Despite tough times, angels ready for action this holiday season

Tough times may make tough people, but they can also bring out the best in people.

We start On the Boulevard with examples of good people in action.

ANGEL TREE: Each year the CASA Foundation's Angel Tree program collects gifts for more than 1,200 needy children, and I'm told the toy drive is rolling along despite the tough economy. What the angels need this year are gift cards, which are popular with the hundreds of older kids who find themselves under the care of Child Haven, the local foster care system, and the stand-up folks with the Court Appointed Special Advocates.

The need is great. More than 600 older children, many of them abused and neglected, are currently in the system through no fault of their own. Reach the CASA Foundation at 4045 S. Buffalo Drive, Suite A101-160, or donate online at casafoundationlv.org.

CHILD FOCUS: As if they didn't have enough trouble in their lives, siblings placed in foster care often are separated out of necessity. As you might imagine, isolation from brothers and sisters is one of the bigger challenges foster kids face.

The nonprofit agency Child Focus is trying to do something about that by sponsoring a family reunion of sorts for more than 130 siblings separated in the foster care system. It happens Saturday at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve, which will be temporarily transformed into what's being described as an "on-site Walmart store" so the kids can enjoy a shopping spree. The Walmart Foundation is again making a generous donation to a local charity, this time in the form of $120,000.

Wolfgang Puck's gang is catering, and NV Energy, The Green Valley Rotary Club, and Children's Service Guild volunteers are filling in as elves.

'MAC LAW:' Terry Coffing has been the managing partner at Marquis & Aurbach for what seems like many decades. His law partners Al Marquis and Phil Aurbach are just getting around to putting Coffing's name on the building. Who knows, maybe they ran out of holiday gift ideas.

I suppose Coffing could have sued them over the lengthy delay, but that would have been considered poor form. So, from now on it's Marquis Aurbach Coffing.

Does that make it MAC Law for short?

TEQUILA PARTY: If the Tea Party didn't give you a political buzz in the recent election cycle, maybe the Tequila Party will do the trick.

The Tequila Party is the 80-proof concoction of Republican political activists George Harris and Irma Aguirre as a playful protest about the treatment Latinos are receiving from the major political parties. Although there's room for substantive debate on this issue -- not only regarding Latino political respect, but the suspicious creation of Scott Ashjian's Tea Party of Nevada -- I'm not sure you'll get a lot of it from the Tequila Party.

Harris and Aguirre operate the popular Mundo restaurant in the World Market Center. They also own the Alien Tequila brand.

Obviously, this is a political stunt.

But as disenchanted as some Nevada voters are with their own political brand, who can blame voters for wanting a shot of cactus juice before entering the polling place?

EL SID: Sid Brodkin could teach a busload of PR agents a thing or two about promotional energy. He's hyping his first book, "Boro Park, Vegas and All the In-Betweens," and will autograph copies at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Summerlin Costco store.

One other thing. Brodkin is 85.

He tells me he's ready to start his next book project, but the last one took him 11 years. I say go for it.

With his energy, he'll probably write a trilogy.

ON THE BOULEVARD: Remember Black Book member Michael Joseph Balsamo? Wanted in numerous cheating investigations, the word is Balsamo has robbed his last slot machine.

Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? E-mail comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.