Like it or not, fracking is coming to Nevada. Can we be the state that gets it right?Sometimes, being the first in line is a bad thing.

Even amid a hundred dancers, gymnasts and acrobats, giant screens, blinding lights and all the other eye-popping stage sensations, you cannot miss the shredding warrior princess with the skyscraping up-do and eight-inch platforms wielding a bullion-hued six-string. If you’ve had the electric pleasure of seeing Michael Jackson ONE at Mandalay Bay, you know what I’m talking about.

Hispanic sabor livens up this part of the avenueJust before it enters North Las Vegas and becomes Civic Center Drive, North Eastern Avenue has drowned tortas, simmering molcajetes and locally made cheesy ice cream. Also: piñatas!1.

The large-scale architecture that ought to engage the community too often doesn’t. Some of the blame falls on usSouthern Nevada’s real estate collapse was ugly and embarrassing — but it may also have been the best thing that could have happened to local architecture.

I have to confess a bit of queasy ambivalence when I see the bulldozers, block walls and banners signaling the start of a new suburban housing subdivision in the valley these days. On the one hand, sure, I’ll grab the pom poms and cheerlead any hopeful green shoot signaling economic comeback squeezing up out of the cracks.

As the craft beer trend produces crazy flavors and wacky trends, Bad Beat’s Weston Barkley aims to perfect the classicsWeston Barkley never considered brewing as a profession. The first beer he ever drank was an ordinary bottle of Budweiser, and his first major job — a service technician for a local car dealership shortly after graduating from Durango High School — was a stable and satisfactory gig that lasted for almost a decade.

After years of bad blood and north-south infighting, we may finally have a cure for Nevada’s med school crisis People outside health care might not realize we have a public medical school in Las Vegas. Well, sort of one.

Portraits by Bill HughesThese unsung health care professionals work hard to heal the sick and comfort the suffering (and deliver the occasional squealing bundle of joy) Susan Vanbeuge, Assistant Professor, UNLV School of NursingNurse Practitioner, Brian Berelowitz EndocrinologyShe’s helping to pave the way for the next wave of nursing professionals When Susan VanBeuge told her grandmother she’d finally decided to go to nursing school after putting off her childhood career dream for nearly a decade, the family matriarch replied that it was fate: VanBeuge’s namesake, her great-grandmother, had also been a nurse. “Next thing you know, I get a picture in the mail, an antique photo, of my great-grandmother Susan in her nursing uniform,” VanBeuge remembers.

Restaurant WeekAug. 22-28Eat well and do some good with this charitable effort benefiting the Three Square Food Bank.

More than a stylish makeover, the Linq swings into action with top-notch brews and curated cocktails.Many changes on the Las Vegas Strip are met with a bit of the grumble and eye roll — “I liked the original MGM sign better!” “I still miss the Stardust!” and, “Hey, when did they tear down that motel with the pink elephant?”But we all approve of the Linq.