By the numbers: Expectations, challenges for Las Vegas’ WNBA team
 
By the numbers: Expectations, challenges for Las Vegas’ WNBA team

The newly relocated Las Vegas WNBA franchise will begin play in the 2018 season. New owners MGM Resorts will integrate a professional franchise into Las Vegas’ busy sports landscape that’s shared with the 51s, Lights FC, Golden Knights and Raiders. Here are some of the expectations and challenges the team will have. 1. Ticket prices: The key to any sports franchise is selling season tickets and group outings. For Las Vegas’ team, that starts with locals. “(You don’t) just open the doors and tell everybody you’ve got a game and stand there waiting to sell tickets,” 51s president Don Logan said. “You’ve got to get out, you’ve got to get out into the community and you’ve got to do everything we do. There’s no easy way.” Last year, San Antonio charged $12 to $165 for single-game tickets for 17 home games. 2. Creating an identity: Coach Bill Laimbeer inherits a team from San Antonio that hasn’t made the playoffs or had a winning season since 2012. Las Vegas’ team is also a franchise that lost its first 14 games last season before finishing a league-worst 8-26. 3. Patience will be required: Will they have to fill all 12,000 seats at Mandalay Bay for the season to be deemed successful? “They have to be realistic,” Connecticut Sun CEO Mitchell Etess said. “If they could get 5,000 bodies into every single game, that would be pretty good for the first year.”

Nevada Supreme Court decision to affect litigation against Mandalay Bay
 
Nevada Supreme Court decision to affect litigation against Mandalay Bay

Craig Drummond, an attorney at Drummond Law Firm in Las Vegas, discusses the Nevada Supreme Court decision on Humphries v. New York-New York Hotel & Casino and the impact it will have on litigation against Mandalay Bay on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017. (Joel Angel Juarez/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @jajuarezphoto

MGM paying for Campos hotel stay; lawyers question influence over key shooting witness
 
MGM paying for Campos hotel stay; lawyers question influence over key shooting witness

Mandalay Bay security officer Jesus Campos has been staying at an MGM Resorts International property at the company’s expense following the deadly Oct. 1 mass shooting. As a result, some veteran trial lawyers are questioning the company’s gesture and potential influence over Campos, a key witness in the criminal investigation and civil litigation against MGM Resorts. Campos accepted the paid hotel stay for his own protection after he was identified Oct. 4 as the officer shot by the gunman the night of the massacre outside Mandalay Bay. Another veteran trial lawyer, Robert Eglet, said the company’s decision to shelter Campos from the public could backfire.

Sheriff Lombardo says he stands by new timeline of Las Vegas shooting
 
Sheriff Lombardo says he stands by new timeline of Las Vegas shooting

At a news conference, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said MGM Resorts International had the correct timeline of events surrounding the Oct. 1 Strip attack. The sheriff said Monday that Stephen Paddock shot Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos at 9:59 p.m., about six minutes before the gunman turned his weapons on the Route 91 Harvest festival crowd. He previously reported Campos was shot after the attack on the concert crowd. Twice this week, MGM Resorts disputed Lombardo’s revised timeline. Before ending the news conference without taking questions from reporters, the agitated sheriff addressed criticism of his team’s investigation surfacing online. “In the public space, the word ‘incompetence’ has been brought forward,” he said. “And I am absolutely offended with that characterization.”

Sheriff Lombardo says there is no conspiracy with shooting timeline
 
Sheriff Lombardo says there is no conspiracy with shooting timeline

At a news briefing on Oct. 13 in Las Vegas, Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo said there is no conspiracy with any parties involved where the timeline of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting is concerned.

Real Estate Millions
 
Real Estate Millions

MGM Resorts International executive Bobby Baldwin has placed his golf-course home in Southern Highlands on the market for $6.25 million. The 12,000-square-foot home sits on 1.26 acres and has its own adjacent park.

Las Vegas Morning Update For Thursday, July 13th
 
Las Vegas Morning Update For Thursday, July 13th

1. A boy is dead after suffering a gunshot wound to the head Wednesday afternoon. Police say the wound was self-inflicted, but it’s unclear if the gunshot was accidental or intentional. Before the gunshot, the boy and two others were suspected of burglary, and ran off to evade police. During a standoff with police, officers heard one round discharge, and a barricade response began. Four hours later officers entered the home and discovered the boy, who was transported to Sunrise Hospital where he died.

2. The woman killed in the murder-suicide on Monday was leaving the man who shot her and their infant son, according to her mother. Metro said the department received a call in December of 2016 over a custody issue, but there were no complaints of violence. A family law attorney said John Henry Lunetta never lost his temper or had a history of domestic abuse before killing Karen Michelle Jackson and John Jr.

3. MGM Resorts International executive, Bobby Baldwin, is expected to make a full recovery after falling down two flights of stairs at the Aria on Saturday. The professional poker player broke multiple bones, and suffered a severe head injury. An MGM spokesman said Baldwin will be back at work soon.