Tribe, county partner for high vaccine rate
MAHNOMEN, Minn. — The only Minnesota county entirely within the borders of a Native American reservation has been vaccinating for COVID-19 at rates that far surpass those of most other counties in the state, authorities said.
Mahnomen County is in the northwestern part of the state, about an hour’s drive from Fargo, North Dakota. As of this past week, 85 percent of people 65 and older in the county have been vaccinated.
Public health leaders at the White Earth Nation and Mahnomen County credit that high vaccination rate to close collaboration between the tribe and the county to efficiently get those doses to residents, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.
The White Earth Reservation is a patchwork of tribal and private land — and the people who live there are a nearly equal mix of Native Americans and non-native people. Because White Earth is a sovereign nation, it has the authority to set its own parameters for who is eligible to be vaccinated.
The tribe decided that everyone in the county should qualify. As a result. anyone who is over the age of 18 and lives within the White Earth Reservation’s boundaries — including all of Mahnomen County — is eligible to be vaccinated through the tribe’s public health department.
Shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine are reaching the county through several channels. The state is delivering vaccine to tribal and county public health departments, as well as clinics operated by the Sanford and Essentia Health systems. The federal government is allocating vaccine to the Indian Health Service clinic at White Earth and local Thrifty White pharmacies through its retail pharmacy program.
Minnesota health officials on Sunday reported 891 new COVID-19 cases and nine new deaths.
“ABSINTHE” is back, doing what it does best, which is perform raunchy comedy and expert acrobatics and leave it to a fictional rich guy to do the talking.
“It’s time to make some green!” the show’s Gazillionaire is quoted as saying in a release announcing the show’s return on St. Patrick’s Day. That marks one year, nearly to the day, after entertainment was shut down on the Strip, and a little more than a year since “Absinthe” played to a full-capacity crowd at the Spiegeltent at Caesars Palace.
The show will be back in time for its 10th anniversary on April 1, with shows at 7 and 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. As part of its return, the show is offering $1,000 tables in the Impresario’s Reserve section for parties of two, with a bottle of Dom Pérignon thrown in.
“Where else can you get free Dom on the Strip?” Gaz says, apparently not accounting for the $1,000 table fee.
No matter. The show, which already features a character in green (the Green Fairy), is back at $149, on sale at Spiegelworld.com. The show is still playing to a largely open floor for about 150 fans. The 25-foot expanse between the crowd and audience has prevented Spiegelworld’s other shows, “Opium” at the Cosmopolitan and “Atomic Saloon Show” at The Venetian’s Grand Canal Shoppes, from returning during the pandemic. Their venues are simply not suited for that distance.
But “Absinthe” remains the company’s leading production, and also an industry pacesetter on the Strip. The show had performed to sellouts during its original restart in October, before shutting down soon after public gatherings were dropped to 50 people.
“We just need to get our people back to work,” Spiegelworld founder Ross Mollison said this weekend. “We have proven we can do it safely and successfully. I want people to know there is no safer place to enjoy entertainment than our Spiegeltent.” Mollison has promoted the use of the “Covid-killer fog juice” Grignard Pure, which has been advertised to wipe out the virus within 10 seconds.
“If it is available in the state of Nevada by the time our show opens, we’ll use it,” Mollison said of the substance that creates theatrical haze for production shows. “It is a game-changer.”
Clint Holmes takes a new look, new path
Clint Holmes is embracing his roots, hair-wise, career-wise and otherwise. The Las Vegas headliner, with his new silver-topped look, is celebrating Black History Month with the return of The Composers Showcase of Las
Vegas and his own return to the stage.
“I think it’s embracing who Iam,andwhatiwanttodo right now,” the 74-year-old Holmes said Sunday afternoon, referring his distinguished, natural hair color. “I’m not someone past his prime. I’m exploring new things. Sophisticated is how I feel right now, and the look is a part of that.”
Holmes has gone strikingly gray during the pandemic shutdown. It suits him well, as one of the entertainment community’s elder statesmen. A headliner in town for more than 20 years, Holmes has been moving assuredly back to live performance over the past few weeks. Up next is his co-hosting gig at Monday’s TCS show at Notoriety at Neonopolis with founder Keith Thompson. Show time is 7:30 p.m.
Titled “Lift Up Your Voice,” the showcase spotlights several popular Vegas singers and musicians. Those set to appear include Kiara Brown, Toscha Comeaux, Kaylie Foster, Serena Henry, Michelle Johnson, Richard Oberacker, Jolana Sampson, Tymara Walker and Eric Jordan Young.
The show marks the first live audience for TCS since
COVID shut down The Smith Center. It’s also the first time in nine years the show will perform outside Myron’s Cabaret Jazz, where it has been staged since the room opened in the spring of 2012. If it works out, TCS can play a similar monthly schedule as it has since opening at the now-closed Suede Restaurant in May 2006.
The show then wound around the city, to the Liberace Museum, Creators Studio, Garfield’s Restaurant in Summerlin, and finally to The Smith Center in March 2012. During the pandemic pause, Thompson has maintained the performances with video highlight compilations of past showcases.
With The Smith Center closed until further notice, the event is seating a reduced Covid-compliant audience at Notoriety’s Robin Leach Theater. It is also being streamed on the showtix4u. com ticketing platform.
Further out at Notoriety, Holmes launches a new endeavor, “The Regeneration Series,” at 3 p.m. March 6. Holmes will appear with smooth-jazz keyboard great Tom Schuman of Spyro Gyra, and plans to showcase Vegas singers and musicians in a monthly series.
“I’m really excited about working with Tom, who is a really talented musician,” Holmes said. “Right now I feel like someone who is adventuring into new territory.”
The Review-journal is owned by the family of Sheldon Adelson, the late CEO and chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corp.