✦ FEBRUARY 2024

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The Adulation of Idiots WRITER IN RESIDENCE

On Dave Hickey, taste, and working artists embracing the local

BY Scott Dickensheets

as the critic who nudged the topic of beauty back into art-world discourse, Hickey was an outsize persona from the great beyond in a town that embraced such characters.

With his louche charisma, spontaneous quotability, and MacArthur genius grant, Hickey was arguably the city’s dominant cultural figure for much of the 1990s and early 2000s. (This isn’t to erase his wife, Libby Lumpkin, herself an influential scholar and curator somewhat less given to buzzy public comments.) Frequent national attention followed him, the novelty of a maverick art critic living it up in vulgar Vegas being too much fun for journalists to resist — when

he and Lumpkin left town in 2010, The Wall Street Journal wrote it up.

A guy like that parking his big reputation in what was basically an ordinary, mid-sized city’s arts scene surely seemed to many like just the zap of worldly validation this place needed to help incite the next cultural growth spurt. And Hickey did write often and brilliantly about Las Vegas — as a convivial place, a playground of ideas, a motherlode of signifiers, a welcoming social construct, and, in some ways, a work of art itself.

But there was an elephant in the gallery: As more than one person pointed out, Hick-

LV C V A A R C H I V E

D

uring a panel talk at the 2012 Las Vegas Book Festival — I forget the nominal topic — the late art critic Dave Hickey, in full-tilt quote-machine mode, uncorked this doozy: “I don’t give a shit about local artists. If you were any good, you wouldn’t be a local artist.”

Boom! Many rows back in the auditorium of the Historic Fifth Street School, I might’ve audibly chortled as I thumb-typed this provocation into my phone, immediately recognizing its high resale value in my social feeds, which included more than a few local artists. Though he was living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, by then, Hickey’s long years of gnomic eminence in Las Vegas meant his words still carried some weight here.

He fired off a mighty barrage of zingers that day — “I often write out of a sense of malice” being one, and “I’m a critic. I don’t gain anything from the adulation of idiots” being another — but for me, the local artists crack had more depth, a sharper bite. It’s the one I still remember; I had to look up the other two.

One reason it’s stuck with me is that it seemed to crystalize something interesting about those years. Famous in cultural circles

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ey didn’t write very much about our city’s art. Not surprising, I suppose. Having gone deep on top-tier art stars, Hickey needed bigger writing prompts than he was likely to find in the downtown scene, which he once described to me as “a bunch of people painting skulls.” That’s what not giving a shit sounds like.

ONE OF THE things I’ve enjoyed most about

being a journalist in this town for almost 40 years, along with the nonexistent dress code and free newsroom donuts, has been the license to follow my interests. Which means I’ve spent a lot of time talking to artists, writers, and theater people, loitering in studios and galleries, asking dumb questions, and typing about local culture. (Among other things, that led me to interview Hickey several times.) Sure, there are flashier, more important beats, but as much as casinos and politics shape our lives, it seems clear in hindsight that what I really wanted was to figure out how smart, creative people adhere to this place that I was frequently ambivalent about. The arts seemed the best place to look.

That was the headspace I typically carted around the Arts District when I went down there during the Hickey years. Questing, hopeful. Back then there were periodic surges of energy in the Arts Factory or along Main Street, a sense among people I listened to that the arts scene was about to pop big.

If it now seems quaint to remember them invoking New York’s SoHo neighborhood as a model, it’s also hard to blame them: Surely a city that vibed international on so many other levels deserved a similarly epic arts scene. Hickey was an emissary from that larger world, his presence reassuring us that there really was some there here.

Well, as we now know, the scene stubbornly failed to become Soho Jr, yet was very often cool nonetheless. In the rooms of my home, where I’m writing this, the walls are full of art, all but a few pieces by local or once-local artists, few if any of whom would be considered blue-chip by a New York gallerist. Las Vegas appears overtly in some pieces, lurks subtextually in others, and in a few cases is probably all in my head; each has done its part in helping resolve my ambivalence.

I’m obviously not a career-making collector, but I’ve helped a few artists make rent, and I like that. Indeed, what matters to me about these pieces is precisely that they are local. That’s a small but definite comfort in our homogenized, tribal, anxious world.

Even if I had money, I’d still create this

Even if I had money, I’d still create this environment for myself — not because I lack ambition or sophisticated taste, though both are surely true, but because I value connection so much more.

environment for myself — not because I lack ambition or sophisticated taste, though both are surely true, but because I value connection so much more.

BY THE WAY, when I wonder what it means to

be a local artist, then or now, I don’t mean to propose a hard and inflexible demarcation; it’s more a smudge than a line. Las Vegas artists have certainly made their way into elite art spaces — Justin Favela’s gotta be racking up serious travel points shuttling between museums. There are Las Vegas writers who publish nationally, architects designing beyond city limits, musicians and theater people known in the big culture centers. Of course there are.

But many more have to work out some accommodation with a career at this level.

I know I have. Many years ago, after I wrote a few pieces for big magazines, New York beckoned: a dream job offer. When it ultimately didn’t work out, my friends assured me I’d get another chance. I didn’t. Instead of fretting about it the way I did, maybe I should’ve downloaded some perspective from Jerry Misko.

“I don’t have any qualms calling myself a Las Vegas artist,” says the Las Vegas artist.

Good thing; the city is inescapable in his work, which frequently employs closely cropped elements of local signage to toy with the city’s mythology. “I paint what I paint because I love it. I love Las Vegas like Monet loves his water lilies.” If that limits his access

to the art world’s blue-chip skyboxes, he’s made his peace with that. “I want to make a living being an artist,” he says. “When I’m out in the world, being ‘Jerry the artist’ always felt true. So, I made decisions based on being true to myself, whether I made two grand a year or 200 grand a year.”

Las Vegas figures more obliquely in the work of painter and sculptor Chase R. McCurdy. He’s not interested in the visual semiotics of the Strip, the lore of Sin City; he doesn’t do spectacle. Nonetheless, he says, “If we’re sincere in our practice, who we are, where we are, when we are, it’s gonna come through somehow.” More importantly, he grounds his practice in West Las Vegas, where he has deep family roots and where the Black community nourishes his art. (See his Living Black Pillars in the Westside’s Legacy Park.) “For me it’s been very much about what I can bring to the community I identify with and care most about. I’m choosing to practice in a certain kind of way knowing there’s a good chance that I’ll never reach a certain kind of notoriety in the United States in the state that it’s in. I don’t care. I have to go with what is right for me.”

BACK TO HICKEY for a minute. The thing about

that “local artist” quote is to not take it at face value. Like many people who exist at that larger-than-life pitch, he could amp up his rhetoric to own the moment, his words sometimes too spontaneous to represent his “capital-B beliefs,” as Hickey scholar Daniel Oppenheimer puts it. And in fairness to Dave — I’m switching to his first name for this part — his barbs, rendered in cold print, sound meaner than they usually did in real life, where they mostly seemed like an invitation to a genial sparring match.

And for someone who didn’t suffer fools gladly, he treated me pretty well. Many others would say the same — including a fair number of current or onetime local artists, some of whom he exhibited in a show he put together, Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland.

When I put the question of locality to Oppenheimer, author of Far From Respectable: Dave Hickey and His Art, he referred me to Dave’s catalog essay for Beau Monde, a 2001 exhibit he curated in Santa Fe. Once you chip away the arty jargon, it’s a celebration of cosmopolitanism — a bright, transnational spirit kept lively and convivial by constant up-fusions of the best regional and local influences. So, at some level he did give a shit, and, whatever your impression of Dave, I capital-B believe the rest of us should, too. ✦ FEBRUARY 2024

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Passions

TURN TO STONE For the rockhounding treasure hunters of Southern Nevada, a mine is a terrible thing to waste

By Reannon Muth

W

hen people move to Las Vegas, they often buy a house.

They may buy a car. When Nicholas Barnes moved to Las Vegas from Oakland, California he bought a mine.

Buying a mine (the mineral rights, to be exact) was far from easy, as it turned out.

The process is not like buying a house — there is no equivalent of Zillow. Just finding one can be a challenge. Barnes, a 32-yearold Cirque du Soleil acrobatic rigger, pored over museum historical documents, studied maps, and searched through old claim records online. He ALL MINE created a list of 20-30 possible Rockhound Eric “fell in love” locations and went on scouting Cifani with Columbia 23, a expeditions, clocking miles on defunct copper mine foot in the craggy Southern 30 minutes from Las 1930s. With the spread of the Vegas, because of its Nevada hillsides. automobile, more Americans colorful detritus.

“They give you geo points, but motored into the deserts and they’re not always right,” Barnes mountains, where they stumbled says. “You have to get out of your car and upon petrified wood and precious stones, hike to look for it. A lot of them are hard to which they pocketed as souvenirs. The Great get to. One of them was an hour hike there Depression spurred further interest; unemand an hour hike back.” Each time Barnes ployed men and women combed canyons found a mine, he dug around it for a week to and quarries in search of a pretty pebble or see if it was the right place. If it wasn’t, he’d shiny stone — anything they might fashion cross it off the list and move on. It took him into jewelry to hawk at stands they set up about a year to find what he was looking for. along the newly paved desert highways. It So why do all that work? Given that Barnes peaked in the early 1960s, with as many didn’t plan to run a mining operation, as three million enthusiasts in the United why spend months traipsing up and down States, according to estimates from the overgrown mule trails in search of some Bureau of Land Management. long-shuttered copper mine?

Today, rockhounding has gone the way Nicholas Barnes is a rockhound. of stamp-collecting or needlepoint — it still Rockhounding became popular in the exists, but occupies a much smaller niche.

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This is a fact that 81-year-old Del Walkenshaw knows all too well. Walkenshaw, who grew up in Fallon, became interested in minerals when he was four or five years old.

His grandfather, a rockhound, pointed out various rocks as they walked together during hunting trips, cementing in Walkenshaw an intuitive eye for spotting valuable stones in the rubble. This wasn’t uncommon back then, Walkenshaw says. People knew about rocks and plants and wildlife, and they made a point of passing that information on to their children.

Walkenshaw, who owns Desert Art Supplies, remains an active rockhound, and a well-known one at that. He is a board member of the Southern Nevada Gem and Mineral Society, where he now leads groups of fellow geologists, jewelers, and rock PHOTOGRAPHY R eannon Muth

NEVADA BACK COUNTRY

WATERING HOLES WORTH VISITING!

No doubt Nevada’s urban cities dish up some lavish sips and eats.

But, if you’re craving something a little less refined and less confined, here’s a list of some back country establishments that are sure to deliver that “REAL NEVADA” worth making a weekend trip for!

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Dirty Dick’s Belmont Saloon ♦ Belmont, NV

If the name didn’t peek your interest, how about the fact that this saloon is completely off-grid.

That’s right, it operates totally on generator and solar power, adding to the allure of the place.

Serving up Nevada brewed beer, whiskey, tequila and their famous Bloody Mary using a recipe handed down from the bar’s original owner.

Santa Fe Saloon ♦ Goldfield, NV ON SA NTA FE SA LO

Claiming to be the oldest continuously operating business in Goldfield is quite a feat considering it was established in 1905. The building has survived a flood, fire and the rowdiness of an early boomtown. Serving up favorites in the beer and liquor categories, it also offers up some tasty pizza. Stay the night in the adjacent Motel.

Happy Burro Chili & Beer ♦ Beatty, NV HAPPY BURRO CHILI & BEER

Located in the heart of Beatty, this saloon has a true Old West Saloon front. Open the creaky wooden door and walk into a bygone era. If you’re lucky, you might bump into some of Beatty’s cowboys who regularly roam the town performing Old West Shootouts. Happy Burro offers award-winning chili, an outdoor patio and a very “unique” touch in the men’s restroom.

Overland hotel & Saloon ♦ Pioche, NV

This is a place known for its spirits, and we’re not just talking about the booze! Once the most rambunctious town in the West, Pioche is home to the now infamous Boot Hill Cemetery and regularly catches the interest of paranormal enthusiasts. The saloon, equipped with an original Brunswick bar counter, offers the perfect setting to grab a drink and listen to some of the towns crazy history from one of the local storytellers.

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PASSIONS collectors on monthly expeditions in Nevada and neighboring states, driving along the often bumpy, boulder-strewn roads in a jeep he nicknamed “Dirty Girl.”

Other rockhounds talk about Walkenshaw in awed tones, marveling at his ability to predict what treasures might be hiding in a sandy chunk of stone. They tell stories of him scrambling up steep hillsides with the ease of someone much younger. Walkenshaw shrugs off the compliments with a small smile. He just likes being outside, he says.

This is a sentiment he shares with many rockhounds. “I love being out in nature,” says retired school administrator Julie Cooley, as she clambers up a gravelly hillside near Goodsprings. “I love wandering around and when something catches your eye, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty.’” Along with the thrill of the treasure hunt or the zen-like pleasure of quietly sanding a stone into a smooth gem, rockhounding lets them focus their love of the outdoors into a tangible hobby.

Cooley leans against her hiking pole, momentarily winded but smiling. The trail is devoid of hikers on this fall Tuesday morning, but were any around, their eyes might have been drawn to the sunlight dancing off the green shrubbery or to the bighorn sheep on the ledge above. But her gaze is glued to the ground. She names various rocks on the path, nudging them with her boot or hiking pole. She picks one up and holds it to the sunlight. It’s spotted with turquoise, though, Cooley explains, it’s not actually turquoise. It’s chrysocolla, TROVE a blue-green rock similar in color TREASURE Searching for but far more common. hidden gems Cooley has been rockhounding (above); Nicholas Barnes, Cifani, and for 10 years, since she moved to Heather Perkins Rockhounding Nevada, described Nevada from Illinois. She got the at their mine it, a “rockhound’s paradise.” idea after visiting a gem show in (opposite page) In addition to its diverse array Boulder City and discovering that of rock specimens, including fire the desert is rife with colorful rocks, even agate, fire opal, turquoise, amethyst, garnet, fluorescent ones that glow in the dark. agate, jasper, and petrified wood, Nevada She joined the Southern Nevada Gem and offers rockhounders another advantage: Mineral Society, where she learned how to millions of acres of public lands. While they cut and polish rocks in the volunteer-run can’t collect rocks in national parks, state lapidary studio the club manages in an parks, or national monuments, hobbyists can industrial park off of I-15. take home small amounts of minerals and “To me, it’s like unwrapping a present,” fossils from Bureau of Land Management she says. “You never know what you’re going (BLM) lands, and with surprisingly few to get.” Though she’s not a professional restrictions. jeweler, Cooley enjoys turning the rocks Some turn those rocks into jewelry or sell she finds into necklaces and earrings for them to collectors. But for many more, the friends and family. thrill is in the hunt. “Once you start rockLike many of the Society’s 500 local memhounding, you have a dozen buckets of rocks bers, Cooley is self-taught; only a handful in your garage,” Cooley says. Rockhounds hold a degree in geology. Many get into the talk in amused tones about spouses who hobby after moving to Nevada and discoverdon’t understand why they don’t just throw ing that it is, as William A. Kappele, author of them away. They’re just rocks, some may say,

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in the way that some might say of the Mojave Desert, It’s just sand. But that’s the thing about knowledge — it opens your eyes to a world that had previously sat invisible. Once you know what you’re looking at, you can never go back to seeing that stone on the side of the road as just a rock.

Rockhound Eric Cifani can attest to this.

“The more you learn, the more interesting it all becomes,” he says.

Cifani is leading nine rockhounds, ranging in age from teenagers to retirees, back down the mountain, their arms weighed down with buckets of rocks. They’ve just spent five hours digging in the trailings outside Columbia 23, the mine he co-owns with Nicholas Barnes and their partner Heather Perkins, and they talk about their finds the way others might gossip about a celebrity sighting — lots of “Wows!” and “That’s so cool!”

This is a familiar scene to Cifani, who not only leads rockhound tours to the mine,

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but also volunteers with the Southern Nevada Gem and Mineral Society. He’s been a jeweler for decades. His grandfather taught him the trade when Cifani was a boy. After his grandfather died, Cifani inherited all his silversmithing tools, which he still uses.

“I’ve always been curious about where rocks come from, where they’re mined,” Cifani says, and after he launched a jewelry business, he decided to learn more. Through the Southern Nevada Gem and Mineral Society, he and his partner, Perkins, met Barnes and learned of

his quest to establish a mining claim. They all agreed to go in on the venture together, using Cifani’s experience working in title and escrow to help navigate talks with the BLM. When Barnes finally found the Columbia 23 mine, after more than a year of searching, the trio “fell in love” with it, Cifani says. It was the perfect location — just 30 minutes outside of Las Vegas and relatively easy to get to. It began in the 1880s as a copper mine, and its last claim holder was a contractor who mined for cobalt for Tesla’s electric car batteries. The mine itself remains closed, but as holders of its mineral rights, Barnes, Cifani, and Perkins have full access to the trailings outside, which are brimming with chrysocolla. They’ve also found cobalt, copper, silver, gold, and more than a dozen other minerals — enough to keep rockhounds busy for decades. There’s so much, in fact, that the trio regularly offers rockhounds full access to the trailings — for a fee.

Cifani and Perkins use what they find around the mine to provide a sort of farm-totable experience for their jewelry customers, many of whom like knowing that the stone in their ring or necklace has been locally sourced. For some pieces, Cifani posts what he calls “birth stories” — short videos that

showcase its transformation from a rock to into a smooth, polished pendant.

“A lot of rocks aren’t sourced ethically,” Perkins says. “You got eight-year-olds in other countries mining for rocks.” As a fourth-generation-Nevadan, Perkins loves telling customers about her connection to the land and the local history that each of her pieces holds. She recently quit her job in the medical profession to become a full-time mixed-media artist, and she splits her time in between the studio and the mine. At 47, Perkins is one of the younger rockhounds in the Gem and Mineral Society — by almost two decades — though this appears to be changing.

“Within the past few years, many younger people have been joining,” she explains. The Society even has an active kids club that meets once a month. Perkins speculates that this may be partly because “it provides a way for people to be connected to the earth,” which she says many are missing in their lives nowadays.

“This is just the most authentic thing I’ve ever done,” she says. “I’m a big weirdo, but I feel like I found my niche. I like being outside.

It’s calm, it’s meditative. You’ve got the sun to your back, you see something sparkle. It’s a little like treasure hunting.” ✦

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Drought

‘SILVER BUCKSHOT’ A single solution to the Colorado River crisis evades water managers at their recent Las Vegas gathering

By Alex Hager

T

he future of the Colorado River is being hashed out behind closed doors, and negotiators appear far from a long-term solution to the wide gap between water supply and water demand. At the Colorado River Water Users Association annual meeting in Las Vegas, representatives from the seven states that use the river spent three days opining on the progress of ongoing talks to determine how water will be managed after 2026, when the current set of rules expires.

The water supply flows to 40 million people; kitchen faucets in major cities, farms that put leafy greens on tables across the nation, and hundreds of tribal communities across the Southwest. But ultimately, seven people will have a major say in how the river is divided. They’re expected to tell the federal government how they’d like to see the river allocated after 2026, and they say they’re hoping to find agreement and avoid legal action between states.

In a massive ballroom at the Paris Hotel, John Entsminger, Nevada’s top water negotiator, forecasted that the next river-sharing agreement would be “a messy compromise that will be judged harshly by history.”

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RIVER RUNS IN YOU The Central Arizona Project carries Colorado River water into the Phoenix area on January 11, 2019.

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DROUGHT

He and delegates from six other states that use water from the Colorado River are trying to agree on a new set of rules for sharing the dwindling supply. The current guidelines expire in 2026.

Entsminger said a final agreement may join a patchwork of deals that have incrementally, but perhaps insufficiently, tweaked water use in response to two decades of dry conditions fueled by climate change.

“If you look at the last 25 years of the Colorado River, you know these imperfect, messy compromises step by step by step have gotten us much closer to equilibrium than we were at the turn of the century,” he says.

The messiness is a result of long-simmering tensions between the Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico, and their Lower Basin counterparts — California, Nevada and Arizona.

Ultimately, the future of the Colorado River may be dictated by a mosaic of different agreements, policies, and funding efforts that go way beyond what’s written in an agreement between seven states.

One term tossed around at the water meetings in Vegas was “silver buckshot.”

“It’s kind of the opposite of a silver bullet,” says Elizabeth Koebele, who researches Colorado River policy at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“You go at a problem with lots of small solutions.”

It’s a term, Koebele says, that gets used a lot in the world of climate change mitigation, and one that makes a lot of sense for Colorado River management.

“It would be, I think, a huge missed opportunity if we didn’t think more broadly than reservoir operating rules,” Koebele says. “But at the same time, maybe the idea is, these guidelines are for operating our reservoirs, and we need some other pieces to add to the Law of the River, or to add more informal river administration that handles some of these other challenging problems at different scopes and scales.”

SOME EXPERTS RALLIED for updates

to the way water is measured. The Lower Basin states have come under

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fire for failing to account for “system loss,” or the water lost to evaporation and leaky canals, and critics say the official tally of how much water is in the Colorado River needs to account for that.

Those losses total about 1.5 million acre-feet each year, mostly due to evaporation from the surface of Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir.

An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to fill one acre of land to a height of one foot. One acre-foot generally provides enough water for one to two households for a year.

“I don’t think the Lower Basin is going to agree to call it what it is, because there are a lot of political and legal issues around it,” says Andy Mueller, general manager of the Colorado River District. “But if they would just permanently reduce their use, including that 1.5 million, I think we’d be a whole lot better off as a system.”

Mueller’s agency is based in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, and works to

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ensure legal protection for western Colorado’s water.

Other experts floated the idea of a new method for distributing mandatory cutbacks when supplies dip critically low. Currently, cutbacks are triggered when the amount of water in Lake Mead dips beneath a certain threshold. The proposed alternative would see those cuts tied to a multiyear average of data from streams and rivers further upstream.

“That gives us a much more timely indicator of what we can actually expect to be happening in the rest of the basin,” Koebele says.

WHEN WATER IS limited, why not just HEAR THIS Western Water Coverage story here.

make more? Some of the region’s water leaders have embraced that mentality and are encouraging big spending on technology and infrastructure that can, in a way, add water to their systems.

At the water conference in Las Vegas, some leaders said augmenting water supply would be necessary in addition to demand cutbacks.

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TREAT IT RIGHT The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has proposed a $3.4 billion treatment facility in Carson, California to clean up sewage and make it drinkable.

“We have two options,” says Adel Hagekhalil, general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “We can be victims of nature, hydrology and climate change, or we can adapt to it. You adapt to it through creating abundance, augmentation of water supply.”

Hagekhalil’s agency, which delivers water to about 19 million people in cities and suburbs around Los Angeles, sees promise in stretching out the water supply they already have by using it over and over, and storing extra water for later use.

While their plans don’t include the literal creation of water molecules, Metropolitan plans to invest billions in water recycling technology. The agency is building systems that turn sewage, which otherwise would have been pumped out to sea, back into safe drinking water. The technology is picking up investment from across state lines, and is being adopted in other cities that use the Colorado River.

Hagekhalil also suggested storing extra water underground. The practice is already common in some parts of the Colorado River basin, particularly Arizona. He likened the new storage and reuse plans to putting money away in a savings account.

“We cannot let our water use be paycheck to paycheck, month to month,” Hagekhalil says. “It cannot be that way. It has to be such that we create the safety net, the reliability, the resilience.”

The reuse and storage plans won’t come cheap. So far, Metropolitan has benefited from state and local funding help, and Hagekhalil says he hopes congressional action will free up more money to help build water-saving infrastructure.

TRIBES HAVE SPENT years asking to be

better included in Colorado River talks. Thirty federally recognized tribes use the river’s water, but have been largely excluded from

decision-making since the earliest days of its management. Now, they’re starting to have slightly more say in discussions about how water is shared, but they’re seeking codified protections for a role in deciding the river’s future.

Tribal leaders say they want more than just a seat at the table; they want their participation to be “institutionalized.” That could mean a permanent position, or positions, for tribes in Colorado River negotiations that can outlast changes in federal, state, and tribal administrations.

Tribes that use the Colorado River control about a quarter of its flow, but most lack the money and infrastructure to use their full allotments.

Tribal leaders also say, with some help, they can contribute to largescale water conservation efforts.

“We have the potential to be tremendous allies,” says Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona.

Gila River has struck up relationships with the federal government and nearby states and built a high profile in the Colorado River policy world. The tribe has inked deals to receive hundreds of millions of federal dollars in exchange for water conservation. Lewis highlighted his tribe’s conservation work as a major part of a highly publicized conservation agreement between California, Arizona, and Nevada.

“We can bring answers, we can bring innovation,” Lewis says. “Some of these issues are still at loggerheads, between the Upper Basin and the Lower Basin. Tribes can really bridge a lot of these yet-to-beworked-out policy disagreements.”

Tribal contributions will likely be only a small part of broader, region-wide cuts to water demand, but state leaders have shown some growing willingness to bring tribes into the fold of water management, and conservation by tribal communities could be part of a larger patchwork of water conservation. ✦ This story is part of ongoing coverage of the Colorado River, produced by KUNC and supported by the Walton Family Foundation.

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Head to Toe Find a treatment for every temperament (and budget) at these five valley spas Wri t ten by: C H R I S T O P H E R A L V A R E Z - A G U I L A R • A N N E D A V I S B R E N T H O L M E S • H E I D I K Y S E R • M I K E P R E VAT T

Illustrations by T I M B O W E R

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If January’s a time for resolutions, then February must be for realism. Something everyone can commit to long-term is selfcare, and we’re here to help with reviews of five valley spas, where we tried out treatments for hair, feet, and (almost) everything in between. If you have suggestions to add, send them to us! Meantime, happy relaxing.

luxe capacitor

AMBIENCE

The 55,000-square-foot, two-story Lapis is a one-stop shop for traditional and progressive pampering. You have your usual high-end massages and jet-powered spa pools, yes, but you also can switch up your zen with snow showers and salt caves, which are part of Lapis’ focus on contrast therapy and luxurious escapade. All non-treatment amenities are included with the purchase of a massage/facial service or day pass. Should you possess the resources that allow you to enjoy either, I encourage you to arrive early and max out your spa-day privileges.

I did just that on the first Saturday of Lapis’ operation, when I booked a men’s facial

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TREATMENT

Fifteen minutes later, a kind aesthetician named Ashley led me to a private treatment room, and then ushered in the aforementioned nirvana. She spoiled my mug with a wonderfully varied regimen, from simple hot wet towels (why don’t I use these more often?) to serums that cost more than any jacket I own, and further jettisoned my many toxins with an upper-body massage. There was even an acid mask — no, it didn’t hurt (though a couple of the extractions made me whimper). Afterward, Ashley told me to look in the mirror. My entire head was aglow, and even four weeks later, my non-bearded face still feels baby-butt soft.

RESULTS

I will never forget lying there, listening to the ambient sci-fi score that accentuated my blingy bliss, and asking myself: Am I high? Dying? Or just in the throes of PG-rated ecstasy? I never answered myself.

I was too deep in some glorious face feels. fontainebleaulasvegas.com/wellness — Mike Prevatt

T O R T O I S E : B E N J A M I N G OT T S A C K E R ; I VA N P A H : A L E C P R I D G E O N / B O B G A N N O N ( P I LOT )

I

feel overwhelmed. This is a thought I’ve had hundreds of times in 2023, but only this time did I think it and then subsequently smile. There I was, at Lapis Spa & Wellness — an extravagant ode to wellness and relaxation inside the new Fontainebleau — falling further and further into a table supporting my increasingly limp body. This being only my second-ever facial, I was not very accustomed to the euphoria I was feeling. But I wholeheartedly gave myself over to it.

($230). After changing into a robe — you can go commando in the gender-specific areas (wheeee!), but do remember a swimsuit should you seek coed communion — I headed to the men’s water area, where I dunked in a jacuzzi the size of a backyard pool and blissfully de-stressed for a half-hour. This is what surviving 2023 feels like.

C O U R T E S Y F O N TA I N B L E A U L A S V E G A S

Fontainebleau’s Lapis Spa is no cheap escape, but those indulging will enjoy an abundance of frills

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oasis in the desert Learning to be naked and unafraid at Imperial Spa

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f there’s one thing you should know about me, it’s that I don’t like being naked in front of strangers. If there’s a second thing, it’s that I’m fond of exposure therapy. So, heading into Imperial Spa, off Sahara Avenue near Maryland Parkway, I was intrigued … and a little intimidated.

AMBIENCE

Boasting Romanesque architecture, the decade-plus-old Imperial Spa casts a regal glow over the homeless encampments and abandoned businesses nearby. I checked in, deciding to confront my fear head-on, forgoing the traditional massage or facial for the Korean Body Scrub and Full-Body Mud Wrap. The hour-long session came to $155.

I changed and showered — alone, thankfully, but

unimpressed by the shower area. Some showers were inoperable, the TV was off, and the mirrors looked like they ’d seen better days.

With a towel around my waist, I headed toward the Jacuzzi, where I realized I’d have to get in naked, because I didn’t bring a swimsuit. Even if I had, the stares wouldn’t have subsided; everyone knows that “I have to wear a shirt to the pool guy.” I headed back to the lockers and awaited my aesthetician there.

The service room was less appealing than I expected.

There was no relaxing music, just the sound of leaky faucets. Nonetheless, I laid down (towelless) and the aesthetician began the treatment.

TREATMENT

The Korean Body Scrub was up first. Imagine someone going to town on your body with sandpaper gloves. It wasn’t painful, but not enjoyable either. The aesthetician would, from time

to time, show me all the grime and dead skin he’d sloughed off — not pretty and a little embarrassing.

A respite followed in the form of a soothing hair and scalp massage and wash. Then, my eagerly anticipated mud wrap.

Being cocooned in clay-like cream was not as soothing as I’d hoped. Your face is completely covered, so if you suffer from frequent nasal congestion or claustrophobia, steer clear of this treatment. My aesthetician finally turned on that relaxing music I anticipated and invited me to “sleep” for five minutes — a near-impossible task for someone bordering on a panic attack who needs to pee. Plus, he passed the time tidying things up.

Finally, I was de-mummified and scrubbed down again, this time with a far smoother application. I appreciated the aesthetician’s professionalism throughout the session, and, though I would’ve liked more conversation, I’m not sure it would’ve been enough to ease my anxiety.

RESULTS

Y U SU K E M A D O KO R O/ S H U T T E R STO C K

The second-best part of the session was being periodically splashed with warm water, which hit all the right places at perfect angles. The best part? It was the cleanest and smoothest I’ve felt in my life.

Was it worth the awkwardness, discomfort, time, and $182.90 (with tip)? Enough to do it once a year, maybe trying different locations. Not so much for the cleanliness as the value of conquering my fear of public nudity … one scrub at a time. theimperialspa.com — Christopher Alvarez-Aguilar

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and filled out a few questions about your hair type and troubles, you’re whisked off to a tiny, candlelit room and invited to relax in a reclining chair. To prep you for your hair wash, your masseuse lays the chair back, resting your neck against the sink, and drapes a blanket over you. Then, the magic happens.

TREATMENT

I chose the basic hair wash and scalp massage ($45), which began with a thorough (and somewhat intense) shampooing, using products from Japanese haircare line Milbon, available for purchase at the spa.

Supplementing the shampoo are deep scalp and aromatherapy massages following principles of head reflexology to ease tension. A word to the uninitiated: This is a transcendent experience beyond description.

Wash and massage done, I was escorted to a hands-free blow-drier, where my masseuse gave me yet another massage (this time on my neck and shoulders), before combing my hair and leaving me with the hottest cup of green tea I’ve ever drunk, alongside a mochi snack, which I immediately dropped on the floor so cannot review. Altogether, it lasted more than 40 minutes — a steal at less than 50 bucks.

head I break

n my 25 years of personhood, I’ve not once experienced a massage or visited a salon. Hard to believe — I know — yet true.

Thus, nothing could have prepared me for my first visit to Soulo Hair Spa, which broke both streaks in a single visit.

AMBIENCE

Soulo hair spa opens a new door to self-care

Tucked away in a small Chinatown strip mall, Vegas’ self-proclaimed first Japanese-style hair spa hits you with a quintessentially zen feeling as soon as you walk in the lobby — bright and airy furnishings, friendly staff, and spa music await. Once you’ve checked in

RESULT

My normally straw-like strands, which have suffered through a twoyear pixie cut grow-out process, were left feeling miraculously soft and smooth — I couldn’t stop running my fingers through them. And the delicious Milbon smell … it was as if I were back at the spa every time I flipped my hair, and this lingered until my next hair wash (days later).

But my attitude change was the real takeaway. The girl who went 25 years without having herself pampered has decided that she won’t go more than a few months before her next visit to Soulo — a testament as glowing as my silky tresses. soulohairspalv.com — Anne Davis

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pretty party Green Valley Ranch Spa is the girl-date oasis I imagined

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tation Casinos opened Green Valley Ranch Resort, Casino & Spa in 2001, a few years before I moved to Las Vegas.

In those early years, it had a reputation as a luxury neighborhood resort, and I was invited to a couple bachelorette parties at the spa — though I didn’t attend them — cementing my mental image of it as a swanky spot for girlfriend staycations. After spending a spa day there over the holidays, I’d say yeah, that’s accurate.

AMBIENCE

TREATMENT

I chose the 80-minute custom scrub and massage ($285 pre-discount), to get a diverse experience. My aesthetician, Roxanne, was low-key in her preparation,

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inviting me to choose the scent of products she’d use, briefly surveying my massage preferences, and then outlining how the treatment would proceed. She was attentive throughout, and I appreciated that she remembered my sensitivities, down to the smallest detail (painful arthritis in the base of my left thumb).

For the scrub, Roxanne used firm, repetitive gestures to spread the gritty paste over my body,, rub it in and then sweep it off. It turned out to be much more therapeutic than the massage, which was serviceable, yet unremarkable. Still, the room and bed were warm and quiet, and

the hot shower washing the scrub from my skin felt like a rebirth.

RESULT

My only regret was that I didn’t arrive a couple hours before my treatment, so that I could enjoy the whirlpool and sauna beforehand. Afterward, freshly exfoliated and moisturized head to toe, I couldn’t do much other than lounge in my robe and enjoy snacks from the buffet. But I’ll be back, and next time, I’m bringing friends. gvrspa.com — Heidi Kyser

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C O U R T E S Y S TAT I O N C A S I N O S

The spa has its own parking lot off Carnegie Street, and you should use it.

The wellness complex — the spa building, which is connected to the salon, fitness area, and outdoor spa pool — is separated from the main casino by a small vineyard, creating a getaway illusion. The spa building itself is modern, clean, and well-appointed, encompassing two stories of changing areas, lounges, whirlpools, wet and dry saunas, and treatment rooms, with both women’sand men’s-only, as well as some coed, areas. Customers can access all this with any booking, and locals get a 20-percent discount. This may explain why, the day I visited, the women’s area was filled with small groups chatting in the whirlpool and kicking back in the saunas. It cast a relaxing, convivial vibe over what might otherwise be a rarefied space.

fancy footwork Foot Spa is rejuvenating reflexology, and so much more

F

our doors dow n f rom t he legendary Raku on Spring Mountain sits The Foot Spa, an unobtrusive self-care gem in the corner of a top Chinatown food destination. Many body ma i ntena nce spot s boast illustrious environs, white crystal walls, salt rooms, and mud pools. The Foot Spa is less frilly, but comforting in a way that ma kes you feel at home. On the occasions when I’ve needed a good foot rub over the last 10 years, they have never let me down.

AMBIENCE

As you enter, the sound of running water and classical music coalesce with low lighting to induce a dreamlike state directing you toward relaxation. Inside

the warm rooms, you meet with a reflexology masseuse, who will get into your feet in a way you may have never imagined could be done.

Make sure to wear shorts or a flattering undergarment, as the massage does include the calves, knees, and thighs. It also helps to be comfortable taking off your shirt, because a solid back rub precedes the full-hour foot session.

TREATMENT

First is a warm foot bath that primes your tootsies for the next stage of care. You’ll be instructed to recline on your back with your feet on a pedestal — possibly introducing some communication troubles, since English may not be your masseuse’s first language (fear not, though; the staff’s attention and patience are superb).

Then comes the reflexology itself: strong pressure administered to key regions of the feet with steady pacing.

My reflexologist began with a light hand moving into heavier force toward the end. Warm oil and stones completed the experience, exfoliating my feet to a smooth finish.

RESULT

This treatment always leaves my pedes feeling soft, strong, and pampered. Whether you believe the feet are a gateway to better overall body health — by facilitating generous maintenance of the parasympathetic nervous system — or you simply want to work a few kinks out after that nine-hour shift, you can’t refute the effectiveness of reflexology in inducing a restful overall state.

Fo r m o r e e xt e n sive body work, The Foot Spa also offers shiatsu and deep tissue massages. And all of this can be accessed for less than $60 for an hour, plus tip. 702-767-1688

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— Brent Holmes

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Tying

Knot

[ AND UNTYING ]

the

Whichever you’re looking for, it’s been Nevada’s business to make it easier

By Eric Duran-Valle

Photography LV C VA A R C H I V E S

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♥ Elvis Presley and Priscilla Ann Beaulieu’s wedding reception at the Aladdin in Las Vegas, on May 1, 1967

O

On a recent Monday afternoon, I performed an act that permanently altered the tax status of two of my best friends: I dropped off their wedding certificate at the Regional Justice Center in downtown Las Vegas.

The day before, I’d had the honor and duty of officiating their wedding, a task for which I was greatly prepared after years of being master of ceremonies for my middle school band. In reality, the hardest part of my job during the happiest day of my friends’ lives was confirming who they wanted the witnesses to be.

When I attended the class to get my officiant’s license, I was prepared to deal with the litany of forms and processes. The county employees giving the presentation emphasized that it would be my responsibility to make sure neither bride nor groom is under the influence of substances or being coerced into the marriage.

But, fundamentally, the job of the officiant is to give them the right paperwork and fill out the wedding certificate correctly. There are no magic words that need to be said during the ceremony to make it legal. No tribunal review with the governor, the county clerk, or God. Just paperwork. It’s that easy.

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And that’s kind of awesome.

I knew that marriage, specifically of the expeditious kind, is a big part of Reno and Las Vegas history, so to learn more about it I spoke to Angela Moor, a historian at UNLV who wrote her dissertation on the history of marriage and divorce in Nevada.

Moor told me that the practice of traveling to get an easy marriage done by an undiscerning official goes back centuries, even pre-dating the United States. In 1753, the Clandestine Marriages Act required couples under the age of 21 in England and Wales to secure parental consent before getting married. To circumvent this, young English couples traveled to the Scottish parish of Gretna Green, where no such regulation existed. This phenomenon traveled through pop culture and history all the way to Las Vegas, where one of the earliest wedding chapels took its name from the village. That venue was later rebranded as Graceland Wedding Chapel.

Similar to Gretna Green, Nevada’s status as a marriage destination emerged not from a deliberate decision, but because of prohibitive measures elsewhere. “During the Prohibition era,” Moor says, “Cal-

FEBRUARY 2024

HAPPY COUPLES Opposite page (clockwise):

♥ Wayne Newton and Elaine Okamura are seen at a post-wedding reception at the Flamingo on June 1, 1968. Newton, 26, married Okamura, 23, in a ceremony at the Little Church of the West. ♥ Sammy Davis Jr. wed Loray White at the Sands — under pressure

by Hollywood executives to cover up his affair with white actress Kim Novak — on Jan. 10, 1958. ♥ Mel Tormé and Arlene Miles marry at the Little Church of the West in 1956. ♥ Eydie Gormé and Steve Lawrence tie the knot at the El Rancho on Dec. 29, 1957.

SIGNS OF LIFE

Brigitte Bardot and Gunter Sachs at the Marriage License Bureau in Las Vegas on July 13, 1966.

ifornia passed a three-day waiting period for marriage licenses, which was called gin marriage law. You’d get your marriage license, but it wouldn’t be valid for three days.” Presumably, three days would be long enough for any intoxication to wear off. In 1935, Connecticut passed a law requiring those looking to get married to have their blood tested for syphilis. Similar laws began spreading across the nation. (Some of them stuck around for a while. Montana was the last state to repeal its premarital blood-test requirement, in 2019; New York still requires Black and Latino individuals to be tested for sickle cell anemia, but can’t deny the license based on the results.)

Nevada, meanwhile, never passed a blood-test requirement or waiting period and quickly became a runaway marriage destination, with Reno leading the way but Las Vegas eventually taking over. Once lawmakers and entrepreneurs saw how lucrative an opportunity this was, the practice went from being a convenient legal loophole to a meticulously protected asset. Popular culture, such as the publicity surrounding Elvis and Priscilla’s 1967 marriage at the Aladdin (a mural on the exterior of the Clark County Marriage License Bureau done by artist Jerry Misko prominently features their wedding photo), helped to propagate the industry. Marriages in Washoe County peaked in 1978, with 36,794 marriage licenses issued, while in 2022 there were more than 77,000 marriages filed in Clark County. I won’t deny that I get a bit of amusement at the thought that when the final count comes out for 2023, I’ll be able to take credit for one.

“Weddings are very expensive and high stress,” Clark County Clerk Lynn Marie Goya says. Her office oversees the Marriage License Bureau.

“Sometimes people just want to get it done and not have all of the auxiliary angst.” Streamlining every aspect of Las Vegas weddings has been a key strategy of the bureau. “We had the idea of setting up a pop-up Marriage

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License Bureau at the airport right around Valentine’s Day, which is when we know we’re the busiest,” Goya says. “That way couples can get straight off the plane, pick up their license, and then go along their way.”

When I tell people I’m an officiant, they usually ask if I went the online ordination route — a dotcom reverend, if you will. But I didn’t need to see the light or take a dunk in the digital river, as most of Nevada’s counties don’t require a religious endorsement to officiate marriages.

A notary’s license is enough. In Clark County, you don’t even need that. You just fill out a two-page application, pass a background check, pay the fee, and attend a training.

At the beginning, public officials carried out the bulk of quickie marriages. “Oftentimes,” Moor told me, “the very same judge who just finalized

your divorce would then immediately perform your wedding.” A 1942 edition of Collier’s Encyclopedia claimed that “only the president of the United States holds a more highly paid public office” than the Las Vegas justice of the peace. Given the fact that 20,000 marriages were performed in Las Vegas that year, perhaps there was some veracity to that claim. The eventual rise of civilian officiants was spurred by public outcry about this perceived racket, and in response to the pressure, Clark County established what would become the Marriage License Bureau, clearing the way for a longhaired hippie like me to consider adding “singing cowboy officiant” to his résumé.

“You guys are actually the ones who do the ceremony,” Goya told me. “If you don’t do a good job, the whole structure falls apart. We want-

LOVE AND ... DARTH VADER?

HITCHING POST Opposite page (clockwise): ♥ Frank Sinatra and Mia Farrow marry at the Sands on July 19, 1966. ♥ Redd Foxx and Yun Chi Chung exchange rings at the Thunderbird Hotel on Dec. 31, 1976. ♥ Lesley Ann Warren and Jon Peters’ wedding at the Sahara hotel on May 13, 1967. ♥ People lined up outside the Clark County Marriage License Bureau during a wedding rush to beat the draft for the Vietnam War on Aug. 25, 1965.

ed to make sure (officiants) realize (they’re) crucial to the industry and making it successful.”

My friends had effectively been married for three years, sharing a living space and adopting pets together. All I did was make it legal. “It’s ultimately just a contract,” Moor says.

Our society tries to safeguard marriage behind the authority of religion, and, in an increasingly secular era, the state. It’s a major decision that perhaps can be rushed by foolish lovers in the lavender haze. But life is a series of messy ventures that sometimes go sideways. Doesn’t everyone have a right to make mistakes, unhampered by judgment and archaic traditions?

Nevada obviously thinks so.

It also believes they should be allowed to undo those mistakes.

Quickly, if they’d like.

BY SARAH BUN

Las Vegas may seem like a city that defies tradition, but it’s steeped in cultural customs. For instance, as the “marriage capital of the world,” it has a long history of quickie weddings that blend the old with the new. And its many wedding chapels reflect that, pushing the boundaries of conventional nuptials. Some choice examples follow.

NOW OR NEVER Elvis Presley’s last show in Vegas was in 1976, but his presence lives on. Legend is, in 1967, Presley stopped by a chapel for his upcoming marriage to Priscilla, but it was too small.

After his death in 1977, it was renamed Graceland Wedding Chapel to honor the crooner — home also to the first and original Elvis-themed wedding.

PASSING BY While many celebrities get married at A Little White Chapel, a lesser-known novelty is its drive-thru wedding. In 1991, after the late Charolette Richards saw a couple struggling with mobility issues, she created the Original Drive-thru Tunnel of Love so that couples could profess their love with ease.

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STILL STANDING Built in 1942 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Little Church of the West is among the oldest and calls itself “The Grandmother” of all chapels.

Strip demolitions happen all the time, but this redwood-sided gem is (probably?) here to stay.

FAR OUT The one and only Sci-fi Wedding Chapel, at Bally’s, is about helping couples “join forces” on their special day. Imagine saying “I Do” on a spaceship deck and with Darth Vader officiating. In true Las Vegas fashion, they’re auditioning for sci-fi ministers right now.

GO, GO, GO Flora Pop offers elopements and micro-weddings in a pop-up mobile.

Owner Victoria Hogan, with her best friend Amy Lee, also owns Sure Thing Chapel, which captures the sexy aspect of Vegas through its burlesquethemed services. Their analog photo booth in the chapel further cements the vintage vibe.

HELL, YES The singularly named Berlynn, who’s dubbed herself Las Vegas’ Love Lady Officiant, is a humanist who’s hell-bent on challenging norms and delivering elopements and microweddings through her pop-up chapel, Hellbent Hitchings.

Greenhouses, tattoo parlors, bookstores … she’s there, with bells on.

THE FUTURE, NOW With the explosion of AI, it’s unsurprising that there’s already an AI-themed knot-tying.

At Immersive Wedding Chapel, boutique-style charm comes equipped with wall-to-wall HD video and soundscapes.

Note: Even with the AI theme, a human licensed officiant must be present for legal reasons.

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O

On AMC’s “Mad Men,” two of the series’ lead characters, charismatic ad man Don Draper and femme fatale Joan Holloway, are at a bar right after Holloway has been served divorce papers. The show is set in the 1960s, and Joan, despite her confident demeanor, seems embarrassed at her marriage having failed. But Don congratulates her. “Nobody realizes how bad it has to get for that to happen,” he says.

“Now you get to move on.”

Many people come to Nevada looking for a quick marriage, which often is preceded by a quick divorce.

Back in the 1930s and ’40s, it seemed easier to break the sound barrier than break up a marriage in the United States. The process was prohibitive and wearisome; one party had to admit fault for the court to make a ruling. Couples who sought a divorce would come up with creative ways to establish fault. In an amusing divorce proceeding in New Jersey, a wife claimed that her husband’s use of a condom qualified as desertion, as it denied her desire to have children through “natural intercourse.” In

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many cases, some element of perjury was involved.

According to the UNR’s multimedia series, “Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry,” the grounds for divorce in Nevada in 1931 included the following: impotence, adultery, desertion, conviction of a felony or infamous crime, habitual gross drunkenness, extreme cruelty (physical or mental), neglect, and insanity.

Assembly Bill 127, passed by the Nevada Legislature in 1937, would have added “incompatibility” to that list, but Gov. Richard Kirman vetoed it. Perhaps the idea of a married couple simply not getting along was too scandalous for the time.

According to Angela Moor, couples would most often go for “extreme mental cruelty.” But that would still have to go into the legal record of the party at fault, a considerable blemish.

(This would remain the practice until 1969, when California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the nation’s first no-fault divorce law. New York was the last state to adopt no-fault divorce, in 2010.)

So, if you still had to admit fault

FEBRUARY 2024

TIL DEATH?

♥ Judy Garland and her fourth husband, Mark Herron, tying the knot at the Little Church of the West in Nov. 1965. They divorced in 1967.

to get a divorce in Nevada, how did the state become known as a divorce capital? Especially if many had to travel for days via rail or on primitive roads?

Time.

As anyone who has been separated or grown up with separated parents knows, it’s simple enough for a married couple to stop living together.

The marriage police aren’t going to check. “If someone is going to the length to get a divorce,” Moor says, “there’s usually a reason.”

Often, that reason is to get remarried. And if your home state would make you wait nearly a year or longer for a finalized divorce, while Nevada was willing to grant its residents a divorce in six months, then the trip might not seem so bad. Moor introduced this to me with the term “migratory divorce,” wherein the parties have already made arrangements at home for their separation, and then travel to a jurisdiction with a lax divorce process to handle the legal formalities as quickly as possible.

Nevada’s liberal laws about most civil matters organically led to Reno becoming a popular divorce destination, especially with all its amenities.

But during the Great Depression, other states, such as Arkansas and Idaho, noticed the profitability of quickie divorces and followed suit.

In response, Nevada lowered its residency requirement from three months to six weeks in 1931, the same year it legalized wide-open gambling. The morning the new law went into effect, unhappy couples filed more than 300 divorce petitions in Nevada.

This brazen move secured Nevada’s status as the nation’s premiere so-called “divorce mill.” As World War II ended, between the summers of 1945 and 1946, people filed more than 10,000 divorces in Reno, according to “Illuminating Reno’s Divorce Industry.” That equals nearly half the number of marriages performed in Reno right before the U.S. entered the war. Make of that what you will.

By 1962, Las Vegas began process-

D E S E R T C O M PA N I O N .C O M

ing more divorces than Reno and would continue to do so until the passage of no-fault divorce. And as with quickie marriage, the promise of a swift separation drew Hollywood celebrities to Sin City. In 1959, Las Vegas was the setting when entertainer Eddie Fisher divorced his then-wife, Debbie Reynolds, so he could quickly marry his new flame, Elizabeth Taylor. Fisher already had a five-year contract at the Tropicana; Taylor settled into one of the state’s infamous “divorce ranches” to wait out the residency requirement.

Intrigued by the phenomenon of divorce ranches, which as a concept sounds equally hilarious and cynical, I asked Moor, “So you would have to spend six weeks stuck at a ranch with someone you’re trying to split up with?”

“No,” Moor says, “only one party had to be in Nevada to get the divorce.

Since women weren’t as much in the workforce at the time, they would

SPLITSVILLE ♥ Visitors enjoy the Twin Lakes horses and paddle boats on April 10, 1955, in what is now Lorenzi Park.

usually be the ones who would spend the six weeks here and just send the paperwork back home.

“You also couldn’t market the divorce aspect,” she adds. “Lawyers weren’t allowed to advertise yet, so no Glen Lerner ads or anything like that. Instead, they would promote themselves as dude ranches with a special ‘six-week rate.’” Urban retreats such as Tule Springs and Lorenzi Park served as divorce ranches in their time, while vestiges of others can be found around town, such as a road near Harry Reid International Airport named for Hidden Well Ranch.

With the widespread adoption of no-fault divorce in the 1970s, Nevada’s draw as a divorce mill waned but didn’t disappear completely.

California still has a six-month waiting period for divorce. Massachusetts doesn’t consider a divorce final until at least 90 days after the judgment. Even here there are still minor hassles: Moor has found posts

on Reddit from individuals stressing about finding an affidavit witness for a divorce in Nevada, which is still required. “Like, really?” Moor asks, bemused. “In 2023 people are still having to worry about this?”

The divorce trade in Nevada may have been born from a resource-poor state’s need to survive, but it paved the way for divorce to become more accessible, thereby allowing people, especially women who may have been in abusive situations, to get out of unhappy marriages. And, at the end of the day, it’s just a piece of paper.

“You can have your own feelings religiously about what you think marriage entails and whether or not you can dissolve it,” Moor says, “but as far as state-recognized marriage goes, it’s a contract, and you should be able to void that contract if you want to.”

Six weeks to end one chapter of your life and start the next one. And in Nevada, you don’t need to go far to get your new life underway. ♥

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TRAIL NAME: Mahogany Grove GETTING THERE: Starting from

Discovering Mt. Charleston’s lesser-known trails

US-95 north of Las Vegas, take Kyle Canyon Road (State Route 157) for 18 miles. Just past The Retreat on Charleston Peak, turn right onto Deer Creek Road (Route 158). After another five miles, the parking lot for Mahogany Grove will be on your right.

(Note: It’s a proper, lined parking lot. The roadside pullout just before Mahogany is for a different trail.)

BY Alan Gegax

DISTANCE: The Mahogany Grove

‘Outdoor Nevada’

FAR OUT

trail is about a mile long, and can be hiked as an out-and-back, or a loop that returns via the road from the group campground. There are benches for breaks along the way.

A

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EQUIPMENT NEEDED: This short

hike doesn’t require much preparation. Wear sturdy shoes, clothing appropriate to the weather, and bring at least half a liter of water.

PRO TIP: Across the street from the

SEE THIS episode of “Outdoor Nevada,”

by Vegas PBS.

roadside pullout is the unmarked trailhead for Wild Horse Canyon.

For a little extra adventure, and some surprisingly lush scenery, head up that trail as far as you like. It eventually meets with the North Loop trail.

P H OTO : C O U RT E SY V E G A S P B S

fter Tropical Storm Hilary wreaked havoc on Mt. Charleston, outdoor enthusiasts were asked to stay off the mountain, giving the residents, roads, and trails, time to heal. So, they’ll be shocked to see host Connor Fields’s visit to Mary Jane Falls in the inaugural episode of this season’s “Outdoor Nevada” series on Vegas PBS. Where there was once a wide path, there is now a gorge as deep as six feet in some places. The destruction is so complete, it’s hard to imagine where the Forest Service will even begin to rebuild the trail.

Yet Fields’ Mt. Charleston foray also gives a reason for hope. While some of the most popular areas were reclaimed by Mother Nature, many beautiful trails remain open to enjoy. He saw the majestic 3,000-year-old bristlecone pine that gives the Raintree hike its name and took the underappreciated Catch Pen trail, traversing a variety of terrains and life zones.

With any luck, the loss of Mt. Charleston’s most popular trails will accomplish for the hiking public what it has done for Fields: encourage them to visit the parts of the mountain that have been previously relegated to second-tier or relatively unknown status. There is much beauty in our backyard mountain, and it’s time we get to know it more completely. ✦

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INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL (1165 Sandy Ridge Ave, Henderson 89052) is a preschool – 8th grade private school. The school’s STEAM curriculum focuses not only on science, technology, engineering, and math but also on art. Every student receives instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics, and multiple times per week in science, social studies, Spanish, performing and fine arts, and physical education. The academic disciplines are complemented by extra- and co-curricular activities, creating well-rounded students.

▲ ◆ JO MACKEY

ACADEMY OF LEADERSHIP AND GLOBAL COMMUNICATION (2726 Englestad St, North Las Vegas, 89030) is the first K-8 magnet school in Clark County. Jo Mackey is a leadership-focused educational community that fosters positive character through social responsibility and 21stcentury skills. The school is named for Mrs. Jo Mackey, who devoted her life to the under-privileged and handicapped, being handicapped herself. Her legacy lives on through student participation in service projects at every grade level. In addition to

their coursework, students can participate in Drill Team, Girls Who Code, Robotics, and the Rubik’s Cube Club. ▲ ◆ ■ ● KHAN ACADEMY

(khanacademy.org) provides a world-class education for anyone – kindergarten-through8th grade, high school, college students, and adult learners – located anywhere in the world, all 100% free. Courses are delivered through an educational website with practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard, all of which empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the

● NEVADA STATE UNIVERSITY (1300 Nevada State

Drive, Henderson, 89002) is a four-year public university offering more than 36 majors and 30 minors, including areas of study such as business, biology, psychology, education, criminal justice, and nursing. In addition, Nevada State College has developed a Master of Education program in SpeechLanguage Pathology. Students can learn in-class or online, or a hybrid of both, and Nevada State University offers multiple start dates throughout the year so students can begin coursework at a time that suits their schedules.

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▲ ◆ ■ THE ADELSON

EDUCATIONAL CAMPUS (9700 Hillpointe Rd, Las Vegas, 89134) is the only PK-12 Jewish community school in Nevada. The campus consists of two schools: The Preschool/ Lower School for students from 18 months through 5th grade and the Upper School for grades 6–12. AEC strives to develop students into caring, perceptive, engaged thinkers, who are fully prepared for top universities at home and abroad. Unique to AEC is their Startup Incubator, a state-ofthe-art technology lab. While courses are built on Jewish values of civil discourse, empathy, discussion-based explorations of ideas, and imagination, families of all faiths are welcome.

classroom. Coursework covers math, science, computing, history, art history, economics, and more, including K-14 and test preparation (SAT, Praxis, LSAT) content.

■ One of the premier arts

magnet schools in the nation, LAS VEGAS ACADEMY OF THE ARTS (315 S 7th St, Las Vegas, 89101) serves grades 9-12 and is free for students to attend. Programs available include band, vocal music, dance, guitar, mariachi, orchestra, photography, piano, studio art, technical theatre, theatre, graphic design, video production, and world jazz studies. Eighty percent of its graduating seniors enroll in a post-secondary institution, and last year, over $22 million in scholarships were awarded.

The Arts Schools Network (ASN) awarded LVA Exemplary Status 2018-2023 for overall excellence and leadership in arts education. Niche.com awarded LVA an overall A grade.

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■ A public high school serving grades

9-12, LAS VEGAS HIGH SCHOOL (6500 E Sahara Ave, Las Vegas, 89142) offers challenging academic classes, and students can participate in sports, CTE courses, the school’s performing arts program, or its Amy JROTC program. The school’s sports team, the Wildcats, has won numerous championships, and their athletics programs are recognized as some of the best in Nevada. Students can also join one of the 38 different clubs and organizations. ▲ ◆ ■ THE MEADOWS SCHOOL

(8601 Scholar Ln, Las Vegas, 89128) is a pre-k through 12th grade private school that follows the motto: In pursuit of excellence. Founded in 1984 on a 1.25 acre lot, the school moved to its current 40-acre campus in 1988. With core values focused on scholarship, character, community, inclusion, and discovery, The Meadows School accomplishes its mission to support meaningful lives for their students to thrive in a global society. 100% of the school’s graduates have been accepted into 4-year colleges and universities since its first graduating class in 1991. ▲ ◆ THE NASRI ACADEMY FOR

GIFTED CHILDREN (3695 S Lindell Rd, Las Vegas,89103) serves K-8 students. Understanding that gifted children have specialized social, emotional, and academic needs, the Nasri program is designed to focus on all three of these areas. The staff is knowledgeable in working with the specialized needs of gifted children.

The Nasri Academy for Gifted Children Educational Philosophy is built around the Integrated Curriculum Model (ICM), which is comprised of three main areas: Overarching Concepts, Advanced Content, and ProcessProduct. Other areas of study include Robotics, Art, Music, Innovation and Design, and Physical Activities.

■ Emphasizing college preparation,

NORTHWEST CAREER & TECHNICAL ACADEMY (8200 W Tropical Pkwy, Las Vegas, 89149) is a public magnet school serving grades 9-12. NWCTA offers students the ability to complete a Career and Technical Education (CTE) program of study, which allow students to learn industry standards, practice hands-on learning, and the ability to take part in internships and

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industry partnership opportunities.

Programs consist of Biomedical Science, Construction Technology, Culinary Arts, Engineering & Design, Hospitality & Marketing, Mechanical Technology, Teacher Education, and Veterinary Science.

■ PALO VERDE HIGH SCHOOL

(333 Pavilion Center Dr, Las Vegas, 89144) is a comprehensive fouryear high school enrolling just over 3,200 students in grades 9-12. The mission of Palo Verde is to prepare

students to realize their academic, creative, emotional, physical, social, and career potential. The school combines challenging coursework, a robust athletics program, and diverse activities. The class of 2022 earned over $12.2 million in scholarships.

The Speech and Debate Team is ranked #1 in the state of Nevada, and the Student Council won the National Gold Council of Excellence, Silver Star Award and Southern Star Award.

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● Home of the Rebels, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS

(unlv.edu) is a public university offering more than 300 degree programs. UNLV also has more than 175 graduate programs and its own law, medicine, and dental medicine schools. The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute is a member-driven learning community of more than 1,100 retired and semi-retired adults.

Members continue a lifetime of learning by contributing to a program rich in content, shared interests, and life experiences.

There are no education requirements to participate in classes and activities. In 2022, UNLV, once again, achieved R1, or “Very High Research” status by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. One third of UNLV students are the first in their families to go to college, and Military Times listed UNLV as one of its Best for Vets.

■ RANCHO HIGH

SCHOOL MAGNET ACADEMY (1900 Searles Ave, Las Vegas, 89101) is a “school-within-a-school” inside Rancho High School.

RHS challenges students with a wealth of Honors and Advanced Placement offerings along with specialized education in Aviation, Medicine, and Aerospace Engineering.

RHS fosters student creativity and ingenuity through dynamic electives such as orchestra, theater, dance, band, choir, and art. After-school athletic programs and club activities address students’ social needs by providing a sense of community.

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● ROSEMAN

UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES (11 Sunset Way, Henderson, 89014) is a private, non-profit university for undergraduate and graduate-level healthcare professionals. With campuses in Henderson and Summerlin, the University is comprised of the College of Dental Medicine, offering an Advanced Education in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics residency, an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency and a Doctor of Dental Medicine; the College of Pharmacy, offering a Doctor of

▲ E L E M E N TA R Y

◆ MIDDLE SCHOOL

Pharmacy, Postgraduate Year One CommunityBased Pharmacy Residence Program, PGY1, CVS Health Spanish Pathway Program and a Fast Track BS/PharmD with Nevada State College; the College of Nursing, offering an accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Master of Science in Nursing/Family Nurse Practitioner and the College of Graduate Studies, offering two master’s degree programs, Biomedical Sciences and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Roseman University of Health Sciences will also

■ HIGH SCHOOL

offer a Doctor of Medicine through its College of Medicine, once it becomes accredited. ● TOURO UNIVERSITY

NEVADA (874 American Pacific Drive, Henderson, 89014) is a non-profit university focused on healthcare and education.

Founded on the Judaic values of social justice, intellectual pursuit, and service to humanity, Touro offers programs in Education, Medical Health Sciences, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Osteopathic Medicine, Physical Therapy, Physician Assistant Studies, and Research.

Since 2014, the Mobile

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Healthcare Clinic run by the School of Physician Assistant Studies has given free acute care on a weekly basis for underserved Vegas Valley populations.

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■ VALLEY HIGH

SCHOOL (2839 Burnham Ave, Las Vegas, 89169) is a public high school, serving grades 9-12, that offers three award-winning magnet programs: The Academy of Hospitality and Tourism, the International Baccalaureate with advanced coursework in arts and world languages, and the Military Science (Army JROTC), Cyber Technology, and Emergency Management program. VHS also offers the Valley Viking Scholars program and a variety of co-curricular activities such as Ballet Folklórico, Choir, Mariachi, Student Council, and various clubs.

● Home of the Bulldogs,

VARIETY SCHOOL (2800 Stewart Ave, Las Vegas, 89101) serves special needs students in grades 6-12. A Sensory Room space provides individuals with sensory issues the opportunity to regulate their body’s reactions to external stimuli and develop coping skills for these experiences through a variety of Sensory activities. The school features vocational training centers for a laundry, a kitchen and restaurant, a recycling center, a graphics center, and a greenhouse. Students spend time in each area, learning a skill of their choice, with a goal of preparing them for the workforce. As part of the Graphic Arts program, the school presented Paints and Palettes, an art exhibition of students with Autism.

■ A public high school

serving grades 9-12, VETERANS TRIBUTE CAREER AND TECHNICAL ACADEMY (2531 Vegas Dr, Las Vegas, 89106) prepares students for careers in public service. Magnet programs include Criminal Justice/PreLaw, Emergency Medical Services, 911 Dispatch, Law Enforcement, Forensic Science, and Cybersecurity.

Veterans Tribute CTA has partnerships with Las Vegas Metro Police Department and other public agencies that offer students experiences designed to give them an advantage over other applicants for public service jobs, while still academically preparing them to apply to college, and creating broader ranges of options for their future. Having instructors in law enforcement,

emergency medical response, dispatch careers, criminal justice field, crime scene analyst and cybercrimes provides students with firsthand knowledge and training. ● WGU NEVADA

(wgu.edu), which is part of Western Governors University, is an accredited online university offering bachelor’s and master’s degrees for busy adults.

Areas of study include Business, Education, Healthcare, and IT. Degree programs start at the first of every month, all year long, so there’s no need for students to wait for spring or fall semester. WGU graduates are employed at top companies and organizations such as Amazon, Cedars-Sinai, Google, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, the Mayo Clinic, and the United Nations.

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ACADEMIC PROGRAMS COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE COLLEGE OF NURSING • Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) • Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) • Advanced Education in Orthodontics & Dentofacial • Master of Science in Nursing/Family Nurse Orthopedics (AEODO) Residency Program Practitioner (MSN/FNP) • Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) COLLEGE OF PHARMACY Residency Program • Accelerated Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES • MS in Biomedical Sciences (MBS) • MS in Pharmaceutical Sciences (MSPS) COLLEGE OF MEDICINE • Currently in Development

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