Any parent of a teen driver worries about them on the roads, but a new study shows that teens driving on Las Vegas roads face even more dangers. The study was done over a seven year period by Allstate Insurance Company, and during that time more than 300 teens were killed on our roads.

The study ranks Las Vegas as 15th out of the 50 most dangerous places for teen drivers. Nationwide, traffic crashes are the number one killer of teens from the ages of 15 to 20. AAA attributes the growing number of deaths in Las Vegas to the growing population, and they say parent involvement is a big part of prevention.

“Teens don’t have to be in big SUV’s that are hard to maneuver. These are the most inexperienced drivers on the road, so the simpler the better when it comes to educating teens. Picking the right car is one of the right answers,” said Michael Geeser with AAA.

Once teens get their license, many want their own car or to take the family car. AAA recommends that parents make sure their teen is driving a vehicle they can handle and the family SUV may be too much car for their experience level.

AAA also recommends that parents draw up a paper outlining what rules they expect new drivers to abide by, so teens know exactly what limits are placed on them as new drivers.

The study called San Francisco the safest city for teens while the Tampa area in Florida was deemed the worst place for teen drivers.

Share This

The Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors reported that the year’s trend of increasing home sales combined with falling prices continued in April. Again, to no one’s surprise, the driver of these trends is the fact that more than half of all homes sold last month were either bank-owned or short sales. The median price of a single family home fell 3 percent from March to April, and is down a whopping 22.7 percent from April of 2007.

Share This

The American Lung Association has issued its State of the Air Report which ranks cities on three types of pollution.

Citites are graded on short-term particle pollution, year-round particle pollution and ozone pollution. Although, no Nevada city made the top 10 worst list in any category, Clark County did get an F when it comes to high ozone days. Los Angeles and Pittsburgh were among the worst.

Share This

Las Vegas is still one of the most likely places to have your car stolen. Las Vegas ranks number two in the nation for auto theft per capita.

That is down slightly from the past two years when Las Vegas was in the top spot. That designation now goes to Modesto, California. The report is compiled by the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Top 10 metro areas by per capita auto theft rate for 2007

1. Modesto, Calif.

2. Las Vegas/Paradise, Nev.

3. San Diego/Carlsbad/San Marcos, Calif.

4. Stockton, Calif.

5. San Francisco/Oakland/Fremont, Calif.

6. Laredo, Texas

7. Albuquerque, N.M.

8. Phoenix/Mesa/Scottsdale, Ariz.

9. Yakima, Wash.

10. Tucson, Ariz.

Share This

Ridership on the Las Vegas Monorail is off to a better start this year, with first quarter seeing an increase 19 percent over the first three months of 2007. The numbers are also better than 2006, but still below the 2.3 million rider level in the first quarter of 2005.

Total revenue for the first quarter was $7,346,743.

Read the complete press release here | Search the LasVegasNOW.com archives for Monorail articles

Share This

Lead by short sales and foreclosures, home sales rose 35 percent last month, extending the upward swing to three months according to the March real estate report released today by the Greater Las Vegas Association of Realtors. On a yearly basis, sales are off nearly 8 percent from March of 2007. The median price of homes continued to decline, and now stands at $243,000, down 1.4 percent from February and down 20.3 percent from March of 2007.

(more…)

Share This

Nevada scores poorly when it comes to the well being of its children, especially in the areas of uninsured children and children incarcerated.

Those findings are part of a new report by Every Child Matters, which is a non-profit group that bases its rankings on 10 standards.

The group uses child well-being standards to ranks the states from best to worst. Nevada ranked 43rd in the nation our of all 50 states. It’s worst rankings included; uninsured children, child welfare expenses, child vulnerability and juvenile incarceration.  (more…)

Share This

Intuit, the maker of the popular tax software “Turbo Tax”, released a list of the “Top Ten Tax Procrastinating Cities in America” which shows Las Vegas ranks 8th. We were number 11 last year.So who makes the most last minute trips to the post office on April 15th? Chicago.

Share This

While the January report looked like an indication that tourism traffic may be softening, the February numbers at McCarran airport helped ease fears that Las Vegas blew that fear out of the water. Passenger traffic in MCarran rose 3.2 percent from February 2007 to February of this year, with over 3.5 million people arriving and departing Las Vegas. The February surge put the city back on track for passenger growth for the year, albeit a small 0.2 percent increase for the year to date. All eyes will be on the March numbers to see of the growth can continue.Read the entire report: McCarrans’ February Passenger Report (pdf)

Share This

This, according to a new U.S. Census Bureau report. The growth measure was based on the actual number of people moving into metro areas, not on percentage terms - by that count, Las Vegas did not crack the top ten. The report says that the Las Vegas Metro’s population increased by 59,165 people from July 2006 to July 2007. The Dallas-Fort Worth metro added the most people, growing by 162,250 people.You can find the complete report here: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/011671.html 

Share This