Investigations reveal a confounding crisis — Nevadans consume about twice the national average per capita of prescription narcotics.
Painkillers play a vital role in medicine, but experts struggle to explain why so many are consumed in Nevada.
Theories abound — the black market is thriving, tourists drive up the numbers and hurried doctors may too quickly write prescriptions.
One thing is sure: As the rate of painkiller use climbs, so too does abuse. And Clark County's overdose deaths from prescription narcotics now outnumber those from street drugs.
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
Sunday, 7 September 2008
Harvest Festival at the Cashman Center
The Cashman Center will be transformed into a shoppers' paradise this weekend as the Harvest Festival comes to town. Get a jump on your holiday shopping as you browse through unique hand-crafted gifts at the art and craft show.
In addition to a plethora of shopping opportunities, you can sample gourmet food and drinks while you watch demonstrations from skilled artists and craftsmen. Insider tip: you can get $2 off of general admission when you bring a can of food, baby food, formula or paper products that will go to benefit Safe Nest.
Where: , 850 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV
In addition to a plethora of shopping opportunities, you can sample gourmet food and drinks while you watch demonstrations from skilled artists and craftsmen. Insider tip: you can get $2 off of general admission when you bring a can of food, baby food, formula or paper products that will go to benefit Safe Nest.
Where: , 850 Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV
Cost: $4 - $9
Age limit: All ages
Event Permalink: http://www.lasvegassun.com/events/2008/sep/07/2152/
Wednesday, 3 September 2008
CHER'S PERFORMANCE IN LAS VEGAS TODAY
No need to turn back time, Cher is right here in Las Vegas performing at the Caesar's Palace Colosseum in typical Cher fashion complete with designer Bob Mackie who will no doubt have the diva decked out in the nines and tens. Cher's arrival completes the trio of 1970s pop icons, Elton John and Bette Midler that already share the Colosseum stage. Get ready for singing, dancing, pyrotechnics, outlandish costumes and much more when Cher hits the stage.
Where: , 3570 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV
Cost: $95 - $250
Where: , 3570 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV
Cost: $95 - $250
Saturday, 30 August 2008
WATER CRISIS IN LAS VEGAS
Las Vegas was first settled for its springs, springs that made it an oasis in the desert. Although those springs have decades since run dry, water is still the most import resource to Las Vegas and the dry Southwest.
And by all indications the region is only going to get dryer. Scientists predict devastating effects from global warming, conservationists are calling for a halt to growth in Southern Nevada as a way to preserve supplies and water managers are looking to ever more creative ways to reduce reliance on the overburdened Colorado River. A Colorado River reservoir at Lake Mead is the source of 90 percent of the valley's water supply. Water levels there have fallen steadily for nearly a decade.
Now Southern Nevada water managers say they can no longer rely on the river so heavily, and must construct a massive pipeline to draw water stored underground for centuries in rural Nevada to Las Vegas. They say no amount of conservation can replace the need for this backup source of drinking water.
Opponents say the effects of the pumping would be devastating and that the plan would sacrifice a rural, ranching way of life in Eastern Nevada for casinos and tract home in the south.
But it's not only the lack of water that worries environmentalists and water managers alike. It's also water quality, the endangered species that life in Southern Nevada's rivers and streams and the recreation opportunities that make the region's national parks so popular.
Water is one of the most politically charged issues in Nevada today, and it's certainly one of the most important.
Las Vegas lies at the intersection of three deserts. To the west is the Mojave, to the south the Sonoran and to the north the Great Basin.
The Sonoran Desert marries California, Arizona and Mexico.
The Mojave is largely a Californian desert that spills into Southern Nevada.
Both are known as “hot” deserts, names that make more sense when it is 120 degrees in the summer than 10 below freezing on a winter night. Rains do come, but so rarely that the Sonoran’s saguaro cactuses and the Mojave’s Joshua trees have become international symbols of stoicism.
North of Las Vegas, the Great Basin Desert begins. It too is largely dry, but this is a “cold desert.” Its altitudes are higher, its winters longer and colder, and its valleys are fed largely by snowmelt. The Great Basin Desert covers most of Nevada and relaxes eastward across the Utah border to claim the oldest stretches of Mormon country.
As elevations steadily rise in the northward climb, the yuccas of the hot desert give way to a luminous green shrub called greasewood. The sheer brightness of its foliage screams a secret. Where there is greasewood, there is water.
There was ground water once in Las Vegas, but growth unmatched since the gold rush has consumed it. Today Las Vegas relies on water from the Colorado River, stored in the country’s largest reservoir only 30 miles outside the city.
But in the world of water, proximity to water doesn’t count. Historic claims do.
And by all indications the region is only going to get dryer. Scientists predict devastating effects from global warming, conservationists are calling for a halt to growth in Southern Nevada as a way to preserve supplies and water managers are looking to ever more creative ways to reduce reliance on the overburdened Colorado River. A Colorado River reservoir at Lake Mead is the source of 90 percent of the valley's water supply. Water levels there have fallen steadily for nearly a decade.
Now Southern Nevada water managers say they can no longer rely on the river so heavily, and must construct a massive pipeline to draw water stored underground for centuries in rural Nevada to Las Vegas. They say no amount of conservation can replace the need for this backup source of drinking water.
Opponents say the effects of the pumping would be devastating and that the plan would sacrifice a rural, ranching way of life in Eastern Nevada for casinos and tract home in the south.
But it's not only the lack of water that worries environmentalists and water managers alike. It's also water quality, the endangered species that life in Southern Nevada's rivers and streams and the recreation opportunities that make the region's national parks so popular.
Water is one of the most politically charged issues in Nevada today, and it's certainly one of the most important.
Las Vegas lies at the intersection of three deserts. To the west is the Mojave, to the south the Sonoran and to the north the Great Basin.
The Sonoran Desert marries California, Arizona and Mexico.
The Mojave is largely a Californian desert that spills into Southern Nevada.
Both are known as “hot” deserts, names that make more sense when it is 120 degrees in the summer than 10 below freezing on a winter night. Rains do come, but so rarely that the Sonoran’s saguaro cactuses and the Mojave’s Joshua trees have become international symbols of stoicism.
North of Las Vegas, the Great Basin Desert begins. It too is largely dry, but this is a “cold desert.” Its altitudes are higher, its winters longer and colder, and its valleys are fed largely by snowmelt. The Great Basin Desert covers most of Nevada and relaxes eastward across the Utah border to claim the oldest stretches of Mormon country.
As elevations steadily rise in the northward climb, the yuccas of the hot desert give way to a luminous green shrub called greasewood. The sheer brightness of its foliage screams a secret. Where there is greasewood, there is water.
There was ground water once in Las Vegas, but growth unmatched since the gold rush has consumed it. Today Las Vegas relies on water from the Colorado River, stored in the country’s largest reservoir only 30 miles outside the city.
But in the world of water, proximity to water doesn’t count. Historic claims do.
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
NIGHT LIFE IN 'SIN CITY' LAS VEGAS
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Thursday, 21 August 2008
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