The Las Vegas City Hall was packed Wednesday with hundreds of out of work union members who say they want to go back to work and a new City Hall building is the answer.

Union members chanted, “New City Hall” repeatedly as more than 350 of them from Laborers Local 872 let it be known how they feel about the proposed City Hall construction project.

Right now, almost one-fifth of the union is out of work because of closed strip construction sites. They say the new City Hall project as well as the adjacent retail area could create thousands of construction jobs. The project would be complete in 2011 and is expected to create 13,000 permanent jobs.

“It's the lifeblood of our community. Look at the auto dealerships, places like Circuit City. These people would be spending money on big screens, DVD's, laptops and iPods for their kids, but with no work, they're worried about filling the hole in their belly,” said Tom Morley, Laborers Local 872.

“Each of these has an incredible amount of proposed new taxes that would be generated by each ranging from $3 to $6 million a year,” said Scott Adams who is with the Office of Business Development.

The new City Hall will cost $137 million to build but it'll cost a total of $267 million because of interest the city has to pay over seven years. This will not be paid for through taxpayer dollars.

The site for the new city hall is in downtown east of the Clark County Government Center. The city didn't own the land so they traded land they did own in the Union Park development area for the piece of property.

The first Costco business opened Thursday in Las Vegas. It's one of only seven of its type in the country and is located on MLK where a traditional Costco store was located for more than 20 years.

The business center is intended to be a combination office supply store, restaurant wholesaler and convenience store.

Officials say the center's goal is to bring the highest quality goods to business members at the lowest possible prices.

“A lot of business come in saying, ‘We would like to buy all of our business needs – equipment, items that we can use in our restaurant and our convenience stores. How can we get those items at Costco prices?' So there is demand for it,” said General Manager Scott Sims.

You don't have to be a business member to enjoy the center. All Costco card members can shop there as well.

There was a major announcement Tuesday about the future of medicine in the Las Vegas Valley. The world famous Cleveland Clinic will be apart of the under-construction Lou Ruvo Brain Institute in Downtown Las Vegas.

You have probably seen the Ruvo Institute under construction. For more than five years, the City of Las Vegas has been in discussions with the Cleveland Clinic. Earlier efforts fell through, but now times have changed.

In a video provided by the Ruvo Institute, patients and their families talk about the challenges they face with neurological diseases, “The sad thing is a loss of dignity. The man is still smart but the thoughts will not relay in his brain.”

That's where the Ruvo Institute and the Cleveland Clinic hope to make a difference.

“Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS — those types of diseases which are called degenerative diseases of the brain. And as people get older and are no longer dying of heart attacks at 50, they are now living long enough so they get these degenerative diseases of the brain,” said Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic.

Larry Ruvo is chair of the Lou Ruvo Institute. It's named after his father, “After my father passed, I swore I would try to help families and their loved ones to never endure the ignorance I had of this disease and the lack of quality medical care for its treatment.”

U.S. Senators Harry Reid and John Ensign were on hand for the announcement. Governor Jim Gibbons was invited but did not attend.

Mayor Oscar Goodman says the announcement is about more than just top-notch medicine, “This is a wondrous day. This is a glorious day for this community. We have taken the giant step which now leads us to becoming the world class city.”

The institute should see its first patients by late summer, with full operations underway by the end of the year. Patients will be able to get both direct clinical care and participate in long-term research efforts.

There are 1,000 new jobs coming Las Vegas within the next three years as a telecommunications company prepares to set up shop.

The announcement was made Thursday morning by the City of Las Vegas. The company, Telus, will operate out of the former Montgomery Ward's building on Decatur near Sahara.

 Telus is encouraing interested applicants to send them an email.

Telus provides voice, data and Internet services and is based out of Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada. It employs 34,000 people worldwide. The company reached an agreement with the city to make Las Vegas its new home.

The Las Vegas call center will help the company add Spanish language support in addition to its other call center operations. Telus plans to open in March and hire 500 local people by the end of 2009. The hiring will begin this week.

A request to tear down the historic Moulin Rouge has been put off for more time.

City lawmakers have decided to delay the discussion. Officials sent a letter of abatement to tear down the historic property. According to the Uniform Code of Dangerous Buildings, Moulin Rouge is considered to be a public nuisance. Most of the historic site was destroyed in a 2003 fire. The new date to take up the issue is February 18th. 

One man's dream to honor his father may one day help all of us when our lives are somehow touched by Alzheimers.

Local businessman Larry Ruvo is bringing together scientists to crack the code and cure Alzheimers, so that others will not know the debilitating disease that took his dad, Lou Ruvo.

The startling design by world famous architect Frank Gehry is meant to attract the attention of the world. Inside, research will begin to unlock the terrible mysteries of Alzheimers and other brain disorders.

When the center is complete, patients will fill the halls and treatment rooms. Maureen Peckham is the chief operating officer for the foundation, Keep Memory Alive, which supports the Lou Ruvo Brain Institute. She says the facility will also have programs and counseling for caregivers of Alzheimers patients.

“When they come in with their loved one who's living with the clinical disease we say, you belong to us as well. We think you need treatment and you need support,” she said.

On the research side, scientists will look for a biological marker to predict Alzheimers, before it has time to damage the brain. Currently, Alzheimers is only recognized after symptoms have taken hold and then treatments only work for a limited time.

“Right now there are about five million people with that disease. By 2030, that number will double and continue to double every 20 years,” said Dr. Zaven Khachaturian. He says people need to grasp the dimension of the problem.

“the cost is horrendous. The suffering of the family members is horrendous. So, there is tremendous, tremendous urgency that the public hasn't come to recognize yet,” he said.

The basket weave of tangled metal won't fully take shape until November but patients will already be getting help by this summer.

The non-profit foundation will raise funds for the brain institute, but the facility will also be able to raise money and there will be an activity center where organizations can hold events. The imaging center will take insurance payments.

In this economy, Las Vegas will get a shot in the arm when thousands of bowlers make their way to the city. The United States Bowling Congress is the largest amateur bowling group and its back after 23 years.

80,000 bowlers will come and go over the course of six months. They'll bowl at Cashman Center, which has been transformed into a 60 lane bowling alley.

It cost the USBC about $1 million to build the state of the art lanes. The last time the Bowling Congress visited Las Vegas was in 1986 with 10,000 bowlers. The Congress started over 100 years ago with six lanes and 40 bowlers.

This is really is a who's-who of Amateurs. Anybody who's great now has played in the event. The best known Las Vegas bowler is Wendy Macpherson and she won the event in 2006. She even had to bowl a 300 game on the last day to win.

Wendy was recently voted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame.