by Jackie Brett Send Me E-mail

Susan Anton will headline at the off-Strip Suncoast in northwest Las Vegas, Dec. 17-19. Tickets are priced from $34.95, call 702-636-7075.

Anton recently appeared on a nationally televised PBS concert special on the steps of the United States Capitol backed by a 60-piece orchestra. She's appeared on Broadway and a few years ago starred with the Rockettes in a show at the Flamingo.

Anton is a police detective's daughter and the eldest of five children. She won several beauty contests and was named Miss California in 1969. The next year she went on to become the second runner-up to Miss America.

The Silverton located three miles south of the Strip off I-15 has unveiled a new marquee to introduce its new interior and exterior look and new name - "Silverton Casino Hotel Lodge." The marquee is a high-resolution LED (light-emitting diode) screen that can run streaming video and text. The Silverton is updating nearly all its amenities to become a more upscale, contemporary Adirondack lodge-theme property.

Tomorrow the Silverton is opening its new connector between the main casino to the Bass Pro Shops store. The connector, which is part of the property's $100 million casino-wide expansion, will feature an additional 30,000 square feet of gaming, the Mermaid Restaurant & Lounge - a new dining destination featuring a 117,000 gallon saltwater tank with over 4,000 tropical fish, and the new attraction - live mermaid shows performing daily.

Caesars Palace's new Augustus Tower was topped off recently. The $289 million luxury hotel tower is running on budget and scheduled for an August 2005 opening. The 26-story tower will add 949 rooms to the resort's room count, bringing the total to 3,349.

The off-Strip Quality Inn Key Largo on Flamingo Road has plans to build a 196-foot condo tower with 905 units in addition to a 70-foot hotel tower with 344 rooms. The hotel units would replace the existing 314-room hotel and the condo tower with one-, two- and three-bedroom units would be built atop a four-level parking garage along the west and south sides of the property. The 4.85-acre property was purchased in 1982 for $9.5 million.

Across the street from Key Largo, Terrible's Hotel-Casino has announced expansion plans that will begin shortly with the building of a four-story parking garage and the doubling of the size of the casino.

The Rio's Pavilion Convention Center is in its sixth month of undergoing a 60,000-square-foot expansion that will bring the property's total meeting space to more than 160,000 square feet. Completion of the $39 million project is slated for May 2005. Some construction trivia notes... more than 1,000 tons of steel will be used, which is the equivalent of six Boeing 747's, the concrete being used could build 83 homes, and the amount of rebar involved, all 167 tons, would produce 53 full-sized pickup trucks.

Southern Nevada Physicians, LLC has opened an on-site medical center at the Imperial Palace. The healthcare facility is open to guests and employees on the eighth floor of the administrative tower, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Most major insurance policies are accepted.

The Champ Car World Series, which made its inaugural visit to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in September, will return to the 1.5-mile oval on Sept. 24, 2005. The Saturday race will again be a double-header event with the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series on Sunday.

Jazz vocalist Matt Dusk, the 25-year-old Canadian singer who appeared last March on the reality series "The Casino" about the Golden Nugget downtown, is appearing at the 1,500-seat Las Vegas Hilton Theater through Nov. 21. Dusk has been touring Canada and promoting his new CD, "Two Shots," that includes the song "Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot of Sad" penned by U2's Bono and The Edge in honor of Frank Sinatra.

Sultry singer Candace Davis-Martin will be appearing at the Sahara's Casbar Theater Lounge, Nov. 23-28 at 8 and 9 p.m. Her show is "The Siren of Song" and features ballads from some of the greatest female jazz singers of all times.

The Golden Nugget downtown is the current home of super-host Steve Cyr, who is the subject of a new book, "Whale Hunt in the Desert," which is about super high rollers called "whales." Cyr will be appearing at UNLV's Stan Fulton Building on Nov. 17 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Admission is $20 in advance or $30 at the door and includes a complimentary copy of the book. For information call 702-214-9500, ext. 103.

Another Golden Nugget note - the poker room has been relocated from the big glass-encased room adjacent to the pool to an area near the deli in the main casino.

"La Femme" at MGM Grand, which is an exact replica of the Crazy Horse in Paris that is famous for its productions celebrating beautiful women and the art of the nude since 1951, will be dark Dec. 7 - 18.

The Las Vegas Natural History Museum located at 900 North Las Vegas Blvd. in front of Cashman Field has CATS! Mild to Wild through Dec. 31. This exhibit was organized by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and traces the history of cats from wild, exotic felines to America's number one pet. Museum hours are 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. daily. Admission is $6 for adults, $5 for students, seniors and military and $3 for children ages 3 to 11, call 384-DINO (3466).

The award-winning quiz show, "Jeopardy!" mentioned a local museum in a category about Las Vegas. The question/answer was, "At the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, a 35-foot long replica of one of these 'tyrant lizards' actually moves and roars. The answer was the question, "What is Tyrannosaurus-rex?"

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