This year's theme for the New Year's Eve celebration will be “Takin' it to the Streets” and thousands are expected to do exactly that as they crowd onto the Las Vegas Strip and Fremont Street.

Although they would not release any numbers earlier, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority is now predicting that there will be 291,000 visitors this year. Last year, New Year's Eve attracted 284,000 people to town to celebrate and help boost our local economy.

Police are warning parents that there is a strict curfew being enforced on the Las Vegas Strip for unatteneded children starting at 6 p.m. on the 31st and ending at 5 a.m. on the 1st.

 Road Closures Start at 5 p.m.

The now struggling economy and new building codes are prompting some changes to Wednesday's night's planned celebration.  

This year, all seven Las Vegas Strip firing locations will all be on the ground or on top of hotel parking garages instead of off the roof tops of hotels. 

More than 30,000 effects will be fired during the 8-minute show. The Mandalay Bay convention center parking lot will be the southernmost firing location along with a lot directly across Las Vegas Boulevard from the Luxor.  Parking garages at MGM Grand, Caesars Palace and Treasure Island will be used.  The Las Vegas Convention Center's “gold” parking lot, and a garage at the Stratosphere, round out the show on the northern end of the Strip.   

Map of the Fireworks Firing Locations

SLIDESHOW: Last Year's Fireworks Show

There will also be a party at the Fremont Street Experience called “TributePalooza,” which features 14 hours of live music on stages at 1st and 3rd Streets along Fremont Street.

Daredevil Robbie Knievel will attempt to jump the Mirage volcano on New Year's Eve between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. He chose this date because it is the 41st anniversary of his father, Evil Knievel's, famous Las Vegas jump.

For local residents trying to see the show from the suburbs, event planners say the tall Strip hotels may actually block part of the view.  The maximum height of the fireworks will be about 300 feet.  Planners sat, this year, the best viewing location is definitely going to be on the Strip itself.

Channel 8 will counting down the New Year's Eve celebration with viewers and will have coverage from several vantage points on the Strip and downtown. The coverage starts at 10 p.m. on Channel 8 and LasVegasNOW.com.

When Las Vegas Boulevard shuts down for the New Year's Eve celebration, Metro police want parents to know that unattended children are not welcome.

A curfew will be imposed for the Las Vegas Strip starting at 6 p.m. December 31st and ending at 5 a.m. on January 1st.

Metro police will not bend on this rule. If you are under 18 years old you must be accompanied by an adult who is your parent or guardian. Metro has corrections busses they are ready to help round up teens breaking the curfew.

Community teen advocacy groups say the Las Vegas Strip is no place for teens. Erin Breen runs Safe Community Partnership.

“It's a huge adult party and teenagers don't belong at a huge adult party,” said Breen. Her group focuses on teen safety, mainly when it comes to automobiles. She is also the parent of a teenager and knows what it's like to say no to her daughter.

“Sad to say when you are a teenager and you think there is nothing to do in Las Vegas and here you have this huge party and you are not allowed to go. Like everything else it's for their own good.”

Metro Officer Barbara Morgan says police will not budge on the rules.

“There is drinking down there. There are a lot of people down there. It's crowded. There's no reason for a person under the age of 18 to be down there,” Morgan said. She adds if she didn't have to work that night, she wouldn't be out at all because of the danger of drunk drivers.

Breen says, aside from New Year's Eve, she often has to remind parents that is always a curfew for children under the age of 18 when it comes to driving. Teens under 18 years old are not supposed to driving after 10 p.m.

Amidst the bad unemployment news, there is a bright spot. MGM-Mirage says it will start accepting applications for its newest resort set to open a year from now. The company will hire 12,000 people for CityCenter on the Las Vegas Strip.

Anyone you ask will tell you the jobs will be a major boost for Las Vegas. Applications from people not already working at MGM will be taken starting January 5, 2009. In February, transfer employees will be interviewed. Then in September, managers will be hired. Everyone else will be hired in October.

Go to the CityCenter jobs site.

MGM-Mirage will hire more people than those who watched the last UNLV basketball game at the Thomas and Mack. 12,000 jobs will open in 2009 at CityCenter.

It cost more than $9 billion to build and the man who will run the hotel and casino at says ready, set, apply.

“We believe that it is going to be very competitive. We think that is healthy. We want the best, brightest, most enthusiastic employees,” said Aria president and Chief Operating Officer Bill McBeath.

Everyone will apply online. Current MGM employees started applying three weeks ago. McBeath reached out to laid off workers at MGM to also apply early.

McBeath says transfers within the company will account for about 50-percent of the new hires. That still opens up opportunities at other MGM properties, “This is across the whole spectrum of the service industry. We have food and beverage, we have hotel, we have facilities, we have entertainment, we have retail.”

And of course, casino jobs, any of which Justin Buehn will apply for, “I am just trying to hold, keep things going. Keep my mortgage paid and stuff like that.”

Including taking care of his wife and child. Buehn was laid off three weeks ago. He's on a waiting list for construction jobs and continues to apply for everything, “It's tough. Everybody I talked to, nobody has any leads on anything.”

Working at CityCenter would be a dream. Mcbeath says it will also pay very well, “In the tip earning jobs especially, we anticipate these to be some of the highest paying jobs in the market.”

MGM wants to use Aria, the main casino/hotel at CityCenter, to compete against Wynn, Encore, and the Bellagio. That's why MGM expects a lot of applications. Their web site can handle 300,000 applications at once.

General Growth Properties, the owner of the Fashion Show mall and Palazzo shops may go into default on the loans.

So far, the lenders owed the money haven't acted against General Growth and are still in talks with General Growth over the $900 million in owed money.

General Growth lost 96-percent of its value this year because of investor concerns. The company has not been able to reach an agreement with lenders on the hundreds of millions in loans that were due for the Las Vegas properties on Dec. 12th.

There was another round of layoffs Friday on the Las Vegas Strip. The parent company of the Venetian and the Palazzo confirmed it handed 216 people their walking papers. The company says the layoffs are part of an overall plan to trim $100 million in spending for next year.

An exact tally of just how many gaming workers have been laid off since this recession began is hard to come by, but experts caution cutting too deep could hurt the ability of the destination to recover when the economy finally does turn around.

Between them, the Venetian and the Palazzo employ about 10,000 workers. Las Vegas Sands says the cuts represent just two-percent of its overall Las Vegas workforce. The company also confirmed it will cut $6.5 million in management bonuses.

“I think Las Vegas Sands, with their Venetian and Palazzo properties here in Vegas, have held out for longer than some of their peers. We have seen MGM and Station, for example, layoff folks, unfortunately. And Las Vegas Sands has held out despite having the same revenue issues,” said Bill Lerner with Deutsche Bank.

Official state statistics do not break out the specific number of layoffs on the Strip. But just this week, regulators reported Strip gaming revenue dropped nearly 26-percent from the same period last year with visitor volume off 10-percent.

“I think that cutting your way to profitability is a bad idea, even in this tough economic time,” said UNLV Gaming Research Director David Schwartz.

Schwartz is concerned if property cuts are too deep service could suffer and the path to recovery will be more difficult, “So what if someone comes here on one of these really good deals and finds that the place is a mess. They are probably not going to come back when they have enough money to travel anywhere they want and pay top price.”

And service quality is something visitor Marta Hawotte has already noticed during this visit, “It is very hard to get a drink in the casino. There isn't anybody available to come up and serve you a drink.”

Despite the constant drumbeat of layoff reports, the latest state statistics paint a surprising picture when it comes to jobs in the casino hotel and gaming sector. From October of 2007 through October of 2008, statistics show a net job loss of just 600 people in Clark County. The state reports the sector lost 2,600 jobs but gained another 2,000 by property openings.

The Mirage volcano is ready to rumble again. After several weeks of work, casino owner MGM Mirage plans to premiere the results of a $25 million renovation of the rock fountain attraction on the Las Vegas this afternoon.

Check out a slideshow of the new volcano

Fireballs, lava and a rumbling drum score that former Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart had a hand in will update the streetside feature that first erupted in 1989.

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

Hundreds of UNLV students are putting their foot down, fighting against a proposed 25-percent tuition hike. While they may have won a small battle Thursday, students say the real fight is still to come.

UNLV and the entire higher education system is still trying to figure out ways to cut their budgets due to the state's shortfall. One of the possible solutions was to push tuition fees higher. But students came out against the proposal and got what they wanted, at least for now.

The crowd of students gathered inside the meeting room. There were approximately 250 students in attendance carrying signs showing their opposition to the tuition hikes.

Students say it's an unfair solution that leaves them paying more and receiving less. UNLV has already cut 290 class sections and lost staff.

They say raising tuition will make UNLV less appealing and in turn destroy the budget even more because nobody could afford to attend.

“I can't tell you how many students came up to us in the past three days and said, ‘I transferred here because I came from a state where they were having tuition increases,' or ‘I'm going to have to move home because I can't afford to pay,' or ‘I'm going to have to take less classes or the classes I want to take aren't available now,'” said student David Rapoport.

Board regents and Chancellor Jim Rogers say that a tuition hike for next spring will not happen.

They are preparing their budget for the next two years and UNLV will need to cut approximately $147 million from their budget, so tuition hikes are still a possibility for the fall semester.

Chancellor Rogers told the students it was about time they woke up and realized this was a problem they needed to help fix. He urged them to make their voices heard if they want to keep higher education afloat.

The students collected more than 3,000 signatures and letters from students and they will be sending them to the governor's office. They're also planning on calling their legislators to voice their opposition.

Friday, regents are going to actually discuss the budget and break it down to see what else needs to be cut and if future tuition hikes are still a possibility.