MEET THE STAFF

"Vegas Inside Tips is always a treat. Great recommendations and really useful inside tips, plus entertaining articles by seasoned writers, it's part of my weekly ritual." - Maxine Sharp, President, Sharp Travel

contains the coolest, most exclusive information and articles, news, celebrity interviews, backstage chats and little-known INSIDE TIPS, presented by people in the know. And you can’t find this valuable info anywhere else.

Our people are the key. The reason we can offer such great content every time you stop by for a read. We have great people who we hope you will get to know on a regular basis.

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OUR TEAM

Entertainment Writer - Bobbie Katz

Our team is made up of people who actually live here in Las Vegas, many of them for decades, so we have developed a solid base of information to draw from. Our show business connections are deep, beginning with veteran journalist and entertainment writer, Bobbie Katz, who has strong personal connections to scores of celebrities from the worlds of television, stage and screen. Her insights and unprecedented access to the entertainment world provides us with in-depth stories and interviews that can only be found here. HER CURRENT COLUMN

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Editor and Web Host - Steve Dacri

In addition, our Editor and “web host”, Steve Dacri, has been a professional entertainer for over 35 years, and his experience on stage and television assures that he is another true “Insider” who brings his observations and friendships into play each week as we assemble our collection of “Inside Tips” and Best Bets for Las Vegas visitors and residents alike.

STEVE'S LATEST COLUMN

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Rounding out the staff is a group of seasoned writers who have been covering the Vegas scene for years. They share the goal of Vegas Inside Tips - to make your visits to our web site enjoyable and informative.

FRANK H. LIEBERMAN
Columnist at Large

Frank is an industry veteran who began his illustrious career in Los Angeles, and we are happy he decided to come to Vegas so many years ago to handle some of the biggest entertainment stories and work for many industry giants, such as Siegfried & Roy for many years. He is widely respected within and outside the entertainment press. His columns for us, "Vegas Scene" and "Let's Be Frank" are always fun to read and full of little-known "inside" facts and insights. As we like to say, Frank has more scoops than an ice cream parlour.

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NORM JOHNSON
off-road racer, publicist, sculptor, and journalist.

Norm studied journalism at San Diego Junior College with aspirations of becoming a reporter. And now, years later, he has made his living as a journalist. His columns on Las Vegas entertainment, Las Vegas racing events and Las Vegas' famous personalities gives readers a special insight into the "Entertainment Capitol of the World".

Norm's writing talents are well known. While working for the Copley News Service, Norm was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Watts riots in Los Angeles.

In 1965, he moved to Las Vegas and worked at the Las Vegas Sun as a sports writer before becoming a featured Las Vegas entertainment columnist. Most recently he was honored with the coveted "Meatball Award" for his journalistic career in Las Vegas, presented by the men and ladies who made Las Vegas famous...entertainers.

Besides writing tourism related columns, Norm's second love is auto racing. He has raced off-road for 14 years, winning many awards. He founded the famous, albeit extinct, Mint 400 Off-Road Race. Norm initiated the race while working in public relations for Del Webb's Mint Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. The race grew in popularity for over 20 years. It was the Mint 400 that inspired Hunter S. Thompson to Las Vegas and helped give birth to one of Thompson's most famous books, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Norm served as a consultant on the 1998 movie version of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" while it was being filmed Southern Nevada.

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BARBARA J. NOSEK, Celebrity Chef Connection

Barbara has been a food writer in Las Vegas since 1991, with ongoing feature articles in such publications as Las Vegas Life, Las Vegas Style, The Las Vegan, Las Vegas Magazine, Nevada Woman, Nevada Hospitality, Best Read Guide, Where, Monorail Magazine, and the in-house glossies for MGM Mirage and Caesars Palace. Her credentials also include such out-of-market, regional and national publications as Desert Living Magazine in Phoenix, Culture & Leisure Magazine in the southeastern United States, Travel Weekly and Luxury Living. Her previous online columns were DineLine and PlayBill and her current online newsletter is Live in Fabulous Las Vegas.

 For a couple of years in the early 2000s, Barbara also co-hosted an entertainment (magic) segment featuring news and chat on a nationally syndicated radio show. These roles produced interviews and conversations with such marquee chefs as Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck, Michael Mina, Guy Savoy, Rick Moonen, Luciano Pelligrini, Norm Van Aken, Bobby Flay, Emeril Lagasse, Hubert Keller, Joe and Megan Romano, Charlie Palmer, Jean-Philippe Maury, Thomas Keller, Joseph Keller, and others of equal talent but less renown.

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DEBBIE HALL, of Celebrity Chef Connection

Debbie Hall has been a broadcaster and writer in Las Vegas since the mid 80s and a resident of Las Vegas since 1978. She has produced and hosted a number of radio interview programs featuring food, lifestyles and trends. She has also written a number of feature articles in such publications as Las Vegas Life, Las Vegas Style, Nevada Woman, What’s On and Las Vegas Food and Beverage as well as regional publications.  She has over 20 years in the broadcasting industry including radio and television and has worked in Internet radio for the past four years.

 Debbie has also interviewed a number of chefs and other individuals in the food and beverage industry such as Emeril Lagasse, Wolfgang Puck and Gustav Mauler, to name a few. Debbie also teaches marketing at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is part of the Public Relations Certification Program. Her newest program, Celebrity Chef Connection, can be heard on the internet on www.celebritychefconnection.com with new shows posted every Wednesday at 5 pm.

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RODNEY THE FOOD CRITIC

Rondney set out to be a gourmet chef with his own chain of successful restaurants, he began his illustrious career at Dan Tana's in Hollywood, where he parked cars for the rich and famous who came to eat at this legendary hot spot eateries. He continued his development of an appreciation for fine dining as the assistant manager of a Burger King in Peoria for a while. Finally, when he had accumulated enough cash, Rodney set out to further his education to become a chef, heading for Italy and France where he was promptly thrown out of every culinary institute after only a few days. Rodney refuses to discuss this period that he refers to as his "lost weekend".

Eventually, Rodney gave up his dream of owning his own restaurant, but felt that he knew enough about food and eating that he would make an excellent food critic. His first job was with the Miami Weekly, where his reviews caused frequent criticism, occasional death threats, and controversy. This made Rodney a very popular figure on the scene in Miami. After 10 years, during which time he won many awards, like the "Food Critics Choice for Most Hated Food Critic of the Year" and the "President's Award for Best Review of a Kentucky Diner called, 'Road kill Pot Roast - Better than it Sounds'", Rodney decided he had enough of South Florida, and relocated to Vegas last year, and he has spent most of that time seeking out the valley's best restaurants, many of them undiscovered. He recently joined our staff as our official Food Critic. We look forward to reading his every word.

His latest review

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FLETCH THE GOSSIP MONGER

HIS LATEST COLUMN

Fletch is a strange cat. We know what his real name is, but we had to agree to never reveal it to the public. Seems that many of his "confidential sources" have threatened his life, so he must simply pass on the knowledge that he comes across and ask very few questions, so that nobody gets hurt.

This of course means that we can't tell you much about him, but here's what we know for sure.

Fletch is not his real name. He eats only food that was once alive. Sleeps less than 4 hours a night, sends us his column via fax, from a machine in Montana. Every few days, at exactly 3 AM, this fax machine spits out a slew of fact- checked rumors. We have no idea who does the fact checking, and we don't even know if the facts check out to be true or false facts. Some we can never post for fear of consequences that would not be healthy.

He lives here in Las Vegas, says he grew up in Hawaii where his father was stationed in the Navy. His mother was a tiki dancer in the Don Ho Show, where young Fletch hung out and eventually met many of the world's biggest stars of the stage and screen, political figures, kings and queens and celebrity athletes, all of whom came to see Don Ho.

He kept diaries of those heady times when he saw and heard the sometimes unbelievable goings-on of the rich and famous. Those became best-selling books, and led to his career as a man about town celebrity reporter. He wrote a gossip column in college at the University of Hawaii, and after graduating (just barely, we hear), he moved to Las Vegas working as a free-lance journalist for a business magazine, and also began writing online gossip columns which have become extremely popular, and now people all around the world know the name "Fletch" as one of the coolest guys in the gossip column world.

We are proud to have him on the staff. Whoever he may really be.

His latest sweat-inducing tidbits of titillation

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DR. ROBERT F. SHAUGHNESSY, CRITIC AT LARGE

A self-made man, that's how Dr. Shaughnessy likes to refer to himself.

Despite the fact that his father was a multi-millionaire from all of his family real estate holdings, and when he died he left it all entirely to his only son, Robert Shaughnessy, who never has had to work a day in his life, still believes his success has come from hard work, solid dedication, long hours, and a legal team that knows how to read wills.

He attended ivy league prep schools and Boston College where he boasted, "I never met a professor I couldn't buy an "A" from". After graduation, he succeeded in burning through $12 million in less than 3 years.

Beginning with the Shoreline Manufacturing Corporation when he was 18 years old, young Shaughnessy started, financed and promptly turned it into bankruptcy, followed by another 27 unique and diverse businesses, from recycling light bulbs (converting them into glitter for weddings) to LunarSleep, a company that sold funeral plots on the moon. In every case, each and every one of those business were complete financial disasters.

Fortunately, his family real estate empire was securely running smoothly thanks to a team of advisors who have been operating things for a very long time, and these real estate holdings generate a cool $25 million or so every year without any interference or participation of the good doctor. He spend most of his time looking for interesting business ventures to invest in, writing novels (15 finished, none published yet) and leading the good life.

He travels the world, always stays in the finest accommodations and ultra-exclusive resorts, in the most exotic places, spends lavishly on his clothing fetish and his friends, and beginning next month, Robert Shaughnessy will provide us with his worldly views of the sights and sounds of Las Vegas as he meanders around, visits dining and dancing joints, takes in a few shows and discovers the joys of all things Vegas. And beyond.

We can never be sure what he will write about, sometimes he will review a place or a show, and sometimes he will just give us a Shanughnessy-eye view of some event he visited, someone he met or whatever he feels like writing about. I can assure you it will always be a fun read. Welcome aboard Dr. Shaughnessy.

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Webmaster - Karen

Karen has been our dedicated web master since our humble beginnings in 2000, and we will never let her leave. Kind of like that Eagle's song, "Hotel California".

"You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave."

TECHNICAL STAFF - COMPUTER PROGRAMMERS

Moe, Larry and Curly (clockwise from left) head up the tech stuff around here. They may have strange grooming habits, but they're fast, efficient and only eat banana's during the day. They have been known to be heavy drinkers on occasion, and have to be kept away from telephones, as they love to make prank phone calls that have been known to empty entire hotels or shopping malls.

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