Cover Stories
2011 Beer Issue
The Banger Gang
This Las Vegas brew crew is ready to go from garage home-brewers to brewpub proprietors
September 8th, 2011
As suburban garages go, this one is spotless. Four top-loading freezers hum away, maintaining the ideal temperature for whatever magic is happening within, and three gleaming tanks are lined up on the concrete, awaiting next week’s work. Read more »
Mining
Treasure in the Dust
In times of crisis, the world wants gold—and Nevada’s got it. This is the story of the land, the mine and the community that produce the stuff of dreams—and the seeds of controversy.
September 1st, 2011
In the mid-1970s, Elko was a sleepy cowtown halfway between Salt Lake City and Reno with a postcard view of the Ruby Mountains to the south. If you grew up there, you understood that you’d probably have to leave to make a living. The job opportunities, such as they were, were in agriculture, gaming or tourism. At less than $200 an ounce, gold wasn’t much of a factor. Then prices started to rise ... Read more »
2011 Football Issue
7 Rebels to Watch
Once again, the Rebels are young—and they’ll be playing some of the nation’s toughest teams. But there’s something new this year: hope.
August 25th, 2011
A year ago, the UNLV football team went 2-11 while suiting up 23 freshmen and playing one of the nation’s toughest schedules. Guess what? This year, the Rebels have 31 freshmen and one of the nation’s toughest schedules. So life won’t be much easier for coach Bobby Hauck in his second year at UNLV. They may not be ready to beat national powers such as Wisconsin, Boise State and TCU, but they’ve got plenty of players worth watching as the team grows. Read more »
The Grand Chasm
Once upon a time, a globetrotting businessman and an Indian tribe decided to build the world’s most spectacular bridge to nowhere. They did not live happily ever after.
August 18th, 2011
I’m standing on the Las Vegas side of the Grand Canyon with a Hualapai man. He’s wearing a feather on his head, and has a black mullet and reddish-brown skin. An endless stream of Chinese-speaking tourists approaches. One after the next, they ask him to pose for photos with them, handing me their cameras, nodding graciously and smiling as I snap the shots that fulfill their visions of the American Southwest—stone-faced Indian, Grand Canyon, clear blue sky. A chestnut of a story, a bucket-list photo. Afterward, they wander back to the picnic tables at the Grand Canyon Skywalk and eat barbecue and corn on the cob. Read more »
The Freedom Seekers
Five refugees, the worlds they left behind and the lives they’re building in Las Vegas
August 11th, 2011
Their freedom was threatened, their rights, their lives—sometimes it was what they said or wrote, or how they worshipped; sometimes it was the ethnicity they were born into. They were forced to flee their homes, their countries, and in the past four years more than 2,000 of them have come to Las Vegas. Read more »
The Light Savers
It’s no easy task keeping Vegas’ bright heritage off the scrap heap. But the Neon Museum’s on the case.
July 21st, 2011
Countless visions of Las Vegas have risen and fallen—Mob-era Vegas, Hughes-era Vegas, the Vegas where volcanoes and pirate battles represented the state of the art. Many of the signs that marked those ages have disappeared forever, but here, at the Boneyard, old signs still bridge generations. They speak not only to our fantasies but to the simple, honest reality of workaday Vegas. Read more »
From Back Beat to Front Man
With distinctive drumming and sound instincts, Ronnie Vannucci helped launch the Killers to stardom. Can he do the same with his own band?
July 7th, 2011
On a recent lunch date with Ronnie Vannucci Jr., the drummer for the greatest rock band ever to emerge from the Vegas desert, I arrive early and pick a gunfighter booth in a dark corner of an old downtown tamale joint called Doña María. The booth is private, away from the lunch-hour clank, and tape-recorder friendly. Vannucci swings open the door, spots me and immediately changes the plan. Read more »
The Vegas Wheel
On the south Strip, big dreams collide with a small motel.
June 30th, 2011
I’d been charmed by the decrepit Happi Inn for years. A two-story motor lodge built in 1973, it sat across from Mandalay Bay without offering even a hint of the same comfort or safety. It was a couple of plain, two-story buildings covered in fading salmon paint, with rotting AC units hanging under each window like loose teeth. For a long time, the marquee sign was missing the panel that said “Happi Inn,” leaving just “MOTEL.” Read more »
Welcome to Skulltree Manor
Local legend P Moss collects great stuff just for the hell of it
June 23rd, 2011
Buried deep in one of Las Vegas’ historic mid-mod neighborhoods lies a little green abode with a big attitude and an even more audacious man of the house. P Moss, one of Las Vegas’ cultural innovators, owner of two the city’s best watering holes (the Double Down Saloon and Frankie’s Tiki Room) and author of Blue Vegas, characterizes his living space as a “cozy bungalow,” which is an understatement to the say least. Read more »
Deals on Meals 2011
The results of our second annual hunt for the tastiest ‘Cheap Eats’ in town.
June 16th, 2011
