For a guy whose life is devoted to puppets, it makes sense that their presence is always felt. On one shelf sits a gorgeously crafted Gonzo doll. From another wall, a framed portrait of Ellen DeGeneres’ American Express ad—the one featuring her dressed in vaudeville clothes with a dummy on her knee—keeps an eye on the room.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. Many Americans know that “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.“ That’s because the nation’s largest gambling market spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year to promote itself. But Atlantic City, the nation’s second-largest gambling market, has no such luck. It has a racy slogan—“Always Turned On”—but not the money to spread it far and wide.

O.J. Simpson and a former golfing buddy are hoping their lawyers can convince a Nevada Supreme Court panel to release them from prison while the high court reviews their convictions in a gunpoint hotel room heist.

LAS VEGAS—Bob Knight, the winningest men’s basketball coach in Division I history, and former CBS sportscaster Billy Packer plan to analyze the NCAA men’s basketball tournament in a series of one-hour television programs taped at a sports book on the Las Vegas Strip. Packer told reporters that the show will not mention gambling even though it is to be filmed at the race and sports book at the Wynn Las Vegas.

Las Vegas and Disneyland, two of the most popular travel destinations in the western United States, are in many respects as different as virtue and vice. But so similar are they in other respects that Las Vegas is often described as a “Disneyland for adults.“