March 27, 2013 - Las Vegas Tribune

Transcription

As Jones leaves CCSD,
he leaves questions
in his wake
Obamacare at age 3:
Why political battles
are exploding anew
Gay marriage: How
Supreme Court cases
could end with a whimper
PAGE 10
PAGE 11
PAGE 12
Volume 15, Issue 3
March 27-April 2, 2013
1996 Murder Case Covered Up By
Metro Resurfaces With A Vengeance
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
A 1996 Alamo Murder case,
which allegedly involved the Las
Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Narcotics Section, has resurfaced and is rearing its ugly head.
Detective Gordon Martines, the
most senior working police officer
in the entire police force, who
started his investigation into this
case ten years ago, is preparing to
obtain legal depositions from his
numerous direct court law enforcement officer witnesses, including
current and retired police officers,
and current and retired special
agents of the FBI and the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
(BATF).
Martines is a three-time candidate for Sheriff of Clark County,
founder and former president of
STOP DUI, and Plaintiff in an un-
My Point
of View
By Rolando Larraz
During my Face the Tribune interview last Friday with City Council candidate and fellow journalist
Frank Geary, we talked about how
some journalists seclude themselves and how he, Frank, never
hides from anyone and stands behind what he reports to the readers
of the publication he works for.
During that segment of the radio show, I told him – and, of
course, the audience as well – that
I don’t like people to know where I
live and that I don’t have any utilities or a telephone number in my
name and I don’t get any bills at my
home.
First of all, there is a big difference (in my humble opinion) between being a reporter or even an
investigative reporter, and being a
columnist, and everyone knows
that.
In most cases, a columnist writes
his personal opinion – not even the
newspaper’s opinion, which is what
the editorial is – and my opinion,
in many cases, is considered aggressive, controversial, and even in
some cases, in poor taste, because
when someone in a high or powerful position is criticized, they don’t
understand how a small newspaper
like the Las Vegas Tribune, or
someone with an accent, like me,
has the audacity to write the truth
(which exposes them or hurts them)
and they can’t take it or tolerate it.
Writing for a self-proclaimed
“powerful newspaper” – since the
management thinks their poop
doesn’t stink and most of the politicians are afraid of them – is a very
different story and people don’t
have the urge to retaliate as much
as they do with a small newspaper.
Besides, I don’t like surprises.
I’ve always been a very private person, very secluded, and enjoy and
love my privacy. When I am home,
I don’t like anyone knocking on my
door interrupting whatever it is that
I may be doing and I am planning
to stay like that for a very long time
to come. I think I can count on my
fingers the number of people that
know my real address, and even like
that I pull into the garage and that
is it.
You see, my friend, City Council candidate Frank Geary, had been
working for the Review-Journal,
the “only” newspaper in town, for
11 years; and that is the way they
wanted to keep it; the Las Vegas
Sun is inside the newspaper as a
“section” and not too many people
pay attention to that “section,” and
the Review-Journal is under a very
(See My Point of View, Page 2)
Detective Gordon Martines
precedented Federal Lawsuit
against Las Vegas Metropolitan
Police Department, Sheriff Douglas
Gillespie and fifteen other defendants.
During this preparation, our police sources confirmed that evidence, statements, photos, composites and a whole list of associated
individuals connected to Detective
Martines’s stolen ten-year-old homicide investigation case has resurfaced and will be presented to the
Attorney General’s Office – and
possibly the Federal Justice Department, but definitely not back to
Metro – for prosecution.
Prior to the present “resurfacing”
of this Alamo Murder Case, all evidence and notes relating to this
murder investigation were “stolen”
or “illegally removed” from Detective Martines’s desk, and possibly
destroyed, on or before November
7, 2010.
Detective Martines’s murder investigation eventually revealed the
complicity of the LVMPD Narcotics Section, whereby a copy of a
registered narcotics informant
worksheet was given to identified
illegal drug dealers, who in turn
located the narcotics informant,
forcibly drove him to a summer
cabin in Alamo, Nevada, tied the
informant to a chair with an orange
electrical extension cord, and then
shot the informant in the head, killing him.
The informant’s body was then
taken to a specific spot with a predug hole in the desert, and buried
just outside of Alamo.
Police sources indicate that every imaginable police administrative obstacle was put in place over
a ten-year period, including stealing the entire case from Det.
Martines’s working desk, in order
to prevent Detective Martines from
pursuing and bringing to justice
those involved in this murder,
Las Vegas Sheriff Douglas Gillespie
which also included law enforce- tective Martines’s current medical
ment officers that were complicit in heart condition.
this murder.
What makes the “resurfacing” of
The November 7, 2010 incident this murder case so relevant and imin which Det. Martines’s life was portant is that the police
threatened by his immediate super- department’s attorneys have alluded
visor, and he was degraded by eth- that Detective Martines is not crednic/racial slurs and was immedi- ible when speaking about the stoately transferred, relieved of duty, len murder case from his ransacked
and had his working desk com- desk.
pletely ransacked – as we reported,
Granted, it would be very diffialong with photo, in a Las Vegas cult to prove that the case even exTribune front page article – and all isted now without any evidence or
of his criminal files, evidence, con- reports to back it up. But with the
fessions, tapes and data encompass- recently resurfaced, saved and coping at least 30 active criminal cases, ied documents, evidence, photos,
were stolen, removed, and/or de- composites and the long list of as(See Murder Case, Page 4)
stroyed, directly contributed to De-
False allegations and lies could be the reason
Councilman Steve Ross Running Scared
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
Right in the middle of the early
voting process and within days of
the April 2 primary election, a desperately incumbent Las Vegas City
Council in Ward 6, Steve Ross, distributed flyers full of inconsistencies and lies against the one challenger that could take him out of
office, Suzette La Grange.
Immediately, as soon as the flyers hit the streets with the hate mail,
La Grange met with attorney Daniel
Stewart and prepared a Cease and
Desist notice that was hand-delivered to Councilman Ross.
In a press release that was sent
to the local media as well as other
members of the community and
residents in Ward 6, Ms. La
Grange’s campaign manager, Cory
Christensen, made the following
statement:
“It is bad enough that the citizens in Ward 6 have been missing
their representative in the City
Council as Steve Ross has been try-
SUZETTE LA GRANGE
ing to play Mayor; now, in a desperate smear campaign, he is outright and knowingly lying to the
people who elected him.”
LaGrange, who has spent the last
18 years working to bring new businesses to the Las Vegas area, says
this kind of behavior is exactly why
she chose to run against Ross.
LaGrange is calling the mail piece
a “desperate and dishonest campaign tactic.”
“As a member of this community, I believe it is a time for a
change in the way our government
is run, which means changing who
is running it,” LaGrange explained.
“I have made a firm commitment
to put the development and success
of Ward 6 first, and would never
allow my own political aspirations
to trump my duty to be honest,” an
obviously upset La Grange told the
Las Vegas Tribune before she
walked into a meeting on Tuesday
morning.
In the Cease and Desist notice,
which was delivered to Ross on
Friday afternoon, Attorney Stewart
numbered several of the false statements made by Ross in the flyer
among them, and we quote because
it is important that the constituents
in Ward 6 know what kind of person is representing them.
“They are all lies and people in
Ward 6 should be aware of that,”
said Cory Christensen, who took
the time to explain all the inconsistencies one by one in a telephone
Child “Welfare” Industry
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
Part Three of a Series
We are continuing the narrative
of Tonia Jones, a 28-year-old
mother whose 18-month-old son
was taken from her at birth and
immediately placed in Adoptive
Foster Care. Tonia has been given
second class standing in Family
Court as the Adoptive Foster Care
parent is given preferential treatment and standing by Judge Frank
Sullivan, even though three agencies have put their approval on
Tonia’s reunification with her son.
Tonia and her father, Herbert
Jones, and two of her siblings are
anxiously waiting to hold 18month-old Baby Jones in their
arms, yet as of this date, the Jones
Family does not have him in the
beautiful room that awaits his arrival! Every day they await the
phone call telling them that Baby
Jones is coming home. There are
many empty hearts in a waiting
home right now and one baby in
foster care who does not know who
his birth mother really is.
We are aware that there are glar-
ing financial incentives to always
increase the number of children in
(See Family Court, Page 4)
Tonia and her father, Herbert Jones
STEVE ROSS
conversation with the Las Vegas
Tribune.
1) First accusation by Ross:
Suzette was a lobbyist for NAIOP
when NAIOP presented a plan to
the legislature to allow for toll roads
on US95.
Truth: Suzette has never been a
paid lobbyist. She does volunteer
as a member of NAIOP. There are
many committees within NAIOP,
and in 2009 when this plan was presented, Suzette was on the membership committee and had absolutely
no involvement in NAIOP’s government affairs committee.
2) Accusation: Suzette was a
Toll Road lobbyist
Truth: Same as above with the
added comment that in 2010
Suzette joined the Government Affairs committee for NAIOP. This is
an unpaid, volunteer position, not
one of a lobbyist. NAIOP does in
fact hire a paid lobbying firm to represent their interests. Suzette has
never been paid in any form for her
work to promote her industry.
NAIOP has not ever proposed toll
roads for US95 while Suzette has
been on the Government Affairs
committee.
3) Accusation: Suzette
LaGrange’s Plan to charge drivers
a fee to travel on US-95
Truth: Suzette has never had
any toll/fee plan at all.
It is important for voters to know
that Suzette has never led any lobbying group.
And Since Suzette has never
proposed any form of fee/toll for
travel on US-95, there has never
been a “LaGrange Toll.”
Page 2 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / March 27-April 2, 2013
U.S. Supreme Court to take up
Michigan affirmative action case
At issue in the Michigan affirmative action case is whether a ballot initiative violated the rights of
minority students to try to influence school officials to adopt race-conscious admissions plans.
By Warren Richey
Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to
examine whether a 2006 ballot initiative banning affirmative action at
public universities in Michigan violates the equal protection rights of
minorities.
Fifty-eight percent of Michigan
voters approved Proposal 2, which
amended the state constitution to
prohibit discrimination or preferential treatment in college admissions
based on race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.
Civil rights groups and minority students sued to block the measure, arguing that the constitutional
amendment erected disadvantageous barriers to those advocating
for the use of racial identity and ethnic background to grant preferential consideration to minority candidates by college admissions officers.
By targeting racial classifications in college admissions, propo-
TRIBUNE
VOL. 15, NO. 3
FOUNDER
Rolando Larraz
PUBLISHER
AND
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Rolando Larraz
GENERAL MANAGER
Perly Viasmensky
PRODUCTION
Don Snook
MANAGING EDITOR
Maramis Choufani
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Colleen Lloyd
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Quote of the Week:
“I believe you are your work.
Don’t trade the stuff of your
life–time–for nothing more
than dollars. That’s a rotten
bargain.”
—Rita Mae Brown
MISSION
STATEMENT
We search for the truth, embrace the truth, and print the truth.
If we inadvertently print something that is not true, we will let
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our community, and it is our intention to serve our community
the best way we can.
In this file photo, University of Michigan student Ebrie Benton (left) demonstrates outside the Federal
courthouse last year in Cincinnati, where the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in a
review of their 2011 ruling that Proposal 2, the ban on affirmative action in Michigan, is unconstitutional.
The US Supreme Court agreed to take up the case on Monday.
nents of the ban on racial classifi- upheld Proposal 2. A sharply di- of the 14th Amendment.
cations were themselves guilty of vided Sixth US Circuit Court of
The central issue in the case is
using such classifications, they ar- Appeals reversed, ruling 8 to 7 that what the Constitution’s guarantee of
gued.
the ban on affirmative action vio- equal protection actually protects.
A federal judge disagreed and lated the Equal Protection Clause
It is well established that it pro-
My Point of View
long lines and saw our front page
(Continued from Page 1)
false impression that they are “untouchable.”
No, no! I take it back, they know
that they are not untouchables, but
they like to make people believe
that they are untouchables.
The normal everyday people are
impressed with their big building
and other material things; the politicians may know that they are not
untouchable, but they’re afraid to
be exposed – or even worse, to be
victims of the newspaper’s vindictive exposure in front page articles
when they (the politicians) somehow get onto the newspaper’s hit
(or black) list.
A good example of what I am
saying here today concerns two different recent cases that the Las Vegas Tribune has covered: the long
lines in front of the Regional Justice Center, and the behind-closeddoors business regarding the adoption of children with the knowledge
– if not participation – of Family
Court employees and judges.
The Review-Journal has an office inside the Regional Justice
Center; the reporter assigned to the
RJC passes through those long lines
of people waiting to go to court at
least twice every day and they never
moved a finger to do anything about
it.
After several local attorneys
contacted the Las Vegas Tribune to
complain about the mistreatment
they were receiving from the marshals at the Regional Justice Center, and I personally took the matter to the county commissioners, the
South Gate was reopened and the
long lines of people in front of the
RJC ended.
As soon as the newspaper reporter saw me taking pictures of the
article on the matter, they followed
my lead and ran the story.
Probably someone saw me in
front of the county commissioners
speaking on behalf of those attorneys and the unfair treatment they
have been receiving, and on behalf
of the people of Las Vegas who
were forced to stay in those long
lines under any weather conditions,
and then they decided to “do something about it right away.”
Only days after the Las Vegas
Tribune ran the story by yours truly
on the adoption scam that is going
on at Family Court with Department of Family Services (DFS) and
Child Protective Services (CPS,)
the family of Baby Jones was notified by someone that their case was
going to be reviewed again to return the child to the legitimate
mother and the family.
If the article would have run in
the daily paper, I am almost sure
that Judge Frank Sullivan would
have contacted the writer to offer
his side of the story; but up to today, despite the fact that Judge
Sullivan knows me, knows where
to contact me, and knows how accessible I always am, he has never
tried to contact me; in fact, he never
returned my phone call when I
called him to get his side of the story
before it ran on the front page of
the Las Vegas Tribune.
Public or elected officials are
always afraid of what the daily
newspaper may write about them
because their constituents may believe what they read. Consider these
recent “case in hand” incidents that
I consider despicable: the situation
with Assemblyman Steve Brooks of
North Las Vegas and that of Las
Vegas Township Constable John
Bonaventura.
The latter already lost not only
his elected position, but the office
as a whole; and the first one is also
on the way out with the help of cold
blooded cowardly politicians
(afraid of the newspaper’s alleged
power) who teamed up with the
daily paper to get their target out of
office.
I don’t know Assemblyman
Brooks and, in all honesty, I had
never heard his name before the
daily started blasting him, so I don’t
have a reason to defend him other
than I am always bragging that this
newspaper is the voice of those who
do not have a voice; but what they
are doing to the man is flat out
wrong and may even be illegal.
The last time I had any contact
with Constable John Bonaventura
was in May 2011, six months after
he took office, when the two of us
and eight other people had lunch at
the Golden Nugget.
Later on, his mouthpiece – Lou
Toomin – told me that the Constable
does not like me, probably because
tects against political obstructions
that would hinder or undermine
equal treatment of black students
and white students.
But the question in the Michigan case is whether it also protects
against political obstructions that
make it more difficult for minority
students to obtain preferential treatment in college admissions based
on race or ethnicity.
“It is exceedingly odd to say that
a statute which bars a state from
discriminating on the basis of race
violates the Equal Protection Clause
because it discriminates on the basis of race and sex. Yet that is precisely what the [Sixth Circuit] majority held here,” Michigan Solicitor General John Bursch wrote in
his brief to the high court.
“Until now, no court has ever
held that, apart from remedying
specific past discrimination, a government must engage in affirmative
action,” Mr. Bursch said.
He said the case presented a
question of “immense importance.”
At issue is whether state governments are free to replace race-conscious affirmative action admissions plans with race-neutral alternatives as a means to achieve class(See Affirmative Action, Page 3)
the Las Vegas Tribune did not endorse him and I, personally, did not
support him. And because I don’t
give a flying IT, I never saw him
after that.
But again, in all fairness and as
I told County Commissioner Chris
Giunchigliani during a telephone
conversation, what they did to the
people of Las Vegas Township is
wrong and it is inconceivable.
Bonaventura is going to finish
out his term and after that the
elected office will be closed, eliminated, so who will be losing? The
people of the Las Vegas Township
that are losing an elected office? or
the Constable that most likely
would not have been reelected?
My name is Rolando Larraz, and
as always, I approved this column.
*****
Rolando Larraz is Editor in
Chief of the Las Vegas Tribune. His
column appears weekly in this
newspaper. To contact Rolando
Larraz,
email
him
at:
[email protected] or
at (702) 699-8111.
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March 27-April 2, 2013 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 3
CITY BEAT
If Assemblyman Wesley Duncan has his way,
16-year-olds would be able to donate blood
WESLEY DUNCAN
Assemblyman Wesley Duncan
testified before the Assembly Committee on Health and Human Services in favor of Assembly Bill 183.
Sponsored by Assemblyman
Duncan, AB183 would revise Nevada statue to enable any person
who is 16 years of age to donate
blood with the consent of his or her
parent or guardian.
Duncan emphasized, “For
many high school-aged students
their first exposure to blood donation is at their school blood drive.
By allowing students 16 years of
age to donate with consent of their
guardian they are much more likely
to continue donating throughout
their life.”
“By becoming a blood donor at
an early age, Nevada youths are
able to garner a sense of civic responsibility. They are able to save
up to three lives with just one blood
donation,” said Assemblyman
Duncan.
Currently Nevada Revised Statutes only allow for persons 17 years
of age or older to donate blood.
*****
As a long time supporter of civil
rights and liberties, Natalie Smith,
a local paralegal and secretary of
Nevada Cure is bewildered and angered by the ACLU’s support (under the heading “equality”!) for AB
74, which would establish fees and
registration of documents
preparers, who are often the only
access to the legal system for poor
communities in Nevada. How is
this equality? Why would the
ACLU support such a bill?
If the ACLU was worried about
equality, it would propose and support legislation to require increased
pro bono hours by attorneys, AND
not give attorneys a pass by paying
a few hundred dollars. Poor people
do not trust the legal community
because the legal community is not
trustworthy. This is not about paralegals. This is about attorneys taking people’s money and leaving
them high and dry without legal
help. These lawyers – and yes, there
are many in Nevada – are called
dump trucks.
Low income communities need
paralegals. We can’t afford attorneys’outrageous fees. Additionally,
how many attorneys in Nevada
have EVER done a pro bono case
for a prisoner? Prisoners in Nevada
are going blind from denial of basic medical care, denied their basic
rights in the form of hearing aids
and other assistive devices, suffering physical and sexual abuse, retaliation for use of the grievance
process and other violations of their
constitutional rights. Nevada attorneys, with VERY few exceptions,
do not assist prisoners. Now the
ACLU would like to take away the
paralegals who do help them... and
under the heading of “equality”?
Really?
Please reconsider your support
for AB 74. It is bad for poor people
and anyone who has been, and continues to be, denied access to the
court system, says Ms. Smith.
*****
NANCY HEIMERLE
The law firm of Hutchison &
Steffen is pleased to welcome
Nancy Heimerle as an associate attorney with the firm. Heimerle
practices primarily business litigation and family law.
“We are excited to have Nancy
join our business litigation and family law practice areas,” says Firm
co-founder and managing partner,
John T. Steffen. “She is a seasoned
professional in both areas and is a
strong addition to the Firm.”
Heimerle
received
her
Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Nevada, Reno. She then
earned a Jurist Doctor from the
Affirmative Action
room diversity.
In addition to Michigan, seven other states have undertaken such efforts: Arizona, California, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma,
and Washington.
The petition reached the high court at a time when the justices are
preparing to rule on whether a race-based affirmative action plan at the
University of Texas violates the equal protection rights of white students
applying for admission.
There are two different groups that filed suit against Proposal 2. One
urged the Supreme Court to take up the case; the other said the justices
should not hear the case.
If the court had declined to hear the case it would have permitted the
Sixth Circuit decision to remain in full force in the four states covered by
that appeals court.
“The vice of Proposal 2 is that it selectively shuts off access to the
ordinary political process for advocates of otherwise constitutionally permissible race-conscious policies,” wrote Mark Rosenbaum, a lawyer with
the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, in his brief urging the court
not to take up the case.
He said the ballot initiative entrenched the anti-affirmative action approach in the state constitution, making it extremely difficult for supporters of affirmative action to repeal it. Yet, at the same time, those advocating race-neutral admissions factors such as legacy status, socioeconomic
background, or athletics are still able to use less burdensome avenues to
change or maintain admissions policies. This represents unequal treatment, he said.
Another lawyer challenging the ballot initiative, George Washington
of Detroit, said in his brief that Proposal 2 creates an unequal structure of
government that imposes on minority students a burden no other citizens
have to endure when seeking to change admissions standards.
“Proposal 2 deprived racial minorities of equal political rights by prohibiting the governing bodies [of public universities] from adopting by
simple majority vote any plan that granted ‘preferential treatment’ to minority applicants,” Mr. Washington said.
In urging the high court to take up the case, Washington said the Sixth
Circuit decision is in conflict with a decision in the Ninth Circuit upholding California’s ban on race-based affirmative action. He said the split
was deep and irreconcilable.
“Many well-qualified minority students can only gain admission to
leading universities if those universities have adopted a lawful affirmative action program,” he wrote.
He defined the issue as whether “a state may deny a racial minority the
right to fight for the adoption of programs that will allow its youth to
attend the universities.”
The case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action (12-682),
will be heard in the court’s next term, which begins in October.
William S. Boyd School of Law at
the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. After graduating from law
school, Heimerle became a staff
attorney for the Children’s Attorneys Project of Clark County Legal Services, where she practiced
for years in civil litigation.
The law firm of Hutchison &
Steffen, a Martindale-Hubbell AVrated law firm, provides a wide variety of legal services, including
business law and commercial litigation, trust and probate litigation,
appellate litigation, insurance litigation, landlord/tenant law,
healthcare professionals advocacy,
professional liability defense, alternative dispute resolution, personal
injury, bankruptcy law, creditor’s
rights, construction law, employment law, asset protection and business planning, real estate law, corporate and commercial law, family
law, and administrative law.
*****
RICHARD HARRIS
The Richard Harris Law Firm is
challenging Southern Nevada teens
to compete in its annual video public service announcement (PSA)
contest this spring. Now in its fourth
year, this year’s contest focuses on
the topic of bullying. Currently enrolled high school students (grades
9 to 12) in Clark County, Nevada,
are encouraged to submit their selfmade video PSA for consideration.
The Richard Harris Law Firm encourages students to creatively ex-
press true stories and life experiences to illustrate the important issue of bullying in society. The videos must be 30 seconds in length,
contain no vulgar or inappropriate
content and should be all original
images and background music.
“It has become a disturbing trend
over the past few years to hear about
more children and teenagers bullied
at school and online,” says Richard
Harris, Founder of the Richard Harris Law Firm. “Many children are
being sent to school in the morning
and tortured by their peers personally and throughout the day on social networks. Too often we wake
up to news about another child assaulted at school or taking their own
life because of the physical and
emotional pain they have to endure.
If we can draw enough attention to
the issue and impact even one child,
we’ve done our job.”
*****
Big Bed Bug Bust
K-9 Sweeps, the only pest control company in Las Vegas that fo-
cuses exclusively on bed bugs, is
looking for Las Vegas bed bug infestation horror stories and will provide to the person or family having
the most egregious infestation in a
single-family home the K-9
Sweeps’ state-of-the-art bed bug
elimination method.
Families and individuals should
email their bed bug horror stories
and up to two photos to
[email protected] by
April 15th at midnight. Entries
should describe the bed bug problem in no more than 300 words,
verify that their home is a single
family home, and include first and
last name and a contact telephone
number. Winning entries may be
used in promotional photos/films.
Entries must be received by midnight, April 15, 2013.
City Beat is a compilation of
news and views of our editorial and
writing team, along with reader
submissions and topics. Readers
are invited to suggest a local topic
or any other items of interest.
Gun control: Public support is waning, poll finds
Even as Congress prepares to vote on gun control legislation, public support for stricter gun
laws has fallen from 57 percent after the Newtown massacre to 47 percent in a new poll.
By Mark Guarino
Christian science Monitor
As Congress prepares to vote on
a comprehensive gun control bill
next month, a poll released Tuesday shows that public support is
waning for restrictions on gun ownership.
According to a CBS News poll,
less than half the public (47 percent)
now supports stricter gun control
laws, compared with 57 percent in
late December following the mass
shooting at an elementary school in
Newtown, Conn.
Those who say they want less
strict gun regulation (10 percent)
has hardly wavered in that time period, although those who want current gun laws kept as they are has
increased four percentage points,
from 30 to 34 percent. The poll of
1,181 adults across the country was
conducted March 20-24 and has a
sampling error of plus or minus
three percentage points.
The Newtown massacre, which
left 20 children and six adults dead,
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada addresses reporters at a news conference on Capitol Hill
in Washington, March 14. Senator Reid has said he removed an assault weapons ban from a wider gun bill
because he determined it would not garner the votes needed to pass restrictions.
ignited a national debate over because he determined it would not
harsher restrictions on guns, par- garner the votes needed to pass.
ticularly assault weapons. However
“I’m not going to try to put
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid something on the floor that won’t
sociates and witnesses that helped with, or had knowledge of, the
(D) of Nevada announced this succeed. I want something that will
Alamo murder case and the Narcotics Section involvement, Martines
month he was excluding an assault succeed. The worst thing in the
feels he can go forward. Such witnesses include:
weapons ban from a wider gun bill world would be to bring something
Former Lt. John Alamshaw, former Sgt. Al Cervantes, former Lt.
Ted Snodgrass, former Lt. Lew Roberts, Sgt. James (Tom) Melton,
Lt. Clinton Nichols, Cpt. Patrick Neville, former Asst. Sheriff Anthony Lozich, Asst. Sheriff Theodore Moody, former Asst. Sheriff
Raymond Flynn, Undersheriff James Dixon, Deputy Chief James
Owens, Sheriff Douglas Gillespie, former Sheriff Bill Young, former
Asst. Sheriff Michael McClary, former Undersheriff Rod Jett, former
Deputy Chief Dennis Cobb, Asst. Sheriff of Lincoln County Gary
Davis, Lincoln County DA, Special Agent Lawrence Wenco, Special
Agent Richard Beasley, Special Agent Doug Fantauzzi, former Corrections Officer Gregory Naglich, Corrections Officer Kevin Strobeck,
Special to the Las Vegas Tribune
and about fifteen various other Detectives in the LVMPD Robbery/
Introducing 5iveSpot, a mobile
Homicide Bureau.
social network where users create
Numerous police sources as well as this newspaper believe that
and share personal video messages
the “top lid” of this police administration is going to be blown off if
(vms) and view short form video
and when this rediscovered, recreated and resurfaced murder investientertainment on mobile devices.
gation gets underway by anyone other than the local police depart5iveSpot’s mobile network is dediment.
cated to providing a social and enWhen the facts and circumstances of this case, and the blatant,
tertainment connection for the Afcorrupted actions of the police administration and leadership is rerican American mobile community.
vealed, this community will sleep a little better and feel a little safer.
According to the “Nielsen State of
This type of activity by the powers that be – corruption and targetthe African-American Consumer”
ing of individuals, including the taking of one’s life for whatever reastudy done in 2012, African Amerison – can happen to anyone for any reason, and far too often does.
cans are a tech savvy group where
“The individuals responsible for this ‘horrific coverup’ need to be
over 54 percent of all people own a digital platform that provides video
prosecuted to the full extent of the law, regardless of who is involved,”
smartphone.
touch points for this socially enone source who asked to remain anonymous told the Las Vegas TriThis speaks to a hyper-con- gaged and connected audience.”
bune. The coverup is always worse than the actual illegal action, exnected and socially progressive
5iveSpot is a one-stop social
cept when you are indirectly or directly involved in a coverup of the
smartphone user base which ex- network where users can create,
loss and devaluing of a single human life, which is what may be enceeds 22 million people and grow- send and receive sms text, photo or
countered here.
ing. 5iveSpot, Co-Founder, D video messages up to 5 minutes.
The Tribune will keep a close eye on what transpires next to see if
Daudi Cole, Jr., comments, “The Members can also enjoy a free subthe police department administration is going to be up to their old
African-American community le- scription to the very latest and greattricks of threatening the witnesses to remain silent in this horrific
verages the power of mobile to di- est in bite sized video entertainment
coverup exposure.
gest, interact and communicate and from the 5iveSpot network of chanour mission and charter is to offer a nels. 5iveSpot airs daily video content chosen from a vast community
of broadcasters, contributor sites,
non-profits, etc. – are just upping
An actual criminal has more of bloggers and industry taste makers.
the system. There is more of a fi- the ante on the transference of mon- a chance of getting justice then an The 5iveSpot network of entertainnancial incentive to adopt them out ies into the system and this may be innocent legitimate family unit.
to strangers then to family mem- exactly what transpired in the kid- Every family is at risk of the State
bers. And we believe Baby Jones napping of Baby Jones.
taking their child(ren) for no other
fell into that “system.” Earlier we
We are going to question the reason than that they just can. Famiexplained that the State is entitled measures they use to assist in ille- lies take a risk of having their child
to $6,000 to $12,000 per child per gal “evidence,” the falsification of kidnapped if they deliver in a hosmonth for each child in the system, documents, anonymous hotlines, pital. Families take a risk of having
and that figure probably does not horrific and shocking tricks used to their children kidnapped if they
reflect other hidden monies like kidnap children from unsuspecting send them to public school. FamiMedicare, Mental Health, Non- families, and accusations of “ne- lies take a risk of having their chilProfits, Adoption Subsidies, etc. If glect” or possible future “neglect” dren kidnapped if they seek mental
children are removed on an that is used to remove children. We health assistance. Families take a
“EMERGENCY REMOVAL,” did a random call and asked if a risk of having their children kidthere are even extra federal mon- child can be removed if the floor napped if they themselves have a
ies. Is there any wonder why Baby needs sweeping. We were told disability – not to mention if they
Jones is still in this system?
“yes.” If this doesn’t scare you, I’ll are poor, uneducated and do not
We did report that the Jones confess it scares me! What house- speak English.
Family is quite capable of raising hold with children has a spotless
The Las VegasTribune will conBaby Jones without any taxpayer floor? At some time, something is tinue this assault until we see a redollars for assistance. That is what going to fall on it, spill, whatever, unification of Baby Jones with his
makes this case even more difficult and if it is at the time when your mother, Tonia. We may just have to
to explain. Why isn’t Baby Jones door bell rings, and Child Protec- make it our goal to take back one
home with his mom and biological tive Services are there for a quick child at a time until this agony –
family? It’s a puzzle, but we are look, you could lose your inflicted on families from the sysgoing to continue trying to put the child(ren)!
tem – ends.
pieces together until Baby Jones
comes home! We are going to focus on the stats, money flow and
the absolute glaring financial incentives states receive to feed their
budgets with massive TITLE IV
funding surrounding the “child welfare” industry.
We find it very suspicious that
the money flowing to those who
assist the child welfare industry –
such as hospitals, public schools,
mental health, contract attorneys,
Murder Case
to the floor and it dies there,” Senator Reid said. By his estimation, the
legislation had support from fewer
than 40 senators. At least 60 votes
are needed for passage.
President Obama is calling for a
vote on the ban as a symbolic measure. White House Deputy Press
Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Tuesday it “will be a question
for all 100 members of the Senate
to ask themselves about whether or
not they think that voting for and
supporting an assault weapons ban
would actually do something to reduce gun violence in communities
all across the country... We’re going to have that debate.”
The current gun control legislation will include a proposal for universal background checks and provisions to eliminate straw purchases
of guns. The vote could come as
early as April 8 when the Senate
returns to session.
Perhaps serving as an indicator
for how the Senate will vote, the
current CBS poll shows that well
over half of Democrats (66 percent)
favor stricter gun control laws,
joined by only one-third of Republicans (29 percent) and 43 percent
of independents. In February, 78
percent of Democrats supported
harsher gun laws.
New Mobile Social Video Network
for the African-American Audience
5iveSpot Delivers Social Video Messaging and Urban
Entertainment Network for mobile smartphone community
Family Court
Open 24/7
702-369-6736
Licensed, Bonded, Insured • NV #758973
ment channels include Music (HipHop and Soul), Entertainment,
Sports and Lifestyle/Culture channels that viewers can easily select
to follow in the channels section of
the 5iveSpot app.
Co-founder, Dwayne Tasker,
comments, “Our vision for
5iveSpot is to provide a simple,
personal and technologically advanced tool to create and share
video messages and cool life moments with family and friends. To
deliver relevant and entertaining
video content that represents the latest and greatest in black entertainment and culture.” The 5iveSpot
app makes it easy to join, create and
share a video message spot (vms)
or a favorite 5iveSpot video using
your smartphone contact list, sms
text or by posting your favorite videos on Facebook and Twitter.
The free app is available for
download via iTunes App Store at:
https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/
5ivespot/id570644341?mt=8 and
Google Play at: https://
play.google.com/store/apps/
details?id=ironroad.five_spot
Departing Superintendent
Dwight Jones “Ready By Exit”
By Ken Small
Las Vegas Tribune
Friday, March 22, 2013, was the
last day of the Clark County School
District’s latest new Superintendent, Dwight Jones. Jones, who was
hired in 2010 on a four-year contract, will return to the house that
he owns in Colorado while helping
his ill mother who lives in Texas.
Jones leaves amidst much speculation about the reasons for his departure, including his reporting a
family health issue to the school
board as an excuse for departing on
two weeks’ notice when his contract
required 90 days notice.
Since his arrival in Clark
County, Jones has been widely supported by the liberal press. The conservative press has either given him
support or silence while they allowed him to establish a record of
achievement (or not). While the
term of his two years, starting and
ending in the middle of the school
years, is too short in the scheme of
a K–12 education to call it an abject failure or even to establish a
trend line, the public is left with
some legacy from his administration.
During Jones’ administration,
while local businesses attempted to
reduce their overhead to remain in
existence, the School Board had
implemented decisions that caused
the school district’s overhead to go
up. Just prior to his arrival, it became commonly accepted that Nevada is ranked last in the nation due
to the Clark County School Districts (CCSD) failing performance
and the fact that the majority of
Nevada students attend CCSD.
During Jones’ administration this
led to CCSD accepting the fact that
it and its schools were failing the
“No Child Left Behind” federal
guidelines so badly that Nevada, led
by CCSD, must ask the feds to remove them from that ranking sys-
DWIGHT JONES
tem in order to implement another
that would be more favorable to
Nevada and CCSD. The so-called
“Innovative School Performance
Framework Model” was developed
using a specially selected contractor. The CCSD school Board voted
to award a $750,000.00 contract to
a former Jones subordinate employee from Colorado whom Jones
recommended to CCSD. Innovations of the new grading system included a heavy emphasis on anything but student performance in
comparison to national norms for
their grade level. Jones spearheaded
this general lowering of expectations and a public relations campaign to raise taxes beginning
around July 2012. This resulted in
the voters overwhelming rejection
of CCSD’s latest tax increase request during the November 2012
election.
Further accepting the concept of
reduced expectations, a hallmark of
the Jones legacy, was the new
CCSD slogan “Ready by Exit.”
Graduation rates at Clark County
High Schools are below 50 percent
and remain so. Jones’ “Ready by
Exit” slogan led public perception
away from “Ready to Graduate”
and worked well with the newly
devised CCSD statistical analysis
claiming increased success in reducing dropout rates.
Jones instituted a new CCSD
overhead position of Deputy Superintendent in order to delegate a full
time position of Jones’ former duties to that employee. Jones was
then able to spearhead a campaign
where Jones personally went
(sometimes with the press) to the
homes of students who were dropping out. As CCSD’s public relations “Truant Officer,” Jones was
able to get some students to stay the
course until the end of their 12th
grade year. After seeing the CCSD/
Jones grading system, the Nevada
State Board of Education began
working on an overriding system of
evaluation. Reevaluation of
CCSD’s statistics by the state system is expected to unearth the realities of the “Improvement” including high school students getting
more “Certificates of Attendance”
due to staying the course in this low
economy. Unfortunately, the increase of attendance to the end is
not commonly expected to improve
the all-important graduation rate
significantly.
After serving two years of his
four-year contract term, Jones gave
notice to the school board indicating that he had to attend to his sick
mother.
School Board President Carolyn
Edwards immediately discussed
increasing
the
$358,000
superintendent’s annual compensation package for Jones’ replacement
and the board appointed long-term
CCSD employee, Pat Skorkowsky,
as the interim Superintendent. The
Board is expected to hire a search
firm for over $50,000 and take
months or years to hire a permanent
replacement. Business as usual continues at the school district without
Dwight Jones who was apparently
“Ready to Exit.”
VIOLENCE AT YCS HEADQUARTERS
A driver employed by Yellow Checker Star Transportation (YCS) in Las Vegas who crossed the picket
line assaulted a striking driver outside YCS headquarters today, and was issued a citation for battery.
According to many witnesses, the driver, Noel
Cassanova, walked from the YCS parking lot, crossed
the street and punched Rolando Bautista in the face
as he lawfully walked the picket line. “The striking
drivers have been picketing in an orderly manner
since we went on strike on March 3, but have been
subjected to both a pepper spray attack by a driver
who crossed the picket line and now, by this act of
violence,” said ITPEU/OPEIU Local 4873 President
Dennis R. Arrington. “We demand that YCS take
control of the drivers who cross the picket line and
ensure that this behavior be stopped immediately.”
Why Wireless Shouldn’t Mean “Cut the Cord”
Land Lines—Endangered Phone Species?
By Mark Scheerer
Millions of consumers have cancelled their old land-line telephone
service and replaced it with wireless phones. However, many seniors and people who live in rural
areas still depend on land lines, and
consumer watchdogs are making
sure they don’t lose them. Those
who prefer a land line to a wireless
phone because of potentially hazardous health effects, which are still
being debated, can take heart, too.
Olivia Wein with the National
Consumer Law Center said landline phones will not disappear overnight.
“Over half of residential customers still have land line and wireless,” she pointed out.
However, Wein said, much of
the copper-wire pathway that phone
calls travel from one land-line telephone to another is being replaced
by Internet-based digital transmission, and telecom companies may
benefit. They are trying to convince
regulators that these digital calls
have transformed into an “information service,” with much less government regulation than traditional
telephone service. Consumer
groups have warned that this could
result in higher prices and almost
no monitoring or enforcement
against rip-offs.
Ana Montes with The Utility
Reform Network pointed out that
new phones based on Internet-protocol (IP) can lose their battery
charge in an emergency-related
power outage.
“In many instances when there
have been emergencies, people
have relied upon pay phones,
people have relied on land-line telephone service, and if we were to
switch over to an entirely IP-based
network, we could end up being in
a real mess,” Montes warned.
Montes said she is concerned
that some seniors are being urged
to “upgrade” to new Internet-based
telephone services when their land
line is fine.
“It’s being sold as, ‘This is old
technology; it’s not useful technology; nobody is using that technology anymore,’” she charged. “That
is not really accurate. There’s still
a reliance by a lot of different folks
on the older technology.”
Face the Tribune Lineup
Suzette La Grange
Even though it is not confirmed due to scheduling conflicts, our guest on Thursday, even
if it is only for a very short time,
will be City Council candidate for
Ward 6, Suzette La Grange, who
has served a Cease and Desist
notice to incumbent City Councilman in Ward 6, Steve Ross, for
lying about her in a last-minute
campaign smear, such as is usually done by candidates that are
running scared.
SUZETTE LA GRANGE
Ms. La Grange has already made other commitments, but told Face
The Tribune that she will make an effort to spend a few minutes on
the air to talk about the sad campaign incident.
La Grange has previously been a guest on Face The Tribune and is
the radio station’s favorite candidate for the Ward 6 seat.
The Las Vegas Tribune newspaper’s owner and operator of the radio station that airs the show www.radiotribune.com, does not endorse candidates in the city’s primary election, but everyone in the
newsroom and the editorial department, as well as the staff, is pulling
for her, and most likely she will be the endorsee in the general election in June. The time of her appearance on the show was not known
at press time.
*****
Dr. George Ritter
On Friday, the guest on Face
The Tribune radio show is none
other than Dr. George Ritter,
President of the Chiropractic Association of Nevada and Secretary
of the Nevada State Chiropractic
Association and owner/operator
of the Santa Paula Chiropractic
Center. He has been in business
at the same location for more than
33 years.
Dr. George Ritter specializes in
deep therapeutic nerve therapy
DR. GEORGE RITTER
massage. The office uses the Soft Laser 632 to help heal various areas
of the body. Thermal Ultra Sound is used, along with the massage, to
prepare patients for their chiropractic adjustment.
Santa Paula Chiropractic Center now has Turbo Sonic! This is a
new Whole Body Vibration platform that treats every fiber of your
being.
Tune in at noon on Friday and learn the inside story of Chiropractic and how it can be important in our lives.
P.S. Dr. Ritter is also a great musician and president of the FIORE
Club.
*****
Ramon Savoy
Monday, April 1, the guest on
Face The Tribune will be Ramon
Savoy, publisher/editor of the Las
Vegas Sentinel Voice, who is a
community icon that has been
publishing the newspaper for 20
years and has his own radio show
on a local radio station.
Ramon Savoy has been publishing the Las Vegas Sentinel
Voice since he purchased the
weekly newspaper from the
Brown family, the previous ownRAMON SAVOY
ers, 20 years ago, and has been in the same location at 900 East Charleston, Las Vegas, since then.
Savoy may discuss the old days in Las Vegas, the minority publishing business and how politics has changed the Black community.
Savoy produces his own radio show, Black Power, that airs on
KCEP 88.1 (also known as Power 88) on Fridays at 9 a.m., the day
after the Las Vegas Sentinel is on the newsstands. His show is built
around the seven principles of Kwanzaa.
*****
The show airs daily on www.radiotribune.com at noon and is hosted
by Las Vegas Tribune Founder and Editor in Chief, Rolando Larraz.
Fox News reporter subpoenaed TEEN TOPICS
in Colorado James Holmes case Lending a Helping Hand
By Lilly Chapa
A New York judge has signed a
subpoena requiring a Fox News reporter to testify in Colorado about
who gave her confidential information about a notebook James
Holmes sent to his psychiatrist days
before he allegedly opened fire on
a crowded movie theater last July,
killing 12 people.
New York County Criminal
Court Justice Larry Stephen also
sealed all records of last Thursday’s
hearing after Jana Winter’s lawyer
requested that the reporter’s home
address be redacted from the files.
It’s not clear why Stephen sealed
all the records. Winter’s attorney,
Dori Hanswirth, said she would
appeal the subpoena and the sealing of the records.
Under the subpoena, Winter —
who lives and works in New York
— will have to testify before Arapahoe County Judge William
Sylvester about who told her about
the contents of Holmes’ notebook,
which was considered sealed evidence.
“Forcing a journalist to go [testify] under these circumstances,
where the information sought is the
disclosure of confidential
newsgathering information, is a
manifest hardship on her,”
Hanswirth said in an interview. “If
she did disclose confidential
sources, her career could be destroyed.”
“This whole proceeding represents an enormous issue of great importance to the news media. The
idea that a criminal defendant
could, with so little evidence, be
able to compel a crime reporter to
travel to another state to provide
JANA WINTER
testimony about a collateral issue
in a case is very troubling,” she said.
Soon after the notebook surfaced, Winter reported that it contained disturbing images and details
of how Holmes was going to kill
people. In her report, Winter cited
an unnamed law enforcement official as her source.
But Sylvester had already placed
a gag order on everyone involved
in the case. In a Dec. 10 hearing
before Sylvester, 14 law enforcement officials denied leaking the
information to Winter. Holmes’ attorneys then said they would subpoena Winter in New York and
bring her to Colorado to testify.
“Judge Sylvester found that
since it seemed impossible to find
who it was in Colorado that violated
his order and affected the
defendant’s right to a fair trial in
Colorado, the only person to have
that information was the person to
whom those sealed materials were
leaked,” said Daniel Arshack, one
of Holmes’ attorneys.
Hanswirth said Stephen dismissed all the concerns she raised
at Thursday’s hearing. According to
Hanswirth, Stephen said it will be
Sylvester’s duty to address those is-
Photographers associations
admonish Biden’s office for
ordering deletion of photos
By Nicole Lozare
Despite the prompt apology issued by the Vice President’s press
office to the University of Maryland
journalism school for deleting the
photographs of a journalism student
covering an event with Joe Biden
earlier this week, the White House
News Photographers Association
fired off an admonishing letter to
the press office and sought a meeting to ensure that it does “not ever
happen again.”
JOE BIDEN
“While we commend your office
for immediately apologizing to the reporter... we do not believe that such
a blatant violation of free press/speech rights protected under the First
Amendment should pass without comment,” wrote Ronald Sachs, who
heads the photographers association. The letter was also written on behalf of the National Press Photographers Association and the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press.
On Wednesday, Capital News Service reporter Jeremy Barr — wearing his congressional press credential — was covering Biden’s announcement of a new domestic violence initiative in Rockville, Md., when a
staffer directed him to a non-press area. After the event, another staffer
questioned Barr and demanded to see his camera. The staffer said Barr’s
location gave him an “unfair advantage” over other journalists covering
the event and forced the journalism student to delete the photographs in
front of her. The staffer also asked Barr to show her his iPhone to make
sure he did not take photographs on it. Barr was then detained by the
staffer for about 10 minutes while she contacted her supervisor before
finally permitting Barr to leave, according to Capital News Service, which
is run by the University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
Lucy A. Dalglish, the college’s dean, filed a formal complaint with the
Vice President’s press office immediately and said the staff member violated the Privacy Protection Act. (Dalglish is a former executive director
of the Reporters Committee.)
“This statute makes clear that it is the policy of the U.S. government to
provide special protections for the press against searches and seizures by
law enforcement and other government officials... Rockville is not a thirdworld country where police-state style media censorship is expected. I
request an immediate apology to our reporter, Jeremy Barr, and to the
editors and staff of Capital News Service. I also request that your staff be
trained in basic First Amendment rights of citizens and media to ensure
such tactics are not employed in the future,” Dalglish wrote.
Biden spokeswoman Kendra Barkoff told The Washington Post that
she immediately apologized to Dalglish, the reporter involved and Capital News Service and assured them it would never happen again.
According to Barkoff, the staffer in question did not regularly interact
with the press. She told The Post “somebody really screwed up.”
Barkoff could not be immediately reached for comment regarding the
White House News Photographers Association’s request for a meeting.
sues when Winter goes to Colorado.
Under New York criminal law, a
person in another state – in this case,
Colorado – can ask a New York
judge to compel a New York citizen to appear in that state’s court,
provided the citizen’s testimony is
“material and necessary” and testifying will not cause the citizen undue hardship.
“Even if Jana Winter were a
material and necessary witness –
which she isn’t – but even if she
were, we argued that New York
public policy, protecting journalists
from disclosing confidential
sources, should take precedence
over this material witness statute,”
Hanswirth said.
Arshack said Stephen’s only
duty was to address whether Winter is compelled to testify in Colorado. Stephen did not need to apply New York shield law, Arshack
said.
“Our effort in New York was
only to seek to have a subpoena issued for a witness to appear in another state to give testimony,”
Arshack said. “When that witness
appears there, they have a right to
raise any objections they may have
to giving that testimony.”
Hanswirth said they are planning
to appeal the subpoena and the sealing of court records. Sylvester will
analyze Winter’s involvement in the
case and determine which, if any,
shield law to apply.
New York’s shield law is one of
the strongest in the nation and provides absolute privilege to all confidential information, including
sources, a reporter receives.
Colorado’s shield law only allows
a qualified privilege to confidential
information.
By Ariana Grabowski
Las Vegas Tribune
It is not a secret that some adults
look at all teenagers as delinquent
children. Why not prove them
wrong? Teenagers don’t always realize this, but we have more power
to do good than we think. It is important that teens step up and give a
lending hand back to the community
not only to help our adolescent reputation, but also to get the rewarding
feeling of helping a cause. We can
ARIANA GRABOWSKI
change the world through raising
awareness, service, advocacy, and philanthropy.
Raise awareness for an issue we have in the world. You can participate in a walk for cancer, or bring knowledge to something going
on in your own school or community. For example, every year Spring
Valley High School holds a “pink-out” football game to raise awareness for breast cancer, and donates proceeds from the game to a foundation that supports research for a cure.
Serve your community by actually going out and doing something.
Not only does this immediately help your neighborhood, but also you
can personally see the good you are doing put to action. Anything
from tutoring an underclassman in math, to serving food in a soup
kitchen can make a true impact on the lives around you. There are
plenty of clubs at school that you can join to find safe volunteer opportunities with your friends, such as Key Club or National Honor
Society.
Advocate for something you believe in. Write a letter to the editor
of a newspaper, or present an idea to the principal of your school.
Promote a concept or action that you want to be spread through the
world. Go beyond Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Refuse to use products,
such as Styrofoam, that harm the environment. Create or sign a petition that urges companies and institutions to stop using products that
harm the environment.
Sometimes, the best way to fix a problem is to donate money. While
it is generous to donate your own savings, teens don’t always have
plenty of spare change to give away. Don’t give up; some other ways
to contribute are to host a carwash or bake sale with all proceeds going to that charity. Giving back can be fun, too!
You can find a list of “100 Ways to Get UR Good On” online at
www.geturgoodon.org to get more ideas, big and small, to do something great. Go on today and help make the world a better place. As
Winston Churchill said, “We make a living by what we get, but we
make a life by what we give.”
EDITORIALS
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. — Thomas Jefferson
Our Point of View
Visitors and Tourists
Ask: Should We
Support the Unions?
Presently, there are two different labor unions in dispute with
two different establishments that are directly affecting the state
of our economy and making our main industry – the visitor and
tourist industry – uncomfortable when debating if they should
cross the picket lines or support their demands.
One union, the taxi drivers’ union ITPEU AFL-CIO Local
4873, is rightfully fighting for a fair outcome against unfair labor practices by three powerful taxi companies with friends in
the right places; and in Nevada, having friends “in the right
places” can meant a lot more than just having high-priced legal
representation or even more than being right.
The ITPEU AFL-CIO Local 4873’s fight against YCS taxi
companies, owned by the same powerful group of businessmen, including the same attorneys that are directing the negotiations, is like their being David against Goliath; and yet all
they are asking for is fair treatment and to be recognized as
human beings doing a job that makes the company a ton of
money.
Yes, it is understandable that businesses are supposed to make
money for the owners and investors who put their money up
with the intention of making a profit; but that profit can be a
tiny bit less in order to give those who are bringing in the money
just a little more to help make their life slightly more enjoyable
or even make paying their bills more doable.
Then, the Culinary Union Local 226 that shows nothing but
greed and uses its membership for its own political games is
also out there manipulating those who for one reason or another
have to deal with them. Their reason for the Culinary Union to
call for a strike is not for the best interests of the members and
the community; they just want to show that they still have the
power they used to have and are looking for the respect from
the community they used to enjoy – nothing else.
We know for a fact that the employees in most places that are
non-union get the same if not better benefits than union houses,
but Culinary keeps trying to force the non-union house to join
their forces so they can brag that they have the control of the
Las Vegas labor force when it is not true at all.
The demonstration last week in front of the Cosmopolitan
was not necessary and made our community look bad in front
of the tourists, visitors and gamers.
We believe that the community should support the taxi drivers’ strike by not riding in any Yellow Checker Star cabs, and
show solidarity with the Cosmopolitan every time the Culinary
Union Local 226 demonstrates in front of the place.
The local community should go out and support the Cosmopolitan by visiting the place and spending some money there;
the employees should not have to pay the price for the greed of
the union.
Remembering Jessie Foster on the
anniversary of her disappearance
By Perly Viasmensky
March 29 marks the seventh anniversary of the disappearance of Jessica Edith Louise Foster, better
known to her family and friends as “Jessie.”
Jessie, a beautiful girl with blonde hair and hazel
eyes from Kamloops, British Columbia, was just 21
when she disappeared from North Las Vegas without
a trace. She is a suspected sex-trafficking victim.
Jessie met Donald Vaz in Calgary while she was
still in high school. In the spring of 2005, he invited
her to go on a trip to Florida. That trip to Ft. Lauderdale and Key West, with boating and para-sailing on
the Atlantic Ocean, was of course impressive to the
young, naive girl. Little did she know that Vaz was
preparing her for a quickly-approaching future of prostitution. Vaz introduced Jessie to the glamour of places
like Manhattan, New York and Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Jessie was recruited in Calgary to work in Las Vegas in May 2005 by a woman from Merced, California, Yvonne “Angel” Hubrechtsen and introduced to a
man of dubious reputation, Richard Barrington
Walcott.
While in Las Vegas she met Peter Bertrand Todd, a
man believed to be twice her age, and they became
engaged and were living together at 1009 Cornerstone
Place in North Las Vegas, which, according to the
Assessor’s Office, was under the name of Trish Van
Arnsdale (aka Sierra) and Peter Todd as joint tenants,
husband and wife, the place where Jessie was seen or
known to be living.
The man she moved in with not only resided in an
expensive home, but drove a number of expensive cars.
According to Glendene Grant, Jessie’s mother, Jessie
told her family that Peter Todd was independently
wealthy, but police believe he was simply a pimp, since
he didn’t have a recognized place of employment in
Las Vegas.
Jessie kept constant telephone communication with
her mother and sisters. Little did her family know that
she was forced into prostitution by Peter Todd and arrested a couple of times by Las Vegas Police and hospitalized once for a broken jaw after a brutal beating
by this man.
Her last contact with her mother was on March 24,
2006, in a telephone conversation in which she discussed returning home to Canada for a visit. On March
28, 2006, Jessie spoke to her sister Crystal making
plans for them to meet in Kamloops so they could drive
together to Calgary for their stepsister’s wedding reception on April 29. She never made the trip. That was
the last time anyone in the family spoke to Jessie.
When Jessie’s mother contacted Peter Todd, he told
her that Jessie had left him, taking all her belongings
except her hair dryer and make-up. This puzzled
Jessie’s mother, Glendene, since she knew at the time
and still does that the last thing Jessie would leave
behind was her make-up.
As we have seen many times before, for a much
less significant crime police launch an investigation
of the person in question; but as far as we could tell,
Peter Bertrand Todd has never been investigated thoroughly.
Without much to go on, detectives in Las Vegas
fear that Jessie may have become victim of an international human trafficking ring.
Jessie, you might be missing, but you are never
forgotten.
Perly Viasmensky is the General Manager of the
Las Vegas Tribune. She writes a weekly column in this
newspaper. To contact Perly Viasmensky, email her at
pviasmensky@lasvegas tribune.com.
County Commissioners
should be ashamed of
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
their actions
If only there were such a
A few years back several county commissioners were found
guilty of many crimes; they all went to prison for no less than
two years, but no one came forward asking to abolish the office
of the county commissioners. Instead, they replaced the convicts with a new set of elected officials, but no one dreamed
about abolishing the entire office.
The Clark County Sheriff has been the subject of several
very serious and critical comments, both regarding his personal
life and as public office-holder, but none of the county commissioners has the courage to either attempt to abolish that office, or even ask for the sheriff’s resignation.
The former Clark County District Attorney was accused of
giving the appearance of unethical behavior on many occasions
and was often criticized for giving the appearance of conflict of
interest when his wife was working under him – as well as being criticized for his arrogant attitude – but no one at the county
commissioners had the vaguest intention of trying to abolish
that office or of requesting his resignation.
Taking away the office of the Las Vegas Township Constable
looks like an immature personal vendetta that will most likely
be retracted after the next election, when the present constable
runs for another office on the reputation of the family name
similarity.
It is time for the elected officials in this community to give
the voters the respect they deserve and to stop insulting their
intelligence with comments like, “I am doing it for the people,”
or “My only concern is the people of this community,” and all
such frivolous and insincere words that they are so accustomed
to reciting.
Any office that is acquired by votes should be respected and
be treated with the same respect that the voters themselves desire and deserve; that office should be off limits to any other
office-holders unless it’s election time and he/she is running
for that office.
We believe that what the county commissioners did with the
office of the Constable is despicable; and it is shameful that
they did it claiming that it was to protect the citizens of this
community.
We have some friends in that county commission, but this
time we believe they should be ashamed of themselves.
thing as a Truth Detector
By Maramis
any other kind of Truth), then one
It’s great that “ordinary” people
need never be concerned about it fallat home can get to see prosecutors
ing apart. Truth does not suffer from
and defense attorneys in action these
close examination.
days. No matter how many lawyerWhen I was a little girl and either
type TV shows we may watch,
my mother or father asked me if I had
there’s really no comparison to the
done a certain thing that one of my
real thing during a real trial. Often
sisters said I had done, they fully exwe are amazed at the difference bepected me to say yes to match up with
tween the two: one is scripted, of
the accusation. In their minds, at that
course, and only puts in the really
time, that would have been the truth.
important and/or interesting stuff,
When I said no, they were very upset
while the other reveals every unnecand even wanted to punish me for
MARAMIS CHOUFANI
essary and/or boring word, question,
“lying.” What I always wondered
comment, and gesture along with the stuff that will about my parents was this: Did they want to continue
eventually and hopefully lead to the rendering of an believing what they already believed, or did they want
appropriate and just verdict.
to know the truth?
But we, the “ordinary” people who get to view all
It seems that in a trial there are at least those two
that reality from the perspective of one who is not per- sides of an accusation: 1.) Guilty of such and such, or
sonally involved and who can watch the daily drama not guilty; or 2.) Guilty of such and such, or guilty –
in the same way we might watch a lawyer-type TV BUT with extenuating circumstances that make it much
show, can see the story/facts/details unfold in a way less than it appears. And people usually go into court
that the defense attorney and prosecutor cannot. We, coming down on one side or the other. But I would ask
the “ordinary” people, can see what did not need to be them, just I asked my parents in my mind: Do you
brought up or out, what appeared to be ridiculous or want to continue believing what you believe now, or
almost “anti” whatever point the one or the other was do you want to know the truth?
trying to make; and most especially, what seemed to
It’s actually pretty scary to think that one’s life might
be glossed over or ignored and yet appeared to be a hang on having the better lawyer rather than on getvery important point. But then, we are just the “ordi- ting to the truth. Of course, if one is actually guilty all
nary” people.
the way around, one needs that really good lawyer to
Now I need to make a little disclaimer here. I used soften the jury’s verdict and the consequent penalty
to be married to a lawyer. I also have someone in the phase of the trial’s outcome. Usually, death as a penfamily who is very well-versed in the law, and although alty does not appeal to the convicted soul.
he is not a lawyer, knows the law on many levels that
But getting back to the Truth: How does one recogeven some lawyers don’t know. There is no doubt in nize it? Well, for starters, if one had a video of the
my mind that facts can be twisted, suggestions can event, or a photograph, and it can be shown that they
appear to be facts, innocence can be colored to look were not altered, that helps. If one had physical evilike guilt, and guilt can be cleaned up to appear other dence that could ONLY have been found there (at the
than it is. But one thing I am absolutely sure of is this: scene of the crime) if the accused perpetrator had been
IF one can really get to the Truth (not what one says is there, done that, that also helps (but we do know how
the truth, but THE actual TRUTH – as if there were
(See Maramis, Page 9)
VIEW POINTS
Editors note: The views expressed are entirely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Las Vegas Tribune.
Happy Birthday is a
Warm Gun and Hot Lead
By Chuck Muth
The Gun Store in Las VeI’m not a big gun guy.
gas. After signing all the
I am, however, a big gun
requisite parental permisrights guy.
sion forms, Kristen and I
My personal experislapped on our ear muffs
ences with guns can be
and safety goggles and
counted on two fingers...
headed for the gun range.
Once, some 20-plus
For targets Kristen
years ago, my wife and I
chose a deranged clown,
went skeet shooting in
a zombie woman and a
Mesquite. She was popscarved terrorist. Her
ping ‘em left and right; I
weapons of choice were
barely saw the darned
two handguns, a Ruger
CHUCK MUTH
things flying through the
and a Glock 19, and a
air. The second time was a couple years pink-handled (how cute!) AR-15.
ago when a friend took me to the Front
Long story short: After a little first-timer
Sight training facility outside Pahrump for apprehension and missing high on her first
a two-day defensive handgun course.
two shots, Kristen settled into the experiThe course itself was intense and a little ence and, pun intended, had a blast. Turns
intimidating for a “newbie.” What was not out she’s also a pretty darned good shot –
intimidating, though, was walking among likely from the part-Sicilian blood on her
dozens of people, all of whom were pack- mother’s side. Yeah, I went there.
ing heat on their hips. Never felt safer in
After getting home, I wrote up the exmy life.
perience and posted it on my blog, includBut while I may not be what is consid- ing a couple of photos. Shortly thereafter,
ered a gun enthusiast, I saw no reason not someone emailed me an article about a New
to take my first-born, Kristen, out to the Jersey man whose home was recently
gun range for her 13th birthday last week raided by government agents after someand let her squeeze off a few rounds for one anonymously reported him to Child
the first time in her life.
Protective Services for, get this, doing nothNot because I thought that someday she ing more than posting on Facebook a photo
might want to go elk hunting in Alaska with of his 11-year-old son holding a .22 rifle.
Sarah Palin, but because someday she
Hmm. Maybe fears that government
might want to get a concealed-carry per- background checks will lead to government
mit to protect herself from anyone who gun registration as a precursor to governmight wish to do her harm. You know, like ment gun confiscation aren’t so overblown
a rapist or a murderer... or the government. after all? Happy birthday, Kristen!
Yeah, I went there.
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen OutSo we saddled up well after dawn (ap- reach, a non-profit public policy grassroots
parently teenagers sleep in longer than pre- advocacy organization. He may be reached
teens) and moseyed over to Bob Irwin’s at [email protected].
Battle Born
By Norman Jahn
as Las Vegas Metro. I reIncluded in the lyrics to
call the department budget
the song “Battle Born” by
was over $500 million per
The Killers are the words,
year. That is a phenomenal
“When they knock you
amount of money with
down, you’re gonna get
which to control the reback on your feet (‘cause
sources in whatever way
you can’t stop now).” I’m
the sheriff wants to control
not always able to figure
them.
out the message that is beDo you not think that he
ing conveyed by popular
can find a reason to termimusic or videos, but I do
nate just about any emknow that “Battle Born” is
ployee? If this is true, then
NORMAN JAHN
the state slogan for Nehe can also find a way to
vada. Some of us are still battling...
take care of his friends – and he has. There
Virtually everyone in the workplace is a long list of employees (many that were
feels knocked down at some point. Getting formerly in SWAT) who have raised eyeknocked down could be caused by experi- brows when cases are discussed. Yes – cops
ences with customers or with co-workers. sit around and tell stories about how one
It might be most frequent when dealing officer got fired or demoted when another
with supervisors because they have the officer avoided discipline or only received
power to knock us down. Power can be minimal discipline. When the ‘dots’ are
used for good or for bad reasons. Many connected on these cases you can usually
employment complaints of discrimination see the connection to the sheriff or other
or abuse involve a power relationship. high-ranking members of the LVMPD.
Many of these end up being resolved in This is where skepticism and morale probcourt because lawsuits are filed.
lems begin. There is a tremendous amount
How do we ‘get back on our feet’ when of inconsistency in how Metro deals with
we have been knocked down? Is it espe- the conduct of employees. This was supcially hard to get back up when we are tar- posed to be resolved by the involvement
geted and wrongfully terminated? I’ve al- of Labor Relations and a Disciplinary
ways assumed that the ‘system’ is profes- Matrix that was created to ensure some
sional and those involved would tend to fairness at the same time that officers were
remain objective and fair. I think most citi- being held accountable. It is called the Diszens feel that an Internal Affairs unit would ciplinary Decision Guide and (now deavoid being used to headhunt specific parted to Miami Labor Relations, Director
people. We probably assume that there are Mike Snyder supposedly created it). Botchecks and balances and due process to tom line: They do whatever they want to
protect employees and at least try to main- do! We get knocked down and some are
tain a level playing field against the over- never able to get back on their feet!
(See Norman Jahn, Page 9)
whelming power of an organization such
The 68 Percent and
Seeing And Peeing Why They Matter
BEHIND THE MIKE
By Michael A. Aun
he’s still alive and kickMy dear Aunt Olga,
ing, as the old saying
who is well into her ninth
goes. Insurance compadecade here on earth, has an
nies would go bankrupt
interesting way of expresspaying out annuity paying her gratitude for all that
ments to the Charlie
life has bestowed upon her.
Barcio’s of the world.
“If you’re seeing and
Some states have acpeeing and you have your
tually rewarded centepresence of mind, then you
narians. I noted in several
can’t ask for much more!”
of the New Mexico
states Mizzz Olga (which is
newspapers where my
my favorite nickname for
column is printed a story
her).
about
how
New
MICHAEL A. AUN
Centenarians are everyMexico’s centenarians
where today. There was a time when it was are celebrated from big birthday bashes to
perceived to be a “big deal” for someone luncheons in their honor and more, a lot
to cross the 100 year barrier. Not anymore. more.
I received dozens of newspapers and periIn New Mexico, which calls itself the
odicals in the mail from cities across the Land of Enchantment, when a person hits
world who publishes my column and I’m the century mark they get a nice break from
always amazed. Hardly a week goes by that the state’s Taxation and Revenue Departsomeone somewhere isn’t being celebrated ment.
for their 100th birthday.
“The filing requirement is still there, but
In Linsborg, Kansas they’re having a the effect is that they owe zero taxes,” said
public birthday party for Herb Watts. In- Taxation and Revenue Secretary Demesia
terestingly, Mr. Watts demanded that a post- Padilla. “Usually they will have their penscript be added to the birthday invite in the sions, Social Security, investment income,
Lindsborg News-Record: “NO GIFTS rental income,” Padilla said. “They do not
PLEASE.” I guess we spend the first half have to pay state taxes on any of it.”
of our lives collecting things and the secPadilla admits she was surprised by the
ond half trying to get rid of them. At age number of people who actually qualify. “In
100, it’s time to be rid of all of the earthly 2011 we had a total of 78 tax returns from
treasures we’ve had bestowed on our lives. individuals over 100 years old; in the year
My dear friend Charlie Barcio turns 110 2010 we had 102,” the cabinet secretary
in March 2013. Charlie now lives in Cali- said.
fornia but we still remember him fondly in
Today there are in excess of 300,000
St. Cloud, Florida, where he and he wife centenarians worldwide. Surprisingly, that
Dorie resided for so many years. Charlie is down by almost 100,000 from two years
was still riding his tricycle up to 15 miles a prior. The United States has the most numday when he was well past age 100.
ber of centenarians estimated at 72,000
He and his bride both volunteered at St. while Japan is second with a centenarian
Thomas Aquinas Parish in St. Cloud, population of about 30,000. However, it is
Florida. I recall Monsignor Fabian Gimeno estimated that China will actually lead the
demanding that Charlie come down off a world population of centenarians by 2050
steep ladder. He was only 98 at the time with over 450,000.
and he was trying to change a light bulb
I learned about the oldest known worker
that hovered scores of feet above the altar. in the United States from another one of
Charlie has actually qualified for our Kansas publications. Loren Wade, born
“supercentarian” status because he’s at the in 1912, continues working some 30 hours
110 year old mark.
per week even at the age of 100. He walks
Before Charlie moved to California, he two or three miles a day during the five days
called and asked me if I would do the eu- he’s on the clock at the Winfield Walmart
logy at his funeral. “Charlie, there must be in Winfield, Kansas.
hundreds of Priests and colleagues who are
I guess Mizzz Olga has it right... “seebetter qualified to do this than me. I’ll never ing, peeing and presence of mind”... what
forget his response. “I’ve outlived them all; else do you need?
I’m down to motivational speakers and
Michael Aun is a syndicated columnist
you’re the only one I know.”
and writes a weekly column for this newsCharlie moved before I could fulfill my paper. To contact Michael Aun, email him
promise to eulogize him but at last check, at [email protected].
tion lives by. These are the
By Doug Dickerson
bedrock principles that
The most pathetic perkeep you grounded during
son in the world is sometimes of prosperity, and
one with sight, but has no
stable in times of advervision. – Helen Keller
sity. They do not change
Do you know and unwith your circumstances
derstand the vision of your
but give you clarity when
organization? Better yet,
they do.
do you understand the role
Brian Tracy said, “Just
you play in fulfilling that
as your car runs more
vision? If your answer was
smoothly and requires less
no, you are not alone. In
energy to go faster and
fact, sad to say, you are in
farther when the wheels
the majority.
DOUG DICKERSON
are in perfect alignment,
Recent research by European Leaders found that sixty eight per- you perform better when your thoughts,
cent of employees questioned did not un- feelings, emotions, goals, and values are
derstand their company’s vision. Which in balance.” When the vision of your orgaraises the question of why not? The report nization is built around shared values it
also revealed that only eighteen percent of makes going forward with clarity possible.
Vision clarifies your mission. Your misrespondents from the same survey viewed
the company they worked for as a good sion helps you understand what business
you are really in. When 68 percent have no
organization.
John Maxwell said, “People who under- idea what their company’s vision is, then it
stand how important their part is are moti- is only logical to conclude that they do not
vated to persevere and work with excel- have a grasp of their mission either. How
lence, even in the face of obstacles and effective do you think employees will be
problems.” He’s right. Yet the glaring mis- without this understanding? Consequently,
take made by many in management is an how productive or profitable do you think
expectation to “fall in line” without their that company will be?
Jack Welch said, “It goes without sayemployees knowing where the line is going much less understanding it. This is not ing that no company, small or large, can
a management problem; it is a leadership win over time without energized employees who believe in the mission and underproblem.
Maxwell shares the example of what stand how to achieve it.” When the miscan happen when people understand their sion of your organization flows out of
role and how they can make a difference. shared values then you are on the fast track
During World War II in a parachute fac- to fulfilling your purpose.
Vision directs your priorities. The sign
tory, workers made the parachutes by the
thousands. But it was a painfully tedious of a clear vision is that you are governed
job. They spent long hours at a sewing by a shared set of values. When each permachine stitching miles of plain white fab- son knows the mission and their role it
ric. Every morning workers were reminded builds a strong sense of purpose and desthat every stitch was a part of a lifesaving tiny. The establishment of these priorities
operation. Their husbands, brothers, or does not make you immune from problems
sons might wear the parachute they sewed or guarantee ideal opportunities; it simply
that day. Those lives could not be saved helps you to look at them through the prism
without their efforts. The fact that the vi- of your values.
The 68 percent matter not because they
sion was continually before them and they
knew it would not be completed without exist. They matter because you now know
it and inaction about vision is no longer an
them kept them going.
In their international bestseller, Full option. Creating a shared vision empowSteam Ahead, Ken Blanchard and Jesse ers you to dream together, work together,
Lyn Stoner define vision as “knowing who and succeed together. Define your values,
you are, where you are going, and what embrace your mission, and live out your
will guide your journey.” And this is the priorities. Your vision is your blueprint to
heartbeat of your organization and with- success.
Doug Dickerson is a syndicated columout it you are drifting. Here are three guiding thoughts to help you understand vision nist. He writes a weekly column for this
newspaper. To contact Doug Dickerson,
and why you can’t lead without it.
him
at
ddickerson@
Vision defines your values. Values are email
the guiding principles that your organiza- lasvegastribune.com.
Norman Jahn
One of those members of the
LVMPD who was repeatedly
knocked down is Lt. Hans Walters.
I doubt that the rest of his story will
ever be told... at least not by the police department and the media. You
would think that we would want to
know what caused him to take the
lives of his family and himself. A
neighbor reported hearing a male
voice say, “I did not do this.” Will
we ever hear an explanation for
these things?
Here are some facts: Lt. Hans
Walters was harassed by Cpt.
Charles Hank and Cpt. Todd
Fasulo. I’m not sure what was going on when he worked for Cpt.
Matt McCarthy during his last days.
We worked together and enthusiastically tried our best to deal with the
Las Vegas Strip and to deal with the
high level of crime. In spite of the
interference of others... (namely, Lt.
Karen Hughes in the Vice unit) we
were effective and we CARED!
I’ve read some of the e-mails that
we exchanged when we were trying to fight crime. It is painful to
read many of them because Hans
was such an easy going and funny
person. He did not follow the
Gillespie Regime and supervision
by intimidation. We did what was
right. We were performing our jobs
properly. They broke his spirit and
demeaned him. They started firing
his people (including me) and pressuring him to tell ‘their story’ to
uphold the terminations. He was put
in a difficult situation and was under extreme stress all the way up to
my arbitration hearing in May of
2012.
I received the following e-mails
from Lt. Hans Walters when I inquired about an unsolved shooting
on the Las Vegas Strip. I was working in the Enterprise Area Command at the time but was still interested in the case because my officers had helped to identify two suspects. Unlike the recent ‘PIMP’
shooting... many crimes on the Strip
do not get the attention they deserve. The Metro administration
only pulls out all of the stops as
‘window dressing’ to protect themselves from the media heat. The call
sign ‘100’ is Sheriff Gillespie. I
guess he really did walk down the
Strip.
Subject: RE: 2009 Shootings on
the Las Vegas Strip
“Safe Strip blew up on Hank after 100 walked the Strip and only
saw 2 uniforms. Perfectly bad timing as we had 6 in a mandatory EEO
class at CCAC, and one squad
started at 2000 and the second at
2200. 100 was out there before the
second squad was out, and swings
was doing a DPA at Trop and LVB,
not in the hot spot north of Flamingo. Soooooooo the spotlight
came on at CCAC and Dennis and
I had DC schofield for a night, and
Hank the next night. Hank gave me
an ugly contact and he was made a
really bad decision to mention my
performance as related to my LD
time due to my WC injury. That is
a built in lawsuit. I am waiting to
see if this get worse. I got back to
full duty, took a week off, whie I
was off 100 walked the Strip, and
when I returned I put in my transfer in and was deemed as running
from the heat.”
Here is another response I received about the same matters.
Subject: RE: 2009 Shootings on
the Las Vegas Strip
“From the dog house I’m now
in, just advise the CCAC Captain.”
And another...
On 9/21/10, I wrote to Lt.
Walters, “And I’m sure a lot of his
‘retaliation’ can be tied to me
through you... the Contact Reports
that you wrote before he placed me
under investigation, the positive
performance evaluation, and all the
other support you have given to me
as my DIRECT SUPERVISOR!!!”
He responded “I agree.”
And yet another on 3/20/11...
I updated him about the arrest of
prostitutes who had stolen nearly
$30,000 in valuables in two different incidents. We worked with security at two major hotels and
solved both crimes in a matter of
days. Simply put—the detectives
that end up getting these cases to
work several days later just don’t
get many of them solved. Why
should my lieutenant have to be
cautious about recognizing the
good work of his officers and the
teamwork with security? Because
Captain Hank and Captain Fasulo
were messing with him. Lt. Walters
was once given a Contact Report
(negative item in his supervisor’s
file) for praising the work done by
his subordinates! This is insane but
it did happen because Captain Hank
decided to launch an investigation
(targeting me) just because we excelled at communicating with security and solving crimes (without
having the title of ‘detective.’ Two
months after his ‘wife-beating’ coverage in the newspaper, Captain
Charles Hank called Lt. Hans
Walters ‘subversive’ for praising
police work! Lt. Walters wrote to
me, “You’ll have to give me more
on this one in person so I write you
a Contact for good relationships
and working on your time off (oh
wait—that might be subversive in
nature) HA!!!” He was mocking the
insanity of a captain looking to target his own crime fighters!
I’m hoping that it is starting to
become apparent that some of us
knew too much about what was going on and NOT going on to protect the Strip. If you are not yet convinced that something is going on,
consider this: Lt. Walters is now
gone and is no longer able to be a
witness for himself or for others. He
made his own complaints about the
LVMPD. Having him gone is very
convenient for the LVMPD.
Does this sound crazy? What on
earth would they be trying to hide
from public scrutiny when they offered me the following ‘resolution’
to my contrived termination case?
The Department is willing to resolve this matter under the following terms:
1. The Department will remove
Maramis
some evidence could have been planted, or could have been inadvertently left there in any number of ways not related to the crime – if only
the defense lawyer would bring it up and be able to make it stick). Yet we
know that words – say from a so-called witness – do not always convey
the truth. We know that several witnesses testifying to the same thing do
not make a falsehood true. And we know that sometimes the truth comes
out after it is too late to help those so accused of what they did not do
(remember Shakespeare’s “Othello”?).
Yet no one seems to care about, or bring up, what perpetuating and
living with lies does to the liar and to all those around him or her. One
cannot live a healthy life when one’s very essence is steeped in falsehood. One cannot have any kind of a real relationship if the bond one
makes with that person is full of holes. One cannot keep the loyalty and
dedication of friends and family if what comes out of one’s mouth for the
purpose of helping oneself is fabricated and actually hurts those who previously cared about and loved the one so accused. Lying hurts everyone.
Sure, lying will occasionally get one out of trouble, but the lie will still
follow the liar around, wherever he or she goes
Of course lawyers don’t care (and they probably shouldn’t have to
care) about the accused’s health or spirit or relationships. They do care
about the outcome of the trial, which includes their own reputation as the
lawyer who tried the case, and they may care about how they appear to
the media; but they shouldn’t be expected to care about the accused’s life,
inner peace, spiritual journey (unless part of the defense or prosecution),
connections to his or her family, or even what might happen to that person’s
soul in the life to come, if they so believe. Trials are supposed to be about
points that can be proven or proven to be unprovable; what goes on inside
a person’s mind or heart, or in the seat of the person’s feelings, or what
swirls around in the person’s head as wishes or beliefs or regrets are all in
the realm of the unprovable, yet probably speak more to the reality of
what a person does than their very provable actions.
Unless one has been on trial – and I’d add, for a very serious crime –
it’s hard to imagine how you would act, respond, think, feel, or look while
being pounded with questions and hearing the things being said about
you. The best advice I could give anyone in regard to how to avoid being
in such a situation came from my mother when I was still a young girl.
She simply said: “Don’t do anything you wouldn’t want to see in the
headlines of our local newspaper.”
Maramis Choufani is the Managing Editor of the Las Vegas Tribune.
She writes a weekly column in this newspaper. To contact Maramis, email
her at [email protected].
the sustained internal truthfulness
finding from Jahn’s record. The
external truthfulness (non-terminable) regarding his communication with his Captain and Lieutenant will remain.
2. The Adjudication of Complaint will be revised accordingly.
Because Jahn would be resigning,
the AOC would include language
to the effect, “Based upon the foregoing, you would have been disciplined as set forth in the Disciplinary Decision Guide. However, you
retired on [DATE].” There would
be no level of discipline on the AOC
and it would just be placed in his
file, along with the other 40 hour
insubordination AOC.
3. Jahn will submit a back-dated/
retroactive letter of resignation for
November 17, 2011 which will go
in his personnel file.
4. Jahn agrees to never apply for
any position within LVMPD.
5. Jahn will cease any and all
contact via any means with members of the Department, unless he
is a victim of a crime and/or requires police response.
6. Full release of all claims, complaints, grievances, etc.
7. Jahn agrees not to make any
disparaging remarks about the Department or its employees/officers
and, if such a covenant is breached,
the original AOC with the sustained
internal truthfulness finding and termination recommendation will be
placed in his file.
8. Jahn agrees to not interfere
with law enforcement operations in
Las Vegas, be it through other officers or security officers at the hotels and casinos. Keep in mind that
if this is going to be resolved it
needs to get done before January 27
(I believe) to avoid a cancellation
fee for the arbitrator, which the
Department is not going to cover
any portion of if the parties cannot
resolve the matter in time. Please
discuss this matter with Jahn and
let me know your thoughts.”
My response to their ‘gag order’:
NOT A CHANCE...
To this day, I believe it is a
BADGE OF HONOR to be fired by
Doug Gillespie under these circumstances. I support all of the ‘internal’ victims of the LVMPD to try
to “get back on your feet (‘cause
you can’t stop now).”
And we will patiently continue
to wait for the rest of the Hans
Walters story (and others) to be
told... just like they are waiting in
LA for Chief Charlie Beck to address the review of the Christopher
Dorner termination case.
WHISPERED KNOWLEDGE
Secrecy versus
Transparency
By Publius Aurelius
Is the current President of the United States of America owned and
controlled by a secret society of which he has never been a member?
He stated something to the effect that we couldn’t trust anyone who
has something to hide. His whole history, up until his election to the
U. S. Senate, is a mystery. There is so much mystery surrounding
Obama that it has been suggested he is nothing but a hologram.
It seems that the secrets of the Obama administration outweigh the
secrets of Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II combined.
Be that as it may. Secret societies have been in existence since
existence. That is a fact of life and we must live with it, if we are to
live. The whispered secrets of little girls have been used to gain the
interest of little boys, and has been part of every culture in the history
of man. Priests and other “men of the cloth” used the secrets of the
Holy Bible to keep mankind in chains by the mysteries only they
could unravel. Secrets indicate some dishonesty: a little or truckloads
of volumes, dishonesty is always involved. The dishonesty of Santa
Claus and the Easter Bunny may not be evil, but both bring about
disappointment at some point. Secrets are not good.
Ben Franklin’s secret society that he called the Junto was used to
enhance the business prospects of the members and was very limited.
It was also used to educate, but the thrust was to provide better business connections to the members. And so it goes.
Among the secret societies of today we can count the Freemasons,
the Knights of Columbus, and various street gangs. Most police forces
operate on an unwritten and secret code of conduct that members of
the force will protect each other. All secret societies create an environment of us against them, and is not good for the whole of society,
for it keeps us looking for something that might not be there. And that
is the purpose of a mystery, right?
The IRS, CIA, DEA, DHS, FBI, and a host of other government
agencies, also operate in the dark of their secrets.
What other secret societies might have an affect on our immediate
daily lives? How many men in the governments of the world are members of a secret society? There are actually quite a few. We can start
with the Illuminati, Bilderbergers, The Committee of 300 and go from
there. But it seems the one with the most influence around the world
is the Skull & Bones club of Yale University. That little club is so
secret that George Bush wondered aloud if it still exists when asked
about it. John Kerry also waffled on his answer about that exclusive
club.
If a secret society like Franklin’s Junto is used to enhance the business prospects of its members it would seem to be not too bad. On the
other hand, if a secret society is used to influence political or government organizations, or is used to actually take over a government, we
are in grave danger of losing our freedoms to a slave master who can
actually give himself the power to murder.
Obama is not a member of any of the secret societies mentioned
earlier that I am aware of, but he might be controlled by one - or some
of them working together – to bring about total control of all of the
human population of the world.
What do you think? Are secret societies controlling the governments of the world? Are they controlling the banking cartels, the oil
cartels, the military industrial complex? Do the same men who own
the companies that provide war materiel for the U. S. Military own
the companies that provide war materiel for Iran, Afghanistan, and
other evil governments?
There are many questions regarding secret societies that are very
difficult to answer. However, if one cares to look at
www.banksterfables.com there may be a few answers there.
More next week.
As Jones leaves CCSD, he
leaves questions in his wake
Superintendent’s tour highlighted deficiencies in how government agencies confront ethical challenges
By Karen Gray
Nevada Journal
LAS VEGAS — Dwight Jones
came to Clark County assuring
people of his “set of mid-western
values.” They made him “always
want to do the right thing — all the
time — even if nobody’s listening,”
he said.
But over the course of his two
years in Las Vegas, did Jones himself see his own idealism eroding?
During his 2010 job interview
with trustees, he told them that doing “business in a transparent way”
and being upfront with the community was part of what made Colorado — where he was the state’s
education commissioner at the time
— one of the leading states in the
country.
During that interview, Jones
spoke candidly about allegations
surrounding his personal use of a
taxpayer-funded cell phone for
which he failed to reimburse the
state — $750 over three years. It
was an oversight, he explained, a
mistake.
The mistake was portrayed hard
in the media, said Jones. And, yes,
he didn’t think that was fair, “but,
this is big-boy business,” he said,
matter-of-factly. You don’t hide
from it or cover it up. You correct it
and are open with the public about
it.
“I own it,” said Jones.
“Folks,” he summarized, “that’s
my integrity that I bring with my
mid-western values.”
In 2010, unable to justify a housing allowance for Jones, the Clark
County School District board of
trustees had put a special provision
in his contract. It allowed Jones’
temporary housing or relocation
costs to be reimbursed, up to $5,000
a month for from six to eight
months, by way of the Clark County
Public Education Foundation.
Under this “Superintendent’s
Transitional Housing Fund,” members of the community could contribute money for Jones’ living expenses to the Foundation, which
would then pass the money to
CCSD for disbursement to Jones for
housing reimbursement.
True to those mid-western values, Jones immediately upon arrival
sought an opinion from Nevada’s
Commission on Ethics, asking if he,
as a public officer, could accept
those private funds.
Another reason the issue went to
the Ethics Commission is that
Jones, as school-district superintendent, falls into Nevada’s ”billiondollar blind spot” and is not defined
by Nevada law as a public officer.
The Commission determined
that accepting the funds did not create an ethical concern for the public employee who accepts them as
part of this type of pass-through.
However, the Commission went
on to conclude that, nonetheless, it
believed the “artifice” of the Board
in using “foundations or other similar organizations to engage public
officers and employees in commitments for economic opportunities
is poor policy and contrary to the
intent of the Ethics Law to encourage public officers and employees
to maintain the public trust.”
In light of this admonishment by
the Commission, this reporter asked
Jones if he was still going to accept
the monies. “Who am I to question
the Commission’s decision?” replied Jones.
Jones was reimbursed $22,539.
Then, two years later, in the mere
weeks leading up to his resignation,
Nevada Journal found Jones again
in Nevada’s ethical gray area — the
spirit of the law.
But first, there’s that other thing
— the one Jones failed to mention
in his 2010 job interview.
When asked by school board
Trustee Linda Young if he had met
with or spoken with anyone in
CCSD or the community prior to
coming to his interview, Jones said
he had only reached out to Dr.
Laverne White from Edison schools
and then-state superintendent Keith
Rheault.
However, as trustees soon
learned, Jones had actually traveled
to Nevada and met with other community members.
While most trustees were satisfied that Jones fessed-up after-thefact, Young remained wary.
“I did try to vet all of those issues,” Young said to trustees as they
deliberated Jones’ hire, “particularly the issues when I asked the
Former CCSD Superintendent Dwight Jones
question.” It “frankly” didn’t matter, said Young, whether Jones had
been here or not. “The question
was,” continued Young, “what did
you do?”
“Just give me an honest answer,”
was all Young wanted, she said.
“And we didn’t get that. That bothers me,” she told trustees, “because
I think the foremost, most important thing for a superintendent is to
be direct, open and honest with the
board.”
Jones was hired in a 6-1 vote,
with Young casting the only “no”
vote.
Recently, Nevada Journal asked
school-district officials about the
employment of Jones’ wife by the
Public Education Foundation as a
paid consultant, to the PEF, but who
was to be “on loan” to the district.
“This looks like a skirting of the
ethics and nepotism laws,” wrote
Nevada Journal to school-district
officials, seeking a district statement. “And, [it] brings into question [the superintendent’s] ethical
standards and definition of transparency.”
Judi Steele, the Clark County
Public Education Foundation’s
president, had confirmed to Nevada
Journal that Jenifer Jones, the wife
of Superintendent Dwight Jones,
had been hired last October by the
PEF as an independent consultant
and then “loaned” to CCSD.
“The Public Education Foundation will hire Jenifer Jones as a consultant,” opens an Oct. 3, 2012
email between Foundation and
school-district officials, “and will
then loan her to you as a Turnaround Zone Consultant.”
Mrs. Jones, according to the
email, will be paid $3,125 monthly
for eight months, October 2012
through May 2013, for a total compensation of $25,000. Additionally,
Mrs. Jones will report directly to the
district and be housed by the school
district.
Dean Dupalo, director of the
Nevada Center for Public Ethics
and peer reviewer for the Center for
Public Integrity’s 2012 State Integrity Investigation study, which
scored Nevada at a D-, says this
demonstrates the weakness in the
State of Nevada’s ethics laws.
“Unfortunately,” says Dupalo,
it’s a common tactic “where you
have powerful individuals or their
spouses, [that] because of their relationships, [they] are offered positions.”
For somebody in such a powerful position as Jones, to have his
spouse also in a position that works
with that same institution, according to Dupalo, is clearly a conflict
of interest. “I don’t see how it gets
any closer than that,” he says.
Rules in Nevada’s nepotism
laws and Ethics in Government
laws prohibit Jones from employing his wife — whether as an employee or independent contractor —
with the district.
However, school-district and
Foundation officials contend no
ethical conflict existed here because
Jenifer Jones was hired by the Public Education Foundation and not
by CCSD.
“There’s no statute or regulation
that prevents Mr. Jones’ wife, a lifelong educator, from working for the
public education foundation,” said
Amanda Fulkerson, the Clark
County School District’s chief communications officer.
Superintendent Jones, said
Fulkerson, was unable to respond
to Nevada Journal’s inquiries because he was in Texas tending to
his ailing mother.
Steele had responded similarly.
“This is a Public Education Foundation contract,” Steele emphatically stated during a January discussion. “Not a CCSD contract.”
“There’s an ethical code,” says
Dupalo, whether it comes from the
letter or the spirit of the law, that
you don’t hire when “two individuals have that direct of a relationship.”
“Certainly,” says Dupalo, “this
is violative of the spirit of the ethics laws in the State of Nevada —
and basically, everywhere.”
Caren Cafferata-Jenkins, Esq.,
executive director of the Nevada
Commission on Ethics, when interviewed about this, noted, first, that
the Commission no longer has jurisdiction to enforce the anti-nepotism statute. However, she did say
she “could see how this might cause
the public to raise an eyebrow,” and
that the scenario may create an appearance of impropriety.
On Jones’ first arrival in town,
the new superintendent said his
wife would not work for the school
district. In fact, a recent Las Vegas
Sun article announcing Jones’ resignation still portrayed the
superintendent’s wife as a “public
school volunteer” who also “helped
with local foundations in Clark
County.” In reality, Jones’ wife was
a paid consultant.
So, why didn’t Superintendent
Jones just come out from the beginning — in the spirit of transparency and openness — and inform
the public of his wife’s application
and subsequent hire for this position? Nevada Journal asked.
Fulkerson didn’t answer that
question.
Instead she said Jones had
“proven time and time again” his
commitment to transparency and
should be commended for “creating a transparent school ranking
system, putting the budget online,
inviting the community to be on the
panels shaping new systems and
appointing an officer to respond to
public info requests.”
According to the Public Education Foundation’s most recent 990
tax returns, the Foundation gives
the Clark County School District
approximately $1 million in cash
grants annually. Between 2008 and
2010, the Foundation gave CCSD
$3,686,177 in cash grants.
So, then, what was so special
about Mrs. Jones’ position that the
Foundation didn’t just give the
money directly to the district to hire
its own consultant — as was so
typical? Nevada Journal asked.
“Best business practice,” replied
Steele.
“We believe The Public Education Foundation’s hiring of an independent contractor, to serve as
Turnaround Zone consultant, is
consistent with best business practice,” wrote Steele in an email statement.
Dupalo, on the other hand, says
that officials involved are “actively
and creatively circumventing the
ethics laws of the State of Nevada.”
And that this is not dissimilar to
what the trustees did when reimbursing Jones’ housing costs.
“It’s a terrible thing to do as an
individual or public official,”
opines Dupalo. “It’s certainly unacceptable for the Clark County
School District superintendent to
engage in that sort of option.”
Another best business practice
used by the Foundation when hiring Mrs. Jones: no written contract.
According to Foundation officials, the only written documentation memorializing the employment
of Mrs. Jones was the Oct. 3 email
to school-district officials.
“[The Foundation] is a private
entity,” said Steel in a phone conversation last month. “And just like
any other private business, many
contracts are not in writing.” This
practice of no written agreement,
according to Steele, provides “flexibility” to make changes and adjustments as circumstances dictate.
As the wife of one of the state’s
most prominent public officials,
Mrs. Jones, it would seem, would
recognize that her hire as a consultant to the very school district her
husband headed would bring public scrutiny — and criticism.
So Nevada Journal asked Jenifer
Jones why she did not insist upon a
written contract laying out the terms
of her agreement in clear, concise
language.
Mrs. Jones did not respond to the
inquiry. However, she previously
offered, through email, that the
work with “the turnaround team in
CCSD has been very exciting and
professionally rewarding.”
Nevada Journal was unable to
locate a business license, in either
Nevada or Colorado, for Mrs.
Jones’ consulting business.
Steele, however, said a license
is not her concern.
“We’re not a local government
agency that determines whether
someone is required to have a business license,” writes Steele. “It’s not
our responsibility to issue or verify
a business license.”
Mrs. Jones did not respond to an
inquiry about licensing, either.
It is certainly true that it does
take a highly ethical public official
to always do the right thing — especially when no one is listening.
In the case of the now-former
superintendent Dwight Jones, however, the question remains: Even if
his self-proclaimed mid-western
values made him always want to do
the right thing — how frequently
did he do it?
And while Jones is on his way
out the door, the Nevada problems
his tenure highlighted — in state
ethics and nepotism law, the “billion-dollar blind spot” and a private
foundation acting as an end-around
“cutout” for CCSD — those problems remain.
And they beg to be adequately
addressed.
Karen Gray is a reporter/researcher with Nevada Journal. For
more in-depth reporting visit http:/
/nevadajournal.com and http://
npri.org.
Obamacare at age 3:
Why political battles are exploding anew
Partisan rancor over Obamacare is back amid public confusion over what the law does. But with some
Republican governors agreeing to expand Medicaid, the law in time could take on a more bipartisan complexion.
By Linda Feldmann
WASHINGTON — On March
23, 2010, amid much fanfare, President Obama signed the Affordable
Care Act – a law aimed at taking
the nation a long way toward universal health-care coverage.
Three years later, “Obamacare”
remains a work in progress. At least
13 states have opted not to accept
federal money to expand access to
Medicaid, federal health insurance
for the poor, after the Supreme
Court’s ruling last June that made
participation in the expansion of
Medicaid optional.
And about half the states are
declining to set up electronic healthinsurance markets, or “exchanges”
that provide consumers with healthinsurance options, leaving the federal government to do it for them.
The mixed approach by the
states, combined with continuing
strong opposition to the law by congressional Republicans, has left
some Democrats frustrated.
“You’re already seeing the propaganda machine on the Republican side gearing up stories about
how Obamacare is going to be a
failure,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen
(D) of Maryland, speaking at a
breakfast with reporters Friday
sponsored by Third Way, a Democratic think tank. “From a political
perspective it’s important that the
White House be ready to counter a
A draft copy of the 21-page Health and Human Services Department form proposed for use in applying for
low-cost insurance from Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program
lot of these false claims.”
percent.
likely to think the law will make
Public confusion about the law
Forty percent of those surveyed things worse for their families
remains high, and has even wors- had an unfavorable view of the law, rather than better.
ened since it was enacted. A Kaiser 37 percent had a favorable view,
So when the exchanges begin
Family Foundation poll found that and 23 percent had no opinion.
open enrollment on Oct. 1, it’s un57 percent of Americans say they
“Though opinion on the law clear how widely the uninsured will
don’t know enough about the law overall remains nearly evenly di- respond. The law includes an indito judge how it will affect them per- vided, opponents’ attacks seem to vidual mandate to purchase insursonally. Among the uninsured who have taken a toll on the public’s ance, effective Jan. 1, 2014, but in
are under age 65, the figure is 67 expectations,” the Kaiser report the first year, the penalty for nonpercent. Among those with house- said.
compliance is as little as $95. If
hold income under $40,000, it’s 68
In addition, Americans are now most healthy uninsured people opt
to pay the penalty rather than buy
insurance, that would produce a risk
pool weighted toward people with
expensive medical bills – an unhappy outcome for insurers.
The political debate has also reignited.
the repeal of a medical device tax years.
Congressman Van Hollen, the
that’s become an unpopular aspect
Those measures have allowed
ranking
Democrat on the House
of “Obamacare,” and stopping the the federal government to hobble
Budget
Committee,
cites as an exUnited Nations from infringing on along without a fundamental budample
of
“false
claims”
about
the Second Amendment right to get document in place.
Obamacare
assertions
that
the
law
bear arms.
“Not having a budget resolution
has
caused
a
spike
in
health-care
Even though most of those in place is a symptom of the inabilamendments are advisory only, they ity to reach agreement – not the premiums.
“Health-care premiums have
supported a sense of accomplish- cause of Congress not being able
gone
up every year for decades,” he
ment that’s been rare in Washing- to accomplish things,” Jim Horney
said.
“The issue is the rate of inton.
of the Center on Budget and Policy
crease.
And the reality is they have
“If Washington wasn’t so dys- Priorities told the Economist last
gone
up
much more slowly refunctional, today would just be an- week.
cently,
but
that hasn’t stopped Reother day rather than a historic day,”
While Republicans and Demopublicans
from
saying they went
quipped conservative talk show crats are still miles apart on how to
up,
and
that
they
went up because
host Sean Hannity.
resolve fundamental debt and
of
Obamacare.”
Most importantly, the lack of a spending issues, the depth of the
But the future of health-care prefederal budget at a time of rising budget debate in the Senate gave
miums
may be another story, acfederal debt and rollercoaster some lawmakers hope.
cording
to an article in Friday’s
spending has played into a greater
“You may not feel it at the moWall
Street
Journal.
sense among many Americans of a ment, but this is one of the Senate’s
“Health
insurers are privately
Washington unmoored from fiscal finest days in recent years,” Repubwarning
brokers
that premiums for
responsibility at a time when the lican Minority Leader Mitch
many
individuals
and small busiaverage American wallet is thinner McConnell said, according to Businesses
could
increase
sharply next
than it’s been in decades.
ness Insider.
“Passage of the competing plans
does advance a more orderly process after nearly three years of crises and brinkmanship,” writes the
New York Times’ Jonathan
Weisman.
To be sure, polarized partisanship in Washington over how to set
the course of the country has made
it difficult, if not impossible, for the
Senate in the last few years to reach
the 60 votes needed to actually
make a budget actionable (as opposed to the simple 51-senator majority needed to pass a budget).
Moreover, the lack of a budget
doesn’t technically affect the functioning of government, given various stop-gap and patch-up laws,
including the Budget Control Act,
passed by Congress in the last few
Senate’s first budget in four years:
A chip off partisan gridlock?
By Patrik Jonsson
ATLANTA — In what Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid called a
“Herculean feat,” the US Senate
passed its first budget in four years
(1,448 days) after a 13-hour voteo-rama early Saturday morning,
suggesting a small but significant
return to fiscal normalcy for a country struggling to reconcile its debt
and spending habits.
The Senate budget, written by
Sen. Patty Murray (D) of Washington, is more a political document
than a fiscal blueprint as it stands
in sharp contrast to the House budget passed on Thursday, written by
former vice presidential candidate
Rep. Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin.
Sen. Murray’s budget, passed
along partisan lines with a few defecting Democrats, ends $1 trillion
worth of tax breaks for the wealthy,
curbs but does not end deficit
spending, and would spend billions
on new infrastructure to help the
economy.
Rep. Ryan’s more austere House
budget reforms federal entitlement
spending, shrinks the size and scope
of many federal agencies, and purports to balance the federal books
in 10 years without raising taxes.
Reconciling those two competing visions into one workable budget document by April may seem
Sisyphean – and it may yet be, especially given that President
Obama, too, is planning to offer his
own budget – but the lengthy up and
down voting on over 70 amendments into the wee hours also gave
Congress a few glimmers of common ground, including support for
the Keystone XL pipeline proposal,
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. rushes with other lawmakers to the Senate
floor on Friday to vote on amendments to the budget resolution.
year because of the health-care
overhaul law, with the nation’s biggest firm projecting that rates could
more than double for some consumers buying their own plans,” wrote
Anna Wilde Mathews and Louise
Radnofsky.
But the article also cautions that
the future is murky because of the
role of government subsidies.
“The effects of the law will vary
widely, and insurers and other analysts agree that some consumers
and small businesses will likely see
premiums go down,” the authors
wrote.
Van Hollen said it’s important to
consider the different segments of
the health-care market. People who
have been buying insurance in the
individual market, and will now be
part of a pool, “will benefit significantly from Obamacare,” he said.
Congressional Republicans,
meanwhile, are still taking votes to
repeal Obamacare, even though
Obama’s reelection makes that impossible for now.
On Friday, the Democratic-controlled Senate voted down an
amendment to repeal Obamacare.
But Republicans say they’re not
giving up.
“Obamacare’s full repeal remains our ultimate goal,” said Sen.
Marco Rubio (R) of Florida.
On Thursday, Senate Democrats
joined the chamber’s Republicans
in voting 79-20 to repeal a provision in Obamacare – a tax on medical devices that opponents say
causes an undue burden on that aspect of health care. The amendment
was part of the Senate’s budget
resolution, and therefore does not
have the force of law. But Republicans like Senator Rubio hailed the
amendment’s passage as a moment
of bipartisanship.
In a commentary, the president
and CEO of the Kaiser Family
Foundation suggests that governors
have the potential to bring more
bipartisanship to the Affordable
Care Act. Several Republican governors have opted to take part in
Medicaid expansion, which is
funded 100 percent by the federal
government in the early years. That,
writes Drew Altman of Kaiser,
could change the politics of the law.
“To be clear, it is the federal
money and the potential to provide
coverage for their citizens which is
moving the Republican governors,
not some overnight conversion to
Obamacare,” Mr. Altman writes,
“but the longer term result could be
a much more bipartisan complexion for the law.”
Gay marriage: How Supreme Court
cases could end with a whimper
A wildcard in the two landmark gay marriage cases before the Supreme Court this week is that the justices could rule
on the question of ‘standing,’not the core issue of whether Prop. 8 and DOMA violate the rights of same-sex couples.
By Warren Richey
WASHINGTON — Sometimes
huge cases at the US Supreme
Court end in a whimper rather than
a bang.
Despite the crescendo of anticipation surrounding the looming
showdown over same-sex marriage
at the high court this week, it is
possible the justices could decide
the controversial cases without ever
reaching the core issue of whether
Proposition 8 in California and the
federal Defense of Marriage Act
(DOMA) violate the rights of samesex couples.
Before the justices can take up
those fundamental questions, they
must first agree that the parties before them have the necessary legal
standing to argue the cases, and that
the court, itself, has jurisdiction to
decide them.
It is a unique feature of the litigation in the Prop. 8 and DOMA
cases that the government officials
who are charged with the responsibility of defending the constitutionality of challenged laws have opted
in both cases not to do so.
In the DOMA case, President
Obama and Attorney General Eric
Holder decided to stop defending
the federal statute in court after concluding that it was unconstitutional.
But the administration agreed to
continue enforcing DOMA until a
definitive ruling in the courts.
DOMA bars same-sex spouses
from receiving more than 1,100 federal marriage benefits available to
opposite-sex spouses.
Similarly, the governor and attorney general of California declined to defend the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative banning gay marriage
in that state. Nonetheless, California officials continued to enforce
the constitutional amendment by
refusing to issue any new marriage
licenses to same-sex couples until
a final court ruling on the issue.
There is no question about the
legal standing of same-sex couples
to file lawsuits complaining that
they are being treated as secondclass citizens under DOMA and
Proposition 8.
There is also no question about
the legal standing of the president
and attorney general to defend the
constitutionality of DOMA in the
courts, or the legal standing of the
California governor and attorney
general to defend Prop. 8 in the
courts.
The question hanging over the
DOMA and Prop. 8 cases is whether
someone else can take up the defense of DOMA or Prop. 8 when
government officials decline to do
so.
Although it might seem little
more than a legal technicality, the
issue of who has standing to litigate
in federal court is a significant matter. The Constitution limits the
courts’ jurisdiction to actual “cases”
or “controversies.”
US judges are not permitted to
People who have been waiting for days to witness historic cases against anti-gay marriage statutes are seen
in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Monday. In their first-ever review of same-sex marriage
laws, the nine justices heard arguments on Tuesday and Wednesday.
preside over debates or mere policy
That question relates to the fact ing, government lawyers say.
disputes. Instead, would-be litigants that the Obama administration
As if this situation wasn’t commust demonstrate that they have a didn’t simply refuse to defend plex enough, the high court has
genuine stake in the dispute that can DOMA in court. Government law- asked yet another lawyer, Harvard
be redressed by the court.
yers presented arguments that mir- Law Professor Vicki Jackson, to
On the other hand, if no one else rored those of the plaintiff – that argue the standing issue before the
can take up the defense of certain DOMA should be struck down as court from a perspective indepenchallenged measures, it would seem unconstitutional. In essence, both dent of any other parties. She mainto afford government officials an sides of what is supposed to be an tains in her brief that neither the
opportunity to game the system to adversarial proceeding were advo- House Republican leadership nor
undermine duly-enacted laws with cating the same result.
the US government have standing
which they personally disagree.
That is not a “case” as required to appeal the DOMA case.
In both cases, DOMA and Prop. by the Constitution.
If a majority of justices agree, it
8, interested parties intervened to
That’s where the House leader- would mean that the court would
defend the measures.
ship comes in. Their lawyer pre- lack the necessary jurisdiction to
In the DOMA case, a group of sented the kind of argument that hear the appeal and decide whether
Republican leaders of the House of normally would be presented by the DOMA is constitutional or not.
Representatives decided to defend government – defending the constiA similar “standing” issue arises
the constitutionality of the 1996 tutionality of the challenged statute. in the Prop. 8 case, and many legal
federal marriage law, which passed So the case was adversarial, but analysts say it is even thornier than
85 to 14 in the Senate and 342 to only if the House leadership’s par- in the DOMA case.
67 in the House, and was signed by ticipation is credited with the stathen-President Bill Clinton.
tus of a full party to the dispute.
In the Proposition 8 case, orgaThe Obama administration renizers of the 2008 ballot initiative jects this view. Justice Department
entered the case to argue in defense lawyers insist that for purposes of
of the state constitutional amend- establishing standing, the underlyment that passed 52 percent to 48 ing “case” is a simple tax dispute
percent and was endorsed by seven between the United States and the
million California voters.
plaintiff, Edith Windsor, who is
The so-called “standing” ques- seeking a $363,000 estate tax retion arising in both the DOMA and fund. Since the US government has
Prop. 8 cases is whether the parties still not cut a refund check for
that intervened in the litigation in Windsor, the US still retains standplace of government officials have
an interest in the case sufficient
enough to trigger standing under the
high court’s precedents.
In 1987, the justices upheld an
effort by New Jersey legislators to
defend a law when executive
branch officials in the state refused
to do so. What is unclear in the context of DOMA is whether standing
must be sought by the full Congress
(both House and Senate) or just the
House of Representatives, as in the
DOMA case.
A second question raised by the
justices themselves is whether the
actions of the Obama administration in the DOMA case undermined
the executive branch’s own legal
standing in the case.
EDITOR AT YOUR SERVICE
Times are tough, yet you still want to look your best in
print. If you can’t hire a full-time editor, why not
consider hiring an editor only when you need her?
Now’s the time to line up your editor for those sure-tocrop-up projects such as proofreading your reports,
making sure you didn’t inadvertently leave out something important in your advertising, making doubly
sure that what you’ve written gets your point across.
Editor-at-your-service will be there when you need
her, and only when you need her.
Call 702-436-8830, or email her at
[email protected].
You’ll be glad you did.
When California officials declined to defend the constitutionality of the ballot initiative, the trial
judge allowed Prop. 8 organizers to
defend the measure.
After the judge declared Prop. 8
unconstitutional, lawyers for the
Prop. 8 organizers filed an appeal
to the Ninth US Circuit Court of
Appeals.
The appeals court questioned
whether the Prop. 8 organizers had
the necessary legal standing to appeal. The appeals judges cited a
1997 Supreme Court decision in
which the court expressed “grave
doubt” about whether proponents of
a ballot initiative would have standing to defend its constitutionality.
The Ninth Circuit panel in the
Prop. 8 case referred the issue to the
California Supreme Court. That
court ruled that when state officials
refuse to defend a challenged ballot initiative, California law empowers the official proponents of a
voter-approved initiative to stand in
the shoes of government officials
for purposes of defending the constitutionality of the initiative.
Opponents of Prop. 8 are urging
the Supreme Court to reject the
view of California’s high court and
rule that the Prop. 8 organizers lack
standing. If the high court agrees,
the Ninth Circuit decision would be
vacated and the case would end,
with the justices bowing out of the
controversy without ever addressing the broader constitutional issues.
The Prop. 8 case, Hollingsworth
v. Perry (12-144), is set for oral argument on Tuesday morning. The
DOMA case, US v. Windsor (12307), will be heard Wednesday
morning.
A decision is expected by late
June.
EarthTalk is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss
and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to:
[email protected]. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/
subscribe; Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
Dear EarthTalk: What is the
“de-extinction” movement all
about? — Bill Mitchell, New York,
NY
De-extinction—bringing back
extinct animal and plant species—
is a term that conservation biologists and environmentalists have
been bandying about for a decade
or so. But only recently have advances in genetic sequencing and
molecular biology transformed deextinction from theory into something that we are all likely to see in
our own lifetimes.
Or so Revive & Restore, a
project of the Stewart Brand’s California-based non-profit Long Now
Foundation, likes to think. The
group is creating a movement
around de-extinction, and is taking
the lead on efforts to bring back the
passenger pigeon while helping out
on other ongoing efforts to restore
other extinct species including European aurochs, Pyrenean ibexes,
American chestnut trees, Tasmanian tigers, California condors,
even wooly mammoths.
The main rationale behind bringing back these long gone species
and others is to preserve
biodiversity and genetic diversity,
undo harm that humans have caused
in the past, restore diminished ecosystems and advance the science of
preventing extinctions.
While de-extinction may seem
only theoretical at this point, biologists are already knocking on its
door. In 2003, Spanish researchers
used frozen tissue from the last
Pyrenean ibex, which had died three
years earlier, to clone a new living
twin (birthed by a goat). While the
baby ibex died of respiratory failure within 10 minutes of its birth—
a common problem in early cloning efforts—the de-extinction
movement was officially born.
Revive & Restore expects to see
much more progress in the coming
decade given the recent focus on the
topic by geneticists, conservation
biologists and environmentalists.
The group is working with researchers around the world to put
together a list of “potentially revivable” species. Some of the criteria
for whether a given species is a
good candidate for revival include
how desirable it would be to have
it around, how practical it would be
to bring it back, and whether or not
“re-wilding” (returning it to a natural environment) would be possible.
First up for Revive & Restore is
the passenger pigeon, which was
hunted from a population of billions
in the 19th century to extinction by
1914. The group has enlisted the
help of bird experts around the
world to contribute to the project,
and in February 2012 convened a
meeting at Harvard University to
coordinate the next steps. Currently
Revive and Restore is busy sequencing the DNA of the passenger pigeon’s nearest living relative,
the band-tailed pigeon, and is simultaneously gathering DNA from
some 1,500 preserved passenger
pigeon specimens. The group hopes
to combine this biological and genetic material to reintroduce the
once abundant species.
In response to critics who question the logic of bringing back extinct species in a world potentially
unprepared to host them, Brand,
founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, counters that it’s our job to try
to fix “the hole in nature” we created. “It’s our fault that some of
these crucial species have been
completely wiped out, so we should
dedicate our energy to bringing
them back,” he says. “It may take
Some 98 percent of U.S. water treatment facilities use chlorine to clean drinking water supplies. If your
water is from a well, there are expensive ways to remove it close to the source, but the most affordable
approach is to filter it at the faucet or with a pitcher-mounted filter.
generations but we will get the country, credits the presence of has a much lower tendency to inchlorine in drinking water with a 50 teract in bad ways with organic
wooly mammoth back.”
percent increase in life expectancy compounds in the water. However,
*****
Dear EarthTalk: I was wonder- for Americans over the last century. traces of chloramine in the water
ing how toxic chlorine is, because Indeed, some consider the chlori- may not be to everyone’s liking eimy well water was just chlorinated nation of drinking water to be one ther, because it causes rashes after
yesterday and today the smell is of history’s greatest public health showering in a small percentage of
people and can apparently increase
still strong. I have a 4-year-old achievements.
But others aren’t so sure that any lead exposure in older homes as it
daughter and I’m concerned. —
chlorine in drinking water should leaches the heavy metal off old
Rose Smith, via e-mail
According to the U.S. Environ- be considered safe. Opponents of pipes.
Another option, though somemental Protection Agency (EPA), chlorination point to studies linkchlorine levels of four parts per ing repeated exposure to trace what costly, would be to purchase
million or below in drinking wa- amounts of chlorine in water with a machine to purify the water.
ter—whether from a private well or higher incidences of bladder, rectal Ozonation units, which disinfect by
municipal reservoir—are accept- and breast cancers. The problem adding ozone molecules to water
able from a human health stand- lies in chlorine’s ability to interact and leave no residues, start at
point. Inexpensive home drinking with organic compounds in fresh around $9,000. Another choice
water test kits (from $5 on up) that water to create trihalomethanes would be a UV light treatment macan detect levels of chlorine and (THMs), which when ingested can chine—at $6,000 or more—which
other elements in water are widely encourage the growth of free radi- cancels out viruses and bacteria by
available from online vendors. Ad- cals that can destroy or damage vi- passing the water through UV light
ministering the tests is easy and can tal cells in the body. Besides can- rays. The Clean Water Store is a
provide parents with a way to in- cer, exposure to THMs has been reputable vendor and good online
volve kids in science for a practical linked to other health issues includ- source for such water treatment
ing asthma, eczema, heart disease equipment.
purpose right at home.
Perhaps the most sensible and
Chlorine was first used in drink- and higher miscarriage and birth deaffordable approach is to filter the
ing water to reduce waterborne in- fect rates.
Those with their own private water at the faucets and taps. Carfectious diseases in Jersey City,
New Jersey more than a century wells who are skittish about chlo- bon-based tap- or pitcher-mounted
ago. It was so effective at destroy- rine have other options for disin- filters can work wonders in removing potentially harmful bacteria and fecting their water. One baby step ing impurities from drinking water.
viruses that the practice soon spread would be to replace chlorine with They can even be installed on
far and wide. Today some 98 per- chloramine, an ammonia derivative shower heads for those with sensicent of water treatment facilities in that doesn’t dissipate into the envi- tive skin.
*****
the U.S. use some form of chlorine ronment as rapidly as chlorine and
to clean drinking water supplies.
The American Water Works Association (AWWA), a trade group representing water utilities across the
Will wooly mammoths stalk the Earth once more? If de-extinction movement proponent and Whole Earth
Catalog founder Stewart Brand has his way, they just might.
ENTERTAINMENT
Academy Awards Interviews along the Red Carpet
Illusionist Jan Rouven (“Illusions,” Riviera Hotel), Carla Pellegrino Celebrity Chef/Owner
of the Bratalian Restaurant and members of the “Australian Bee Gees” (Excalibur Hotel)”
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by Sandy Zimmerman
As a show reviewer, there were
so many celebrities that I recognized along the Red Carpet. Jan
Rouven’s amazing illusions (“Illusions” at the Riviera) seemed so
dangerous, more than many of the
other magicians around Las Vegas.
Jan commented, “I like life
threatening stunts in my show. I go
underwater tied in chains and have
only one minute to escape. Then I
lie on a flat bed where swords fall
from above with audience participation. It’s tough every night, this
is very dangerous. People like to see
dangerous acts.”
I asked, “Tonight is all about the
movies. Do you go out when you
are not living dangerously on
stage?”
Jan said, “I live by the Santa Fe
Station Hotel and am finished by
9:00 p.m., so on my way home I
stop by the theater. That’s the nice
thing about Las Vegas I can see a
late movie after my show.”
I like the James Bond movies
because they have all of those machines and new ideas which gives
me inspiration for my live show.
As far as the Academy Awards,
I chose Lincoln” because I came
Jan Rouven of the “Illusions” at the Riviera Hotel
from Europe to the United States become a chef?
and like to watch movies with
Carla reminisced, “I started in
American history. I liked the whole the kitchen helping my mom in her
mood of the movie.”
catering business since I was 10 so
Carla Pellagrino’s restaurant it came naturally. Since I grew up
(Celebrity Chef/Owner of the new in Brazil and lived in Italy my new
Braitalian
Restaurant,
in restaurant, Bratalian, means Brazil
Henderson) and now she was here Italian which is my nick name.”
on the Red Carpet.
Carla spoke about the Academy
How does a beautiful woman Awards, “I think Robert di Nero
Carla Pellegrino, Celebrity Chef/Owner of the Bratalian Restaurant.
was amazing in the ‘Silver Lining
Playbook!’”
Members of the “Australian Bee
Gees” tribute show (Excalibur),
stopped for an interview. Wayne
felt, “Our show” is as close as we
can get to the original Bee Gees. We
have been doing the show for a long
time and approach it from a modern perspective- the Bee Gees today.
He continued about the Academy Awards. “With my experience
in musical theater, I think “Les
Miserables” is groundbreaking recording their live singing for the
first time. The show business person in me likes “Les Miserables”
but everybody is saying Argo. Argo
is great I just saw it the other night
actually.”
For information about other
events, contact Variety, the
Children’s Charity. www.onalv.org
www.varietysn.org
Variety, The Children’s Charity
of Southern Nevada, (a 501 (c) 3
organization), serves special needs
children in the Las Vegas Valley.
*****
SUGGESTIONS: Do you have
a favorite comedian, singer, production show, magician, group, or
entertainer appearing in Las Vegas? Just let us know about your
favorite and you may win free show
tickets or other prizes. Send the
name of your favorite, reasons for
your choice, name, e-mail address,
and telephone number to: P. O. Box
#750211, Las Vegas, NV. 89136.
For information or any questions,
please call Sandy Zimmerman at
731-6491 or email her at
[email protected].
The Australian Bee Gees at the Excalibur Hotel
Josh Strickland of “PEEPSHOW” at Planet Hollywood Hotel is signing autographs with the other celebrities.
Callaghan House Concert Tour
By Mike Kermani
Las Vegas Tribune
British born, Nashville-based
singer-songwriter Callaghan is
planning a special coast-to-coast
tour called “Callaghan Across
America,” which will see her perform house concerts each night as
she makes her way from Boston on
May 3rd to Berkeley, CA by June
2nd. She is scheduled to appear in
Las Vegas on May 30. The tour,
which will visit 22 towns in a
month, highlights the growing importance of house concerts in the
changing touring landscape and
music industry.
Callaghan is no stranger to more
traditional touring. She has performed across the country in clubs
and theaters, and over the past year
has shared stages with Shawn
Mullins, Griffin House, Matthew
Sweet, Steve Forbert, Michelle
Malone, Matthew Perryman Jones,
Michael McDermott and more, and
also performed on the Cayamo
Cruise in January.
Alongside that traditional touring model, like many emerging artists she has embraced house concerts as an innovative and effective
way for people to connect with her
music. For listeners, house shows
offer a relaxed and intimate way to
hear live music in the company of
friends. For independent artists like
Callaghan, they offer a means to
form a strong connection with new
fans, make new friends, and stay on
the road making music.
“House concerts have helped me
establish myself in the USA and
kept me on the road doing what I
love,” says Callaghan. “Since moving to the States, I have done more
and more of them. I really enjoy
getting a chance to perform in the
intimate setting of someone’s living room. Those living rooms become listening rooms, and the interaction between the audience and
artist at these events creates a strong
bond. The vibe is laid back and relaxed, so you feel like you’re performing to a room of friends.”
The UK-born performer moved
to the USA in summer 2010 to collaborate with Grammy nominee
Shawn Mullins. Mullins produced
her debut album Life In Full Colour
which was released on May 1st
2012. Playing guitar and keyboard,
Callaghan delivers a stunning vocal, and a sound which combines
shades of folk, rock and pop into a
fusion of feeling and melody. The
first single from her album, “Best
Year,” received airplay on Triple A
stations across the country, as well
as on the nationally-syndicated
show Acoustic Café. Billboard.com
called the album “a 12-track set infused with... immediate hooks.”
New Jersey’s Aquarian Weekly
said: “Life In Full Colour by
Callaghan proves that this Brit has
been listening to her Joni Mitchell,
Bonnie Raitt and Sheryl Crow
records. ÖGirl can write. Girl can
sing. Girl can play piano. Girl has
captured my heart. Callaghan, oh
Callaghan, sing me back home.”
A long-time Mullins fan,
Callaghan reached out to the singersongwriter in 2009 through
MySpace. After Mullins agreed to
a rare collaboration, Callaghan left
her London digs and boarded a
plane headed for the American
South. Now in May 2013, 25 house
shows will take Callaghan Across
America.
*****
PRINCE & HIS
3RDEYEGIRL BAND
PRINCE, seven-time Grammy
Award winner and Multi-Platinum
artist, announced today that he will
be embarking on a nine-city West
Coast U.S. tour this Spring. The
tour will introduce to PRINCE’s
fans his new, all-female backing
band, 3RDEYEGIRL, featuring guitarist Donna Grantis, bass guitarist
Ida Nielsen and drummer Hannah
Ford. PRINCE and 3RDEYEGIRL
will make a stop at The Joint at Hard
Rock Hotel & Casino for four
shows on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27. Tickets are on sale
now.
3RDEYEGIRL recently made
their national television debut on
NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy
Fallon,” in which PRINCE and the
band performed his newly released
song “Screwdriver” and classic
tune “Bambi.” New music from
PRINCE is available exclusively at
3RDEYEGIRL.com, including
“Screwdriver,” “Breakfast Can
Wait” and “RNR Remix 7,” and
more.
PRINCE has been named the #1
guitarist of all-time on EarthAudio.Tutsplus.com;
and
3RDEYEGIRL is already turning
critics’ heads. Says TheStar.com:
“Prince has a new backup band,
3rdEyeGirl, that’s talented, tight
and together as they come.” Says
Sticky Magazine of guitarist Donna
Grantis: “the full impact of Grantis
is her live performance: the interaction with other musicians
onstage, the improvisational wizardry and the sheer passion that can
be felt.”
Adds Abstract Logix: Grantis
alternately echoes whisper-to-ascream blues snippets of Hendrix,
Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, before
exploring feels from metal to jazz.”
TheCurrent.Org raves about Ida
Nielsen (deemed by Bass
Player.com as “Prince’s Funk Princess”) and drummer Hannah Ford
stating: “Nielsen and Ford prove to
be a powerhouse rhythm section.”
GuitarCenter.com echoes of Ford:
“From the moment the show opens
until it closes, you will feel the excitement and power of Hannah’s
assault on her drum kit.”
Tickets, starting at $55 (plus applicable service fees), are on sale
now at the Hard Rock Hotel Box
Office, all Ticketmaster locations,
online at Ticketmaster.com or
charge-by-phone at 800.745.3000.
*****
MURRAY SAWCHUCK
IS BACK!!!
This weekend MURRAY loads
his show back into the Tropicana
Hotel - Laugh Factory theatre!
The weather was cold so it was
a great time to take 8 weeks off to
go on tour of the Caribbean.
Murray worked on two TV
shows. One where he is a regular
on Hallmarks ‘Home & Family and
the other TLC’s ‘4 Houses’! Later
this year he plays the regular role
or none other than ‘Murray The
Magician’ on the Jadagrace Show
airing on CBS in April!
This Week
in Las Vegas
By Mike Kermani
Murray’s new show time is 4 pm
as he wanted to let more families
have a chance to see his show as
spring break and summer are approaching.
Murray starts his new contract
Monday March 18, 2013, 6 days a
week (Fridays dark) right through
till Sept. 2, 2013. As well as
Murray’s ‘sidekick’ LEFTY will be
back with some comical additions
and Chloe Crawford, his wife, who
was just featured in this month’s
‘Sports Illustrated’ Magazine!
Murray is also one of the featured headliners of the reality show
‘The Real Headliners of Las Vegas’
which is currently being edited in
Los Angeles over the next 2
months. Murray stars in the reality
pilot with his friends Marc Savard,
Gordie Brown, Frank Marino, and
Zowie Bowie.
*****
“MR. WARMTH” DON
RICKLES AT ORLEANS
Returning to Las Vegas for a
record-smashing 54th consecutive
year, internationally renowned comedian, actor and entertainer Don
Rickles will perform at The Orleans
Showroom April 13 and 14.
Having earned the nicknames
“The Merchant of Venom” and “Mr.
Warmth,” (the latter coined affectionately by Johnny Carson),
Rickles’ style of comedy is never
mean-spirited and all part of his act.
It has been said that being “zinged”
by Rickles is like “wearing a badge
of honor.”
Rickles took his first step toward
national fame in 1957, when
Rickles spotted Frank Sinatra in the
audience at a nightclub in Miami
Beach. The still-unknown Rickles
eyed Sinatra and said, “I just saw
your movie, ‘The Pride and the Passion,’ and I want to tell you, the
cannon was great. Make yourself at
home, Frank. Hit somebody.”
Sinatra, whose pet name for Rickles
was “bullet-head,” enjoyed Rickles
so much that he returned to see him
when he was performing in Los
Angeles, and encouraged other celebrities to see his act.
Rickles soon became the “in”
comic among Hollywood stars,
who flocked to see him to become
a target of his insults. Sinatra’s continuing support helped Rickles become a popular performer in Las
Vegas, where he first started in
1959, and has been a headliner ever
since.
Shortly after being discovered
by Sinatra, Rickles made his acting
debut in 1958’s “Run Silent Run
Deep.” The movie was a hit,
launching Rickles towards a celebrated career as a movie, television and theater actor. His stillgrowing television and film resume
includes roles in “Casino,” “Kelly’s
Heroes,” “The Rat Race,” all three
“Toy Story” films, HBO’s “Tales
From the Crypt,” and Bravo’s “My
Life on the D-List” with Kathy
Griffin. In 2011, he made a surprise
appearance in a “cliff-hanger” episode as the “thought to be dead”
husband of Betty White’s character on the TV Land comedy “Hot
In Cleveland.” Later in the year, he
returned to the show for the “payoff.” He recently appeared on
Showtime’s new series “Inside
Comedy,” where fellow comedian
David Steinberg interviewed him.
In 2000,
Rickles received one of the highest honors in the entertainment
business, when he received a star
on the famed Hollywood Walk of
Fame.
Rickles has received two
Primetime Emmy Awards, including Best Individual Performance in
a Variety or Musical for the 2008
HBO special “Mr. Warmth: The
Don Rickles Project.” In 2009,
cable network TV Land honored
Rickles with the “Legend Award.”
Rickles’ best-selling memoir
“Rickles’ Book” was released in
2007, and was followed up with the
2008 title “Rickles’ Letters.”
In spring 2012, Rickles joined
David Letterman as the only performers
to
receive
the
prestigious†“Johnny Carson Award
for Comedic Excellence” at The
Comedy Awards, aired on Comedy
Central. The award was presented
to Rickles by Jon Stewart and Robert DeNiro.
In addition to recurring dates in
Las Vegas at The Orleans, Rickles
continues to be a popular performer
in venues throughout the country.
Lorna Luft will open each show.
Luft is a celebrated stage, film and
television actress, best-selling author, recording artist and Emmynominated producer. She is the
daughter of legendary entertainer
Judy Garland and producer Sid
Luft.
Showtime each evening is 8 p.m.
Tickets are available starting from
$79.95, plus tax and convenience
fees, and can be purchased at any
Coast Casinos Box Office, by calling 365-7075, or visiting
www.orleanscasino.com.
*****
Mike Kermani is an entertainment writer for the Las Vegas Tribune newspaper. He writes a weekly
column in this newspaper. To contact Mike Kermani, email
mkermani@ lasvegas tribune.com
“CeeLo Green is LOBERACE” at Planet Hollywood
By Jerry Fink
Las Vegas Tribune
Effective immediately, all
Wednesday performances of
“CeeLo Green is LOBERACE” at
Planet Hollywood will take place
at 9 p.m
Recently welcomed to Las Vegas by riding down the famed Las
Vegas Strip with a flaming piano
surrounded by dancing showgirls,
CeeLo Green has proven that he is
ready to take on the “Bright Lights”
of Las Vegas. The mega superstar
is now in the midst of his highlyanticipated two-month residency,
“CeeLo Green is LOBERACE,” at
Planet Hollywood.
“CeeLo Green is LOBERACE”
is an electrifying, musical journey
into the colorful world of CeeLo’s
brainchild, “LOBERACE.”
Visually, the production captures
CeeLo’s flamboyant sense of style
and over-the-top creativity, paired
with brilliant 3-D graphics and surprise appearances throughout the
show. There’s magic, 10 amazingly
talented (and flexible) female dancers that are sure to make you blush,
and a larger-than-life wardrobe and
impressive stage design that outglams and out-clevers anything
you’ve seen from the international
Lady Killer to date.
One hit after another, CeeLo
takes the stage with non-stop high
energy to perform powerful covers
of music that inspires him, from
Rod Stewart to INXS, as well as hits
of his own, including “Bright
Lights,” “Crazy” and “Forget You.”
The 90-minute show – or danceparty – is guaranteed to get you on
your feet and is the perfect pre-party
for a night out in Vegas.
Tickets for the following performances are on-sale now:
March
Wednesday-Saturday, March 27,
28, 29, 30
April
Wednesday-Saturday, April 3, 4,
5, 6
Wednesday-Saturday, April 10,
11, 12, 13
(Wednesday shows start at 9
p.m. Thursday and Friday shows
start at 11 p.m. Saturday shows start
at midnight).
Tickets range in price from
$49.50 to $149.50 for table seating.
Ticket prices do not include tax and
fees. For tickets, visit the Planet
Hollywood Box Office, call 800745-3000 or visit the website
www.ticketmaster.com.
*****
TICKETS TO “BILLY
ELLIOT THE MUSICAL”
AT THE SMITH CENTER
NOW ON SALE
“Billy Elliot the Musical” will
be The Smith Center for the Performing Arts May 14 – 19.
Based on the international
smash-hit film and featuring music
by Elton John, book and lyrics by
Lee Hall, choreography by Peter
Darling and direction by Stephen
Daldry, “Billy Elliot the Musical”
has earned critical acclaim around
the world and was the winner of ten
2009 Tony Awards including Best
Musical.
The production has been
awarded 81 national and international awards including ten Tony
Awards, Best Musical by the New
York Drama Critics Circle, Drama
Desk, Drama League and Outer
Critics Circle.
The show is produced by Universal Pictures Stage Productions,
Working Title Films, Old Vic Productions and NETworks Presentations, LLC. The production features
scenic design by Ian MacNeil, associate direction by Julian Webber,
costume design by Nicky
Gillibrand, lighting design by Rick
Fisher and sound design by Paul
Arditti. Musical supervision and
orchestrations are by Martin Koch.
Touring production direction is by
Justin Martin and choreography is
by Kathryn Dunn.
Additional information about
“Billy Elliot the Musical” is available at www.BillyElliotTour.com.
Tickets are on sale March 22 at
The Smith Center Box Office, located at 361 Symphony Park Avenue, by phone at 702-749-2000 or
808-326-6868 (TTY) and online at
www.TheSmithCenter.com. For
preferred seating and special rates
for groups of 10 or more, contact
702-749-2348.
*****
RIVIERA’S NATIONWIDE
SEARCH FOR NEXT STRIP
COMIC HEADLINER
REACHES SEMIFINALS
First four semifinalists from 226
submissions take the stage Saturday, Mar. 23, at 10 p.m.
The Riviera Casino & Hotel’s
search for its next comic headliner
has reached the semifinal level as
16 people from around the country
have been selected out of 226 entries to compete in four events. All
comedians, both amateur and professional, were asked to submit a
3-5 minute video with the winner
earning a one-week headlining gig
at the iconic Riviera Comedy Club.
Four comedians performed on
Mar. 23. Four more will perform
each night March 30, Apr. 6 and 13
at 10 p.m. One winner from each
semifinal will compete in the finale
on Saturday, Apr. 20, to coincide
with the 58th Anniversary of the
opening of the Riviera Casino &
Hotel. All of these competitions are
open to the public and free to attend.
*****
APRIL FIRST FRIDAY
LAS VEGAS
“THE RITE OF SPRING”
First Friday Las Vegas arts and
culture festival continues to evolve
and draw huge crowds from around
the valley and beyond for a night
of art, music, food and more. First
Friday recently celebrated 10 years
of art and community, and this
month’s event on Friday, April 5
celebrates Vegas’ beautiful spring
weather and performance art on the
streets of downtown.
*****
LV CORVETTES
ASSOCIATION REVS UP
FUNDRAISING EFFORTS
As the city’s largest group of
Corvette enthusiasts, the members
of the Las Vegas Corvettes Association pride themselves on their
philanthropic efforts by becoming
involved in numerous fundraisers
and community events throughout
the year.
So touched by the death of
Metro Sergeant Henry Prendes who
was killed in the line of duty while
responding to a domestic violence
call in 2006, the LVCA contacted
Prendes’ widow, Dawn, to offer
their support. Upon learning about
Henry’s Place Foundation and her
plans to build a youth camp in his
honor, the LVCA continues to include the organization in its
fundraising efforts. Each year, the
club’s members and friends attend
a Las Vegas Wranglers hockey
game at the Orleans Arena and donate a portion of their group ticket
sales to Henry’s Place.
Earlier this month, the LCVA,
along with several members of the
Las Vegas Metro Police Department, purchased a total of 130 tickets, donating $1,000.00 to Henry’s
Place – the highest single amount
raised over the last five years bringing the total donation amount
to $4,200.00 since the organization
began supporting the non-profit.
Henry’s Place Foundation, a
501(c)3 organization, was formed
in 2006 to honor Metro Sgt. Henry
Prendes who gave his life protecting his hometown community of
Las Vegas. Henry’s story continues
to receive national attention and has
even been published in three books:
“Uncensored Grace” by Jud
Wilhite, “True Blue” by Lt. Randy
Sutton, and (in French) “Au Coeur
de L’action: Police American by
Sebastien Fremont.” Our U.S. Congress passed The “Sergeant Henry
Prendes Memorial Act of 2006” to
increase penalties for individuals
who kill or conspire to kill police
officers. Before his death, Henry
and his family had the desire to start
a camp facility for underprivileged
youth and teens affected by domestic violence. Henry’s dream is becoming a reality with a 14-acre parcel of land in Cedar City, UT as the
future home of Henry’s Place.
*****
SMASH MAGAZINE
PRESENTS ESCAPE
THE FATE AT FREMONT
COUNTRY CLUB
Smash Magazine presents Escape the Fate with special guests
The Colour Morale, Glamour The
Kill, As Thick As Thieves on Friday, May 31, 5 p.m. at Fremont
Country Club. Tickets are $18 in
advance, $21 day of show, plus any
service charges. Tickets go on sale
Friday, March 15 and can be purchased
online
at
www.ticketfly.com. This show is all
ages; those under the age of 16 must
be accompanied by a guardian 18+.
In 2005, Escape the Fate won a
chance to open for My Chemical
Romance on tour, leading them to
a record deal and a debut of their
first EP There’s No Sympathy for
the Dead in 2006. The band followed with its first studio release
Dying Is Your Latest Fashion. Following lineup changes, the band
welcomed former blessthefall front
man Craig Mabbitt and released
This War Is Ours in 2008 which
debuted at #35 on the Billboard
charts. The band’s newest single
“Ungrateful” from the upcoming
album of the same name is set for
release May 14.
*****
TRACY LAWRENCE
TO PERFORM AT
VEIL PAVILION
Saturday, April 13, Doors 7 p.m.,
Show 8 p.m. Tickets on-sale now.
Country singer Tracy Lawrence
takes the stage at Veil Pavilion inside Silverton Casino Hotel on Saturday, April 13 at 8 p.m.
Honky-tonk singer Tracy
Lawrence was one of the ‘90s most
formidable hit makers in country
music. His debut album Sticks and
Stones was released in 1991 and the
lead single, of the same name, became a #1 hit on country radio with
multiple top 10 singles to follow.
In 1993, Lawrence released the
multi-platinum selling album Alibis.
The album produced four top
singles including: the title track,
“Can’t Break It to My Heart,” “My
Second Home” and “If the Good
Die Young.” Lawrence’s latest
single “Stop Drop and Roll” was
released late last year and a new
album is expected in May 2013.
*****
HEART TO PERFORM AT
GREEN VALLEY RANCH
Multi-platinum rockers and upcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
inductees Heart are returning to Las
Vegas with a performance at the
Grand Events Center inside Green
Valley Ranch resort on Friday, April
5 at 8 p.m.
Tickets are $39, $59, $69 and
$79 plus tax and applicable fees and
go on sale Friday, Feb. 8 at 10 a.m.
Doors open at 7 p.m. and guests
under 21 must be accompanied by
an adult. Tickets can be purchased
at any Station Casinos Reward Center and The Fiestas, by logging onto
www.sclv.com/concertsor through
Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or
www.ticketmaster.com. For complete tour details, visit www.heartmusic.com.
Sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson
first showed the world that women
can rock when their band, Heart,
stormed the charts in the 1970s with
hits like “Crazy on You,” “Magic
Man,” “Barracuda” and “Straight
On,” among others. Not only did the
Wilson sisters lead the band, they
wrote the songs and played the instruments too, making them the first
women in rock to do so. Heart continued topping the charts through
the 1980s and 1990s, with huge hits
including “These Dreams,”
“Alone,” “What About Love,” “If
Looks Could Kill” and “Never,”
showcasing the sisters’ enormous
talents as musicians and singers.
Heart has sold more than 30 million albums, sold out arenas worldwide and found its way into the
soundtrack of American life
through radio, motion pictures and
television. In 2013, the band will
be inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame.
*****
GARBAGE RETURNS
TO THE PEARL
Alternative rockers Garbage return to The Pearl Concert Theater
inside Palms Casino Resort on Friday, April 12, 2013 at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $34, plus additional service fees.
Garbage has sold more than 13
million albums worldwide. They
have performed in over thirty-five
countries and have toured extensively worldwide in support of Not
Your Kind Of People.
The Pearl Box Office is open
daily from noon until 7 p.m. with
extended hours on select event
days. The Pearl is sponsored by Citi
and is now on Twitter. Please follow @PearlatPalms for concert announcements and event information.
*****
SEINFELD RETURNS TO
THE COLOSSEUM
APRIL 12 AND 13
Jerry Seinfeld returns to The
Colosseum at Caesars Palace for
two nights of his signature standup comedy April 12 and 13.
Show dates & time: Friday, April
12 and Saturday, April 13 at 7:30
p.m.
Ticket Pricing: $75 - $150 (plus
applicable tax and handling fee)
Tickets may be purchased in person at The Colosseum Box Office
at Caesars Palace (10 a.m. to 10
p.m.), by phone at 1-800-745-3000
or on www.ticketmaster.com keyword: “Jerry Seinfeld.” For groups
of 20 or more, call (702) 731-7208.
*****
ACM WEEKEND AT
FREMONT STREET
EXPERIENCE RETURNS
The Academy of Country Music and Las Vegas announced today
that for the seventh consecutive
year, ACM Weekend at Fremont
Street Experience will be taking
place on Friday, April 5th and Saturday, April 6. On the heels of the
ACM Party for a Cause Festival at
The Orleans Hotel and Casino, this
ultimate ACM after party continues
in downtown Las Vegas at Fremont
Street with two nights of all-star
concerts headlined by Gary Allan
and Jake Owen and featuring performances by Randy Houser, Chris
Janson, Jana Kramer, Kip
Moore,Joe Nichols and Sunny
Sweeney.
Hosted by three-time ACM OnAir Personality of the Year Award
winner Blair Garner, ACM Weekend at Fremont Street Experience
will once again feature a free and
open-to-the-public concert beginning at 9:00pm both nights and performances on two stages. ACM
Weekend at Fremont Street Experience, ACM Party for a Cause,
THE ACM EXPERIENCE and
more will all be taking place in conjunction with “The Week Vegas
Goes Country,” leading up to the
48th ANNUAL ACADEMY OF
COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS, a
star-studded event honoring country music’s best and introducing the
industry’s hottest emerging talent.
The ACM Awards will be broadcast
LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas Sunday,
April 7th, 2013 at 8:00 PM live ET/
delayed PT on the CBS Television
Network.
*****
THE IMPROV
AT HARRAH’S:
MARCH 26 – MARCH 31
The world-famous Improv at
Harrah’s Las Vegas is the longestrunning comedy club on the Las
Vegas Strip. The Improv’s ability to
showcase young comedians, as well
as bring in big names, has attrib-
uted to its longevity and success.
Each week, The Improv showcases three of the funniest and
freshest faces in comedy, creating
a show that is always unique and
definitely funny. The comedians
who will perform March 26 –
March 31 are:
Allan Havey: Allan Havey is
considered one of the best stand-up
comedians preforming today, and
according to the New York Times
he is “cocksure, irreverent, and very
funny.” Havey’s comedy has been
presented at the “Just For Laughs
Comedy Fesitval ” in Montreal, the
“Kilkenny Comedy Festival” in Ireland, the “Aspen Comedy Festival”
in Colorado, “Comic Relief IV and
V” and the “New York Comedy
Festival.” He has toured Australia
and Europe and currently headlines
in clubs and colleges across the
United States.
Gene Pompa: Gene Pompa’s
offbeat perspective on comedy
brings universal themes to his
stand-up and crosses all racial and
ethnic lines. Pompa has appeared
on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan
O’Brien” and CBS’ “The Late Late
Show with Craig Kilborn.” Pompa
has starred in his own half-hour
“Comedy Central Presents” special
in addition to being featured on
Showtime, HBO, MTV, mun2,
Galavision and the Game Show
Network.
Steve Simeone: Steve Simeone
has spent the last ten years honing
his craft of stand-up comedy. He is
a regular performer at Hollywood’s
most prestigious comedy clubs including The Comedy Store, The
Improv, and The Laugh Factory.
When Simeone is not headlining
clubs on his own, he can be seen on
the road with The Playboy Comedy
Tour, Pauly Shore and Andrew Dice
Clay. Simeone is a proud member
of “Comics On Duty” and has entertained our troops around the
globe on four continents.
Shows are at 8:30 p.m. and 10
p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Tickets are $29.05 or $44.95 (plus
applicable taxes and fees) for VIP
tickets that include special seating,
an Improv t-shirt and post-show
meet-and-greet with the comics.
Special two-for-one tickets are also
available for locals for the 10 p.m.
show. Tickets are available at
Harrah’s Box Office(702-3695223)
and
online
at
www.harrahslasvegas.com.
Joyful Parties
Guaranteed!
Corporate, private, cruises,
schools, hospitals, libraries,
festivals, birthdays, holidays...
many different characters.
Affordable.
Call “Vegas Best Party”
at 831-454-6333
&
HEALTH LIFESTYLES
Recycled Percussion brings Junk Rock to The Quad
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by
Denise Truscello/Wire Image
I was invited to the grand opening of Recycled Percussion at The
Quad Resort & Casino.
The celebration included a Red
Carpet and 1-1/2 hour pre-show reception at the Catalyst Bar.
I have enjoyed Recycled Percussion ever since I first saw them
compete on America’s Got Talent.
It is always refreshing to see some
originality in an act as they introduced their own concept of music
now called Junk Rock.
The public quickly agreed since
their opening in Las Vegas they
have filled showrooms for over two
years and are now the #1 interactive musical group in Las Vegas.
From the moment you enter the
showroom, Recycled Percussion is
different. You are handed a drumstick and musical instrument, well,
pots and other things from the
kitchen to bang together to make
your own version of music.
It’s fun and enticing!
“We couldn’t be happier to kickoff 2013 in our new home at The
Quad. The central location on The
Strip is perfect for our all-ages
show,” said band leader Justin
Spencer. “We’ve added in a lot of
new creative elements to expand
our appeal and allow us to connect
with our audiences on a deeper and
even more interactive level. We’re
really excited.”
Formed in 1994 in New Hampshire at a high school talent show,
Recycled Percussion’s first performance gave birth to the style of
music now known as junk rock.
Justin Spencer, who has been
named the world’s “fastest extreme
drummer,” along with fellow drummer Ryan Vezina, guitarist Matt
Bowman and DJ Todd Griffin have
averaged more than 250 shows a
year since.
The band was introduced in living rooms across the country on the
hit TV show “America’s Got Talent” on NBC. The group placed
third out of more than 100,000 acts
and became the first non-singing act
to place in the top three in show history.
The group has appeared on the
cover of USA TODAY, has performed on numerous television
shows including the “Today Show,”
and recently played their biggest
show ever by performing on
“China’s Got Talent.”
The audience at the outdoor stadium was over 80,000 and the home
viewership reached more than 610
million viewers. The band has also
performed at the 2010 Latin
Grammys, World MMA Awards,
NBA and NFL halftime shows, convention general session openers,
corporate events, college performances and more.
Recycled Percussion appears at
The Showroom at The Quad Saturday through Thursday (dark Friday)
at 7 p.m. Tickets are $65.98 and
$76.98 (plus taxes and fees).
For information, call the Quad
Box Office, at (800) 351-7400 or
www.recycledpercussionband.com
*****
Award
winning
Sandy
Zimmerman has been involved in
producing television programs, TV
commercials, and travel specials
for 28 years. Sandy is a syndicated
Show and Dining Reviewer, travel
writer, professional photographer
and talk show host of the Las Vegas Today Show and Discover the
Ultimate Vacation travel specials.
For information or questions about
Sandy’s columns, contact Sandy
Zimmerman at P. O. Box #750211,
Las Vegas, NV. 89136
PLACES TO GO
QUICK GETAWAYS
Cheebo’s Restaurant Cares!
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by Sandy Zimmerman
Sandro Reinhardt, Cheebo’s CoOwner/Executive Chef, discussed
his philosophy, “After a day at the
restaurant, I want to sleep at night
knowing that I have fed people
healthy food. All of my meats are
grass-fed, with no hormones, antibiotics or nitrates. The chickens are
free- range and the fish are sustainable caught wild or from the best
farms.”
Cheebo’s is different! Their interesting menu had so many enticing dishes not found in other restaurants. You will see Greek, Italian, Moroccan, French, and even
Louisiana delights included in their
Mediterranean menu.
After finding cedar-plank grilled
Scottish Salmon on the menu, I decided to experience the difference
in taste.
Sandro explained, “The farm
raises Scottish Salmon organically,
all the feed comes from nature. The
salmon are kept in large pens with
room enough for them to swim.
These pens are well-kept and the
fish are protected. The salmon cost
a little more but we feel good serving it.”
The salmon was a big, 9-ounce,
perfectly cooked meal with enough
to take home to enjoy later!
Sandro is so creative! His housemade Duck Confit dinner also
tastes great as a DuckWich with
roasted red pepper, arugula, and
Swiss cheese! Salmon can go a long
way as a main dish but if you are
not so hungry, choose a Salmon
Burger or Cheebo’s home-smoked
Salmon Pizza. Sandro doesn’t use
regular pork, he features Berkshire
Pork Shoulder dinner and a Berkshire PorkWich. You can try the allnatural Brisket dinner or the homesmoked Brisket Pizza.
Sandro is proud of the signature
Burger his father (co-owner)
worked very hard creating what he
thought was the perfect burger.
They just had to add the secret
sauce. The half-pound burger had
ground grass-fed, free-range
Piedmontese beef from four different cuts of meat bought locally at
the famous Farmer’s Market, on
Fairfax.
Ask the waiter to show you the
special way to eat a burger. They
prepare it in layers with a special
place for the tomatoes, lettuce and
other ingredients so it will be good
and juicy to eat!
Cheebo’s offers 14 different pizzas which include Truffled Mushrooms, Goat Cheese, Alfredo and
One-half pound of four cuts of grass-fed, Piedmontase beef.
Cheebo’s Restaurant Owner/Executive Chef Sandro Rheinhardt
other unique selections.
Award
winning
Sandy
I appreciate when a restaurant Zimmerman has been involved in
owner cares enough to buy healthy producing television programs, TV
products then we know it will be a commercials, and travel specials
very special meal.
for 28 years. Sandy is a syndicated
Open 7 days, 8 am-11 pm, for Show and Dining Reviewer, Travel
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. For Writer, Health columnist, profesinformation, call (323)-850-7070. sional photographer and talk show
Cheebo’s Restaurant is located at host of the Las Vegas Today Show
7533 West Sunset Boulevard, cor- and Discover the Ultimate Vacation
ner Sierra Bonita, in Hollywood. travel specials. For information or
They are just a few blocks from the questions about Sandy’s columns,
sights on Hollywood Boulevard. contact Sandy Zimmerman at
www.cheebo.com
(702)-731-6491.
Cedar-Plank Grilled Salmon — Scottish organically farmed salmon.
Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder

March 27, 2013 - Las Vegas Tribune

Transcription

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