David Thomas` client loses endorsement

Transcription

Obama’s hypocritical audacity:
Mr. President, your rules are the
wrong game-changers!
PAGE 2
Ferguson: Who are the
outside agitators
entering in the fray?
PAGE 5
When Can a Landlord
Keep a Residential
Security Deposit?
PAGE 11
August 20-26, 2014
Volume 16, Issue 24
Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce Member
David Thomas’ client loses endorsement
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
Family Court Judge Vincent
Ochoa, a client of bully political
consultant David Thomas, lost the
endorsement of the Clark County
School District Police officers after the organization learned that
Judge Ochoa does not grant overnight visits to the father for the first
six months of the life of his child.
Not only is that against the law, it’s
clearly against the natural instincts
of a father to have the opportunity
of bonding with his child taken
away from him at the child’s birth.
Ochoa admitted to factoring in
the gender of the parent in violation of Nevada Custody Laws.
This is a clear violation of NRS
125.480, best interests of child preferences; preference must not be
given to either parent for the sole
reason that the parent is the mother
or the father of the child.
At the beginning of this year,
during a State Bar of Nevada Family Law Convention, a confrontation took place between Judge
Ochoa and his challenger in this
election.
According to an affidavit prepared by Attorney Jason Stoffel,
Judge Ochoa confronted him in an
My Point
of View
By Rolando Larraz
“Chi Chi get the Yeyo!”
Saturday night, Aug 16, was a
very special evening for two men
who first worked together in the
historic movie, “Scarface,” in 1983,
and 10 years later (1993) appeared
in the Golden Globe nominated
film, “Carlito’s Way,” as Hollywood legend Al Pacino (The Godfather), and comedian Angel
Salazar, came together in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pacino was in the middle of his
one-man show at the Mirage Hotel, in the packed Terry Fator Theater; and Salazar, who portrayed
Walberto in Carlito’s Way, was sitting in the audience with some
friends.
During the Q & A from the audience, Comedian/Actor Salazar
took to the microphone and said,
“Mr. Pacino, ‘Sheck it out!’... It’s
Chi-Chi, your little side kick from
Scarface!” A big smile came across
Pacino’s face as he peered out into
the audience. “Who is that? Chi
Chi?!” The audience immediately
recognized Salazar as one of the costars from the cult movie,
“Scarface,” and erupted into applause. Angel responded, “I just
wanted to tell you man, I GOT THE
YEYO!!!” Then Angel pulled out
a huge plastic bag filled with white
powder. The crowd went nuts when
he said that quotable famous line
from the hit movie!
Angel jumped up onstage with
Al and moderator John
Katsilometes. Al immediately gave
Angel a big hug while the audience
applauded, and called out his
character’s name, “Chi Chi get the
Yeyo!!!” Angel took this moment
to plug his upcoming Vegas engagement. “Hey everybody, ‘sheck it
out!’ On Monday I open at the
Laugh Factory at the Tropicana
hotel!” The audience applauded as
he jumped back down into the
crowd.
After the show Angel posed for
at least 50 photos with Scarface fans
before going backstage to see Al in
the green room. Al and Angel then
posed for more photos backstage.
Angel not only appeared in the
cult classic “Scarface,” he also appeared opposite Pacino in his other
hit gangster classic, “Carlito’s
Way.” Check Out Angel Salazar
Aug. 18-24, Monday through Sunday inside the Laugh Factory at the
(See My Point of View, Page 2)
VINCENT OCHOA
agitated and aggressive manner
during the convention on March 6
of this year.
“Judge Ochoa put his finger in
my face and yelled at me that ‘You
better f***ing quit spreading rumors about me that I fall asleep on
the record,’” Stoffel wrote.
The affidavit came to life in support of a motion filed by Stoffel to
disqualify Ochoa in all cases involving Roberts Stoffel Family
Law Group, but Chief District
Judge Jennifer Togliatti denied the
request to disqualify Ochoa from
hearing all future cases.
Witnesses admitted that Family
Court Administrator Leonard Cash,
Family Court judges and even Nevada Supreme Court Justices attended the convention and may
have witnessed the altercation but
no one wanted to speak about it,
applying the “see no evil, hear no
evil” statement that law enforcement hates so much when conducting an investigation.
“I believe Judge Ochoa used terrible judgment coming up to me to
try and intimidate me, use foul language, etc., especially in the presence of other legal professionals,”
Stoffel wrote in an affidavit and
later commented on during an appearance on the radio show Face
The Tribune, where he is a regular.
Judge Ochoa became a stranger
to the Las Vegas Tribune when he
denied to the newspaper that Dave
Thomas was running his campaign,
making him a liar and, up to a point,
unfit to be wearing the respectable
and impeccable black robe.
Judge Ochoa may not be the
only Dave Thomas client that could
be exposed during this election
campaign; at least two more could
be disgracefully highlighted in the
spotlight before the November 4
general election.
Ochoa is supposed to remove the
endorsement from all of his campaign signs and materials, but there
is no proof that it has been done,
which may be another violation to
add to Dave Thomas’ client, Judge
Vincent Ochoa.
Texas Gov. turns himself in on felony charges
Texas Gov. Rick Perry
indicted for Abuse of
Power: Booked,
fingerprinted, and had
mugshot taken
By Perly Viasmensky
Las Vegas Tribune
On Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Texas Governor Rick Perry presented himself at the county courthouse for booking on two felony
counts after a grand jury indicted
him on abuse of power for his attempts to remove Travis County
District Attorney Rosemary
Lehmberg and for carrying out a
threat to veto funding for state public corruption prosecutors.
Lehmberg was arrested last year
for driving while intoxicated and
Gov. Perry attempted to remove her
from her position as a District Attorney.
Lehmberg was arrested in April
of last year after a witness called
911, describing her as driving erratically, swerving back and forth
into a bike lane and into oncoming
traffic.
According to reports, officers at
the scene found an open bottle of
vodka in her car, and a blood sample
obtained hours later on that evening
showed a blood alcohol level of
0.239 — almost three times the legal limit in Texas.
Lehmberg’s arrest attracted
headlines for her alleged belliger-
Perry said, “I’m going to fight this
injustice with every fiber of my
being. And we will prevail.”
Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, was indicted
for coercion and official oppression
for publicly promising to veto $7.5
million for the state public integrity unit, which investigates wrongdoing by elected officials and is run
by the Travis County District
Attorney’s office.
The governor threatened the
veto if District Attorney Rosemary
Lehmberg stayed in office after a
drunken driving conviction.
Lehmberg refused to resign and
Perry carried out the veto, drawing
an ethics complaint from a left-leaning government watchdog group.
Many top national conservatives, and some Democrats also,
have lined up to support him, including some potential future White
House rivals.
Texas Governor Rick Perry
ent behavior after she was brought
to the police station.
Reports claim that Lehmberg
was yelling and insulting police
officers and demanded that they call
Travis County Sheriff Greg
Hamilton.
According to the arrest report
she was allegedly slurring her
words, disoriented and very clearly
intoxicated.
Gov. Perry was booked on two
felony counts for allegedly carrying out political threats.
Before walking into the Travis
Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg
County Courthouse in Austin, Gov.
Larry Burns returns to RadioTribune.com
By the Las Vegas Tribune Staff
Sheriff candidate Larry Burns
returns to radiotribune to use the
microphones of the popular radio
station to pass his message to Clark
County voters one more time on
Thursday, August 27 at noon during the Face The Tribune radio
show.
Burns, a retired Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department captain is not only the most likable, but
also the most qualified candidate
for the position of sheriff in the
November 4 election.
The majority rank and file of the
department believes that electing
Burns as the next Sheriff of Clark
County will improve relationships
and communication with the community and will upgrade morale in
the department, benefiting the residents of Clark County.
For the last few years the con-
LARRY BURNS
nection between the community
and the police department has been
very stressed and strained; residents
have been afraid of the police instead of trusting them, instead of
seeing the police department as
their allies and the protectors of all.
“I am committed to reducing
violent crime throughout our
county by building stronger relationships between officers on the
street and the community. As sheriff, I will conduct a thorough review
of Metro’s budget to ensure every
funded position is in the best interest of the community. I also pledge
to hold Metro and every employee
to the highest standards of service
— not just duty, but real service to
our community. I believe we must
do more to improve school safety,
and I am committed to sending officers to non-injury auto accidents,
as we did until recently. I am very
honored to have the strong support
of the men and women who put
their lives on the line every day to
respond to emergencies and keep
our neighborhoods, streets and
schools safe,”Larry Burns has said
on several occasions.
Burns is running against Joe
Lombardo, the present undersheriff with the administration of Sheriff Douglas Gillespie, who many
see as being just as responsible as
the sheriff for all the problems faced
by the department, referring to
Lombardo as Gillespie’s ‘anointed
one’ who is expected to inherit the
office as happened with the last few
administrations.
Face The Tribune is broadcast on
radiotribune.com daily at noon and
hosted by former four-time Nye
County District Attorney Bob
Beckett and Las Vegas activist and
State Senate candidate Ed Uehling;
the show is produced by Rolando
Larraz, owner of the station and Las
Vegas Tribune newspaper.
Most of the candidates running
in this year’s election — as well as
every public official in the County
— have been guests on Face The
Tribune at one time or another.
FROM THE DESK OF GORDON MARTINES
Once trust is damaged or lost, it cannot
be repaired without a complete purge
By Gordon Martines
By all accounts the situation in
Ferguson, Missouri is very similar
to the incident that occurred in, and
was lied about by, our very own
LVMPD Administration. Back in
2006, Swave Lopez, a black youth
arrested on suspicion of murder by
LVMPD detectives, was taken into
custody, searched, handcuffed and
placed in the front seat, inside a
plain unmarked police car, for eventual transport to the police station.
Swave Lopez was left alone in the
police car and essentially purposely
ignored by all, until Lopez slipped
his handcuffs to the front, unlocked
the seat belt, opened the passenger
door to the vehicle, and began running away within the confines of a
fenced-in apartment complex parking lot.
Detectives noticing the fleeing
suspect running away shot the unarmed fleeing suspect several times
in the back, killing him. Information about the Officer Involved
Shooting was submitted to the
Coroner’s Inquest which yielded a
verdict of justifiable homicide by
the officers.
As was recently learned, in
2013, and told by some of the actual participants and witnesses at
the scene, the actual crime scene
(See From the Desk, Page 4)
Page 2 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / August 20-26, 2014
Obama’s hypocritical audacity: Mr. President,
your rules are the wrong game-changers!
By Jon Kraushar
Special to The Las Vegas Tribune
This past weekend, on Fox News
Sunday, anchor Chris Wallace
played a clip of President Obama
displaying the hypocritical audacity that epitomizes Mr. Obama’s
term in office.
“You don’t get to pick which
rules you play by,” said the president, as he criticized some corporations for using what he admitted
was the “totally legal” practice of
what Fox Business Correspondent
Peter Barnes described as “moving
their headquarters overseas through
mergers with foreign firms which
can save them a boatload in corpo-
TRIBUNE
VOL. 16, NO. 24
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
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
Kenneth A. Wegner
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rate taxes.”
First, who is Mr. Obama to lecture anyone that “You don’t get to
pick which rules you play by?”
A partial list of the ways President Obama has picked which
rules he plays by — whether or not
he is acting legally, constitutionally, morally or in the best interests of the country include:
—His 24 unilateral changes to
Obamacare.
—His directives granting amnesty to illegal immigrants.
—His administration’s spying
on and intimidation of reporters,
including Fox News’s James
Rosen.
— His numerous defeats before
the Supreme Court, which has
unanimously ruled in many cases
against the Obama administration
for, among other infractions:
(a.) Illegal “recess” appointments
to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor
Relations Board when Congress
wasn’t in recess.
(b.) Attempts by the Justice Department to track and invade the privacy of citizens, which would have
cast aside Fourth Amendment protections.
(c.) Trying to restrict the religious
freedom of businesses in the Hobby
Lobby case.
Add to that a recent unprecedented letter from 47 (more than
half) of the U.S. government’s inspectors general that blasts the
Obama administration’s Justice Department, Peace Corps and Chemical Safety Board for “serious limitations on access to records” that
have obstructed various investigations, including those regarding
My Point of View
(Continued from Page 1)
Tropicana Hotel. 8:30 & 10:30
p.m., or go to www.Troplv.com.
None of the above comments
were actually made by me; they
were sent to me as a gift from a
gifted old-timer public relations
genius and a fellow member of
FIORE Club named Norm
Johnson, who for years has
mingled, worked, and socialized
with every star that plays and has
played in Las Vegas.
You all know that my column
is always controversial and political. I know very little about show
biz and the stars of the Strip of today; the days of hanging around
with the famous names like Nelson
Sardelli, Sammy Davis Jr., the
Checkmates, the Treniers and others are over for me; the last time I
was on the Strip was about fifteen
years ago, but Norm knows how
much I liked the movies The Godfather and Scarface so he sent me
that wonderful note about Al
Pacino being in Las Vegas last
weekend and his fellow countryman, Cuban comedian and actor
Angel Salazar, who played ChiChi in Scarface; and now I learned
that he was Walberto in Carlito’s
Way.
As much as I avoid going to the
Strip, I would have made an exception to go say hello to the man
that is almost like an idol to me (I
even have his quotes and his photo
on my Facebook page).
Maybe I’ll cancel my weekend
trip to Los Angeles and go see
Angel Salazar at the Tropicana this
coming Friday or Saturday.
Angel is known internationally
for saying “Sheck it out” (check it
out) before, during, and after jokes,
probably talking with the same ac-
documented sexual assaults.
Even the sycophantic mainstream media are exasperated with
“Obama rules.” Investor’s Business
Daily reported, “In a scathing letter to Obama this July, the Society
of Professional Journalists decried
the ‘politically driven suppression
of news and information about federal agencies.’ Former New York
Times editor Jill Abramson called
Obama’s ‘the most secretive White
House that I have ever been involved in covering.’”
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has catalogued here 76 examples of the
president and his administration
abusing their powers or otherwise
acting illegally and unethically.
In addition, returning to the issue of American businesses relocating or investing abroad, under
President Obama’s high-tax, un-
Angel Salazar, left, and Al Pacino
cent as I do, but I am sure people we all remember with nostalgia and
understand him better than me.
when I hear something like what Al
I would have loved being at the Pacino did with Angel Salazar, it
Mirage when the two icons met on
the stage; it would have made me
reminisce when Sammy, Frank
Sinatra, Lola Falana — the Cuban
sex-appeal star of those days — and
the whole Rat Pack used to do that
in the old days.
The Checkmates used to do almost like a second show with Nancy
Wilson and even BB King at Caesars
Palace. The Treniers at the Tropicana
used to call to the stage other performers that were in the audience
watching their show.
Those were the days in the sixties and seventies in Las Vegas that
friendly-to-business regime, the
U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest in the world. This creates a perverse incentive for both large and
small businesses to invest overseas.
This, in turn, stifles job creation and
economic growth in the U.S., as
demonstrated in study after study.
Bending or breaking the law.
Creating perverse incentives. Putting chokeholds on employment,
economic development — and the
freedom of citizens.
President Obama long ago
picked these as the rules he plays
by. Mr. Obama’s rules are the wrong
game-changers. His are not the right
rules for a thriving society.
*****
Jon Kraushar is a consultant to
corporate and political leaders including Steve Forbes. He can be
reached at www.jonkraushar.net.
brings back great memories.
It is not too often that I put pictures in my column, maybe twice
in my whole serious journalist life
have I put photos in my column, but
this week I am making an exception because I am not ashamed of
saying that I am a fan of Al Pacino;
and, even without meeting Chi-Chi,
now I know that I like him, not because of the yeyo, but because he
is a great actor and Norm tells me
he is also a fantastic comedian; besides, being Cuban doesn’t hurt.
A full disclaimer to those police
officers who don’t like me: About
the Yeyo: It does not exist. I do not
(and did not) have the Yeyo, unless
you are bringing it to stuff it in my
desk. And don’t blame Chi-Chi or
Tony Montana; I have never even
met Angel Salazar as yet.
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:
Rlarraz@lasvegastribune.com or
at (702) 699-8111.
David A. Rifkin, Executive Vice President
Quote of the Week:
“My theory is that if you look
confident you can pull off
anything — even if you have no
clue what you’re doing.”
—Jessica Alba
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August 20-26, 2014 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 3
CITY BEAT
Nevadans for Background Checks launches
signature drive for the Background Check Initiative
Nevadans for Background
Checks launched a statewide signature gathering effort for the Background Check Initiative, a ballot
measure that would help keep guns
out of the hands of felons, domestic abusers and the severely mentally ill by closing dangerous loopholes in Nevada state law.
During an event held at Victory
Missionary Baptist Church in Las
Vegas, law enforcement, clergy, and
other community leaders today became the first to sign a petition to
place the Background Check Initiative on the November 2016 ballot.
Over the next few months, Nevadans for Background Checks will
lead an effort to gather more than
100,000 signatures from throughout the state.
Right now, federal law requires
background checks on gun sales at
licensed dealers; but guns can be
legally purchased from unlicensed
sellers — online, at gun shows and
even from strangers in parking lots
— without any background check,
no questions asked. The Background Check Initiative creates a
level playing field where all gun
sellers must follow the same set of
rules, making sure everyone undergoes the same background check
when buying a gun.
According to Dr. Robert E.
Fowler, pastor of the Victory Missionary Baptist Church, public
safety goes hand in hand with community betterment and creating safe
and healthy places. “We are confident those from the various religious communities in Nevada will
embrace this common sense approach to reducing gun violence,”
Dr. Fowler said. “Nearly every day
there is a shooting in our communities, so the need to take action is
immediate. We are proud to support
Nevadans for Background Checks
and invite other churches and
people of faith to join us in supporting this important initiative.”
“Background checks are real
life-savers for thousands of women
in our country and our state who are
being abused,” said Lisa Lynn
Chapman, director of community
relations for Safe Nest, a Las Vegas-area domestic violence crisis
center. “In states that require background checks for all gun sales, 38
percent fewer women are shot to
death by their intimate partners. It’s
hard to ignore those kinds of numbers. We encourage Nevadans to
stand with these women and children by signing the initiative.”
According to Senator Justin
Jones, who championed during the
2013 Nevada legislature a similar
bill that was ultimately vetoed by
Governor Brian Sandoval, the
Background Check Initiative takes
into consideration the Governor’s
concerns. Unlike SB 221, The
Background Check Initiative allows
Nevadans to sell or give a legally
purchased gun to a family member
without a background check, and
includes common-sense exemptions for hunting, sporting and selfdefense loans.
“The Background Check Initiative has no impact on existing gun
laws in Nevada,” said Jones. “Under The Background Check Initiative, unlicensed sellers would meet
their buyers at a licensed gun dealer,
who would then conduct a background check. It’s quick and easy
to get a background check,” Jones
continued. “Over 90 percent of federal background checks are completed instantaneously, and over 97
percent of Nevadans live within 10
miles of a licensed gun dealer.”
“Support for the Second Amendment goes hand in hand with keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people,” said Former Clark
County Sheriff Bill Young. “The
Background Check Initiative will
close loopholes in Nevada law that
make it too easy for felons, domestic abusers and the severely mentally ill to buy guns– while upholding Nevadans’ Second Amendment
rights. It’s a nonpartisan, common
sense approach to improving public safety and reducing gun violence
that all Nevadans, including gun
owners, can get behind.”
Polling shows that 86 percent of
Nevadans support background
checks. Over the next two years, the
campaign for the Background
Check Initiative will secure widespread statewide support for background checks by building a broad
coalition of gun violence survivors,
law enforcement, domestic violence advocates, gun owners, families, community leaders, elected
officials and concerned Nevadans.
They will gather the more than
100,000 signatures from across the
state required to put the initiative
on the Nov. 2016 ballot.
*****
RTC announces Sunday
operating schedule for
Labor Day, Sept. 1
The Regional Transportation
Commission of Southern Nevada
(RTC) will operate its transit system on a Sunday schedule for Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 1. The Sunday schedule is due to traditionally
lower ridership and less traffic during holidays.
For those traveling during the
holiday weekend, the RTC recommends parking for free at the
Westcliff Transit Center & Park and
Ride, Centennial Hills Transit Center & Park and Ride or South Strip
Transfer Terminal where they can
conveniently take transit starting at
$2 to McCarran International Airport.
The RTC also recommends drivers register their vehicles at RTC
park and ride locations if they plan
to park at the location for more than
one day. For more information on
RTC park and ride locations and to
pre-register vehicles, visit
rtcsnv.com or complete the form
on-site at the park and ride with
security staff. Drivers planning to
leave a vehicle on-site for more than
14 days must contact the RTC in
advance by calling (702) 676-1849
to request extended parking privileges.
In addition, on Friday, Sept. 5,
the RTC will detour routes in
Downtown Las Vegas due to First
Friday and Las Vegas PRIDE Night
Parade events. Though detours will
be in place, transit service will be
provided.
—Transit detours along Casino
Center Boulevard between Ogden
Avenue and Carson Avenue will be
in effect from approximately 6 p.m.
to 4 a.m.
—Transit detours along Fourth
Street between Charleston Boulevard and Stewart Avenue will be in
effect from approximately 5 p.m. to
11 p.m.
—Affected routes include:
Route 106 — Rancho / Centennial
Hills, Route 108 — Paradise, Route
109 — Maryland Parkway, Route
113 / MAX — Las Vegas Boulevard North, Route 207 — Alta /
Stewart, Route 208 –Washington,
Route 214 — H Street / D Street,
Route 215 — Bonanza, Centennial
Express (CX), Westcliff Airport
Express (WAX), Downtown & Veterans Medical Center Express
(DVX), Henderson & Downtown
Express (HDX), Boulder Highway
Express (BHX), Deuce on the Strip,
and Strip & Downtown Express
(SDX).
Transit riders are encouraged to
allow for extra commute time due
to the detours. For more information, visit rtcsnv.com or call RTC’s
Customer Service at 702.228.RIDE
(7433).
*****
Local families needed for
exchange students
ASSE International Student Exchange Programs (ASSE) is seeking local host families for international high school boys and girls.
These students are 15 to 18 years
of age, and are coming to this area
for the upcoming high school year
or semester. These personable and
academically selected exchange
students are conversant in English,
bright, curious and anxious to learn
about this country through living as
part of a family, attending high
school and sharing their own culture and language with their newly
adopted host family. The exchange
students arrive from their home
country shortly before school begins and return at the end of the
school year or semester. Each ASSE
student is fully insured, brings his
or her own personal spending
money and expects to contribute to
his or her share of household responsibilities, as well as being included in normal family activities
and lifestyles. The students are well
screened and qualified by ASSE.
Families can choose their students
from a wide variety of backgrounds,
nationalities and personal interests.
Those persons interested in obtaining more information about becoming a host family should call
toll free: 1-800-733-2773 or go to
host.asse.com. There are many students to choose from, so call or go
online — and begin the process of
selecting your new host son or
daughter today!
*****
McGruff the Crime Dog and
AlertID — New App and 7
Simple “Back to School”
Tips for Parents to Keep
Kids Safe
Kids around the country are getting ready to go back to school and
their safety is always top priority
for parents. Back to School is the
perfect time for AlertID and the
National Crime Prevention Council (home to McGruff the Crime
Dog) to share an important new app
and 7 simple tips to get the school
year off to a great and safe start.
AlertID has partnered with the
National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) to create the McGruff
Mobile App. AlertID is the free national online and mobile service,
which helps to reduce crime while
providing a safe way for people to
receive and share trusted public
safety alerts and information.
Download the McGruff Mobile
smartphone app (powered by
AlertID) and enroll for a free membership. Once enrolled, members
are able to view an interactive map
displaying crimes and sex offenders in their neighborhoods. They
will be able to receive alerts and information via email or mobile device for multiple locations such as
their homes, schools, offices, or
current locations. After signing up,
members then have the ability to
receive law enforcement emergency alerts, crime and sex offender
alerts, prevention tips, and much
more. It also includes a virtual
neighborhood watch where members can share photos and information regarding suspicious activity
with neighbors, police, and even
Homeland Security.
In addition to downloading
McGruff Mobile so that parents can
be aware of the dangers in their
neighborhoods, please review these
7 simple tips to keep kids safe for
“Back to School”:
—Map out a safe way to walk
to school or to the bus stop. Avoid
crossing busy roads and intersections, if possible. Do a trial run with
your kids so that you can discuss
areas to avoid along the way, such
as vacant lots, construction areas,
and parks where there aren’t many
people. Encourage kids to walk to
school or the bus stop with a sib-
ling or friend, and wait at bus stops
with other children.
—Snap a photo of your child and
enter up-to-date descriptions into
the My Family Wallet (located
within McGruff Mobile). If the child
goes missing, members may access
the information on their
smartphones and send it quickly to
law enforcement when every moment counts.
—Ask about the safety and
emergency plans for your children’s
school. How is local law enforcement involved? How are students
and parents involved? What emergencies have been considered and
planned for?
Create a group on AlertID with
your school administrator to share
emergency information with staff,
parents and others via email and
push notification.
—Talk to your children about
their day. Ask your children if they
see anyone bullied, if they are bullied, or if anything else makes them
feel uncomfortable. Look for warning signs of bullying, such as a sudden drop in grades, loss of friends,
or torn clothing.
—If you see something that is
suspicious in your neighborhood,
report it to local law enforcement
and post information and updates
to your neighbors on AlertID to help
reduce crime.
—Teach children to resolve
problems without fighting. Talk to
them about other ways they can
work out a problem, such as talking it out, walking away, sticking
with friends, or telling a trusted
adult.
—Keep an eye on your
children’s Internet use. Talk to your
children about what they do online
— what sites they visit, who they
email, and who they chat with. Encourage them to speak up if something makes them uncomfortable,
or if they witness forms of
cyberbullying, such as threats or
harassment.
“Back to school is an important
time for families to discuss safety
with their children, review safety
tips and be aware of threats to their
children at home and school,” said
AlertID founder, Keli Wilson. “The
more informed we are as parents,
the safer our children and the community will be.”
The McGruff Mobile app is
available for download on iTunes
or the Android market. To sign up
for a free AlertID account, or for
more information, please go to
www.AlertID.com.
*****
Ninth Circuit orders First Amendment
courtroom access lawsuit to proceed
Special to The Las Vegas Tribune
WASHINGTON, DC — Judicial Watch announced that on July
18, 2014, the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Ninth Circuit reversed the
dismissal of a First Amendment
lawsuit challenging a Los Angeles
County Superior Court decision
denying Emmy-Award winning
producer Leslie Dutton and the Full
Disclosure Network access to a
courtroom to record footage for a
documentary (Leslie Dutton et al.
v. David S. Wesley et al., No.1256162). CNN was granted access
to the same courtroom to record a
news report on the same subject
matter as the Dutton/Full Disclosure Network documentary. Dutton
and the Full Disclosure Network
UNR gets $3.8 million
Federal Grant to study
drought preparation
By Troy Wilde
Nevada News Service
RENO — Researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno will spend
the next several years studying how to deal with a limited water supply
linked to ongoing climate change. Maureen McCarthy is interim director
with the University of Nevada-Reno’s Academy for the Environment.
She says the university is among the recipients of a $3.8 million federal
grant to study how to supply growing demand with less water.
“In the light of climate change, how you understand what your water
supply is going to be, how variable it’s going to be, and how you can
make that water supply more resilient to changes in climate,” McCarthy
says, is really important.
The grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National
Science Foundation is specifically to study the Truckee-Carson River System. McCarthy says the research is meant to help all arid communities in
the west that depend upon snow-fed river systems like the Truckee.
McCarthy says there is more interest and pressure now than in the
past, to prepare for the effects of climate change.
“We’re being responsive to lots of organizations that are more focused
now on climate adaptation than they had been historically,” she says. “But
a lot of the push is really understanding resiliency.”
The Obama Administration released the National Climate Assessment
earlier this year, which concludes that as temperatures continue to rise,
droughts in the southwest will be longer, with drier conditions causing
more major wildfires.
From The Desk
was manipulated, evidence was removed, and the crime scene photographs were altered to cover up the
fact that a handgun and briefcase
were removed from the center console of the undercover plain police
vehicle that Swave Lopez was
originally placed in. In other words,
the crime scene was changed to
make it look better for the cops and
avoid a “set up” scenario. The
Coroner’s Inquest was not told of
this crime scene manipulation and
omission.
When examining this incident
further, it should be noted that from
the very start, Swave Lopez was
deliberately demonized, tried and
convicted in the media, even before
the Coroner’s Inquest was convened. Such is the police culture in
this community — whatever it
takes, legal or illegal — to make
sure the outcome is in favor of law
enforcement. Over the years, especially when the true evidence
emerges about questionable police
shootings, the credibility of our
police force is reduced to zero,
along with the trust level, so that
no matter how righteous the police
shootings are, nobody believes
what is being told by the police.
In comparison, what would be
worse: shooting and killing a handcuffed prisoner in the back as he is
running away inside a fenced-in
parking lot, or shooting a robbery
suspect that is advancing toward
you in an aggressive manner, in the
front. The number of shots is immaterial, as the purpose of shooting multiple times is to stop aggressive action, and sometimes it takes
more than one shot to achieve that
goal, as evidenced by the freeway
shooting by LVMPD, with the infamous .223 cal assault rifle, hitting the suspect 22 times, and he
still survived his wounds.
So now we have a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo., whereby the
police department, which was
rather slow in presenting the facts
of the case to the public in a timely
fashion, and thus the news media,
hell bent on sensationalism, takes
up the task and begins vomiting out
their take on the shooting, without
substantiating anything that is being said, and is essentially holding
court in the street, as to what really
happened, jacking everyone up in
the meantime.
The Ferguson Police Department, along with the State Police
and the Feds, are now attempting
to play catch-up after the protests,
riots, looting and civil unrest have
already taken place by a certain
number of local and outside agitators, fueled further by the racial
implications of the white officer
and black suspect/victim and the
political activists that want to use
this as a political vehicle to further
their own political agenda.
Without waiting for the entire set
of facts and circumstances to
emerge in legal court, pieces of forensic evidence are now being methodically leaked out to further infuriate the already racially charged
public to commit further acts of
civil unrest.
The subject of state militarized
police is being thrown around, and
the foundation for the use of lethal
force by the State Police and National Guard against any/all protesters may be authorized, and the further shredding of our First Amendment rights is being initiated.
“Never let a crisis go to waste.”
When you take the word “trust”
out of the equation in any relationship, that relationship is
permanately damaged and can
never be repaired. The only way any
organization can regain and rebuild
once lost honor, credibility, or integrity is for a complete purge of
any and all corruption from that
organization. The cancerous trash
must be totally cut out and purged
if we are to have any hope for a
better community.
In God we trust.
*****
Gordon Martines is a former
LVMPD detective who has served
in many capacities over his 39-year
career in law enforcement. He has
been a candidate for sheriff in 2002,
2006, 2010 and 2014, with the intention of bringing integrity and accountability back to the department,
and filed a federal lawsuit against
LVMPD in 2011. Martines now
contributes his opinions and ideas
to the Las Vegas Tribune to keep the
public informed and help improve
policing in Las Vegas. He has also
appeared on the Face the Tribune
radio program several times to
share his plan for a better LVMPD.
claim that the denial was based on
illegal viewpoint discrimination.
In reversing and remanding the
case to the lower court, the Ninth
Circuit appellate panel ruled:
“The empty courtroom that the
plaintiffs sought to access to film
their documentary is either a
nonpublic forum or a limited public forum... Either way, speech restrictions are impermissible unless
they are reasonable in light of the
purposes served by the forum and
viewpoint neutral... The plaintiffs’
complaint includes enough factual
content to permit the reasonable
inference that the defendants denied
the plaintiffs’ request to access the
courtroom because of the plaintiffs’
viewpoint.”
Dutton and Full Disclosure Network have been seeking access to
the courtroom, located in the
Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles, since 2011. The
documentary, entitled “The Cost of
Courage,” features narration by Ed
Asner and concerns Richard I. Fine,
a 70-year old disbarred California
lawyer who was held in solitary
confinement for 18 months in Los
Angeles County’s notorious Men’s
Central Jail for civil “coercive” contempt stemming from his efforts to
expose a “double dipping” compensation scheme involving Los Angeles County judges. Dutton and Full
Disclosure Network sought access
to the courtroom for approximately
30 minutes, “any day the courtroom
is empty, at any time,” in order to
record eye witness interviews and
read from a transcript of proceedings in Fine’s civil contempt case,
which took place in the courtroom.
Dutton and Full Disclosure Network had been highly critical of
both Fine’s lengthy incarceration
and the “double dipping.”
In March 2012, Judicial Watch
filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dutton
and Full Disclosure Network in the
U.S. District Court for the Central
District of California. In the lawsuit, Judicial Watch argued that the
Los Angeles County Superior Court
“has a long-standing practice of
making courtrooms available to
members of the media for filming,
(See First Admendment, Page 6)
A protester tries to throw tear gas back at police in Ferguson, Mo., Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014. Protests over the
killing of 18-year-old Mike Brown by a white police officer have entered their second week.
Ferguson: Who are the outside
agitators entering in the fray?
Do not let them say to themselves, “Hurrah!
We have swallowed him up in one gulp.”
Let them all be disgraced and dismayed
who rejoice at my fall;
let them be covered with shame and dishonor
who glory over me.
But let all who would see me righted shout
for joy, let them cry continually,
‘All glory to the Lord
who would see his servant thrive!’
So shall I talk of thy justice
and of thy praise all the day long.
Love, from Mom
Politicians and police in Missouri say much of the recent violence in Ferguson,
Mo., is due to outside instigators, some associated with fringe groups.
By Gram Slattery
Christian Science Monitor
Over the past 10 days, the rioting in Ferguson, Mo., has turned
from a local protest by a black community against its overwhelmingly
white police force to an international symbol of the racial tensions
that still plague urban America.
Along the way, outside protesters have begun to flood into the
suburb, inciting violence even when
community members are promoting
peace. While the exact number of
“militants” — as the hard-core,
Molotov cocktail-throwing outsiders have been called — is unknown,
Missouri police officials and politicians have implied that they compose a significant fraction of those
looting and battling police.
On Monday, when Missouri
Gov. Jay Nixon (D) signed an order deploying the National Guard
to Ferguson, he cited “violent criminal acts of an organized and growing number of individuals, many
from outside the community and
state, who are putting... residents
and businesses... at risk.”
On Tuesday, after a night in
which police reportedly came under “heavy attack” from “coordinated” groups, Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, a
black Ferguson native, pledged in
an interview with CNN that he
would “not ... let criminals that have
come out here from across this
country or live in this community
define this neighborhood.”
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D)
of Missouri said on MSNBC that
Ferguson had been “invaded” by
agitators from other communities.
While many of these outside
protesters have come from other
parts of the St. Louis area with deep
racial imbalances in local governments and police departments,
many have also arrived in buses
from places like New York, Chicago, and Detroit. Though county
police have not publicly released
arrest numbers relating to the riots,
a bundle of about 50 arrest reports
obtained by a Washington Post reporter included a “large number”
with Illinois and Texas addresses.
“It’s like looting tourism,” an
officer told the Post. “It’s like they
are spending their gas money to
come down here and steal.”
While many of these outsiders
have come on their own initiative,
others are part of larger fringe organizations. None will reveal their
names, and many carry guns.
Among the groups active in
Ferguson are the Revolutionary
Communist Party (RCP) and the
Revolution Club of Chicago. The
RCP — a small, mysterious, but
nationally dispersed Maoist cell led
by activist Bob Avakian — has been
in the area since at least Wednesday, along with the Revolution Club
and the New Black Panthers Party.
Re-Elect
The New Black Panthers Party has
been classified as a hate group by
the Southern Poverty Law Center,
among other organizations.
“We have a responsibility to be
here,” Lou Downey of the Revolution Club told The Kansas City Star.
“We are revolutionaries. We’re
working to do this in a way that puts
an end to the system that for generations has criminalized youth,
especially black youth, and rounds
them up into prisons.”That’s not to
say that all outside groups involved
in the protests are inciting violence.
Organizations such as the National
Association for the Advancement of
Colored People and the Organization for Black Struggle have advocated peace on the streets.
Protesters also say that the most
heavily armed groups in Ferguson
at the moment are police and the
National Guard, which arrived on
Monday after rioters fired guns and
threw incendiary devices at police.
In the past week, local law enforcement — namely the Ferguson Police Department — has come under criticism for employing militarized equipment, including automatic weapons and mine-proof armored vehicles, and wearing military fatigues.
On Monday night, police resorted to tear gas and stun grenades
after coming under “heavy gunfire,” according to Captain Johnson.
(See Ferguson, Page 6)
My story is in the book:
A Death in Las Vegas — Perverted Injustice
How Pentagon’s ‘1033 program’
helped militarize small-town police
The Pentagon’s ‘1033 program’ has provided billions of dollars in military equipment to law enforcement
agencies across the country. Critics say this militarization of local police needs to change.
By Linda Feldman
Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON — The images
out of Ferguson, Mo., population
21,000, have been stark: heavily
armed officers in combat gear, some
atop armored vehicles, firing rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters.
The rioting this week over the
police killing of an unarmed black
teenager has subsided, after the
Missouri State Highway Patrol took
over security operations. But public focus remains on why the aftermath of Michael Brown’s death
spiraled into mayhem, and on how
it could have been prevented.
Exhibit A is a phenomenon
widely criticized across the political spectrum, from the Heritage
Foundation to the American Civil
Liberties Union: the militarization
of policing in America. A key element of that trend is the Pentagon’s
“1033 program,” which allows police forces to acquire excess military equipment.
Here’s an explanation of how the
program works, and a proposal to
change it.
What is the 1033 program?
The Department of Defense
launched the “1033 program” in
1997 as a way to let state and local
law enforcement stock up on excess
U.S. military equipment, free of
charge. Among the items available
are vehicles (land, air, and sea),
weapons, computer equipment, fingerprint equipment, and night-vision equipment.
“If your law enforcement agency
chooses to participate, it may become one of the more than 8,000
participating agencies to increase its
capabilities, expand its patrol coverage, reduce response times, and
save the American taxpayer’s investment,” the Pentagon’s Law
Enforcement Support Office says
on its website.
What’s behind
creation of 1033?
The program was originally
launched to aid communities in the
“war on drugs.” After the attacks of
Sept. 11, 2001, local law enforcement could also receive grants from
the new Department of Homeland
Ferguson
Police have also been criticized
in recent days for heavy-handed
treatment of journalists.
Last Wednesday, Ferguson police arrested two reporters, one from
The Washington Post and another
from The Huffington Post, apparently without strong justification,
and they fired tear gas at an Al
Jazeera television crew while its
members were setting up a video
shoot behind a police cordon. On
Monday night, county police temporarily detained three more journalists: Getty photographer Scott
Olson, Lukas Hermsmeier of the
German outlet BILD, and Ryan
Devereaux of The Intercept, an organization covering national security issues.
“We are concerned by the detention and harassment of reporters
trying to cover the news in
Ferguson,” Robert Mahoney, director of the Committee to Protect
Journalists, said in a statement
Monday. “Journalists have a right
to work freely in the streets of any
American city, and authorities in
Ferguson have a duty to ensure that
they can do so there too.”
A protester takes shelter from smoke billowing around him Aug. 13, 2014, in Freguson, Mo. Protests in the
St. Louis suburb rocked by racial unrest since a white police officer shot an unarmed black teenager to death
turned violent Wednesday night, with some people lobbing Molotov cocktails and other objects at police who
responded with smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Security to help communities deThe armored vehicle seen in strength face shield, two night-vifend against terrorist threats.
many images out of Ferguson on sion viewers, and computers,” ABC
What’s the value
Wednesday was not a military ve- reports.
of the equipment?
hicle and did not come from DOD,
Ferguson is located in St. Louis
Since the program’s inception, the official told ABC.
County.
DOD has transferred more than
“There’s no information yet What have other communities
$5.1 billion worth of property to about what other tactical equipment
received from 1033?
state and local law enforcement. the Ferguson Police Department
Last October, Oxford County in
Last year alone, almost $450 mil- may have received, the official said, rural western Maine agreed to take
lion worth of equipment was trans- but a complete list of the equipment a “bulletproof, explosive-resistant
ferred.
provided to St. Louis County by the armored personnel carrier, courtesy
What has Ferguson
DOD shows the types of weapons of the US military,” according to the
received from 1033?
being distributed: six .45-caliber Bangor Daily News.
Ferguson police last October re- pistols, 12 rifles, two sight reflexes,
Six other law enforcement agenceived “nontactical” equipment via one explosive ordnance disposal cies in Maine were also set to rethe 1033 program, including two robot, one helicopter, seven utility ceive Navstar Defense MaxxPro
unarmored Humvees, a trailer, and trucks, three trailers, one motorized Mine Resistant Armor Protected
a generator, according to a Penta- cart, one pair of elbow pads, one vehicles.
gon official speaking to ABC News. pair of knee pads, one industrial
“The Western Foothills of the
State of Maine, primarily the Oxford County area as well as the area
surrounding Oxford County, curincluding filming news reports about cases of public interest, when the rently face a previously unimagincourtrooms are not being used for public proceedings” and that the Dutton/ able threat from terrorist activities,”
Full Disclosure request had been rejected without explanation on multiple occasions even though a nearly identical request by CNN had been
granted.
The District Court dismissed the lawsuit on June 20, 2012.
As a result of the reversal, the Los Angeles County Superior Court
will now have to defend its decision to allow CNN to report from the
courthouse on Fine’s case, but to bar Dutton and Full Disclosure Network from doing so.
“This is a clear-cut victory for the Freedom of Speech,” said Judicial
Watch President Tom Fitton. “It’s rather extraordinary to have to file a
lawsuit against a court, and this case shows that even courts are not beyond the protections of the First Amendment. Courts can’t arbitrarily pick
and choose between news media outlets depending upon how they report
on a story.”
Leslie Dutton said: “We are elated with the ruling. Not only will we
have the opportunity to prove our case in court, but we are one step closer
to completing the documentary we envisioned.”
First Admendment
Oxford County Sheriff George
Cayer said in a six-page memo cited
by the newspaper.
Last August, police in Lewiston,
Me., had a gathering in a park for
National Night Out to show residents the department’s newest acquisitions: a robot and an armor
personnel carrier.
A police sergeant said the new
vehicle would be useful in rescue
and hazardous-materials situations,
the Lewiston Sun Journal reported.
Isn’t it smart to recycle?
“Taken at face value the program
makes a certain degree of sense,”
writes Christopher Ingraham in the
Washington Post. “Military equipment that would otherwise be destroyed instead gets diverted to
cash-strapped local law enforcement agencies.”
But in some cases, the program
may be a money loser. Heavily armored tactical vehicles known as
MRAPs cost about $10,000 each to
destroy where they are — say, Afghanistan — but $50,000 to transport to the U.S., the Post reports.
How do members of
Congress want to change
the 1033 program?
Rep. Hank Johnson (D) of Georgia plans to introduce legislation
changing 1033 in September, when
Congress gets back from recess. For
starters, he wants to decouple the
program from the war on drugs,
which is in flux.
Congressman Johnson would
also limit the transfers of certain
types of military equipment that he
believes are not appropriate for local law enforcement, such as armored vehicles and large-caliber
weapons.
“It’s not yet clear how much support Johnson’s proposal will receive,” writes Philip Bump in the
Washington Post. “If it passes, however, it could mean a gradual scaling back of military-grade equipment owned — and therefore used
— by local police forces.”
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9/11 Patriot Day Debates
Thursday, Sept. 11, 2014 • 10:00 am until 8:00 pm
The D Casino and Hotel Las Vegas
Downtown Las Vegas
Confirmed candidates for 9/11 Debate
(as of August 19, 2014)
District Court
Judges
Clark County
Sheriff
Family Court
Judges
John Glenn Watkins
Department 2
Larry Burns
Clark County Sheriff
Joe Scalia
Department B
Clark County
Commissioner
John Howard
Department C
Mike Davidson
Department 3
Joe Thibodeau
District E
State
Assembly
Denise Gentile
Department F
Christine Guerci-Nyhus
Department 8
Brent Jones
District 35
State
Senate
Ken Pollock
Department J
Mike Root
Department 14
Ed Uehling
District 10
William “Bill” Kephart
Department 19
Jacob Hafter
Department 22
Jeffrey Rugg
Department 30
Nevada
Governor
Bob Goodman
Nevada Governor
Paul Gaudet
Department L
Jason Stoffel
Department S
Maria Maskall
Department T
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
The McCarthy
Era Is Over
John McCarthy was the Sheriff in Clark County from 1979
to 1982 when he lost the race to the late John Moran at the
end of the first term.
McCarthy ended the 18-year reign of Ralph Lamb’s dynasty when he defeated the well-liked and famous cowboysheriff in the 1978 election, and as a one-term-only sheriff,
opened the door for the “inherited tradition” that has predominated in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
since then.
John McCarthy was defeated because he was new to the
job, in his first term, and many people in the community were
not able to understand what he and his men were trying to
do.
The same happened with one-time Republican Governor
Robert List; he was defeated at the end of his first term. This
is what the people in Clark County need to keep in mind for
the November election, when they vote in the Sheriff race.
The people of Clark County did not know John McCarthy,
and they did not vote for John McCarthy; they simply voted
against Ralph Lamb to end an era they considered had lasted
far too long; perhaps too they had been victims of those outof-control close friends of the Sheriff.
Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican US Senator from the state
of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957.
During the McCarthy era, thousands of Americans were
accused of being communists or communist sympathizers and
became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies.
During the Sheriff Douglas Gillespie era, lots of people
have been victims of his dictatorial and abusive regime.
McCarthyism is the practice of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. It also means “the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in
order to restrict dissent or political criticism.”
In the Gillespie era, many police officers as well as members of the community were victims of accusations of disloyalty, or other charges, without proper regard for evidence.
During the Joe McCarthy era minority groups — including African-Americans, Native Americans, and various immigrant groups — became targets of suspicion, surveillance,
and infiltration.
Nobody has suffered through the Gillespie era more than
the minority groups in Clark County; and never were so many
minorities ignored as when it came to where “protection”
was concerned.
Why are we bringing the name of a 69-year-old politician
who died a decade later into the local political scene of our
times? you may ask. That is a very good question.
You also may ask why bring up the name of John McCarthy
or Robert List when they both served the community three
decades ago — and that is also a very good question.
Sheriff John McCarthy and Governor Robert List were both
one-term servants of the community and were easily taken
out of office when the constituents did not think they did the
job they were elected to do.
We compare the old senator to a much younger sheriff
because of the arbitrary, arrogant, unfair and dictatorial behavior they both displayed in abusing the constituents they
were sworn to serve.
Another good question that someone may ask is why bring
up the bad aspects of Sheriff Douglas Gillespie when he is
no longer running for the job.
It is because Sheriff Douglas Gillespie is working very
hard to keep “his boy,” Joe Lombardo AKA Joseph Lombardo,
in office and the public should not allow it to happen. If
Lombardo is elected Sheriff of Clark County, he would be
cemented into that office for a very long time, even longer
than the eighteen years that Ralph Lamb served
With over a million dollars in gaming campaign contributions and the backing of two former sheriffs, if Lombardo is
able to fool the community, it will be very hard to get him
out of office.
The people of Clark County should think very carefully
about all this and make sure they do not allow Joseph
Lombardo to be the next Sheriff of Clark County because
they are all going to remember this editorial and wish they
heeded what it said.
Consider this: A vote for Larry Burns, the guy who retired
before announcing his candidacy for Sheriff, or a vote for
Lombardo, who is still earning (earning?) a paycheck while
playing politics on the Strip, with all those benefits.
Larry Burns is a cop other cops like because he has promised them he would uplift the morale of the department; he
has promised to be fair and enforce the law equally to all
citizens of Clark County.
Larry Burns works hand in hand with his men and women
in the department; we need to ask Joe Lombardo when was
the last time he responded to a call with the rank and file.
The choice is all yours! Give it much thought.
Death is colorblind,
and so is friendship
By Perly Viasmensky
The death of a young person is always sad, regardless of who that person is. The death of 18-year-old
Michael Brown of Ferguson, Missouri, I can say with
certainty, must be a horrible experience in his mother’s
life. In cases like this, mothers are the ones who suffer
the most.
But all those demonstrations of hate, destruction of
property and looting of businesses in a city where you
have to live, is not going to bring the young man back
and is not going to soothe the pain those parents feel.
The word you hear the most these days and at this
time is RACISM. If you hear closely the way reporters broadcast the news, you would get to the sad conclusion that white people must be the ones instigating
racism.
I was listening to the morning news on Univision
this morning and the lady who was reading the news
(she wasn’t even reporting) said: “A white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an African-American.”
That is the perfect sign of racism. First, she could
have said “Black” instead of “African-American”; but
why couldn’t she just have said, “A police officer in
Ferguson, Missouri shot and killed an 18-year-old
man.” There is no reason whatsoever to instigate resentment between Blacks and Whites.
Stealing Hillary Clinton’s line — what difference
does it make now if the police officer was white, black,
red or yellow? And the young man was not an African-American. He was just plain American.
President Obama is African-American because his
father was African and his mother American. Do we
need to go into details by saying his father was a black
man from Africa and his mother a white woman from
the United States of America? No, we don’t. He is an
African-American (and as he has said many times),
PERIOD.
I would bet thousands of dollars, which I don’t have
(and I am not a gambler) that Michael Brown has never
been in Africa. He probably didn’t even know that
Africa is the second largest continent and that it covers one-fifth of the earth’s land.
So, what’s the point of calling black people African-Americans?
One of the things I admire the most about Ramon
Savoy, who for about forty years published the Las
Vegas Sentinel-Voice, the first and only Black publication (until the Review-Journal recently came out with
a Black Magazine) in our town. Ramon would tell you
in plain English, “I am not African-American, I was
born here, I have never been in Africa and my family
is all from here.”
My heart goes out to Michael Brown’s mother; she
is the one who is going to have that pain in her heart
for the rest of her life; but hate toward each other, destruction of property, and stealing from the people of
your own town is not going to solve the situation. It is
not going to bring Michael Brown back.
We will never know; maybe Michael made the
wrong choice to socialize with that other guy who was
with him on that fatal day, the one who survived the
shooting. Do we even know if that guy is the one re(See Viasmensky, Page 10)
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
Why violence is not the answer to violence:
Reaction to the killing of Michael Brown
By Maramis
that probably could stir up feelings
Until somehow we (meaning all
and thoughts that might possibly be
people on the face of the earth) get
put into words such as, “That cop
to fully understand the concept of
deserves a bullet in the head!” or “If
“provoking more of the same,” we
I knew who it was, I’d hunt him down
need to be told over and over again
and kill him,” or “We’ve got to show
that people will likely respond to
the police they can’t get away with
what you do in kind. And we obvithat!” (No doubt similar thoughts
ously need to be reminded, again and
floated through the minds of some,
again, that people who are treated
indicating that those who might be
unjustly will get to a point where they
having such thoughts might have
will revolt in one way or another.
more violence in mind to get their
And that goes both ways.
point across.) Yet a certain leader by
The killing of Michael Brown
the name of Martin Luther King Jr.,
MARAMIS CHOUFANI
was, according to various reports out on the who really knew whereof he spoke, said: “As my sufnewswaves, seen as unjustified. Even taking into con- ferings mounted I soon realized that there were two
sideration that Michael and his friend were blatantly ways in which I could respond to my situation — eijaywalking and ignoring the officer’s request to get ther to react with bitterness or seek to transform the
out of the road, and the then after-the-fact report that suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the
Brown was a “suspect” in a crime (information that latter course.” Difficult as it might be for some to hold
was apparently part of the scenario at the moment of retaliatory feelings in check, remembering the admonMichael’s being shot down), AND the suggestion that ishments and the actions of the good Dr. King might
he was possibly walking away from the officer (try- give them pause.
ing to get away), would anyone say that the penalty
People forget that first and foremost, we need to
for such crimes should be death?
have ALL the facts before we jump to the conclusions
I wasn’t there and cannot say what really happened we prefer. We seldom hear conclusion-jumpers come
or even what was going on in the mind of the officer. out later on and apologize for taking one side over the
I believe that officer does need to be able to present other without knowing whereof they had spoken. Some
his side of the story, which we well know would have acts seem very clear, while some acts are not nearly
to include some details not presently considered in what they seem.
the public’s take on this shooting. Very often, of course,
We certainly don’t have to go too far back in time
memories of things emotional can be very different to find examples of public outcry and public rage over
from one person to another, from how the people in- some particular incident, or some act on the part of the
volved want to remember them or believe them to be, police, or some sense of injustice or perpetrated vioto how the people involved in the causation of the trag- lence that incensed this whole nation, yet people as a
edy say they really were. Yet they are what they are group are often very slow to learn. Consider what Benand each side needs to be heard. A big thing that also jamin Franklin said hundreds of years ago: “Justice
needs explanation, if such reports are true, is why will not be served until those who are unaffected are
Michael’s body was left lying in the street for almost as outraged as those who are.” That means that laws,
five hours after the shooting.
policies and behaviors MUST be addressed, dealt with
Here is the point: OF COURSE such a killing can and fixed all over this country, wherever injustice has
provoke a kind of rage that only those who were raised its ugly head, to avoid those who can use the
touched by that killing could know. Of course any excuse that “it was legal,” “it was within policy” or “I
unjustified killing can fuel the kind of anger and rage
(See Maramis, Page 10)
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.
If the Tea Party is a Loser,
so was George Washington
in which Tea Party canBy Chuck Muth
didates did not pull off
The media consensus is
large numbers of miracuthat the Tea Party lost big
lous upset victories — is
this GOP primary election
seen as a failure.
cycle.
And as we witnessed
No it didn’t. Not by a
in race after race this year
long shot. The very fact
— at the local, state and
that the liberal media and
national levels — it was
Harry Reid continue to
all about winning at any
obsess over the Tea Party
and all cost for the estabmovement is proof posilishment. Truth, honesty
tive of that fact.
and character were reliThat the moderate Regiously sacrificed at Al
CHUCK MUTH
publican Party establishment — in Nevada and across the country Davis’ altar of “Just Win, Baby” (ask your
— spent small fortunes on race after race granddad).
to keep conservative candidates out of
There was no honor in many of those
elected office and did the Snoopy Dance victories, especially the primary re-election
every time an underfunded Tea Party can- win of Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad
didate came up short on Election Day dem- Cochran. The GOP establishment only
onstrates the ongoing power and influence saved his scalp by turning out Democrat
the Tea Party movement continues to wield voters to vote against the conservative Tea
in the GOP.
Party challenger in a Republican primary.
Let’s face it: Elected officials enjoyed a
Yeah, that’s a win to be proud of. You
90 percent or better re-election rate LONG go, girls!
before the dawn of the Tea Party movement.
The very fact that so many entrenched,
That is a testament to the power of incum- well-funded incumbents and anointed esbency, not any weakness of the Tea Party/ tablishment candidates faced credible, viconservative movement. Incumbents have able challenges from inexperienced/underall the connections, all the major endorse- funded, but principled, challengers exposes
ments, all the most experienced campaign the continued weakness in the GOP. And
consultants... and money coming out of contrary to liberal and establishment opintheir wazoos.
ion, the Tea Party isn’t dead; it lived to fight
In most cases it would take a miracle to another day.
unseat ANY incumbent member of ConAnyone who knows anything about hisgress, regardless of the philosophical dis- tory knows that George Washington’s Conposition of the challenger. That Tea Party tinental Army also lost most of their major
candidates were unsuccessful in dethron- early skirmishes against the almighty Briting super-powerful incumbents in GOP pri- ish Empire — aided and abetted by colomaries this year was neither a shock nor a nial sell-outs and turncoats — in the Revosurprise.
lutionary War.
Disappointing for conservatives, sure.
How’d that turn out again?
But far from unexpected.
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen OutFor those whose depth of political stra- reach, a non-profit public policy grassroots
tegic thinking roughly equates to that of a advocacy organization. He may be reached
parking lot puddle, the election results — at cmuth@lasvegastribune.com.
Power of PurposeDriven Leadership
By Doug Dickerson
Marcus Garvey said,
When you’re sur“A people without the
rounded by people who
knowledge of their past
share a passionate comhistory, origin and culture
mitment and common puris like a tree without its
pose, anything is possible.
roots.” Seek to understand
— Howard Schultz
where you have come
There is a story involvfrom in order to make
ing Yogi Berra, the wellsense of where you are
known catcher for the New
going. From that knowlYork Yankees, and Hank
edge you can have a
Aaron, who at that time
greater understanding and
was the chief power hitter
appreciation for where you
for the Milwaukee Braves.
are today.
The teams were playing in
DOUG DICKERSON
It keeps you focused
the World Series, and as usual Yogi was
on the present
keeping up his ceaseless chatter, intended
When your purpose and vision is clear
to pep up his teammates on the one hand, it gives your employees the focus they need
and distract the Milwaukee batters on the to succeed. If your team is in the dark about
other. As Aaron came to the plate, Yogi tried its mission and vision they are without the
to distract him by saying, “Henry, you’re most basic of tools needed for success. Your
holding the bat wrong. You’re supposed to employees cannot lead your organization
hold it so you can read the trademark.” to its intended destination if they do not
Aaron didn’t say anything, but when the understand why they are going there or the
next pitch came he hit it into the left-field values that will guide them.
bleachers. After rounding the bases and tagA clear understanding of your purpose
ging up at home plate, Aaron looked at Yogi gives them the ability to focus like a laser
Berra and said, “I didn’t come up here to on accomplishing their goals and objecread.”
tives. Just as Hank Aaron was able to tune
The story is a great reminder of why out the distraction at home plate and hit a
having and knowing your purpose is im- home run, so too, will your team succeed
portant. Do you know your company’s mis- when they focus on their mission.
sion or vision statement? If not, sad to say,
It gives you direction
you are not alone. According to a survey
for the future
conducted by TINYPulse of over 300 hunWhen you can put your past in context
dred companies and 40,000 anonymous re- and focus on the present then you can build
sponses, the survey revealed that only 42 for the future. When you have a purpose
percent of employees know their that is known, with employees who are
organization’s vision, mission, and values. engaged, then you have a future that is
If your employees do not know your promising.
company’s vision, mission, or values then
“Even though the future seems far
they will be poor representatives of your away,” said Mattie Stepanek, “it is actucompany. If you, as the leader, have not ally beginning right now.” Purpose-driven
clearly communicated those core values leadership is about empowering and equipthen you have fallen down on the job. How ping your team. Purpose-driven leadership
can your employees represent what they do is the rudder of your ship and will keep you
not know? Purpose-driven leadership is es- on course. Your future is only as promissential to your success. Here are three rea- ing as your ability to empower. The time is
sons why.
now to lay claim to your purpose, make
It gives context to your past
known your mission and vision, and disIn order to understand where you are and cover the possibilities before you.
where you are going it is important to unWhat do you say?
derstand your past. Knowing the back-story
Doug Dickerson is a syndicated columof your organization — all the successes nist. He writes a weekly column for this
and failures and how it emerged in the for- newspaper. To contact Doug Dickerson,
mative years is foundational information email
him
at
ddickerson@
worth understanding.
lasvegastribune.com.
Shoot first and ask
questions later
By Mace Yampolsky
fenders. The number one
In Ferguson, Missouri,
solution is to demand that
Michael Brown, the unall law enforcement wear
armed black teenager who
body cameras when on
was killed by a police ofduty. Studies show that
ficer, sparking protests
when encounters with the
around the nation, was shot
public are recorded, inciat least six times, includdents of police brutality being twice in the head, a precome almost non-existent.
liminary private autopsy
In Rialto, California, a
performed on Sunday
year-long study showed an
found. This article is
88 percent decrease in
adapted from the New
complaints filed since their
MACE YAMPOLSKY
York Times with snippets
police force instituted body
from other online articles. The editorial cameras. Just this week, in response to recomments, of course, are mine.
cent cases of brutality and an opinion from
“One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. a Federal Court case suggesting this as a
Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent solution to Fourth Amendment violations
forward when it struck him and caused a as well, NYC officials proposed all law
fatal injury, according to Dr. Michael M. enforcement wear body cameras in the
Baden, the former chief medical examiner never-ending quest to keep government
for the City of New York, who flew to Mis- bodies, at all levels, accountable to the
souri on Sunday at the family’s request to people. As Supreme Court Justice Brandeis
conduct the separate autopsy. It was likely said, ‘sunlight is said to be the best of disthe last of bullets to hit him, he said.
infectants’ in 1913...”
“Mr. Brown, 18, was also shot four times
“Law enforcement and prosecutors alike
in the right arm, he said, adding that all the should be banging down the doors of City
bullets were fired into his front. In light of Hall demanding funding for this valuable
recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, many tool. Imagine how effective a prosecution
are seeking ways to safeguard their com- could be with the judge, jury, and Defenmunity against police brutality. Sadly, there dant seeing firsthand the actions that led to
are members of law enforcement who abuse a stop and arrest. But why isn’t this being
their power and use excessive force. I have done? The only answer is that both are fully
seen countless cases involving police bru- aware body cameras would end the practality, but as a whole, most officers do not tice of effectuating arrests using illegal tactake advantage of their position. However, tics. Using cameras would mean no more
(See Mace, Page 11)
officers who do are typically habitual of-
BEHIND THE MIKE
Ambiguities in Life
By Michael A. Aun
alone than in bad comYou have to love the
pany.
ambiguities in life. You
—If at first you don’t
could write a book on them,
succeed, try, try again.
but here are just a few that
Don’t beat a dead horse.
I’ve come across.
—Hold fast to the
—Birds of a feather
words of your ancestors.
flock together. Opposites
Wise men make proverbs
attract.
and fools repeat them.
—He who hesitates is
—You could make the
lost. Look before you leap.
argument that atheism is
—You’re never too old
a non-prophet organizato learn. You can’t teach old
tion.
dog new tricks.
—If man evolved
MICHAEL A. AUN
—How do you justify
from monkeys and apes,
this? The early bird gets the worm. Good why do we still have monkeys and apes?
things come to those who wait.
—Why are there no hypothetical ques—Look before you leap. Strike while the tions?
iron is hot.
—If someone with multiple personali—Two heads are better than one. If you ties threatens to kill himself, is this considwant something done right do it yourself.
ered a hostage situation?
—Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
—I’m thinking out loud here, is there
Better safe than sorry.
another word for synonym?
—Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Don’t
—And where do forest rangers go to get
look a gift horse in the mouth.
away from it all?
—What will be, will be. (Que sera
—What do you do when an endangered
sera...) Life is what you make of it.
animal eats an endangered plant?
—Many hands make light work. Too
—Would a fly without wings be called
many cooks spoil the broth.
a walk? Just wondering.
—There’s safety in numbers. Too many
—Why do they lock gas stations toilets?
cooks spoil the broth. (Wow, the jury must Are they afraid that someone will break in
still be out on that proverb!)
to clean them?
—Absence makes the heart fonder. Out
—If a turtle doesn’t have a shell, is it
of sight; out of mind.
homeless or naked?
—Don’t change horses in midstream.
—Do vegetarians eat animal crackers?
Variety is the spice of life.
—If police arrest a mute, do they still
—The pen is mightier than the sword. tell him he has the right to remain silent?
Actions speak louder than words.
—Why do they put Braille on drive—Don’t cross the bridge till you come through bank machines?
to it. Forewarned is forearmed.
—What was the best thing before sliced
—Silence is golden. The squeaky wheel bread?
gets the grease.
—The nicest thing about egotists is they
—Clothes make the man. Never judge a don’t talk about other people.
book by its cover.
—How is it possible to have a civil war?
—The best things come in small pack—If one synchronized swimmer drowns,
ages. The bigger, the better.
do the rest drown too?
—If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get
—If you ate both pasta and antipasto,
up with fleas. If you can’t beat ‘em, join would you still be hungry?
‘em.
—If you try to fail and succeed, which
—A miss is as good as a mile. Half a have you done?
loaf is better than none. Something is bet—Whose cruel idea was it to for the
ter than nothing.
word “lisp” to have an “S” in it?
—An old fox is not easily snared.
—Why is it called tourist season here in
There’s no fool like an old fool.
Florida if we can’t shoot at them?
—The more the merrier. Two’s com—Why is there an expiration date on
pany; three’s a crowd.
sour cream?
—The best things in life are free. You
—If you spin an oriental man in a circle
get what you pay for.
three times, does he become disoriented?
—A good beginning makes a good end—Can an atheist get insurance against
ing. It’s not over till it’s over.
acts of God?
—Blood is thicker than water. Many kinWhy do shops have signs that say
folk; few friends.
“Guide Dogs Only”? The dogs can’t read
—Practice makes perfect. All work no and their owners are blind.
play makes Jack a dull boy.
Michael Aun is a syndicated columnist
—A bird in the hand is worth two in the and writes a weekly column for this newsbush.
paper. To contact Michael Aun, email him
—There’s safety in numbers. Better be at maun@lasvegastribune.com.
COMMENTARIES
Editors note: The views expressed are entirely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Las Vegas Tribune.
Target Truth vs. Metro Embellishment
By Norman Jahn
Is there anything more pathetic
than one police employee lying
about another in order to see him
lose his career? Think about it.
While the general public seems to
believe that the ‘blue code of silence’ exists across the board (it
does NOT), maybe they need a
wake-up call to also realize that
there are malicious members of the
police department who are more
than willing to destroy their own coworkers. Most of these people are
supervisors and managers. No
longer willing or able to actually
make arrests and fight crime, they
seem to be content with eating their
own. To think that a person like Lt.
Karen Hughes was on the PMSA
Board of Directors for so long is
troubling. Even more horrible, is
the fact that Sgt. John Hayes, after
years and years of trouble with ‘interpersonal relations’ (he once told
me “Go f*** yourself” over the
phone), is now the Vice Chairman
of the PMSA. He does not do police work anymore. His full-time
job is to advocate for members —
often after they have been accused
of misconduct. He went from a frequent ‘accuser’ to a defender with
a ‘history.’ Hayes is no longer in
Vice but now has access to a new
kind of sensitive and highly confidential information. What are the
Maramis
NORMAN JAHN
members of the PMSA thinking by
putting him in this position even if
he had to abruptly leave Vice?
Didn’t they ‘vet’ this guy at all?
I just read an Adjudication of
Complaint prepared by Kelly
Sweeney in Metro Labor Relations
in 2011. This was after the LVMPD
reached a conclusion on the investigation of an officer who had already resigned. It was not the first
time that I read one of her incredibly inaccurate and embellished
summaries of the findings of an Internal Affairs investigation (or in
this case, a non-investigation). Even
though the officer was convinced
to resign, Captain Charles Hank
pushed through an Adjudication of
Complaint that was absolutely unreal. It was full of speculation and
conclusions that were not supported
was just doing my job” as a cop-out for their particular act of injustice.
But we need to remember: that also includes addressing the issue of using
racism as a catch-all for deciding guilt.
Dr. King was all about peace, yet some who loved him and were outraged at his killing still somehow decided to react in kind to the assassination, indulging in random acts of violence as well as planned acts of
violence, as if that in any way at all would be in support of a man of
PEACE.
And regarding any and all such acts of violence, as if the perpetrators
were in some kind of group accord to express their feelings over the tragedy involving Michael Brown, his own mother was on TV begging everyone not to respond in violence. And the family, through a cousin, has
said that they so appreciate the peaceful gatherings on behalf of Michael,
and are so against violence of any kind.
Yet somehow, again, when it comes to responding to a violent act directly, or even responding to the response against the original response to
the violence, people can’t seem to stop responding IN KIND. (You hurt
me, I will hurt you. You hurt someone I love, I will hurt you and all those
like you. You hurt one of us, and we will gang up on all of you. And on
and on.)
Responsive violence is not just another term for “protest.” There are
other ways to protest. I certainly believe in standing up for justice and I
can easily agree with Elie Wiesel, 1986 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize,
who said, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” The act may
already be done, but we do not have to passively let it go unchallenged
and unquestioned, as though it were in any way something to just accept.
But still, we must remember that justice requires the truth.
Reactions to injustice will continue to surface as long as there is injustice to which the populace will react. And whether it is only an immediate
reaction, or turns out to be a thoughtful action taken on behalf of that
injustice, such a clash between those perpetrating injustice and those who
will not accept it will be inevitable. We need to heed the messages regarding such injustice delivered by those before us — no matter who they
were — those who could perhaps feel the future, and ponder the picture
presented in their pronouncements, such as, “I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom,
justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the
system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I
don’t think it will be based on the color of the skin...” Does anyone agree
with those words? They were spoken by Malcolm X.
We will learn much and make greater progress toward local peace in
any community in these United States — to say nothing of that hoped-for
elusive world peace — if we always give truth a chance and ponder how
we might benefit from words spoken if taken under advisement, rather
than dismissing them out of hand because of how we may feel about the
person who said them. The police, for example, do not all speak as one,
whether in Ferguson or in Las Vegas, and their badges do not give them
any magical powers of knowing the truth more than any badgeless citizen
nearby; however, some law enforcement officers (or former members of
the law enforcement team) may offer great insight into how to achieve
local peace if we were but to take heed.
Our court system, for example, is supposed to be just, yet it varies
from court to court and judge to judge; we may not find Justice served up
in every court every time, but we would probably prefer to take our chances
in an American court rather than one in some non-American country. We
know that at least there are procedures in place in these United States
whereby one can bring charges, appeal decisions, and even use the power
of the press to tell our story and gain support for the truth.
The point of justice is always to let truth be served. Unfortunately,
often it is expediency that gets served. I do not know where the truth lies
in Ferguson, but I am willing to wait, and listen, and learn. It may take
patience to hear the final word on that truth, but truth never suffers from
such close examination.
Violence is often a reaction to serving up untruth. It is often a reaction
to seeing something unjust happening right before our eyes. Whether on
the streets, in the courts, in newspapers or on TV, untruth will not be
accepted. “In all debates, let truth be thy aim, not victory, or an unjust
interest.” And that was said by William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania,
almost three centuries ago.
Bringing truth to light then may be a big part of how we all can deal
with the horrors of life. Violence is never the answer, but not accepting
the injustice that stirs those feelings within us is.
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 maramis@lasvegastribune.com.
by anything. The officer’s rights
under the Police Officer’s Bill of
Rights were repeatedly violated
when he was confronted by detectives from several different units;
and, reportedly, he was threatened
with criminal charges by the current attorney for the POLICE
UNION! There was no clear and
convincing evidence of anything,
let alone probable cause to be
charged with any crimes. It was
truly disgusting.
If anyone understands the word
‘indictment’ (facing trial based only
on the probability that a crime was
committed and that the accused person did it), then I’m certain they
could review the same materials
that I have read and conclude that
some high-ranking members of the
LVMPD should be ‘indicted’ or
held accountable in a non-criminal
forum. Does this sound like a strong
statement? I don’t think anyone will
believe the ridiculous (but apparently tolerated) levels of professional misconduct that were
reached by some members of Internal Affairs, Labor Relations, Employment Diversity, and maybe
even the unions. I would have
wanted the pretenders in this particular case to have brought forward
criminal charges so that that employee could have exercised his
constitutional rights and other rights
guaranteed under Nevada Revised
Statutes. Any good quality defense
attorney would absolutely annihilate little ‘Nicky’ Crosby and his
Metro puppeteers if there was any
fundamental fairness — instead of
the Kangaroo Court over which
none other than Joe Lombardo has
presided so many times!
Metro only needs clear and convincing evidence to convince a
‘friendly’ arbitrator that they have
prevailed during an arbitration hearing. They get away with totally subjective terminology for some violations such as CONSORTING
WITH PERSONS OF ILL REPUTE or ENGAGING IN CONDUCT WHICH BRINGS THE
DEPARTMENT INTO DISREPUTE. Worst of all, if the administrators work together to ‘facilitate’
resignations before any disposition
on the investigation even occurs or
before any due process (opportunity
to challenge findings), then the
problems are never corrected and
they continue. They encourage resignations to allow an employee the
chance to find future employment
in law enforcement but don’t reveal
that they are highly proficient at
blackballing the former employee.
How does this happen? What are
the unions or private attorneys hired
by officers doing to challenge
Metro? How much history to these
problems has been loaded on the
plate of the PMSA and the PPA, and
what has ever been done?
I know that I have expressed my
concerns to the unions more than
once. I wasn’t a troublemaker who
engaged in misconduct and then
wanted the union to bail me out.
During my very few experiences
with Internal Affairs (over 20 +
years) I came to realize that the system is a total jokeÖ and so is the
maximum of 40 hours for a suspension with the only alternative after
that to be a termination of employment. The department has a sledgehammer and controls all aspects of
the investigation. You can’t even
call your ‘mom’ for a loan to hire
an attorney to fight the department
without violating one of their admonishments. My realization is that
certain officers are SOLD-OUT and
after it is too late (they have resigned or have been fired), they are
told ‘sorry, we don’t represent you
anymore.’
I also just revisited an
arbitrator’s decision on a case that
involved Assistant Sheriff Joe
Lombardo, Captain Charles Hank,
Lt. Karen Hughes, and Sgt. John
Hayes. A true group of ‘lovelies’ at
Metro! Lombardo is now running
for sheriff. Hank is now strongly
supporting (and donating money to)
Lombardo. Hughes is still controlling what I believe to be the corrupt Vice ‘enterprises’ and guess
what? Sgt. John Hayes is now the
Vice-Chair of the police
supervisor’s union — charged with
protecting the rights of police supervisors up to the rank of Captain.
The arbitration decision that I
read involved an officer that went
to lunch at the Peppermill during a
graveyard shift. He was eating with
a female friend that Hayes believed
was a prostitute — but she was
NOT. Hayes and his squad of Vice
officers were also eating in the restaurant. The uniformed officer felt
uncomfortable when he saw Hayes
and an entire squad so he excused
himself and went to eat elsewhere.
Suspecting that the officer was so
audacious as to go to lunch with a
prostitute, Hayes ordered his entire
squad to immediately perform surveillance on the officer. The surveillance produced no result. Nothing
happened, but Hayes had already
called in a complaint alleging that
the officer ‘blew the cover’ of his
plainclothes squad at the Peppermill
— a location known to be frequented for years during the early
morning hours by people in the ‘industry’ ...if you know what I mean.
The following, very powerful
language, was used by the arbitrator as he BLASTED most of the
charges against the officer out of the
water:
Divulging the identity of an “undercover operative” ...requires the
discharge of an officer on the first
offense. With such perilous consequences, it would be expected that
the term “undercover operative”
would be clearly defined. It is not
so defined... Apparently the only
person who used the word “Undercover” was Hayes who the Grievant alleges is his primary antagonist. Does it matter that Internal
Affairs did not even bother to interview the five other officers (who
were present) to find out what the
Viamensky
waitress actually said to them?
It is concluded that the term “undercover operative” is vague and
ambiguous as used in this policy as
it is nowhere defined in Department
policies and fails to make a distinction between officers functioning in
a cover capacity, functioning in an
undercover capacity, or simply appearing in public in plain clothes.
(As a side note, has the LVMPD
ever defined or clarified the policy
since terminating the officer?)
“Hayes testified that he was
never ‘made’ by a prostitute because of his website (the PMSA)
and various arrests. How could he
possibly know? Hayes told Internal
Affairs ...that Grievant ‘did admit
to him that he did tell the staff and
management at the Peppermill that
we were undercover Vice Detectives.’ That was simply not true and
pure embellishment on the part of
Hayes.”
After a quote from Hayes was
listed, the arbitrator wrote, “This
was pure false conjecture on the
part of Hayes. She (the suspected
prostitute) did not even know why
they were leaving at the time and
she did not take a ‘good look’ at
them. In reality, she ignored them.”
After another quote by Hayes (during his testimony or IA statement)
the arbitrator wrote, “With that admitted state of the facts why in the
world would Hayes and his whole
squad frequent that restaurant and
then complain about an offhand
comment made by Grievant to a
waitress? Hayes was clearly out to
burn the Grievant that night in part
because he erroneously believed
that Grievant was out with a prostitute and in part because Hayes
was upset with the Grievant about
prior incidents...”
And there is still more: “Hayes
obviously thought that Grievant
was dating a prostitute and had
them followed and told his crew that
he wanted to wait to see if she would
give him a b*** job. He may think
that is good police work, but it appears to be personal animosity.”
The Board (Pretermination Board
headed by Joe Lombardo) concluded that Grievant had animosity toward Hayes when in fact his
emotion was probably fear, and
Hayes and Hank, who were evidently social friends, were the ones
who had some animosity toward the
Grievant.” [In early 2010, Captain
Charles Hank was the subject of a
domestic violence call/investigation for an incident involving his
wife—but we already know how
Metro ‘handled’ that investigation.]
The arbitrator continued, “The
Notice of Termination states that the
(See Jahn, Page 12)
sponsible for what happened to Michael Brown?
Do we know the feelings of the police officer, who now has to live for
the rest of his life with the guilt of knowing he took the life of a young
person?
It is time to stop listening to the frustrated so-called leaders of the
Black community, such as Al Sharpton, Jessie Jackson and the like. For
years Blacks and Whites have been getting along just perfectly. We work
together, we share the same neighborhoods, and we built good friendships among our children.
As a white person I can say that I praise my friendship with Dawn
Leno, Ramon Savoy and Parker Philpot. I am proud they are all in my
life.
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.
Open Mic
with Gordon Martines
11:00 a.m.
Tuesday and
Thursdays
on
RadioTribune.com
When Can a Landlord Keep a Residential Security Deposit?
By Keith F. Pickard
With increasing frequency, disputes between landlords and tenants
are finding their way into courtrooms of the Justice Courts of
Henderson and Las Vegas. Part of
this is undoubtedly due to the large
number of individuals and families
who lost their homes to foreclosure
when the country went off the economic cliff in 2007. Historically,
landlords have had the advantage
when dealing with problems at their
rental properties as they were better prepared or had the resources to
outlast cash-strapped tenants. And
given these newly displaced renters had no other choice, they typically would bend to the wishes of
the landlord and do as they were
told, since they could ill afford to
lose their deposit or have to find
new housing. Recently, however,
this pattern seems to be changing.
Of course, landlords have the
ability to insist upon adequate performance by the tenants under their
leases. A landlord can evict a tenant who fails to pay rent, neglects
to perform maintenance or other
contractual obligations, or refuses
to move out after the expiration of
the lease. And when landlords’ demands go unheeded, they keep the
deposit and have the sheriff evict
the tenant.
Tenants seem to be finding their
voices. It appears that the tenants
today are more sophisticated than
those of a decade ago. They are also
finding better employment in the
recovering economy and thus able
to push back a bit when they feel
abused. Local attorneys have
gained several new clients in the
past few months with stories of
heavy-handed tactics, such as
threats of eviction and demands for
work that was not part of the original agreement, or keeping deposits
without explanation. In fact, in the
majority of cases where residential
tenants have complained, improperly retained deposits have been a
substantial complaint.
So when is a landlord justified
in keeping a security deposit?
NRS 118A.242 provides that the
landlord must return the tenant’s entire deposit, or provide an itemized
accounting of how it was used,
within 30 days of the end of the
Fourth Amendment violations
swept under the rug, no more falsifying alleged statements, no more
exaggeration of alleged actions by
the Defendant, and no more
downplaying the use of force [being] used to make the arrest.”
“If we want communities to trust
those who are there to protect and
serve, then there needs to be transparency in everything that they do.
Incidents like the one that occurred
in Ferguson would no longer occur
at the alarming rate they are now;
and if things do happen, there would
be no question whatsoever about
who did what. Officers should welcome this technology as a tool in
combating false claims of police
brutality or in instances of officerinvolved shootings.”
“In the long run, body cameras
will create a stronger support of law
enforcement within the communities they police and be a cost-effective tool for the prosecution of
crimes. As a nation, we should demand that all law enforcement be
required to wear body cameras and
that all law enforcement vehicles be
equipped as well. Once we develop
this kind of transparency, we can rebuild trust in those sworn to protect and serve and begin to have a
true system of Justice that holds
everyone involved responsible, no
matter which side of the aisle they
sit on.”
In Reno, NHP uses such cameras, but in Las Vegas, they do not.
The preliminary results from that
first autopsy offered the public, for
the first time, some of the critical
information surrounding Michael
Brown’s death.
“Thousands of protesters demanding information and justice for
what was widely viewed as a reckless shooting took to the streets [in
Ferguson] in rallies that ranged
from peaceful to violent.”
Attorney General Eric H. Holder
Jr. said Sunday that the Justice Department would conduct its own
autopsy, in addition to the ones performed by local officials and [the
private one] because of, a department spokesman said, “the extraordinary circumstances involved in
this case and at the request of the
Brown family.”
Michael Brown died Aug. 9 in a
confrontation with a police officer
[in Ferguson] in the suburb of St.
Louis.
“The police department has
come under harsh criticism for refusing to clarify the circumstances
of the shooting and for responding
to protests with military-style operational gear.”
“People have been asking: How
many times was he shot? This information could have been released
on Day 1,” Dr. Baden said in an interview after performing the autopsy. “They don’t do that, even as
feelings built up among the citizenry that there was a cover-up. We
are hoping to alleviate that.”
Dr. Baden said that while Mr.
Brown was shot at least six times,
only three bullets were recovered
from his body. But he has not yet
seen the X-rays showing where the
bullets were found, which would
clarify the autopsy results. Nor has
he had access to witness and police
statements.
Dr. Baden provided a diagram of
the entry wounds, and noted that the
six shots produced numerous
wounds. Some of the bullets entered and exited several times, including one that left at least five
different wounds. “This one here
looks like his head was bent downward,” [Dr. Baden] said, indicating
the wound at the very top of Mr.
Brown’s head. “It can be because
he’s giving up, or because he’s
charging forward at the officer.”
He stressed that his information
does not assign blame or justify the
shooting (this surely does not seem
helpful to the police department).
“We need more information; for
example, the police should be examining the automobile to see if
there is gunshot residue in the police car,” [Dr. Baden] said.
Dr. Baden, 80, is a well-known
New York-based medical examiner,
who is one of only about 400 boardcertified forensic pathologists in the
nation. He reviewed the autopsies
of both President John F. Kennedy
and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., and has performed more than
20,000 autopsies himself.
Dr. Baden said he consulted with
the St. Louis County medical examiner before conducting the autopsy. One of the bullets shattered
Mr. Brown’s right eye, traveled
through his face, exited his jaw and
re-entered his collarbone. The last
two shots in the head would have
stopped him in his tracks and were
likely the last fired.
“Mr. Brown,” he said, “would
not have survived the shooting even
if he had been taken to a hospital
right away.” The autopsy indicated
that he was otherwise healthy. No
matter what conclusions can be
drawn from Dr. Baden’s work, Mr.
Brown’s death remains marked by
shifting and contradictory accounts
more than a week after it occurred.
The shooting is under investigation
by St. Louis County and by the
F.B.I., working with the Justice
Department’s civil rights division
and the office of Attorney General
Holder.
According to what has emerged
so far, on Saturday, Aug. 9, Mr.
Brown, along with a companion,
Dorian Johnson, was walking in the
middle of Canfield Drive, a fistful
of cigarillos in Mr. Brown’s hand,
police say, which a videotape shows
he stole from a liquor store on West
Florissant Ave.
The police have said that what
happened next was a physical
struggle between Mr. Brown and
Officer Wilson that left the officer
with a swollen face. Mr. Johnson
and others have said that it was a
case of racial profiling and police
aggression from a white officer toward a black man. Within minutes,
Mr. Brown, who was unarmed, was
dead of gunshot wounds.
The sequence of events provided
by law enforcement officials places
Mr. Brown and Mr. Johnson at
Ferguson Market and Liquors, a
store several blocks away on West
Florissant Ave., at about 11:50 a.m.
After leaving the store with the
cigarillos, the two walked north on
West Florissant, a busy commercial
thoroughfare, toward Canfield
Drive, a clerk reported to the police. The police tell of an officer
who was enforcing the minor violation of jaywalking, as Mr. Brown
and Mr. Johnson ignored the sidewalk and strolled down the middle
of the road instead. (Another heinous crime!)
The morning after the shooting,
Chief Jon Belmar of the St. Louis
County police said that Officer Wilson was leaving his police car when
Mr. Brown “allegedly pushed the
police officer back into the car,”
where he “physically assaulted the
police officer.” “Within the police
car there was a struggle over the
officer’s weapon,” Chief Belmar
said. “There was at least one shot
fired in the car.” At that point, the
police said, Officer Wilson left his
vehicle and fatally shot Mr. Brown.
“More than a few” shell casings
were recovered from the scene (I
find this hard to believe.).
Mr. Johnson, who was with
Brown that night and who has declined to be interviewed, has described the events differently in
television interviews. While he and
Mr. Brown walked, he said, Officer
Wilson stopped his vehicle and told
them to get on the sidewalk. When
they refused, Officer Wilson
slammed on his brakes and drove
in reverse to get closer.
When the officer opened his
door, it hit Mr. Brown. With his left
hand, Officer Wilson reached out
and grabbed Mr. Brown by the
neck, Mr. Johnson said. “It’s like
tug-of-war,” Mr. Johnson said.
“He’s trying to pull him in. He’s
pulling away, that’s when I heard,
‘I’m gonna shoot you.’ ”
A witness, Tiffany Mitchell, said
that she heard tires squeal, then saw
Mr. Brown and Officer Wilson
“wrestling” through the open car
window. A shot went off from
within the car, Mr. Johnson said,
and the two began to run away from
the officer.
Mr. Johnson said that he hid behind a parked car and that Mr.
Brown was struck by a bullet in his
back as he ran away, an account that
Dr. Baden’s autopsy appears to contradict. “Michael’s body jerks as if
he was hit,” Ms. Mitchell said, “and
then he put his hands up.” Mr.
Brown turned, Mr. Johnson said,
raised his hands, and said, “I don’t
have a gun, stop shooting!”
Officer Wilson continued to fire
and Mr. Brown crumpled to the
ground, Mr. Johnson said. Within
seconds, confusion and horror
swept through Canfield Drive. On
that Saturday afternoon, dozens of
neighbors were at home and rushed
out of their apartments when they
heard gunshots.
One person who claimed to witness the shooting began posting
frantic messages on Twitter. A 10minute video posted on YouTube
appeared to be taken on a cellphone
by someone who identified himself
as a neighbor.
The video, which has collected
more than 225,000 views, captures
Mr. Brown’s body, the yellow police tape that marked off the crime
scene and the residents standing
behind it.
“At one point, a woman can be
heard shouting, “Where is the ambulance? Where is the ambulance?”
The man taking the video, who remained off-camera, said, “God rest
his soul. He’s gone.”
Overkill? It sure sounds like that
to me!
*****
Mace J. Yampolsky is a Board
Certified Criminal Law Specialist,
625 South Sixth St., Las Vegas, NV
89101; He can be reached at:
Phone 702-385-9777 or fax 702385-300. His website is located at:
www.macelaw.com.
Mace
On The
Legal
Front
By Keith P. Pickard, Esq.
tenant’s lease. This return or accounting must be delivered personally to the tenant wherever the rent
payments were normally made, or
by mailing it to the tenant at their
new address. If the tenant did not
leave a forwarding address, the
landlord is to mail it to the tenant’s
last known address. If the landlord
has retained all or part of a deposit
and sent the proper notice, the tenant has 30 days in which to dispute
the retainage to avoid any negative
credit reports.
The landlord’s ability to keep the
security is limited. Landlords may
keep a portion of the security deposit to remedy any “default” of the
tenant, but only so much as is “reasonably necessary” to reimburse the
actual costs. For example, if the tenants had a pet that chewed holes in
the carpet or damaged the walls, the
landlord is able to use the deposit
to pay for the repairs. Similarly, if
the tenant left the home without
paying rent, or without doing a reasonably good job of cleaning, the
landlord can use the deposit to
cover the unpaid rent or to pay to
have the space cleaned. In fact, the
two most common landlord complaints are for these two issues.
These two defaults are doubly
costly as it means that along with
the costs to clean and repair, the
landlord loses rent for the period for
which it was not paid, or for the
period needed to restore the home,
rather than having a paying tenant
in place.
However, although the landlord
is free to retain a portion of the deposit to cover these costs, they cannot charge the tenant for what is
called “ordinary wear and tear.”
This is most often seen in the instances of carpet that is well-worn
in traffic areas, or small nail holes
from hanging art or family photographs. In other words, a landlord
can only charge tenants for unusual
cleaning or repairs, for non-payment of rent, or for other express
contractual defaults.
Unfortunately, too many landlords have forgotten that the security deposit is actually money belonging to the tenant that is simply
held in trust to protect the landlord.
Instead, they are viewing deposits
as secondary profit centers. And as
tenants are starting to push back,
landlords are having to account for
the money they’ve kept. Landlords
bear the burden to prove that the
home was not cleaned properly, or
that the tenants let the landscaping
die, or whatever it is they claim justified keeping the deposit. Sometimes, it turns out that the landlord
has improperly claimed expenses
against the deposit, when in reality
they spent it and simply cannot return it on time. This is often a very
expensive mistake for the landlord
as penalties will apply. (See NRS
118A.242(6)).
So how do tenants and landlords
protect themselves? By doing two
very important things: A joint walkthrough before the tenant moves in,
and another joint walk-through after the tenant has removed their
items but before they finally leave.
Photos or videos are incredibly
helpful, and increasingly easy to
obtain since most people have at
least one cell phone that can take
pictures or videos. The landlord and
tenant should walk through the
home together, taking specific notes
of issues that appear to be out of
the ordinary. At the initial walkthrough, the tenant can point out
carpet stains or damage to the walls
or landscaping for which they are
not going to be held responsible. At
the final walk-through, the landlord,
photos in hand, will be able to point
out damage that is out of the ordinary and not present at the time of
the initial walk-through. While it is
understandable if the parties are
uncomfortable as it is human nature
to want to avoid conflict, if both
sides have met their obligations,
they should expect the inspection
to go smoothly. Indeed, these inspections are incredibly helpful in
avoiding arguments and costly litigation.
If, however, the landlord or tenant has not acted appropriately and
will not voluntarily remedy the
problem, then affirmative legal action must be taken. These cases are
often taken by attorneys because
their fees can be recovered in Justice Court where these issues are
resolved. So if you find yourself in
a spot where you need to seek the
help of the court, contact an experienced real estate attorney.
*****
Keith F. Pickard is a real estate
attorney and partner at his firm,
Pickard Parry Pfau. He can be
reached at 702-910-4300, through
his firm’s website at www.
pickardparry.com, or his direct
email, keith@pickardparry.com.
By The Duke of Fremont Street
The Adventure Continues!
Gratitude is something that everyone used to possess but that no longer
appears to be the case. One simple phrase, “Thank you,” has almost become extinct in our modern society. I am very irritated when I shop for
anything — gas, groceries or household items — and I do not receive a
simple thank you after my money is paid for these services or items.
When did “Have a nice day” become the new expression of gratitude in
our society?
When I was a young man I worked in a few fast food establishments to
make extra spending money while attending high school. At that time it
was mandatory to thank the customer for his or her business. That doesn’t
appear to be the case today. Never forget that the world and all its inhabitants owe you nothing, so be grateful when receiving compensation for
any task or product.
If someone, anyone, expresses their gratitude when I hand them my
hard-earned money, I’m elated. I will make sure they know their words
are appreciated and always acknowledge them with a “You’re welcome”
— and in some instances even tip the person that expressed this sentiment.
So please listen to my words and take heed, both young and old; Never
stop expressing your gratitude to patrons of your business whether you
are the lowest employee on the totem pole or the CEO. Your life will be
enriched in so many ways and your prospects of success in business and
the “Game of Life” will be increased exponentially!
In closing I wish to thank you, the reader, for taking the time to read
my brief words. Stay happy and well, and prosper!
You can comment on The Duke of Fremont Street Facebook page.
Jahn
waitress ‘told the undercover officers that you told her they were undercover Vice.’ This is simply not true... It is concluded that Grievant’s comment to the waitress in this case was not a malevolent, hostile revelation
intended to bring harm to Hayes as evidently believed by the Department. Assistant Sheriff Lombardo testified that there must be intent on a
member’s part to violate the policy. He stated that the Pretermination
Board believed the Grievant purposely sought to disclose Hayes identity
because of his animosity toward Hayes. It is concluded that the Board is
entirely wrong in this regard. The evidence established that Hayes was
the one operating on the basis of animosity, not Grievant... It must be
concluded that the Department failed to establish that Grievant violated
this policy and therefore this charge cannot be sustained.”
The arbitrator then referred to the possible violation of the officer’s
rights under NRS 289 (Nevada Police Officer Bill of Rights). The officer’s
sergeant (the one who Hayes called to complain to) “can ask Grievant
what happened (at the Peppermill) but when he knows that an SOC (Statement of Complaint) is going to be initiated, he is certainly limited as to
what he can do.” Since the charge was not sustained, the arbitrator elected
not to resolve the POBR issue.
I sure wish Captain Fasulo (and others) would be held accountable for
interrogating me (and other officers) in blatant violation of NRS 289 —
even now, long after the fact, because the problem could have been corrected. It won’t happen because they are ‘special’ members of the LVMPD
who are directly responsible for much of the horrible morale and lack of
trust that will continue to exist WITHIN the LVMPD.
Now if an arbitrator’s report can sustain a termination against an officer (as it did in this case) then why doesn’t Metro use the same report
and address the conduct of the officer’s accusers who had apparently convinced the same arbitrator to conclude that they were liars — targeting a
fellow employee and ending his career? Lt. Hans Walters and I testified
on behalf of the officer by the way. Metro then made Walters’ life miserable and we know the rest of that unfortunate story.
The highest ranking members of the LVMPD should have been reading the reports by various arbitrators and seeing the problems and patterns — and the unions should have been doing the same. But... it is what
it is and it will continue to be what it has been at the LVMPD if leadership
does not change. Internal Affairs is supposed to be independent and objective (insulated from ‘politics’) but, instead, they are used as a tool of
the sheriff and he is able to reward ‘them’ handsomely.
Now — as enraged as I was to re-visit the arbitrator’s decision in the
case discussed above... I was even more upset and appalled to read an
Adjudication of Complaint signed by Captain Charles Hank in August of
2011 — after an officer resigned while under investigation for conduct
that occurred in July of 2009. This officer remained a member of the
LVMPD and was on patrol for a significant amount of time after the allegations were made against him even though the allegations included
charges of criminal conduct. They threw the kitchen sink at the officer
(misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, and FELONY crimes) and claimed
that his conduct was unbecoming a police officer. Ironically, Captain Hank
had just made the news for allegedly beating his wife and that might be
considered CONDUCT UNBECOMING? Did Hank lie about the event?
Did he attempt to influence the investigation? Was he given a ‘get out of
jail free’ card because he supported and did a commercial for Doug
Gillespie in 2010?
Next week: Metro’s ‘armor-piercing bullets,’ which are charges known
as CONSORTING WITH PERSONS OF ILL REPUTE, CONDUCT UNBECOMING AN EMPLOYEE and, BRINGING THE DEPARTMENT
INTO DISREPUTE will be discussed. In preparation for that column, I
sure wish I had access to the police ‘records’ for everyone donating/contributing money to the current (and past) sheriff’s campaigns or even for
the donors to various LVMPD affiliated fundraisers.
If a candidate accepts money from a person with an arrest record or
attends a function and ‘associates’ with one of these persons (whatever
‘ill repute’ means), just how is that determined and how is it investigated?
If an officer is concerned about the background of a new ‘friend,’ he is
not allowed to check the record of the person (‘curiosity checks’ are prohibited by Metro policy and are also illegal). The ‘Catch-22’ is that you
can’t check on people you may know or have even brief associations
with, but you can be held accountable (and fired) for these associations
— without any proof that you could have avoided it.
There is no definition of ‘person of ill repute,’ which is yet another
Metro policy failure! I can’t believe this is still in a police policy manual.
Are people who have passed background checks and have privileged licenses for the nightclub or topless club industry or people that own sex
tease businesses or dirty book stores persons of ill repute? How about
tobacco and alcohol licensees? If we consider what some people call ‘morality,’ there could be a wide net cast to define persons of ill repute. But
when they have been given a license to operate by our own police department and government officials, are they still considered ‘dirty’?
I think I’ll start checking ‘public records’ to find out how many owners of topless clubs have donated money under their actual business name
or under a ‘guise.’ Then maybe someone could do surveillance to see if
the candidates have ever shaken hands or appeared at the same location
with a person of ‘ill repute’... Oh yes — we will re-visit the G-Sting
scandal and that long list of police officers, prosecutors, and Feds alleged
to have been receiving ‘comps’ and other ‘favors’ that never were investigated and never were disciplined. Why does a ‘lowly’ police officer get
fired or forced out and have their entire career destroyed and personal life
damaged when so many others have fallen through the cracks? I’m convinced that those ‘cracks’ were intentionally made. Snitching (lying, embellishing facts, targeting) a good police officer because of personal animosities is pretty sad... but accepting the obvious double-standards and
allowing special people to avoid accountability is even worse — aren’t
we talking about a law enforcement agency here?
*****
Norm Jahn is a former LVMPD lieutenant, who has also served as a
police chief in Shawano, Wisconsin, and has nearly 25 years of police
experience. Jahn now contributes his opinions and ideas to help improve
policing in general, and in Las Vegas in particular, through his weekly
column in the Las Vegas Tribune.
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Synopsis: Police credibility
depends upon fictional fact
By Thomas A Nagy
Special to the Las Vegas Tribune
Part Eight of a Series
In an earlier article we looked at
recent events that took place on
Boulder Highway: a male driver in
a white SUV attempted to force
Cynthia Turner off the road into a
median where she would have
likely been seriously injured or
killed. The most probable person
with the driving skills to make that
attempt would be a highly trained,
experienced law enforcement official.
This momentary event took
place less than a month after the
tragic deaths of seven people within
less than twenty-four hours, on June
8 and 9, 2014. Three of those seven
were police officers. Two of the
three officers have become world
famous and continue to garner sympathy and harvest dollars after
death. One, Officer John David
Sigmund of the Henderson Police,
isn’t mentioned in media at all beyond the fact that he was found dead
at home.
Many readers are familiar with
another recent event, the alleged
stabbing of a Henderson Police officer by a 51-year-old man stopped
for questioning because he was
riding his bicycle near Horizon
Drive and Boulder Highway after
3 a.m. on a Tuesday morning.
Stopped because of alleged “suspicious behavior,” Jesse Vigil was
shot to death by two Henderson officers at Horizon Drive near a 7Eleven. As the story goes, Vigil was
becoming belligerent and agitated
during questioning. Apparently no
one asked why Vigil was allowed
to get close enough to Officer
Baxter, after displaying a knife, to
inflict two stab wounds on Baxter.
Or if asked, no answer is published.
It would seem that experienced officers would take precautions when
confronting and being confronted
by an agitated and belligerent man.
What suspicious behavior was exhibited that caused Vigil to be accosted? Were those officers provoking a reaction in the victim? For
example, did one or both of the
Henderson officers shove the victim for not answering questions the
way they wanted them answered?
Witnesses heard gunshots that
morning right at the time noted by
police that this incident took place.
But those gunshots were not 1-2-3
in rapid succession, as one might
expect immediately in response to
a stabbing and self-defense mode.
Instead, a shot was heard followed
by what might have been a reverb
against a building. After a long
pause of perhaps a minute and a
half, a second shot was heard as if
it came from a greater distance.
Following another long pause a
third shot was heard, again at what
seemed farther away. After the first
shot, comments were made: “You
heard that? What was that?” Speculative answers were offered;
“Sounded like a body being thrown
into a dumpster at the shopping center.” Yes, it was a dull thud, a bahboom sound. After the first pause,
a similar thud, then another pause
and a final loud thud. The last two
had an ugly sound to them. Two
anonymous ear-witnesses live in
close proximity to the location at
which the killing of Jesse Vigil took
place. Neither heard an ambulance
or police siren after those fatal
events took place, leaving one to
wonder how Officer Baxter was
transported away for care.
It took more than three hours for
police to reveal the official version
of events that morning. With dozens of officers present on the scene,
no one was authorized to tell the
press what took place until three
hours later. It was as if no one knew,
even though the official story is
rather straightforward: Man is
stopped, questioned, pulls out a
knife, stabs twice, and is shot dead.
The period of time between the
stabbing and final shots would have
been less than ten seconds, not three
minutes. It was nearly four hours
between the shots and disclosure of
what had caused reporters to arrive
on the scene of a body laying on
Horizon Drive. And no one asked
or reported why Officer Baxter was
transported to Sunrise Hospital, a
considerable distance away, for stab
wounds while St. Rose Dominican
Hospital was about one mile to the
north and close to the Henderson
Police Office. KLAS TV had reported that Baxter was taken to St.
Rose and released the same day.
Without doubt the killing of
Jesse Vigil by police officers will
be found to be “justified” and in the
Line of Duty. The official version
of events will be accepted without
question. Equally certain, had the
attempt to murder Cynthia Turner
less than two miles away been successful, the circumstances would
have been found to be an unfortunate accident.
The means of and reason for the
death of Henderson Officer John
David Sigmund on June 9, 2014
remains a mystery. Perhaps his family has requested privacy. Sigmund
was a twice decorated hero who had
saved a man’s life and conducted
himself with exceptional valor. This
twice-honored police veteran does
not register as such when it comes
to fundraising campaigns to benefit
families of deceased officers.
To kill or be killed seems to be
ingrained in those who sign up to
serve in law enforcement. When the
facts don’t fit into a neat little package that will be sold and stored
away in minds of a believing public, truth will be entirely hidden and
“fictional facts” packaged for mass
consumption. And if this too is
deemed impracticable, silence and
obscurity will prevail.
*****
Thomas A. Nagy is the author of
Cannabis Consumer Handbook
available at Amazon.com, and the
blog
ReGeneration
at
blogspot.com. Email direct at:
thomas.a.nagy717@gmail.com.
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:
earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/
subscribe; Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.
Dear EarthTalk: Is it true that
fuel cell cars aren’t really any
greener than conventional gaspowered internal combustion
cars? — Michelle Adamo, Portland, Ore.
A decade ago cars powered by
fuel cells seemed like the future of
green automotive travel, but many
analysts now think otherwise.
These futuristic cars run on hydrogen fuel and emit only heat and
water vapor. Their engines mix hydrogen, stored on-board in fuel
tanks much like gas tanks, with
oxygen in the air to produce electricity that powers the drive train.
Environmentalists love the idea of
fuel cell cars given their lack of
greenhouse gas emissions and reliance on a renewable fuel that can
be produced domestically.
Despite these benefits, fuel cell
cars have not caught on and skeptics wonder if they ever will. One
big hurdle is that creating hydrogen
fuel turns out to be highly inefficient compared to other readily
available fuels. According to Richard Gilbert, co-author of Transport
Revolutions: Moving People and
Freight Without Oil, the creation of
hydrogen gas uses about half the
energy it creates. Half of this resulting energy then goes to the conversion of hydrogen back into electricity within fuel cells. The result is
that “only a quarter of the initially
available energy reaches the electric motor.” In fact, hydrogen fuel
cell vehicles’ efficiency varies between 18 and 20 percent, while battery electric vehicles have 77-80
percent efficiency.
Not only are fuel cells less efficient than internal combustion engines, their implementation on a
wide scale would create enormous
infrastructure costs. New infrastructure would be required from “wells
to wheels.” Also, fuel cell motors
wear out five times faster than internal combustion engines, thereby
resulting in a shorter car life and
more maintenance. Hydrogen’s
small size and extreme reactivity
results in brittle metal and engines
prone to leaking, which reduces
both environmental and practical
benefits.
But many still consider fuel cell
cars a viable option. “Hydrogen is
the key to sustainable transportation
because it can be produced in virtually unlimited quantities from renewable resources and because its
use is nearly pollution-free,” says
the non-profit INFORM. A significant financial commitment to hydrogen research, says the group,
could result in a variety of vehicles
fueled by hydrogen that perform as
well or better than gasoline vehicles, with a fraction of the environmental impact.
INFORM adds that transitioning
to hydrogen could be achieved
without new federal dollars if we
reallocate funds within the national
energy program from nuclear and
fossil fuels. “The opportunities for
innovation and economic growth in
hydrogen energy are largely untapped, and many nations are working to establish an early position in
this fledgling field.” According to
INFORM, Germany and Japan are
far ahead of the U.S. in hydrogen
development. The group would like
to see U.S. policymakers encourage
more development of fuel cells so
we have options open in a fasttransitioning energy future.
Meanwhile, sales of battery electric and hybrid vehicles continue to
soar — rising 228 percent in 2013
alone. There are currently no new
fuel cell vehicles for sale at American auto dealers, although Honda
has hinted that it could have its FCX
fuel cell engine ready for the mass
market by 2018.
*****
Dear EarthTalk: To what extent
is Antarctica really melting and
what impact might it have on
coastlines around the world? —
Andrea Hutchinson, Cary, NC
The Antarctic continent, roughly
the size of the United States and
Mexico combined, is composed of
rock covered by glaciers some
16,000 feet thick. The glaciers form
from fallen snow compacting into
Researchers from NASA and UC Irvine studying ice in an area of West Antarctica roughly the size of Texas
called the Amundsen Sea Embayment report a “continuous and rapid retreat” of glaciers there. They worry
that, perhaps as soon as two centuries from now, the area could melt entirely — leading to between four and
10 feet of sea level rise around the world. Pictured: melting ice floes in Antarctica.
successive layers of ice, and they believe that these ocean changes are in preventing such scenarios by reeventually move downhill toward happening as a result of human-in- ducing our carbon footprints. Take
the coasts and “calve” into the duced global warming as well as fewer airplane trips. Buy organic
ocean as icebergs and eventually thinning of the stratospheric ozone food. Walk, bike or take public tranmelt out into the sea. Antarctica and layer.
sit to work. If you must drive, get a
Greenland combined hold about 99
“This is an area that has always hybrid or electric car. Wear a
percent of the globe’s freshwater caused glaciologists concern, be- sweater instead of turning up the
ice.
cause here the bedrock beneath the heat. And urge legislators to push
According to the National Snow ice is a long way below sea-level new laws that limit greenhouse gas
& Ice Data Center, the result of the and the ice is only kept in place emissions by industry, utilities and
entire Antarctic continent melting because it is thick enough to rest other big polluters. It may be now
out completely would be sea level on the bed,” reports BAS. “Thin- or never.
rise of about 200 feet around the ning of the ice around the coast
*****
world, which could in turn lead to could lead to glacier acceleration
untold devastation. While no one and further thinning of the ice sheet.
can be sure how hot things will get Essentially, the ice sheet may be
as a result of global warming, most unstable, and the recent pattern of
climate models don’t forecast con- thinning could be a precursor to
ditions hot enough to cause the wholesale loss of the ASE ice
wholesale melt-out of Antarctica.
sheet.”
In fact, the British Antarctic SurMeanwhile, researchers from
vey (BAS) reports that the East Ant- NASA and UC Irvine studying the
arctic Ice Sheet, which constitutes ASE ice sheet report a “continuous
about two-thirds of the world’s and rapid retreat” of glaciers there
southernmost and iciest continent, and think that there is “no [major]
is remaining relatively stable, with obstacle that would prevent the glasome slight melting that is balanced ciers from further retreat.” They
out by new winter snows. Because worry that within a millennium and
East Antarctica rests on rock that is perhaps as soon as two centuries,
higher than sea level, it is unlikely the ASE could melt out entirely—
to collapse. In fact, East leading to between four and 10 feet
Antarctica’s ice cover may thicken of sea level rise around the world—
moving forward due to predicted if moderate warming models prove
increases in snowfall amounts over to be correct.
the coming decades.
Of course, we can all play a role
But on the west side of Antarctica, ice across an area roughly the
size of Texas called the Amundsen
Sea Embayment (ASE) is already
thinning rapidly in large part as a
result of surrounding waters warming up due to changing ocean circulation patterns. Many scientists
Fuel Cell cars have not caught on because creating hydrogen has turned out to be highly inefficient compared
to other readily available fuels and would also require an enormous and costly infrastructure. Pictured: A
demonstration Honda FCX Clarity produced in 2008.
lasvegasprintingcenter@gmail.com
ENTERTAINMENT
(Left to Right) America’s Got Talent celebrity Magician Murray SawChuck (Tropicana), Chloe Crawford (Fantasy at the Luxor and Murray’s Magical Assistant),
Paul Shortino (Raid the Rock Vault at Westgate) and British comedian Lenny Windsor (Writer for Benny Hill).
Interviewing celebrities along the Red Carpet
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by Sandy Zimmerman
America’s Got Talent celebrity
magician Murray SawChuck’s
“Begging for Magic” charity red
carpet show brought a line-up of
many celebrities starring in local
shows.
Walking the red carpet, a man
who stands-out in a crowd, Paul
Shortino looked as though he was
about to appear in his “Raiding the
Rock Vault” at the Westgate Resort.
He is a rock singer and musician
who has sung with Rough Cut, The
Cutt and Quiet Riot.
Westgate is the new name of
what began as the International
Hotel, then the Las Vegas Hilton
and most recently the Las Vegas
Hotel. As Paul feels, “This is the
where Elvis performed so we are
lucky to be on the same stage.
Paul explained about the “Raiding the Rock Vault” show. “Everybody in the show is from the ‘70s
and ‘80s and we are all from different bands doing music from great
artists from the ‘60s to 1989. This
is the story of classic rock. We seldom perform any of our own songs
that we recorded. I just want to
mention how great Murray’s show
is and what a great human being.
He an his wife Chloe and me and
my wife, Carmen, do a lot of appearances to help animal charities.
We will appear at the SPCA this
Sunday at Sam’s Town. Everybody
reach out and give a hand to help.”
The red carpet was filled with
celebrities. Maren Wade performs
in several shows and still has time
to walk the red carpet. With touring in “America’s Favorite Dumb
Blonde” show and filling in for
dancers in “Fantasy”, she happily
announced her new column in the
Las Vegas Weekly. Now Maren can
review her own shows! Just joking!
Maren commented, “It’s called
Confessions of a Showgirl. One
week I wrote the truth behind the
girl inside the cake. I was excited
to be inside the cake waiting to
jump out but they forgot about me.
I was stuck inside all night inside
the cake. My latest article discussed
50 shades of tan. They have an interesting take on it. This was a psychological study on the preferences
of body make up.”
I interviewed another beautiful
lady, Sara Jessica Rhodes, along the
red carpet.
Sara appears in Raiding the
Rock Vault. She feels, “The show
brings back the memories people
have of the ‘60s. They relive their
youth.”
Usually Sara performs as a
singer but she is acting and dancing in this show. Sara does it all.
Comedian and writer for Benny
Hill, Lenny Windsor (Laugh Factory) walked the red carpet. Originally from Great Britain, Lenny
commented, “I have no topics, I just
go out there and insult people; I am
an entertainment insultant.” Originally from England, Lenny lives in
Las Vegas now.
America’s Got Talent celebrity
magician Murray SawChuck appears in the Tropicana, at 4 p.m.
* * * **
Award
winning
Sandy
Zimmerman is a syndicated columnist featuring Show and Dining reviews, travel, health, spas, luxury
and more. Sandy is talk show host
of the Las Vegas Today Show programs and Discover the Ultimate
Vacation travel specials. If you want
to suggest topics for articles, for
information or to ask any questions
about Sandy Zimmerman’s articles,
call her at (702)-731-6491 or email
szimmerman@lasvegastribune.com
(From Left) Sara Jessica Rhodes (Raid the Rock Vault) and Marin Wade (America’s Favorite Dumb Blonde)
Lewis Black ‘Due’ to Perform at the Mirage
waiting for? Come on! Be Greek
for a day.
Join them, September 25-28, at
the Las Vegas Greek Food Festival
and enjoy the feast.
*****
This Week
in Las Vegas
By Mike Kermani
fees, and can be purchased at the
TI Box Office, or by calling 866712-9308 or 702-894-7722. This
show is for ages 21 and older.
*****
The Vegas Dinner Show appears
at Sam’s Town Live! Sam’s Town
Hotel and Gambling Hall, 5111
Boulder Highway.
*****
“VEGAS DINNER SHOW”
RETURNS TO SAM’S TOWN
LIVE SATURDAY,
SEPTEMBER 13
The “Vegas Dinner Show” returns to Sam’s Town Live for another night of dinner and dancing,
with a performance by the Jimmy
Dorsey Orchestra, featuring vocalist Nancy Knorr. The orchestra will
be directed by Bill Tole.
Dinner service will include a
three-course menu starting the meal
with a tossed green salad. The
entrÈe choices include breast of
chicken marsala, salmon with
creamy dill sauce or petite 6 oz. filet mignon aux champignons, accompanied by scalloped potatoes
and fresh vegetables. End the meal
with cheesecake topped with fruit.
THE AUSTRALIAN BEE
GEES SHOW AT
EXCALIBUR HOTEL
THROUGH JANUARY 2018
The Australian Bee Gees Show
— A Tribute to the Bee Gees will
continue to celebrate five decades
of memorable music written by the
Brothers Gibb through January
2018. Capturing the look, sound
and personality of one of the most
successful groups in music history,
the veteran performers have signed
an extension and will call Excalibur
Hotel & Casino home for an additional three years.
Earlier this year, The Australian
Bee Gees added new songs, arrangements, video projections and
costumes to the multi-media concert event. Entering its 18th year as
Rick Harrison above and
George Wallace below
By Mike Kermani
Las Vegas Tribune
Actor, playwright and comedian
Lewis Black will return to The Mirage, bringing his spot-on social and
political humor to the Terry Fator
Theatre during his THE RANT IS
DUE TOUR Saturday, Oct. 4 at 10
p.m. The comedian is a four-time
Grammy Award-nominee and twotime winner for his albums The
Carnegie Hall Performance and
Stark Raving Black.
Tickets priced at $49.99, $59.99
and $69.99, plus tax and service
fees, are now on sale. Visit
mirage.com to purchase tickets or
for more information.
*****
JIM PHOTOGLO AT SUNSET
STATION CASINO
Grammy-nominated folk singer/
songwriter Jim Photoglo performs
lives at “Nashville Unplugged.”
Friday, August 29, 2014 at 8
p.m. Tickets 21 & up $10. Sunset
Station Casino’s Club Madrid: 1301
W Sunset Rd, Henderson.
Nashville, TN-based folk singer/
songwriter Jim Photoglo recently
released his first album in five
years, Halls of My Heart which received five stars from The Celebrity CafÈ. It is Photoglo’s first album on which he has written a majority of the tracks solo. “I’ve written for a lot of other artists and cowritten most of my own music in
the past,”
Photoglo says. “Since I wrote
most of these songs alone, it was
an opportunity for me to be extremely honest and explore some
very personal experiences.”
After a solo pop career (featuring the hits We Were Meant To Be
Lovers and Fool in Love With You),
Photoglo moved to Nashville in
1984 to concentrate full-time on
songwriting (although occasionally
toured as a bassist for Carole King,
Vince Gill and Dan Fogelberg).
Among his cuts are tracks by
Garth Brooks, Faith Hill, The
Everly Brothers, Dusty Springfield,
Leroy Parnell, Patty Loveless,
Highway 101, The Oak Ridge
Boys, Pam Tillis, Tanya Tucker,
Travis Tritt, Neil McCoy, John
Anderson and Kathy Mattea. Included among these are the #1
singles Fishin’ In The Dark by the
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Hometown Honeymoon by Alabama.
In the 90s, Photoglo, Russell
Smith (The Amazing Rhythm
Aces), Bernie Leadon (The Eagles)
and hit-songwriter Vince Melamed
formed the cult band Run C&W.
Around the same time, he cofounded the band The Vinyl Kings,
formerly known as The Fabulous
Del-Beatles, a group of studio allstars, which became the toast of the
town. Photoglo has released three
previous CDs on Grifftone Records:
Fly Straight Home, Sparks in the
Radio (#30 on the Folk DJ Best
Albums of 2005 list), and the #1,
GRAMMY-nominated album Is It
Me?
*****
THE MAGIC OF GREECE AT
THE LAS VEGAS GREEK
FOOD FESTIVAL
The Las Vegas Greek Food Festival brings all the aromas, sounds,
tastes, and traditions of Greece to
your doorstep. Your admission
ticket becomes your passport as you
enjoy all the Beauty of Santorini
and the fun of Mykonos. St. John
the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church
and the Las Vegas Greek Community are proud to host the Annual
Las Vegas Greek Food Festival.
You too can be Greek for a day
at the Las Vegas Greek Food Festival!
Being Greek means relishing the
world around you and enjoying life
to its fullest. The Las Vegas Greek
Food Festival gives us the opportunity to open our arms, our hearts,
and our kitchens as we share our
culture with you! So, what are you
PAWN STARS CELEBRITY
RICK HARRISON
AND COMEDIAN
GEORGE WALLACE AT
TREASURE ISLAND
Rick Harrison, star of
HISTORY’s “Pawn Stars,” and
headlining comedian George
Wallace join Adam Carolla as he
brings his popular live podcast,
“The Adam Carolla Show,” to Treasure Island Theatre for one night
only on Friday, August 29 at 9 p.m.
Harrison is a Las Vegas-based
television personality and owner of
Gold & Silver Pawn, featured in the
second most-watched reality show
in North America “Pawn Stars.”
Harrison has also appeared on the
popular television shows “iCarly”
and “The Middle.” His biography,
“License to Pawn: Deals, Steals,
and My Life at the Gold & Silver,”
reached The New York Times best
sellers list in 2011.
Wallace, known for his timely
comedic delivery, is a famed former
Las Vegas Strip performer who until recently headlined at Flamingo
Las Vegas. His multi-faceted skills
led him to author a book, “Laff It
Off!” and earn roles in movies including “Think Like a Man Too,”
“Batman Forever” and “Mr.
Deeds.”
The show will also feature
Carolla with co-hosts Alison Rosen
and Bald Bryan performing segments including “Blah Blah Blog,”
“GayWalking” and “The News”
featuring pictures and video of the
most current news topics.
“The Adam Carolla Show” is the
Internet’s most downloaded daily
broadband show and has held that
position since its debut in March
2009.
Tickets are available from
$37.40, plus tax and convenience
— A Tribute to the Bee Gees
Chicken (left plate) and sliced lamb (right plate), both served with dolmathes (stuffed grape leaves), pastitsio, lemony rice and Greek salad
a group, the tribute band has performed more than 4,000 shows in
more than 42 countries.
“I’m beyond thrilled that this
amazing multi-media concert extravaganza will continue to bring
the magical joy of the BEE GEES
music to the masses for another
three years,” said Adam Steck, CEO
of SPI Entertainment and co-producer of The Australian Bee Gees
Show. “Excalibur is a great partner
and we have a beautiful showroom
to not only perform a one-of-a-kind
tribute show, but really to celebrate
this legendary group.”
The Australian Bee Gees perform Sunday — Thursday at 7 p.m.
and Saturday at 5 p.m. Ticket prices
are $44.95, $54.95 and $59.95, not
including applicable taxes and service fees. Tickets can be purchased
at the Excalibur box office, online
at excalibur.com or by phone at
(702) 597-7600.
— A Tribute to the Bee Gees is a
75-minute multi-media concert
event with a contemporary perspective featuring state-of-the-art sound,
superb lighting and giant screens
streaming video clips, live camera
images and stunning graphics. For
more information about the show,
visit abgshow.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
Paul and Sue Lowden guest speakers at the F.I.O.R.E.
By the Las Vegas Tribune Roving Reporter
If there is a better, more fun non-club club in America, I
haven’t heard of it. Once a month, for the last ten years, a
large group of Las Vegans from all walks of life, meet for
lunch at the Italian-American Social Club of Nevada.
What started as a joke because clubs and groups seem to
take themselves too seriously, has become the In Thing, the
place to be and the people with whom to associate — well,
that is assuming you want to enjoy a most pleasant and quite
different lunch (and sometimes dinner), with live music,
laughter, great programs, great speakers and great food. The
August meeting, like those before, was a top-of-the-line event.
Two major Las Vegas icons were the guest speakers; Paul
and Sue Lowden.
The Lowdens offered a most entertaining program. Paul
played some Jazz with Gary Anderson’s musical ensemble
and Sue talked about her experience traveling with Bob Hope,
entertaining our soldiers during the Vietnam War.
The Questions and Answers portion was lively, informative and very interesting as well.
Because this non-club club prides itself on camaraderie
and fun, after the Pledge of Allegiance and the Invocation,
many of the members and guests came up to the mic and told
some very funny jokes. Even the very proper and charming
Cindy Doumani got into the spirit of the moment.
“It just keeps getting better and better,” said Conrad
Villella, a president and one of the founders of this unique
group. “We have grown continuously from our first meeting, and we keep growing with every meeting.” To learn more
about the F.I.O.R.E., please go to www.nonclubclubfiore.com
and visit the “about us” page.
The upcoming September luncheon will feature Anthony
Rais, who is a multi-talented entertainer. In his unique mari-
Paul Lowden jams with Gary Anderson and the Malcontents.
onette presentation, Rais shatters the stereotype of kiddie standing ovations.
To learn more about the F.I.O.R.E., please go to
puppet shows, elevating a centuries-old art to new heights.
His peers have honored him with heartfelt accolades and www.nonclubclubfiore.com and visit the “about us” page.
Sue Lowden, Judy Coco, Sharon Graziano, Susan Heifitz and Linda November.
Paul Lowden accompanied Heidi Harris.
Goodsprings, NV. Chief Constable Gary P. Rogers,
Attorney Richard Scotti and The Duke of Fremont Street.
Paul and Sue Lowden,
gave a classy, fun and informative presentation.
A major F.I.O.R.E. rule being broken. Richard Scotti
witnesses the culprit, Charlie Carpenter, breaking the
rule: “You can pick your nose and you can pick your
friends, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.”
Definitely a F.I.O.R.E. no-no.
Tutti buona gente! From left: Joseph J. De Blase, Don
Sacco, Charlie Carpenter, John Faulis and Peter Anthony.
Allen Tramont is happy to be flanked by Judy Tarte,
president of the Las Vegas Jazz Society and Mimi Williams.
F.I.O.R.E.’s Founder Nelson
Sardelli with his “personal”
Ambassador Lorraine Thompson
and Marilyn (!)
Randy Soard, Denny Weddle,
Susan Houston and Cindy Doumani.
Heidi Harris, Linda November, peripatetic Nelson
Sardelli, Sue Lowden, Bill Acosta and Art Schroeck.
Judy Coco and columnists Norm Johnson and
Nancy Barr, enjoying the happy atmosphere.
Nancy already knew she was going to have
a great time; she is psychic, you know.
Charming ladies Barbara Winters, Arlene Bates,
Nelson, Cindy Doumani, Linda November and
Randy Soard, a charming gentleman.
Paul Lowden, Nelson Sardelli and Sue Lowden.
Sue Lowden, Polly Weinstein, Miss Wolfson
and former Lt. Gov. of Nevada,
Dr. Lonnie Hammargren.
Dancing at lunch. Stephen and
Carolyn Jacobs, Owner/producers
of radio Internet talk show Jacob’s
Ladder tripping the light fantastic.
Pianist Philip Fortenberry returns
to The Smith Center October 5th
By Jerry Fink
Las Vegas Tribune
Virtuoso pianist Philip
Fortenberry will perform “The Man
at the Piano” concert at The Smith
Center’s 250-seat Cabaret Jazz
showroom on Sunday afternoon,
Oct. 5, at 2:30 p.m.
Fortenberry debuted his new
solo show in June 2013 to sold out
audiences showcasing his signature
playing style in an acoustic 75minute cabaret-style concert with
the music surrounding his life story
beginning as a child pianist at the
young age of four in rural Mississippi to becoming a sought-after
Broadway pianist, a concert artist
at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall,
the Kennedy Center, The White
House, and on to giving command
performances for royals and dignitaries including President Bush,
Mikhail Gorbachev and the late
Margaret Thatcher.
This performance will highlight
Fortenberry’s latest career adventure in New York as Associate Conductor for the Broadway musical,
“Rocky,” produced by Sylvester
Stallone where he received the inaugural “Ghostlight Award” as Best
Musician on Broadway, as well as
his role as the hand and body double
for Emmy and Golden Globe Winner Michael Douglas’ portrayal of
Liberace in the HBO Films biopic,
“Behind The Candelabra.”
During the intimate concert, he
shares personal insights into the
music and the special meaning it
has for him by performing solo offerings of popular classical and
Broadway show music he loves,
including “Memory” from “Cats,”
“Getting’ Ready Rag” from “Ragtime,”
“Malaguena,”
and
Liberace’s famous arrangements of
“Nola” and “Chopsticks,” all presented with his own brand of southern charm.
Fortenberry is currently the Associate Conductor of “Jersey Boys”
at Paris Las Vegas. In 2009, his oneman show as an artist in residence
at the famed Liberace Museum with
more than 300 performances of
“Liberace and Me” brought him
more critical acclaim, along with
eight solo CD releases and ongoing performances concerts around
the U.S.
Tickets are now on sale for the
concert and priced at $36 and $26
at The Smith Center Box Office, by
phone 702-749-2000, or online at
www.thesmithcenter.com.
For more information about
Fortenberry’s prestigious career or
to purchase his solo CDs, visit
www.philipfortenberry.com.
*****
VEGAS UNPLUGGED SAT.
AUG. 23RD AT HISTORIC
FIFTH STREET SCHOOL
Mundo Juillerat and Stuart
Carter-Smith are proud to present:
Vegas Unplugged Music Festival
happening on Saturday, August
23rd in downtown Las Vegas! We
are excited to announce that Vegas
Unplugged has partnered with the
City of Las Vegas and this year’s
event will be at the beautiful Historic Fifth Street School! (401 S.
Fourth St.,Las Vegas, NV)
Vegas Unplugged is an all
genres acoustic music festival
where artists are asked to “do their
thing, “ — just do it acoustically.
Vegas Unplugged is a community driven festival and a community give back festival as well. This
year we will be benefitting Opportunity Village’s “Fine and Entertainment Arts” program! We will
also showcase and provide awareness to this program by having
Opportunity Villages’ “Roaring
Thunder” band perform in Vegas
Unplugged.
All proceeds after our expenses
will go OV’s Fine and Entertainment Arts program. Washburn Guitars has donated an acoustic guitar
to be raffled at the festival and all
proceeds from this raffle will go to
Opportunity Village as well.
Tickets are $10 advanced and
$15 at the door. You can purchase
tickets
now
at
http://
www.brownpapertickets.com/
event/769654.
Two of Vegas’ best foodtrucks
will be there - The Hummus Factory and Oso Ono shave ice.
Holley’s Cuppa will be providing
LV’s best coffee, and there will be
regular and liqour beverages available as well. Lastly besides the
city’s regular featured artists in the
Fifth Street School gallery we will
also showcase painted guitars from
Opportunity Village.
Please help spread the word.
We will feature Las Vegas’ best
indie acts as well as national/international touring acts. This year our
headliner will be International and
multi platinum artist Martin
Nievera! Nievera’s releases have
garnered him 18 platinum, five
double platinum, three-triple platinum and one quadruple-platinum
awards over his career. Nievera will
be performing a rare, up-close and
personal acoustic performance with
his musical director Lorrie Ilustre
on a grand piano!
Other Vegas Unplugged artists
performing acoustically will be
blues guitarist PJ Barth, Vegas’ best
pop/rock indie act Avalon Landing,
and Bishr Hijazi Arab Ensemble!
Doors open at 5pm and this
event will start at 6pm until 10 pm!
Sunset Station and Basic High
School to host benefit for injured
students
Yellow Brick Road and special
guests to perform in benefit of injured students
Wednesday, August 20, 2014 at
8 p.m.
Tickets On Sale Now
Sunset Station and Basic High
School are proud to announce the
#BasicStrong Benefit Concert in
honor of the Basic High School students injured in the tragic bonfire
explosion on June 9, 2014.
Featuring performances by local
rockers Yellow Brick Road among
others, the #BasicStrong Benefit
Concert will be held at Club Madrid
inside Sunset Station on August 20,
2014 at 8 p.m. and all proceeds will
be donated directly to the families
of the injured students.
Tickets for #BasicStrong Benefit
Concert are $25, $40 and $100 plus
tax and applicable fees and can be
purchased at any Station Casinos
Reward Center and The Fiestas, by
logging onto www.sclv.com/concerts or through Ticketmaster at
(800)
745-3000
or
www.ticketmaster.com. Doors open
at 7 p.m. and this is an all-ages
event. For more information, please
visit www.sunsetstation.com.
*****
¡VIVA SKA VEGAS! TAKES
OVER FREMONT COUNTRY
CLUB ON SEPTEMBER 20
Smash Magazine presents ¡Viva
Ska Vegas! - highlighting some of
the biggest bands in ska during a
night of music. Featuring two stages
and twelve bands, plus food trucks
and a vendor bar for 21+ with valid
ID, ¡Viva Ska Vegas! makes a new
home in Downtown Las Vegas at
the Fremont Country Club (601 E.
Fremont St., Las Vegas) on Saturday, September 20. Doors open at
5 p.m.
¡Viva Ska Vegas! is an 18+ show
and tickets are on sale now. General admission tickets are $25 in
advance or $30 day of show (pending availability). Tickets can be
purchased
online
at
www.ticketfly.com. VIP tickets include an event t-shirt, 18x24 poster
and a VIP laminate. VIP tickets are
available for purchase online while
supplies last.
The ¡Viva Ska Vegas! inside
stage will feature bands including
Five Iron Frenzy, Authority Zero,
Guttermouth, Voodoo Glow Skulls,
Steady 45’s and Matamoska. The
outside stage will be set for performances by The Untouchables, Chris
Murray, Skapeche Mode, Monkey,
East Side Agents and Drinking
Water.
A kick-off party will take place
on Friday, September 19 from 8
p.m.-12 midnight at Downtown
Container Park featuring The
Debonaires, California Celts and
Isolated Victims . After 9 p.m. all
guests must be 21+ with valid ID.
The official after party will take
place immediately following Five
Iron Frenzy at Backstage Bar &
Billiards (601 E. Fremont St. Las
Vegas) with live performances by
Skapeche Mode and DJ Ska Boss .
Admission is free with purchase of
¡Viva Ska Vegas! ticket or $5 admission for public. The after-party
is a 21+ event only.
Five Iron Frenzy first formed in
1995 with vocalist/lyricist Reese
Roper, former bassist Keith Hoerig,
guitarist Micah Ortega, and lead
songwriter Scott Kerr. They soon
added Dennis Culp on trombone,
Andrew Verdecchio on drums,
Leanor Ortega-Till on saxophone,
Nathanael Dunham on trumpet, and
Sonnie Johnson on guitar. They
gained national exposure with the
songs, “Oh, Canada” (Our Newest
Album Ever!, 1997) and “Where
the Zero Meets the Fifteen” (Upbeats and Downbeats , 1996). Up
until they disbanded in 2003, the
band entertained audiences with
spirited, interactive shows, sometimes in full costume. They announced their reunion in 2011 with
the release of their free single, “It
Was a Dark and Stormy Night.”
Their 10th album, “Engine of a
Million Plots,” was released late fall
2014.
Arizona based punk rock royalty
Authority Zero has managed to
weather the music industry storm
and endure living on the road away
from friends and loved ones for almost two decades. With four studio albums under their belt, two live
acoustic albums, and two EP’s, they
appear to be just getting started.
Over the past few years the band
has broken ground internationally,
beginning with shows in Japan, followed by performances at
Belgium’s legendary Groezrock,
Spain’s Resurrection Fest and UK’s
Rebellion Fest amongst countless
other European festivals. With tours
through Russia and Australia in the
works, Authority Zero continues to
seek new destinations to spread
their live show and music with their
latest release “The Tipping Point.”
Guttermouth is an American
punk rock band formed in 1988 in
Huntington Beach, California and
currently recording for Volcom Entertainment. They have released
nine full-length studio albums and
two live albums and have toured
extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour.
They are infamous for their outrageous lyrics and behavior which are
deliberately explicit, offensive and
intended to shock, though usually
in a humorous and sarcastic manner.
The Untouchables are a soul/
mod revival band from the Silver
Lake, California area. Described by
original lead singer Kevin Long as
“mods who played ska music,” The
Untouchables are credited with being America’s first ska band. Forming in 1981 as part of the embryonic L.A. mod revival, The Untouchables are inspired be ska revival/punk band The Box Boys.
They have released six studio al-
bums and have shared the stage with
The B-52s, Red Hot Chili Peppers,
Fishbone and No Doubt.
Chris Murray is a unique force
on today’s music scene. Born in
Toronto, he earned a strong reputation as a dynamic performer and
gifted songwriter as leader of influential Canadian ska group King
Apparatus. Upon the band’s
breakup, he relocated to Los Angeles, emerging as a solo artist with
The 4-Track Adventures Of Venice
Shoreline, recording the album in
various locations on a portable 4track recorder. Entering LA’s ultrapurist rock steady scene armed only
with an acoustic guitar, Chris has
become a leading figure in the
world’s foremost authentic Jamaican music community. As host of
Bluebeat Lounge (2003-2009), a
popular weekly concert series focusing on reggae and ska, Chris promoted more than 350 shows over
seven years at Hollywood’s Knitting Factory. His musical journeys
have taken him throughout the
United States, Canada, and Europe,
the UK, Ireland, Japan, Mexico,
Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, South
Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and
Indonesia.
*****
THE IMPROV AT HARRAH’S:
AUG. 19-AUG. 24
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 attributed to its longevity and success.
Each week, The Improv showcases some of the funniest and
freshest faces in comedy, creating
a show that is always unique and
definitely funny. The comedians
who will perform Aug. 19-Aug. 24
are:
Brian Dunkleman: Comedian
Brian Dunkleman is best known as
being co-host with Ryan Seacrest on
the first season of “American Idol.”
Since then, Dunkleman has appeared in pilots for VH1 and FOX.
Dunkleman has also made several
appearances on popular TV shows
including “Friends,” “That 70s
Show,” “NYPD Blue,” “Las Vegas”
and “My Name Is Earl.”
Marc Price: Marc Price is best
known as “Skippy,” Michael J.
Fox’s sidekick on NBC’s ‘80s mega
hit “Family Ties.” Over the last decade Price has created and produced
comedy programs for E!, Animal
Planet, Disney Channel and TBS,
and has performed worldwide with
headliners such as Jay Leno and
Jerry Seinfeld. The Boston Globe
dubbed him ‘Wickedly Funny’ and
the LA Times says he’s ‘Refreshingly Bright.’
Nick Hoff: Nick Hoff is a fresh
and explosive talent, taking his
stand up from coast to coast and
winning numerous comedy competitions along the way. Hoff is a featured comic writer for “Life and
Style” magazine and was showcased on YoungHollywood.com as
one of the hottest “future stars” of
today. A veteran of the Boston and
Los Angeles comedy festivals, he
brings audiences in to his unique
point of view and leaves them
laughing.
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.
Jerry Fink is an entertainment
columnist for the Las Vegas Tribune
newspaper and writes a weekly column. To contact Jerry Fink, email
him at jfink@ lasvegastribune.com.
&
HEALTH LIFESTYLES
Have you seen the Pygmy monkeys?
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by Buzzle, Flickr
and anonymous
On our travels, I saw monkeys
on the highways, beaches and all
around Costa Rica but was not
aware of the pygmy Marmosets or
finger monkeys.
You can hold them in one hand,
their bodies are about the size of a
person’s finger.
The monkey hugs the finger as
it holds on.
Pygmy monkeys live on river
basins located close to forests, cultivated lands, on the sides of
streams, in bamboo thickets and in
flooded areas.
They are native to South Africa,
Brazil, Peru, Northern Bolivia, Ecuador, the Upper Amazon Basin and
Southeastern Colombia. These
pygmy monkeys are said to be the
tiniest living primate in the world.
The Pygmy marmoset‘s body
length ranges from 5.5-6.3 inches
and grows to a maximum length of
11-15 cm, weighing nearly 129-190
grams. Its prehensile tail measures
15-22 cm.
These monkeys climb trees by
using its claws. You may miss their
small bodies when they hide in the
forests. Even though the monkeys
are small, they can jump up to 16
feet.
When confronted, the pygmy
monkeys raise and flatten their ear
tufts, arch their backs and grimace
to show they are ready to fight.
It is enjoyable to see monkeys
on stage in animal acts as each of
the species of monkeys look cute.
It is advised not to take them home
as pets. There are laws which prohibit monkeys and other wild animals from within the city.
The documentary film “Elephant in the Living Room” showed
how baby pets become hostile when
they grow up. Many people just let
their wild pets go into a forest or
other places to get rid of them. The
public don’t realize how many wild
animals wander around.
The feeling of being close to
wild animals attracts many people.
When I was in Australia, the animal sanctuaries were filled with
kangaroos and koala bears moving
freely. Visitors could walk around
and have the feeling of being close
to the animals.
Costa Rica’s animal sanctuary
national parks were a thrill to see
monkeys that did not fear humans.
In the jungle, the Howling monkeys
scampered around our cabin but
didn’t approach us.
The most impressive location
with seemingly wild animals that
acted tame was in the Galapagos
Islands, in Ecuador. You can sit next
to the seals and swim with the pelicans.
For additional information visit
the websites: www.buzzle.com,
w w w. M o n k e y s f o r S a l e . c o m ,
www.factzoo.com, and finally,
www.buzzle.com/articles/pygmymarmoset-facts.
*****
Award
winning
Sandy
Zimmerman is a syndicated columnist featuring Show and Dining reviews, Travel, Health, Spas, Luxury,
Cars and more. Sandy is talk show
host of the Las Vegas Today Show
programs and Discover the Ultimate Vacation travel specials. If you
want to suggest topics for articles,
for information or to ask any questions about Sandy’s articles, call
(702) 731-6491 or email her at
szimmerman@lasvegastribune.com.
SUGGESTIONS: Sandy seeks suggestions and the latest information
about entertainment, travel, dining
and health. Please send your information and you may win complimentary show tickets or other
prizes. Email Zimmerman at
What
You Need
To Know
SOCIAL SECURITY AWARENESS
By Dr Nina Radcliff
A Shared Human
Experience —
Flatulence
By Dr. Nina
When it appears that our world is in disarray because of differences —
religion, culture, race, gender — it’s reassuring to find common ground.
Although it may be considered inappropriate etiquette to discuss, we have
a shared human experience, known as flatulence. Passing gas is natural
and can make us smile, laugh, wince, and possibly cry. But more importantly, flatulence helps remind us that we are more alike than we are different.
Where does flatulence gas come from?
For most intents and purposes, think of our gastrointestinal tract as a
car engine. The mouth is an intake system that ingests food, a source of
fuel. Our intestines are a converter that breaks down food to convert it
into energy. And our rectum is the exhaust system that emits vapors and
gases that are expelled. Additionally, gas may arise from swallowing air
or carbonated beverages. If the air is not burped up, it will pass through
the digestive tract and get released through the anus.
Do all of us have a gut that functions
like an automobile engine?
Yes, everyone — children, adults, men and women, and even rock
stars — pass gas. In fact, on average we pass gas 6 to 20 times per day.
This is equivalent to about half a liter of gas per day.
Wait, let’s talk a little more about the converter process.
When we eat, food passes from the stomach into our small intestines
where the large majority of food breakdown and absorption — known as
digestion — takes place. When undigested food from the small intestines
enters the large intestines, it gets “digested” by the resident bacteria. The
bacteria break down the food in a process known as fermentation that
releases gases — hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and methane.
Do certain foods cause more flatulence?
Not all foods are created equal when it comes to gas production. And
what may cause gas for one person may not in someone else. As a general
rule of thumb, foods that contain carbohydrates, starches, and fiber can
cause gas. They are hardly, or not at, all broken down in small intestines
and provide a buffet feast like no other to the bacteria in the large intestines. Examples include beans, veggies (broccoli, cabbage, brussels
sprouts, onions, mushrooms, asparagus), fruit (pears, apples, peaches),
whole grains, sodas, fruit juices, and milk and milk products.
Let’s not get it twisted however. Although a high-fiber diet with plenty
of fruit and veggies can cause excessive gas symptoms, it can promote
health in a number of other ways. The key is not to eliminate healthy
foods from our diet, but to eat a little less of that particular item to ease
our symptoms.
Why is flatulence so aromatic?
Unlike Calvin Klein’s eau de toilets, the fragrance from flatulence
comes from sulfur components that are produced by bacterial breakdown
of undigested food. Additionally, foods that contain more sulfides, such
as cauliflower, eggs, and meats are notorious for producing a particularly
odiferous flatulence.
Can excessive gas be a sign of something dangerous?
In most cases, no. We can usually find the cause of gas by keeping a
diary of what we eat and drink and how often we pass gas. Consider
discussing with our doctors if our flatulence bothers us, changes suddenly, or we experience other symptoms such as weight loss, diarrhea, or
constipation. In some cases, particularly foul smelling gas may be a symptom of infection or a bleeding ulcer.
How is excessive gas treated?
Most of the time, we can decrease our gas production by swallowing
less air and changing what we eat. Consider eating slowly, quitting smoking, not chewing gum, avoiding carbonated beverages, and avoiding or
decreasing foods that cause us to have gas. It may be appropriate to consider over-the-counter medications that help digest foods that we have
difficulty with (e.g. lactose).
Our odiferous objections, revolting release, and cutting the cheese are
a shared human experience. By appreciating that we are more alike than
different, it can serve as a platform in finding common ground in other
areas of life.
*****
Dr. Nina Radcliff is dedicated to her profession, her patients and her
community, at large. She is passionate about sharing truths for healthy,
balanced living as well as wise preventive health measures. She completed medical school and residency training at UCLA and has served on
the medical faculty at The University of Pennsylvania. She is a Board
Certified Anesthesiologist and a member of the American Society of Anesthesiologists where she serves on committees for Young Physicians and
Communications. Author of more than 200 textbook chapters, research
articles, medical opinions and reviews; she is often called upon by media
to speak on medical, fitness, nutrition, and healthy lifestyle topics impacting our lives, today.
HELP WANTED
Actors, Models, Extras!
New interviews for jobs in
Las Vegas area. Earn $17$165 hr. All ages & experience levels. 702-530-9176
What Medicare Does
(and Doesn’t) Cover
By David Sayen
Medicare helps pay for a wide
variety of medical services and
goods in hospitals, doctor’s offices,
and other healthcare settings. But
it doesn’t cover everything, and it’s
useful to know what is and isn’t included.
Services are covered either under Medicare Part A or Part B. If
you have both Part A and Part B,
you can get many Medicare covered
services whether you have Original
Medicare or a Medicare health plan.
Part A is Hospital Insurance and
it helps pay for:
—Inpatient care in hospitals;
—Inpatient care in a skilled
nursing facility (not custodial or
long term care);
—Hospice care services;
—Home health care services:
—Inpatient care in a religious
nonmedical health care institution.
You can find out if you have
Parts A and B by looking at your
Medicare card. If you have Original Medicare, you’ll use this card
to get your Medicare-covered services. If you join a Medicare health
plan, in most cases you must use
the card from the plan to get your
Medicare-covered services.
Part B (Medical Insurance) helps
cover medically necessary doctors’
services, outpatient care, home
health services, durable medical
equipment such as wheelchairs and
walkers, and other medical services.
Part B also covers many preventive-care services.
Under Original Medicare, if the
yearly Part B deductible ($147 in
DAVID SAYEN
2014) applies, you must pay all
costs (up to the Medicare-approved
amount) until you meet the Part B
deductible before Medicare begins
to pay its share.
After your deductible is met, you
typically pay 20 percent of the
Medicare approved amount of the
service, if the doctor or other
healthcare provider accepts assignment. (“Accepting assignment”
means that a doctor or other provider agrees to be paid directly by
Medicare, to accept the payment
amount Medicare approves for the
service, and not to bill you for any
more than the Medicare deductible
and coinsurance.)
You’ll pay more if you see doctors or providers who don’t accept
assignment. And there’s no yearly
limit on what you pay out-ofpocket.
If you’re in a Medicare Advantage plan (like an HMO or PPO) or
have other insurance, your costs
may be different. Contact your plan
or benefits administrator directly to
find out about the costs.
Under Part B, Medicare pays for
many preventive services (such as
screenings for cancer and heart disease) that can detect health problems early when they’re easier to
treat. You pay nothing for most covered preventive services if you get
the services from a doctor or other
qualified provider who accepts assignment.
However, for some preventive
services, you may have to pay a deductible, coinsurance, or both.
Medicare doesn’t cover everything, of course. If you need certain services that aren’t covered
under Part A or Part B, you’ll have
to pay for them yourself unless:
—You have other insurance (or
Medicaid) to cover the costs;
—You’re in a Medicare health
plan that covers these services.
Some of the services and goods
that Medicare doesn’t cover are:
—Long-term care (also called
custodial care);
—Routine dental or eye care;
—Dentures;
—Cosmetic surgery;
—Acupuncture;
—Hearing aids and exams for
fitting them.
David Sayen is Medicare’s regional administrator for Arizona,
California, Nevada, Hawaii, and
the Pacific Territories. You can always get answers to your Medicare
questions by calling 1-800-MEDICARE (1-800-633-4227).
PLACES TO GO
QUICK GETAWAYS
The Serendipity Ranch Bed and Breakfast has an antique stove in their living room.
A Country-Style Vacation
By Sandy Zimmerman
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos by Sandy Zimmerman
Having a real country-style meal
in the village of Oak Glen, California, is the best example of farm to
table dining.
The Serendipity Ranch Bed &
Breakfast fits into this atmosphere.
Nina and Bill Foster, the owners,
live in a 5,360 square foot home but
they only have four guest rooms.
This provides guests with most
of the first floor to enjoy. Their large
living room is designed with several sitting areas for the guests’ privacy. There is a television section
on one side and in the middle, an
antique stove, the centerpiece of the
home in the winter. Nina and Bill
cut their own wood for the fireplace.
Nina and Bill’s dining room
table always looks grand with the
lace tablecloth, fine china and decorations. It accommodates from six
to twelve people for their great
breakfasts.
There are a variety of games for
the kids and a library of movies for
everyone.
You enjoy all the modern amenities and the beauty of nature.
With a combination of traditional to antique styles, guests enjoy the New England flavor.
The guest rooms include the Victorian Room which looks like it
suddenly appeared from another era
with a high four-poster bed.
The colorful Rose Room is filled
with antiques.
The Cottage Room reminds you
of a mountain cottage.
The Lodge Room is rustic.
Each guest room has their own
electric fireplace, television set and
queen size bed with down bedding.
Staying in the San Bernardino
Mountains doesn’t stop them from
enjoying multi-channel entertainment. Serendipity serves a complimentary breakfast.
The Serendipity Ranch B&B is
located at 11520 Green Lane, in
Oak Glen, California. For information, call 909-797-0293 or visit the
website www.serendipityranch.net/
Visitors can see over 40+ individual owned businesses in the
eight-mile Oak Glen loop. The Oak
Glen Loop Merchants are a group
of family farms, places to stay, businesses, and food establishments lo-
cated in this unique area of Southern California.
We are located just north of the
10 Freeway in the San Bernardino
Mountains There are over 30+
Agritourism activities in the loop,
including buying produce direct
from a farm stand, petting zoo, trout
fishing, shopping at unique shops,
dinner shows, hiking, music and entertainment, museums, feeding animals, or staying at a Bed & Breakfast. Seasonal activities include
pick-your-own fruit, School Tours,
Birthday Parties, Various Wedding
Venues, and Weekend & Annual
Festivals. For more information
visit the website http://
www.oakglenca.com/
Award
winning
Sandy
Zimmerman is a syndicated colum-
The Cottage Room
Victorian Room
Rose Room (Photo supplied by Serendipity Ranch B&B)
The Lodge Room
nist featuring Show and Dining reviews, Travel, Health, Spas, Luxury,
Cars and more. Sandy is talk show
host of the Las Vegas Today Show
programs and Discover the Ultimate Vacation travel specials. If you
want to suggest topics for articles,
for information or to ask any questions about Sandy’s articles, call
(702) 731-6491 or email her at
szimmerman@lasvegastribune.com.
SUGGESTIONS: Do you have a
favorite inn, hotel, or resort in the
United States or around the world?
Why does it appeal to you? Please
send your suggestion explaining the
reasons for your choice, your name,
telephone number, e-mail address,
and you may win free show tickets
or other prizes. Email Sandy at

David Thomas` client loses endorsement

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