City Cast Las Vegas

Vegas is buzzing as the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces make their way to Connecticut tonight with a 2-0 lead over the Sun in the WNBA Finals. They are one game away from bringing home our city’s first major league sports championship — it could happen tonight! News 3 sports anchor Bryan Salmond tells host Dayvid Figler how the team got there with a rookie coach and all-star roster. Also, what its win c...

The music, food, and art festival Life is Beautiful starts Friday — you may have already noticed street closures downtown as it sets up. Since 2013, Life is Beautiful has taken over several blocks of downtown for three days. Headliners have included huge artists, like Megan Thee Stallion, the Gorillaz, Kendrick Lamar, Arcade Fire. Celebrity chefs show up. Apparently Banksy was there one year? It’s...

Twenty-six years ago today, Tupac Amaru Shakur died at University Medical Center here in Las Vegas. A few days before his death, he was shot at the intersection of Flamingo and Koval — you may have driven past the spontaneous, informal memorial at the site, a collection of fan tributes scrawled onto a telephone pole. There is no official memorial or plaque here, or anywhere in Las Vegas. Tupac did...

If you’ve been in Vegas for a while, you might’ve seen “Rogers” in an organization’s name or two. That’s Beverly Rogers, who grew up in Las Vegas and has become one of Las Vegas’ biggest donors to education and the arts. The Rogers Foundation’s commitment to supporting students in Las Vegas was created to advance the passion of Jim Rogers (Beverly’s late husband) for education. Today on the podcas...

In our look back at the week’s news, our team is tackling the story of local journalist Jeff German’s murder, which has made national headlines. Today, Dayvid, Scott and Sonja catch you up on the news, reflect on the tense environment for journalists, and how that might (or might not) bear on this particular case. In case you missed it, here’s a summary of the news so far: Investigative journalist...

Where have all the showgirls gone? No, we’re not talking about the costumed photo ops on Fremont Street, or those 50-foot clip art signs downtown. We’re talking about the classic showgirl revue — like Jubilee, the last showgirl show, which closed in 2016. Kelly O remembers those years well: She’s a dancer who performed in the iconic Jubilee show during its sunset years. In this special guest episo...

Football season starts tomorrow, and for some of you, it’s not just ego and bragging rights on the line. Ever since the Supreme Court allowed for sports betting outside of Nevada, the industry has seen major growth: It doubled in 2021 with over $57 billion wagered across the U.S. So what does that mean for Las Vegas? Yahoo sports betting analyst and Las Vegas local Minty (who goes by “Minty Bets”...

Last month, CCSD confirmed their first Monkeypox case at Palo Verde High School. With Las Vegas being a global destination for tourism, how concerned should we be about Monkeypox? While our numbers remain low compared to the rest of the country, issues around messaging create a harmful stigma and false sense of safety for groups not included in the language. Southern Nevada Health District senior...

Millennial content warning: We reference BOTH The Dark Crystal and the Mayor of Flavortown in today’s episode. But before that — in this week’s Friday roundup, lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson sits down with producer Layla Muhammad and host Dayvid Figler to discuss the most important news items to share at the BBQ this Labor Day weekend. A proposal from the Nevada Department of Corrections is on ic...

Las Vegas doesn’t run on rum, tequila, or vodka — that’s tourist juice. Coffee’s the true lifeblood of our 24-hour city. Today on City Cast Las Vegas, Scott, Dayvid and Vogue talk about their favorite spots around town to get excellent brews, where to take a coffee date, and why a city needs a vibrant, healthy coffee scene. Did we miss your go-to coffee shop? Let us know at 702-514-0719 or tell us...

City Cast Las Vegas co-host Dayvid Figler has a decades-long friend in Anne Kellogg. Anne is a fiercely proud born-and-raised Nevadan, businessperson, an arts supporter, a ranch caretaker and maybe beyond all else, one of the biggest cheerleaders for Nevada you’ll ever meet. She and her husband spend much of the year bouncing between her hometown Las Vegas and her adopted city of Ely. With its ple...

Amid the attention given to predictions in a recent UNLV study that valley’s population will grow by more than 1 million by 2060, another interesting trend seemed largely overlooked. That is, that the number of residents 65 and older is expected to more than double. Among other implications of this is a likely boom of the healthcare industry to cater to these seniors. Today on the podcast, host Vo...

Las Vegas has shifted its slogan from “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” to “What Happens Here, Only Happens Here.” Both slogans shroud our city in mystery and encourage outsiders to speculate about our culture. What happens when you tell someone you live in Vegas? You get a slew of ridiculous questions! Do you gamble everyday? Do you only eat at fancy restaurants? Can I get a job outside of...

In this Friday’s news roundup, the question of whether Vegas is a “cesspool of crime” as former president Trump claimed is debated yet again, but this time by our very own Dayvid Figler, Vogue Robinson, and Scott Dickensheets. Oh, and they’ve got some numbers! Also, what’s with that new megasculpture, “City,” and why haven’t any local outlets covered it yet? Plus, the team talks about how Lake Las...

Everyone we know in the Valley has an opinion about water — so why not make it an informed opinion? You can start by listening to the highly informative and entertaining podcast Water Smarts, from the experts at the Southern Nevada Water Authority. You’ll get deep dives on topics like wastewater surveillance, tips on how to save water in your landscaping, and insights into our decades-long water c...

While our producers are taking a much-needed vacation, we’re revisiting one of our favorite City Cast Las Vegas interviews with the woman we’ve dubbed the Lorax of Las Vegas: Lisa Ortega, Master Arborist. This episode originally aired on June 14, 2022. Las Vegas is the fastest-warming city in the U.S. — and that's only made worse by the urban heat island effect, caused by dense concentrations of h...

Today, we're bringing you a special guest episode from The Nevada Independent's podcast IndyMatters. (If you're not already listening to their show, do yourself a favor and go subscribe right now!) IndyMatters host and producer Joey Lovato joins our host, Dayvid Figler, to introduce the three segments he's sharing with us today: Indy reporter Carmen Landinger explores why East Las Vegas is disprop...

Clark County sentences more people to death than almost any other county in the nation — we come in fourth (fourth!)out of thousands. But as it turns out, we very rarely actually execute prisoners on death row. So why is that? Kim Foster, writer and friend of the pod, brought us this question when she saw the recent news about an 18 year old and a 20 year old facing the death penalty — would our c...

On this week’s Friday news round up, the team laments over some of our small city’s big problems. Lead producer Sonja Cho Swanson wonders how the demographics of our city could change, after reading a UNLV study that says Las Vegas’ population will grow by over 1 million people by 2060. Host Dayvid Figler expresses concern over the lack of mental health professionals in our schools. Meanwhile, Pro...

Food writer Johnathan Wright has had his eye on Las Vegas for a long time — so when longtime Review-Journal food writer Heidi Knapp Rinella retired earlier this year, he jumped at the opportunity. Host Vogue Robinson sits down with Johnathan to chat about his first impressions of the Vegas food scene, his favorite martini in town (so far), and why he can’t find a good slice of pizza here (yet). We...

On Monday evening, human remains were found at Lake Mead’s Swim Beach. This is the fifth body found by visitors since May and the second at Swim Beach. These discoveries come in the wake of water levels reaching their lowest point since the reservoir was being filled in 1937. Officials have yet to identify the victims, but that isn’t stopping Las Vegas from buzzing with speculation, curiosity… and...

You’ve probably driven past this swirly, swooped steel structure on Bonneville across from the outlet mall. It’s also all over social media every summer: “Hey, Vegas is so hot, this building melted!” You might even know that it’s officially titled the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health — but as it turns out, none of the theories we’ve heard about its origins (modeled after a brain,...

The pews were filled with the who’s who of the Las Vegas legal world last Thursday, from politicians to police officers, criminal defense attorneys, and more — all for a “tiny, fierce” woman named Bonnie Polley, who was Clark County Detention Center’s first chaplain. In this remembrance from host Dayvid Figler (himself a criminal defense attorney who knew Pastor Bonnie for many years), he describe...

Oh hello, Friday friends — if you’re here for hot takes and cool dad jokes, you’re in the right place. In this Friday roundup of the news, Layla, Scott and Sonja discuss the pros (smell of desert rain, Lake Mead gains 3 inches) and cons(uh, majorly destructive flood damage) of monsoon season and the wreckage in Death Valley. (Do we hate to love it? Love to hate it? Who can say.) Next up, the first...

Avi Kwa Ame is the Mojave name for Spirit Mountain and the surrounding landscape, which is sacred to over 12 Indigenous tribes. In February, Representative Dina Titus introduced a bill to designate Avi Kwa Ame as a national monument that would protect the area for cultural and recreational purposes. There hasn't been any legislative action on the bill since it was filed, so advocates are looking t...