Maybe it’s some kind of ectoplasmic spillover from the let-it-all-hang-out hedonism promised by the Vegas brand — or maybe it’s a testament to the personalities who built that image — but power doesn’t exactly try to speak softly in Nevada. Oh, no.

When Jay Sarno visited Las Vegas in 1963, he wasn’t impressed. Surveying the city’s second-class hotels and cheesy Old West themes, the Atlanta hotel developer found nothing fabulous about it.

UNLV President Neal Smatresk shocked most of Las Vegas when he announced, just months after signing a four-year extension to his original four-year contract, that he was leaving to take a presidential post in Texas.But a look at history might have lessened the surprise: The 12 people who have led the campus have stayed, on average, for five years.

For those about to share a pie, we salute youIt’s proclamation time: Pizza Rock could be the first true dinner hit of the downtown culinary revolution. Oh, downtown already has hits when it comes to breakfast and lunch — Eat and MTO Café come to mind — but Pizza Rock is in the perfect position to become a solid nighttime draw.

For the intensely driven Akira Back, the Strip isn’t the destination — it’s only the beginning It’s November and chef Akira Back is texting me pictures of his new restaurant. It’s called Akira Back, and it’s inside the JW Marriott Hotel Aerocity in New Delhi.

A new UNLV program aims to train the next generation of nuclear safety experts. Competitive salary, love of plutonium a plusThe delicate and dangerous operation was called “tickling the dragon’s tail,” and someone made the dragon very angry.

This Sun rises weeklyOver the past several months, the Greenspun clan has been embroiled in a civil war over efforts to dissolve the Las Vegas Sun’s longtime Joint Operating Agreement with the Review-Journal. Hammered out in 1989 and tweaked in 2005, the JOA keeps the Sun on corporate life support.

Life CoachFirst, let’s talk about what life coach Karie Lindsay is not: Not chirpy, syrupy or gratingly enthusiastic. She’s not suspiciously upbeat or, you know, just a little too happy.

Hey, is this the Boulevard Mall? How long since you’ve been here?Oh, years. Mid-2000s, maybe? My wife must’ve dragged me.

Nevada has tempted the influential with many chances to misuse their power. Here are five times they gave inEben Rhoades and the Disappearing MoneyIn the same 1864 election in which they supported Honest Abe Lincoln, Nevadans elected Eben Rhoades state treasurer.