Lunchtime at the Lion Habitat Ranch has certainly gotten busier!  Seven new cubs are demanding a lot of attention and are more than an armful.  Rock, D.J., Cash, Bugsy, Ted, Pepe and lone sister, Star are now about four months old and growing by 2 to 3 pounds a week!  The new cubs now bring the pride to 47 cats.  And before they get too big to cuddle, owners Keith and Beverly Evans, are offering you a chance to sidle up next to the cubs and take a photo!  What a keepsake.

The Evans have spent their lives raising, training, and caring for big cats.  You may have seen their lions in the famous MGM Grand Lion Exhibit, which is closed.  The cats now spend their retirement days at their peaceful 6 1/2-acre compound in the south valley.  But life is not so quiet with the seven new cubs ruling the roost.  It has definitely livened the place up for Keith and Beverly who want the public to realize that lions are social animals, not killers who deserve to be hunted as trophies.

“Our biggest job from day one was to convince people that there’s a value that these cats have,” says Keith. As long you respond the same way – the cats will respect you and respond the same way back. They’re very social animals.  It’s when you don’t treat them with respect that you get in trouble.  If you try to force them to do something – that’s why the habitat was a big thing – we never made them do circus acts.”

The ranch is open Friday through Monday, and if offering “Trainer for a Day” experiences, birthday parties with the cats peering in on your party, and of course the adorable cub photos.  It’s certainly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for most of us!

If you’re a football fanatic, and an even bigger Super Bowl buff, then you’ll love the idea of wearing or carrying a piece of big game swag!  That’s the idea behind REpurposing NOLA, Piece by Peace. Designer, Traci Claussen, recognized the needless waste in trashing all of those beautifully crafted signs and banners and knew she could make them into unique and collectible treasure for die-hard football fans everywhere.

Eco-Sport bags, aprons, board shorts, even dresses and shower curtains – the ideas came to her as easily as Drew Brees tosses out hooks and slants in a Saints game.  In fact, after the Saints claimed victory in Super Bowl 44, Traci got her chance to churn out her re-purposed designs with the signage from the game and she scored!  Her eco-brilliant products have been so popular, she’s almost out.  But don’t worry Super (Bowl) freaks, Traci is getting the goods from Mercedes-Benz Superdome as I write, and soon REpurposing NOLA will be carrying fan-atical fashions from Super Bowl 47!

Traci gives back by donating a portion of her profits to help rebuild New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and also to the Host Game Committee to help green this year’s big game!  She’s also recently been approached by folks in San Francisco to breathe new life into those colorful sails used to wing those sexy fast sailboats in past America’s Cup competitions!  Another victory for Traci and for the planet!

This year say “so long” to the old-style 75 watt light bulb!  2013 is phase two of the “Energy and Independence Act” passed by Congress in 2007.  Eventually all old incandescent light bulbs will be gone – replaced by more energy-efficient substitutes.  When you visit the lighting aisle at your local home store, like Home Depot, you’ll find lots of Halogen, CFL, and LED options.  Newer technology is cropping up all the time, too.

Last year, 100-watt bulbs disappeared from store shelves. This year  75 watt bulbs taking the hit, and both 60-watt and 40-watt bulbs will be gone by the end of 2014.  The goal is to replace the heat-producing, fast-burning old-fashioned light producers forever.  Just think, our kids’ kids won’t even know they existed.  Kinda sad for Thomas Edison, but he would be happy knowing that we’re working to reverse all that wasted energy we’ve spent over the past 130+ years.

Halogens are about 30% more efficient than incandescents, still producing some heat, but much more versatile.  They burn about twice as long as the traditional bulb.  CFLs – or compact fluorescent lamps – are the funny squiggly bulbs that last about 10 times as long as a traditional bulb and produce light about 75% more efficiently.

But by far, the most efficient substitute of all right now is the LED – or light emitting diode.  80% of its energy is used to produce light.  It’s pretty expensive, costing as much as $35 for a single bulb, but its average life is 50,000 hours!  It could potentially last 20 years in your home without having to be replaced.  The real downside is that by comparison, it doesn’t save a huge amount of energy over the CFL while it’s working, and the compact fluorescents cost much less.  So to invest a lot more money up front for not-that-much savings on your energy bill is a drawback.  Here is a great comparison chart of the bulbs to help you make an informed decision that’s right for you.

Whatever you decide, the choice to remove incandescent bulbs from our lighting options has already been made for us.  Old-style 75 watt bulbs will be on the shelf until they’re sold out.  Then it’s lights out!

You’ll find some of the nation’s most beautiful wild lands right here in Southern Nevada, but you have to get off the road and “hike in” to really appreciate it.  And that’s exactly what Friends of Gold Butte would like to show you this New Year’s Day with their “First Day Hike.”   Thousands of Americans from all 50 states will participate in some sort of First Day Hike from snowshoeing to beach combing, and everything in between!

Here at home, Friends of Gold Butte will guide you through Navajo Sandstone cliffs formed millions of years ago, painted with petroglyphs from past civilizations that also made this area home.  You’ll trek gorgeous trails of flora and fauna that can only be found and seen on foot.  It’s majestic countryside just outside of Mesquite, in northeast Clark County, stretching east all the way to the Grand Canyon.

If you’d like to join up for the First Day Hike or a future hike with the group, hikers will meet up at 9 a.m. in the Walmart parking lot in Mesquite for a 30-minute drive to the starting point.  Bring sturdy boots, layered clothing, a day pack with water and lunch.  Capacity is limited so reservations are required.  Sign up at meetup.com, or on friendsofgoldbutte.org. Happy New Year and Happy Hiking!

What are your favorite flowers and plants this time of year?  Chances are you’ll find them at the Bellagio.  45,000 poinsettias, 104,000 carnations, and thousands of other flora fill the Bellagio Conservatory for the holidays.  It’s a botanical toy land that takes more than a hundred landscapers, engineers, carpenters, painters, and other specialists a full five days of around-the-clock work to bring this vision to life for visitors.

Executive Director of Horticulture, Andy Garcia, says it’s quite a production that takes months and months of planning and precise organization to pull it off in such a small window of time.  All of the plants, flowers, and trees used in the display were chosen and purchased from growers in Utah and California early this year; all grown to thrive in climate-controlled 75-dgree indoor weather.  After the display is finished, conservatory staff will survey the plants every day before dawn to make sure they are at their absolute freshest.

Garcia says the flowers and plants that get replaced are not going to waste. “As soon as we see this is not looking good we replace this one and bring a new one.  But what do I do with this?  About a year and a half ago – we made a decision that we gonna recycle this. So we partnered with A-1 Organics.  They are taking pointsettias, mulching them, then selling them in Las Vegas valley.  And some of our grounds here – we are using that mulch.   So I am very proud of that.”

It’s a lot of pampering, but Garcia is passionate and his babies.  “We have to talk to them everyday.  We gotta say ‘good morning, are you okay?’  We in horticulture are kinda crazy.  We love flowers, trees, we love plants, so it’s important to take care of them because they bring beauty to our place.”  They sure do, and fortunately for us Garcia and his staff know how to bring out the best in them for our holiday pleasure.

The 45-foot tall tree is lit with 10,000 energy-efficient LED lights.  There is a full chocolate village, circled by a choo choo train that travels the track with a camera to give visitors a knee-high view of the display and themselves.  After a private lighting event at 4 p.m. Friday, Nov. 30, the display will be open to the public through Jan. 5th.  If you’d like to peek in on the display from the comfort of your computer, check out the hotel’s live webcam from the ceiling of the conservatory.  You can see the display day or night.  Happy holidays!

Not many people can snuggle with a 500-lb lion, but Keith Evans has spent most of his life doing just that.  He started the Lion Habitat attraction in the 90s at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino.  You may have visited the habitat before it closed in January of this year.  Now he is sharing his “pride and joy” at his private Lion Habitat Ranch, just south of Las Vegas.

Gino, Swifty, Peaches, & Dash – just a very few of the forty-plus beautiful beasts that live and play here, most hand-raised by Keith and his wife, Beverly.  Their close relationship with these ferocious big babies is something special to behold.  And Keith would like to use his semi-retired pampered partners as poster cats for their wild counterparts who are being poached and poisoned in the wilds of Africa.  By letting the public get close to his big cats again, Keith says he hopes they will appreciate them and help donate to keep them alive where they do have to fend for themselves.

If you’d like to get close to the cats of the Lion Habitat, give them a call at 1-888-BIG CATS. (244-2287)  You can arrange a private tour for $200 or a “trainer for a day” experience for $800.  Keith hopes to open the habitat very soon for a general admission price that’s much less expensive.  Also, three new lion cubs were born over the weekend and they will eventually be up for viewing when their immune systems are strong enough to be exposed to curious humans like us!  And they need bonding time with their people parents.  Sweet.

If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to cash in on the using the sun to power your home – the time is now!  The window to apply for a solar rebate through NV Energy is now open and will last for about two weeks only!  It’s best to get educated on the value of solar and get several estimates from qualified contractors before you invest.

John Hargrove, the Solar Generations program manager for NV Energy says do your homework because it can be complicated, but it can also pay off for both you and the environment. “One of the easy ways to think about this is that you’re paying your electric bill for the next 25 years all up front. You’re doing the right thing in  terms of the environment. It’s cool to make electricity out of the sun.  Whether there’s politics in it or not – it’s cool technology.”

NV Energy will help guide you through the process of applying for the rebate. Make sure the decision is right for you because it can be a hefty investment, but one that will be paying you back for years to come. The window for applications runs October 26 through November 9, 2012.  Good luck and “power to the sun!”

The famous actor, Leonardo DiCaprio is an environmental activist so it’s only fitting that his wax figure was fashioned the planet-friendly way for Madame Tussauds, Las Vegas.  Natural clay and organic pigment were used in the beeswax to make his strikingly real face and form.  In fact, he’s so natural looking, you’ll say “Great Gatsby! Is that wax or the real Leo?”

From inception, planned green methods included artists working strictly by hand – avoiding machinery – and under daylight to save electricity.  Also, artists either bicycled or used public transportation to get to and from work in London while working on him.  And finally, all leftover materials were recycled at the end of the four-month process.  Eco-friendly Leo stayed on time and on budget.  Just about all figures cost around $300,000 to craft.

The other fake famous faces who party with Leo in the room called, “Club Tussauds” are just a little green with envy.  Eva Longoria, Bradley Cooper, Britney Spears, and Will Smith share the big lounge under the disco lights, but Leo is the first to greet visitors as they walk in and they seem genuinely intrigued by his eco-friendliness!

Catch Leo if you can the last weekend of October for the museum’s After Dark Halloween spooktacular event.  The place comes alive with spirits – both wax and real.  It starts at 9 p.m. each night after the museum closes and some say the place is truly haunted!  If you’re able to make it out alive… your heart can go on and on and you can go back to see Leo again and again!  You may never let go.

As a tourist town, Las Vegas goes through tons and tons of liquor and beer bottles.  And that glut of glass often ends up in the landfill.  But a creative new company is taking those trash-bound empties and turning them into fun, trendy products that drinkers are buying right back!

Bottles&Wood takes in hundreds of empty booze bottles a day and refashions them into glasses, vases, light fixtures, even jewelry.  The bottles are supplied by bars, restaurants, and some hotel-casinos in town, then often bought back and displayed in their trendy establishments to show their eco-allegiance. Bar+Bistro in the Arts District is a faithful supplier and customer.

Co-founders, Steve Cherry and Tricia Ossa say it’s a perfect green business model; taking trash that would otherwise be completely wasted in the landfill, hiring local people to make a useful product, then selling back to the community.  As they say, “It’s good for the neighborhood.” They also take wooden pallets and wood wine barrels from Napa Valley and turn those into cutting boards, candle holders, spice racks, and chip trays.  They’re attractive, useful, and eco-smart!

The secret to success for this brand new boutique business is brand allegiance!  Everyone has their favorite beer or liquor!  Grey Goose by far seems to be the best seller.  But Traci and Steve are always on the hunt for new, interesting names and bottles.  They also do custom work for establishments and individuals who want unique pieces and often larger pieces like lighting fixtures.

And just for 8 News NOW viewers, Bottles&Wood is offering a 15% discount with the code “8NEWSNOW15.”  That’s good for the neighborhood, the planet, AND your wallet!

With kids back in school, parents are making the mad dash to the store for school supplies.  But do they make the grade for being environmentally friendly and safe for your kids?  Toxins are used to make plastic binders, notebooks, backpacks and so much more.  And just imagine the tons of wasted paper used for all those book reports and billions of post-lunch baggies and juice pouches tossed into the landfill each year!  Well, there are some cool eco-smart supplies and products out there that are less expensive, more creative, and even cool enough to catch your kids’ eye this year.

Do you have a glue-eater in the house?  Stubby Pencil Studio carries some wonderful school and art supplies, especially for the little tykes. Green Glue is plant-based and completely non-toxic.  It really IS safe enough to eat, but they don’t think you should.  Soy crayons by Prang are affordable, non-petroleum based, made from a completely renewable source, and so bright and colorful.  Eco Highlighters use no inks or plastics, no VOCs, and made with recycled wood – as are many of their other pencils.  There’s even the cutest darn pencil sharper made from recycled cardboard, beechwood and a replaceable steel blade with monkeys, penguins and such on the canister.  Check out their recycled paper stationery, too!  Good stuff!

The Ultimate Green Store carries an amazing variety of products and some of the coolest back-to-school products with a really good sale right now!  Backpacks, made from recycled P-E-T plastic (what water bottles are made of), cute animal lunch bags made from 100% natural cotton canvas, and Bento lunch boxes which cut out useless waste of foil, baggies and other wrapping. The containers are toxic-free and no chemicals to leach into your kids’ yummy lunch foods.

Little ones will love the EcoZoo lunch sack made of natural cotton canvas, non-toxic ink and PVC free.  Pick a monkey or a cow to keep foods just the right temp.
Maybe the neatest thing that’s sure to be a kid-pleaaser is the upcycled juice pouch pencil zipper case by Terracycle. Wow- that’s a mouthful.  But seriously, kids toss billions of those slurpy-good juice pouches into the landfill each year and this company collects them and turns them into useful supplies the kids can carry and use again and again.  (The adults in the TV studio tried to steal this from me while I was showing it today! That’s how cool it is!) There’s tons of other good stuff at Ultimate, too, AND you can get a bonus 10% discount on your first order with coupon code: GREENLIVING.
And Moms, Dads, AND kids will love LunchSkins!  These adorable and functional little velco-close pouches work hard to save some of the 20-million baggies that are thrown away each year.  While disposable plastic bagies may have been a great idea 50 years ago, it’s a huge problem in our landfills today.  So three smart, eco-conscious Moms decided to invent Lunchskins!  A variety of sizes can hold tiny snacks. sandwiches, or a “bunch of anything” for bigger appetites.  They’re food-safe, cute as can be, and pop right into the dishwasher for clean-up to use next time!  They save money and the environment, and you’ll be the envy of the office when you borrow them from your kiddo’s lunch box.