Recent layoffs at gaming companies like the MGM-Mirage have rattled nerves among Southern Nevadans. One place you won't see layoffs is at the Wynn.

Steve Wynn doesn't criticize the other companies, but he says his hotel is different. Service is key, and he knows that layoffs and even the fear of layoffs are not conducive to great employee performance.

“I think everybody who works here knows that we don't do layoffs,” said Wynn.

“I was just speaking with Andrew who is the security man outside of the Ferrari shop and that was one of the first things he said. He said we don't have layoffs. And this gives us a feeling of warmth and security and safety,” said Paula Francis.

“Whether we're talking about you or I or them – if we're not feeling safe, what good is anything else? I mean, take away a sense of security from employees who have children and responsibilities and a life to lead besides here and you destabilize their lives,” said Wynn.

This weekend, Steve Wynn will host 41 other hotel owners who have all won five star ratings from Mobil. The Wynn ranks fourth on a list that includes the very best of the best.

His employees have all been briefed on the very best way to cater to each individual hotel owner.

The list of Broadway hits on the Las Vegas Strip is about to get shorter.

After a 15-month run, “Monty Python's Spamalot” at the Wynn Las Vegas resort will close in July, the casino announced Thursday.

Longtime Las Vegas staple Danny Gans, an impressionist and comedian, will replace the Tony Award-winning musical in a newly renamed Encore theater.

Spamalot opened in late March 2007 as casino mogul Steve Wynn's second attempt to infuse the city's Cirque du Soleil-dominated entertainment scene with a touch of musical Broadway.

Wynn spent $10 million refurbishing the theater that once housed “Avenue Q,” his disappointing first attempt, and bought the rights that prevented “Spamalot” from touring in California and Arizona until five years.

Wynn said Thursday that the comedic musical “held its own” in Las Vegas, filling on average 80 percent of the 1,500-seat theater for seven shows a week.

“It's pretty good. It's good enough to keep it going,” he said.

He called the decision part of an attempt to create a separate identity for the show's theater, which will be associated with a new adjoining casino-hotel now under construction.

Encore, a $2.1 billion property, is scheduled to open in December. Gans, who now performs at the Mirage, will open his show early in the new year, Wynn said.

“You have to have an entertainment centerpiece like Bellagio had 'O,' like Mirage had Siegfried and Roy,” Wynn said. “You have to establish the brand and make a clear statement that this is it's own place.”

Wynn previously owned both the Mirage and the Bellagio casinos and is credited with bringing Cirque du Soleil to Las Vegas. The popular French Canadian troupe plans to open its sixth permanent production on the Las Vegas Strip in September.

Broadway musicals have a much shakier record with Las Vegas audiences.

“Avenue Q” closed after just nine months at Wynn Las Vegas; and “Hairspray” folded at the Luxor last June after less than four months. “The Producers” lasted a year before closing at the Paris Las Vegas.

“Mamma Mia!” is set to close at Mandalay Bay late next summer after 2,300 performances in Las Vegas, making it the longest-running full-length Broadway musical on the Strip.

The shows battle a language barrier with many international visitors and gamblers' short attention spans in a city with many diversions.

Wynn was once among the most vocal advocates for bringing musicals to the Strip. Although he's turning to a tested headliner, he said he hasn't given up. He also is working on a musical production that would open in Las Vegas, he said.

“The things that have worked the best in this city are things that can't be seen anywhere else,” he said. “My dream is to one day have musical theater that has the capacity to be spectacular, that has great music, but can only be seen here. It doesn't go on tour, it doesn't open in New York.”

He declined to offer more details.
   
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Metro police are looking for the man who robbed a bank back in November. It happened at a bank near Pecos McLeod and Twain.

Police say this man posed as a customer, then demanded money and threatened to blow up the building. Metro says the threat was a hoax.

The man may have left in a blue jeep. He's described as a white male, about 5'2″ tall. He's between 50 and 60-years-old and at the time of this robbery he had gray hair and a mustache.

If you know who this man is, you're asked to call CrimeStoppers at 385-5555.

Roger Bergendorff was arrested on federal charges for ricin this morning after being released from the hospital where he had been treated since Feb. 14.

He is charged with possession of a biological toxin and two weapons charges stemming from materials authorities say were found in his room at Extended Stay of America Motel near Flamingo and Valley View.

The three charges carry a possible penalty of 30 years in federal prison and a $750,000 fine.

The discovery of the ricin launched a two state investigation. Metro's armor team and the National Guard recovered and identified the poison after one of Bergendorff's cousins discovered the items in the room Feb. 26.

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According to search warrants, police looked through not only the room, but Bergendorff's car. Officers were looking for any trace of ricin or the components to make it to see if the toxin was transported.

Nothing relating to ricin was found in the car, indicating it may have been made in the room at the motel. Metro actually went to the room twice — the first time on Feb. 26.

They were called by the property manager when she started the eviction process. Police found guns and four anarchist cookbooks with markers to the section for making ricin.

What is Ricin? 

Metro was called back on Feb. 28. They then found ricin in all stages of production. Metro confiscated castor beans, which are used to create ricin. Police found powder in the beginning stage of making ricin and several vials of actual ricin.

On Sunday, March 2, FBI agents searched a Utah house as well as three storage units.

Outside of this investigation, we know one of Bergendorff's brothers and friends say he was down on his luck, had financial problems, recently had a death in the family and was battling depression, alcoholism and was out of work. Some years ago he had declared bankruptcy.

(Associated Press contributed to this report)

Metro police has confirmed there has been a pit bull attack on a 4 and 5-year-old near Vegas Valley and McLeod. Metro, Animal Control and rescue units are on the scene. Eyewitness News has a crew on the way and will have more details at 4.

Strong winds fanned a house fire overnight. It happened just after midnight near Oakey and Las Vegas Boulevard.

The fire department says two people inside the house smelled smoke. When they went outside, they found two trash cans burning up against the house.

Winds blew the flames up the house and into the attic.

No one was hurt. Damage is estimated at $150,000.

Room rates went down, and the number of visitors to Las Vegas went up in February compared with the year before.

But Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority research chief Kevin Bagger says 2008 was a leap year, and that's the real reason Las Vegas tallied a 3.1-percent increase in visitors in February compared with the same month in 2007.

For the month, Las Vegas drew 3.1 million visitors, according to a monthly report released Monday by the CVA.

The city hosted 346 fewer conventions during the month. But those events drew almost 894,000 attendees, up almost 16-percent from February 2007.

Gambling revenue fell below $866 million in Clark County, a roughly 3 percent drop from last year, the report said.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Meanwhile a brand new condo hotel is having its grand opening today. The Trump International Hotel and Tower opened officially.

The 645-foot tower does not have a casino, but it does feature a signature restaurant called DJT, a heated outdoor pool and 2,400-square feet of meeting space.

The tower has 1,200 suites ranging from 515 to 3,500 square feet.

Officials say the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in the Venetian hotel will close its doors on May 11.

A spokeswoman for the Guggenheim Foundation says its contract with the Las Vegas Strip resort is coming to an end and there are no plans to renew it.

Venetian President Rob Goldstein issued a statement praising the  museum's seven-year tenure. He did not say why the museum would be closed or what would replace it. The museum will offer free admission until the May date.

The Guggenheim Hermitage brought in 10 major exhibits, including works by Jasper Johns, Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. The Venetian took over daily operation of the museum in February 2007.

The closure leaves the fine arts gallery at the Bellagio as the only remaining art museum on the Strip. The Bellagio gallery opened in 1998.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Four kids have lost their mother just three days after they reported her missing. 32-year-old Edith Calderon was found murdered, her body dumped in the desert.

The mother was last seen alive Saturday night and Metro has her ex-boyfriend, 28-year-old Gonzalo Tejada-Rivas in custody for the crime. He's charged with kidnapping and murder.

Read the Clark County Homicide Report 

Calderon was last seen alive at a Burger King. Her car was found not even a block away.

“I feel sad because the children have no more mom,” said neighbor Edward Hernandez-Rodriguez

He remembers Calderon and her four children. He says they lived in his neighborhood for just a short while, but he'll miss the joy they brought with them.

“They were walking around. The little kid, he was like always playing around here with my scooter and everything,” he said.

Calderon lived in the shadow of the Stratosphere in an apartment complex. All of her neighbors remember her as a very hard worker. One Saturday, she left her apartment. All four of her children were inside waiting for their mother to come home. Sadly she never made it.”

Calderon's trail went cold after she left the Burger King on Maryland Parkway on Saturday. She never showed up to work at a fast food restaurant at the MGM Grand and never returned home to see her kids.

Martina Herrera lives next door and says Tejada-Rivas never made his presence known here.

“I saw the boyfriend's picture on the news but I never saw him around here, never,” she said.

Herrera says she feels for those children who will grow up without their mother, as this community realizes the scope of this tragedy.

Police declined to be interviewed and released very few details about why they believe Tejado-Rivas killed her. An autopsy will be performed Thursday to determine an exact cause of death.

Calderon's mother has come to town to tend to the children and neighbors say they're expected to go back with her to Houston.

Email your comments to Reporter Aaron Drawhorn