Curator
Extraordinaire
Jessica Oreck
HOME SWEET HOME. GREAT UNKNOWN. LET’S GO ROAM.
Take a road trip to meet Nevada’s surprising side. Just a short drive from Las Vegas, you’ll discover alpine peaks, sprawling desert oases, and jaw-dropping state parks. By day, ski, hike, and climb before relaxing with a dip in a remote hot spring. At night, sip wine in a vineyard or glamp under some of the nation’s darkest skies. it’s all here. You just have to get a little out there and find it.
SAHARA
A Culinary Journey.
BALLA ITALIAN SOUL
From James Beard Award recipient Chef Shawn McClain, Balla offers aperitivos, handmade pastas, plus fresh seasonal vegetables, salads, and fire-roasted meats and fish.
BAZAAR MEAT BY JOSÉ ANDRÉS
A groundbreaking culinary experience, Bazaar Meat by José Andrés is the James Beard awardwinning chef’s wild and wonderful celebration of the carnivorous.
CHICKIE’S & PETE’S CRABHOUSE AND SPORTS BAR
Join the fun at ESPN’s #1 Sports Bar in North America. Enjoy 20 beers on tap, game-day bites including the famous Crabfries®, and a variety of premium spirits.
THE NOODLE DEN
Explore the flavors of Northern China. Indulge in hand-pulled noodles, savory dumplings, and classic Chinese dishes expertly crafted by master chefs in our open-view kitchen.
OBJECTS OF DESIRE
Our culturist will be at these events. Will you?
reservation
on Hawaiian tradition, one lei at a time
done locally
deportations could change the Western U.S. as we know it
connect
that planners miss
PHOTO Gregg Carnes
WE LOVE L.A.
As I write this, the Palisades fire is about 50 percent contained, and the Eaton fire, nearing 80 percent. So far, the fires have killed 27 people and destroyed 15,000 structures. We’ve said it many times now on air and in our newsletters, but it’s worth re peating in print for posterity: Our hearts are with all those grieving losses from this catastrophe in Los Angeles, a city with which Las Vegas has deep, enduring ties.
CONTRIBUTORS
Of course, the stories for this issue were assigned months before the fires began, but the theme — in ways both ironic and tragic — still resonates. We wanted to repeat the love issue, started last February, but open it up to more than romance, including all sorts of affection and obsession. As such, we have a wonderful essay by Joe Schoenmann on p. 48 describing his experience with filial love in a blended family, and a visual presentation of collectors’ objects on p. 51. It’s not lost on us that a meditation on family ties may cause a pang in readers with loved ones in Southern California, or that many Angelinos have lost all their possessions, including treasured collections — from U.S. swimmer Gary Hall’s Olympic medals to Will Rogers’ estate’s memorabilia. May we all find solace in celebrating the people and things that remain and cherish them while we can.
Las Vegas-born and -based Aleza cut her teeth at newspapers in San Francisco and Las Vegas before covering hotels, attractions, and other touristy treats for Vegas.com. She is currently a freelance writer focusing on Sin City and greater Nevada. Her work has appeared in AARP the Magazine, Haute Living, and Nevada Magazine.
This is also our first issue of a new, and auspicious, year. In All Things (beginning on p. 11), you’ll find self-care tips and a healthy breakfast recommendation for the resolution-minded; a (sobering) look back at the start of the COVID pandemic five years ago; and a preview of the 2025 state Legislature, which begins this month. In addition, we have features bridging both politics and wellness (“Trip to the Doctor,” p. 60), and politics and immigration (“One Nation Under God, Divisible,” p. 40) — both the results of collaborations between Nevada Public Radio and other news organizations.
Collaboration is something we plan to continue doing a lot of in 2025. The challenges of 2024 seem likely to continue, and there’s no better way to face a storm than united in our commitment to serve the greater good.
As we build on our partnerships with KUNR, VegasPBS, the Mountain West News Bureau, and others, know that we are all doing this work for you. Whatever may come, we won’t waiver in our commitment to strengthen our community through in-depth conversation, insightful news analysis, and compelling storytelling. All we ask is to be loved back.
Hang in there, Heidi
Formerly the magazine’s long-serving deputy editor, Scott Dickensheets is back in the house as a contributing editor; in this issue he helped assemble the All Things section, and will write on occasion. In his career, he’s been all over the local media map, most recently as a daily newsletter writer for City Cast Las Vegas, and before that as features editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He also writes for the statewide arts website Double Scoop
CORRECTION
Regarding “Three Questions with Tony Abou-Ganim”: Abou-Ganim’s name was misspelled throughout. The web version of the story has been updated to reflect the correct spelling. Desert Companion regrets the error.
PRESIDENT & CEO Favian Perez
MANAGING EDITOR Heidi Kyser
ART DIRECTOR Scott Lien
ASSISTANT EDITOR Anne Davis
EDITOR-AT-LARGE Scott Dickensheets
KNPR PRODUCERS AND REPORTERS
Christopher Alvarez, Paul Boger, Mike Prevatt, Joe Schoenmann
EDITORIAL INTERN Maicyn Udani
GRAPHIC DESIGNER Ryan Vellinga
ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Allison Hall, Markus Van’t Hul, Britt Quintana
OPERATIONS MANAGER Marlies Daebritz
CORPORATE SUPPORT MANAGER
Christine Kiely
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
Jeff Jacobs
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Josh Bell, Sarah Bun, Rachel Cohen, John Curtas, Kristen DeSilva, Harry Fagel, Yvette Fernandez, Aleza Freeman, Clement Gelly, April Corbin Girnus, Manuel Holguin Jr., Brent Holmes, Lorraine Blanco Moss, Reannon Muth
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS
Gregg Carnes, Ronda Churchill, Noemi Fabra, Josh Hawkins, Brent Holmes, Jeff Scheid
CONTACT
EDITORIAL: Heidi Kyser (702) 259-7855 heidi@desertcompanion.com
ART: Scott Lien (702) 258-9895 scott@knpr.org
ADVERTISING: (702) 259-7808 christine.kiely@desertcompanion.com
SUBSCRIPTIONS: Marlies Daebritz (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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BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
NEHME E. ABOUZEID chair LaunchVegas, LLC
AMANDA MOORE-SAUNDERS vice chair Cirque du Soleil
KATHLEEN M. NYLEN treasurer
FAVIAN PEREZ secretary Nevada Public Radio
DIRECTORS
STEPHANIE CAPELLAS Carma/Connected
CYNTHIA A. DREIBELBIS Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck
MIKE DREITZER Gaming Arts, LLC
ANDREA GOEGLEIN, PH.D ServingSuccess
WILLIAM GROUNDS Burraneer Capital Advisors
FRED J. KEETON Keeton Iconoclast Consulting, LLC
EDWIN C. KINGSLEY, MD Comprehensive Cancer Centers
SCOTT NIELSON Nielson Consulting, LLC
DERIONNE POLLARD, PH.D Nevada State University
ERNEST STOVALL Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino
DIRECTORS EMERITI
CYNTHIA ALEXANDER Dickinson Wright, PLLC
SUSAN M. BRENNAN The Brennan Consulting Group, LLC
DAVE CABRAL Business Finance Corp.
LOUIS CASTLE Amazon Games Seattle
PATRICK N. CHAPIN, ESQ. Patrick N. Chapin, Ltd.
ELIZABETH FRETWELL C4ward Strategies, LTD
DON HAMRICK Chapman Automotive GroupTD
GAVIN ISAACS Consultant
CHRIS MURRAY Avissa Corporation
JERRY NADAL
Luna Entertainment Consulting Services
WILLIAM J. “BILL” NOONAN
William J. Noonan Consulting
ANTHONY J. PEARL Crown Resorts
MARK RICCIARDI, ESQ. Fisher Phillips, LLP
MICKEY ROEMER Roemer Gaming
TIM WONG Arcata Associates
LAMAR MARCHESE president emeritus
ALL THINGS
IDEAS, CULTURE, FOOD, AND OTHER WAYS TO CONNECT WITH YOUR CITY
SOCIETY
Thinking Outside the Chapel
First comes love, then comes engagement, then comes marriage atop a casino parking garage
BY Reannon Muth
Nowadays it can feel as though it’s both easier and harder than ever to get married in Las Vegas. It’s easier because, thanks to the trend in pop-up weddings, you can now get hitched nearly anywhere, including on street corners, inside a record store, or atop the parking garage at Binion’s. It’s harder because now you have nearly endless options to choose from. Should you tie the knot in the bar where you and your soon-to-be spouse first met? At that bookstore where you had your first date? The whole city is your chapel.
“These aren’t your mama’s weddings,” says Berlynn Holdmann. She’s the founder and officiant at Hellbent Hitchings, a business that helps couples in
Southern Nevada say, “I do,” in an outside-the-chapel way. “We’re literally popping up in venues,” she says. Instead of a church, chapel, or satin-lined banquet hall being the focus of the nuptials, “the venue creates the backdrop.” And how you define “venue” is up to you.
Holdmann says she officiates between 200 and 250 of these offbeat weddings a year. “I’ve seen it all, really,” she says. “I’ve had couples rent out entire movie theaters, get married in museums, and I’ve gotten couples married with a company that allows you to join the Mile High Club right after your ceremony in a private plane (legally, of course).”
Sometimes you’ll work with the venue to make arrangements, a service Holdmann provides. But because pop-up weddings are smaller in nature (the couple, a handful of guests), a permit or even permission isn’t always necessary.
A BOUQUET OF SAVINGS
While this style of micro wedding isn’t new, it’s growing in popularity, and Hold-
Shut Up, Cupid, and Reload
In Las Vegas, February 14 is synonymous with love — and something more sinister
If love was in the air in Chicago on February 14, 1929, it was likely the love of booze. After nine years of Prohibition, America’s inveterate fondness for drink had turned bootlegging into a huge, cutthroat business for mobsters. Thus, at 10:30 that morning, four members of Al Capone’s outfit lined up seven men against the wall of a Chicago garage — five members of Bugs Moran’s rival gang, plus two unlucky hangers-on
mann speculates that tighter budgets could be a reason why. Hellbent Hitchings’ all-inclusive packages start at just $500, a fraction of what a larger, more formal wedding might cost. Victoria Hogan, founder and co-owner of Sure Thing Chapel, agrees: “With inflation, a lot of people are scaling back,” Hogan says.
“Weddings seem to have gotten more intimate, more strategic, and a little more off-the-beaten-path,” says Michelle Wodzinski Capers, a Las Vegas photographer and owner of Fireheart Photo & Film. Capers says COVID-19 might be behind the increase in nontraditional weddings. “I feel that the pandemic messed with many couples’ original big wedding plans while also helping them to realize what and who is really important.”
Hogan says her business has “doubled and tripled” in recent years, perhaps because of the rise of social media sites. When the newly engaged start down the wedding-research rabbit hole, they often begin with TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest, where they watch reels of couples
sharing a first kiss in front of a graffiti mural in the Arts District or hosting a small reception in an ice cream shop, and it just looks avant garde and unique. And it’s not just visitors who find this appealing. “I get as many locals as I get tourists,” Holdmann says, estimating that 40 percent of the couples she marries are Nevada residents.
TOSSING OUT TRADITION
This was the case for Las Vegas couple Sean and Amanda McGinness. The two got married in 2023 in the backyard of a historic mid-century modern home, a location they’d first seen on Instagram. They opted for a nontraditional wedding because they wanted something small and simple. “We know planning traditional weddings can be very stressful, and we didn’t want to have so much of that while planning for our wedding,” Amanda says. “It ended up being everything we wanted and more.”
Monique Perez, owner of Winston Marie Cakes, says it could be a generational
— and killed them with Tommy gun fire and shotgun blasts.
It was the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre: a bad ending for those guys but just the beginning for that bullet-pocked wall, whose notoriety eventually landed it in a prime spot in Las Vegas’ Mob Museum.
“I don’t believe the Valentine’s Day holiday factored into the decision of those who plotted the massacre,” says Geoff
Schumacher, the museum’s vice president of exhibits and programs (and, full disclosure, my friend). That’s just when the opportunity arose. “But the fact that it happened on Valentine’s Day did give the massacre a pithy name and therefore much wider notoriety.”
Which the museum is happy to play up. February 14 was chosen as the facility’s opening date in 2012, and every
trend. “I’m a millennial, and we’re all just wanting something different. We don’t follow the norm. We like to express who we are.” Perez, who specializes in “vintage glam cakes,” says she makes up to 45 cakes a month for these types of weddings.
While Holdmann has officiated popup weddings in several states, she says Nevada’s laws make the process much easier because the state doesn’t require premarital counseling, as some states do, nor a waiting period. And, of course, in Las Vegas you can easily get a marriage license between 8 a.m. and midnight 365 days a year, even on holidays. No wonder this town has a long history of attracting couples looking to shuck tradition.
“Las Vegas brings in couples who want to be bold and authentic and say, ‘Eff whatever the standards are … whatever grandma wants,’” Holdmann says. “You can have someone come to your hotel room and marry you in your bathrobes with your mimosas if you want. You can’t do that in Kansas.” ✦
in Nevada
That’s what we do.
Valentine’s Day the museum’s cash flow is massacred by free admission for Nevada residents (who often dress to the nines for the occasion, Schumacher says). This year, in addition to the wall, visitors can see the actual Tommy guns used in the killings, courtesy of the Berrien County, Michigan, sheriff’s office, where they reside.
The astonishing brutality of the mass murder played a role in ending Prohibition, Schumacher adds. “For several years during Prohibition, large swaths of the citizenry had favorable sentiments toward bootleggers, whom they saw as simply satisfying the desires of a thirsty public.” But rising violence in the late ’20s prompted a rethink. “Not only was Prohibition not working, but it was leading to greater violence in the streets. People came to agree that the Noble Experiment had failed.”
As for that other meaning of February 14: Although the museum doesn’t track such things, it’s easy to imagine romantic couples snapping wry selfies in front of the wall, bullet holes behind them and Cupid off to the side — wearing a fedora, of course. —Scott Dickensheets
NEVADA STATE MUSEUM, LAS VEGAS
LOST CITY MUSEUM
NEVADA STATE RAILROAD MUSEUM, BOULDER CITY
LAS VEGAS
SELF-CARE
Love the You You’re With
Las Vegas wellness experts offer their top self-care tips
BY Reannon Muth
Loving yourself means valuing your strengths and having compassion for your shortcomings. Easier said than done.
“Self-care is oftentimes misunderstood as merely ‘pampering,’ like bubble baths and pedicures,” says Nikki Beecher, a licensed marriage and family therapist. But there’s much more to taking care of your mind, body, and soul, as she and other self-care experts will tell you. Here’s some of their advice.
DEVELOP SELF-CARE RITUALS: “Rituals provide a constant in a world that is characterized by change,” says Alyssa Waters, a self-healing integration coach, “and they give us something to lean on when there is nothing to lean on.” While the type of self-care is up to you — meditation, exercise, time in nature — Waters suggests that for it to become a ritual, it “needs to be easy, achievable, and intimate to you.”
FOCUS ON ‘GLIMMERS OF JOY’: In addition to getting adequate sleep and paying attention to your emotions, Beecher recommends putting “little glimmers of joy in your life.” Think of these glimmers as the opposite of triggers, she says — joyful or peaceful acts such as looking at photos of loved ones, petting your dog, or wrapping yourself in a soft blanket.
BATHE YOURSELF IN SOUND: In her practice, certified sound bath facilitator Namrata Katira has busy, stressed clients lay down as she showers them in tones from crystal bowls, drums, chimes, and other instruments. This is followed by 15 minutes of reflective silence. “We live in a world where we’re bombarded by messages,” Katira says. “If we’re not feeling okay, our tendency is picking up the phone and scrolling.”
PRACTICE MINDFULNESS: Zen master Ji Haeng, abbot and guiding teacher at the Zen Center of Las Vegas, recognizes that achieving mindfulness might seem challenging in a distraction-filled place like Las Vegas. But that’s okay. “The jaws of the lion is a wonderful place to practice,” he says. Ji Haeng suggests calming the breath and mind. “When your mind is deep and calm, you can do deep listening and be 100 percent there. And that’s deep love. With our calm breath, there’s resilience, even in the face of stress.”
FOCUS ON YOUR BREATH: If Cosmin Mahadev Singh, founder of RYK Yoga and Meditation, were to offer only one piece of self-care advice, it would be to learn how to breathe correctly. “At least 80 percent of the population breathes very shallowly,” he says. By breathing properly, you’re helping to nourish your body and improve mental clarity. Set reminders for yourself. “Get some sticky notes and write, ‘How is my breath?’ Put one in your car, your office, in your kitchen.”
PRACTICE COMPASSION: Shaolin kung fu master Shifu Chang Yuan, from Shaolin Tai Chi Heritage Center, says, “One of the ways to achieve happiness is to ‘donate your smile.’ Step into others’ shoes and be helpful to other people.” He also recommends tuning into your body and says you don’t need a formal meditation practice to do so: “Washing dishes or walking can be a meditation.”
TAKE SOME QUIET TIME: “Selflove comes first before you can do anything else in the world,” says Tammy Gaboyan, chief operating officer of The Salt Room. During busy days, Gaboyan meditates in a salt room. The Himalayan salt in the air has negative ions that can help reduce stress and inflammation, she says. If you can’t get to a salt room, Gaboyan recommends, set aside time each day to sit in a quiet space.“It’s so important to just connect with yourself.” ✦
Love, Quantified
CUPID’S DAY
AVERAGE AMOUNT an Idahoan spends on Valentine’s Day ... Damned Idahoans, making us look cheap (Casino.org, 2024)
$52
AVERAGE AMOUNT a Nevadan spends on Valentine’s Day (Casino.org, 2024)
4th
Las Vegas’ rank in U.S. cities to spend Valentine’s Day (WalletHub, 2023)
HOW THAT SPENDING RANKS NATIONALLY? â ABOUT AVERAGE:
It’s really very simple. Let’s check the board. We all know romance as a swelling of the heart, a tingle on the skin, a lovey-dovey tumble of emotions. But here in the Desert Companion labs, we set out to break it down into more concrete terms ... —Scott Dickensheets
WHEN IT’S OVER IT’S OVER LOVE IS A MANY SPLENDORED THING LICENSE TO THRILL
MARRIAGE LICENSES ISSUED IN CLARK COUNTY IN 2024
76,779
Average number issued daily last October, the highest month
(clarkcountynv.gov)
74,275
LICENSES ISSUED IN 2023
Divorces per 1,000 Nevadans in 2022, highest in the nation (Statista)
THE RATIO IN 1990: 11.4 4.2
Number of Las Vegas men who are sugar daddies, according to a 2015 survey 1 in 52
Las Vegas’ rank in “Top 10 Global Cities to Find a Sugar Daddy,” on sugardaddy.com
DEACTIVATED: the amygdala, which regulates fear responses
❤
ON THE OTHER HAND Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra, 1998
serotonin, a messenger chemical
DEACTIVATED: parts of the prefrontal cortex that coordinate judgment
“ This change may explain why people in love tend to fixate on the object of their affection, perhaps leading them to think of very little else.”
2020)
FAIRY TALE VEGAS WEDDING Elvis and Priscilla, 1967
Since winning his second presidential election, Donald Trump — backed up by his administration — has promised to step up deportations of undocumented immigrants, eliminate large swaths of the federal government, stop trans women from participating in women’s sports, and reverse regulations meant to address climate change. It’s a monumental, albeit controversial, agenda that’s sure to cast a long shadow over Washington and the rest of the country. That includes Carson City, where state lawmakers will gavel in Nevada’s 83rd legislative session this month.
Well before lawmakers are called to order, however, state-level Republicans and Democrats
began preparations for a second Trump administration.
In November, just days after the election, Nevada’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, issued a statement acknowledging Trump’s win while also warning that the president’s rhetoric regarding immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, and people of color had “created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty for many Nevadans.” Ford went on to say his office would oppose any effort by the Trump administration to overreach in Nevada.
“We will be a bulwark against any effort to impose unconstitutional mandates; override our system of checks and balances; or intrude upon the rights of any Nevada resident,” Ford said.
On the flipside, Governor Joe
Lombardo was among the 26 Republican governors who signed a letter in December saying they were “ready to utilize every tool at (their) disposal — whether through state law enforcement or the National Guard” — to support Trump’s plans to “deport dangerous criminals, gang members, and terrorists who are in this country illegally.”
Last year, the governor also weighed in on the debate over trans women participating in women’s sports, supporting UNR’s women’s volleyball players who voted to forfeit their match against San José State, whose team includes a player who may be transgender.
While specifics of forthcoming legislation are scant at the time of this writing, lawmakers say they’re prepared to introduce bills addressing the state’s National Guard and interscholastic sports. They’re among the almost 1,000 bill draft requests submitted by lawmakers in the months ahead of the session. Environmental issues are another obvious source of contention. During campaign stops in Las Vegas, Trump promised to open federal land for more housing and development. He also vowed to expand oil and gas exploration on public lands, while at the same time cutting back on Biden-era conservation efforts — which legislative Democrats have worked to enact at the state level in recent years. And that debate doesn’t even include the coming knock-down, drag-out fight that will occur in federal courts when the Colorado River Compact ends in 2026. Or the slow-moving disasters of extreme heat and wildfire, put on steroids by climate change.
And there are other immigration issues beyond the use of the National Guard in mass deportations. Along with the economy, immigration was a defining issue of this election for Nevada GOP voters, with many supporting Trump’s promises to crack down on illegal border crossings and deport millions of undocumented residents. Of course, state lawmakers have no control over federal immigration policy. But in the third-most diverse state in the country, where a fifth
HEAR MORE about Nevada politics.
of the population are immigrants, there will be political, economic, and social ramifications the likes of which we’ve never really had to confront. It will be our lawmakers who must respond to the issues that crop up and the opportunities that arise from those federal policies.
The only bipartisan life buoy of this session may be a potential tax deal to lure major film production studios to the Las Vegas Valley. Warner Bros. and Sony have both expressed interest in expanding from Southern California and have publicly promised to spend billions on new sound stages and offices. It’s the type of pledge from a multibillion-dollar company that catches the attention of Nevada Republicans and Democrats alike. It would create highly paid construction jobs, sure to appease the trade unions, while scoring another win for the state’s low tax policies, long protected by Nevada’s conservative, libertarian traditions. It’s the type of legislation that could serve as a bargaining chip for both sides during those tough end-of-session negotiations.
The specter of re-election will also loom over this session, possibly tamping down some of the partisanship. While Republicans made modest gains in the Nevada Legislature — picking up one seat in the Assembly and avoiding a Democratic supermajority in the Senate — it was likely because of, in large part, Trump’s name at the top of the ticket. Democrats, on the other hand, maintained their majorities in 2024, but it cost them millions of dollars, and they still only won by slim margins.
A studio deal by itself won’t be enough to keep contentious negotiations going. And candidates from both parties who are up for re-election in the November 2026 midterm may prefer to underscore their differences rather than embrace bipartisanship.
That would mean a legislative session that’s about lining up behind battle lines — finding the issues that divide us most and campaigning on them. The big question, then, would be where President Trump’s 2025 agenda will draw those lines. ✦
CHARTICLE
When We Went Viral
Five years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the way we lived. A look back at some of its significant moments
BY Anne Davis AND Scott Dickensheets
First COVID-19 cases reported in Wuhan, China
First COVID case confirmed in the U.S. (in Washington state)
“In the Venetian’s faux canal, a singer named Marcello serenades a gondola with no guests — from the sidewalk, too, no longer in the boat: socially distant from no one. You can see maybe halfa-dozen people in the distance. ‘This is the busiest it’s been,’ he says.”
Desert Companion
First case confirmed in Nevada (a Clark County man who traveled from Washington state)
Sisolak implements a
First COVID vaccines distributed in Nevada Clark County schools welcome students back after nearly a
The Strip begins reopening, slowly
Then-Governor Steve Sisolak declares state of emergency
Clark County surpasses 5,000 confirmed cases
As Delta variant surges (with Nevada ranking near the top in infection rate), Sisolak hands out $5 million in vaccination incentives
World Health Organization declares an end to the COVID pandemic, which killed more than 12,000 Nevadans
“Life was difficult at first. I remember our first case here at Southern Hills. It was with that very first case that it hit me that this is a new entity, a new disease that none of us have seen before.”
—Dr. Christopher Voscopoulos, then-director of ICU, Southern Hills Hospital, on “KNPR’s State of Nevada”
Sisolak orders all schools to close
Nevada begins reopening
Congressional subcommittee investigates corporate landlords and illegal evictions during pandemic, with sharp focus on Las Vegas’ Siegel Group
State unemployment officials say they paid $1.4 billion in “improper” benefits during pandemic — more than $600 million going to fraudulent claims
First Nevadan dies, in Clark County
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper she offered Las Vegas as a “control group” to test the lifting of social distancing orders
February 10
Sisolak ends Nevada’s mask mandate
A Henderson-based “osteopathic physician and Instagram influencer” is sued by the family of a Washoe County man who died after the doctor allegedly prescribed him hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19 during a telemedicine session
The Joys of ‘Urban Hiking’
No need to leave the city to enjoy a good walk
BY Harry Fagel
Iam a retired police captain, author of poetry, and lover of the Nevada vibe, and I owe my balance and peace to getting out and walking. I have always done this to alleviate stress, thanks to my wise grandfather, who told me you could solve any problem by “walking through it.” I call it “urban hiking” because I do it in an urban environment: on city streets, such as Eastern, Fremont, or Las Vegas Boulevard, in local parks, along freeway trails. Urban hiking is possible anywhere in the paved world, and no, you can’t get the same experience on a treadmill; this is about more than physical fitness. It’s about exchanging oxygen with trees, feeling the sun (or moon) on your face, communing with nature — and with all that humans have wrought — while
é Urban hiking is often far from boring.
Just take Harry Fagel’s Instagram as proof.
clearing out the rubbish you’ve built up inside.
In the process, you are going slow enough to appreciate things you normally drive too fast to observe. And as with any good hike, the point is to explore, from the history of the city, to art and construction projects you can actually stop and see, to sidewalks and paths and enticing shortcuts that offer new views and atmospheres. It’s an opportunity to try businesses, small cafés, and restaurants. Las Vegas offers a rich landscape, but every city is filled with mysteries that urban hiking exposes. Bring your dog, too. I usually do.
Next time you feel overwhelmed or want to end a bad habit, fix a relationship, or make a difficult decision, do yourself a favor: Put those feet on the street. It’s free medicine. ✦
FLOYD LAMB PARK
(Distances vary)
Loop the four ponds on pavement while enjoying the wildlife or venture out into the park’s natural desert area, both popular with runners, casual step-trackers — and everyone in between. While still in the city, the park is far enough out for some peace and quiet (minus the geese).
Kristen DeSilva
HOLLYWOOD REGIONAL PARK
(Distances vary)
Known for its skate park and adjacent community center, this 70-acre gem in the foothills of Frenchman Mountain with abundant walking paths offers perhaps the best views of Las Vegas in town. —Heidi Kyser
LONE MOUNTAIN
(Distance and elevation varies)
On the west side of the valley, Lone Mountain is a quick escape from the paved path and not as “out there” as Red Rock Canyon or Mt. Charleston. The full loop around the mountain is a groomed, 2.5-mile, gravel path at a gentle grade. For those looking to get their hike on, the trail to the peak is a steep challenge with a great view of the valley, if the smog isn’t too bad.
Ryan Vellinga
E. ST. LOUIS AVE.,
BETWEEN
EASTERN
AND LAS VEGAS BLVD. (2 mi. one-way)
This sidewalk stroll passes through a couple historic downtown neighborhoods — including parks, churches, a school, and the Mesquite Club — before topping out at the Strat, with just enough of a hill for cardio-seekers. —HK
HENDERSON’S WATER STREET DISTRICT
(.8 mile one-way, plus diversions)
Hiking through Henderson’s rapidly gentrifying downtown, you’ll see headlong change in real time — the brand new adjacent to the very old — with possible side ambles through 80-year-old neighborhoods, visits to small businesses, and encounters with nearly every sort of person.
Scott Dickensheets
With Wallace Aforethought
Las Vegas comedy icon brings his whatnot to trans-friendly sitcom
BY Josh Bell
Within a few minutes of showing up in the first episode of Amazon Prime Video sitcom Clean Slate (February 6), George Wallace drops a signature “… and whatnot,” and a little later he namechecks fellow Las Vegas headliner Carrot Top. Clean Slate is set in Mobile, Alabama, but the comedic persona familiar to anyone who’s seen Wallace perform in Vegas over the past 25 years is fully intact in his character, carwash owner Harry Slate. Wallace co-created the series with writer Dan Ewen and co-star Laverne Cox, a real-life Mobile native who plays Harry’s daughter Desiree. After 23 years away,
A Fresh Pot
Gold Butte has a new loo
It’s not always easy to answer the call of nature when you’re in nature. That’s not a problem in the Gold Butte National Monument, thanks to the recent arrival of its first vault toilet, in Cabin Canyon. (A vault toilet collects waste in a leakproof concrete box.) Such a facility has been needed at least since the Bunkerville Normal School set up a tent there to train teachers during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-20. Now, tourism has made the need more acute. “The lack of any developed facilities limits the Monument’s appeal and excludes some from exploring (it),” says a project description. No longer. Your throne awaits.
Scott Dickensheets
Desiree returns to her hometown and the father she hasn’t spoken to since she left, who’s surprised to discover that his son is now a proud trans woman. Produced by the late Norman Lear, Clean Slate follows in the footsteps of Lear’s 2017 One Day at a Time reboot, applying the legendary producer’s keen social conscience to modern issues, within a reliable sitcom format.
While Harry is initially taken aback by Desiree’s emergence as her true self, he’s not an Archie Bunker-style reactionary. He commits to being a fully supportive parent, defending Desiree against their church’s bigoted pastor and putting money into a “pronoun jar”
whenever he accidentally misgenders her. Clean Slate doesn’t shy away from depicting prejudice, but it also surrounds Desiree with a loving, uplifting community. Sitcom veteran Telma Hopkins (Family Matters) is an especially warm, welcome presence as the busybody mother of Desiree’s childhood best friend.
There are gentle sitcom misunderstandings and plenty of hugit-out moments, and Wallace fits in perfectly as the crotchety but kindhearted dad. He’s honed his distinctive presence over thousands of Vegas performances, and Harry is tailor-made for his particular strengths as a comedian and actor and whatnot. ✦
é Vegas icon George Wallace lights up the small screen.
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The Vegas Dish
BY Lorraine Blanco Moss
New chefs, dishes, and spots to try around the valley
Delectable food is a love letter to the soul; it feeds in ways far beyond caloric energy. For February 14 and beyond, I offer these recommendations from my heart to your belly.
BRAMÀRE
In Italian, bramare means “to crave,” and I cannot get enough of the house-made pastas and sexy sauces. Amber-lit with comfy booths, this new modern Italian spot on Paradise will impress even the pickiest date. bramare.com
CHINA MAMA AT PALACE STATION
An authentic Chinese food staple on Spring Mountain boasts a beautiful new location at Palace Station. If one can fall in love with meat, I’m smitten with the grilled lamb chops topped with crushed black pepper and butter. The drawback: some service timing issues, but let’s see if time will get them into their groove. palacestation.com/eat-and-drink/ china-mama
LA CAVE
The 2010 hot spot at Wynn got a striking remodel that’s cozy and organic. Along with the architecture, the menu got a revamp, including a mouthwatering seared ahi tuna with
pepper, and dashi broth. It’s worth a revisit to this Morton family legend. lacavelv.com
POKE MARKET
BY CHEF MICHAEL
Fine dining chef Michael Nguyen returns to his Hawaiian roots with a casual spot at Uncommons for fresh marinated fish. Dine in or pick up a pound and enjoy a little aloha at home. You’ll mahalo me later. pokemarketlv.com
CASPIAN’S ROCK & ROE
Caspian’s Rock & Roe at Caesars is a creative take on tiny fish eggs. The crabby caviar tacos tantalize with a tangy dill chimichurri. There’s also a speakeasy behind the sea captain painting to keep the party pumping. caspianslv.com
CHÉRI ROOFTOP
Audrey Hepburn, who said, “Paris is always a good idea,” would be beguiled by the new Chéri Rooftop under the Eiffel Tower. The sumptuous lobster cobb is packed with Maine lobster, avocado, grapefruit, frisée, and a tangy lemon-thyme vinaigrette. Saint-Tropez being a bit inconvenient, this Strip alternative does just fine for a bougie brunch. cherirooftop.com ✦
roasted fennel, shishito
CHINA MAMA
BRAMÀRE
Back to Basic
Japanese breakfast offers a simple, nourishing alternative to America’s syrup-drenched excess
BY Brent Holmes
It’s a cool dry morning, a late autumn chill drifting through the high desert air. Just past Chinatown’s main plaza, I pull into the legendary Japanese restaurant Ichiza. The earliest izakaya (Japanese-style pub) in the valley, it’s been operating for more than 20 years.
A paragon of Las Vegas’ late-night dining scene, Ichiza gained a reputation as the only place in town where you could get quality Japanese food at 4 a.m. (there are others now). I can tell many tales from my wayward youth of pre-dawn beer pitchers, garlic-chicken gizzards, and honey toast devoured there. The dark wood counter packs with all manner of nightlife ghoul — punk rockers and club kids stretching the last moments of darkness by glutting themselves on rice and yakitori. It’s as boisterous a nightlife establishment as there ever was.
This morning is not that. Mellow J-pop trickles through the speakers as morning light traces the space’s contours. When I enter, the restaurant is empty, apparently in its cleanup and prep phase, judging from the two staff members moving lightly through the dining room and kitchen. The waitress seats me with a kind smile at a window seat and presents me with a Japanese breakfast menu.
Unlike American breakfasts, particularly orgiastic brunches that more closely resemble the Ichiza of 4 a.m., Japanese breakfast is beautifully simple. I can choose from five teishokus, or meal sets consisting of a main dish, soup, rice, and a side. There are options with beef, salmon, mackerel, and poached eggs, as well as chazuke (rice
and other ingredients submerged in tea). Two somewhat heavier outliers stand out on the menu: Udon soup and a morning combo with sausage, eggs, toast, and a salad — the most Western dish on offer. There are a few small sides and onigiri (stuffed rice balls) for lighter fair. It’s a thorough set of choices, if understated, compared to the establishment’s sprawling dinner menu.
I order the saba miso (mackerel) teishoku and am presented with a bowl of rice, miso soup, pickled cucumbers, and a side of cooked spinach in sesame sauce. I add a side of natto, fermented soybeans — an acquired taste, to be sure, but a personal favorite. A light marinade brings out the fish's deep oceanic flavor. The pickles and soup are refreshing, like comfort food from a mother I’ve never known. The meal left me satiated but not stuffed, unlike the heavier breakfasts I’ve been eating all my life. A week later, I’ll return for the same meal, substituting poached egg for the mackerel, and experience the same sense of comfort, albeit among a slightly bigger crowd. A few older couples quietly converse, and two young women chat about their year.
Lately, I find myself most drawn to this option out of the many we have for the first meal of the day. Most are over-sweetened, over-sauced, and calorically dense. American-style breakfast is full of cheese, fatty meat, and triple-stacked, whippedcream-on-top gimmicks built to pummel the senses. The Japanese breakfast at Ichiza is a cure for this excess. It proposes that a morning meal can be just that, a meal — not an event, nor a bottomless pass for day-drinking to dance music. Just clean, fulfilling food that I can enjoy in a contemplative corner of the world for a few moments before starting my day. ✦
ICHIZA 1 ORIGINAL
DINING
Eat, Drink, Love
Need a suggestion for a romantic meal? Here are five
BY John Curtas
Iwith soft lighting, cozy tables, and a menu of updated Italian classics which give you plenty to talk about in between all your smooching.
Couples of a more mature vintage might need something more spectacular to stir their blood, and no restaurant in Las Vegas combines inventive, dynamic northern Italian food with a view better than Vetri Cucina , fifty-six floors up at the Palms.
More down to earth is the Chinatown-adjacent Edo Gastro Tapas & Wine — a snug, trendsetting Spaniard that nestles forty seats into a sliver of a space in a strip mall, and dishes up award-winning tapas, jamón, and carpaccio that will keep both of you swooning.
’m a bit long in the tooth to give advice on romance, but Valentine’s Day is one occasion where I’m comfortable giving recommendations — for a place to eat. Nothing says “I love you” quite like clinking glasses in the right restaurant setting while professionals fawn over you. As with love, the ideal romantic meal can come in many different packages. What might be perfect for young couples eager to make a good impression might not fit for established ones seeking to rekindle a flame, or oldsters looking for a special night out away from their usual routine. Whoever you are, you likely will want some place with dark, quiet alcoves made for canoodling and cooking memorable enough to create a lasting impression. Food may not be the primary point of the evening, but you need enough palate-pleasing distractions to smooth over any awkward silences or fumbled proposals. The cutting-edge Basilico Ristorante Italiano fits this bill,
Just down the street, foodie-favorite Raku has been inspiring love affairs (both of the heart and with Japanese food) since its opening 16 years ago. For a bustling izakaya, it retains a soothing, muted atmosphere for those enamored of sharing top-shelf sushi, sake, and yakitori skewers.
Finally, nothing gets the heart beating faster than beef, and when it comes to aged steaks served with amour, nothing tops Mae Daly’s, downtown’s newest steakhouse, which checks all the surf and turf boxes you’ll need to meat with that special someone. ✦
EDO
VETRI CUCINA
FOR HOME DELIVERY
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The Bad Plus March 23, 5p & 8p; $45-74; Myron’s
est-profile orchestra the Nas ceived 2024 live collaboration with rapper Nas, focusing on , gets a second engagement in February Feb. 5, 7-8, 8p; ).
For lovers wanting to extend the Las returns to Reynolds Hall for a post-holiday program that will climax fittingly Suite from Romeo ductor Joseph Young and pianist
Winter is hardly the cultural doldrums in Southern Nevada. The September-to-May calendars of many local arts and educational institutions mean capital-C culture happenings abound, even though seasonal offerings have waned.
The portraits of Las Vegas-born artist Q’Shaundra James are largely influenced by W.E.B. Du Bois’ motif of “the veil” that obscures how Black Americans see themselves, largely because of racist white narratives and predominant stereotypes. But James and her subjects’ attempt to cast aside the veil — as well as the legacy of slavery and the canonization of European art — through the sitters’ expressions and the painter’s interpretations of those sitters. James’ portraits will be on display through both Black and women’s history months, until April 5, at Left of Center Gallery (Tue-Sat,
é Nas with the Las Vegas Philharmonic Feb. 5, 7-8, 8p; $125+; Encore Theater
hours vary; free; leftofcenterart.org). Theater thrives in the winter with quantity, quality … and variety. A Public Fit takes aim at Sam Shepard’s True West at SST Studio Theater, transforming it into a suburban kitchen to stage just what every Southern Nevadan wants to see: two Californians arguing. Jokes aside, this sibling-rivalry chestnut is one of Shepard’s best (Feb. 7-March 3, times vary; $35-45; apublicfit.org). Meanwhile, more of a family-ap -
propriate than a family-centered play, Rainbow Company’s interpretation of The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical — itself an adaptation of the beloved YA novel The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan turns kid actors into gods … sorta (Feb. 28-March 9, times vary; $8; Charleston Heights Arts Center; lasvegasnevada.gov). The Smith Center’s side room, Myron’s, favors Broadway crooners, smooth-jazz headliners, and
Local film buffs usually are busy cramming award-bait titles ahead of the Oscars, but they’ll want to escape the cineplexes and head to Boulder City for the 21st Dam Short Film Festival, which draws an international gaggle of filmmakers and their shorts. Choose from more than 30 multi-short programs covering several categories — including the most important one of all: Nevada (Feb. 12-17, times vary; $12.50-300; Elaine K. Smith Building; damshortfilm.org).
Martha Wainwright March 29, 7p; $45-68; Myron’s
Branford Marsalis March 7-8, times vary; $63-109; Myron’s
BOOKS Does Your
Love
Life Lack Fire? Tonya Todd Has the Spark
Ahh, love. All at once exciting, nerve-wracking, and ... confusing. Local author Tonya Todd’s forthcoming interactive self-help book, 52 Love, aims to dispel said confusion, one week at a time. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, consider picking up a copy if you’re:
• A couples newbie! This book is made for you. It’s full of suggestions for your first romantic rodeo, so to speak — from giving your partner your full attention to spicing up your budding intimate life. (Spoiler: the latter may involve bubble baths and food.) Read it all in one go for a megadose of relational how-to, or microdose it the way Todd intends by taking to heart one entry per week in a year.
lounge/cover acts. But in March, its calendar lands some big gets for fans of less commercial music. We can’t find any evidence that two of the month’s performers — the uncategorizeable jazz quartet The Bad Plus ( March 22, 5p & 8p; $45-74) and singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright (March 29, 7p; $45-68) — have ever played Las Vegas. And more traditional music fans won’t be grumbling that jazz impresario Branford Marsalis and his quartet (March 7-8, times vary; $63-109) and Irish folk/roots favorite Runa ( March 14, 7p; $45-68; thesmithcenter.com) are due back in the intimate venue.
show featuring older works from the Barrick collection alongside those from guest artists Yoko Kondo Konopik, Naes Pierott, and Beck+Col (whose contribution is their playful horror film Red Night ). The Window Gallery will feature local artist Gabriella Rodriguez’s fabric-kissed painting “Al Amanecer,” and over in the WorkShop Gallery is Women’s Rights Are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-Based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination. It offers a wide spectrum of design styles — and sociopolitical topics — through posters curated by Massachusetts College of Art and Design’s Elizabeth Resnick ( Jan. 17-May 17, hours vary; free; unlv. edu/barrickmuseum). ✦
Finally, UNLV has announced its spring-semester exhibits for the Barrick Museum. Brightening up the West Gallery is Color Made , a group
FOR MANY MORE cultural event recommendations, see The Guide online, read See Hear Do in our weekly newsletter, or tune in to “KNPR’s State of Nevada.”
• A relationship struggler. I get it; it can be hard to remember your lover sometimes, especially as life and relationships get complicated (often simultaneously). Maybe you’re transitioning from a situationship to a commitment, getting back on the dating horse after a break, or simply score low in the “conscientiousness” category of the Big Five – hey, no shame in that! For you, a key feature of the book will be the reflection pages after each entry, which invite you to challenge pre-existing habits.
• My first boyfriend.
Whether you’re trying to love the one you’re with, or loving the idea of getting with someone period, your boo will thank you. – Anne Davis
52 Love: Weekly Love Lessons in Bite-Sized Bits by Tonya Todd 230 pages, $19.99 Accomplishing Innovation Press
ARTISANS
Lei-bor of Love
702 Haku Lei keeps an important Hawaiian tradition alive
BY Maicyn Udani
The Pacific and the Mojave may seem like opposites, but they have in common warmth — not only the temperature, but also the aloha spirit that more than 40,000 migrants from Hawai’i have carried across the ocean to their desert home. Since the 1970s, Las Vegas has attracted Hawaiians with its bright lights and affordable lifestyle. The cost of this opportunity is the struggle to keep their Hawaiian culture alive.
Tyra Stovall-Ha’o (above left) is doing her part by practicing the Hawaiian tradition of lei-making.
A lei is a flower garland made with materials from the land. It can be worn on various parts of the body, such as one’s ‘ā‘ī (neck) or po‘o (head). In Hawaiian culture, lei is both an art form and a gift symbolizing love, respect, and aloha. It’s an ancient tradition brought to Hawai’i by early Polynesian voyagers more than 800 years ago. Today, it’s being carried to places outside the Pacific, including Las Vegas, where Stovall-Ha’o’s mother, Levani Ha’o (above right), started 702 Haku Lei in 2014.
Stovall-Ha’o moved from O’ahu to Las Vegas when she was 8 years old. She was only a teenager when her mother had the idea for a lei-making business. Stovall-Ha’o’s cousin was approaching her high school graduation, a popular occasion for decorating others with lei. Being new to Las Vegas and having trouble finding lei-makers in the area, Levani Ha’o decided to make her own. The business was born.
“She taught me how to make lei growing up,” Stovall-Ha’o said. “Seeing how she taught others, I kind of kept that instilled in my head.”
Stovall-Ha’o took over 702 Haku Lei in 2023. Now 25 years old, she’s running the business. Not only does she get to focus on the craft of lei-making, but also, she finds connection to her ancestry. She believes it’s important to keep the tradition alive, especially so far from home, in a place where many think leis are just a “trendy accessory.” Her friend and fellow lei-maker, Lindsey Oshiro-Nacapuy, agrees. “We’re here to share our ‘ike, our knowledge,” Oshiro-Nacapuy says.
“We’re here to share our ‘ike, our knowledge”
— Lindsey OshiroNacapuy
Lei were originally worn by people with status in ancient Hawai’i such as chiefs, kings, and queens, Oshiro-Nacapuy says. Today, a person doesn’t need to be of such status or even Hawaiian to wear lei, she says; anyone can participate, provided they understand the significance of what they are giving and/or wearing. Though most lei born of the so-called “ninth island” can’t be woven from flowers of the tropics, the spirit of lei can be captured using flowers available locally.
Stovall-Ha’o says lei-making is not just something anyone can immediately pick up. There are tedious steps to achieve the final form. She describes it as a “labor of love.”
This comes through in both the product and the community that Stovall-Ha’o and Oshiro-Nacapuy have created.
Tyra StovallHa’o, left, and her mother, Levani Ha’o, right, honor their homeland through the art of lei-making
“They never gatekeep their lei knowledge,” Las Vegas local Ashley Mendoza says. Mendoza has been a customer of 702 Haku Lei since 2023. She enjoys supporting a small local business and appreciates how they always give back to the community. “That makes me love them even more.” ✦
Family Jam
A Las Vegas couple and their son continue the tradition of Hawaiian cowboy music
BY Aleza Freeman
When Gary Kawiliau Haleamau, now 59, was growing up on Hu‘ehu‘e Ranch on the Big Island of Hawaii, music was integral to his family. He often watched as his parents, uncles, and aunts played their instruments, and though his mom would say “little things like you should be seen and not heard,” she allowed him to stay. That’s how he learned to play Hawaiian music.
Many years later, living in Las Vegas, Haleamau bought an upright bass for his wife, Sheldeen Kaleimomi Haleamau. “I tried to teach her, but it was really tough,” he recalls. “Then one day, we were sitting in the living room, and we heard the bass playing, and I’m like, ‘What is that?’”
It turned out their son, Kurin Pomaika’imaikeakua Haleamau, 10 years old at the time, was playing the instrument. Just like his father before him, Kurin had learned to play Hawaiian music by watching.
“My heart was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s what I need,’” Gary says. “So, I looked at my wife and said, ‘You’re fired. He’s my bass player from now on.’”
Sheldeen, who is also a hula instructor, learned to play the ukulele instead. The trio formulated a band, Kāwili, that has been playing together now for more than 16 years.
Gary and Kurin have shared their love for Hawaiian music at the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko in the past, and were scheduled (as of press time) to perform there
again this year. Gary and his own father, a Hawaiian cowboy, or paniolo, had represented their home state at cowboy poetry gatherings throughout the country for many years. He, Sheldeen, and Kurin have continued the tradition since they moved to Las Vegas in 1999.
Kurin explains that Hawaiian music and poetry are pretty much one and the same. “It’s all symbolism and metaphor and stuff like that,” he said.
As for the cowboy connection, the Haleamaus say Hawaiian music as we know it today wouldn’t exist without paniolos.
were new to Hawaiian music. The paniolos, much like mainland cowboys, would sit around the fire, play music, sing songs, and tell stories. Hawaiian music, including an open-tuning style for the guitar called kī hō‘alu, or slack-key, was born.
The Haleamau family performs with many musicians and Hawaiian groups, but Gary says performing with his wife and son is unique. “I don’t know — there’s just something about it,” he says.
HERITAGE SONG
Gary and Kurin
Haleamau honor their ancestry through music.
Following the introduction of cows to Hawaii in the late 18th century, the cattle population exploded. In the early 19th century, Mexican and Spanish vaqueros arrived, teaching Hawaiians to wrangle cattle. The cultural fusion created a distinctive cowboy culture — including the influence of stringed instruments, which
Along with poetry gatherings and other community festivals, the family also performs at events in the Discovery Children’s Museum, where Gary and Kurin both work. “We have so much gratitude to be able to share our music, our culture,” Gary says.
Kurin adds: “To connect with the past, that old vibe, I guess you could call it … I think that’s what, if anything, makes it special, because the root is so deep.” ✦
NOW HEAR THIS
Two Vegas music-lovers riff on their favorite local love songs
BY Christopher Alvarez
If any subject has inspired more art than love, we’d like to know what it is … next time. For now, we’re running with Cupid’s prolific starring role — in the Vegas music scene specifically. Eric Duran-Valle, musician and regular Desert Companion contributor, and Gaby Davila Ortiz, founder of local zine Astr0Mag, share the local love songs they’re loving lately.
HIGHSIERRACLUB
CHOICE TRACK:
“WRITE YOU A LETTER”
This pop-punk band delivers a high-energy, head-banging track infused with the unmistakable DNA of blue album-era Weezer. In the age of instant messaging, read receipts, and ghosting, is there anything more romantic than someone willing to send you snail mail? Anyone who knows me well can probably figure out where I stand. I also don’t think I’ve heard any song use a “SpongeBob SquarePants” quote as a segue into a guitar solo, and I hate how well it works here. —Eric Duran-Valle
RHAINAYASMIN
CHOICE TRACK: “INTO DUST “
“Into Dust” goes a different direction when it comes to the traditional love song. Like other Rhaina Yasmin songs, this one is nostalgic. With a tenderness to her voice, she reflects on a life she once knew while facing the uncertainty of the future. This rock ballad is a love song to the self, to who we are, to who we’re becoming, and to all the other elements that shape us. —Gaby Davila Ortiz
PASTSELF
CHOICE TRACK:
EULO”)
K-goth, post-punk band Past Self tells a tale of love amid the chaos of political strife with “Bulkkoch Eulo.” It’s hypnotic and danceable, with the synth masking the reality of this romantic tragedy. Its lyrics describe laying down your life for the one you love because, rest assured, soulmates find each other in every lifetime. What’s more romantic than that? —GDO
HEAR these love songs for yourself on KNPR’s State of Nevada.
THEREDSEA
CHOICE TRACK: “GATE OF TEARS”
With the reunion of My Bloody Valentine in 2007 and Slowdive in 2014, the shoegaze subgenre of indie rock had a significant renaissance in the late 2010s and early 2020s. “Gate Of Tears” carries on the genre’s angsty tradition with wobbly yet relaxing guitar solos, while also injecting a slight dance flavor with a spacey synth. This ballad about lost love has no antagonist, but rather two wayward souls navigating a wide gulf. —EDV
BABYMOON
CHOICE TRACK: “TWIN FLAMES”
When people grow out of using the term, “soulmate,” but still want a title for a helplessly romantic connection, they go with twin flame. The lyrics of singer-songwriter Nataly Correa’s (aka Baby Moon’s) “Twin Flames” dance between lovestruck, erotic, and desperate. The voice in this track seems self-aware of her sentimental gushing over a lover, but the sultry hook of the song makes clear that she’s in too much ecstasy to care —EDV
SABRIEL
CHOICE TRACK: “FIGGYPOM”
In our modern day of situationships and heartbreak, Sabriel writes a prayer for love. Inspired by Prince’s “The Beautiful Ones,” Sabriel uses double entendres to beg for a love so pure it almost seems like a fantasy. Her spoken word vocals over distorted instruments lure you in as she yearns to be seen “from the inside” by a future lover. —GDO
Using the arts in the classroom set young people up for success by fostering deeper thinking, enlivening instruction, and strengthening understanding; all which help close the achievement gap and improve the test scores of Nevada students.
To that we say, encore.
Immigration
ONE NATION UNDER GOD, DIVISIBLE
How Trump’s immigration agenda is dividing families, confounding officials, and threatening critical industries across the Mountain West
By Rachel Cohen, Yvette Fernandez, and Manuel Holguin, Jr.
President Donald Trump made immigration a top issue in his 2024 campaign. His message appeared to resonate, with 47 percent of respondents to a Gallup poll last spring saying illegal migration mattered a “great deal” to them. Since winning the election, Trump has made day-one deportation of millions of migrants a major feature of his administration’s agenda. That’s sent a chill across the Mountain West, particularly among “mixed-status” families, who include both documented and undocumented migrants. As state and local officials wrestle with the legal details and moral consequences of removing huge numbers of residents, economists speculate that it could have dire unintended consequences. In this series by the Mountain West News Bureau, three reporters examine how Trump’s immigration policies might impact the social and economic fabric of the region.
‘I WON’T GO’
Last December, St. Peter Canisius Catholic Church in Nevada’s Washoe County hosted its posada. It is a common sight during the Christmas season among
A family kneels in prayer during the posada at St. Peter Canisius Catholic Church in Sun Valley.
largely Hispanic congregations. The celebration commemorates Joseph and Mary’s trek to Bethlehem in search of a sanctuary to give birth to Jesus.
Amid the multi day celebrations, St. Peter’s offered a modern-day parallel: A “Know Your Rights” workshop — a safe space for immigrants to gather, not only for prayer, but also to learn about immigration law.
Kyle Edgerton, an immigration attorney, addressed the crowd in Spanish, saying bluntly: “Your civil rights will be violated. Okay? It will happen. The idea is that if we understand and practice our rights, we have a solution down the road.”
Edgerton partnered with the church, other immigration attorneys, and rights advocacy groups, addressing the immigrant community’s growing fear of President Donald Trump’s promises of mass deportation.
Following his inauguration on January 20, the president signed several executive orders making sweeping changes to immigration and border security.
To add to the anxiety, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, along with 26 other Republican governors, has pledged support for Trump’s immigration policies and hinted at the prospect of deploying the National Guard to fulfill Trump’s agenda.
“Together, we will continue to defend the American people, uphold the rule of law, and ensure our nation remains safe and secure for future generations. We stand ready to utilize every tool at our disposal,” a statement by the governor’s office reads.
It’s this kind of rhetoric that led advocates for families to organize the workshops. They provide basic information on how to handle situations such as encounters with immigration officers or law enforcement, protect oneself from scams, and access legal resources.
Tu Casa Latina, a northern Nevada nonprofit offering relief and support to immigrant victims of crimes, domestic violence, abuse, and trafficking, has seen the anxiety
of community members who reach out and ask for guidance.
“Those are some of the calls that we’re getting, ‘Should I pack up? What should I do? I’m afraid for my children,’” says the organization’s executive director, Sandra Quiroz. “All we can do is prepare them.”
Among the large turnout at the recent workshop was Ana Maria Escobedo and her husband, Leobardo. The couple migrated to the U.S. 23 years ago with their son, who is a DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipient. They have built a life in Nevada and had two more children born in the U.S.
This family dynamic creates a “mixed-status” household.
Leobardo and Ana Maria have been providing for their family by working in construction and operating a food truck — a business they see thriving after only two years and against plenty of competition.
From inside her food truck parked on the main street, Ana Maria and her youngest son Brandon Escobedo,19, reflect on what feels like a swelling blow with no remedy.
“Now that this is forthcoming, we’re trying to quickly find something,” Ana Maria says. She attended the workshop to potentially start the process to obtain U.S. lawful permanent residency — getting a green card.
But she says the lawyers on the list they were provided have a fourmonth wait for consultations. That doesn’t count the estimated years it could take for a case to be completed, and there’s no guarantee of approval.
“It’s worrying, because of the things one hears,” Ana Maria says in Spanish. “My kids are older now, but it’s still worrying to leave them.”
“I won’t go,” Brandon says. Even though he laughs, he’s unable to escape the fear of uncertainty.
“Like everyone, I’m worried for my mom and dad,” he says. “If that does happen — if they get deported — I’m not sure what I would do, to be honest with you.”
The Escobedo family is far from alone. Nationally, 48 percent of households with at least one undoc-
“I’m worried for my mom and dad.”
—Brandon Escobedo
umented resident have a U.S.-born child, according to the Center For Migration Studies.
That means 5.5 million American children are growing up in homes at risk of deportation or family separation. In communities like Sun Valley, north of Reno, where immigrant families form the backbone of businesses and schools, the stakes are even higher.
Leobardo has been preparing for moments like this as best he can. He has been diligently filing his taxes every year since his arrival in the U.S., using an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. This is the tool provided for undocumented immigrants to contribute to the tax system.
Leobardo has fulfilled his financial obligations, but he can’t help but feel the system is inherently unfair, that it takes advantage of undocumented workers. Despite being excluded from many benefits and protections, people like him continue to contribute, often with little acknowledgment, he says. Yet, he takes pride in doing things the right way.
“I’ve always done what’s right, but it’s frustrating to see how we’re treated differently,” Leobardo says. – Manuel Holguin, Jr.
TO HELP OR RESIST
At an annual meeting of the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association, Kieran Donahue, the sheriff of rural Canyon County, Idaho, blends into a Boise conference room full of suits and cowboy hats. He says he’s heard of President Donald Trump’s and so-called “border czar” Tom Homan’s plans to carry out the largest deportation campaign in American history — a campaign that will likely rely on local law enforcement officers like him.
NOTE: This story was edited for length by Desert Companion Find full stories and broadcasts here.
“I’m very supportive,” Donahue said — if, he qualifies, the incoming administration does what it’s suggested and focuses on people with criminal records.
Donahue is also the president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, representing more than 3,000 county sheriffs across the country.
He thinks most are on board, even eager, to support an immigration crackdown.
“Their citizens are suffering under the onslaught of the criminality, anywhere from this massive shoplifting or breaking into stores, up to ... rape and murder,” he says.
However, many studies show immigrants with and without legal status commit crimes at rates lower than U.S.-born citizens. And while governors and local officials in conservative states are gearing up to collaborate with the Trump administration, Democratic-led cities and states are preparing to respond.
In Colorado, for example, lawmakers are working to strengthen existing state laws that protect immigrant communities and restrict local law enforcement agencies’ involvement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or “ICE.” Many of these policies stem from efforts by state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Democrat who was first elected in 2018.
“We realized that we had the opportunity, as local community members here (and) as Coloradans, to push back and say, ‘You know what, ICE, you do your job, but stop using local law enforcement to do your job for you,’” she says, in her office at the state capitol in Denver.
The legal patchwork across the region could spark clashes with the Trump administration, as the incoming president’s immigration plan faces varying levels of support and resistance, depending on the political landscape.
WHILE THE FEDERAL government is responsible for civil immigration enforcement, state and local governments can play a role in how the laws are applied. Donahue says sheriffs are uniquely positioned to assist ICE because they’re directly elected by voters and not accountable to mayors or city councils. They also run county jails.
Currently, Donahue’s jail holds individuals arrested and suspected to be in the U.S. without proper legal status to be picked up by ICE, if federal agents request it. Local law enforcement may also inquire about someone’s immigration status and share information with ICE about immigrants who don’t have legal status and are charged with crimes.
Donahue hopes that in President Trump’s current term, sheriffs will be empowered to do more to help with federal immigration enforcement. For example, he says, the administration could decrease
barriers for local jails to hold more immigrants charged with crimes, funneling them into the immigration system.
“We may do surveillance, and then be there in certain cases to assist in the apprehension and taking them into custody,” he says, in cases involving individuals accused of “serious” crimes. “We stand ready to assist in that because I want my community (to be) safer.”
But Donahue emphasizes that, in most cases, sheriffs do not have the authority to enforce federal immigration laws on their own. While Trump could expand a program known as 287(g), which allows participating local law enforcement agencies to act as ICE in certain cases, there are practical challenges. Many sheriffs’ offices are already stretched thin and lack the personnel to take on additional responsibilities.
“This is a daily job for us — we’re doing this stuff daily and nightly,” Donahue says. “I think one challenge for sheriffs across the country will be, how do they allocate additional resources to the administration, if asked.”
In contrast, in states such as Colorado, laws limit the reach of local law enforcement in immigration enforcement. Gonzales, the state senator, worked on successful legislation that blocks law enforcement from arresting or holding people solely based on immigration-related charges; bars local governments from entering into immigration detention contracts with ICE; and prohibits state agencies from sharing personal information with ICE unless courtordered.
“It’s our way of living our values, and saying, ‘You are part of our state; you are part of this community,’” she says. She adds that it also undermines public safety when people fear law enforcement.
WHETHER LOCAL JURISDICTIONS double down on cooperating with ICE or state lawmakers push for stronger protections, a large-scale deportation campaign — and media attention surrounding it — could have far-reaching consequences across the region.
Nevada has one of the highest per-capita rates of undocumented residents in the country; Colorado is home to about 150,000 people without legal status; and in Idaho, an estimated three-quarters of unauthorized immigrant adults have been in the state for at least six years.
“It is sad,” Donahue says, “it is going to be disruptive, but right now, I don’t see another avenue forward.”
Gonzales wants to minimize that disruption as much as possible, but she says she also doesn’t want to provide the community with false hope.
“Know that in Colorado, we are working to strengthen the protections that exist,” she says. “But ICE is going to do what ICE is going to do.” – Rachel
Cohen
BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, GONE
“This is the greatest economy in the world. But this economy needs workers,” said Culinary Union spokesman Ted Pappageorge, while on the picket line in Las Vegas in December 2023. “These are hard-working people who deserve a path to citizenship.”
Striking hospitality workers won their battle for new work contracts at most local resort-casinos in 2024. Most of Culinary’s members are immigrants, according to Pappageorge.
Across Mountain West states, immigrants without legal status are a big part of the economy. An estimated 813,000 of them have a combined household income of roughly $26.8 billion dollars — and pay billions more in state and federal taxes.
Following Trump’s threat of mass deportations, these workers fear raids. Dulce Santiago works at a Las Vegas casino resort and worries about her co-workers — and the country.
“This is a melting pot country, and immigrants are the backbone of that. I truly believe that,” says Santiago, a U.S.-born worker, who participated in the culinary strike. “It really bothers me when people say (immigrants) are here to take jobs or that they get government benefits,” she says, explaining that workers pay taxes but don’t get benefits such as food stamps or other public assistance.
While immigrants and public officials alike are uncertain how mass deportations would be carried out across the country, economists are sounding alarms over the potential impacts. Robert Lynch is an economics professor at Washington College in Philadelphia and the co-author of a national study about the implications of mass deportations.
“The economy of the United States would shrink between about 2.6 percent and 6.8 percent. And, just to put that in dollar terms, that’s on the order of
$1 to $2 trillion per year,” Lynch said, during an online discussion with other economists and demographers in November 2024.
Lynch discussed in-depth studies about previous mass deportation efforts from the 1930s to the early 2000s. He says these efforts ultimately caused more harm than benefit. A recent example was Arizona’s “show me your papers” era.
“In the case of Arizona, the departure of 40 percent of their undocumented workers between 2008 and 2015 reduced Arizona’s economy by about two percentage points and decreased total employment by about two and a half percent,” he says. “Ironically, given the program’s intent in Arizona, non-college educated white men were among the hardest hit, experiencing a lower employment rate on the order of about four percent.”
That trickles down to Mountain West states and could impact several industries, including hospitality in Nevada, where casinos set records in 2024, generating more than $15 billion, according to gaming revenue statistics. Hospitality
is also a top industry in other states, says David Kallick, Director of the Immigration Research Initiative, a nonprofit which advocates for immigration reform. Other industries that could be hardhit include construction, home care, meatpacking, forestry, and agriculture. In Idaho, the dairy industry relies heavily on immigrant workers. “Almost all of the employed dairy workers are likely to be immigrants. So, the dairy industry is very likely to be really drastically affected,” Kallick says.
Among six Mountain West states — Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Idaho — immigrants without legal status contribute $5.6 billion dollars in taxes, according to the American Immigration Council, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization.
“If you remove from the American economy 11 million people, 8 million of whom work and earn hundreds of billions of dollars every year and spend hundreds of millions — hundreds of billions, I should say — of dollars on food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and thousands of other goods and services, then what will happen
GET OUT. PLAY DIRTY.
is, American businesses will find that their sales are declining by hundreds of billions of dollars,” Lynch says.
It’s not just about losing workers and their buying power, experts argue; it’s about losing workers and the families they establish, the roots they put down in the United States, and the lives they build here.
Back in Las Vegas, workers like Roxanna (whose last name is withheld), a line cook at a resort-casino who has U.S.-born children, are waiting to see what happens.
“We try to keep our children calm,” she says in Spanish. “I hope that we can stay in this country.” – Yvette Fernandez ✦
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Photo Essay
SHORTENING THE DISTANCE
‘Desire lines’ point to our urban planners’ indifference to pedestrians
Photography and Text
By Clement Gelly
When I got into grad school in Las Vegas, I was living in France. I called up one of the program’s professors and asked him what it was really like living there. “You know in Europe, how they have those 1,000-year-old cathedrals with marble steps that have been worn concave and smooth by centuries of feet climbing them?” he asked. “You’re not gonna find any of that here. The oldest buildings are, like, 60 years old.” Vegas is little more than 100 years old, he explained, and regularly demolishes its limited material history without a second thought. The broader implication, I think, was that Vegas is not subject to the accumulated habits of a populace, but rather rises and falls at the whim of a few rich men.
Perhaps because of this disclaimer — or warning — I arrived on the lookout for signs of a city ground down from use. Vegas is for cars: The major roads are three lanes wide and neatly gridded, and coming from the bustling pedestrian streets of Europe, I found the city empty of people. Someone here and there at a bus stop, often seemingly ready to pass out from the heat, not climb the steps of a cathedral. No marble steps, maybe, but thousands of cars a day in 100-degree heat do make wheel ruts in the asphalt.
It wasn’t until an extended period without a car that I started to see the city on foot. Those wide roads and right angles worked well for wheels, but they sucked for walking. The crosswalks were dangerous, and the distance from the sidewalk to the parking lot to the strip mall store always made me feel out of scale, like I was in a land of giants.
Then I started to find “desire lines,” footpaths created not by design but by hundreds and hundreds of people taking the same shortcuts. Desire lines are most common in parks and woods, easy to spot as a trail of packed brown dirt cutting across a grassy field. In Vegas, they’re harder to see, lighter areas of tan through a gravel planter or packed sand. They’re often at busy intersections, offering the shortest path from the street corner to the parking lot, or linking bus stops with convenience stores — where everyday life thwarts the best-laid plans of planners and developers. They don’t announce themselves or sign their names in neon. With a heavy rain, a fair few could be washed away. Property owners rake them, too — some depicted here are already gone. But give it a month or three, and the people of Las Vegas will wear them back in. ✦
BLAZING TRAILS
Flamingo and Maryland, near Target
Craig Road and North Commerce Street
Spring Mountain Road and Arville Street next to PT’s Gold
Rainbow and Oakey boulevards
East Charleston Boulevard near Spencer Street, by Tacos El Gordo
Spring Mountain Road and Durango Drive, next to the Desert Breeze basketball courts
Audrie Street, behind the Paris parking garage
SON OF OURS
How I learned to let go of fear and trust my only child with a second father figure
BY Joe Schoenmann
The warnings came from friends. When I’d tell them I was getting divorced, one thing they would say was: “If Kate remarries, you won’t like it when your son tells another man, ‘I love you.’”
I heard them. I just didn’t believe it. I thought I was above the petty jealousy it implied.
To my ex-wife’s credit, when divorce was inevitable, she said what I’d been thinking but was too sheepish to utter: “We have to remain friends” — for our son, for his happiness. And, as I learned many years later, for ours. It made sense to me at a visceral level, and also from my experience as a longtime crime reporter. I’d witnessed the fury of divorce through stories about felonies and misdemeanors committed by and against exes. I’d seen countless children used as pawns in family court by parents determined to inflict pain on the person they used to love.
In my mind, nothing was more important than my son’s happiness. And if Kate found someone new and remarried — and if my son loved that man as a father, and he loved my son the way I do — how could that be bad? At least, that’s what I told myself.
At the same time, a nagging thought was never far from my mind: Is this going to ruin our son? Is our divorce going to be the millstone he carries, the destructive cycle he repeats as he grows into a man? I had no good examples to follow, just this advice from a therapist: “The longer you wait (to get divorced) after he’s 2 years old, the greater the psychological impact will be.”
He was almost 3. The therapist’s advice was all I had. Like every parent, I had no idea what to expect.
ONE THING KATE and I decided right off the bat was that we weren’t going to force our son to go from one home to another. We were divorcing — why should he be the one who had to uproot himself each week? So, we settled on him staying with her in what had been our house in marriage. I would try to find another home as close as possible to them. The idea was this: I’d have a key to their house; I’d always be welcome there; and I’d be able to see my son as often as I liked. I’d go in the morning, get him ready for school, and drop him off, or I’d pick him up in the afternoon
and take him home — sometimes both. Sounds easy, right? Well, there were some pretty big hurdles to getting there. No reporter is rich, and this was in the mid2000s when home values were skyrocketing. So, when I won the bid for a house a few blocks away, I cashed in my 401k to make a large enough down payment to afford the monthly mortgage payments. (Warning: Pay all the 401k early-withdrawal penalties! The IRS will remember, if you don’t.)
Then, when Kate started dating, I wanted to meet the guys to get a sense of their character. One was a magician; one was a chef; there might’ve been a banker in there somewhere. I didn’t care what they did for a living, but I wondered if they’d be good for my son. Would I grow to like them? And back to my friends’ warnings: How would I feel if my son ended up loving one of them as a parent? As “Dad.”
ONE MORNING, WHILE I made my son breakfast — scrambled eggs, which I made every morning when I went to their house to get him ready for school — Kate pulled up a dating website. There was Todd’s photo. I could tell immediately: “I like him,” I said. I still did after meeting him — and still do. We had similar senses of humor. I admired how he infused his immense creativity into business.
But the question lingered: How would I take it if he was “the one” for Kate, and my son ended up calling him “Dad”? And how do you parent one kid with three people? Would my son divorce me from his idea of a father? Would my ego be able to let go?
Over time, Todd left Portland for Las Vegas, moving in with Kate and my son. That was when the arrangement began to come into focus. Very quickly, Todd and I became fast friends. The four of us did holidays together. Todd and Kate announced their engagement in Oregon at his family’s Thanksgiving dinner, which I attended. He and I started writing scripts together under a production company we named “Co-dads.” I looked forward to hanging out with him and, to my surprise, with Kate.
A few years after Todd had moved in, my son started calling me “Joe” and his stepdad, “Todd,” to avoid confusion — because when he yelled “Dad!” we’d both answer. When we visited my mom in Wisconsin,
she heard him use the new moniker and gasped, “Did he just call you Joe?” I told her that I liked it. Being called “Joe” made me feel like he was talking to the real me, not a figurative father.
I’ll admit there were moments when I wondered if I was the dad he liked more. I’d swallow those thoughts. This seemed to be working, and I only needed to see my son’s happiness to know that.
IT TOOK A while, but I started to see all three of us parents in our son. From Todd, the filmmaker and screenwriter, he began to devour movies, then start his own writing. From Kate, he got this professorial analysis — impressive but, frankly, sometimes annoying. (“First, Dad,” he’d say, and then make his opening argument. Then, he’d raise another finger for points two, three, and four.)
From me? My dry, odd humor, perhaps. I’m shyer than he is, but he’d say he gets his verve from me, as well as a curiosity about everything.
And that amalgamation fed into his own innate charisma. He took up painting, then learned to play instruments, write music, and do so much more that none of us does. He’s in college in the Pacific Northwest now, studying sociology and business. We are all equally proud of him.
To this day, almost 20 years later, I see the doubtful look when I tell people my exwife and her husband are my best friends, when I tell them Todd and I have traveled places to write scripts together. We laugh about what people think, seeing us daily in a coffee shop writing. And we share those stories with my son.
It was at my mom’s funeral six years ago where I got a clear idea of the impact the divorce had on him. In church, my brother’s wife was marveling at the relationship we three parents had. My son perked up: “Yeah, and I’m the beneficiary,” he said.
I don’t know if our situation can be replicated by anyone, but if it can, this is the key: Think of your children, if you have them. And think of the friend you had in the person — your ex — you might hate right now.
You never know; they may end up with someone who becomes a best friend. Or your kid’s Dad 2. ✦
TO BE
Objects of Desire
For these collectors, love is a tangible thing — or two, or 2,000
BY Sarah Bun
If you love something, set it free. Or, put it on a shelf or wall, or in a display case. If you love it a lot, keep your eyes peeled for its familiars. Then, preserve them, too. Voila! You’ve become a collector. In its extreme, this pastime leads to countless loved objects to enjoy — enough to fill a museum. Here are a few notable local examples.
PHOTOGRAPHY by Gregg Carnes
JESSICA ORECK
Collector of miniatures
Jessica Oreck’s museum houses imperfect things. Unplayable dice, lonely dominoes, lost buttons, and missing doll arms have all found renewed purpose in her collection, housed until recently in her quirky storefront, The Office of Collecting and Design. She says these forgotten objects are “essentially purposeless, obsolete,” but with her, they get a second chance. Oreck finds joy in sharing them with others, who have come from as far away as Russia and Australia. When people see a button, she says, it reminds them of how they used to run their fingers through their grandmother’s buttons. “Memories tie us together as humans,” she says.
As a kid, Oreck yearned to be a long-haul trucker or a librarian. In the spring and fall of 2025, she’ll combine these dreams and take her museum on the road in a trailer. Like the items in her collection, Oreck says, her museum is taking on a “whole different life.”
BRETT FOX
Collector of spy gadgets
When private investigator Brett Fox was 12 years old, his friend gave him a suction-cup microphone he could use to tap phone calls between his brother and his girlfriend. “I just thought I was the coolest person in the world,” Fox says. “I knew stuff he didn’t know I knew.” That impetus led Fox to open what would eventually become CoolCat Spy Gadgets in 1996. Inside the store is a spy museum showcasing such paraphernalia as celebrity-signed spy movie posters, a night vision binocular headset from the Vietnam War, and other objects from Fox’s decades of collecting. He also stocks countersurveillance items, self-defense tools, lie detectors, and even fart sprays. He says when you hang around guys like undercover cops, practical jokes are imminent. In all seriousness, though, Fox says all his stuff has “fun aspects” but are not toys. They can do “some very serious things.”
DARIEN FERNANDEZ
Collector of Ron English vinyl sculptures and just about everything else
Pop surrealism artist Darien Fernandez may only be 27 years old, but he has already established himself in the Las Vegas art scene. His art is heavily influenced by his extensive collection of comic books, Funko Pops, Pokémon trading cards, sneakers, and KAWS clothing. “My work documents our contemporary era through a whimsical lens,” Fernandez says. Since moving to Las Vegas from New York in 2020, he has exhibited at the now-closed Priscilla Fowler Fine Art Gallery, where he sold his first gallery artwork. He’s currently represented by MAD Gallery LV. Recently, Fernandez designed a Superplastic sculpture for an art toy exhibit, and he was one of eight artists chosen to display and sell those pieces at the Dopeameme Institute in Area15. But his collection impulse began with his two prized Ron English mini vinyl sculptures, including one signed by English, and he plans to acquire more. Fernandez says the sculptures are among the first art toys he bought, and they’re currently in storage in New York to keep them safe.
WARREN MILLER
Collector of Garbage Pail Kids ephemera
Warren Miller began collecting Garbage Pail Kids cards in the ’80s, and now he’s a big-time Vegas collector. Although he describes his collection as “big but manageable,” Miller owns the entire original series (that’s 1,240 cards), plus thousands of additional cards, including variants, error cards, blank backs, signed cards, sketches, and random memorabilia, such as posters, stickers, and Funko vinyl figures. As a child, he’d spend a quarter on a pack of Garbage Pail Kids trading cards and marvel at the “wildly disgusting, funny” images, but his mother threw them away. Fast-forward to a 2007 yard sale, when his wife opened a wallet that reminded her of one she had as a child and found three Garbage Pail Kids cards. That took Miller back, and he began collecting to relive his youth. Sometimes when he picks up a card, he remembers exactly where he was when he saw it for the first time. Last year, Miller bought a box of original, fourth-series sealed packs on eBay. Each day for roughly three weeks, he opened at least one. “I had to be very strict, because I needed this feeling to last for as long as humanly possible,” he says. “It’s a nostalgia bump.”
Trip to the Doctor
Are medical mushrooms the next frontier in anxiety and depression treatment? Advocates for legalization in this year’s legislative session think so
By April Corbin Girnus of the Nevada Current
In December 2020, Ben Strahan thought he’d lost the will to live. It had been a long, isolating year for the Reno-based wildland firefighter. The COVID pandemic was still in full swing, and that year’s fire season had been extreme.
“My central nervous system was smoked,” he says. “I hadn’t seen my family in 20 months, and I was just exhausted.”
Strahan had recently been promoted to supervisor of a “hotshot crew,” the name given to firefighters who battle the hottest and most complex wildfires across the country. It was his dream job. He could handle high-stakes pressure, including that year’s one-million-acre fire in the Mendocino, California, area. But once fire season had waned, he confronted internal demons and unaddressed trauma.
“I found myself sitting on the edge of a bed, on a chilly winter morning, the sun pouring through the windows, and the heat hitting my back, and I just remember it felt so good,” he recalls. “I remember putting on my running shoes like I would every morning, just to combat the struggles that I would be feeling. And in that moment, I decided to put the gun to my head and pull the trigger.”
He continues, “Luckily for me, the gun didn’t go off.”
The moment served as a wakeup call for Strahan; he needed to do something. But he was hesitant to embrace antidepressants, fearing potentially nasty side effects and the possibility of being on
medication indefinitely.
So, he began researching alternative treatment options. He came across something touted as nonaddictive that could offer near-instant results: psychedelic medicine.
“That idea of them being drugs, kind of, like, gave me a lot of fear,” he says. “But here I am at the end of my rope, basically, and I’m saying to myself, ‘Well, I have to try something.’”
STRAHAN IS FAR from alone. He’s one of a growing number of people turning to psychedelics to treat mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and addiction. But he had to seek this treatment in another country.
That’s because psychedelic-assisted therapy is currently illegal nearly everywhere in the United States. But there is growing momentum in the states to legalize certain psychedelics — namely psilocybin, the active ingredient in what people often call magic mushrooms.
That push is well underway in Nevada, where at least two bills dealing with legalization of psychedelic-assisted therapy are expected to be introduced into the Legislature this year. The legislative session begins February 3 and runs until early June.
Jon Dalton is a retired Navy SEAL and president of the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines, a nonprofit working on legislation with Nevada State senator Rochelle Nguyen and Assemblyman Max Carter, both Democrats from Las Vegas. Like
Strahan, Dalton started off skeptical about psychedelic medicine.
“This to me sounded like an extension of, you know, the hippies’ generation of drugs and, you know, the ’60s and ’70s.”
But when a fellow SEAL implored him to seriously consider it, Dalton obliged out of respect. He discovered that scientific research into psychedelics as mental health treatments predate the Woodstock era by multiple years. And that Indigenous populations across the globe have used psychedelic medicine for thousands of years.
Dalton decided to travel to Mexico to try psilocybin mushrooms and address the traumas from his 23-year military career, which included seven documented traumatic brain injuries.
“The results were absolutely transformative,” he says.
Two years later, Dalton co-founded the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines with Kate Cotter, a lifelong creative, whose own struggles with depression and anxiety led her to psychedelic medicine.
During the Nevada State Legislature’s last session, in 2023, their coalition successfully lobbied to establish a working group to study psychedelic medicine legislation. This year, they are hoping lawmakers will take action and approve a small, highly regulated pilot program allowing for controlled use.
Many of the loudest voices in the push for psychedelics are veterans and first responders, groups whose rates of depression and suicide are significantly higher than average. But the coalition Dalton and Cotter have grown is broad. It doesn’t fall along clear politically ideological lines.
“It tends to cross demographics, age, young people, seniors, retired folks, professionals, artists, across the board,” she says. “It’s really beautiful.”
THE SHIFT IN public perception of psychedelics in recent years is similar to the
broader cultural embrace of marijuana, which remains federally listed as a Schedule 1 controlled substance but is fully legal in 24 states.
Dustin Hines, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas, professor who researches psychedelics, remembers years of being jokingly referred to at academic conferences as “the shroom guy.” But now, much to his delight, whole panels and conferences are dedicated to the potential of psychedelics.
“There’s been a change in how we look at what these plant molecules, what CBD, can do to actually save lives, and people are now open to that idea that some psychedelics can have that, too,” Hines says.
Prominent public figures have come out in support of psychedelics. President Donald Trump’s pick for U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has said psychedelics should be legalized in some form. More mainstream conservative politicians, including former Texas Governor Rick Perry and U.S. Representative from Texas Dan Crenshaw, have also voiced their support for psychedelic-assisted therapy.
Some states have begun exploring legalization. In 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psychedelic-assisted therapy, though there has been pushback from cities. Colorado became the second state in 2022. In both states, voters changed the law through ballot questions.
Other states are actively considering legislation. Utah lawmakers last year approved a pilot program, though it has yet to come to fruition.
Nevada could be next. One piece of legislation the Nevada Coalition for Psychedelic Medicines is pushing for would
create a pilot program that could be scaled up over time. A companion bill would tweak criminal laws to allow for the pilot program to be legal.
The 2023 bill to establish a psychedelic medicine working group passed the legislature with widespread bipartisan support and was signed into law by Republican Governor Joe Lombardo. But legislation proposing the consumption of any psychedelic substance will likely meet more resistance than anything simply studying it.
Opponents argue that psychedelic-assisted therapy proposals are a gateway to allowing full recreational use, especially among teenagers or young adults whose brains are still developing. Erika Ryst, a child psychiatrist, was one of several people who spoke in opposition of an early version of the 2023 bill.
“We do have a large body of research that indicates that hallucinogens are harmful to the developing brain up to the age of 25 years and can predispose to long-term psychotic mental illness like schizophrenia. And secondly that teenage substance abuse is driven by the perception of safety and low risk, which is in turn driven by legalization. By decriminalizing these substances we are, in effect, telling our young people these substances are safe, and they’re going to believe us on that. We will see an increase in use of these substances, which unfortunately, although there is some research, it’s not quite as glowing as I believe was presented today,” Ryst said in testimony before the Legislature.
“It tends to cross demographics, age, young people, seniors, retired folks, professionals, artists, across the board. It’s really beautiful.”
–Kate Cotter
Law enforcement groups are also wary of decriminalization of hallucinogenic substances.
The Nevada coalition is adamant that their goal is not to have shroom shops next to every pot dispensary. Ben Strahan, the wildland firefighter who almost became a number in his profession’s higher-than-average suicide statistics, opposes full legalization. In his eyes, psychedelic medicines must be regulated because of how profound the experience can be for those who partake.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
NEVADA GOVERNOR, JOE LOMBARDO
NEVADA STATE SENATOR ROCHELLE NGUYEN
STRAHAN TRIES TO be careful with his words when describing his experience with psychedelic mushrooms.
He says, “I don’t want to say it fixed me. I don’t think that’s the appropriate way of speaking about these, what I would call, medicines and/or technologies. I would say that what they do is they give you a key to a door, and behind that door is realization of things that you already know.”
Individuals’ experiences are unique. For Strahan, it began with a conscious setting of intention. Then, ingesting the psilocybin mushrooms. Then came the presence of a feminine energy and a visual experience he says he doesn’t know how to put into words. He asked existential questions about his purpose. He received a divine answer that he was asking the wrong questions.
Then, Strahan says, he experienced what’s known as an ego death — “a disintegration of my ego, like straight up.”
“Coming out of that, I entered into a very beautiful, beautiful place, beautiful experience, feeling a lot of emotions, of love and self-love mostly. … It taught me to surrender, and it taught me how to love myself again.”
Strahan believes those who want to try psychedelic medicines should be able to without having to leave the country like he did. He knows it might be a tough sell for some.
“No matter what you think about what this might be, you cannot take the experience I had away from me. The healing that I was able to accomplish — the man that this helped me become — is something that nobody can take away from me.”
PEOPLE USING PSYCHEDELICS often describe their experiences through spiritual language. They describe divine presences, as Strahan did. They say they feel at one with the universe or nature or God.
But there is science behind the shrooms.
Rochelle Hines, who, like her husband, Dustin Hines, is a UNLV professor focused on psychedelics, is an expert in it.
“If you look at the chemical structure of the molecules inside psilocybin or mescaline, and you compare them to other chemical structures, we know they actually look a whole lot like neurotransmitters in our own bodies,” she says.
You’ve probably heard of some of the neurotransmitters Rochelle Hines is referring to: norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin. Pharmaceutical antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft attempt to regulate the levels of these neurotransmitters in the brain.
“And so, you know, just based on the chemical structures of the compounds, we get some insights about what these molecules might be doing.”
Studies have shown that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, better known as SSRIs, are not effective in a majority of patients.
Psychedelics have been shown to improve neuroplasticity. Michael Pollan, author of How to Change Your Mind , famously uses the metaphor of the mind as a snowy hill. Each time a sled goes down the hill, the grooves it leaves deepen, and it becomes more likely the sled will be pulled into that path the next time it goes down. Psychedelics reset the snow, allowing new paths to be created. Paths that could be happier or healthier.
What the world could do with a better understanding of psychedelics is an emerging issue. Could these cellular and molecular effects be isolated and used to develop something non-hallucinogenic that could help people in clinical settings? Some companies are already exploring those possibilities.
Rochelle isn’t sure.
She says, “It is, I think, a real open question as to whether that’s going to work or not. … A lot of people do actually really confirm the idea that rehashing of the past, seeing yourself in a new light, seeing the world in a new light, feeling that interconnectedness with something greater, with nature. All of those things are part of that psychedelic experience.”
Dustin Hines is equally unsure. And that’s part of what makes his and his wife’s research so compelling.
“We don’t even have the words for this yet,” he says. “Is it mind? I don’t know that it’s mind. Is it spiritual? I’m okay with that. Is it magic? I’m okay with that, but we might not even have the tools as scientists to really get at what this is.”
Only study — in a controlled environment — may be able to get at it. And that, advocates argue, will require some form of legalization. ✦
Editor’s note: This story was reported and published as part of a collaboration between the Nevada Current and Nevada Public Radio.
LISTEN to this story here
UNLV NEUROSCIENTISTS ROCHELLE AND DUSTIN HINES HOPE LEGISLATION CAN HELP FACILITATE STUDY OF PSILOCYBIN AS A MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT.
‘OUTDOOR NEVADA’
HIKE THROUGH HISTORY!
St. Thomas ghost town
By Kristen DeSilva
In the early 1930s, teams of men scaled the rugged, mountainous walls of the Colorado River, suspended by rope, loosening rock with jackhammers and dynamite at the site of what was going to be the biggest infrastructure undertaking by the federal government thus far. Concrete was first poured June 6, 1933, and a massive man-made lake began to form in the canyon below. In September 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam (now Hoover Dam) to a crowd of 20,000 in sweltering heat. A bit farther north, the little Mormon settlement town of St. Thomas would soon be hidden under 60 feet of water.
SEE THIS episode of “Outdoor Nevada,” by Vegas PBS.
St. Thomas was first settled in 1865 by Thomas S. Smith and his party, and the town was abandoned by the LDS church in 1871. That’s pretty fast, and here’s why: In 1870, a survey placed the town in Nevada, instead of Utah or the Arizona territory. The Legislature then sent the settlers a demand for back pay on taxes … paid in gold coin. This was an agricultural community, so it caused hardship. The state ended up arresting some of them, according to a historical resources study of the area published in 1980. All but one of the settlers left.
Seven years later, some returned, and St. Thomas grew to about 2,000 people, some of whom are the namesake for nearby towns. Its last resident, Hugh Lord, paddled away on June 11, 1938, as Lake Mead’s water reached his
doorstep, according to the National Park Service.
WHAT:
See the ruins of St. Thomas
GETTING THERE:
From Las Vegas, take I-15 N for about 34 miles until you reach Exit 75 for Valley of Fire Hwy. Merge onto that road and continue for 23 more miles. Turn right onto Northshore Rd. (in Lake Mead National Recreation Area), then left on Old Saint Thomas Road.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED:
A vehicle that can handle bumpy dirt roads, a map or GPS device, and the usual things needed for hiking in the desert (sturdy shoes, hat, sunscreen, plenty of water).
PRO TIP:
If you’re feeling adventurous, continue south in the park to Old Swim Beach, and hike down (with ample water) to the confluence of the Muddy River and Virgin River. Be careful if you see any frogs.
MORE INFO: lostcitymuseum. org or wherever you get your maps
As is true with many Nevada settlements, white settlers were hardly the first ones there. In fact, there’s evidence of human activity in the area dating back to 8000 B.C. In nearby Overton’s Lost City Museum, you can learn more about the area of St. Thomas, home to Basketmaker People in 300 A.D. and later co-inhabited by the Pueblo. The historical record began when Jebediah Smith found artifacts there in 1827, and by 1924, two residents of Overton “stumbled on” the ruins of the “Lost City,” which became a tourist hot spot. Many artifacts are housed at the museum, including the Pueblo Grande de Nevada, the set of villages now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Fast forward a few decades after the dam, mix in an extreme, prolonged drought, and St. Thomas reappears. Today, the town’s exposed remains sit farther and farther from shore as the drought drags on, but you can still visit them via a short hike not far from where the Muddy and Virgin rivers meet.
This is near the undisclosed location that “Outdoor Nevada” host Connor Fields visited with Corey Lange, a Bureau of Land Management biologist, to see the relic leopard frog, previously thought to be extinct. They visited a spring complex where a safe harbor population (managed by wildlife officials and kept secret) of the endangered amphibian dwells. The natural range of the frog includes St. Thomas, but the springs and seeps have been heavily modified over time.
“You would never guess there would be a frog habitat in this location,” Lange told Fields. “Being here and seeing the work that’s happening is fascinating. The area has multiple springs, which have been diverted and dammed to create several habitats to support the relic leopard frog and the other local inhabitants.”
The much more public two-mile trail to St. Thomas is quite flat and easy. A lack of shade and its location in the hot desert mean you should plan to visit in cooler months. ✦
Salvage crew on a raft near the ruins of a building in the town of St. Thomas as Lake Mead submerges it
Library District is Your FREE
Teachers from the Clark County School District are available for FREE homework help and tutoring at these listed library branches during the 2024-2025 school year. This drop-in service is available to help students complete their homework or provide some extra instruction in a variety of subjects. Tutoring is available Monday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. through May 2, 2025 No appointment needed