Las Vegas Strip

LAS VEGAS, NEV. - There is nothing better to relax a soul after a business trip to Las Vegas, or a bad losing streak at the casinos, than the natural beauty of Red Rock Canyon. Although less than a half-hour - 17 miles - from the Strip, Red Rock Canyon might as well be a world away. It is the yin to the Strip's yang. With its desert beauty and quiet isolation, it is the polar opposite of the man-made casino glitz and action along the Strip. Often referred to as the hidden jewel of the Mojave Desert, this is the "other Vegas" that few outside of Nevada know much about.

The performance was vintage J. Brian O'Neill. The King of Prussia developer paced around a conference room at his company's headquarters, talking animatedly about his latest project as he used a black marker on a flip chart to make certain points, letting loose with a profanity every so often to emphasize his excitement. It was a side of the typically effusive, boastful, readily smiling O'Neill that hasn't been on display much lately. Not since the economy tanked, leaving an admittedly unprepared O'Neill with sleepless nights "agonizing over keeping the company alive and laying off employees.

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.

Brett Favre says he's tempted to show up at the Green Bay Packers' training camp just to call the team's "bluff. " In the second part of an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, the 38-year-old quarterback said he knows his arrival in camp would cause a media circus, but that might not stop him. Packers players are scheduled to report July 27. "It's tempting just to, as everyone said, you know, call their bluff or whatever," Favre...

Charles Barkley acknowledged that he owed a $400,000 gambling debt to a Las Vegas Strip casino and promised yesterday to repay it after a prosecutor said the retired NBA star would face criminal charges. "My mistake," Barkley said in an interview at a pro-am golf tournament in Hoover, Ala. "I'm not broke, and I'm going to take care of it. " Clark County District Attorney David Roger had said prosecutors would file a criminal complaint if he did not pay the debt, cited by the Wynn Las Vegas resort.

Se Ri Pak had the best of both worlds in the LPGA Tour Championship - she was in the lead and out of the spotlight. In a season dominated by Karrie Webb and Juli Inkster, the 21-year-old South Korean quietly went about her business at the Desert Inn Golf Club in Las Vegas and wound up with a 6-under 66 for a one-stroke lead yesterday. On a still, sunny day just off the Las Vegas Strip, Pak birdied five of the first seven holes on the back nine, then capped her round with a solid save of par on No. 18. Janice Moodie of Scotland birdied three of the last four holes for a 67. Webb got off to a solid start in her bid to clinch player-of-the-year honors and smash the LPGA Tour's season scoring average.

Investigators plan to fly to Las Vegas tomorrow, and hope to return with a fugitive in tow: the man suspected of killing the daughter of former City Council President Joseph E. Coleman. Steven Hutchinson, 30, of Fern Rock, has been in custody in Las Vegas since New Year's Day. Police there say he was arrested after getting into an argument over the bill for his stay at the Excalibur Hotel, a faux medieval castle on the Las Vegas Strip. Philadelphia authorities are seeking to extradite Hutchinson to stand trial for the murder of Stephanie Coleman-Epps, 41, who was shot to death Sept.

A Fern Rock man wanted in the September slaying of the daughter of former City Council President Joseph E. Coleman has been arrested in Las Vegas, Philadelphia police said yesterday. Steven Hutchinson, 30, was sought on a murder warrant charging him with the Sept. 16 fatal shooting of Stephanie Coleman-Epps, 41, who was gunned down in the hallway of her East Oak Lane apartment house in front of her two young children. According to city detectives, Hutchinson was arrested on New Year's Day by police in Las Vegas who were called to the Excalibur Hotel, a sprawling, medieval-style castle hotel on the Las Vegas Strip, after he got into an argument with hotel officials over his bill.

MGM Resorts International was under investigation after the underage son of basketball great Michael Jordan bragged on Twitter about partying at a Las Vegas Strip nightclub, Nevada gambling regulators said yesterday. Officials were examining whether the casino operator violated laws prohibiting drinking or gambling by minors, Nevada Gaming Control Board enforcement chief Jerry Markling said. Jordan's 19-year-old son Marcus Jordan tweeted Aug. 20 about spending $35,000 at Haze at Aria Resort & Casino.

Ernest J. Primm had a hunch in the mid-1950s. It ran along the lines of "if you build it, they will come," a phrase that batted around in Ernest's brain decades before Field of Dreams became a movie. Primm's own improbable vision involved 800 acres of barren Nevada desert bordering the California state line about 35 minutes south of the Las Vegas Strip. For years, his investment remained nothing more than a gas station, 12-room motel, coffee shop, and a dozen slot machines. It might not have been much to look at, but business boomed anyway, as travelers going to and from Las Vegas stopped off for their first - or last - brush with Lady Luck.

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.

LAS VEGAS, NEV. - There is nothing better to relax a soul after a business trip to Las Vegas, or a bad losing streak at the casinos, than the natural beauty of Red Rock Canyon. Although less than a half-hour - 17 miles - from the Strip, Red Rock Canyon might as well be a world away. It is the yin to the Strip's yang. With its desert beauty and quiet isolation, it is the polar opposite of the man-made casino glitz and action along the Strip. Often referred to as the hidden jewel of the Mojave Desert, this is the "other Vegas" that few outside of Nevada know much about.

WHEN LUKE Palladino describes his typical seven-day, 100-hour workweek, he does so without regret. Splitting time between his acclaimed, year-old, 30-seat BYOB, Luke Palladino Seasonal Italian Cooking, in Northfield, N.J., and his recently opened namesake, a 230-seater in Harrah's Resort Atlantic City, may make him ridiculously overworked, but as far as he is concerned, that's a blessing, not a curse. "Especially when you're in the throes of the opening, it's always frustrating and difficult," admitted the 42-year-old Long Island, N.Y., native with the dark, movie-star looks.

The performance was vintage J. Brian O'Neill. The King of Prussia developer paced around a conference room at his company's headquarters, talking animatedly about his latest project as he used a black marker on a flip chart to make certain points, letting loose with a profanity every so often to emphasize his excitement. It was a side of the typically effusive, boastful, readily smiling O'Neill that hasn't been on display much lately. Not since the economy tanked, leaving an admittedly unprepared O'Neill with sleepless nights "agonizing over keeping the company alive and laying off employees.

Billy Graham returns home ASHEVILLE, N.C. - The Rev. Billy Graham was back at his North Carolina home Sunday after being hospitalized for five days with pneumonia. Graham's doctors at Mission Hospital in Asheville said the 92-year-old evangelist had responded well to treatment and regained strength. "We expect continuing recuperation at home with very gradual recovery, returning to normal activities over several weeks," Lucian Rice said in a news release from the hospital.

MGM Resorts International was under investigation after the underage son of basketball great Michael Jordan bragged on Twitter about partying at a Las Vegas Strip nightclub, Nevada gambling regulators said yesterday. Officials were examining whether the casino operator violated laws prohibiting drinking or gambling by minors, Nevada Gaming Control Board enforcement chief Jerry Markling said. Jordan's 19-year-old son Marcus Jordan tweeted Aug. 20 about spending $35,000 at Haze at Aria Resort & Casino.

THE TRADITONAL gift for a fifth anniversary is wood, but for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Sandra Bullock gave a health clinic. She returned yesterday to the New Orleans high school that she helped rebuild for the clinic's opening. Bullock, whose adopted son was born in the Big Easy, joined a host of educators, school supporters and politicians for the clinic's ribbon-cutting ceremony, which coincided with the storm's anniversary. "We're here to celebrate an anniversary, and though that might be hard for some, I choose to emphasize the word 'celebrate,' " Bullock told about 100 people gathered at Warren Easton Charter High School.

THE WOMAN behind the nom de plume for call-girl author/blogger Belle de Jour has come forward and . . . she's a British scientist. Brooke Magnanti was quoted by the Sunday Times of London as saying that she decided to reveal her secret because she was afraid an ex-boyfriend would expose her. Face it, ladies, you can not trust ex-boyfriends. If they don't leak your pseudonyms, they'll leak your sex tapes. Brooke, 34, is a child-health researcher at the University of Bristol, in western England.

Brett Favre says he's tempted to show up at the Green Bay Packers' training camp just to call the team's "bluff. " In the second part of an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren, the 38-year-old quarterback said he knows his arrival in camp would cause a media circus, but that might not stop him. Packers players are scheduled to report July 27. "It's tempting just to, as everyone said, you know, call their bluff or whatever," Favre...

Oakland Raiders wide receiver Javon Walker remained hospitalized with a concussion and a battered face yesterday, 1 day after he was beaten, robbed and left unconscious on a Las Vegas street after a night of partying. Police said a large amount of cash and some jewelry were taken from Walker, who suffered "a moderate concussion and significant injuries to his face. " Police Lt. Clinton Nichols said detectives are retracing Walker's activities in the hours before he was found injured Monday morning on a street off the Las Vegas Strip.