HuffPo Thinks AOL-Bashing Is HILARIOUS!

Remember when AOL spent $315 million to "acquire" the Huffington Post and then allowed Arianna Huffington to wring as much of the AOLness out of the enterprise as humanly possible?

Well, that image above is kind of a fascinating postscript. It's a HuffPo article by Dean Praetorius collecting what he called the "some of the better reactions from across Twitter (the social network that landed the Congressman in hot water to begin with), including some more comical responses." He refers to Rep. Anthony Weiner's bizarro press conference yesterday, of course.

Now, Praetorious' efforts clearly didn't reach much beyond his own Twitter feed, as the 14 "better" and "more comical" responses he selected are entirely made up of tweets from prominent media sources. They include such brilliant, insightful zingers as these:


So he didn't try very hard or feel like looking, even, through the #weinergate hashtag for actually funny or clever remarks.

But what's more telling is the one Praetorius evidently found the funniest and made sure would be displayed first for readers. It's this:


Yeah, I'm a little defensive because I, too, still use AOL email. And, yeah, I'm mildly irritated whenever I run into any email problem that I reference here or on Twitter or our podcasts and hear from the world how uncool and passe that is. You know, as if Gmail never goes down, right? I guess I've never understood why one email system is better or worse than another or how somebody's preference confers upon the user any credibility as a tech-savvy human. I've had 11 different real addresses and seven different phone numbers since I created my AOL account in 1994; it seemed to me that keeping just one means of being contacted that doesn't change is a sensible way of being reachable.

Oh! One more thing! Rand Getlin, the clever fellow who tweeted that? He's not really one to talk. He's a reporter, after all, for that au courant search engine, Yahoo!

Trump En Route To Vegas As GLBT Ire Heightens

Last week, I reported for AOL News/HuffPo about growing anger at mogul Donald Trump on account of his recent spate of polarizing political statements. Among other things, he reversed his 2000 position favoring "a very strong domestic-partnership law" by telling the Des Moines newspaper he now opposes any legal recognition for same-sex couples.

Trump, fresh off of getting Obama to release his birth certificate today, is enjoying all the attention even as he fails to see how deftly the White House is using him to paint the entire GOP as nutcases. And he probably figures that all his blather in the past has only enhanced his prominence, so whatever!

The difference: Other politicians who take controversial stands on social issues can do so with less peril because their business is politics. Trump's business, however, is hospitality, and these remarks can and will resound when people choose a hotel. Today, my latest Las Vegas Weekly column examines that as well as why other proudly Republican CEOs in Vegas -- Murren, Wynn and Adelson, specifically -- don't get tarred for their politics in the same way.

But wait, there's more!

Today I'm learning of new fallout for the Trump Las Vegas. In addition to GLAAD listing all Trump properties as places for people to avoid and the IGLTA taking up the question of whether to boot Trump properties at their May board meeting, now the Human Rights Campaign, the federal GLBT lobby organization, is instructing its local members to refuse or return donations or gifts from Trump properties.

James Healey, the HRC Las Vegas guru, said today they have turned down an item offered for auction by Trump Las Vegas for HRC's big dinner fundraiser on May 7 at Aria. Healey explained via email the item was declined Monday after Healey checked with his Washington D.C. contacts who suggested they do so.

Healey told me via email: "This is a national policy that the local community [may] choose to support." He chose to.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas' GLBT activist community is jumping in, too. The Stonewall Democrats, a group of gay activists who managed somehow to get Sen. John Ensign, R-HisZipper, to support the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, put out a statement urging "those who believe in equal rights for all U.S. citizens [to] avoid the Trump 'Brand' in all of its various permutations. This would include his television shows and hotel properties amongst other ventures bearing the Trump name."

Stonewall chairman Derek Washington went on:

At some point, people like Trump have to learn that we LGBT Americans will no longer be used as cannon fodder to be sacrificed to the political ambitions of those who use bigotry to garner votes. We have money, and that money can be spent where it is appreciated. Caesars, Wynn and MGM are all places where our LGBT dollars are welcome and our business is encouraged. We have options.

Just to be clear, I am not endorsing this boycott. I am observing it. I've never personally believed boycotts are effective for either side of the political debate. But I do know that when a company gets tarnished as intolerant, it is extremely difficult to overcome or reverse. And in Las Vegas, where there are so many choices at so many price-points, that can absolutely make a already-flailing enterprise flail even more.

What will be interesting is if the Trump corporation finds itself having to publicly distance itself from the blabbermouth himself in order to reduce the long-term fallout. There's precedent for that; Coors did it in 2004 when Pete Coors ran for U.S. Senate in Colorado.

Oh, by the way, guess who's addressing a set of women's Republican groups at the Treasure Island on the Strip tomorrow night?

The #NFL v #Vegas & More!

Yes, I've been vacating. Sort of. In actuality, our eight-day London sojourn was packed with assignments that I'm busy this weekend fulfilling along with expense forms and other various and sundry things related things.

But it's not as though I've been completely neglecting my Vegas duties. Here's some recent stuff to gnaw at while I concoct a fun blog about the London trip:

* My Las Vegas Weekly column this week examines how Vegas is no longer just where old show-biz talents go to die, it's also a Mecca for formerly prominent 1990s tabloid sensations. OK, so it's not as explosive a piece as last week's Twitter Twerps drama. They can't all be.

* I contributed to Desert Companion's Best Of issue with entries naming the region's best vet (as informed by Petcast co-host and current Knight-Wallace fellow Emily Richmond), best new political activist and best beat reporter.

* With the Super Bowl once again upon us, I revisited the ongoing drama between the NFL and Las Vegas for AOL News. Rob Dondero from R&R Partners seems convinced that sooner or later the team will overrule the NFL's ban on Vegas-related advertising if only because they want our money for stadium billboards and the like.

This brings me to the most pressing question: Who to lay my Super Bowl bet on? I'm inclined to go Pittsburgh and the under, anticipating a low-scoring game. Who's with me?

Hot Blond Tina, The Vegas Sheriff & Reality TV

See that? That's a woman known as "hot blond Tina" on YouTube. The R-J reported last week that she was suing Langley Productions and Turner Broadcasting Systems because they used video of her from 2008 when she was in the booking pen at the Clark County Detention Center following a drunken driving arrest. She was very inebriated, trying to flash her considerable boobs and carrying on about creme brulee. Tina Vlijter, 32, says she doesn't recall signing a release form letting Langley use the material on various TruTV shows and sites and, thus far, Langley has refused to produce the release despite her lawyer asking several times.

Still, there's more to the story, as I broke on AOL News this weekend after the first media interview with Tina at her attorney Easton Harris' office. How and why do reality TV cameras get such unrestricted access to suspects in sensitive, usually off-limits locations? You know they wouldn't let an R-J or KSNV reporter in there to just hang out day after day or even hour after hour fishing for sensational footage. They surely wouldn't want to waste the police manpower supervising the journalists. But Langley gets to do it? Why?

As I reported, the Vegas sheriff, Doug Gillespie, got at least $35,000 from Langley entities in his recent, successful re-election campaign. Is that why? Hard to know, since he refused to answer my calls asking him to explain how he decides what media gets to go where. Is there a policy? Are there contracts? What are the limits? Do they get to preview the material and cherry-pick what gets used?

By the way, Gillespie received only about $20,000 from various Harrah's-related entities. So Langley, who is not actually located here, is a more generous supporter of this sheriff than the world's largest casino company. That's odd, right?

People certainly seem titillated. The version of Hot Blond Tina's video that we at AOL News linked to had about 10,000 views on Friday. Now it's at more than 360,000 and climbing. Here it is, for however long it remains available. It's from a segment from the TruTV show "Inside American Jail."

Also, this has been the case for two days running now...


Should be fun to see where this goes this week.

Meanwhile, at Hoover Dam...

That, to your right, is fun, right?

My Reid-Angle piece for Politics Daily sits immediately above the Hoover Dam bridge piece I penned for AOL News on AOL News' main news splash page. I wrote the dam-bridge piece right after getting home from the debate. In fact, I filed five different stories yesterday for four different media outlets. Then Miles and I caught up on Project Runway.

I have three more pieces to write today, too. Just a ridiculous week. Then we do the podcast and a Blogworld panel tomorrow before Miles and I celebrate Friessmas on Saturday night alone and Sunday with The Olds. Jeepers!

Sadly, I did not get to go back to the bridge for yesterday's christening. Still, there is this pictorial I posted the other day.

From Veganism To Reindeer Steak

Within two days, I've spanned pretty much the entire culinary spectrum on AOL News.

First, of course, was my report on Wynn Resorts' new vegan gambit, which I also covered on this blog last week.

Then, today, Rudolph is on the menu! My trip to Alaska was a failure as far as dealing effectively with the private family drama that drew me there, but I did, as usual, find myself a story to share with the Lower 48.

I caught a piece by Jeff Richardson of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner about a study by the University of Alaska at Fairbanks' Reindeer Research Program to determine whether consumers will buy reindeer as steak and at what prices. (See, Ms. Neff, there are many values to reading a printed newspaper that have nothing to do with who's up and down in an election.)


Important stuff? Probably not. But it did give me the unique opportunity to open my story with this:

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (Aug. 25) -- Ever watch "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and think, "I wonder what that little guy would taste like on the grill?"

I admit I did taste a little reindeer. No, not the cute ones I photographed from the UAF farm. They're still alive and well ... for now.

No, I spotted an egg dish with "reindeer sausage" on the menu of the diner we ate at the night we arrived in Fairbanks. While it was tasty and spicy, UAF researcher George Aguilar told me that kick probably was thanks to spices and not Prancer as "reindeer sausage" tends to have less than 10 percent reindeer meat. The rest of pork and beef, he said. He does, however, wax rhapsodic about the taste of a good Blitzen burger:

"It's a high-protein, low-fat, super-tender, high-mineral meat. As far as quality, it's tender, really tender. It's one of the most tender meats in the world. All the fat is on the outside of the animal, so you don't get marbling. It has a sweet taste. It doesn't have a gamey taste."

Mmmm. That and the fava bean puree at Alex sounds like a winner.

This story also took me inside the intriguing world of the reindeer-for-Christmas-events industry, which I suspect is a topic for The Petcast soon. They're apparently really nice pets for folks with a little property and Kyle Wilson of Rocky Hill Reindeer Leasing in Knoxville, Tenn., says he gets $3,000 each providing them for church groups or Christmas tree farms from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Wilson doesn't see a big reindeer steak market anytime soon:

"More than anything else, it's not politically correct to eat Rudolph. We who have them, rent them or show them, we get the warm-and-fuzzy thing going on, and the furthest thing from your mind is eating one of them. In the Lower 48, we have it for Christmas, but we don't eat it for Christmas."

Anti-Hula Hoop Bill Going National

[UPDATE: Fark picked up the AOL piece. Go vote there.]

This. Must. Be. Stopped.

Or so, in a gift to national writers like me, somebody at Las Vegas City Hall believed when he/she injected into a new proposed ordinance that seeks to also segregate unauthorized vendors and entertainers at the Fremont Street Experience the following provision to ban...

* The launching or throwing of projectiles or other objects through the air except in connection with special events and mall entertainment conducted or authorized by the Fremont Street Experience Limited Liability Company;
* The twirling of hoops (such as hula hoops) around the human body or portions thereof, the use of such hoops for recreation or entertainment, except in conncetion with special events and mall entertainment conducted or authorized by the Fremont Street Experience Limited Liability Company;

My AOL News piece went up earlier today and has already been linked to hundreds of times on blogs, Tweets and such.

Lost in the shuffle -- although I spend plenty of time on it in my piece -- is that they also want to shunt lots of other activity into one of two 1,200-square-foot free expression zones. That would mean this guy...


...and these folks...


...would be put in a corner with, presumably, an impersonator of Baby from Dirty Dancing, should there ever be a market for one. The guy on the left, by the by, is an out-of-work security guard most recently of Mermaids, the casino on Fremont that has a lady dripping white goo from her mouth in the video billboard to promote their deep-fried Twinkees. He says he makes $40-$100 a night in tips meandering on the mall taking photos with people and, he admits, "I don't even look like" Elvis.

I did get an interesting email already on this piece from someone named Amy:

I don't know how I found your article on hula hoops but they really are a public safety concern. I am sure LV can come up with something creative like a hula hoop park with wild lights, etc. We need to respect our elders. Not everyone gets around like a hula Hooper. One good smack on the brittle hip bones of a sight challenged, older lady and, that lady's life could change faster than fast by a blast from a hula hoop. LV needs to stay senior citizen friendly.

Now, I do love my elders and I'm very protective of them. Everybody who reads my LVW columns knows that. And a Hula Hoop Park does sound enticing.

But any Mrs. Magoo so fragile that being knocked down by a plastic hoop could lead to crippling injury might want to steer clear of the Fremont Street Experience or any other public place where thousands of unpredictable, mostly drunk people gather. There are lots of other people doing lots of things there that could be similarly dangerous. Like, say, some babe from the Jersey Shore flailing her arms about as she talks, maybe.

While I've not witnessed these Hula Hooping hooligans myself, I'm finding it hard to imagine that you're just standing around minding your own bees wax, perhaps wholesomely watching the Mermaids video chick drooling Twinkee filling, when all of a sudden somebody spontaneously smacks you down with a hoop. Most Hula Hoopers try hard to avoid having the hoop hit anybody or thing because the point of the activity is to get the hoop to continually circle you for as long as possible, not to rob the aged of their mobility. You won't be a very good Hula Hooper if your radius is populated by hip-replacement candidates, right?

Anyhow, this should be a fun one. The ACLU says all these provisions are unconstitutional and would challenge them if the City Council passes in next week, and the ACLU is batting a 1.000 on combatting the many, many efforts the city has tried to restrict activity at FSE over the past 15 years. So odds are pretty high this attempt is mainly good for giggles and won't ever actually be implemented.

Election Day in Nevada

It's primary election day in Nevada, which should get interesting. In the past 12 hours, I've penned two new pieces for AOL News on the Senate race:

* Tea Partiers Swap Nasty E-Mails in Nev. Senate Race: An inside look at some pretty torrid emails exchanged by Tea Party activists aimed at one another in the waning days of the race.

* Nevada Senate Race: Obama vs. Tea Party?: A look beyond today to note that Nevada will be unique this year as a state in which a tea party candidate -- and all three leaders will claim the mantle but especially Sharron Angle -- takes on a Democratic incumbent who can't run away from Obama. In Nevada, we learn for sure whether the Tea Party creed is mainstream or not. Telling quote from Tea Party Nation chairman Judson Phillips: If Sen. Harry Reid wins in November, "there will be perception that the tea party movement has run its course and its power is fading."

Beyond the Senate race, which is the only one AOL News cares about, we're likely to see the first Nevada governor ever to be bounced from office in his party's primary and if Mark Manendo beats Grandmother Kathy McClain in that State Senate race it could be the first sign of some political muscle in the Vegas gay community. While some have said my coverage of the gay-baiting in that race was inappropriate, I got indirect acknowledgment that I wasn't crazy from Las Vegas CityLife editor Steve Sebelius in this week's print column.

Right now, I'm heading down for a nap -- I was up at 4 a.m. to write that second AOL piece and my LVW column -- but I'll be Tweeting from the Republican Party's party at The Orleans later tonight. Should be fun.

Before I go, though, I leave you with this amusing little TV ad by a carpetbagging candidate who never had any relevancy other than his checkbook and who will be gone from the state by sun-up tomorrow. Not sure when Sue Lowden started sounding like Dina Titus, but it's clever anyway:

CNBC Makes Elaine Wynn = Gold Digger

My AOL News piece over the weekend on Steve Wynn's suggestion that his split from Elaine was the most expensive divorce ever somehow didn't make the local papers, TV news or KNPR, but it did catch fire around the nation and on the Web, including this piece from The Week.

Sometimes, though, it was in the form of such astoundingly ignorance as this CNBC clip:

It would be nice if CNBC would bother to get an actual Vegas expert on this discuss such a matter or, say, credit the article they're quoting from. (They seem to think this information came from their guest?!?) But it's simply jarring how this stooge can't comprehend why Steve and Elaine remain on good terms after "she took half his entire wealth."

That said, I was taken to task, too, for even positioning this story as Steve Wynn's divorce and not simply their divorce. I admit Shaker Vanshar has a point that I will consider going forward -- especially given my own visceral reaction to the CNBC jazz. Still, if we were to break down the percentage of the Wynn success attributable to him and her, he's the one who does most of the hard work making deals, negotiating with governments and banks, imagining the big picture and turning it into reality. Elaine is no doubt a pivotal player, but if it wasn't a marriage and she were just leaving the company, she wouldn't receive this kind of severance.

Breaking: Liberace Home In Foreclosure

JPMorgan Chase is foreclosing on the troubled, ornate 15,000-square-foot Liberace Mansion, which was bought in 2006 for $3.7 million. The owner admitted to me for my AOLNews.Com exclusive that he hasn't paid the mortgage for more than a year, then blames Clark County for hamstringing him from conducting the banquet and wedding business that has kept the place going for a while. He's also playing an interesting anti-foreclosure stalling tactic that I'd not heard of before, suing Chase to produce his original loan note.

The house is on Shirley Street immediately south of the Thomas & Mack Center. Here are some interior images, borrowed with permission from the site of Las Vegas Villa. That's what they call the place because the Liberace Foundation won't allow them to use the late pianist's name in their title.


What was interesting to me was how little the usual suspects seem to care. The Liberace Foundation folks had absolutely no interest or use for the place and even Old Vegas groupie ringleaders shrugged. Very Vintage Vegas real estate guru Jack LeVine, for instance, said it's a shame but the house is not on the radar of the folks who aim at preserving such places as the Huntridge Theater. Liberace's place is so overbuilt, LeVine said, that nobody would use it as a single-family house -- there's a 5,000-square-foot banquet hall in the backyard -- and the neighborhood parking issues all but kill the chances to make it a thriving business for parties or tours.

Thanks to Realtor Roberta LaRocca for the big tip-off here. Her schedule didn't allow her to be interviewed for the piece, and that's too bad because she all-but-predicted precisely the scenario the home is mired in now last year in this post.

So, local TV and newspaper reporters who follow up on this, give her a call.

A guy POTUS probably didn't satisfy

Just before the big Obama speech today -- covered here by yours truly for AOLNews.Com -- I caught MGM Mirage CEO Jim Murren in the Aria Conference Center hallway and asked what he expected to hear from the president. Obama was about to address 650 business leaders and a couple dozen token Aria employees probably there to rainbow-colorize the audience a bit.

Murren told me he expected Obama to “celebrate in our accomplishment” of completing the $8.5 billion project and opening three new hotels and a 500,000-square-foot mall in December. “He’ll most likely respect the fact that we were the largest single job creator in the United States last year and that this is the only LEED-certified gold conference center in the nation.”

Or not. The words "Citycenter," "MGM Mirage," or "Aria" did not fall from Mr. Obama's lips. He was very funny and in great spirits, possibly due to his night at Bellagio, but there was no acknowledgement or endorsement of Murren's business efforts.

I'm not sure how that made them feel and I don't imagine anyone from MGM Mirage would tell me on the record that it bothered them. I do know that Murren didn't like my next question, which was about his reaction to Obama's "blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you're trying to save for college" remark. The minute I went there he said he didn't want to answer that and when I persisted because THAT was the news of the moment and all, he said, "I don't want to talk to you anymore."

I'm hurt. Or something.

Btw, the best line from POTUS was: "I love Vegas! Why, just last night I hit a flush on the river and cut the deficit in half." Even when he's joking, it's bad news for MGM Mirage!

Photo: Stephen Voss

Pictorial: Chinese New Year in #Vegas

You gotta hand it to the Harrah's peeps. Staging their lion dance for Chinese New Year on Sunday under the main porte-cochere was brilliant for ... Donny & Marie! I knew the minute I snapped this it would become THE shot that AOLNews.Com would used for my piece on the second-biggest gambling event of the Vegas year.

It's a fun time around Vegas, with lion dances galore and decorations that, frankly, are more impressive than what Vegas does for Christmas. I mean, what does the Venetian-Palazzo do quite like this:


There's something amusing to me about arraying a 16.5-foot-long tiger in front of a restaurant called Cut. Not sure about the feng shui of that. And, of course, I needed a closer shot of the girl in the huge Chinese-debutante-prom dress. Wow, huh?

Here's Caesars' main entrance and the Augustus Tower...



...and Wynn Las Vegas:


Chinese New Year is such a big deal, it's one of the five (or is it six?) seasonal decoration changes that Bellagio's Conservatory observes. I didn't make it over there, but reader Mike Dobranski (Follow him on Twitter) did and gave me permission to use these shots. The tiger's fur is dried botanicals.


It's no surprise, really, given the huge business Chinese players provide. I counted at least 15 resorts doing lion dances this year -- ARIA and the Orleans were the last, doing them tonight -- but I caught the ones at Caesars and Wynn on Sunday for my story.

Caesars deserved the love because it was their idea first. They did the first Chinese New Year celebration in 1975. The lions and dragons first set off firecrackers in the porte-cochere, then shimmy through the casino. They stopped at the threshold of Beijing Noodle No. 9 and the high-limit gaming parlors to fling lettuce -- a symbol of prosperity that hit me in the back -- and then went through both. Most folks were entertained...



...but the lady in the blue in that last shot maybe not so much.

At Wynn, the dance began in the south porte-cochere, where executives including Wynn President Andrew Pascal and high-roller special guests painted the eyes of the dragons, part of the ritual.


After this, about 2,000 special guests were treated to a banquet in a ballroom in which Wing Lei executive chef Richard Chen served up abalone that costs about $2,000 a pound and other delicacies.

Today, I went with a blog reader for Wing Lei's fabulous Chinese New Year's dim sum menu. If you're around, they're offering that until Thursday, Feb. 18, but it costs $58.88 a person.



Finally, my favorite. It may be the Year of the Tiger...


...but somehow this panda is making it ALL about her, huh?

Wynn Bashes Obama Some More

Last week, after President Obama's reference to Las Vegas as a bad place to blow some cash when saving for college set off a fury in these parts, I had asked to speak to Steve Wynn for my AOLNews.Com piece. His spokeswoman told me he wouldn't be available by my deadline, so I moved on. Just now, as I was prepping for this week's podcast, I found that they had, in fact, sent along a statement from The Steve about The One.

Since it's Steve Wynn and his bowel movements seem to matter to everyone obsessed with all things Vegas, I figured I'd go ahead and put this on the record since I seem to have it exclusively:

“The president seems to have a proclivity that is a strong tendency to bash Las Vegas at every opportunity that he gets. He seems to have forgotten that the tens of thousands of people who work in our hospitality industry as cooks, housekeepers, porters, stewards, dealers, doorman, waitresses, cashiers and all the rest, probably voted for him and are now the victims of his ridicule and disdain. The president’s uncontrollable desire for inflammatory rhetoric has taken a very unfortunate turn against the very people who had hopes that he would help them.”

By the by, many folks have written to dismiss this flap. I wouldn't. Look at this:

My piece was No. 1 for three days on the fourth most-popular news site on the Web. Clearly, people found it of interest.

Harry Reid Under Racial Fire - Again

We just posted on AOLNews.Com my piece analyzing a claim in a Black History Month essay by Harry Reid that Reid was somehow instrumental in the integration of Las Vegas and the gaming industry. Since I'd never heard that before, I started asking around and it seems that the claim is questionable.

You can read that here.

Now here's the odd part. When I read the Reid's piece, the claim of integration wasn't what initially drew me in. It was this part, the second paragraph:

Whether visiting our relatives in the hospital after a successful blood transfusion, waiting in traffic at a stoplight or watching our president speak from the Rose Garden, the contributions of black Americans are ingrained in our nation's DNA.

This struck me as a very strange passage. It seemed like he was marveling at the notion that blacks give blood or drive cars. As it happened, I was able to take it apart and figure out that what I was missing was that black scientists had invented the blood transfusion and the traffic light. I have to believe that most people don't know that, though, and this essay never explains it.

Turns out, I'm not the only one baffled. CityLife editor Steve Sebelius told me in our interview for the AOL piece he was surprised, given Reid's recent controversy about having praised President Obama's lack of a "Negro dialect," that his people would write something so clumsy and unclear.

And Rainier Spencer, the founder of UNLV's Afro-American Studies program, just found the passage "a little patronizing." He's no fan of segregating black history into a specific period anyhow, but if you're going to do it, pointing out accomplishments like this seems unworthy.

"If a black person hadn’t invented the traffic light and Charles Drew hadn’t invented the transfusion, the result would be meaningless in terms of black history," he said.

Your thoughts?