Las Vegas soccer is divided into two worlds: the ligas americanas and ligas mexicanas. Can they learn to speak the same language — and create another soccer star? We had crossed a border in the Las Vegas Valley, less than 10 miles from our house.

Nearly a year after domestic partnerships became legal in Nevada, the GLBT community is learning to wield its newfound cloutWhen Senate Bill 283 passed last year, it provoked little more than a shrug from many Nevadans. Now, a year into the life of the Domestic Partnership Act - with interest groups planning their strategies for the 2011 Legislature - its far-reaching effects on individuals and institutions are coming into focus.

The dancer - Bernard GaddisHe's leaping outside the box with his visceral - but disciplined - approach to danceIt's a waltz, to be sure, but, oh, how we get there: Snapping their fans open with a confidence that startles, the female dancers confront the audience with a supermodel strut and a sensual roll of their bodies. This recent rehearsal at the Las Vegas Contemporary Dance Theater studio in Holsum Lofts is for a historical piece about Henry VIII's reign.

Niki Sands' paintings can be vibrant (cubistic portraits that hum with a sanguine stillness) or ethereally morose (her works in which a gloom-clouded face ponders some grave idea). But what binds the two dominant moods of her work is their overriding silence.

Long before there was culture in Southern Nevada, there were woolly mammoths stomping all over everything as they fled hungry cavemen wielding spears and barbecue sauce. Today, the proposed Tule Springs Ice Age Park in North Las Vegas commemorates that era as proponents urge Congress to declare it a national monument (and hopefully short-circuit NV Energy's proposal to build a power transmission corridor through the massive, ancient fossil bed).

The ever-evolving roster of shops at the Caesars Palace emporium gets a new addition this fall with fast-fashion retailer H&M taking over the 60,000 square-foot space formerly occupied by FAO Schwartz. This flagship location will be the largest H&M in the United States.

Dennis Oppenheim on a Las Vegas aesthetic, the mystique of art-making and those giant paintbrushesDennis Oppenheim's Paintbrush Gateway is slated for completion this fall: two 45-foot tall steel paintbrushes have already been planted along the sidewalk on East Charleston Boulevard. One brush rises from in front of a dilapidated Siegel Suites franchise at the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard, while a second brush sits four hundred feet west in front of the Brett Wesley Gallery and across from the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC).

Army vet Brian Turner translates the experience of war and its aftermath into powerful verseFinally, America has its own Homer, a bard obsessed with delineating the grief and horror of armed conflict. His name is Brian Turner, and he's a professor at Sierra Nevada College and a winner of many prestigious literary awards and fellowships.

'Intuitive forager' Kerry Clasby's hunt for perfect produce changed her life. Now she wants to change the way Las Vegas eatsBet on the Farm farmer's market doesn't look like much from the outside.

Hope your schedule's open, because we have big plans for you.Classical concerts.