Here's hoping that Gov. Gibbons doesn't cut anymore of the budget for the states' museums.  They were the hardest hit in the spring when they became part-time employees.  There are fears that the governor will try to keep the state afloat by closing all state-sponsored museums.

But there may be some good news for those beleagured employees.

According to Cy Ryan at the Las Vegas Sun:

Despite the continuing bad economic news, Gov. Jim Gibbons says he’s not planning on calling a special session of the Legislature — at least at this time.

He says his administration is continuing to look at ways to adjust the state budget so it doesn’t fall into the hole.

“When we get to a point where we can no longer make those adjustments to the state’s budget, based on executive orders, we will have to, by necessity, consider a special session,” he said.

He said he is going to bring in legislators in the interim to “offer their input.” He said he has already talked to legislators. Pressed, he said he conferred with Republicans Senate Minority Leader Bill Raggio and Sen. Randolph Townsend, both of Reno.

Asked if he has talked with any Democrats that control both houses, Gibbons said he hasn’t after reading reports in the Las Vegas Sun. “All the reports show they have made their decision.”

Asked what those Democratic decisions are, Gibbons replied, “I’m only believing what I read in your reports...”

Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, said she has never been contacted by the governor about a special session and hasn’t made any comments to the Sun about it.

She said it’s too early to make a decision whether to convene a special session. She said a conclusion could be made in October or November when more tax revenue information is available.

While Nevada leads the nation in economic problems, she said, it’s too soon to make a judgment whether this will turn around.

Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-North Las Vegas, said he would be willing to meet with the governor at any time to discuss the state’s business. But he hasn’t talked with Gibbons since near the end of the 2009 Legislature in early June.

He said it was “premature” to discuss a special session. He said there have been periodic updates from the fiscal staff of the Legislature on the condition of the state.

Gaming and sales taxes are the two biggest revenue producers for the state, and both are down.

The state Gaming Control Board says the state collected $655 million in taxes from casinos in the last fiscal year, down from the $663 million predicted by the Economic Forum on which the state budget is based. Collections from the sales tax are down by $8.1 million below their forecast for the first 11 months of last fiscal year.

Only the governor can call a special session of the Legislature. And the regular session of the Legislature doesn’t convene until February 2011.

Gibbons said his administration was “very conservative” in its approach to the budget last February. But the Legislature increased taxes $1.1 billion over his veto, he said. “Still we are seeing a lack of revenue to meet the spending requests of the last Legislature.”

The governor made his statement to reporters after a meeting of the state Board of Examiners, which agreed to delay for two more months the requirement for employees in the state prison system to take one day off a month to save money.

The Department of Corrections says it needs to keep these prison employees working to ensure public safety and it needs more time to plan for the furloughs. This delay in the prison furlough plan will cost the state $630,172 since these employees won’t lose more than 4 percent in salary every month, as other department workers do.

Gibbons said the prisons need more time to plan how this furlough procedure will be accomplished. Gibbons is chairman of the three-member examiners board.

From our pal, Joe Brown at the Las Vegas Sun:

Journalists, we are told, are not supposed to take an advocacy position, and that includes arts reporters and reviewers.

But after this summer’s torpid trickle of mostly bad news about Las Vegas arts organizations, I’m hoping you’ll give me a pass while I wax openly enthusiastic about the approach of the fall performing arts season.

As a critic, no one is happier than I am when I see our home teams — our own philharmonic, ballet company and dance and theater troupes — creating noteworthy, ovation-deserving work.

And now — with just a month to go before I have to start providing my opinions about what I see and hear — I’m feeling pretty optimistic about the fall.

So this is my chance to be nakedly boosterish, looking over what’s on the autumn arts calendar with hope and anticipation. Here (in a handy clip ’n’ save format, suitable for fridge magnets) is my fall forecast, the stuff that’s getting me through August:

The Las Vegas Philharmonic weathered a turbulent spring and summer, reorganizing its board and finances. The most immediately evident and welcome change is an improved Web site, with bios and photos of the musicians and more detailed program notes for preconcert prep. Music Director and conductor David Itkin is back, and violinist Giora Schmidt, a rising star and protege of Itzhak Perlman, is the soloist for the Sept. 12 season opener, which includes Sibelius’ “Finlandia,” Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Beethoven’s Symphony No.7. The Phil continues its successful pops program with “A Night at the Movies” on Oct. 3, and ends its Masterworks season (I wish they’d change that stuffy-sounding title) May 8 with “A Night at the Opera (For People Who Think They Hate Opera).”

Nevada Ballet Theatre takes its first steps under new Artistic Director James Canfield, who had a dramatic effect on the trimmed-down troupe’s presentation and polish after he arrived last season. Canfield has stirred controversy for acknowledging sex, violence and contemporaneous themes in his dances, which may translate into wider interest and new audiences. The Oct. 17 and 18 opening program includes Canfield’s “Coco,” inspired by the life of fashion icon Coco Chanel and set to the songs of French chanteuse Edith Piaf. An all-new “Nutcracker” is also promised at NBT’s snazzed-up Web site. In the interest of an informed audience, the company is adding pre- and post-show programs and Q&A sessions.

Nevada Conservatory Theatre follows up impressive stagings of “The Cradle Will Rock,” “The Marriage of Bette and Boo” and “The Diary of Anne Frank” by launching its season Oct. 2 with (arguably) the best work by the most difficult musical theater composer, “Company” by Stephen Sondheim. If anyone around here can do it justice, NCT can.

Insurgo Theater Movement is the troupe I’m looking forward to seeing more from. The smart, scrappy, always inventive group, which features a core of the best actors in town, has moved out of its eccentric digs inside a strip mall fetish shop, and is having another go at the Donner Party-themed “Cannibal! The Musical,” written by “South Park” co-creator Trey Parker. It opens Aug. 14 at the newly built theater at Town Square. Insurgo’s season includes a typically atypical adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Loves Labours Lost” — staged as a battle of the bands between a debauched Euro rock group and an all-girl punk band — along with Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” Wilde’s “Salome” and the edgy rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”

And that’s just cherry-picking from the vantage point of August. There’s lots more to be announced, and I’m looking forward to paying renewed attention to other performing groups, including Las Vegas Master Singers, Little Theatre of Las Vegas and Henderson Symphony, and to local showcases such as the weekly Acoustic Strip at House of Blues and the monthly Composers Showcase at the Liberace Museum.

It's a busy week but we've got some great panels coming up as well as the Friends of Classic Las Vegas meeting. We hope to see you there!

Thursday, August 6th:

Untold Stories

This should be a great evening of stories, memories and laughter.

We will be talking about the "Entertainers of Classic Las Vegas". Back in the day, the showrooms and lounges were filled with the cream of the crop vocalists, entertainers and musicians.

If you missed out on the days when Las Vegas was known as the Entertainment Capital of the World or you remember those days fondly. please join us!

Panelists include: Lorraine Hunt-Bono, Peter Anthony, Babe Pier and Mike Weatherford.

Thursday, August 6th

Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Desert Learning Center

Admission is $12

Friday, August 7th:

The Mob has had a hand in running Las Vegas casinos since its earliest days until probably the early 1980s. Come watch a roundtable discussion and ask questions about this fascinating part of Clark County’s history in this free public event called

“Centennial Stories: Examining Our Past”

Friday, August 7 at 6 p.m.

Where: Clark County Government Center Commission Chambers

500 S. Grand Central Parkway in downtown Las Vegas

Featuring:

· Former Las Vegas Mobster Frank Cullotta

· Retired FBI Special Agent Dennis Arnoldy

· KLAS TV Channel 8 Investigative Reporter George Knapp

· Las Vegas Review-Journal Columnist John L. Smith

· Former Metro Intelligence Commander Kent Clifford

Sunday, August 9th:

The Friends of Classic Las Vegas will have their General Meeting

on Sunday, August 9th at 2:00 pm at the famed Morelli House.

861 East Bridger Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89101-5539

Come join us and find out how you can help with our upcoming tribute and tour to Mid-Century Modern Architect, Walter Zick!

First Claudine Williams, now Jeanne Hood.

From the R-J:

When former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones began her run for the office in 1990, one of the first people she sought out was Jeanne Hood, then president of the Four Queens.

“She wrote me one of my first checks when I was running for mayor,” said Jones, who is now a senior vice president at Harrah’s Entertainment. “I will never forget it. She pulled her check book out of her desk, we were sitting in her office, and she wrote me a personal check.”

Hood, a pioneering casino executive at the Four Queens in the 1970s, died Sunday.

Her age and cause of death were not available.

Hood took over as president and chief executive officer of the Four Queens upon the death of her husband, David Hood, in 1977. In 1985, she became president and chief executive officer at Elsinore, a publicly traded gaming subsidiary of the Hyatt hotel chain that owned the Four Queens.

She remained president of the Four Queens until 1993.

The unassuming Hood rarely gave interviews and tried to downplay her role as a woman in the casino industry.

Hood told the Review-Journal in 1985, when she and Claudine Williams were the only women running Las Vegas resorts, that she was not a “woman’s libber” and steered away from questions that went that direction.

“I just feel that people have to be qualified,” she told the newspaper. “I don’t care whether they’re a woman or a man, or what color or race they belong to. I think they need to know what they are doing in order to have the job. Because I’m qualified, I’m here.”

While she didn’t talk about her place in casino history often, her influence is undeniable.

“She is part of too small a group that proved a woman could do a job that is most associated with men,” said Michael Green, a history professor at College of Southern Nevada.

Hood’s death comes less than three months after the death of Williams. The first woman to run a Strip property at the Holiday Inn-Holiday Casino, Williams died May 13 at the age of 88.

“It is ironic Claudine Williams died not too long ago,” Green said. “Here are really two women who set a standard in their industry.”

While at the Four Queens and afterward, Hood was active in efforts to redevelop downtown Las Vegas with other big-name casino executives.

Jones said her mayor’s office and Hood were part of “the real working group” that included Steve Wynn, former Boyd Gaming Corp. CEO Don Snyder, and Bill Boyd, founder of the Boyd Gaming, that was focused on downtown redevelopment.

Hood met her husband while at the University of Minnesota. She spent her summers as a waitress at the Old Faithful Inn, where David was an assistant manager, at Yellowstone National Park. Hood managed her first hotel in 1958 in California.

She arrived in Las Vegas in just before Christmas in 1973 when her husband was named president of the Four Queens.

After her career at the Four Queens, , in 1994 she became a director of American Vantage Cos., a Las Vegas-based management investment company, a position she held until her death.

She was a gaming consultant for the company from February 1994 until April 2000.

She also served as American Vantage’s assistant corporate secretary, chairwoman of its audit committee and co-chair of its compensation committee.

Her career extended past casinos. She was director of Pioneer Citizen’s Bank until it merged with Zions Bancorporation in 2000. She served on the board of Southwest USA Bank starting in January 2000.

Jones said the importance of Hood serving alongside other women in the history of casinos cannot be overstated.

“The very fact Jeanne Hood, Margaret Elardi (former owner of the Frontier and the Pioneer Club), Claudine Williams could have been contemporaries and colleagues of Steve Wynn, Bill Boyd and Kirk Kerkorian tells you it was more about entrepreneurial vision than gender,” Jones said. “You don’t find that in any other industry.”

Hood was inducted into the Nevada Chapter of the International Women’s Forum Hall of Fame in 2004.

She is survived by a sister, four daughters, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Services will be private.

This should be a great evening of stories, memories and laughter.

We will be talking about the "Entertainers of Classic Las Vegas". Back in the day, the showrooms and lounges were filled with the cream of the crop vocalists, entertainers and musicians.

If you missed out on the days when Las Vegas was known as the Entertainment Capital of the World or you remember those days fondly. please join us!

Panelists include: Lorraine Hunt-Bono, Peter Anthony, Babe Pier and hopefully, Mike Weatherford.

Thursday, August 6th

Las Vegas Springs Preserve

Desert Learning Center

Admission is $12