Local Las Vegas

Las Vegas police officer Melissa Lardomita and activist Michael Flores paint the “homework room” at a new resource center for kids in the Sherman Gardens Annex public housing complex. Flores wants to give kids an alternative to gangs and drugs at the apartment complex known for being home to the Playboy Bloods, a violent street gang.

TOYS R US, North Las Vegas — Laugh at them if you want. It’s pretty easy. They are huddled outside this place like caribou, fending off a cold so awful that it must have come from some place evil. Later, when they get inside, their fingers will tingle with the burn of 75 degrees.