Bosses at United Auto Workers HQ may be wishing they hadn't passed up the chance to organize dealers at Wynn Las Vegas instead of going after what looked like easy pickings in Atlantic City. After two lopsided victories, the UAW was handed a narrow defeat at Trump Marina, losing 49% to 51%. The union vows to [...]

  Well, dealers, it's put up or shut up time. With legislation that would Steve Wynn's tip-confiscation policy stalled in the Nevada State Senate, the marbles are on a Saturday-Sunday vote by dealers over whether to unionize under the banner of the Transport Workers Union. Granted, a pro-union vote doesn't guarantee a contract, let alone a reversal [...]

Loose cannon CEO William Yung is at it again. The Columbia Sussex supremo ripped Evansville, Ind. Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel a new one — from the safety of Cincinnati, Ohio. Yung feels Weinzapfel has dissed him and, in a retaliatory fit of pique, is canceling $60 million in renovations to the Casino Aztar riverboat. He also [...]

It is with a heavy heart that I inform readers of the impending departure of Pat Getter, the Imperial Palace's public relations manager. Harrah's Entertainment has wiped out Pat's position, leaving her momentarily jobless. I have no idea why, but Ms.Getter was always friendly, helpful and prompt of response … obviously marking her for elimination [...]

… or words to that effect. Nevada Resort Association President (and respected former casino regulator) Bill Bible has just administered a smackdown to Carson City's favorite punching bag, increasingly ineffectual Gov. "Midnight Jim" Gibbons. Now that Gibber the Fibber is making a grab for hotel room-tax $$ to fund highway projects, the well-respected Mr. [...]

My, my, my, things are heating up in a nasty way over at Riviera Holdings, where a group of 20 percent shareholders is putting up its own dissident slate of board candidates. Riviera's leadership's response has been to A) slam the candidate slate this morning as a stalking horse for Barry Sternlicht and his merry [...]

A gentleman describing himself as a concerned citizen and not a Wynn dealer would like to share this dispatch to Nevada Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio:Dear Senator Raggio:I am writing you to express my outrage at your action regarding AB248. It appears that you caused this Bill to be removed from the Judiciary Committee after [...]

At the risk of "piling on," I've been asked to share the following missive with my readers (yes, all five of them). To give props where they're due, my correspondent picks holes in the fallacies underlying a major local columnist's ongoing apologia for Steve Wynn's tip confiscation policy at Wynn Las Vegas, and does so [...]

Give CEO William Yung III credit for capitalizing on at least one asset that came out of his capture of Aztar Corp.: the Tropicana brand name. Columbia Sussex's hodgepodge of casino-hotel properties will now start to be rebranded under the umbrella of Tropicana Casinos and Resorts. The company has even rolled out a Web site [...]

My opposite number in the war of words over Steve Wynn's iniquitous tip-confiscation policy, Jeff Simpson, weighed in again on the subject last Sunday. Of course, instead of "iniquitous," one could borrow a phrase from Simpson and call Wynn's money-grab "a clumsy attempt." (Strange Coincidence: Wynn Las Vegas President Andrew S. Pascal uses this exact [...]