IT’S a lively Tuesday evening at the Harrah’s casino in Atlantic City. Gamblers fill the blackjack and poker tables while drinking beer and cocktails, slot machines clang in a steady rhythm, and the air holds on to traces of cigarette smoke.
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Just a few hundred feet away, however, an entirely different world exists. Guests at the Red Door Spa are soaking in a waterfall-framed Jacuzzi and sipping pomegranate herbal tea on soft chaise longues around a fireplace. Soothing Zen music plays in the background, and the scent of eucalyptus wafts through the rooms.

Once, this quieter, calmer side of Atlantic City would have been hard to imagine. But the city, which has spent the last several years trying to spruce up with shinier casinos, upscale hotels and dining options beyond mile-long buffets, is turning to several new splashy spas to draw visitors.

There have been at least a half-dozen spa openings in the last two years, and a handful more are in the works. So now, if they can tear themselves away from the slots and tables, visitors are lured with hundreds of treatments with names like Lemon Zest, Dancing Waters and Immersion Rainforest.

Six years ago, the spa culture was almost nonexistent. Save for a few small designated spaces set aside in some casinos where on-call therapists worked a handful of treatment rooms, there were virtually no spas, said Jeffrey S. Vasser, president of the Atlantic City Convention and Visitors Authority. Now, places like Immersion at the Water Club, Spa Toccare at the Borgata, Vive Day Spa at the Showboat, Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars and the Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spa at Harrah’s are luxurious, meticulously planned amenities that are major selling points of the hotels.

While they vary in size and services they are all striving to be serious destinations for spagoers, aiming for customers who want to pass away an entire day getting treatments and lounging around saunas, steam rooms and swimming pools.

Barbara Kirk, 66, has stayed at the Showboat twice a month for the past decade to play the $1 and $5 slot machines, but she now includes visiting the hotel’s Vive Day Spa as part of her itinerary. The 4,000-square-foot space, which opened in November, is lined with sand-colored Italian tile and has treatment rooms with cork floors to reduce outside noise. The men’s and women’s locker areas each have eucalyptus-scented steam rooms.

A spa novice, Ms. Kirk booked an appointment for her first facial after taking a tour of Vive and enjoyed it so much that she has been back twice.

“The only time I have to get beauty stuff done is when I come to Atlantic City,” said Ms. Kirk, who lives in Bayonne, N.J., and works in the insurance business. “Before, there wasn’t really any place nice where you would want to spend a lot of time in, but Vive is a beautiful space.”

The spa trend started in 2003, when Spa Toccare opened at the Borgata with 15 treatment rooms and quickly became booked two months in advance. The demand for treatments was so great, said Brennan Evans, the director of spa operations, that Spa Toccare expanded to 54,000 square feet just two years later.

There was a handful of spa openings in the next few years, but the growth really took off in 2007 when the Elizabeth Arden Red Door opened at Harrah’s. In 2008, Immersion, Qua and Vive joined the lineup.

And there are more openings planned. Sea Spa at the Chelsea boutique hotel is scheduled to open in mid-April. The 10,000-square-foot space will have exposed brick walls and rugs with animal prints, a relaxation room with heated benches and floors and a 94-degree saltwater pool. Also, at the end of next year, the Revel Entertainment Group is scheduled to open a casino hotel on the boardwalk where the spa will be a major component, a spokeswoman for the company said.

Cheryl Caliri, a 56-year-old retiree from Philadelphia, tried a massage at Spa Toccare when it first opened. She said that even though the city is just an hour from her home, she had gone there infrequently because she didn’t think it offered the type of spas she loves to visit when she travels.

“After going to Toccare, my perception of the city completely changed,” she said. “It was on par with the spas I’ve visited in more exotic places like Hawaii and New Zealand.”

Now, Ms. Caliri takes monthly excursions to Atlantic City with her husband or her friends for massages, facials and manicures.

While a basic massage is the service most often booked at spas, according to the International Spa Association in Lexington, Ky., some services at the new Atlantic City spas go beyond the basics, and even the basics have twists.
source:http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/travel/escapes/27Atlantic.html?ref=travel

The driver of the limousine that crashed last month and left two members of the Detroit Red Wings in comas had marijuana in his system, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Oakland County Prosecutor DAVID GORCYCA said that a second toxicology report that came back yesterday from an out-of-state independent laboratory showed traces of the drug in the system of the driver, RICHARD GNIDA.

Gorcyca said the second test was more intensive than the first toxicology test, which came back last week showing no signs of drugs or alcohol in the driver's system.

Red Wings defenseman VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOV and the team masseur, SERGEI MNATSAKANOV, sustained head injuries and were left comatose in the crash.

Both remain in serious but stable condition at William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, the hospital said. Doctors said Mnatsakanov has emerged from his coma, while Konstantinov remains comatose but shows signs of improvement. Defenseman VYACHESLAV FETISOV was less seriously injured in the crash.

The Red Wings did not immediately comment.
source:http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/15/sports/driver-is-reported-positive-for-marijuana.html

The Detroit Red Wings defenseman VLADIMIR KONSTANTINOV is out of the coma he has been in since a June 13 limousine accident but is not yet fully awake, doctors in Royal Oak, Mich., said yesterday.

Konstantinov and the team's masseur, SERGEI MNATSAKANOV, who came out of a coma earlier, will be moved within days to the William Beaumont Hospital's rehabilitation unit. Their condition was upgraded from serious to fair.

''He's become much more aware of his environment,'' Dr. KAROL ZAKALIK said of Konstantinov. ''He's more alert, but he's not fully conscious yet.''

He said the player and Mnatsakanov are about to start months of intensive rehabilitation to help them recover physical, mental, speech and other capabilities. But he added that it is too early to tell whether either will fully recover.
source:http://www.nytimes.com/1997/07/24/sports/konstantinov-emerges-from-coma.html

The limousine driver whose accident on June 13 left two Detroit Red Wings players comatose was sentenced yesterday in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., to nine months in jail and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service at a facility for patients with head injuries.

Richard Gnida's jail term will be followed by 15 months of probation. It was his second conviction of driving with a suspended license. The judge also ordered Gnida to get drug and alcohol counseling and attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings four times weekly when he gets out of jail.

The crash left Red Wings defenseman Vladimir Konstantinov and the team masseur Sergei Mnatsakanov in comas for several weeks. Gnida and Red Wings defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov sustained minor injuries.

''You shattered lives,'' District Judge Kimberly Small told Gnida. ''Based on your behavior, you have a serious drug and alcohol problem. And what scares me is you don't know it. I wish I had more time to put you in the Oakland County Jail.''

Since 1994, the 28-year-old Gnida had been ticketed for operating while impaired, operating under the influence and unlawful bodily alcohol content. He had also been ticketed twice for speeding.

Gnida made a brief apology before sentencing. ''I'm truly sorry for what's happened,'' Gnida said. ''I'm sorry anybody was injured. I'd rather nobody was injured.''
source:http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/08/sports/plus-roundup-in-the-news-nine-months-in-jail-for-limo-driver.html

Now in the Senate seat formerly held by Hillary Rodham Clinton, Kirsten E. Gillibrand plays down her work as a lawyer representing Philip Morris, saying she was a junior associate with little control over the cases she was handed and limited involvement in defending the tobacco maker.

But a review of thousands of documents and interviews with dozens of lawyers and industry experts indicate that Ms. Gillibrand was involved in some of the most sensitive matters related to the defense of the tobacco giant as it confronted pivotal legal battles beginning in the mid-1990s.
source:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/27/gillibrands-past-as-defender-of-big-tobacco/