The stock rose to $15.39 as of 4 p.m. New York time, valuing Caesars at $1.92 billion. The price almost doubled earlier in the day, tripping circuit breakers, while the volume was more than six times the number of shares sold in the offering. Caesars raised $16.3 million selling less than 2 percent of its shares at $9 each.

Mark Jones was indicted in Nevada in 2010 on charges he accepted investments totaling $130,000 on behalf of bogus charities purporting to help Native Americans. The Buffalo News ( http://bit.ly/yzX71c) reported last week that Jones was supposed to go on trial last November but never showed up.

In addition, group leaders Las Vegas Sands (LVS) and Bally Technologies (BYI) reported fourth-quarter sales and earnings above consensus estimates.

Broad recent gains within the Leisure-Gaming industry group lifted it to a No. 71 ranking in Thursday’s IBD, up from No. 117 at the start of January. Stocks such as Shuffle Master (SHFL), Multimedia Games (MGAM) and Bally have booked significant gains since their October lows.

Bally carries a Composite Rating of 89. Shuffle Master rates a 94, and Las Vegas Sands’ Composite Rating is a 90.

Wynn Resorts (WYNN) rates a weak 64, dragged down by the stock’s keel-dragging Relative Price Strength Rating.

But the newspaper says Romney best represents the party and has the best chance to defeat President Barack Obama.

Health officials in Las Vegas said Monday that the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was found in water samples at the Luxor hotel-casino this month after a guest died of the form of pneumonia.

The Southern Nevada Health District said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention national surveillance program reported three cases in the past year of Luxor guests being diagnosed with the disease caused by Legionella bacteria.

The Las Vegas Strip resort’s water was tested after the first two cases were reported during the spring of last year, but no Legionella bacteria was detected, district officials said. Those guests recovered.

Officials say the Luxor, owned by MGM Resorts International, immediately began a remediation process once the bacteria was found.

MGM Resorts spokesman Gordon Absher said treatment procedures include superheating and super-chlorination of the water system.

“We are confident in the integrity of our systems and the safety protocols we follow at all our hotels. Guest and employee safety is always a top priority at our company,” Absher said. “Even before last summer, MGM Resorts led the industry with aggressive and stringent programs to control Legionella issues common to all large buildings.”

Absher said the company’s resorts regularly test for Legionella and treat water systems preventatively, before bacteria are detected.

The new cases come as the company is already facing a civil lawsuit from guests who said they were infected with Legionella at the Aria Resort & Casino, part of the CityCenter complex that is half-owned by MGM Resorts.

MGM Resorts notified guests that they might have been exposed to the bacteria between June 21 and July 4 after the district reported six cases of Legionnaires’ disease in July. The district said those guests recovered after treatment.

Eight guests sued in August, seeking $337.5 million in damages from the resort and its builders. An MGM Resorts spokesman at the time denied negligence, saying hotel officials carefully communicated with its guests and reimbursed them fairly for legitimate medical expenses. The case is still pending in federal court in Las Vegas.

Legionella is commonly found in the environment in fresh water, the district said. Symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease usually begin within two weeks of being exposed to the bacteria, the district said.

Most people who are exposed to the bacteria don’t get sick, according to the CDC. Smokers, people over age 50 and those who have chronic lung disease or weak immune systems are most susceptible, the CDC said.

The bacteria isn’t spread between people. It grows most often in warm water, infecting people when they breathe in mist or vapor that has been contaminated.

District officials said between 8,000 and 18,000 people are hospitalized with Legionnaires’ disease each year, and can cause death in up to 30 percent of cases. Officials said as many as one-fourth of reported Legionnaires’ cases are associated with travel, so health investigators typically ask for travel histories when they look into individual cases.

The disease takes its name from an outbreak at the Pennsylvania American Legion convention held at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia in 1976.

Although the paper called former House Speaker Newt Gingrich Romney’s only real rival for the GOP nomination, they also criticized his prior Washington experience.

“He burned bridges and became a divisive figure for much of the electorate,” the paper editorialized of Gingrich.

Traffic on commercial flights by 16 airlines using the airport’s international terminal increased 13.8 percent compared with 2010, the Clark County Department of Aviation said.

“For decades, America has been talking about decreasing our dependence on foreign oil,” Obama said in remarks at a UPS facility here. “Well, my administration has actually done something about it.”

Obama used the visit to announce a new oil and natural gas lease sale in the central Gulf of Mexico. He also touted the creation of a natural gas corridor from Long Beach, Calif., to Salt Lake City, that will allow vehicles to fuel up along the highway and encourages companies like UPS to transition to a clean-energy fleet to transport goods.

The president will spend Thursday promoting his energy record, first in Las Vegas and then in Denver – cities in two battleground states in his bid for reelection. He is talking up proposals offered in his State of the Union address aimed at boosting natural gas production and energy efficiency.

“We’ve got to have an all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every source of American energy,” Obama said, borrowing the “all of the above” phrasing that the GOP coined. “A strategy that is cleaner and cheaper and full of new jobs.”

He didn’t mention his Republican rivals by name, but the pitch comes at a time when he’s drawing heavy fire for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have delivered Canadian tar sands oil to Texas refineries. Obama said the State Department did not have enough time to review the project within the 60 days required by Congress.

And the administration continues to face scrutiny for its handling of Solyndra, a California solar-energy firm that failed after receiving a $538 million government-backed loan.

Obama challenged his critics during the State of the Union address Tuesday when he said not all companies will succeed.

“But I will not walk away from the promise of clean energy,” Obama told Congress. “I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here. We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough.”

Obama wasn’t quite as explicit as he was Tuesday, but he did stand behind his administration’s view that clean energy is an emerging jobs engine.

“We’ve got to keep at it,” Obama said. “Think about what could happen if we do. Think about an America where more cars and trucks are running on domestic natural gas than on foreign oil. Think about an America where our companies are leading the world in developing natural gas technology and creating a generation of new energy jobs; where our natural gas resources are helping make our manufacturers more competitive for decades. We can do this.”

Officials with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which lobbied for years for such a law, expressed jubilation Tuesday and said they would now turn their attention to getting a similar condom requirement adopted elsewhere.

“The city of Los Angeles has done the right thing,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which had pushed the measure for six years. “They’ve done the right thing for the performers.”