{"id":23825,"date":"2019-04-01T09:08:11","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/?p=23825"},"modified":"2019-04-01T09:08:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:08:59","slug":"news-briefs-from-around-the-globe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/news-briefs-from-around-the-globe\/","title":{"rendered":"News briefs from around the globe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the end of an era at <strong>Hard Rock Rocksino<\/strong> in <strong>Ohio<\/strong>. This week it becomes <strong>MGM Northfield Park<\/strong>, a completely uninspiring handle that <img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-14521\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Hard-Rock-Rocksino-300x151.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"151\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Hard-Rock-Rocksino-300x151.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Hard-Rock-Rocksino-150x75.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Hard-Rock-Rocksino.jpg 316w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>reeks of insecurity. <strong>Dan Gilbert<\/strong>, if you&#8217;re ever going to make a run for the top spot in the Buckeye State, now&#8217;s your chance. The Hard Rock brand powered the slots-only racino to #1 consistently. The switchover will be an acid test of the power of the MGM brand against the Hard Rock one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MGM Resorts International<\/strong> doesn&#8217;t have a physical casino in <strong>Japan<\/strong> yet but it already has a culinary team for &#8220;<strong>MGM Japan<\/strong>.&#8221; We know this because they paid a visit to <strong>MGM National Harbor<\/strong>, along with taiko drummers and <!--more--><strong>Ceelo Green<\/strong>, to kick off the <strong>National Cherry Blossom Festival<\/strong>. Judging by the exposure it&#8217;s getting lately in company publicity, National Harbor is MGM&#8217;s unofficial new HQ, strategically positioned within eyeshot of <strong>Capitol Hill<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The company is to be commended on its <strong>Women Inspiring Women<\/strong> evening at <strong>Bellagio<\/strong>. The gala raised money for charitable causes, such as last year&#8217;s winner, <strong>Shade Tree Shelte<\/strong>r, which received a $30,000 check. Shade Tree provides a safe harbor for women in abusive relationships in the <strong>Las Vegas<\/strong> area and we&#8217;re thrilled to see MGM supporting in such george fashion.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of Bellagio, it&#8217;s redone the dancing fountains to sweep and sway in time with the <em>Game of Thrones<\/em> theme music. Unfortunately, MGM makes the official video available only in MP4 format, which <em>S&amp;G<\/em> can&#8217;t support. However, here&#8217;s a fan-shot vignette:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vQv8bzFv0Cc\" width=\"450\" height=\"253\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Credit goes both to composer\u00a0<strong>Ramin Djawadi<\/strong>,\u00a0who provided a slow intro to the main title, and the team at <strong>WET Design<\/strong>, who ring new changes on their aquatic creation. I could quote MGM&#8217;s press-release rhapsody but actually I think the water show speaks pretty well for itself. Enjoy.<\/p>\n<p>* Think twice before you buy a hoagie at <strong>Earl of Sandwich<\/strong> or\u00a0sit down at <strong>Planet Hollywood<\/strong> in the <strong>Forum Shops<\/strong>. Those are just two of the <strong>Earl Enterprises<\/strong> franchises to have been v<a href=\"https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/2019\/03\/31\/planet-hollywood-parent-company-card-breach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ictimized by a 10-month-long hack<\/a>. Credit card data was among the information snared by point-of-sale malware insinuated into Earl Enterprises&#8217; computer system. As a result, over two million black-market credit cards found their way onto the market, giving new meaning to the query, &#8220;What&#8217;s in your wallet?&#8221; The breach has been &#8220;contained,&#8221; said a less-than-fully-reassuring dispatch from Earl Enterprises, cold comfort to those who have already been victimized.<\/p>\n<p>* In what will surely be Las Vegas&#8217; highest-profile murder prosecution since the death of casino heir <strong>Ted Binion<\/strong>, a former Playboy model <a href=\"https:\/\/945wfla.iheart.com\/content\/2019-03-29-playboy-model-detained-in-murder-of-las-vegas-psychiatrist\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has been detained<\/a> in connection with the murder of psychiatrist <strong>Thomas Burchard<\/strong>. His body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car and an autopsy detected death by blunt-force trauma. (Burchard could have beaten himself to death, but we kind of doubt it.) If you want to visit the scene of the crime, drive <strong>State Route 147<\/strong> to mile marker 14. <strong>Kelsey Nichole Turner<\/strong> has been jailed\u00a0in <strong>Clark County<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LVMPD\/status\/1111402096555786240\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">following her extradition<\/a> from <strong>California<\/strong>. She looks a bit willowy for such a brutal homicide but she&#8217;s only 25 to Burchard&#8217;s 71, so anything is possible. It also wouldn&#8217;t be the first time a much younger woman has been charged with inflicting violence on a (potential) Vegas sugar daddy. This case should be good for a lot of headlines, not necessarily in this venue.<\/p>\n<p>* Remember when <strong>Lake Las Vegas<\/strong> was a virtual ghost town and a real-estate disaster area? Evidently things have turned around dramatically. <em>American Idol<\/em> producer <strong>Nigel Lythgoe<\/strong> has put his waterfront McMansion on the market for $4,999,000, according to the <em>Los Angeles Times<\/em>. Wouldn&#8217;t that be an open house worth sneaking into? In other high-end real estate news, the owners of <strong>Michael Jackson<\/strong>&#8216;s <strong>Neverland Ranch<\/strong> evidently saw a big hit coming in the backlash of <strong>HBO<\/strong>&#8216;s recent expos\u00e9 of the bizarre pop idol. <em>L.A. Biz<\/em> reports that the asking price for the ranch was preemptively slashed from $69 million to $31 million. I guess those notions of dismantling it and re-erecting it near <strong>Palace Station<\/strong> are kaput.<\/p>\n<p>* Add <strong>Nicolas Cage<\/strong> to the list of act-first\/think-later Vegas newlyweds. The washed-up actor filed for annulment four days after tying the knot in Sin City. <strong>KTNV-TV<\/strong> reports that Cage and his bride drank &#8220;to the point of intoxication&#8221; before the nuptials. Upon hearing that, <strong>Caesars Entertainment<\/strong> immediately made Cage a member of the <strong>Chairman&#8217;s Club<\/strong>. (April Fools &#8212; just the Caesars part.)<\/p>\n<p>* Transparency is rarely\u00a0a bad thing in international relations and <strong>Nevada<\/strong> just got a big dose of it from the <strong>Open Skies<\/strong> program. In return for our surveillance jets being allowed to photograph sensitive military sites in <strong>Russia<\/strong>, a camera-packed <strong>Tu-154<\/strong> snapped shots of <strong>Creech Air Force Base<\/strong>, <strong>Yucca Flats<\/strong> and <strong>Area 51<\/strong> (no word if they found any flying saucers). The Open Skies program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedrive.com\/the-war-zone\/27206\/the-russians-just-did-a-fly-by-of-area-51\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has had some ups and downs<\/a> during the Trump administration but is back on an &#8220;up.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s the end of an era at Hard Rock Rocksino in Ohio. This week it becomes MGM Northfield Park, a completely uninspiring handle that reeks of insecurity. Dan Gilbert, if you&#8217;re ever going to make a run for the top &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/news-briefs-from-around-the-globe\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[34,24,18,4,22,171,131,189,72,245,71,254,8,9,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23825"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23828,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23825\/revisions\/23828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/stiffs-and-georges\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}