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See Analysis Page 3
See Editorial Page 6
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 2
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16 PAGES
VOLUME 3 NUMBER 46
AUGUST 10, 2006
Airola Tells Of His Plans For Metro
By DAVID HIMMEL
Libertywatch Magazine Staff Writer
A woman loses her son. He was
abducted. kidnapped. stolen. For several days, she has no idea
of his location. Imagine her despair.
then imagine her relief when Nevada
Child Seekers tells her that they
Political Analysis
found her boy - in good health, in
protective custody, in Washington
State. The non-profit organization then
calls Jerry Airola, President and
founder of Silver State Helicopters,
to ask if they can use a plane to Take
this anxious mother to her son 1,200
hundred miles north. Never one to
turn down an opportunity to help,
Airola quickly schedules a Lear 55
jet to assist.
Donating a private aircraft in
dire circumstances is not uncommon for Airola. “Non-profit organizations call for our help very often,”
Airola says. “We are committed to
helping anyone we can. it’s the right
thing to do.”
The next day, the mother and a
representative from Nevada Child
Seekers are on a runway at the North
Las Vegas Airport in Airola’s Lear
jet, prepared for take off. As the
plane is taxiing, the representative
from Nevada Child Seekers gets a
call on his cell phone. It’s his boss.
Puzzled by the request, the representative tells the pilot the plane
must turn around and return to the
terminal. The mother panics. Why
can’t they take off? Why can’t they
go to Washington? What happened
to her son? Airola is now involved. He’s
asking the representative why they
can’t fly the woman to Washington.
The Conservative Weekly
Voice Of Las Vegas
Inside:
Why Did Sheriff
Young Go Nuts?
See Editorial Page 6
The only answer Airola receives is,
“Not gonna happen.” So Airola calls
a representative at the Las Vegas
Metro Police Department. “I was just told by Nevada Child
Seekers that they have to leave the
airport,” Airola said to the department. As it turned out, the Metro administration ordered Airola’s plane not
to leave and assist a desperate mother from seeing her missing son in
Washington. Instead, Nevada Child
Seekers had to find someone else to
donate a plane, anyone but Airola.
Airola suspected some power playing and bullying.
The story gets worse. The Metro Police Department
orchestrated a political interference,
and at a citizen’s expense - a child’s
expense - because its leaders worried
Airola’s charity would look good for
the sheriff-hopeful. It’s a story that Airola likes to
share when discussing his plans to
Penny Wisdom
A functioning police state
needs no police.
—William S. Burroughs
become the next sheriff of Clark
County. “It is a misuse of their
authority, a misuse of the county’s
assets. If I want to donate a jet to
someone to save them trouble, I
should be able to do it.”
Sure, why would Metro care?
Because Undersheriff Doug Gillespie
is running against Airola? If so, well,
that’s just politics.
Who is Jerry Airola?
Put simply, Airola is a businessman, one who has carried a badge.
He is the father of eight, expecting
his ninth child and his first grandchild. He comes from a long family
tradition of law enforcers - especially sheriffs. His grandfather, Claud
Ballard, worked in the sheriff’s
department for Calaveras County,
Calif., for more than 30 years. He
was elected to sheriff for two terms.
His great-grandfather was also an
PAT CHOATE
FRED WEINBERG
DOUG FRENCH
BILLHERE
AL THOMAS
JOYCE MEYER
PET OF THE WEEK
Continued on page4
PAGE 5
PAGE 6
PAGE 7
PAGE 8
PAGE 10
PAGE 12
PAGE 15
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 4
Continued from page 3
Sheriff Jerry?
elected sheriff and his great-great-grandfather was a U.S. Marshall. Airola
has always wanted to follow the same path. His first foray into business was while in high school. He took cutting
lawns for candy money to a much larger scale, as he started a landscaping
business and even hired three other high schoolers to work for him until he
graduated in 1983. Airola left his home, the rancher’s paradise of Calaveras
County, and moved to southern California to work for an environmental company. He took advantage of its continuing education and training
classes, and within a year he was promoted to the position of National Sales
Manager. At one of the fastest growing companies in the nation at the time,
Airola was responsible for training and overseeing 12 different managers.
At that time, his parents moved to Ventura, where the three of them
opened and operated three different companies. Sadly, in 1987, the family
took a blow when three of his grandparents died. Airola and his parents
decided to sell the businesses so they could go back to tend to the ranch,
giving Airola the opportunity to get into law enforcement.
Three years later, Airola was a Los Banos police officer. He was a
patrol officer also investigating crimes like homicide, child molestation
and auto theft. He served as the president of the Los Banos Police Officers
Association and as a member of the Morale Committee - a task which
Airola intends to implement with Clark County. To lessen the hardships of a budding family, Airola took a second job as
a mortgage broker for a national bank.
In 1995, he accepted the opportunity to move to Las Vegas and open a
water purification company. By this time, he was the father of five and had
to provide for his family. It’s no secret, and perhaps it’s unfortunate, that a
cop’s salary is not always the best way to provide. He relied on his management skills to keep food on the table and allow a more comfortable life. Rather than uproot himself, he was sworn in as a reserve deputy sheriff
with the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office. (Tuolumne County sits as the
northern gateway to Yosemite National Park.) His original plan was to move
to Vegas, make a killing in the business world, then get back to his home in
Calaveras County and become sheriff. But instead, he fell in love with helicopters. And in 1999, he and
three other partners bought their first helicopter, which would become the
beginning of the Silver State Helicopter fleet. Two years later, he bought
full ownership of the company and purchased a McDonnell Douglas 500
helicopter before working with small county sheriffs’ departments. He contracted the choppers to assist in drug busts and any other police activity they
may need assistance with.
When Airola came to Las Vegas, he was broke. Without much to his
name, he was forced to call the credit card companies and ask for extended
limits, but they turned him away. What he did have was a good business
prospect. He parlayed that into something bigger.
Airola’s business of giving back
In 2002, Airola thought it best to expand Silver State Helicopters’ abilities, so he diversified. From that one bird he bought in 1999, Silver State
Helicopters now boasts a fleet of more than 200. The company can handle
most any situation and often does. In 2003, he flew five helicopters to Utah to look for Elizabeth Smart.
Since then, he created Sheriff’s Airborne Law Enforcement (S.A.B.L.E.)
This program was one of the first responders to the destruction of the South
when Hurricane Katrina hit exactly one year ago. In 2005, S.A.B.L.E.
showed that, flying 400 feet above the ground at a speed of 45 mph, it
was able to detect a dirty bomb, lending its hand to the War on Terror and
Continued on page 11
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THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 5
Commentary: Pat Choate
succeeded so well that Japan’s ongoing economic expansion was almost
totally ignored by U.S. policymakers, as well as the American media,
for almost a decade and a half.
In the 1980s, Japanese business
Data from the Bank of Japan’s
practices came under intense scruannual reports tell the true story. In
tiny for being “unfair.” Specifically,
each of the 15 years between 1991
the Japanese government kept out
and 2005 Japan had the largest trade
foreign made goods, even as it had
surplus of any nation, increasing
full access to the U.S. market.
from $89 billion in 1990 to more
Old news, for sure. But what
than $172 billion in 2005. In those
happened next is not.
same years, the United States ran the
Then, just as the U.S. criticisms
world’s largest trade deficits, topabout Japanese economic practices
ping $700 billion in 2005 alone.
seemed to be reaching a crescendo
More significant, the net interin early 1990, almost overnight, they
national investment positions of
stopped as the American political
Japan and the United States changed
consciousness shifted from Japan to
dramatically during that period.
the breakup of the Soviet Union and
The Bank of Japan and the U.S.
Commerce Department, each of
which annually measures all the
assets that their citizens own abroad
and all the assets foreigners own in
their country, produce the data for
these calculations, which indicate
how well a country is doing economically.
In 1980, the United States was
the world’s largest creditor nation,
owning a net surplus of $360 billion more international assets than
liabilities. This extraordinary position of national wealth had taken
The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:
the country almost 66 years to accuDistrict Judge Valerie Adair for a fair but not ridicules sentence of former mulate, beginning in 1914 when the
Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Joshua Corcran whose reckless driving U.S. shifted from being a debtor to a
caused four deaths. Two to 12 years is a reasonable sentence in a tragic case creditor nation.
where Corcran took responsibility for his actions and was clearly remorseful. There's a difference between punishment and revenge which appears to
have been what some family members of the victims wanted.
Japan’s Phony
“Crisis”
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.
The Japanese adroitly used these
diversions to mount one of modern history’s most successful propaganda campaigns, convincing much
of the world that Japan had fallen
into an economic “crisis.” Using
the collapse of the Japanese land
and stock booms of the late 1980s
as their rationale, Japan presented
itself as in a deep economic slump,
an emergency so severe that outside
political pressure might trigger a
global depression.
While numerous foreign scholars
living in Japan debunked this crisis –
revealing how Japan’s real economy
was largely unaffected, even unconnected, to the problems of its banks
and stock market-- the spin campaign
District Judge Bill Maddox who ruled Monday in Carson City that the Tax
and Spending Control petition should remain as a question on the November
ballot in spite of the wishes of the state's union goons who don't think the
public should have so much say in their futures.
The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer
And A Bouquet of Weeds To:
Sheriff Bill Young for the silly attitude he has to Jerry Airola's candidacy for
Sheriff. What Young may or may not realize, because he is something of a political naif himself, is that all of the shrill complaining he is doing is not resonating
with the public which, truth be told, doesn't think all that much of the job he has
done as Sheriff himself. And a good question needs to be asked. If Airola is so
bad, why did young decide to quit and make his candidacy possible?
In the nine years between 1980
and 1989, however, the U.S. moved
from being the world’s largest creditor to its largest debtor, drawing
down its entire its surplus and going
an additional $259 billion into debt
– an overall reversal of position of
$619 billion, virtually all of which
went to pay for the federal budget
and trade deficits.
The U.S. position worsened dramatically in the years after 1989. By
the end of 2005 the U.S. net international financial deficit was more
than $2.7 trillion, representing the
largest, fastest unilateral transfer of
wealth in world history.
Contrary to the Japanese economic “crisis” propaganda campaign, the Bank of Japan proudly
reported in the summer of 2005
that for each of the prior 14 years
Japan had the largest increase in its
net international financial of any
nation. By the end of 2005, Japan
was the world’s largest creditor with
net international assets of almost $2
trillion, a gain of almost $1.9 trillion
in less than a quarter century.
In March 2006, the Governor of
the Bank of Japan announced that
the nation’s long economic “crisis”
was over.
PAT CHOATE
This is an excerpt from Pat Choate’s
forthcoming book, A Dangerous
Business.
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OPINION
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 6
From The Publisher...
Is Jerry Airola Really Driving Bill Young Nuts?
If Jerry Airola gets elected Sheriff of Clark County, contrary to
the whisperings of the good old boy network at the Las Vegas
Metropolitan Police Department, and their friends in the media,
the sun WILL come up the next morning.
The birds will sing.
But based on the pettiness we’re seeing from the “in” crowd at
Metro, all of the keyboards in the new Sheriff’s office may have
the “a” removed or we may see some similar sort of sophomoric stunt prior to the transition.
Outgoing Sheriff Bill Young, who hand-picked his Undersheriff,
Doug Gillespie to succeed him, went nuts last Tuesday, holding a press conference, babbling something about Airola’s
experience as a “small town patrol officer” not being sufficient
to qualify him for the exalted post Young decided to vacate,
apparently on his own volition.
It would seem that Young has a problem with an election where
the voters actually get to vote.
We hesitate to write this simply because we really don’t want
to embarrass Bill Young or Doug Gillespie unnecessarily, but
they are making their own beds…
You are hearing from these guys and will hear some more that
you have to be a long-time Metro officer, experienced in the
ways of Las Vegas in order to become Sheriff.
Metro has come a long way. Most of its officers are first rate.
But it is not a religious institution and its leadership is not infallible. The Sheriff is not the Lord High Sheriff, the Chief Rabbi
or the Pope.
In that we elect the Sheriff, we believe that we should have a
new chance every four years to make that decision and that
decision is not up to the incumbent Sheriff or any of his buddies.
A few weeks ago we made the case for Airola.
Since then, the mantra from the tower across the plaza from
the Lord High Mayor’s office has been, “he’s not a cop” and “he
or his businesses have been (gasp) involved in lawsuits”.
Well, he certainly was a cop when he took his equipment down
to Mississippi in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina; they swore
him in and put him to work. And if you happen to be in business, a lawsuit means that somebody thinks you owe them
money and you disagree. Some lawyers think that businessmen exist to make them rich.
We have great confidence in the voters. The voters will see
through all of the nonsense and make an intelligent decision.
We would hope that they would opt for new ideas and a fresh
approach because what we are doing now needs to be shaken
up.
Well, the fact is that Metro didn’t need to be much of a police
force back in the day because keeping the tourists safe was
handled by the folks who answered to the largest, shall we
say, tax exempt, organization in the nation which had financed
most of the casinos and didn’t want anybody except people
who owed them money to feel unsafe here.
We also see heavy elements of the same situation in the race
for District Attorney.
If you stepped out of line, you answered to people like Tony
the Ant or his buddies.
Frank Cremen has been a prosecutor and then a very able
defense attorney. He knows every trick in the book that the
defense bar can pull.
Their methods were crude but so effective that the police
department didn’t have all that much to do.
It was not until Steve Wynn raised a billion and a half dollars
in public capital from Michael Milkin at 14% to build first the
Mirage and then Treasure Island that those elements were no
longer around to make sure nobody got out of line because
you can’t skim a cage when you have a 14% interest payment
to make. And the bond market can be much more cruel than
the mob.
So it was from that culture in the not too distant past that
today’s Metro—and its leadership—evolved.
There, David Roger has had a fairly undistinguished term and
has never held a job where the check did not come from the
taxpayers.
He can bring a fresh approach to the DA’s office while Roger
can go out and get some experience in the real world.
Based on the performance of both the DA’s office and Metro
alone, we think that Airola and Cremen should be elected.
And if Metro’s leadership—such as it is—wants to pull any
more petty stunts such as stopping Airola from using his plane
to help reunite a mother with her kidnapped son(see cover
story), those responsible should be prosecuted by the new DA,
Frank Cremen.
FRED WEINBERG
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 7
Commentary: Doug French
Planning Vs. Affordable Housing
Local government growth-management planning has been a bone of
contention during debates in Nevada between Democratic gubernatorial
candidates state Sen. Dina Titus and Henderson Mayor Jim Gibson. Titus
championed a bill in the 1997 Legislature that would have limited development in Clark County. The measure, based upon restrictions used in
Portland, Ore., would have severely limited development outside of a “ring
around the valley.”
Titus believes that her ring idea, if implemented, would have led to
higher property values and “caused more planned, rational growth.” Titus is
likely correct that property values would have increased, but is that a good
thing? Growth controls and growth-management planning lead to increased
home prices and declines in housing affordability, according to a new study
from The Independent Institute, authored by Randall O’Toole, a senior
economist at the Thoreau Institute.
“Smart growth” initiatives create artificial housing shortages that push
up the price of housing and keep low-income families from affording a
home. Although housing prices have increased significantly in the past few
years, cities with growth-management planning saw price increases from 4
to 14 percent per year, while cities without these planning initiatives experienced price increases of only 1 to 3 percent.
O’Toole found that more than 30 percent of the aggregate value of
homes in America is attributable to housing shortages produced by growth
planning. Last year alone, homebuyers paid an estimated $275 billion more
for homes because of restrictive planning, according to the study.
Growth-planning schemes such as Titus’s “ring around the valley” plan
increase property values to the benefit of wealthy and middle-class homeowners, while blocking low-income people from enjoying the numerous
benefits of homeownership.
In a paper published in the Journal of Urban Economics, professors
Richard K. Green and Michelle J. White found that one of the primary benefits of homeownership is the effect on children. In fact, Donald R. Haurin,
professor of economics, finance and public policy at Ohio State University
suggests that education can be improved more effectively by promoting
home ownership than by funneling more tax money directly to schools.
Haurin’s research found that homeowners are less likely to relocate
than renters, thus providing a more stable environment for children. Haurin
also points to a better physical home environment, a more emotionally supportive environment, and greater connection to neighborhood networks as
benefits to children of homeowners.
Homeowners have a financial incentive to take care of their dwellings
and save money for payments and repairs. The financial responsibilities
and habits required of parents to manage homeownership are invaluable in
instilling the same sort of values in their children. “Homeownership also
leads to measurable increases in self-esteem and neighborhood stability,”
O’Toole explains, “which probably contributes to the better educational
outcomes.”
Las Vegas and Reno, while not yet saddled with direct growth-management planning, suffer from an artificial land shortage created by the federal
government’s ownership of 90 percent of state land. O’Toole believes that
increasing resistance from environmental groups to BLM land sales “might
be considered a form of growth-management planning, and it explains why
Nevada cities have become unaffordable despite the lack of any state or
local growth-management planning.” O’Toole estimates that homebuyers
in Reno and Las Vegas have paid $64 billion more for housing because of
the government-created land shortage. He estimates the cost was $100,000
to $130,000 per home in 2005.
A lack of supply creates housing affordability problems, not increased
demand. Some of the fastest-growing cities in the nation – such as Atlanta,
Houston and Raleigh – have not seen the price increases that slow growth
California cities have.
Three factors make up the price of homes: construction materials, labor
and land. Labor and materials are very mobile and thus are similar in all
markets. What is not mobile is land. And because housing is an inelastic
good – small changes in supply lead to big changes in price – supply restrictions lead to large home price increases, according to O’Toole.
Thus, smart-growth plans like those put forth by Titus and the Clark
County Community Growth Task Force last year would further compound
the affordability problem we already have in Southern Nevada. And, as
O’Toole points out, the most disturbing aspect of the planning penalty is
how regressive it is. Planning harms low-income families and first-time
homeowners the most, “while it provides windfall profits for wealthy homeowners.”
Growth-management laws serve only to increase home prices and
exclude more people from enjoying the benefits of home ownership.
Government should get out of the way and let homebuilders provide affordable housing that will change the lives of low-income people for the better.
As O’Toole emphasizes, “Barriers to homeownership can only be regarded
as un-American.”
Doug French
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THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 8
The Best Vegas Calendar BAR NONE!
By Billhere
The FREE, e-mailed, VegasResource.com Newsletter and complete index of
Las Vegas coupons for shows, buffets and attractions is available on the internet at:
www.vegasresource.com
JAUGUST, 2006
==============
10-12=Frankie Avalon & Bobby Rydell- Orleans.
10-23=Tom Jones-MGM Grand.
11= Wynonna - Primm Valley.
11-12=Jay Leno- The Mirage.
12=Bowling For Soup-Jillians.
12=Shakira, Wyclef Jean- Mandalay Bay.
12= Buck Wild Show closing - Sahara.
12=Lonestar- Sunset Station.
15= Elvis-A-Rama Museum closing.
++++++++++
16= Society of Seven afternoon show opening - Flamingo.
++++++++++
16=Champions on Ice-Orleans.
16-20=Neil Sedaka- Orleans.
18= Job Fair - Palace Station.
18=Def Leppard- Mandalay Bay Events Center.
18-19=Wayne Brady- The Mirage.
19=A Tribute To Woodstock - Cannery.
19=Nickelback- Mandalay Bay events Center.
24-26= Reba McEntire- LV Hilton. .CANCELLED.
25-26=Brad Garrett- The Mirage.
25-26=Freestyle MotoX Championship- The Orleans.
25-27= Tower of Power - Suncoast.
++++++++++
26= Rita Rudner Show closing - New York-New York: (Rumors
persist that the theater will be torn down and the famous CROBAR
Nightclub will open in late 2007.)
++++++++++
26- Mel Tillis/Roy Clark - Primm Valley.
++++++++++
Aug.??= Trader Vic’s opening at the Desert Passage Mall inside
the Aladdin.
++++++++++
Aug.??= Steve Wyrick opens his own 430-seat theater with the
Ronn Lucas(the comic (ventriloquist) Show, the Martin Nievera
(Filipino pop star) show and his own Steve Wyrick (magic) show
- in the Desert Passage Mall inside the Aladdin.
++++++++++
Aug.??= Beacher’s Rockhouse Bar opening where Tequila Joe’s
was located. The show will be midgets imitating the rock group
KISS - Imperial Palace.
++++++++++
Aug.??= Gordie Brown Show grand opening on a multi-year deal
- Venetian.
++++++++++
Aug.??= Tao will open a 14,000-square-foot entertainment facility
and pool deck - Venetian.
++++++++++
++++++++++
SEPTEMBER, 2006
================
++++++++++
1= X Girls - The Show is closing in the V Theater in the Dessert
Passage Shopping Mall in the Aladdin.
++++++++++
1=The Doobie Brothers- Mandalay Bay Beach.
1=Down Home Blues Festival- The Orleans.
1-2=David Spade- The Mirage.
1-3=Tim McGraw and Faith Hill- Mandalay Bay.
2=Mary J. Blige=MGM Grand.
2=Joe Cocker-Red Rock Station.
4= Labor Day.
4 = Annual Muscular Dystrophy Telethon with Jerry Lewis returns
to Las Vegas-South Coast.
7-9=Cirque Du Soleil’s “Delirium”- MGM Grand.
8-9=Dana Carvey- The Mirage.
8-10= Art & Craft Show - Cashman Center.
14-17= Annual Bikefest - Cashman Center.
15-16=David Spade- Mirage.
15=Jon Secada- Las Vegas Hilton.
16= The Guess Who - Cannery.
16= International Mariachi Festival-L.V.Hilton.
16-17= Rich Little- Suncoast.
21-23=The Temptations and The Four Tops- Stradust.
21-24= Greek Food Festival - St.John The Baptist Greek Orthodox
Church.
21-25=Dennis Miller- MGM Grand.
22=Godsmack and Rob Zombie- Hard Rock.
23= Ronnie Milsap - Cannery.
23= Toby Keith- Mandalay Bay Events Center.
23= Hockey. Los Angeles Kings vs. Colorado Avalanche- MGM
Grand.
23=Freestyle Explosion-Orleans.
28-Oct.1=Joe Weideris 2006 Olympia Weekend-Orleans.
30=Seal- Lake Las Vegas.
30=Mariah Carey-MGM Grand
30= Clint Holmes Show closing - Harrah’s.
+++++
30=Mariah Carey- MGM Grand.
++++++++++
Sep. ??= Greek restaurant Taverna Opa opening in the Desert
Passage Shopping Mall - Aladdin.
++++++++++
Sep. ??= MGM Mirage started CityCenter. MGM will begin taking
condo sales reservations in September. Project CityCenter, a $7
billion, 66-acre complex of hotels, casinos, retail and residential
space which is to be built by MGM Mirage on a site between the
Monte Carlo and Bellagio on The Strip where the Boardwalk was
located. The project is larger than New York’s Soho, Times Square
and Rockefeller Center combined. At $7 billion, this most ambitious proposal expects to be the most expensive privately funded
development ever undertaken in the U.S. Scheduled to open in
2009. $3.3 billion will be recouped through condo sales.
++++++++++
OCTOBER, 2006
================
1= Elvis-A-Rama Museum closing.
2 = Comedian Rita Rudner Opening Night-Harrah’s.
5 = Air service starts from Washington Dulles International Airport
- Southwest Airlines.
5 = Air service starts from Naashville-US Air.
5-8=Mickey’s Magic Show-Orleans.
6-8=The Osmond Brothers- Suncoast.
12-15=Dionne Warwick- Orleans.
13-14=George Lopez-LV Hilton.
13-15=Bill Acosta - Suncoast.
15=Los Angeles Lakers vs. Phoenix Suns- Thomas and Mack
====================================
Please e-mail errors, omissions and additions to:
[email protected]
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 9
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 10
Commentary: Albert Thomas
there would be fewer wars.
People were not interested in California. It was too far and too hard to
get to, but when the cry of ‘gold’ went up thousands made the journey to
There are many ways to own gold, many forms: jewelry, bullion, coins, strike it rich. One enterprising man in San Francisco found out about the
mutual funds, gold mining stocks (indirectly) and ETFs (Exchange Traded strike and did not head for the American River to pan for riches. He bought
Funds). The latter are similar to mini mutual funds, but usually have few up every pan, pick and shovel in town and them went out to spread the word.
stocks and they remain constant rather than have internal trading as mutual The pans he paid 15 cents for he resold for $15. In a week he made $36,000.
funds do.
In those days that was big, big money.
So you can own gold. So what? Why bother when it does not pay any
Without gold I don’t think there would be an American California today
interest or pay any dividends? What is interesting to note that one ounce as it was claimed by Mexico.
of gold today will buy the same amount of goods as it did 100 years ago.
Alaska is another territory that brought the dreamers and schemers
That item in 1906 might have been $1.00 and today the same item would because of the lure of gold. Good digs were uncovered in 1949 and more in
be priced at $100, but when translated into ounces of gold the weight is the 1914. Thousands came to remain and settle this seemingly desolate counsame. try.
Doesn’t that make you wonder? That is inflation at work. Gold is inflaMen continue to search the planet for this elusive golden maiden. Very
tion proof. Man has had an ongoing love affair with gold since time began. few find it. Others become entrepreneurs who make their fortune from the
Every culture has valued it. gold seekers. Columbus didn’t set out to find America. He came looking for gold. How you seek your wealth is an individual choice, but the wise ones
Gold is the only real store of wealth not the paper we call money. who do strike it rich convert some of the new found riches into the golden
Dollars have depreciated about 50% in value over the past 18 years. It is metal to protect their wealth from the attrition of inflation.
hard to realize as it sneaks up on us that each day that our dollars are worth
AL THOMAS
less in purchasing power. Wealth is purchasing power.
Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy It!” has helped thousands
The Federal government prints money that has no backing other than of people make money and keep their profits with his simple 2-step method.
their word. Each dollar is watered down as the printing presses turn. Every Read the first chapter at www.mutualfundmagic.com and discover why he’s
war is financed with paper money not gold. If wars were financed with gold the man that Wall Street does not want you to know.
Gold Is Where You Find It
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 11
What Would Sheriff Jerry Do?
Continued from page 4
Homeland Security.
Airola is quick to give abatement for firefighting, agricultural spraying and movie-making. In fact, he is a card carrying member of the Screen
Actors Guild. Silver State Helicopters gives aerial tours, charters and can
even be used for external load lifting and utility work. Airola is also proud
of the training school. It’s where he finds pilots and mechanics who he
eventually hires. Airola has been extremely successful in the private sector - and in such
a short period of time. “There comes a point, if I made another $10 million this year, I’d ask,
‘What I would do with it?’” he explains. “I’d put it back into the company;
I always have. I grow things; I create jobs. There are a lot of people who
are paid well, not because I couldn’t find someone to do it for less, but
because they deserve to be part of the success. They deserve part of the
spoils because they were here.”
So it’s about giving back?
“I don’t want to sound corny, but when you do something for somebody,
you accomplish something. It’s about the way you feel. When you hold the
door for your wife; you do it because of the way you feel inside.
“It’s the same thing with the sheriff’s position. It’d be the ultimate compliment to be elected into the sheriff’s office. And then the ultimate achievement is to over-deliver on what I promised.”
He built Silver State Helicopters, an Inc. 500 Company, from scratch.
He did so understanding the value of people and the value of putting the
right people in the right positions. And everyday, he expects those people to
show him results. No one running for sheriff has more business experience
than he does. And he’s coming to the position with a sharp business mind.
“Well, the helicopter business and law enforcement really aren’t that different. I run the business like a law enforcement agency,” Airola says. “You
have ranks. And we deal with the FAA - a federal agency.”
Obviously, taking passengers up in a helicopter is a liability, just like
sending pilots up in a search effort. “The difference in law enforcement is that you deal with a different
liability: people and guns. The way you manage your assets is very, very
similar. Right now, Metro does not have a real budget.”
Airola calls Metro’s budget a “Christmas list” of things they want. He
wants to go to the legislation and have a stand-alone budget, which would
mean, as Airola put it, “We would answer to the people.” If Metro is going
to spend the money, there has to be a need. If there’s a need, he’ll find a way
to get the money. One suggestion he has: charge a booking fee when someone is thrown
in jail and convicted. Why should the innocent public pay for a criminal’s
stay in an air-conditioned cell? Sheriff Jerry Airola, upon election
Of course, police work is more than budgets and administration.
Preventing crime is a big part of it too. Technology is Airola’s key. On
average, a car is stolen every 25 minutes in the valley. As Sheriff of Clark
County, Airola would bring in low jacks and other vehicle location tools.
Each time someone is caught stealing a car, Metro would appear on TV
and make the crime public. He found it ridiculous that the media slathered
the airwaves and front pages with news that Vegas was an easy target for
car theft. He likened it to one of the most sacred of secrets: “When you
find a good fishing-hole, you don’t tell everyone about it. Don’t think that
these criminals don’t have the conversation about how easy it is to get a
ride in Vegas. We need to change that conversation to say, ‘You better not.’
Perception will lower the crime rate.”
With his war on gangs, he is going to give new meaning to the slogan,
“What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” Every weekend, Airola says gang members come from southern
California to settle beefs with some of Las Vegas’ 7,700 known gang members. “That’s going to stop,” he says.
“If you come here for trouble, I’ll keep your car, your gun and you’ll go
home on a Greyhound bus. Once we get the reputation, it won’t be fun for
them to come here anymore.”
Last spring, Sgt. Henry Prendes was killed in the line of duty by a
wanna-be gangsta rapper. Airola doesn’t want to outlaw rap concerts like
current Sheriff Bill Young is often accused of, following the officer’s death.
Airola sees a larger problem. For any situation, there are a thousand mistakes that officers can make to put themselves in danger. They need to be
the smartest and most flawless people on the streets.
“I look at crimes like that and I think, ‘What did I not do for him? How
did I contribute to his death?’ We need to get into a true-scenario based
training program,” Airola says.
Scenario-based training is done to keep the cops fresh and deter routine thinking. It is ideally supposed to keep officers sharp and alert. When
they come into work, they would not know if they were going to be on the
street or in a training scenario. That day would be a real-life situation, one
that an officer somewhere in the United States was involved in less than 20
years ago. And most likely, it’s a situation that went horribly wrong. But, in
Airola’s eyes, officers can learn best from mistakes.
Officers go into these scenarios with a video crew and their superiors as
judges. Mistakes are expected, but the goal is to run them through scenes
until their culture has changed - their thinking has changed. Airola says
these types of pop quizzes keep them paying attention, and often they go
back to the books and study - never quite sure when they’ll either have
another test, or worse, a real-life occurrence where their life, or a civilian’s
life, is in danger.
A solid example where this training could have proved effective was
during the Fourth of July weekend recently. You may recall a traffic stop
just off the Strip where a young man was playing his car stereo too loud.
One officer reached into the driver’s window to turn the car off and the man,
in a panic, backed up toward another officer. The driver was subsequently
shot and killed. Airola feels that the situation escalated to the point that it became justified for the officer to shoot the driver. He feels that this incident should be
played out in a scenario-based training to give officers that chance to see
how quickly a situation can escalate to the point of taking a life and the
options that may be available to officers other than the actions taken. “Public perception is everything. And now we live with the scrutiny that
Metro cops are a bunch of cowboys,” he says. Because he thinks public perception is everything, he believes that the
most pressing issue facing the current Metro administration is customer
service - starting on the roads, where the majority of the people come into
contact with the police. It seems the stretch of Swenson Avenue from Tropicana Avenue into the
airport is backed up during the late afternoon. Often, bike cops will swarm
the area looking for anyone speeding - should there be enough room to do
so - or not using a turn signal or committing any other violation. They zip
up and down the sidewalks and pull cars over in the travel lanes, causing
even more congestion. They add to the problem, and that is not the kind of
arrogant picture Airola wants his police force to paint. “If there’s not an injury accident, get the cars out of the travel lanes.
There’s no need to cause a back up and inconvenience everyone else,” he
says.
Is there even such a thing as better roads? With an endless array of
orange construction cones and blinking construction horses, streets are like
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 12
Commentary: Joyce Meyer
Gaining Grace
Through Humility
I can still vividly remember a
time when I sat down to write an
article on grace. As I began, I was
feeling very comfortable and confident. In fact, I thought I had a
pretty good handle on the topic.
After all, I had taught on the subject
many times before, helping people
understand what grace is and how to
freely receive it for their lives.
It seemed like the harder I tried,
the harder it became to write a simple article on the subject of grace.
When I finally threw up my
hands in frustration and admitted
that I couldn’t figure out what to do
or how to get this job done, I realized what my problem had been all
along.
I had allowed it to become all
about me and what I thought and
what I could do. In fact, if you
reread the previous paragraphs you
can see just how many times I used
the word “I!”
My pride (and yours too!) is one
of the main things that prevents me
from receiving from God. Whenever
I decide to take matters into my own
hands and try to do everything in my
own strength, I am being prideful…
which limits the power and movement of God’s Spirit in my life.
Let’s take a look at James 4:6. In
my Amplified Bible, it says, …God
sets Himself against the proud and
haughty, but gives grace [continually] to the lowly (those who are
humble enough to receive it).
I’ve always thought that was
interesting. Not only does James say
that God will not give His grace to
the proud and haughty, he says that
God actually sets Himself against
those who think more highly of
themselves than they should. When
we believe that we don’t need God,
that we can do everything all by
ourselves, in our own strength, you
can be sure that we are being proud
and haughty!
But look at the second part of that
verse. James goes on to say that God
will continually give grace to those
who choose humility over pride.
God’s grace is always available to
those who are humble enough to
receive it. In other words, God will
pour out His grace on those who
know they need it!
Before I could really write the
article today that God wanted me to
write, I had to admit that I could not
do it in my own strength. I had to
surrender my own thoughts and feelings and my will to Him and allow
His grace to flow. Only then did the
words start to come and the article
begin to take shape.
How about you? What are you
striving for today? Are there things
in your life that you are struggling
to do in your own strength? It’s time
to “let go and let God.” That might
be an old saying, but it’s true…every
word. You need to let go of those
things that you are stressing out
about or those things that are causing frustration and allow God to give
you grace to accomplish those things
in His way and in His time.
Remember, your pride actually
causes God to set Himself against
the things you are working on. But
when you admit your weakness and
humble yourself before Him, His
grace comes rushing in and everything changes for the better.
JOYCE MEYER
For more on this topic, you may
order Joyce’s six-part series, Grace,
Grace, and More Grace, which is
available by calling 1-800-727-9673
or visiting www.joycemeyer.org.
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 13
What Would Sheriff Jerry Do?
in southern Nevada. But one has to ask - why would he take on this challenge and not stay
a slalom course rather than a thoroughfare. Many of the lanes blocked off in the private sector, running a successful business? “I absolutely know in my heart that I would be good at this,” Airola says
rarely get any work accomplished on them. A construction company needs a
permit to set up those cones. Guess who issues those permits: Metro. Airola with an assuring tone. “I mean, I would really be an out-of-the-box sheriff. I
will not issue a permit unless the work will be done in a timely manner and would create a better environment for the officers. Better than they’ve ever
had.”
that includes getting those barricades up and out of the streets. He’s looking out for the people and the police. The public and the
Creating a general idea that the police are helping the community, rather
than punishing it, is what Airola is shooting for. “This starts by recruiting bureaucrats know that when an outsider comes into an organization, he will
look for accountability. Airola is certain that’s what this department needs. police officers from the area they live and letting them patrol there.” Continued on page 11
Airola’s plans to up department morale
Airola is indeed a cop
Assigning officers to the area’s they live is a solution to having a task
force enter neighborhoods they’re not familiar with. It also encourages
accountability on part of the captain of each area command. And for the
officers working a beat in their neck of the woods, it creates a sense of
pride and ownership. It harkens back to the nostalgic days of yesteryear, the
images of children walking on the sidewalk with a ball and bat alongside
the officer working his beat. “These cops need to have an environment that is fun to work in and a
place they look forward to going everyday,” he says.
Airola believes that modern technology will go a long way to make the
police officers’ job more efficient and save time. A police officer starts his
day by driving to an area command to get his briefing and pick up a vehicle.
Airola believes that each officer could easily save 30 minutes per day if he
took his vehicle home at night and was able to start his day with a “virtual
briefing” that was played out to him in his police car via an on-board computer system. Airola says that 30 minutes saved becomes 30 minutes of
additional work that each officer can give to the community. Now we’ll do the math. If you have 700 officers working each shift and
they all waste only 30 minutes, you really only have one-third of that shift
working at a time.
“So how much time will this give back to the community?” Airola asks.
“A lot when you’re talking about 250 or more guys working a half hour
extra. That’s 125 hours. How many more calls could we answer with 125
extra hours to work with?”
Part of the encouragement to motivate a cop is to give him or her
resources to do their job. If you tell Airola that you can head his gang-task
force, rest assured he’s going to demand that within three months you fulfill
his gang-related needs. And he’ll give that cop whatever he or she needs to
accomplish that mission.
“But I need results from you in those three months,” Airola said. “I don’t
want an idea for a solution in three months; I want to see a marked difference, week after week after week.
“And if you find out that you’re lacking something, come to me. All I
care about is that you get the job done in those three months.”
By trusting his officers to accomplish the tasks they take ownership of,
Airola instills morale in his department. Some of that countenance may have
been picked up when he was on the Morale Committee back in Los Banos,
Calif.
“If we just made our department more efficient,” Airola wished. One way he intends to is by pulling in the old dogs. It’s not uncommon
to create an auxiliary police force. With a few thousand retired police officers in Clark County, Airola wants to create a fully sworn-in position to help
alleviate some of the demands on Metro. These retired cops would have a
badge and a gun and would work on cold case files, identity theft and other
low impact investigations.
Airola’s got his work cut out for him. As an outsider who wants to rally
the troops, Airola wants to create an entirely new image for police officers
Airola worked as a full-time police officer in California in the early
‘90s. He was a DRE (Drug Recognition Expert), investigating stolen-vehicle crimes, sex crimes and homicide. Airola was the President of the Police
Officers Association and “Advisor of the Year” for the police explorer post.
When Airola moved to Las Vegas in 1995, he gave up his full--time police
officer position and became a Reserve Deputy Sheriff.
After starting Silver State Helicopters, Airola went back to a refresher
police academy in Napa, Calif., so that he could bring his police certification current. He was then sworn in as a Deputy Sheriff in Merced County
in 2004.
It is true that he has not worked for that department in 10 months. Airola
was a full-time cop until moving to Vegas in 1995, where he became a
reserve police officer. After going back to the academy in 2004, he became
the Deputy Sheriff for Merced County. As it turned out, many of San Bernardino’s deputies were living in
Nevada as well. An obscure law from the 1800s recently surfaced, stating that California deputies and marshals have to live in the state of
California.
When Airola heard about this, he called his sheriff, who informed Airola
that the law was an issue they had to address and that it was going in front
of the state legislation to be appealed. He assured Airola it wouldn’t take
long. “He suggested I take a leave of absence until things blow over,” Airola
said. That was in February of this year.
“A couple of months later, I called the sheriff and said, ‘Hey, I’m running for sheriff of Clark County.’ He asked if he could help with anything.
And I asked him about the leave of absence issue. He was sure the legislature was just a few weeks away from settling it.” To avoid the confusion, conflict of interest and any trouble, Airola
extended his leave of absence. While he may not have been walking a beat everyday since first graduating from the academy in 1990, Jerry Airola has been a part of the lawenforcement community, as a sworn deputy sheriff and as a volunteer with
Silver State Helicopters.
He has experience as a real cop and he is one hell of a model citizen,
willing to donate and help with his services in any way possible. Where
was any other businessman or cop from Clark County when Elizabeth
Smart went missing? How did the current Metro administration really add
a helping hand during the national crisis of Hurricane Katrina? It’s not their
jurisdiction, sure. But Jerry Airola was there, above the flood waters. And
he was there to help a woman reconnect with her son.
He’s been outside looking in. But he has the training and the knowledge and the right mind to empower the police agency to become the most
respected in the world.
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 14
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 15
Pet Of The Week
Adopt This Pet !
My name is
ASMILES - ID#A048223
I am a spayed female,
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The shelter thinks I am
about 5 years old.
I have been at the
shelter since Jul 26,
2006.
For more information about
this animal, call:
The Animal Foundation — Las
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Ask for information about
animal ID number
THE PENNY PRESS, AUGUST 10, 2006 PAGE 16