Rob Mrowka has worked for decades on issues of natural resources in the West and Southwest, the last six as a senior scientist for the Center for Biological Diversity. A frequent presence in the media on environmental issues, Mrowka recently announced plans to retire to upstate New York.

Hey, Fremont Street. Cheer up.

Editor’s note: This is real.Preamble"Welcome to Flavortown," the server says.

Broadacres Marketplace, June 23, 2014Water vapor from the misters blowing 20 feet above the crowd could barely be felt by the sweltering congregation below, but they didn’t care. The crowd of more than 500 was gathered at the Broadacres Marketplace swap meet on this early weekday afternoon to celebrate a national religion: futbol.

Las Vegas has a lot of optic nerve — in this overwhelming environment, with so much to see, it can be hard to know how to look. We asked artist and teacher Martin Kreloff, who’ll administer his “Learning to See” class to Zappos employees this month, for a few pointers.

I’m on the hunt for a Picon Punch in Las Vegas, and I need some bars to help me out.You can find this lip-puckering aperitif at Basque restaurants in Northern Nevada.

DEALICIOUS WINGSChicken wings: nature’s bar food. In the Vegas spirit of frenzied invention, you can get ’em brined, smoked, spiced, and there’s a probably a chef coating them in Sriracha Pop Rocks as I write this.

Ralph Conti was a popular, successful pediatrician in the prime of his life when he was convicted of fraud and, soon after, died. What drove this promising doctor to experiment on desperate patients?

July 3 Linda Alterwitz, Trifecta Gallery“In these photographs,” the artist says of her exhibit, In-Sight, “I weave together images of the human body derived from repurposed medical imaging with images of landscapes, revealing ethereal figures in a raw and vulnerable state. The mind, wrestling with sadness, fear and hope, retreats to a safe refuge.

It was five years ago that we launched DEALicious Meals, our annual dine-o-pedia of amazing must-eat meals across the valley. Things were a bit different then: Desert Companion was a bimonthly magazine with an editorial staff of two, housed in a room that formerly hosted a classical music archive for 89.