Las Vegas Nightlife & News

(September 2, 2010)

Convention company announces purchase of Las Vegas business

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:38:00 -0000 - Freeman, a big player in the convention and tradeshow industry in Las Vegas and other cities, announced today it’s growing by buying Las Vegas-based Encore Productions.

Plan for 238 new homes in Mountain’s Edge advances

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 19:28:00 -0000 - Despite dropping sales since 2008, developers still are planning new projects in Mountain’s Edge. Lennar Homes received preliminary approval for a 238-unit single-family home community.

Crash involving 2 school buses slows U.S. 95 traffic

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:46:00 -0000 - A multi-car crash involving two school buses is causing traffic backups on northbound U.S. 95 at Flamingo Road, Clark County officials said.

Trainer bitten in MGM Grand lion habitat

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:45:36 -0000 - A hotel official says an animal trainer received stitches for a bite on the leg after an attack by a lion in an animal habitat display at the MGM Grand. The trainer was bitten Wednesday afternoon when he stepped too close to one of three male lions.

HELP of Southern Nevada to host yard sale on Saturday

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:30:00 -0000 - Between all the great deals and rampant consumerism this Labor Day weekend, HELP of Southern Nevada would like to encourage Las Vegans to “shop with a conscience.”

Report: Las Vegas drivers more prone to accidents

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:21:00 -0000 - Las Vegas still has some of the worst drivers in the nation, according to an insurance company’s annual report released today. Las Vegas took the No. 144 spot on Allstate Insurance Company’s annual America’s Best Drivers Report, which ranked the 200 largest cities in the country based on the frequency of vehicle collisions.

Trial coming up for man accused in DUI death

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:11:00 -0000 - A Las Vegas man is scheduled to stand trial on Tuesday for allegedly rear-ending and killing a woman while he was driving drunk in August 2008 in the northeastern part of the Las Vegas Valley.

Trial reset for man accused of beating elderly woman in burglary

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 17:25:00 -0000 - A trial has been delayed until February for a man accused of beating an elderly woman in her home during a burglary in October 2009 in the northwestern Las Vegas Valley.

Righthaven sues D.C.-based group over R-J editorial posting

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:56:00 -0000 - A Washington, D.C., group advocating against taxes on food is among the latest to be sued for copyright infringement after a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial was posted on its website. The suit seeks $75,000 in damages and forfeiture of the defendant’s domain name.

Construction complete; Decatur-Warm Springs intersection now open

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:44:00 -0000 - Residents of the southwest valley have better access to the Las Vegas Beltway and new north-south and east-west arterials to connect them to the rest of the valley.

Motorcycle officer suffers minor injuries in accident

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:57:00 -0000 - A Metro Police officer suffered minor injuries this morning after his motorcycle struck an unpainted median near Decatur Boulevard and Warm Springs Road.

I-15 reopens after seven-car accident near Beltway interchange

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:44:00 -0000 - Interstate 15 near the Las Vegas Beltway interchange has reopened after emergency crews cleared a seven-car accident this morning.

Despite loss, Bishop Gorman still ranked by USA Today

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 15:25:00 -0000 - The Bishop Gorman High football team is still ranked as one of the nation’s top teams. Despite dropping their season opener two weeks ago to Hamilton High of Arizona, the Gaels (1-1) fell only 10 spots in the USA Today Super Index to No. 21.

Triple-digit heat returns to Las Vegas

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:29:00 -0000 - Triple-digit temperatures are making a return engagement to Las Vegas for the next few days.

Thinking big — and smart

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - A nonpartisan think tank Wednesday outlined an ambitious plan to boost renewable energy development in America and placed Nevada and the West in the center of it.

Governor’s Conference on Tourism could be last if it flops

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - Former Nevada Gov. Richard Bryan, who developed the first Governor’s Conference on Tourism more than two decades ago, will be honored at December’s revamped two-day event.

NLV Council fighting for monument threatened by power lines

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - NV Energy has drawn a lot of heat in North Las Vegas after proposing a 260-foot swath of land rich with fossils be used for transmission lines to connect green energy plants across the state.

Defender says too much pressure on judge for killer to get fair hearing

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - Justices of the Nevada Supreme Court questioned the argument that district judges in rural counties are facing such intense pressure in highly controversial cases that they should step aside.

Football betting season begins in Las Vegas with handful of big games

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - Exercise caution when approaching college football’s opening week of games at the betting window.
That’s the advice most top sports bettors would give this week. With the lack of statistics on teams and the high player turnover rate in college football, it tends to be harder to handicap games at the beginning of the season.

Most state agencies deliver slimmed-down budgets

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:05:00 -0000 - Michael Willden succinctly summed up the proposed budget for his state Department of Health and Welfare. “It’s ugly,” he said. Wednesday was the deadline for agencies to submit their proposed spending program for the next two fiscal years to the state Budget Office.

Finding Cheap Airfare 

The Wall Street Journal Online
By Scott McCartney

Web Sites Offer New Features To Help Users Time Purchases To Get a Better Travel Deal

When the price of an airline ticket can change several times a day, it’s hard to feel secure about locking in the lowest fare. But several Web sites are adding features intended to help you feel confident about the price you’re paying.

FareCompare.com offers historical prices for trips in 77,000 markets in the U.S. and Canada — data that haven’t been available before to consumers. Farecast.com goes a step further, using sophisticated data-mining techniques to predict whether prices for a particular trip are likely to go up or down over the next week. Kayak.com now has a feature called Buzz that shows the best prices found by other Kayak users on the most searched destinations over the past 48 hours.

Airlines monkey around with ticket prices as much as three times a day for domestic itineraries and prices can change on international trips as often as five times a day. What’s more, fares on a particular flight can change quickly — up or down — as seats sell or remain empty. A lack of sales can prompt airline computers to offer more seats at a lower price.       

“You need to know what a decent price is,” says Rick Seaney, chief executive and president of FareCompare. “Consumers should be more educated about purchases.”

Booking air travel is increasingly a self-service business, with airline Web sites taking a bigger share of bookings and growing even faster than online agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz. They all provide lots of prices, but little historical context. In a way, sites like FareCompare, Farecast and Kayak perform the functions of a good travel agent, who would often track pricing changes and know how to spot deals. Since the Internet has turned many consumers into their own travel agents, the new online tools can help them make better buying decisions.

FareCompare shows the lowest prices offered by month for the next 11 months in any U.S. market, and offers a “Fare Trend” graph showing whether the lowest prices have been increasing, decreasing or holding steady. You can quickly see whether prices in that market bounce around or stay consistent. And with the current prices, FareCompare offers a one-star to four-star rating of how good the offering is compared with past prices. (see below for a sample prediction of how airfares will change for Aug 11, 2006-Aug 14, 2006).

The lowest price available for a round-trip ticket in September between Boston and Miami, for example, was priced yesterday by FareCompare at $198 (not including taxes). That’s expensive compared with last year, when the lowest price available for September 2005 was $158. But prices were higher in April, May and June, according to FareCompare. The Web site showed American dropped its lowest price on that route by $80 two weeks ago.

With FareCompare, it takes a few clicks to get available prices on specific dates since the site first offers lowest price in a month, then prices broken down by week. Drill a bit deeper, and you can break down prices by airline on the same route. While Delta Air Lines has consistently charged about $400 for its lowest advance-purchase round trip between Atlanta and Cincinnati over the past three months, prices at Continental Airlines yo-yoed in that market between $100 and $400 in the same period, according to FareCompare. Delta offers nonstop service between its two biggest hubs; Continental offers only connecting flights.

FareCompare, a Dallas company that started doing sophisticated travel data-crunching for businesses then decided to add a consumer site, has accumulated 22 months of prices. The site also tracks first-class and business-class fares, and is a quick way to find “Y-Up” fares — coach tickets that get you automatic first-class upgrades.

You can’t book tickets at FareCompare, Farecast, Kayak and other such referral sites such as SideStep. One click will send you to an airline Web site or other vendor for booking.

Farecast.com grew out of a University of Washington professor’s research into whether air fares were rational, meaning could they be predicted with data-mining computing that looks at historical patterns and recent changes. It’s like forecasting the weather. While far from perfect, Farecast believes it can make accurate forecasts.

Farecast spent three years developing its system, which crunches huge amounts of data including indicators of airline inventory, pricing history and consumer demand. Farecast doesn’t replicate the “yield management” systems that airplanes run, which try to maximize revenue generated by each airline seat. Instead, Farecast evaluates price movements over time — what happened to the actual prices airlines posted.

“We’ve identified over 100 indicators of what air fares will do, some intuitive and some not so obvious,” says Chief Executive Hugh Crean.

So far, Farecast is running only in a public “beta” test mode, with about 120 markets into or out of either Seattle or Boston. By year end, the Seattle-based company says it will be running with all domestic markets available. Farecast breaks fares down by airlines, as well as by time of day.

Farecast takes into account special events like a convention or graduation, seasonal travel patterns, and both pricing and inventory trends. It doesn’t factor in external pressures like the price of fuel, which has forced airlines to trim flight schedules and raise ticket prices. But it does pick up those trends from the price and inventory changes.

Farecast won’t be able to forecast events like the entry of a low-cost carrier into markets, or retaliatory pricing wars between airlines when one carrier dumps cheap prices into a market trying to punish a competitor, or at least voice displeasure with a sale somewhere else. Mr. Crean notes those are the exceptions and that most pricing is surprisingly rational.

Still, Mr. Seaney of FareCompare says his company has tried data-mining and predictive techniques, and found airfares were difficult to predict. “A lot of times it is just random. Someone does a sale, and that triggers a whole series of events,” he said.

Bob Harrell, president of consulting firm Harrell Associates in New York, says air fares follow the laws of supply and demand, and that consumers can rarely know what demand will be. The sites “address an issue that is quite vexing to travelers: Book now or book later?” he said.