? The Atomic Testing Museum celebrates its grand opening with free admission this Sunday, February 20th. The museum explores the role the Nevada Test Site played in local, national, and international history. General admission is $10, with discounts for seniors, students, and military personnel. The museum is located at 755 E Flamingo Rd (at Swenson, near UNLV campus) and hours are 9am to 5pm Monday through Saturday and 1 to 5pm on Sunday.

? The Las Vegas City Council on Wednesday first unanimously negated its September vote that yanked the liquor license from the strip club Treasures, then voted 3-2 to give the club a permanent license to serve alcohol. The club reopened Wednesday night, and it was business as usual for employees who had waited months to come back.

? MGM Mirage's $7.9 billion buyout of the Mandalay Resort Group was cleared by the Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday, paving the way for Nevada's gaming regulators to consider the matter next week during two special meetings in Las Vegas. Completing the transaction by the end of March would create the world's largest casino company, with 28 properties in Nevada, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan and Mississippi; 70,000 employees; and $6.5 billion in annual revenues. In letters to attorneys for both companies, the FTC said it found no reason to halt the merger because of any concerns that the proposed merger would give the new company too much market clout in Las Vegas or any other jurisdictions.

? The Las Vegas Monorail averaged a paltry 22,313 riders each day last month, falling well short of a projected daily ridership of 29,000 passengers for January. But monorail officials believe the system will gain ridership momentum as the glitch-plagued line demonstrates its reliability in the coming months. "We want to get two or three months behind us of consistent operation of the system. Then we'll begin a big push to significantly increase our ridership," Todd Walker, a spokesman for the monorail, said Wednesday. The monorail eventually needs more than 40,000 daily riders for the system to break even on its $650 million construction cost and annual operating costs of more than $14 million per year.

? Daily parking fees at McCarran's long-term parking garage will increase from $10 to $12 per day and reduce daily fees at the remote parking lot from $8 to $6 beginning March 29. "Our whole goal here is not to raise revenue. Our goal is to drive behavior," said County Aviation Director Randall Walker, who will early next year re-examine Tuesday's changes to ensure they've balanced parking demand and offset the cost of providing parking at one of the nation's busiest airports. Daily rates could raise long-term garage and remote lot fees to $20 and $10, respectively, if the problem continues.

Bettie