Las Vegas Casino Hotel Rooms 'Heavily Discounted' During

https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/06/06/las-vegas-reopening-casinos-business-coronavirus-george-floyd-protests/3157398001/
Nevada casinos have reopened, and I’m sure you’ve seen the videos of some people actually being out! That being said, the next few weeks should give us a true glimpse of what to expect from Vegas/Reno properties for the rest of the year.
IMO, very short term calls, longer term puts seem to be the best play. If boomers don’t return and unemployment dries up, casinos will be losing their cash cows.
I have no positions yet. Go ahead and tell me I’m wrong, MGM call holders

As requested, I will provide DD for NAT, DHT Holdings and MGM based on votes from my previous thread. I'll start with the tankers. (Let me note that I do not expect the general market trend to be positive for the next few weeks)
​
Preface: Positive Virus news is generally bad for Tanker company share prices.
NAT
Current share price: $6.12
EPS Q1 2019: $0.04
EPS Q1 2020 Estimate: $0.26
Earnings: 5/18 (Per NAT website, Thanks u/Nice_Block)
NAT operates Suezmax size tankers, the next step down from VLCC, and daily prices for Suezmax's are considerably less than VLCC. Current spot price is up 141% at $3.92 bpd from March of 2019 to March of 2020. I think that this earnings estimate is roughly accurate, but suezmax vessels have more room for positive price movement as more and more storage is filled to capacity. Suezmax ships allow producers more maneuverability and fluidity to store their oil, as such, turnover rates are higher than VLCC vessels.
Revenues at current prices indicate an earnings estimate closer to $0.36. This is the high end of earnings estimates. Additionally, demand for oil consumption is not likely to improve soon. If anything, a slow reopening of states without ports will not affect tanker company bottom lines and will extend the operating duration of oil producers in the permian. Keep in mind, if oil consumption does not increase, wells will either shut down, or more likely, prices will go negative again. This may have some effect on spot price for tanker transports. That said, spot prices are not likely to diminish significantly in the near future.
As a bonus, NAT recently (like yesterdayish) approved a buyback program to take advantage of increased revenues. This is the best news for NAT holders at this time. Their true intentions will be reflected in the earnings call.
Price Target: $8 in the short term. If quarantine continues through June with no oil production cuts, I would expect at $10+ is possible, but unlikely.
Historical action levels: https://imgur.com/a/dzsAZop
One week chart showing some consolidation for a potential breakout: https://imgur.com/a/10DZWE7
Note - I suggested this as a bullish play last weekend, and as such my $8 price target was hit on Tuesday. This ship may have already sailed. Pun intended. I would find another trade.
Recommendation: If you are dead set on an NAT play, shares at a reduced price through earnings, or options with expiry longer than 45 days out purchased next week.
​
DHT Holdings
Current share price: 7.10
EPS Q1 2019: $0.13
EPS Q1 2020 Estimate: $0.57
Earnings: 5/5
DHT operates operates exclusively VLCC tankers, of which the majority are on spot price rental. Current spot price for VLCC tankers up to 180k/day, up from an average of 19k/day this time last year. This is an over 9x increase. NAT is also currently operating more tankers on spot price rental, increasing volume under spot price contract over last year. They currently have 23 of 27 operating on spot pricing.
Historical action levels: https://imgur.com/a/X3W3kD4
One week chart showing downward channel (Im not sure this trend is completed yet) before potential breakout: https://imgur.com/a/CYCaYcv
Recommendation: I think the resistance levels for DHT are more relevant than those of NAT, and are also more realistic to be beaten. Calls mid week for EOW earnings at least 2 weeks out. General market sentiment is important for this trade.
​
MGM
Current share price: 15.01
Summary of MGM's plans to reopen casinos: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2020/04/30/mgm-plans-reopen-las-vegas-bellagio-new-york-new-york/3061417001/
I would expect the mayor of Las Vegas to attempt to reopen the tourism to the city along with President Trump's guidance. If they are able, they will reopen soon. They likely will not have large scale shows or concert events to draw in customers, but gambling will be open to some extent. I do not expect casinos to see a large influx of patrons, and this will end up being a net negative for them in the coming months as their expenses will increase more than revenues. They may even potentially have to re-close if Covid testing reveals an uptick in cases in the Las Vegas area. That said, their saving grace is Macau, where a significantly large portion of their income is generated. China expects tourism to Macau to increase, but I would take that with a grain of salt.
Given MGM's recent meteoric rise to nearly $18 per share, I think they fall into the sentiment of the rest of the market and will suffer in the coming month. I expect the share price will visit mid-april prices of $13, or potentially lower following a general trend with SPY. Luckily, If you see these prices, I consider MGM a very long term and stable play. They have enough cash on hand to last an entire year with no revenue; a situation that is uncommon at this time. In general, event or discretionary based spending, hospitality and travel will be the last to recover, but this is a commonly assessed sentiment.
Historical action levels: MGM was not surprisingly rejected by the historical support level of $17.50 this week https://imgur.com/a/aoRNvk8
5 day chart does not provide any major price movement indication.
Recommendation: Sell shares, do nothing until share prices revisit mid-April levels.
​
As always, feel free to comment and tell me why I'm wrong.
EDIT - I accidentally switched which size tanker each company uses, it has been corrected - Shoutout u/kindlyblacksmith

https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/nevada-gaming-control-board-to-require-face-coverings-at-table-games/
​
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Citing updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Nevada Gaming Control Board has updated health and safety policies for gaming establishments in the state.
Among the new guidelines, establishments must now require all patrons to wear face coverings at table and card games if there is no barrier between the dealer and each player. This requirement extends to all players, spectators or anyone else within six feet of the game.
Casino reopening plans must also provide for the availability of face masks or cloth coverings for guests upon request. As guests enter establishments, they must be offered face coverings or there must be dedicated signage throughout the establishment notifying guests that face coverings are available. Licensees must ensure that face coverings are provided upon request.
Also, in line with Governor Sisolak’s emergency directive, “musical performances, live entertainment, concerts, competitions, sporting events, and any events with live performances may resume, but shall remain closed for public attendance, and the Board must approve such an event prior to it taking place.” With this new policy, the board has released the Closed Event Policy for Gaming Establishments.
The board will make further updates to health and safety policies as needed.

Caesars properties mandating masks as of about noon today. Onsite security personnel cited an order from NVGov, but I can’t find a source for that.
https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/06/24/caesars-entertainment-requires-all-guests-wear-masks-all-resorts/3252788001/
Guests at Caesars Entertainment Corp. properties will be required to wear masks while inside its properties, effective immediately. The only exception is when employees or guests are eating or drinking, according to a Wednesday news release.
The updated policy applies to all employees, vendors, contractors, guests, and passersby inside the properties. Those who refuse to wear a face covering will be directed to leave the property. Caesars previously only required staff to wear masks. “We are immediately requiring everyone in our properties to wear masks, because the scientific evidence strongly suggests that wearing masks and practicing social distancing may be the most important deterrents to spreading COVID-19 from person to person,” said CEO Tony Rodio in the release.
The policy applies to Caesars’ nine Las Vegas hotel casinos, as well as its properties in Arizona, California and North Carolia. It will also go into effect in properties in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Illinois and Ontario, once they reopen. The announcement comes just hours before Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak’s 5 p.m. update on Nevada’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Las week, the governor said he had asked his team of COVID-19 medical advisors to review enhanced face covering policies for the state. Nevada’s COVID-19 cases have been on the rise since it reopened casinos on June 4. On Tuesday, the state saw a record one-day jump of more than 400 new cases. As of Wednesday, there have been about 14,000 cases of the virus in Nevada and 492 deaths.
Policies in other states, including California and Washington, have recently been updated to require people to wear face coverings when out in public indoor venues.
On Monday, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 hosted a video conference to discuss casinos’ health and safety policies, saying the rules don’t go far enough to protect workers.
Diana Thomas, a union member and guest room attendant at Caesars’ Flamingo hotel casino, said Monday that she would feel safer at work if guests and patrons were required to wear masks. The union is demanding a handful of new health policies in casinos, including daily cleaning of all guest rooms, mandatory testing of all employees for COVID-19 before returning to work and regular testing thereafter and requiring guests to wear masks in all public areas.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Please add anything I missed...
*Ongoing: Casino Opening Dates
*Monday: Wet N Wild Opening Day
*Friday & Saturday: Midnight Mayhem & Open Test N Tune
*Friday-Sunday: PBR Monster Energy Team Challenge Broadcast from South Point

Oh come on now!! Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak canceled his in-person press conference scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday after possible exposure to COVID-19, he announced on Twitter.
Gov. Sisolak said he plans to update Nevadans on Tuesday night via a recorded video.
"Late last week, I visited a work place where an employee, who was not in the building at time, has since reported testing positive for COVID19. My Office learned of the positive test result on Tuesday," Sisolak said on Twitter.
The time of the video's release is not yet known.
ORIGINAL REPORT: LAS VEGAS (FOX5) -- Governor Sisolak on Friday announced he will hold a news conference next Tuesday, May 26 to discuss Phase 2 of Nevada's "Roadmap to Recovery."
The Phase 2 announcement will take place in Carson City from the Nevada State Legislature building. Governor Sisolak is expected to make his remarks around 5:30 p.m. on May 26. Tuesday's press conference will be live streamed at leg.state.nv.us.
Saturday marks two weeks since Phase 1 began. Since that time, according to Gov. Sisolak, the LEAP and the governor's office have been monitoring the first phase of reopening, analyzing data trends and evaluating potential plans for Phase 2.
If Nevada's COVID-19 data continues to reflect positive or consistent trends through the Memorial Day weekend, Gov. Sisolak said he will announce a Phase 2 reopening date during Tuesday's news conference, along with business reopening and statewide continuing operation guidelines.
Sisolak In addition, Gov. Sisolak notes that the Nevada Gaming Control Board will be holding an informal workshop Tuesday where state and local health and safety officers will provide an update regarding COVID-19 response measures at resort hotels. After presentations, Sisolak says the board will consider any action necessary with regard to reopening plans. Gaming properties are required to submit reopening plans to the Board for approval seven days before reopening, Sisolak noted.
Pending the evaluation of trends in Nevada's COVID-19 data along with the results of the Gaming Control Board meeting Tuesday, the governor has set a target date of June 4 for reopening Nevada's gaming industry.
Copyright 2020 KVVU (KVVU Broadcasting Corporation). All rights reserved.
View on FOX5Vegas.com MORE INFORMATION Nevada Gaming Control Board talks smoking, masks in casinos upon reopening Nevada Gaming Control Board talks smoking, masks in casinos upon reopening Tags Sisolak Phase Military Company Nevada Industry Economics Journalism Steve Sisolak Work

A Quick Note: This is meant to be a purely charting and analytical approach to evaluating market movements. Although I have been very successful in the past predicting movements traders should always make an effort to adjust their positions based on changing political and media landscapes. This approach isn’t meant to be any more accurate than a meteorologist predicting the weather. Take positions at your own risk and always do your own due diligence. I release these for thoughtful criticism from traders who use different approaches for analysis.
Youtube Walkthrough on TA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7y1HoINQG04
Tl;dr: Expecting a significant bearish reversal over the next 1-2 weeks. Hoping for slight bullish movement in the short-term for an optimal entry.
Ticker: $SPY
Intervals: 1W, 1D, 1H
Indicators: MACD, KDJ, MA(200 & 50), NetVolume, VPVR, VP Oscillator
Signals:
1W: MACD Bullish Convergent, Net Volume (-650M) Bearish, KDJ Extremely Overbought Bearish Convergence
1D: MACD Bearish Slightly Divergent, Net Volume (190M) Bullish, KDJ Overbought Bearish Divergence
1H: MACD Convergent Inconclusive, Net Volume (-9.3kk) Inconclusive, KDJ Nuetral/Slight Bullish Divergence
Key Supports:
300
296.15
288.56
Key Resistances:
308 (minor)
313
326
Position: Looking for a short/put entry at 308 or above, ideal entry would be around 316 for a 300p 6/19. Currently holding a 303p with a 307 entry. Initial entry for this position was poor.
Targets: At 303 or below lock in profits with a stop at previous option value at 306. Take profit at 296 or below.
News: “The reopening of the Las Vegas Strip has gone relatively well for casino operators since resorts began opening back up last week.
Even more properties returned to operations this week, but the latest room rate numbers suggest Vegas still has a long way to go in recovering from its shutdown, according to BofA Securities.”
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-las-vegas-casinos-reopen-153726887.html
“The CARES Act passed back in March, provided for stimulus checks paid to individuals to help Americans struggling with the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. So far the IRS say they have paid out well over 150 million stimulus checks with a further 30 to 35 million still to go. The big question: will there be a second round of stimulus payments and, if so, when will they be paid?”
,
https://en.as.com/en/2020/06/13/other_sports/1592048631_507744.html
Analysis: Momentum indicators are longer intervals give pretty strong indications of a possible bearish reversal. Although 1D interval seems to indicate short term neutralization of bearish momentum. 1H is also almost completely neutral. Weak signals on 1D and 1H indicate a possible “bull-trap” before continuation of a more long-term wave of panic.
Charts: https://imgur.com/gallery/Q4cqr4A
Alternative Plays: MGM, IWM, BA

Does this continue the upward trend for resorts and casinos such as ERI, PENN, and WYNN, and help MGM? Or do increased operation costs and lower capacity hurt them in the long run?
“Casino operators and employees in the largest U.S. gambling market got some welcome news at the start of the Memorial Day weekend: a June 4 target date for reopening.
Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak, a first-term Democrat, announced the reopening date Friday. Resorts in Las Vegas have been shuttered since March due to the coronavirus, resulting in a surge in unemployment and a collapse of tax revenue. Sisolak has been under pressure for weeks to reopen one of the state’s most-important industries.
He joins politicians in other states who are getting comfortable with the return of large entertainment venues. Casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi opened in the past week. And California Governor Gavin Newsom said Friday his state’s casinos, most of them run by Native American tribes, could open June 8. “We’re putting out guidelines not just for casinos, but card rooms as well,” he said.
A March study by the Brookings Institution identified Las Vegas as one of the areas hardest hit by the virus in the U.S., with some 342,000 people, or one-third of the workforce, out of a job.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-22/nevada-governor-targets-june-4-date-for-reopening-casinos

Summary: In June of 1997, Marine Recruiter Ron Parkhurst walked out of his Huntington Beach, CA office and never came back. He packed up his black Ford Mustang, drove to Las Vegas where he spent a week gambling. He checked into a Motel 6 and over the course of a week he made small ATM withdrawls ranging from $60 to $200. He was seen several times between June 15 and 18 at the MGM Grand. By the end of the week his bank account had only $53.00.
At 4 AM June 18, Parkurst's Mustang was found abandoned on an access road near Lake Mead. His CD collection was gone, his wallet hound but with no license or ATM card. Three days later on June 2 around 10 am a women discovered Parkhurst's body floating in the water. He had been shot by a 45 caliber in the back of the skull.
Some other oddities about this case: Parkhurst was married to a woman named Rebecca whom his family never met. When asked, Ron claimed she was the maid. She claimed his veterans benefits after death, and even listed a son born 1993, although its unclear if Parkhurst is the father. He also allegedly purchased a life insurance policy in the months before his death. At the time of his death, he lived alone in an apartment in Irvine, California.
The case has remained unsolved for the past 22 years. A year ago Parkhurst's sister Diane Garrett has been in touch with LVPD's cold case unit and hopes for some leads.
What are your theories on Ron's death? Gambling debt gone wrong?
Ron Parkhurst: https://www.ocregister.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/OCR-L-COLDCASEMURDER-05.jpg?w=740
Source: OCRegister.com article. Pay walled so text below:
Cold case: Sister wants answers in 1997 murder of OC-based Marine by Keith Sharon
His nephews called him the strongest man in the world.
He had a “bright and shiny” bald head, his master sergeant said with a laugh. “You could see him from a mile away. He was quiet, well-mannered. He always stood up straight whether he was in military attire or civilian clothes.”
Ron Parkhurst was a Marine. “A really good Marine,” said Master Sgt. Rene Robles.
Parkhurst was so gung-ho he was made a recruiter, working out of the USMC substation in Huntington Beach. There is no explanation for why in 1997 he walked out of that office, after 13 exemplary years in the military, and never came back. He had a meeting scheduled with the family of a recruit, but he didn’t show.
One late spring afternoon, he ditched his responsibilities, hopped into his black, immaculate Ford Mustang, accompanied only by a vast collection of music on compact discs, and headed to Las Vegas. Inexplicably, he spent a week hitting the casinos. He was wearing cutoff jeans and a red and white T-shirt when he walked out of the MGM Grand on June 18, 1997, the last day of his life.
On June 21, 1997, Ron Parkhurst was found floating in the remote Saddle Island Cove in the waters of Lake Mead about 30 miles from The Strip. The Clark County coroner concluded he had been in the water for about three days.
He had a .45-caliber bullet in the back of his head.
The U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police concluded the death was a homicide. The LVMPD report classified the case as “murder WDW” (with a deadly weapon). But “due to the lack of logical investigative leads, this investigation is closed,” the NCIS said in its report from June 1997. The case will be reopened if either the Las Vegas police ask for assistance, or a suspect is identified.
In 22 years, no suspect has been identified, and the Las Vegas police have not asked for help. Although. there is a potential thread to the investigation that has not yet been fully pursued.
“I’ve always felt he was killed execution-style,” said Diane Garrett, Ron’s sister, and mother of the nephews who were impressed with their uncle. “His death was devastating. The family has never been the same afterward.”
Garrett has been in touch recently with the Las Vegas police, where a cold case detective is taking another look at the 22-year-old unsolved murder. Cold case investigator Terri Miller has spoken with Garrett, but did not return a call from the Southern California News Group.
“I was drop-jawed when I heard what happened,” Master Sgt. Robles said. “All of us Marines felt like one of our Marines was down.”
A Marine is still down.
Kept a distance
Parkhurst could run. He was on the cross country team at Manual High School in Peoria, Illinois.
“He was always this kid with an impish kind of personality,” said Garrett, his older sister. “If he got in trouble, he would smile. He never took things seriously. He was always joking.”
After high school, he needed some stability in his life so he picked the military, specifically the Marines. He worked as an aircraft mechanic.
He was stationed for a while in Tennessee where he met Rebecca Carolyn DeLoach, who had been twice divorced. On Valentine’s Day of 1992, Rebecca became his wife.
The strange thing about his marriage was that Parkhurst didn’t tell his family about it. Garrett said she called him once a week – on Sunday nights – and she would ask about Rebecca. Parkhurst never gave details.
“Who was the woman who answered the phone?” Garrett would ask. “He would say, ‘That was the maid.’”
Parkhurst and Rebecca moved to California, so they were far enough away to keep his family guessing. When she filled out military forms as his dependent after his death, Rebecca listed a child named Justin, born in 1993. Parkhurst’s family does not know if he was Justin’s father.
Robles said that by the time he met Parkhurst in 1995 or early 1996, he told everyone he was single. Rebecca was not invited by his family to his funeral.
Attempts to reach Rebecca for comment in this story were unsuccessful.
Piecing together details
In 1997, Parkhurst was living alone in an apartment on Thunder Road in Irvine.
Suddenly, in June, he dropped out of his life and went to Vegas. He checked into a Motel 6. He made several small ATM withdrawals, none more than $200, during the last week of his life, including a withdrawal of $60 on June 18, 1997. That final transaction left $53.85 in his checking account.
He was seen several times between June 15 and 18 at the MGM Grand.
At 4 a.m. on June 18, Parkhurst’s Mustang was found abandoned on an access road next to Lake Mead. His CD collection was gone. His wallet was found, but it had no driver’s license or ATM card inside. Garrett said she has been told by police that a witness saw another car speeding away from Parkhurst’s Mustang.
Three days later, on June 21, just before 10 a.m., a woman discovered Parkhurst’s body in the water. He had been shot in the occipital area of the skull. Police were able to get DNA samples from the car, but they proved to be inconclusive.
Police searched Parkhurst’s Irvine apartment five days after his body was discovered.
The report said Parkhurst may have purchased a life insurance policy in the months before his death. But there is no follow-up report about the investigation into that potential lead.
‘Disbelief’
Robles, who was Parkhurst’s supervisor in Huntington Beach, flew to Las Vegas to identify his body. Parkhurst was buried in his dress blues, and Robles accompanied the casket to Parkhurst’s family home in Peoria, Illinois.
Everyone on the plane was asked to remain seated while Parkhurst’s casket was taken off the plane.
“Everyone was staring out the windows of the plane,” Robles said. “His parents were very hurt. They were in shock. Disbelief.”
Parkhurst was given an honor guard funeral with a flag-folding ceremony.
A $5,000 reward was established for information leading to an arrest. No one ever claimed the reward.
Leonard and Nancy Parkhurst, Ron’s parents, both died in the 22 years since his murder. Garrett said her parents wouldn’t talk about his death to her or at family gatherings.
“It was never spoken of,” she said.
A year ago, she was going through her parents’ belongings when she found the extensive Judge Advocate General report on her brother’s death.
She started contacting people mentioned in the report.
She has considered advertising on a billboard in Orange County.
“This is something I’ve had rolling around in my brain – a billboard,” Garrett said. “It would say, ‘Do you know what happened to this person?’”
She said the Las Vegas police are taking a new look at the case, and the cold case investigator has asked permission to begin interviewing people such as Rebecca Parkhurst and a “person of interest.”
So far, Garrett doesn’t know if the new investigation has been launched.
“Somebody has to know something,” Garrett said. “I want to know what happened.”

https://app.powerbigov.us/view?r=eyJrIjoiMjA2ZThiOWUtM2FlNS00MGY5LWFmYjUtNmQwNTQ3Nzg5N2I2IiwidCI6ImU0YTM0MGU2LWI4OWUtNGU2OC04ZWFhLTE1NDRkMjcwMzk4MCJ9
​
Clark County saw its largest single-day increase in new cases Saturday with 970 additional COVID-19 cases reported.
****UPDATED**** Southern Nevada Health District officials later attributed at least 620 of the 971 new cases reported in Clark County to a delay in lab testing. About 240 of the cases belong to data from June 23 and another 380 for the next day.
​
-------------------------------------------
CARSON CITY — Nevada added 1,100 additional confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday as the known death toll from the outbreak reached at least 500.
Although the figure appeared to have shattered the daily record of 507 reported Thursday, Southern Nevada Health District officials later attributed at least 620 of the 971 new cases reported in Clark County to a delay in lab testing. About 240 of the cases belong to data from June 23 and another 380 for the next day.
The Nevada Department of Health and Human Services reported a total of 16,339 cases. At least 13,174 of them have been identified in Clark County, where deaths total 410, or about 3% of those infected.
Increases in new cases are expected with testing more available, but the infection rate, which stood at 6.2% Saturday, has been crawling upward for 10 straight days. Additionally, widespread testing has been more accessible for some time.
The number of infections is thought to be far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick. For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.
Saturday's report also included two additional deaths, both in Clark County. An additional 22 people were hospitalized in the county, which includes metro Las Vegas.
Of the 13,174 total cases here, 947 people have been hospitalized, or about 15%. About 8,732 people have recovered, or 66%.
A mandate announced Wednesday by Gov. Steve Sisolak for people to wear face coverings in public places took effect Thursday.
Sisolak said the requirement was an attempt to stem an increase of coronavirus cases that has hit the state as casinos, restaurants and other businesses began reopening.
The number of COVID-19 patients hospitalized increased for the fifth day in a row, to 503.

Below is a collection of notices & comments from Nextdoor, etc.
https://nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=150393141
From Wyandotte County Administrator's Office, Public Information Officer Unified Government
June 3, 2020
Woodlands Property For Sale. Las Vegas casino owner Phil Ruffin has put the former Woodlands racetrack facility up for sale.
Ruffin bought the several hundred-acre property near Leavenworth Road and I-435 five years ago with plans to reopen the horse track and add a facility with slot machines.
The Unified Government supported those efforts for the past several years, but the Kansas Legislature did not approve needed changes to the Kansas gaming law which would have made reopening the facility profitable.
Ruffin is tentatively selling the land to Scannell Properties which proposes building a one-million square foot warehouse distribution facility and office park with retail development on the corner of the former racetrack land.
Scannell Properties, based in Indianapolis, is a private real estate development firm with more than 300 development projects totaling more than 63-million square feet in 44 states and Canadian provinces.
When the sale is completed, Scannell plans to demolish the crumbling horse and dog tracks later this summer, with the new distribution center opening next year. The distribution facility is expected to create 1,000 new jobs.
70 acres between the new facility and Wyandotte County Lake will be reserved for green space and public walking trails.
The project plans are being reviewed by the Unified Government, State of Kansas, and Army Corps of Engineers. Advancement of the proposed plans will require a local public hearing and approval action by the Unified Government.
http://wyandottedaily.com/corps-of-engineers-kdhe-taking-public-comments-on-woodlands-project/
Here’s how you get a copy of the notice and who you direct those comments to:

Brian Donahue [email protected] (816) 389-3703 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City Regulatory Office 635 Federal Building 601 East 12th Street Kansas City, Missouri, 64106 

It asks to reference permit application No. NWK-2020-348 in all comments and/or inquiries relating to this project.
Public Notice is just to fill the 2.34 acres of emergent wetland within the project area (to prep for the construction of a 1+ million square foot commercial warehouse facility, etc), not for the whole project.
Either way, I'm not sure we should fill the wetlands before we've had our voices heard about the overall project, so I'll still be requesting a public hearing.
https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll7/id/14409
to get approval for the water quality certification to move forward with the project. Petitioning against it may not mean they abandon the project but I think it’s worth it to have a public hearing. At the very least the citizens of the county should have a voice in what goes there if it threatens water quality and water run off.
To request one, we must write to Brian and outline our specific concerns regarding filling the 2.34 acres of emergent wetland within the project area. While they do take into account public interest, their focus (as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) is to determine the environmental impacts of filling the wetlands.
They will grant a public hearing if they think they can learn new things about the environmental impact from the community.
In typical WYCO fashion there is no effort to openly inform the citizens. This has obviously been in action for a long time and we're finding out 2 weeks before the meeting and that info wasn't disclosed in yesterday's public information release it had to be tracked down by a private concerned citizen. Pathetic way to do things but if you're doing things not in the best interest of the people then not informing us untill after is the way WYCO does it.
Bennett Lake feeds Bennett Creek that flows past the old Ranger Station and into the Wyco Lake. Will this dry up the creek? Lots of folks fish in the creek.
Remember they've been wanting to build at the lake and you watch they will sneak it in. 30 years ago "Friends of the Lake" was formed to fight the county who tried to sneak in commercial development. It was almost needed to be reformed last year when the UG began opening plats up for sale. Now, it seems the time has come.
From what I understand they have already plotted the lots out at the lake. My neighbors got the letter letting them know.. it is already happening.. forsale signs will be popping up shortly.
A warehouse and trucking operation in the middle of residential and the lake.
WYCO has a warehouse district. It's called Fairfax -- With lots of empty places to use.
We need more green space. Too many office buildings are vacant, taking up to much space everywhere.. just sitting there empty. I'm sure this will all become another burden to the taxpayers of WYCO.
Run-off from the Legends already negatively affects properties in Edwardsville.
The creeks in Edwardsville have widened and deepened because of the extra run-off. Homes have been affected and businesses have closed on 98th street.
It is currently under contract for 20 million dollars. On the bright side, at least something is happening. The bad side, it’s a trucking warehouse. As a realtor, I worry about the the home values in the area. Nothing is finalized and it could all fall through. Nothing is signed right now. Me suggestion to homeowners is try to sell your house now while the market is hot. The surrounding neighborhoods will take a hit if a trucking warehouse goes in, in my opinion.
WYCO does not need any more failures ie Schlitterbahn which was not even 1/10th the development promised, T-bones stadium mismanaged and allowed to fall into debt and bankruptcy, Land of Oz - That was a big scam Bpu big shots pulled over on us while they made money.
Private pockets get lined every time something is proposed or built. Anyone who believes that our elected officials are doing anything to benefit the people needs to start researching every negative fact based article ever written starting soon after they refused GM from building. Elected representatives need to spend their time serving the people and not naming streets and community centers after themselves.
businesses at Legends didn't have to pay taxes for a couple years. That's why new places move in to Legends and couple years later move out when they have to start paying taxes
Even though elsewhere more commercial real estate lowers residential real estate taxes, doesn't work that way in Wyco the property taxes keep going up. The only ones who benefit are the businesses/companies that get all kinds of financial rewards and decades-long tax breaks to come here and then leave when they have gotten all they can get and of course the "good old boys" who make it happen. Meanwhile our taxes go up every year.
Put something there as long as there isn't any type of incentives given. It's getting ridiculous giving a bunch of money to companies to get them to develop here or anywhere for that matter.
The property cannot be fixed up for gaming as the state wanted more profit than what the facility needed to keep it running, and they refused to open it up fairly to gaming like other facilities in the state were allowed. It was a shame when Woodlands closed but it is much worse driving by property and seeing the decay it had become. A 1,000 jobs would help our community by bringing in tax money.
However, I do not have confidence on follow through with agreements with UGWYCO. Remember Schlitterbahn? Was supposed to use local people to build and operate. Our Laborers had to strike and still UGWYCO allowed construction to proceed, delivering nothing like what was promised.

I teach high school Culinary Arts at a Title 1 (low income area) school in rural Nevada. I'm also on the spectrum and received my clinical diagnosis at age 55. I am now 59.
Given the growing world pandemic, the state governor shut all schools in my state down effective this past Monday. The school closure is supposed to run through April 6 but since we were scheduled for Spring Break starting April 6, my district was not scheduled to reopen until Tuesday, April 14 at the earliest.
On Monday the principal of my school asked teachers to send reassuring emails to our students. I thought about it. Since I'm on the spectrum, I've never been good at warm and fuzzy behaviors. Instead of sending a, "Buck up and we'll get through this" email, I put together a culinary newsletter.
Since a lot of our parents work as hourly wage earners at local casinos which have been shut down by the governor's order for 30 days, we have a lot of locals out of work. Mindful of this, my newsletter included:

• Information about the local food bank
• Information about two area churches that will help with food need
• Information about county services for assistance with utility and rent
• Job information about Amazon which is hiring in Las Vegas
• Recipes for dried lentils and pinto beans (I included this information because the two least popular products received form the local food bank are dried lentils and pinto beans).

Since I only knew about social services and the local food bank, I reached out to my colleagues via email to ask about church resources. Two teachers responded and I included what they shared with me in the newsletter.
After sending the newsletter to my principal for her review, I was pleasantly surprised when she ask if she could send my newsletter out to the entire school population instead of having me just send this to my culinary students. I was flattered. I was NOT flattered when I got a really harsh email from one of the colleagues who had sent me this information.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" she raged. "You weren't supposed to share that information!"
I was shocked. I had explained in my email to my colleagues that I was looking for information to share with students and parents about local resources available within our community to anyone who had food needs. I had said up front that all such information would be included in my newsletter.
I said as much in a reply.
How was it then possible that this woman was blaming me for getting her in trouble with her pastor?
I spent all of last night stuck in a rut. My mind is racing in circles ... "I said upfront that I was looking for information to share with parents about local resources to help with food needs to share in a parent newsletter ... this colleague responded ... how can she then yell at me for sharing the information that I had said I was going to share?"
I couldn't stop thinking about this. These thoughts literally kept me up through the night.
I finally got a reply at 9 AM.
"No worries," she said.
No worries? NO WORRIES? I STAYED UP ALL NIGHT WORRYING ABOUT THIS AND SHE JUST BLITHELY SAYS, "NO WORRIES."
I am now really annoyed. The only good news is that this mental loop was finally broken.
I do not understand what happened. Since I have a very low tolerance for interpersonal conflict, I feel as though my relationship with this colleague has been damaged because I no longer trust her not to say hurtful things.
Since I am by nature a reclusive introvert, I care less about the damaged relationship and am more concerned with why she reacted the way she did. Sadly, I will most likely never know unless I talk to her ... and that is not going to happen because I already feel as though I've been burned.
Sorry to vent.

Bill Coulthard was a respected attorney in Las Vegas. He had served as the first resident FBI agent to Las Vegas in the 1940's, then as president of the Nevada State Bar and as a legislator in the Nevada Assembly. Further, through marriage he had obtained an interest in several real estate holdings across the city.
On July 25, 1972, Coulthard got into his Cadillac on the third-floor parking garage of the Bank of Nevada Building in downtown Las Vegas. When he turned his key in the ignition, a powerful bomb attached to the vehicle detonated, killing Coulthard instantly.
A key suspect in the bombing was Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino in downtown Vegas. Binion had developed a reputation as a ruthless gangster when he ran the gambling rackets in Dallas before heading west to Nevada. The alleged motive was Coulthard's refusal to renew the lease for the land on which the Horseshoe Casino was situated. After the bombing, the new owners of Coulthard's shares agreed to renew Binion's lease for another 100 years.
Las Vegas police suspected a father-son hitman team associated with Binion had been the ones to plant the bomb at Binion's direction. And while associates of the hitmen later reported they had confessed to the attack, no arrests were ever made for the Coulthard murder.
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https://www.mayheminthedesert.com/coulthard
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https://lasvegassun.com/news/2000/feb/27/new-lead-reopens-car-bomb-mystery/

Everyone wants certainty; few of us have it. Sometimes, however, confusion can be its own form of clarity, which is precisely what we ought to glean from the most recent employment report for the United States.
It is a sign of an odd era when an unemployment rate higher than at any point in the past 80 years is celebrated as good news, but the announcement by the Bureau of Labor Statistics that the official unemployment rate for May was just over 13% confounded expectations that it would be substantially worse. Hopes rose that the U.S. economy might recover more swiftly than feared, as the report indicated that firms hired back more than 2.5 million people as states began to reopen in May, and while 21 million people unemployed is hardly something to celebrate, stock markets celebrated all the same and rose almost 3% on the news.
That is the cup half full part of the story. There is, alas, a cup half empty part as well. The way that government structured emergency benefits stemming from the mass unemployment of the pandemic shutdown created all sorts of confusion not just for businesses and individuals but for the statisticians who measure employment. Many small businesses obtained loans under the Paycheck Protection Plan that were conditional on keeping employees on payroll through the end of June whether or not the business was open and whether those employees will be kept on if businesses can’t maintain demand come summer. Many businesses “furloughed” employees, often maintaining their health insurance but making it possible for people to collect the temporarily generous unemployment benefits authorized by Congress. That category basically didn’t exist in any meaningful way before March, and it threw the measurement of the unemployment rate into confusion.
The BLS acknowledged as much in a footnote that suggested a “miscalculation” based on how to characterize those furloughed workers lowered the actual rate by as much as 3 percent. 16% unemployed would still be better than what many were expecting, but it is, to put it mildly, historically terrible.
Why then are markets and President Trump trumpeting the report as proof that the economic recovery is underway? To some degree, this is a classic case of outperforming low expectations. If your bar is sufficiently low, it is always easier to exceed it. The fact that as many as 40 million people filed for unemployment benefits at some point in the past two months of shutdowns was seen as a harbinger for unemployment levels of 25% or more, and at the nadir of the shutdowns, it was hard to imagine people ever going to work, buying stuff or living semi-normally ever again. Then, the murder of George Floyd, mass protest and fringe rioting in multiple cities plunged the country into a secondary crisis. A less-dire-than-feared employment snapshot felt like a relief, even as bad as it was.
There is additional the fact that life is resuming in many parts of the country. Las Vegas casinos and Florida theme parks are two of the more visible signs, and while crowds aren’t flocking, the fact that they are open is a psychological sign of some emergence from the worst of the pandemic even as the infection rate and deaths remain steady. And bizarre though it is, mass protests of millions of people in hundreds of cities across the country also suggest that the country is moving out of the pandemic fear, which has been a major source of the economic collapse.
Make no mistake: it is both good that for the moment, employment and the economy overall are not as bad as the worst of our fear and bad that things are as bad as they are. The better-than-expected jobs numbers (even with the error) come at a tenuous time: we don’t know how many of those jobs will be lost once the relief programs run out at the end of the month and employers have to face diminished business. Given that many employers continued to pay workers who weren’t working because businesses were shuttered, it is likely (though by no means certain) that July will see a new wave of job losses that were delayed, not prevented.
There is also the problem of how this report will shape the political calculus in Washington about a new round of stimulus. The House Democratic bill proposing an additional $3 trillion in spending was never going to pass a Republican Senate, but momentum has been building in Washington for more direct aid to cash-strapped states that have seen their tax revenue evaporate. All state revenue has suffered greatly from the shutdowns. But already Republicans in the Senate have reacted to the jobs report as a signal that there may be no need more spending. “There is less urgency to go strike a hard deal,” said one prominent GOP representative. Waiting till things get worse again to bolster jobs and the economy, however, will only make it that much harder to dig out then.
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The protests are about race and police brutality, but the undercurrent is also that the pandemic and jobs losses have hit African-American as well as Hispanics much more severely. The unemployment rate in May for African-Americans is several points higher than for whites, given that African-American were over-represented in many of the jobs eliminated in the shut-downs such as food service. Black American are also dying of COVID-19 at roughly three times the rate. Unequal treatment by the police is the proximate cause of the protests; unequal suffering from the shutdowns and the disease is a powerful fuel.
And then there are stocks, giddily rising to the point where they are almost flat for the year. For sure, stocks benefit the wealthy, yet they also support the pension plans of many of those public unions such as teachers and police. But they certainly do little for the millions who work lower-level service jobs who have been bearing the brunt of disease and unemployment in a hard time. There are good reasons for stocks to be recovering, between massive guarantees from the Federal Reserve that the financial system won’t implode even if the economy does and signs that everything from travel to retail may be on a sharper upswing.
It would be far worse for all of us if stocks were plummeting, business completely cratering, and the financial system melting down. But the disjuncture between how some of us are faring versus others of us has sharpened divisions that were already there before COVID, as have our erratic and inefficient safety nets in a time of crisis. The employment report is the perfect chrysalis for our present: it shows that we are more resilient than we feared and that overall economic activity may prove hardier in the face of the pandemic while also exposing that we don’t really know what is going on, who is actually employed and for how long. And the news highlighted that in these most trying of times, we may all be humans susceptible to a disease but the economic and health effects are not shared equally or spread equitably.
How one reads the employment picture now is the ultimate Rorschach test of where you sit in this roiling world. If you can parse its bewildering muddle of good news and bad news, you will find a very clear diagram of just how challenging this moment truly is. Every crisis may be an opportunity, but let’s hope we use this one to change for the better.

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