Las Vegas

Fans, family and the famous bade farewell to Liberace yesterday at a funeral service in Las Vegas, tearfully singing his theme song, "I'll Be Seeing You," at a church near the glittering Strip where he performed for five decades. More than 1,000 people, including Rich Little, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Goulet and Donald O'Connor, crowded into St. Anne's Roman Catholic Church. "He loved his work, he loved his audiences and they knew it," Goulet said in the eulogy. "His entertaining was his way of returning to the people the gift that was given to him. " The crowd included Liberace's sister Angie, and his sister-in-law, Dora Liberace.

LAS VEGAS - In one room, a ghastly photo wall of bloody, uncensored images showcases the mob's greatest hits. In another, visitors are taught to load a revolver. And for when a gun just won't do, a collection of household items - a shovel, a hammer, a baseball bat, an ice pick - show the creative side of some of America's most notorious killers. Sin City is honoring one of its earliest relationships with the grand opening of a museum dedicated to the mobsters that made this desert town.

After a week of inspired music-making and grateful audiences, the Philadelphia Orchestra arrived in good, chatty spirits at the Las Vegas airport, the midpoint of its current U.S. tour, with rows of slot machines and gaudy-clothes shops unsuccessfully beckoning en route to the baggage carousels. Once on the bus to the Regent hotel, however, everyone fell eerily silent as the city's skyline came into view. Even youthful cellist Bob Cafaro, always eager to share his stash of health food with the other players, quit passing around his bag of organic raisins.

Merle Haggard is playing the Golden Nugget, the Oak Ridge Boys are at Caesar's Palace and Charlie Pride is at the Desert Inn. But, of course, that's all academic to two City Council members who will be spending the next several days in Las Vegas. They will be attending seminars and workshops on such topics as "Capital Ideas for Infrastructure Financing," and "Facilitating Compliance with Title III of Superfund. " Council members Joan L. Krajewski and Ann J. Land leave today for the National League of Cities annual convention, being held in Las Vegas through Wednesday.

The best thing that happened to the University of Nevada at Las Vegas basketball team this week was the worst thing that could happen to Las Vegas. Or, more specifically, UNLV's ascent to the Final Four means a real financial loss for the gambling capital of America. "On the one hand, the whole town is going crazy for the team. Everyone is excited," said Keith Glantz, director of the Palace Station race and sports book. "On the other hand, this isn't exactly helping the betting and sports- book industry.

The Oakland Athletics still are throwing snake eyes in their temporary home in Las Vegas. Melvin Nieves's RBI bloop single in the 15th inning gave the visiting Detroit Tigers, who earlier blew a seven-run lead, a 10-9 win yesterday over winless Oakland in a game that featured five homers. The Tigers' Travis Fryman and the Athletics' Scott Brosius each homered twice. Bobby Higginson also connected for Detroit in a game that lasted 4 hours, 47 minutes. "We need to win a game, period," Brosius said.

If Hollywood maintains the current rate of burned-out-cop movies through the year, we are going to need an urn in the local cineplex by midsummer. Following in the cinders of Number One With a Bullet and Lethal Weapon comes Burt Reynolds in Heat - and there is a sparkle to his performance that's been sorely missed in his recent films. In Heat, Reynolds is a private bodyguard, rather than a sullen detective as played by Robert Carradine and Mel Gibson, but the odd blend of enforcer and ennui is pretty much the same.

A mother and son who are wanted in a Las Vegas homicide may have fled to Philadelphia, investigators said. The FBI is helping the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department search for Michelle Costello, 43, and her 19-year-old son, Peter, who police believe left Las Vegas after the Sept. 20 slaying of Costello's husband. Authorities have not released the cause of death or the name of the victim, who was the son's stepfather, Las Vegas police Detective Jason McCarthy said. Neither Michelle nor Peter Costello has a violent criminal record, McCarthy said.

Reputed mob soldier Nicholas Milano, who has been a fugitive since July 1987, was apprehended Tuesday night in Las Vegas after he was spotted earlier in the day with a longtime friend of convicted Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo Scarfo, Philadelphia police said. Milano, 28, a former resident of the 2500 block of Clarion Street, remained in custody last night in Las Vegas after a federal magistrate ordered his immediate return to Philadelphia. Defense attorney Oscar Goodman, who represented Milano during the court appearance, said in a telephone interview last night that Milano did not contest his return to Philadelphia because "he knows he's going to be found not guilty back there.

Jim Furyk, who seems to have made the Las Vegas Invitational his own, shot a 6-under 66 yesterday to win the tournament for the second consecutive year and third time in five years. In a six-year PGA Tour career, Furyk has just one win outside Las Vegas. He held off Jonathan Kaye, who has not won a tour event, by one shot and earned $450,000. Furyk, a West Chester native, finished at 29-under 331 for the five-day event, and, amazingly, had just one bogey over the 90 holes.

Nev. store owner accused in Bosnia LAS VEGAS - A man accused of commanding a police squad that rounded up Bosnian Muslims for slaughter in 1995 fashioned a new life in Las Vegas as a modest grocery store owner before being arrested and deported to his native country, a lawyer and U.S. officials said Thursday. Dejan Radojkovic, 61, arrived in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, after an overnight commercial airline flight from Las Vegas accompanied by federal agents, Bosnian authorities and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

Wearing a pair of dark-rimmed glasses and a backward snapback hat, Teon Kennedy strolled into Joe Hand's Gym on Tuesday afternoon wheeling his equipment bag at his side. Just 25 years old and 5 feet, 5 inches tall, Kennedy's youthful appearance might fool you. But in the ring, the North Philly boxer stakes his claim with an aggressive style that often turns fights into brawls. By the final rounds of a fight last year in Atlantic City, his eyes were swollen shut but he still battled.

Those neon lights in Las Vegas lure more than 30 million visitors every year. But the members of the Gloucester Catholic baseball team aren't typical tourists. The Rams won't travel to the desert in Nevada this week seeking casino entertainment, gambling action, or all-you-can-eat buffets. South Jersey's No. 1 baseball team will be looking for manicured fields, top-level competition, and validation of its lofty national ranking. "We can't wait to get there," Gloucester Catholic senior first baseman John Brue said after his team's 19-0 victory over Deptford on Monday in a Tri-County Diamond Division game.

Those neon lights in Las Vegas lure more than 30 million visitors every year. But the members of the Gloucester Catholic baseball team aren't typical tourists. The Rams won't travel to the desert in Nevada this week seeking casino entertainment, gambling action, or all-you-can-eat buffets. South Jersey's No. 1 baseball team will be looking for manicured fields, top-level competition, and validation of its lofty national ranking. "We can't wait to get there," Gloucester Catholic senior first baseman John Brue said after his team's 19-0 victory over Deptford on Monday in a Tri-County Diamond Division game.

DEAR ABBY: "Darrel" and I have been married 28 years. I thought we had an easy, comfortable relationship. We have no children; it's just the two of us with a large family of furry animals. We don't take vacations together because one of us has to be home to care for the animals. Last year Darrel took four trips to Las Vegas - two for business and two for special sporting events. I'm beginning to get little nagging signals that he may not have been on these trips alone. He shuts his phone off for hours at a time and changed the password on his computer after I had to get on it for a security update.

ATLANTIC CITY - This town isn't Las Vegas, but the $2.4 billion Revel Casino wants to take visitors there with A-list entertainment, posh rooms, and celebrity-chef restaurants in a luxurious setting where the champagne and water in 10 swimming pools are always flowing. The 20-acre resort - draped in silvery-blue reflective glass - literally curls to and fro like the ocean it embraces. Many see Revel as the lifeline for this down-on-its-luck gambling mecca in need of a revival.

LAS VEGAS - Defending Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the final 54 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday for his first victory of the season. Stenhouse had a strong car all day and dominated the end of the 200-mile race, pulling away from Mark Martin on a pair restarts on the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the desert. Martin, who had won four of his previous six Nationwide starts at Las Vegas, finished second in his first Nationwide race for Joe Gibbs Racing. Polesitter Elliott Sadler rallied to finish third after a lengthy midrace pit stop to fix a vibration.

LAS VEGAS - The singer-songwriter behind the Grammy-winning 2010 single "Forget You" and the 2006 hit "Crazy" is settling down - at least for a few months - in a Las Vegas residency. Cee Lo Green says his semipermanent show, Loberace, will launch Aug. 29 at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip, and run at least through the end of the year. "The production will combine Cee Lo's flamboyant sense of style and over-the-top creativity," producers said in a statement, adding that the show "will be as inspired and visually alive as Cee Lo Green.

A South Jersey man charged in November with scamming several people, including at least two nuns, was arrested Monday by the FBI in Las Vegas, authorities said. Federal prosecutors said Adriano Sotomayor, 54, of Margate, had been on the lam since he was indicted Nov. 15 on 13 counts of wire fraud. Sotomayor bilked members of the Dominican Sisters of the Rosary of Fatima and others of more than $439,000 between May 2009 and June, according to the indictment. Sotomayor allegedly collected the money - sent by wire transfers - at three Atlantic City casinos, among other places.

LAS VEGAS - In one room, a ghastly photo wall of bloody, uncensored images showcases the mob's greatest hits. In another, visitors are taught to load a revolver. And for when a gun just won't do, a collection of household items - a shovel, a hammer, a baseball bat, an ice pick - show the creative side of some of America's most notorious killers. Sin City is honoring one of its earliest relationships with the grand opening of a museum dedicated to the mobsters that made this desert town.