VEGAS INC Magazine - Latest Las Vegas business news, features and commentaries about gaming, tourism, real estate and more
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TALKING POINTS Reader comments Pick 'Em Get smart Power tweets Overheard Done Deal Power Lunch The Numbers .com YOUR AD We want to hear from you. Visit vegasinc.com to post your opinion. On Richard N. Velotta's July 30 vegasinc.com story about Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air planning to introduce a new type of airplane to its fleet next year ("Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air acquiring more jets"): G ood to see Allegiant buying new planes, but Allegiant has the lowest maintenance rating of U.S. major carriers. Please, Allegiant, make the planes safe to fly in. — jkush654 I just hope they have the same rigid maintenance stan- dards in the Philippines as they do here in the U.S., as that's where some of these used planes are coming from. I highly doubt it. — brent_mydland On Joe Schoenmann's July 31 vegasinc.com story about Las Vegas businessman Kelly Murphy wanting to turn the Las Vegas market into the top vacation destination for gays ("Las Vegas' marketing machine seen as key to oust- ing NYC as top gay destination"): R emember when by popular vote and constitutional amendment, Nevadans decided to nullify the marriages of gay people visiting our state, and deny marriage to our own gay residents? No effort is being made to change that, and Las Vegas' current Democratic mayor apparently still supports the status quo. I don't see Las Vegas becoming the top gay destination anytime soon. — WestVegas146 Nevada is in the stone ages politically and philosophical- ly. But how very Nevada of us to take advantage of a group of people we legally discriminate against. — truthiness Approving gay marriage in Nevada, as New York has, is the key to increasing gay and lesbian tourism here. Mar- keting will not fix that this is a politically backward place that still does not fully embrace and welcome its local and visiting minority populations. If you want gay dollars, change the laws to fully welcome gays. — 777s On Richard N. Velotta's July 30 VEGAS INC column about the U.S. Olympic Committee's decision that the United States isn't going to bid for the 2022 games even though Northern Nevada was on a short list of cities to host the Winter Olympics that year ("Nevada gets the cold shoul- der: Olympic bids are more about money than the spirit of competition"): L et's face it, today's Olympics are still about competi- tion. It has simply changed its focus. It is more a corpo- rate investment in prestige and profit competition. This is displayed by the large numbers of empty corporate and foreign dignitary seats, while citizens of the world are clamoring for tickets, and the ban on small businesses from capitalizing on Olympic memorabilia and symbols. The athletes and games are simply the tools used to gain what the corporate sponsors want most. Even at that, the Bejing Olympics cost around $44 billion, and the London Olympics will cost about $15 billion. — peacelily On Brian Nordli's July 29 vegasinc.com story about a wa- ter conservation campaign aimed at limiting water usage to 90 gallons per capita per day by 2020 ("Is '90 by 20' water conservation campaign asking too much?"): A fairer water allotment system with California and a smart growth plan limiting new construction until we have 90 percent occupancy in each category is a good place to start. An additional tax on millions of tourists to help support the infrastructure is another. — newnvres (Ben Lambert) Lake Mead will never recover until California reduces its usage. Who thought growing crops in the middle of a desert would be a good idea? California needs to use the resources it has — including the ocean — and leave ours alone. — jzetzman (Jon Zetzman) On Eli Segall's July 26 vegasinc.com story about the social perception of strategic defaults ("Almost half of Neva- dans say it's OK to default on a mortgage"): I guess it just depends on who was asked that question. If you asked that question to a financial officer at a corpo- ration, they would say it's just a good sound business deci- sion to maintain the solvency of the company. However, if that same company holds your mortgage, then you have a legal and ethical obligation to pay. — casinokid When in the world would any reasonable person retain debt of $400,000 on a property that is worth $200,000? Somehow it is OK for big banks to engage in predatory lending, credit default swaps, bank servicing for un- known note holders, etc. It is OK for these big banks to engage in this conduct, but somehow the masses should look down on others who default on their loans? — unlv702 (Vegas Dlight) 45 percent of the people have no ethics and only do what is right for them. These "strategic defaults" cost ev- eryone of us who do pay our bills. Personal responsibility is a thing of the past and until more start stepping up and taking on that personal responsibility, nothing will get better. — vegaslee HERE Buy high Sell low VEGASINCmag Executive class Read this! The Pitch is back THE NUMBERS Sin City Media Chatter We hear NOW SERVING LAS VEGAS 95 Vegas then VEGASinc2021 Gate keeper American dream ? ? ? ? ? ! The innovator FortuneCookie $ Grilled The Survivor Moonlighting SAM MORRIS 35 million People from Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada who rely on the Colorado River as a water source, according to a recent report put together by "90 by 20." $21 million Amount contractor Tutor Perini says it would cost to bring the 26-story faulty Harmon tower up to code. $200 million Amount CityCenter says it would cost to fix the Harmon and that such fixes would take more than 10 months lon- ger than demolishing it. $69.4 million Second-quarter net income reported by NV Energy, up from $12.9 million of profit during the same period last year. $2.7 billion Clark County taxable sales in May, up from $2.4 billion the same month a year ago. 13 Consecutive months taxable sales have increased in Clark County, as of the end of May. TUNE IN VEGAS INC TV 6:30 p.m. Sundays on KSNV, Channel 3 for VEGAS INC, RADIO INC, at 8 a.m. Mondays on KUNV 91.5, the source for Join veteran journalists Dana Gentry and Jeff Gillan at Join host Delen Goldberg, business editor of VEGAS the last word on all things business in the valley. | 6 AUGUST 2012 | the latest gaming, tourism and real-estate news. 21