Las Vegas

Las Vegas -- Wearing a Ravens baseball cap and an old No. 31 jersey, Charlie Carnaggio was a beacon of Baltimore pride sitting among several hundred fellow gamblers packed into the Las Vegas Hilton's cavernous sports and race book last Sunday. There were Romos and Bradys and Mannings all over the place, but Carnaggio was the only one sporting purple and black. "My father goes back to the 1958 Colts championship game and used to work the gate at Memorial Stadium," Carnaggio said. "Me, I go back to Bert Jones.

An open letter to Gov. Martin O'Malley, Maryland House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. Gentlemen, I am writing to ask you to please table any discussion of introducing slot machines to Maryland as a way of solving your current budget problems. Not because slots are a cold-blooded tax on the poor and the hopeless, which they are. Not because solving your money problems this way is the governmental equivalent of signing up for yet another credit card, which it is. And not because slots will benefit a few rich men to a sinful degree, which they will.

BOSTON -- Back in 2004, a month before the first wedding bells rang for same-sex couples, then-Gov. Mitt Romney offered his opinion that "Massachusetts should not become the Las Vegas of same-sex marriage." It wasn't that he wanted to protect Massachusetts' reputation. He wanted to protect the country from what he regarded as Massachusetts' folly. For that purpose, Mr. Romney unearthed a 1913 law that said couples couldn't be married here unless the unions would be legal in their home states.

MIAMI-- --I'm guessing that Billy Joel is going to squeeze every minute of multimillion-dollar airtime out of "The Star-Spangled Banner" when he sings the national anthem at the Super Bowl, and I'm going to make him pay. The over-under on the anthem is 1 minute and 44 seconds, and I think we all know that at this point in his career, Billy will need two minutes just to get to the high note at "land of the free." This is the biggest lock since WBAL's Chip Franklin and I went head-to-head on the SAT for pink slips.

Gordon Scott may have hung up his loincloth four decades ago, but he was still fondly remembered by some movie fans for his portrayal of jungle superman Tarzan and later roles in westerns and sword-and-sandals gladiator films. The actor - who went from being an unknown Las Vegas hotel lifeguard to Hollywood star overnight, and seemed to vanish overnight after a 24-movie career - died Monday at Johns Hopkins Hospital of complications after several heart surgeries. Mr. Scott, who was 80, had spent the last five years of his life in a rowhouse in Baltimore's Brooklyn neighborhood after being befriended by Roger and Betty Thomas.

LAS VEGAS -- "Murder, Plain and Simple," read the headline on an editorial by Randy Gordon in the June 1984 issue of the Ring magazine.It was a poignant recapitulation of the sordid events that took place in the ring at Madison Square Garden a year earlier, leading to the death of promising junior middleweight Billy Ray Collins Jr.That night, Collins, 21, a crowd-pleasing fighter with a 14-0 record who was being hailed as a title contender, took a fearful...

Before Lloyd Daniels took his first shot as a member of the team, BayRunners coach Herb Brown predicted he would become the best player in the International Basketball League.He looked it last night, hitting 10 three-pointers in the BayRunners' 114-107 win over the Las Vegas Silver Bandits in front of 2,683 at Baltimore Arena."I'm getting my timing back," said Daniels, who finished with a game-high 36 points. "And I'm playing with a bad hamstring. But you got to fight through that."I had a bad performance last game.

LAS VEGAS -- Felix Trinidad called Oscar De La Hoya a "chicken" before their fight last night, and for at least three of the last four rounds, De La Hoya ran like one.Trinidad added De La Hoya's World Boxing Council welterweight title to his International Boxing Federation belt with a majority decision in their unification bout before a sellout crowd of 12,000 at the Mandalay Bay Events CenterJudge Glen Hamada scored the fight, 114-114. Ben Logist scored it, 115-114, and Jerry Roth, 115-113, for Trinidad.

TennisS. Williams opens Grand Slam Cup with rout of Sanchez-VicarioHer game growing more formidable, Serena Williams opened play at the Grand Slam Cup in Munich, Germany, yesterday with a show of strength worthy of her U.S. Open title.She defeated Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, 6-3, 6-1, in the $6.7 million event. The showcase features the eight women and 12 men with the best records at the year's four Grand Slam tournaments.Williams, who turned 18 Sunday, was facing an opponent who, at 27, is the oldest female player in the field.

It was just a routine play near the end of the Minnesota Vikings' 41-21 playoff victory over the Arizona Cardinals last Sunday.The Vikings were in command when they faced a third-and-three play at the Arizona 40 with 6: 19 to play.Randall Cunningham went back to pass, was flushed out of the pocket and started scrambling. It was vintage Cunningham style as he eluded Andre Wadsworth and Simeon Rice. Suddenly, he had 10 yards of open field ahead of him.Cunningham didn't run for the first down.

Thirteen more stadiums have been dropped from consideration for the U.S. bid to host soccer's World Cup in 2018 or 2022, leaving 32 under consideration, including Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium. Failing to make the cut Thursday were Legion Field in Birmingham, Ala.; Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati; Ohio Stadium in Columbus; Reynolds Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Ark.; Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.; the planned Sports City USA venue in Las Vegas; the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome and TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis; the Superdome in New Orleans; Heinz Field in Pittsburgh; Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City; the Alamodome in San Antonio; and Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz.

Piercings stud her nose and lips. A spectacular tattoo spreads, bra-like, over much of her chest. She sauces up a sterile white chef's jacket with magenta stilettos. Jesse Sandlin might just be made for reality TV. The head chef at Abacrombie restaurant will represent Baltimore as she attempts to mix, chop and saute herself into the coveted title of "Top Chef." The Bravo cooking competition, this season set in Las Vegas, returns at 9 tonight. Sandlin is the second Baltimore chef to make the show in as many seasons.

Christina Gochnour, daughter of John and Jean Gochnour, of Pasadena, Maryland, wed Daniel Stover, son of Jeff and Barbara Stover, of Sarver, Pennsylvania, on April 4, 2009. The couple was wed in an outdoor ceremony at the MGM Grand Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. The wedding reception was also held at the MGM Grand Resort. The wedding party consisted of Maid of Honor, Amanda Hoffman, friend of the Bride, and Best Man, Bill Kress, friend of the Groom. The couple remained in Las Vegas for their honeymoon.

SAM BUTERA, 81 Jazz saxophonist Sam Butera, a saxophonist who helped usher in lounge entertainment in Las Vegas and shared the stage with Louis Prima and Keely Smith, died Wednesday morning of pneumonia at Sunrise Hospital in Las Vegas, his daughter Cheryl Butera said. Mr. Butera played onstage more than 50 years, most famously as the sidekick of singer and trumpet player Mr. Prima and Mr. Prima's wife, singer Smith. Mr. Butera joined Mr. Prima at a lounge gig at the Sahara hotel-casino in 1954, assembling a band called The Witnesses and moving to Las Vegas from his hometown New Orleans with his wife, Vera.

ALICE MARY SNAVELY, 82, of Las Vegas, NV died March 5, 2009 at Nathan Adelson Hospice in Las Vegas; surviving her are three children Linda Brown, Thomas Chamberlain and Kimberly Rykiel; four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held Saturday, April 18 at 11 a.m. at St. Philip Neri. Interment will follow at Glen Haven Memorial Park on Ritchie Highway in Glen Burnie. In lieu of flowers, the family request memorial contributions be sent to The American Lung Association of Maryland, 11350 McCormick Road, Hunt Valley, MD 21031.

Insight Guides Las Vegas Step by Step Discovery Channel/APA Publications, $14.95 Only in Las Vegas ... can you get married at a moment's notice; learn the intricacies and little-known secrets of gambling by taking a class; see the world in a day (from Paris to the canals of Venice to ancient Rome to New York and on to the pyramids of Egypt). And that's just the beginning. This small and practical guide includes examples of walks and tours in and around town (from Las Vegas for kids to gay Las Vegas to romantic Las Vegas to Lake Mead and Hoover Dam)

Phelps cancels speech at IBM event in Las Vegas swimming Olympic champion Michael Phelps canceled plans to attend and speak yesterday at an IBM conference in Las Vegas, CNBC.com reported, and representatives for the Fells Point resident said he, not the company, made the decision. "Michael is concentrating on swimming this week," CNBC said a spokesman from Octagon, Phelps' management company, told the media outlet. Phelps is serving a three-month suspension from USA Swimming after a photo of him presumably smoking marijuana was published in a British tabloid.

LAS VEGAS - Is this the worst moment ever to open a fancy new casino? You're entitled to wonder that, given that Steve Wynn's 2,034-room, $2.3 billion Encore took its first bets last month in the middle of a national financial nervous breakdown. But here's a question more suited to the time and place: What's in it for me? The answer at Encore is plenty. With its big rooms, top-notch service, Asian influences and playful design, Encore is a casino-resort that was designed to grab up the wealthiest, most sophisticated visitors in town and charge them top dollar.

Chalk up yet another holiday that has become defined and dominated by television. There is a New Year's Eve TV show for just about every demographic and taste, including one featuring Miley Cyrus on MTV and the eternal Dick Clark on ABC. Given the economy, I suspect more Americans than ever will be ringing in the new year in front of their television sets. In addition to Cyrus, A Miley-Sized Surprise includes performances by Kevin Rudolph, the Veronicas and the Academy Is. (8 p.m., MTV)

Area mall owner and Columbia master developer General Growth Properties Inc. said yesterday that it is still negotiating for an extension of the maturity date on $900 million in mortgage loans for two Las Vegas malls. The real estate investment trust, which is the second-largest U.S. mall owner, failed to reach unanimous agreement with lenders on extending the loans for the Fashion Show and Palazzo malls in Las Vegas. The loans were due Friday after the Chicago-based company received a two-week extension.