Nevada has the second highest rate of uninsured children in the country — more than 100,000 boys and girls. Yet despite the availability of public health programs to cover kids, only half of those who qualify enroll say state health officials.

VIDEO: Nevada Second Worst for Uninsured Children

Doctor Tamina McMillan with Nevada Health Centers speaks her patient’s language, literally and figuratively. Like the population she serves, McMillan grew up without regular access to health care. Now from the other side of the exam table, she recognizes the challenges faced by the uninsured.

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Keeping pace with January (at least it is not getting worse – could we be at a bottom?), the number of passengers passing through McCarran International airport slipped 15.2% behind the same month last year. That equates to a little over 500,000 fewer people arriving and departing from the airport. For the year, McCarran is pacing about 1 million fewer folks than the first two months of 2008.

Just ten years ago, Las Vegas was the fastest growing city in the country with thousands of people flocking to the valley every month. Now the fortunes have changed and homes, apartments and storefronts are empty.

Las Vegas topped a list of America’s Emptiest Cities by Forbes Magazine, but some in Las Vegas say the designation is not accurate at all.

To read the full story, click here. (more…)

Traffic in and out of McCarran International Airport fell yet again in November. In the largest percentage drop this  year, the number of passengers fell by over 125,000, or 14.7 percent fewer than November of 2007. U.S. Airways again was the hardest hit seeing passengers fall by 31.4 percent. McCarran’s most prolific carrier, Southwest, took the second largest hit with numbers dropping by 10 percent.

But the real story is how gaming revenue fell off a cliff in October. For Clark County as a whole, gaming revenue was down 25.3% from October of 2007. That is a fall from just over $1 billion last year to $757 million this year – a staggering fall.Other numbers released in the October Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority report are just as grim. Total airline passengers are down 12.8%, hotel occupancy levels are down 8.5%, average room rate down 14.3%, auto traffic down 6.3%. Does anyone see light at the end of the tunnel? 

According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, “Nevada’s unemployment rate rose again for the sixth consecutive month, hitting 7.6 percent in October, which is the highest it’s been since May 1985. The state’s rate has exceeded the national average every month since mid-2007. The national rate was 6.5 percent in October.”

This is up from 7.2 percent in September and 2.5 percent higher than October of 2007. Job losses fell across a broad base of the economy including housing, commercial development and consumer spending. The entire press release follows after the break. (more…)

Las Vegas fell 20 places to #47 in a sustainability index published by the website SustainLane.com. The ranking measures a number of categories such as street congestion, air and water quality, and green building (LEED certification). According to the index, Las Vegas ranks high in energy and climate change policy, green building and low natural disaster risk. Our issues with our tight water supply, metro street congestion, and air quality overwhelmed the positives and pushed us towards the bottom of the list.

The top five cities included Portland, San Francisco,  Seattle, Chicago, and New York City. Among other desert cities, we ranked ahead only of Mesa, AZ (#50), with Albuquerque leading the list at #18.

Most of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s numbers were still heading in the wrong direction in July. The only positive number in this month’s report was a small increase in convention goers (up 0.6 percent) and total number of conventions held (up 8.9 percent). Sadly the economic impact from these increases was actually 3.7 percent lower than July of last year.

Gaming revenue was especially hard hit, falling 15 percent for Clark County as a whole.

The average daily room rate in Las Vegas fell 10 percent to $105.97. The year to date average fell 6.6 percent to $126.51.

(All figures are year over year comparisons)

Total passenger traffic in July was just over 3.9 million as compared to nearly 4.3 million in July of 2007. Out of the top five carriers servicing McCarran, only American Airlines was able to eek out a gain in passengers with a 3.6% growth over last year. Southwest fell 5.6%, United was down 8.9% and US Airways suffered the largest percentage drop at 17.3%.

The number of unemployed workers in Nevada closed in on the 100,000 mark in July. There are currently 94,900 people unemployed compared to 67,700 this time last year, according to a report issued by the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The mood in the employment market has turned more pessimistic recently, with the delay of several construction projects, including the freeze of the Echelon project. The one bright spot is the fact that the number of existing home sales have increased over the past six months.