By PHOEBE SWEET, Las Vegas Sun

LAS VEGAS -- A proposed bar is trucking ice from Canada and shipping spring water from New Zealand to create a drinking establishment made entirely with frozen aqua -- the bar, the seats, even a wedding chapel -- and kept so cold that patrons must don parkas and mittens to go inside.It's under construction at Mandalay Bay.

How do solar power plant developments affect public lands?That's what the federal government is hoping to find out, as it opens a sweeping study.

LAS VEGAS -- Federal scientists and Western water managers will call Congress' attention Friday to the potentially devastating effects of climate change on the Colorado River, warning that an expected warming trend would reduce the amount of water in the river.

LAS VEGAS -- To most tourists, southern Nevada's wild burros are long-eared cuties that eat Cheetos from the palms of their hands.But wildlife biologists warn that the fuzzy equines can be problematic if not downright dangerous.

LAS VEGAS -- The Las Vegas buckwheat seems like a small, unassuming plant.But if conservationists get their way, this little flowering shrub could halt development of some of the last remaining open space in the Las Vegas Valley.

As the West dries up, water managers, politicians and environmental groups alike are searching for an option -- any option -- to create water.Recently, desalination has been the popular answer. Even the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which has said the technology is no silver bullet, is considering desalting despite its many challenges.

A 50-mile drive northeast from Las Vegas on Interstate 15 leads through scrub desert to the pastoral Moapa Valley, where farmers farm and cows graze under a fresh, wind-scrubbed sky.