WELCOME to Kimo’s Vegas ... The Player’s Edge!

SARAH LARSON, the ex-Moon nightclub hostess, says she and boyfriend George Clooney will spend his 47th birthday next month at the actor’s villa in Lake Como, Italy. She also confessed that they met on his birthday four years ago and not at last year’s premiere of Ocean’s Thirteen.

ACCORDING TO the Las Vegas Review Journal, the shutdown of Aloha Airlines will not have much effect on the city’s tourism. Quoting last year’s passenger statistics, Aloha had 44,260 passenger arrivals and departures, compared to Hawaiian’s 362,611 and Omni’s (Vacations Hawaii) 143,504. However, experts predict that room rates will continue to drop faster than a KENO ball in the casino.

LUCKY WE LIVE HAWAII… the Nevada budget deficit is heading toward $1 billion.

RIGHT NOW there are nearly 1,000 homes for sale in the $1 million-plus price range, and just like a Vegas Strip property that reinvents itself every few years, buyers in this league want newer, not older real estate, making the majority of those houses (built less than four years ago) less desirable than their newer counterparts.

THE ITALIAN RESTAURANT Steve Wynn named after Frank Sinatra, Francesco’s, in the TI is closed for remodeling and rethemeing.

JUST IN TIME for Earth Day ... The N9NE Group gets aggressive about reducing, reusing and recycling, and plans to offset 100 percent of its total carbon dioxide emissions for six of its venues at the Palms. This is equivalent to taking more than 350 cars off the road annually, planting more than 19,000 trees or recycling more than 10.3 million aluminum cans.

JERSEY BOYS: The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons is open at the Palazzo. The 2006 Tony Award-winning Broadway show makes its cross country trek in its complete unabridged entirety (most Vegas shows are 90 minutes long) and includes another Vegas show rarity ... intermission.

AND THE PALAZZO gets a Silver LEED Certificate (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) for creating the first truly eco-friendly property in Las Vegas. The Palazzo is the largest LEED-certified building in the world. The hotel conserves enough water to provide each Nevada citizen with 266 eight-ounce glasses of water for a year, and saves enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for 12,100 years. It’s even the first resort to offer valet parking - for bicycles (to promote environmentally safe transport).

DUBAI WORLD now owns half of the MGM’s $8 billion CityCenter project and was approved by regulators to increase its ownership of the MGM Mirage Corporation from 10 percent to 15 percent.

Eventually the country of Dubai wants to increase its investment to 20 percent of the company.

NOW OPEN ... the Shelby Corner Café, located at the Carroll Shelby Automobiles Campus at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Enthusiasts can hang at the track, take the museum tour, then dine on Shelby’s classic chili and other faves - and you never know who you’ll be dining with, including top drivers, mechanics or even the Auto Executive of the Year “Lifetime Award winner” Carroll Shelby.

MORGANS HOTEL GROUP may be the latest victim of the economic slowdown in Vegas. The Boyd Gaming partner has not been able to secure financing for its share of Echelon, the Strip’s latest mega-resort. The $4.8 billion project is scheduled to open in late summer of 2010.

 

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