Whatever happened to the animatronic Foster Brooks that was placed in the MGM Grand when it first opened in 1994? It was described as costing over $150,000, and took over 825 man-hours to build.

In place of today’s previewed question about hotel key cards and identify theft, we’re running a different security-oriented question. The reason for the substitution is that this one’s topical, so we wanted to run the answer while it was still in the news. We’ll run the key card answer on 5/7/09. This question was also submitted by a journalist whose work we greatly admire, so we wanted to help out with the answer to his query asap – and we got a QoD out of it in the process!

How did Laughlin come to be? It seems an odd place – a bunch of high-rise hotels in the middle of nowhere.

I recently watched a TV program called "City Confidential" concerning the now-defunct Las Vegas company named American Coin. It seems the company was rigging video poker machines and was shut down. I know the machine chip programmer was murdered and the suspect was acquitted and later confessed. What happened to the other two conspirators in the murder investigation? One was named Vito and another was some gal. Also, this whole case stunk of Mafia involvement, especially with the seemingly large number of cover-ups involved to protect the two family owners of American Coin, who it seems were never named as suspects and who had the most to lose in the criminal trial!

I read a recent article regarding Las Vegas Sands’ loss of a lawsuit regarding their Macau license. The article made reference to Sheldon Adelson helping the Chinese government in a deal with the U.S. government. Will you explain what the deal between the governments was and what Sands did or was supposed to do for the Chinese?

I recently saw an obituary for a filmmaker named Ray Dennis Steckler, who lived in Las Vegas. What can you tell me about him?

I have an authenticated, autographed business card for "The Jim Thorpe Supper Club & Casino." Yes, THAT Jim Thorpe. He died on March 28, 1953. The card also says "Pittman, Nevada." Where is/was Pittman? When was this casino/supper club open? What all can you tell us about it?

This being the fourth anniversary of HST's choice to leave this plane ... where exactly was the Mint casino and what is the history of the MINT 400?

What do you make of the big flap over President Obama dissing Las Vegas as a place to hold a convention?

There was a little blurb in our newspaper last Sunday about the mob museum in Las Vegas. How long will it be till it's opened?