Viva Las Vegas

I visited Las Vegas last week to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting. I stayed at the Paris Casino and Hotel. To say this was a great visit was an understatement. Mayor Oscar Goodman of Las Vegas is a great host. It seemed like everyone in Vegas was at our meeting. I got to meet Lance Burton, the magician. His producer was sitting at my table and he brought him over to introduce him to us. We also heard from Wayne Newton. The dinner was one of the most lavish that I have ever attended.

I saw former West Virginia Governor Bob Wise at the meeting and he joined me for lunch. He is now the president of an educational group working for at risk youth. He seemed to be doing well.

The U.S. Conference has the Who's Who of American mayors in attendance. The new mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villargosa, Ray Nagin of New Orleans, Bob O'Conner of Pittsburgh, John Hickenlooper of Denver and dozens of others.

I was on the program with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta. A video of my presentation is at http://usmayors.org/74thAnnualMeeting/video/videolink.asp?video=Sun_Plenary/Sun_Plenary_02_Hunt

I also attended a session on Vacant and Dilapidated Buildings. I got a lot of good information and saw some great presentations from several cities around the country. I spoke to the meeting and told them a little about the Demolition Program that I run in West Virginia. http://usmayors.org/74thAnnualMeeting/video/videolink_vacant.asp?video=Sun_VacantLots/Sun_Vacant_05_Hunt

Wrapping up the conference was a visit to the new Circqe Du Soliel presentation. It featured the Beatles music and was one of the finest shows that I have ever seen. I still can't believe how great it was.