Las Vegas Sun

Facts:
-Pickens stands to make billions from his plan, with him owning natural gas deposits and his energy company producing wind farms
-Pickens supported Bush, campaigned against Kerry, and recently supported Guilliani

Opinion:
Even though his plan will make him much wealthier, it will help to improve our domestic energy situation, I am all for wind power if not on natural gas.

He really needs to stay out of politics as he's shown over time he's not very good at supporting the right candidate. Lobbying is his answer...

when did a house cleaning job, a lawn mower or a laborer in home construction become a good job?

These are jobs for the unskilled and kids, get them back in there to do the jobs instead of being on welfare and we can talk about getting rid of the illegals (which i am in favor of)

where's neiman1 at on this story???

Nobody can get financing at a profitable rate, that's all. This is a cycle and will improve at some point. Just the way the world works...

What, an anti Obama piece in the news, "say it ain't so"!!!

I'm surpirsed they didn't take that kid out back and give him some Obama koolaid to change his mind.

I bet you her family and friends (even the worst people have those) voted for her, and if it was a 15% turnout of the roughly 1M eligible voters that's 150,000 total votes, and 9% of that is about 1,350. Not really too good. Must have had 1,300 hanging chads. LOL

Ditto on the posts about there still being value here. People just have to give up the idea they are going to be able to stay at a 4star and 5star resorts for 1star prices. It's supply and demand and there is a demand for the high end.

My suggestions for going on the skinny:
On strip:
Hooters, Imperial Palace, Casino Royale, Excalibur, Alexis Park, Palace Station, Wild Wild West, and Tropicana. You can stay here depending on the season for less than $80 a night on a weekend and $30 a night range on weeknights.

Downtown, Station Casinos or other local casinos

If you want to drink on the skinny:
Casino Royale (right next to the venetian) has $1 Michelobs and margaritas and i think the most expensive drink on their menu is $3.
Oshea's which is right across the street from Caesars has $2-$4 drinks, Bill's (Barbary Coast) has $2-$5 drinks and $14.95 prime rib specials.
Ellis Island on Koval just south of Flamingo has $1 22oz beers and $2.50-3.50 drinks for everything else; and some of the best food for under $10 you've ever seen.

Bottom line is people want to complain they cannot get into a swanky place for peanuts anymore, when they never should have been able to get in there in the first place. There are many places ON THE STRIP which will rate your play on penny slots and $5 at table games...

The real reason you are out of jobs is you haven't kept up to date with the world and your old jobs became obsolete. I am sure your employers held onto you longer than they really should have but with the change in the encomy had to let you go. You can always find a job in a service industry making less money to make ends meet. I know most of you have too much pride to work in a restaruant or do manual labor, which is why I really don't have much sympathy for you.

I put myself through college working at McDonalds full time; and also doing part time jobs in roofing, delivering pizza, bartending and working other odd jobs. I slept about 3 hours a night on average for 6 years to make a living.

You simply have to lower your standards and do what it takes to make ends meet, not complain about not being able to find jobs in your field. What is happening is cylical and people have been forced to re-train for other professions many times....

This isn't a McCain vs. Obama thing either, it's a sudden impact of energy taking liquidity out of the market which is forcing employers to shed un-needed jobs from the workforce which should have been shed long ago. This will be corrected with American innovation and free enterprise no matter what subsidies the government gives.

Energy will work itself out, the dependence on oil is running it's course. When we first started traveling in the 1920's oil wasnt' the bas energy, and being in the free enterprise system we are in it will work itself out again. This isn't an overnight fix, but it will happen, there is just too much profit to be made in doing so.

You can get a room in Vegas right now for less than $30 a day if you aren't a yuppie' and don't have to stay at a AAAAA resort, price is all about supply and demand. Casinos arent going to charge what they can get. If there isn't the demand for a high priced product, prices will come down or the place will close. Look at Ice as a prime target or any of the other many night clubs which have shuttered.

Las Vegas is an attractive product now and will be, there are just too many smart and wealthy people who have their fortunes depending on this place not to do whatever it takes to make it work. Occupancy is still over 90%, the downturn is the $$ spent per person who visits here, especially in retail and other non-gaming activites.

The housing market got overbuilt, that will correct itself with time. The real losers in almost every case are the people who get in at the end (2005-2007 here); the same happend with the pyramid schemes in the 80's, the .com era in the 90's and the housing markets in the 2000's. In 2 years we will be laughing that we ever worried about this

Really; it's the Republicans and/or the Democrats and/or immigrants faults Vegas is having trouble for the past 12 months??? How do you figure??? Isn't that really just your adgenda... Seems to me people might agree with you more if you actually made sense.

Like a previous user said, nothing stays the same forever, and Las Vegas wasn't even 1/10 of what it is today before the 1980's, and it's totally unrealistic to believe that that type of growth can continue exponentially. The 2002-2007 boom was created by high disposible income for non-gaming activities and that market is saturated here now.

Our current downturn is totally due to energy costs which have risen because of the westernization of Asia (China and India specifically), not some domestic policy change. Our domestic policy on energy has been the same for the past 5 presidents on both sides of the fence. Politicans are always reacors, not proactive.

Occupancy rates are still over 90% in this city and we are raking in $1B a month in revenue a month in the state still from $1.1B last year. The retail and non-gaming parts are what are hurting us the most, and once the energy problem is fixed that should turn around as well.

Immigrants are leaving in high numbers, but regardless of that by law and/or union contracts they cannot do the high skilled labor jobs that most of the 800 people on site were doing. Immigrants were responsible for building most of the houses here, landscaping and general labor, not work on the strip.

The sky is not falling, we don't have 20% unemployment, we don't have energy rations, there aren't riots for bread. This city is still as desireable as it has ever been and I for one don't really see that changing, this place is an engine for progress...