1. travel
2. tourist facilities
3. hotel

David Axelrod’s ‘secret’:
Obama lied about
opposing gay marriage
Black Nevadans:
Hear Our Stories Told
PAGE 2
PAGE 5
Volume 16, Issue 49
Brian Williams suspended:
How big a blow was dealt
to network news?
PAGE 8
lasvegastribune.com
February 11-17, 2015
Ward 5 Chamber of Commerce Member
The Clarion Hotel and Casino is imploded, early Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015, in Las Vegas. The 200-room casino-hotel opened in 1970 as the Royal Inn and was called the Debbie
Reynolds, for its one-time owner, as well as the Greek Isles and the Paddle Wheel. The Clarion is the first hotel to be imploded since 2007.
My Point
of View
By Rolando Larraz
It is with great pleasure and a
little bit of vanity that I can announce that Las Vegas Mayor
Carolyn Goodman has graciously
accepted my invitation to appear on
my Face The Tribune radio show
and that makes me very happy.
Mayor Carolyn Goodman will
share the microphones of Face The
Tribune with me on Monday, February 23, and hopefully she will be
able to stay the whole hour and
maybe even get some phone calls.
I can’t say that my line of communication with Mayor Goodman
is as good as it used to be with her
husband, former Las Vegas Mayor
Oscar Goodman. Not because the
communication doesn’t exist, but
maybe because Mrs. Goodman is
not as controversial as her husband
used to be when he was the Mayor
and she does not need anyone to
come to her defense, even though I
don’t think she really needs anyone
to defend her.
She was a director of a school
and she doesn’t need any defense,
while Oscar was referred to by the
mainstream media as “the mob lawyer.” I have to remind people that
Oscar is an attorney and as an attorney he defended those who
needed to be defended as long as
they had money to pay for that defense. (And oh boy! was he expensive!)
Mrs. Goodman is a sophisticated, elegant lady and that certainly is no reason to criticize her,
while Oscar was criticized for inviting a client to his daughter’s
wedding, a client who, through the
years, became his friend; a man that
has been accused of being “mob
connected” but it was never successfully proven to be so; and then
along comes Rolando to Oscar’s
defense. Oscar was a very successful attorney and probably never had
the idea of getting into politics, but
he was elected Mayor of Las Vegas. Then what was the man to do?
Forget his friends, ignore those who
were by his side before and indirectly were contributors to his fame
and popularity? Of course not!
When another client died in
prison, Oscar the Mayor did not
hesitate to offer assistance and even
go to his funeral, knowing full well
that his critics were ready to criticize him; gestures like that is what
make me admire and respect former
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman.
I never had any friend like that; my
experience is that when you are
(See My Point of View, Page 2)
Another piece of Las Vegas
History goes up in smoke!
By Alexandra Cohen
Las Vegas Tribune
After more than twelve hours of
preparation and hard work, another
piece of Las Vegas history was
made history when former Royal
Inn Hotel-Casino, the Debbie
Reynolds Hotel, and later the
Clarion Hotel, came down by
demolition crews — but not without a fight.
It was way past midnight Tuesday morning when they set out to
put the Clarion to rest, but according to those who witnessed the implosion, the elevator shaft needed
an extra dose or so of dynamite to
finally bring it down.
The Clarion opened in 1970 as
the Royal Inn. Other former names
include the Royal Americana, the
Paddle Wheel Hotel & Casino, the
Greek Isles, and the Debbie
Reynolds’ Hollywood Hotel.
Workers used a crane and cables
to finish the job, and just before 3
p.m. Tuesday, the final standing
piece of the Clarion Hotel-Casino
came crashing down. It took a total
of 12 hours to completelydemolish
the hotel.
Clarion Hotel-Casino site owner,
Lorenzo Doumani, was at the site
when the final stages of the demolition were complete.
“I was shocked that the elevator
shaft was still standing,” Doumani
said.
“You’ve got this big bang; you
have 4,400 explosives in the build-
ing. All this dust settles, and you’ve
got the elevator shaftthat was 13
stories, now nine stories. It fell
thirty feet straight down and landed
and didn’t topple over, which is
amazing to me,” Doumani added
On the world-famous Las Vegas
Strip there are not many original
hotels left now; the Tropicana, the
Flamingo and Caesars Palace seem
to be the last three; no other hotel
that was part of the history of Las
Vegas still stands.
Downtown Las Vegas is a different story: The El Cortes, The Fremont, Binion’s Horseshoe, and The
Plaza are still proudly standing next
to the LasVegas Club, The Golden
Gate and The Golden Nugget, the
three oldest hotels in Southern
Nevada.
It seems like everyone comes to
Las Vegas because they like what
they see and then later erase the
wonderful and good memories that
brought them to the best city in the
world.
A few hotels like The Landmark
were built and taken down with not
much fanfare; others were baptized
(given different names) several
times, but the buildings were still
the same.
Many old-timers at the implosion scene talked about other implosions that brought up both happy
and sad memories — some having
worked in many of the no longer
existing properties, and some who
played in them.
Cassell named Clark A Note from
County new Fire Chief the Publisher
Special to the Las Vegas Tribune
A 25-year member of the Clark
County Fire Department has been
named its chief.
County Manager Don Burnette
announced that he has selected Gregory D. Cassell as the new chief for
the state’s largest fire department.
The department is responsible for
protecting the famed Las Vegas
Strip, the largest part of the Las Vegas Valley (293 square miles) and
a County the size of New Jersey at
7,910 square miles. Its jurisdiction
also covers the resort townships of
Laughlin, Primm and Jean.
“We had a good pool of candidates, but Chief Cassell was the
most qualified and capable person
to lead the department,” Burnette
said. “He’s been in the CCFD for
GREGORY D. CASSELL
25 years and understands the
community, fire services and the
challenges facing the Clark County
Fire Department.” The appointment
(See Fire Chief, Page 9)
By Rolando Larraz
Las Vegas Tribune
If we have said it once, we have probably said it a million times:
this newspaper is not about money; it is about exposing government
misconduct, police brutality, and the misuse of power by all government entities, including law enforcement.
Back in 1996 when we bought the Vegas Times newspaper from
real estate salesman Ron Macco, our friend Bill Koster, with Koster’s
Finance, had an eighth of a page advertisement on the front page of
Macco’s publication.
We told Bill Koster that some changes were to be made to the
newspaper, including adding the Las Vegas name to the masthead
and taking all advertising off the front page because real newspapers
do not use the front page for advertising.
He told us that if his ad could not be on the front page he would
pull the ad out and go somewhere else. So we said goodbye to an old
friend and began to work.
In 1996 we started the Las Vegas Times newspaper, and from day
(Publisher’s Message, Page 7)
FROM THE DESK OF GORDON MARTINES
Truth is the detergent for corruption
By Gordon Martines
While doing my dishes and listening to the news on TV, I was inspired to write this column. While
using Dawn dishwashing detergent
(recommended), I suddenly realized that Truth acts just like this
detergent. The key ingredient in the
detergent is called a “surfactant,”
and its job is to disrupt and reduce
the tension that binds the dirt, residue, crud, deposits and undesirable
debris from the core object, allow-
ing it to disengage and flow down
the drain.
Truth does the same thing. It cuts
away and disrupts that obnoxious
adherence of crud (lies) that distorts
and clogs up the original meaning
and ideals that were originally intended and written down and accepted as Law.
We see evidence of this on a
regular basis. Our country’s Constitution and Bill of Rights have
been attacked time and time again
by Lawyers of the BAR (British
Accreditation Registry). I guess one
could probably deduce that Great
Britain still has its hands in how our
country operates and conducts business on any level, since it would be
unadvisable for anyone to go into
court for any reason without a lawyer.
That being said, where do you
go to find a lawyer that is not (totally) profit-motivated to do his/her
job? Where do you find a lawyer
that cannot be dissuaded to sell his
client down the drain, for money or
maybe because of a coerced threat
of a law career suspension or disbarment? The truth of the matter is
that it is always a risk that must be
undertaken by the client to have
even a remote chance at justice.
Remember, the entire Judicial System is run by lawyers; so, in other
words, you are going against a
stacked deck of what can be de(See From the Desk, Page 11)
Page 2 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
David Axelrod’s ‘secret’:
Obama lied about opposing gay marriage
Candidate Barack Obama lied about his views on gay marriage to get elected
in 2008, writes David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign advisor in 2008 and 2012.
By Husna Haq
Christian Science Monitor
If Americans didn’t know it already, David Axelrod is stating it
for the record: President Obama
lied about his opposition to gay
marriage in the early years of his
presidency.
That’s according to Mr.
Axelrod’s new book, “Believer: My
Forty Years in Politics,” which,
more than anything else, has been
TRIBUNE
VOL. 16, NO. 49
FOUNDER
Rolando Larraz
PUBLISHER
AND
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Rolando Larraz
GENERAL MANAGER
Perly Viasmensky
MANAGING EDITOR
Maramis Choufani
PRODUCTION
Don Snook
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Colleen Lloyd
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER
Kenneth A. Wegner
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David A. Rifkin, Executive Vice President
Quote of the Week:
“I’ve learned that people will
forget what you said, people
will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how
you made them feel.”
—Maya Angelou
Please Note:
President Barack Obama walks with White House Senior Adviser David
Axelrod after speaking at a town hall style meeting at the Orange County
Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, Calif., March 18, 2009.
described as a paean to his star cli- to conceal his views for political
ent, Barack Obama.
reasons.
Which is why, perhaps the
“Opposition to gay marriage was
book’s biggest revelation — that particularly strong in the black
Mr. Obama lied about his opposi- church, and as he ran for higher oftion to gay marriage — is really flat- fice, he grudgingly accepted the
tery disguised as criticism, at least counsel of more pragmatic folks
the way Axelrod tells it.
like me, and modified his position
“I’m just not very good at to support civil unions rather than
bull*******,” Obama apparently marriage, which he would term a
told former White House adviser ‘sacred union,’” Axelrod wrote in
Axelrod, after an event in which he the book.
stated his apparent opposition to
Which is why, at an August 2008
same-sex marriage, according to the campaign event at Saddleback
book.
Church, Obama told pastor Rick
In fact, Obama was unabashedly Warren, “I believe that marriage is
in favor of same-sex marriage, but the union between a man and a
Axelrod says he counseled his boss woman. For me as a Christian, it is
My Point of View
(Continued from Page 1)
down you have no friends because
that is the way people are; that is
the way life is.
But regardless, I take pride in
being a friend to my so-called
friends and when they have a party,
most likely I will be absent because
I don’t like parties; but when they
are in a hospital bed, dead, or even
in prison, I am there for them or
their family, even if I have to drive
three hours to visit them at the
prison, because that’s when I assume they need a friendly hand
most.
The other day when I attended
the campaign kick-off for Chief
Judge Bert Brown at Pieros Restaurant, the place was packed with all
types of important people; I was at
the back of the room when Oscar
and his wife Carolyn walked in the
place.
Oscar saw me at the back of the
room and walked straight over to
were I was, gave me a hug and complained because I did not call him
when I heard the speech that the
former Mayor and Mayor Caroline
made on behalf of Judge Brown. I
knew then I was on the good side
of this campaign.
When many attorneys that I used
to know were upset with me because I was supporting Attorney
Jackie Glass in her race against
Judge Jeffrey Sobel for the Eighth
District Court, I didn’t care. I knew
that that department needed a
change and I helped the underdog
as always because as I keep saying,
I am not looking for fame, publicity or the spotlight; all I want is for
my city to have the best public servants in the whole state.
I don’t need to rub shoulders
with the rich and famous, which is
not my thing. I am happy with my
life. I work from dawn to dusk (and
even later) and that is all I need.
I do my rounds in the courthouse
in the morning and I watch the city
council or the county commission
meetings in my office, do my radio
show at noon and attend my appointments the rest of the afternoon
until it is time to go home.
When everyone was supporting
the incumbent in Muni Court Department 3, the Las Vegas Tribune
and I were campaigning for the underdog; and when Heidi Almase
won that election and became Judge
Almase, I was very happy. Yet during her term, I believe I can count
on the fingers of one hand and still
have fingers left over how many
times I have had contact with Judge
Almase because all I wanted is for
her to win that election and nothing else.
Today, I am even happier,
pleased and proud, to learn that
Judge Almase has been appointed
as an alternate judge for the Nevada
Commission for Judicial Discipline.
Every time I support a candidate
and that person succeeds in the po-
also a sacred union. God’s in the
mix.”
When public opinion on the issue changed, so too did Obama’s
opinion — with the unwitting help
of Vice President Joe Biden. Mr.
Biden appeared on “Meet the
Press” in May and expressed his
support for same-sex marriage, before Obama publicly had. Some 48
hours after Biden’s surprise statement, the president revealed his
“personal evolution” on gay marriage.
That position was reinforced
during his 2012 re-election campaign, when Obama finally openly
supported same-sex marriage by
saying he had undergone an “evolution” on the issue.
“Having prided himself on forthrightness, though, Obama never felt
comfortable with his compromise
and, no doubt, compromised position,” Axelrod wrote in “Believer.”
As far as revelations go, this one
landed with a thud.
Because of course, in an example of farcical political theater,
for years, Americans played along
with Obama on his not-so-secret
secret.
As Time noted in a recent piece,
when Obama ran for state senate in
1996, he said he wanted to legalize
same-sex marriage.
In 2012, the Onion ran a wither-
ing satire on Obama’s hypocrisy on
the matter, titled “Obama Blasts
Obama’s Evasive Stance On Gay
Marriage.”
Late night comedians and spoof
news, like “The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart,” joked about Obama’s
attempts to conceal his true position.
And in 2012, when press secretary Jay Carney prevaricated, visibly uncomfortably, in response to
questions about Obama’s views on
gay marriage, the press corps
laughed openly.
In other words, as Hot Air put it,
“Obama’s position [had] literally
become a punchline.”
From famous “flip-flopper”
John Kerry, to John McCain and
Obama, it’s no surprise that politicians change their public positions
on hot-button topics.
The sad surprise in all of this,
however, is that Americans play
along with a wink and a nod.
“An unspoken bargain is struck
between the president and the nation in which he is expected to lie
to the public and the public is expected to wink back in response,”
writes Hot Air’s Noah Rothman.
“This level of cynicism, the expectation that obviously our political
leaders would mislead us about
what they truly believe, cannot be
healthy in the long run.”
sition he/she ran for, it makes me
proud.
Judge Almase has been doing a
good job, maintaining a very cordial and professional relationship
with all her colleagues and has contributed enormously to the integrity
of the Municipal Court.
Since 1976, when it was established, the commission investigates
violations of the Code of Judicial
Conduct, and is composed of seven
members.
The commission is composed of
two judges appointed by the Nevada Supreme Court, two attorneys
appointed by the Board of Governors of the State Bar of Nevada and
three lay persons appointed by the
governor.
Through a spokesperson Judge
Almase says that she was honored
to be of service and appreciates the
nomination.
Judge Almase’s term on the
commission ends in January 2019.
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 702-868-NEWS (6397)
Tune in to
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facts, you’ll always get the truth from us!
Although the Las Vegas Tribune
is open to all and sundry opinions about what we publish, we
wish to inform all those who
choose to submit their opinions
in writing to refrain from threatening anyone about whom an article is written or the writer of
the article. In other words, any
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STATEMENT
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If we inadvertently print something that is not true, we will let
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February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 3
CITY BEAT
Las Vegas sets record for visitation,
welcoming more than 41 million in 2014
Las Vegas welcomed a record
41.1 million visitors in 2014, approximately 1.4 million more visitors than the previous high of 39.7
million set in 2012.
The 2014 year-end statistics, released today by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority
(LVCVA), point to continued recovery for Las Vegas tourism with increases in all of the key visitation
indicators. Las Vegas tourism generates more than $45 billion in economic impact for the local economy
and supports 376,000 local jobs.
“Breaking the 40 million visitor
mark has been a goal of ours, and
reaching beyond that to more than
41 million is a testament to the hard
work of our resort partners and everyone who works in the industry,”
said Rossi Ralenkotter, president/
CEO of the LVCVA.
“Tourism drives our local
economy, and the growth in recent
years is a positive sign for both the
industry and our community. With
more than $9 billion in recent and
planned developments, we are
poised to continue that growth and
march toward our next goal of 45
million visitors in the coming
years,” Ralenkotter added.
Other year-end highlights:
—The meetings and convention
industry reached a six-year high
with nearly 5.2 million delegates
attending a convention, trade show
or meeting in 2014, reflecting a 1.2
percent increase over last year. This
is the highest convention attendance
since 2008.
ï Las Vegas hosted 22,103 meetings, trade shows or conventions in
2014, up slightly from the 2013.
The 2014 total is also the highest
number of meetings and conventions held in Las Vegas since 2008.
—Average citywide occupancy
grew 2.4 percentage points to 86.8
percent for 2014. Las Vegas’
citywide occupancy is 22 percentage points higher than the national
average of 64.1 percent. With industry-leading occupancy for its
150,544 rooms, Las Vegas fills
more rooms per night on average
than any destination in North
America.
—Las Vegas’ average daily
room rate increased $6 to nearly
$117 in 2014.
—Clark County gross gaming
revenue reached nearly $9.6 billion
in 2014, a 1.2 percent decrease from
2013. For Downtown Las Vegas,
gaming revenue was up 2.1 percent
for a total of $511 million last year
while revenues decreased 2.1 percent to nearly $6.4 billion on the
Las Vegas Strip.
Another positive indicator for
Southern Nevada’s tourism industry is the addition of nearly 21,000
jobs in the resort industry since the
recessionary low in November
2009. Tourism supports 46 percent
of all local jobs.
Additional information regarding Las Vegas 2014 visitors will be
available later this spring when the
LVCVA releases its annual Visitor
Profile Study, detailing visitor
trends, attitudes, behaviors and
spending habits while visiting the
destination.
*****
Social Security to expand
field office hours nationwide
Social Security announced today
that effective March 16, 2015, as a
result of Congress’ approval of the
fiscal year 2015 budget, the agency
will expand its hours nationwide
and offices will be open to the public for an additional hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. Offices will continue to close
to the public at noon every Wednesday so employees have time to
complete current work and reduce
backlogs.
“This expansion of office hours
reaffirms our commitment to providing the people we serve the option of top-notch, face-to-face assistance in field offices even as we
work to expand online services for
those who prefer that flexibility,”
said Carolyn W. Colvin, Acting
Commissioner of Social Security.
“The public expects and deserves
world-class customer service and
thanks to approved funding, I am
pleased we will continue our tradition of exceptional service.”
*****
AARP Foundation’s
tax-aide program:
Not just for seniors
It’s tax season in Nevada and
around the nation, and for those
who need a little help, an AARP
Foundation program offers free assistance in preparing tax returns and it isn’t just for seniors.
Hilarie Grey, communications
director at AARP Nevada, says the
Tax-Aide program is focused on
serving low- to moderate-income
residents over age 60, but anyone
is welcome to make an appointment.
“While there are a lot of low-income seniors with a need, this program is really open to everyone
with a simple tax return,” says Grey.
“You don’t have to be an AARP
member, and you don’t even have
to be a senior to utilize the service.”
Grey says Tax-Aide volunteers
are IRS-certified and have knowledge of the latest tax laws. Some
may find they are also eligible for
a tax credit linked to their health
insurance premiums through the
Affordable Care Act.
According to Grey, nearly 250
volunteers helped more than 20,000
Nevadans file their federal returns
last year at Tax-Aide offices in senior centers, libraries, and elsewhere around the state. She says a
Tax-Aide office should be within
reach of most Nevadans.
“There are over 30 sites in the
program this year,” says Grey.
“They’re not just in Las Vegas and
Reno. We also have sites in Carson
City, Dayton, Gardnerville, in
Pahrump, really all over the state.”
Grey says more than 36,000
thousand Tax-Aide volunteers at
more than 5,000 locations around
the country provided 2.6 million
people with free tax help last year.
*****
West Flamingo to Host
Performing Arts Open House
West Flamingo Senior Center
participants and instructors will participate in a performing arts showcase Friday, Feb. 20 from 10:30
a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The show is free
to the public.
Performances of various levels
of line dance ranging from beginning basic to intermediate/advanced, Zumba, Japanese dance,
Hulacise, musical theater, radio theater and guitar will be presented.
Demonstrations will be conducted
every 20 minutes.
Light refreshments will be provided throughout the day.
The West Flamingo Senior Center is always accepting yarn donations. Yarn may be dropped off at
the West Flamingo Senior Center
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to
5:30 p.m. For information about
donations or volunteering, please
contact Diane Bush at (702) 4557742.
Any senior, ages 50 and older,
West Flamingo Senior Center
can participate in the various clubs of Ward 5 have been denied the
and activities offered at the center. opportunity to vote on this issue and
The West Flamingo Active Adult they deserve to be heard. This race
Center is located at 6255 W. Fla- is about leaders that make decisions
mingo Road, near Jones Boulevard. that are transparent, and based on
Those interested in participating the voice of the people they serve.”
can call the center at (702) 455Voyard has been a 10-year resi7742 or visit the website at dent of Ward 5. He is on the Exwww.ClarkCountyNV.gov/parks. ecutive Committee of the NAACP
Additional Clark County Parks and — Las Vegas branch, and a memRecreation events and activities ber of the NRA. He is active with
also can be found on social net- the Conservative Alliance for Comworking sites such as Twitter and munity Growth’s ‘Partners in the
Facebook by visiting http:// Classroom and Battle for Freedom
tinyurl.com/4dfw8ea.
Projects’, and with NAACP’s
*****
‘Adopt a School Program’ since
Randy Voyard announces
2011 at Kit Carson College Prepahis candidacy for City
ratory Academy. He is Vice PresiCouncil Ward 5
dent of his condominium
Randy Voyard announced his homeowners association. Randy
candidacy for City Council Ward 5 graduated from the College of
and has filed at the Las Vegas City Southern Nevada in 2004 with a
Clerks office.
degree in physical therapy, and cur“Ward 5 has been my commu- rently is a licensed physical theranity for 10 years and I care about pist and fitness trainer.
my neighbors and the other com*****
munity members I interact with
City Beat is a compilation of
both professionally and personally,” news and views of our editorial and
said Voyard. “After hearing over writing team, along with reader
and over again the disapproval and submissions and topics. Readers
anger about the soccer stadium, I are invited to suggest a local topic
decided to run because the people or any other items of interest.
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Cynthia
Leung
William “Bill”
Kephart
Bill
Henderson
Municipal Court
Judge
District Court
Judge
Family Court
Judge
Department R
Department 19
Department 1
Re-Elect
Bert Brown
Gloria J.
Sturman
Municipal Court
Chief Judge
District Court
Judge
Department 4
Department 26
Judge Karen
Bennett-Haron
In celebration of
Black History Month
Justice Court
Las Vegas Township
Nevada State
Assemblywoman
Regional Justice Center
Victoria
Seaman
District 34
Little White Chapel would like to
take this opportunity to acknowlege
the Life, History and Culture of the
African-American community for
this entire month of February
(702) 659-9001
Mention code “vd 15”
1221 So. Main St.
February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 5
Black Nevadans: Hear Our Stories Told
By Parker Philpot
Special to the
Las Vegas Tribune
Photos Courtesy of
Winchester Cultural Center
Black History Month began as a shorter period in
1926 and was originally
called Negro History Week,
the legacy of its founder, Dr.
Carter G. Woodson, a Hall of
Fame inventor, social commentator and publisher. It
CARTER G. WOODSON
continues in the U.S. and at least three other countries as a
time designated for studying facts, recounting personal stories, delving into pivotal sociopolitical events and recognizing important landmarks in U.S. and world history, especially
where there was a direct impact on the course of Black
people’s life, liberty, livelihood and well-being.
Black History Month has not survived without controversy or challenge to its legitimacy. Some detractors take up
opposition for reasons steeped in apparent racial bigotry,
while others who sometimes mildly challenge the concept
may just simply have yet to learn about and appreciate the
depth and value of Black history. Oftentimes, sincere and
well-meaning critics, who may be of any ethnic group, perhaps even Black, raise a conversation-worthy question of
whether it is necessary to recount “Black” history as a separate entity from “American” history.
The asking is good. That presents an opportunity to unite
in exploration, education and appreciation of the countless
rich stories of individuals and groups that can speak firsthand from the “Black Experience.” Black history is American history, a forever intertwined story.
The answer to the questions of how relevant is Black history today, and how interesting it may or may not be to
younger people, along with countless other questions are aptly
answered by those whose life work has been dedicated to
collecting, recording and presenting historical information,
documents, artifacts, images, as well as priceless oral histories for the benefit of any person who has the interest or need
to know.
Fortunately, Claytee D.
White, the first director of the
Oral History Research Center at University of Nevada,
Las Vegas Libraries, serves
as a local guiding resource
when it comes to helping
Southern Nevadans and others better understand the importance of historical collections, including those based
specifically on ethnicity, culture, gender, region, industry
CLAYTEE D. WHITE
or other select demographics.
She spoke in an exclusive interview for this series and
will be a featured contributor this month. White will be a
respondent in “Call and Response,” a question and answer
segment of this series. She will help to explain the value of
local Black history to the community and encourage Black
Nevadans and others to share their experiences through documented oral expressions.
In the 1900s, Woodson, among the earliest African-American historians, noted that the accomplishments and history
of Black people in America “were overlooked, ignored, and
even suppressed by the writers of history textbooks and the
teachers who use them.” Woodson amassed and archived a
collection that included artifacts, printed materials, artwork
and other items that documented the historic experiences of
Blacks.
Contemporary historian and collections archivist White
commented, “...We should always, always, continue to research, learn and archive Black history—African-American
history. It is just as important as any other history that we are
taught and learn throughout life.”
The collective memories of Black African-Americans
about experiences in the U.S. (from the utterly hellish to the
nearly heavenly) comprise an immense array of viewpoints
that ought to be heard and embraced. There are exciting and
wondrous stories to behold and from which to learn, especially during Black History Month.
Here is where this special series, “Black Nevadans: Hear
Our Stories Told,” unfolds.
The Black Experience Center Stage
“Black Talk: My Story,” a two-hour public event, was
held at Clark County Parks and Recreation’s Winchester
Cultural Center on Saturday. The ethnically diverse and
mixed-age audience heard several endearing, enlightening,
inspiring personal stories told by speakers in a stand-up, TED
Talk-style format.
The program moderator, Claytee White, and program director, Ellis Rice, both wanted an event that would provide
solid takeaways for the audience. In particular, both White
and Ellis focused on how oral accounts of personal events
would be presented to engage general audiences but particularly youth and younger adults.
The special guest speakers included Las Vegas headliner,
(See Black Nevadans, Page 6)
Clint Holmes spoke of the challenges of being
misunderstood or even rejected because of his mixed racial
heritage: a Caucasian mother and a Black father. Known
widely for his smooth voice and commanding musical
performances, Holmes spoke passionately about his
experiences as a Black man moving through the ranks in
his profession. He is as able an orator as he is a singer.
Vicki Richardson spoke of her struggles and accomplishments in the art world to bring Black artists front and center.
Junior Brantley was amusing and sometimes somber
recounting his travels and travails in the world of music.
Ramon Savoy walked on
stage to the beat of his
favorite talk show theme,
“Say it Loud, I’m Black
and I’m Proud,” which
he used on “Black
Power” that aired on
KCEP-FM 88.1.
Dr. Albert Gourrier Sr.
was emphatic and
spoke with gusto
about Kujichagulia or
self-determination
and the need to claim
one’s own identity
and history.
National Black History Month
At the Crossroads of Freedom and Equality:
The Emancipation Proclamation and the March on Washington
February
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Page 6 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
Maya Angelou was life-transforming
By John Thomas
RadioTribune.com
As a young kid growing up in
the early ’60s, I had no idea what
race relations were. I knew that
people were of different colors, but
I had no idea how big of a difference being Black made. What I did
know was being called Tar Baby or
Sambo didn’t sound good to me,
and if somebody called your mama
Aunt Jemima, you either fought or
cried, because you did not want the
lady on the pancake box to represent your mama.
However, the reality of being a
Black kid in a White world did hit
home when Angeles Mesa Elementary School in Los Angeles hired a
White teacher that I only remember as Mr. Bjerke. This guy did not
want to be at a predominately Black
school; he had absolutely no patience with us at all. He would slam
us against walls, twist our ears and
arms, and verbally abuse us.
When Maya Angelou came to
speak he refused to attend and it was
the last day we ever saw him, thank
God. It was a great day for us students though as he was gone and
we got to hear her speak because
our fourth grade class was in desperate need of some positive counseling. Miss Angelou was warm and
friendly and everyone felt a sense
of security as she began to speak.
Her voice was soft and eloquent.
This was in1967 and the Watts riots had just ended and she was able
to make us 8- and 9-year-old kids
understand what was going on because she talked to us in a way we
could understand.
There is no way I can remember
all she said, but her words and her
manner were life-transforming and
I wanted to be like her — I knew I
wanted to be that kind of person.
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis,
Missouri on April 4, 1928 and was
the second child of Bailey Johnson
and Vivian (Baxter) Johnson. Her
brother Bailey Jr. nicknamed her
Maya at the age of 3. Their parents’
marriage ended and her father sent
her and her brother to Stamps, Arkansas to live with their grandmother, Annie Henderson. Even
though it was World War II and the
Great Depression was on, her
grandmother prospered because she
was the owner of the town’s general store. Four years later, their father came back and returned them
to their mother, where she was
sexually abused and raped by a man
named Freeman. She told her
brother who told everyone else,
which led to his arrest. Freeman
was found guilty but only served 1
did not last long, and in 1962 she
and Guy moved to Accra, Ghana
where they lived for the next three
years. During her stay in Ghana she
met Malcolm X during his visit
there in Accra, and returned to the
U.S. in 1965 to help him in building the Organization of AfroAmerican Unity. Unfortunately
Malcolm X was killed shortly thereafter.
Maya joined her brother in Hawaii briefly, then moved to Los
Angeles where she worked as a
market researcher in Watts, California prior to the summer’s Watts riots. She then moved to New York
in 1967, where she met Rosa Guy,
who would become a lifelong
friend, and renewed her friendship
with James Baldwin, whom she had
befriended in Paris in the 1950s.
James Baldwin was instrumental in
the publication of Maya’s first autobiography, and in 1968 Martin
Maya Angelou receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom
day in jail. Four days after his release he was murdered. Maya felt
his death was her fault and went
into shock and did not speak for
By Maya Angelou
almost five years because she felt
You may write me down in history
her voice killed him.
With your bitter, twisted lies,
Shortly after Freeman’s death
You may trod me in the very dirt
she moved back with her mom in
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Oakland, California where she went
to school and became San
Does my sassiness upset you?
Francisco’s first-ever Black female
Why are you beset with gloom?
street car operator. At the age of 17
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
she gave birth to her son Guy
Pumping in my living room.
Johnson and in 1951 married Tosh
Angelos. She took modern dance
Just like moons and like suns,
classes and met choreographers
With the certainty of tides,
Alvin Ailey and Ruth Beckford.
Just like hopes springing high,
She and Alvin formed the dance
Still I’ll rise.
team Al and Rita. Her marriage
ended in 1954 and Maya toured
Did you want to see me broken?
Europe with the opera production
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
of Porgy and Bess. While in Europe
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Maya compulsively learned the lanWeakened by my soulful cries.
guage of every country she visited,
which is a testament to her ability
Does my haughtiness offend you?
to feel the people around her and
Don’t you take it awful hard
the place in which she was living.
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Maya Angelou performed onstage
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
in a number of plays and music venues over the next few years and in
You may shoot me with your words,
1959 met novelist John Oliver
You may cut me with your eyes,
Killens. She moved to New York
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
and joined the Harlem Writers
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Guild. In 1960 Maya met Dr. Martin Luther King and was named the
Does my sexiness upset you?
Southern Christian Leadership
Does it come as a surprise
Conference Northern Coordinator.
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
In 1961 Maya performed in Jean
At the meeting of my thighs?
Genet’s play, The Blacks, with Abbey Lincoln, Roscoe Lee Brown,
Out of the huts of history’s shame
James Earl Jones, Louis Gossett,
I rise
Godfrey Cambridge, and Cicely
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
Tyson. In that same year she met
I rise
South African freedom fighter
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Vusumzi Make. Later she and her
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
son Guy moved with Make to
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
Cairo, Egypt, but their relationship
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Black Nevadans
(Continued from Page 5)
singer-songwriter Clint Holmes;
artist Vicki Richardson, founder of
Left of Center Art Gallery; premiere blues piano stylist Junior
Brantley; Ramon Savoy, radio talk
show host and publisher of the historic, sole African-American newspaper; and Dr. Albert “Al” Gourrier
Sr., who served as one of the first
Black school principals in the Clark
County School District and enjoyed
a career in broadcasting, jazz concert promotions and business.
Aramentel Austin, founder and
CEO of the Austin Dancers AcadAMIRA BLAKE
emy, along with some of her students, colleagues and instructors, including her two adult daughters who
presented—Linda “LA” Austin, a percussionist, and Debbie Austin-Williams, a dancer—provided a well-executed musical and dance tribute to
the Black experience through jazz, tap, swing dance and African rhythms.
They were joined by tap dancer Chazz Young, who also spoke briefly.
The Austin Dancers, drummers and speakers voiced a theme in unison: Black history and the telling of stories will “go on, and on, and on,
and on, and on...”
The audience was riveted by accounts of race relations in the early
entertainment industry and in other fields in Las Vegas.
In a fortunate, albeit last-minute, substitution, spoken-word artist Amira
Blake shared her young history in her own thoughtful, profound poems.
She led with “Haters” and expressed with rhythmic articulation the world
she sees and asserted how much better she believes it can be. She encourages youth and others to replace negative viewpoints with a more productive outlook.
Enjoyable, often sad or enraging, but true, are the many stories
of a hearty people who, just as most
other Americans, strive only to live
better and to be respected in an increasingly diverse, socially complex America. Some of those stories were presented on stage at the
event and videotaped for later presentation.
White invites the public to visit
the UNLV Libraries to read and
experience the many stories and
items in the collection of oral histories and documents.
Many are accessible online at
www.library.unlv.edu.
ARAMENTEL AUSTIN
Luther King asked Maya to organize a march to which she agreed.
It had to be postponed, but never
came to fruition because King was
killed that April 4th.
In 1968, after being challenged
by Random House editor Robert
Loomis, she wrote her first biography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird
Sings,” which was published in
1969 and brought her international
acclaim. Maya Angelou has been
nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, a
Tony Award, has won three
Grammys, the National Medal of
Arts, the Lincoln Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and over
50 honorary degrees. She is truly
an American hero; her development
of self-concept, and self-esteem
proved to not only be a gift of hers,
but was a gift to mankind in her
walk of life as evidenced by her
early work, and her last work in
“Still I Rise.”
Still I Rise
I know why the caged bird sings
By Maya Angelou
A free bird leaps on the back
Of the wind and floats downstream
Till the current ends and dips his wing
In the orange suns rays
And dares to claim the sky.
But a BIRD that stalks down his narrow cage
Can seldom see through his bars of rage
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
Of things unknown but longed for still
And his tune is heard on the distant hill for
The caged bird sings of freedom.
The free bird thinks of another breeze
And the trade winds soft through
The sighing trees
And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright
Lawn and he names the sky his own.
But a caged BIRD stands on the grave of dreams
His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
His wings are clipped and his feet are tied
So he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings with
A fearful trill of things unknown
But longed for still and his
Tune is heard on the distant hill
For the caged bird sings of freedom
Publisher’s Message
(Continued from Page 1)
one we started fighting corruption
in the judicial system, exposing corrupted police detectives and anything else we could find that could
hurt the reputation of this city and
interfere with or violate the constitutional, human, and civil rights of
the citizens of our community.
We believe that the Las Vegas
Times was very instrumental in taking former Family Court Judge Fran
Fine off the bench for abusing the
power that the court had invested
in her.
Later on, a disagreement with
two business associates that were
not respecting the oath of journalists forever changed the future of
the Las Vegas Times.
One week we entered production
as the Las Vegas Times and, with
the help of our production manager,
Don Snook, we came out as the Las
Vegas Tribune, surprising everyone,
including the two unprofessional
associates.
We are very proud to be included
among the little group of supporters who were behind Judge Jackie
Glass in her first time running for
office — despite the fact that many
local attorneys were upset with us
for not supporting an institutional
judge — and we took pride in helping Jackie Glass to become a District Court Judge.
We went to bat for former friend
Jessie Walsh when she ran for
judge, and later on supported her for
her second term; but when we
learned that she had jumped the
fence and had become one of the
puppets for David Thomas and attorney Eaglet, we had to stop our
support for Judge Walsh.
We are not looking for fame’s
spotlight; we are not looking for
someone to bow to that may be in
power; to us real power is honesty
and integrity, and if that means no
fame and money for us, well so be
it because we are not for sale.
In the sixteen years that the Las
Vegas Tribune has been in existence, our editorial line has never
changed: we protect and defend
these who deserve to be defended,
and attack and expose those who
need exposing, and those who believe their official position makes
them above the law.
We do not believe in traitors, we
do not believe in double-crosses,
even if we have faced many of them
during our sixteen years of existence.
We do not believe in snitches
either — we despise them and when
we learn of snitches (always
snitching for their own good) we
expose them. We did it with Richard Stain, who for years worked as
a snitch for both the Intelligence
Unit of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and also for
some federal agencies, until we
helped to blow his cover by publishing his picture in the newspaper as much as we could. After his
lucrative “snitch-payments”
stopped coming, he moved on to a
less glamorous life at a trailer park,
living there till he died.
We also took the time to expose
Fran Perry, who now is supposed
to be doing time in a federal penitentiary after we published his picture and he was caught with child
pornography.
We also exposed the snitch
Johnny Bianco, who was coldblooded enough to snitch on his
own daughter, and unsuccessfully
tried to snitch on two East Coast
alleged mob-connected individuals;
however, in court, it was proven that
all Johnny told the federal agents
were lies.
People who threaten us by saying they’ll give our “whereabouts”
to government officials, are naive
and not very bright because everyone in every government institution
knows where we are.
We have been, for seventeen
years, very critical of government
institutions; if they would have
known, or know now, of any
wrongdoing on our part, they would
have already used it against us or
even created some crime against us
(again) to get rid of the Las Vegas
Tribune.
There is only one person responsible for anything and everything
that comes out of the Las Vegas
Tribune. Promises and agreements
that are made by anyone else,
whether they contribute to our
newspaper or not, and regardless of
what title they may have added to
their name, are not valid if such
promises and agreements are not
approved and signed off by the sole
owner of this organization.
The day the sole owner of this
newspaper is no longer among the
living, there are others who will
carry the torch. But anyone who is
hanging around with a dream of taking over the newspaper in that eventuality might as well leave now because they are not going to take over
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February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 7
the Las Vegas Tribune.
Those who are thinking of tarnishing the reputation of the Las
Vegas Tribune so that later on they
can take it over and change the
name because, in their view “the
Las Vegas Tribune name has been
tarnished,” have to have something
very wrong with their thinking apparatus. Why should anyone wait
for that day to come when they
could start their own newspaper
with a new name right now somewhere else.
They can start up and publish
their own newspaper right now —
no waiting necessary! And they can
pick one of the other usual names
for their paper: The Herald, The
Examiner, The Post, The Guardian,
The Herald Examiner or any other
name they like. Many have tried
and many have failed. They failed
because when people are evil, they
take that evil into their business
with them; they never succeed because while publishing a newspaper may seem like a very easy job,
in reality it is not.
Unless the newspaper is published by a millionaire, or a millionaire-subsidized company, it is not
easy to succeed in publishing, and
that is why so many good journalists are happy enough to end up
working, if even for a publication
that tells them what to write, what
not to write, who they can write
about, and even who they can say
anything good (or bad) about in
their articles. In other words, they
become paid puppets instead of
journalists.
Only people that are dedicated
to the publication and put every
penny that comes in back into the
business, are married to the newspaper eight days a week, twentyeight hours a day, and the newspaper is the wife or husband, the mistress or lover and nothing else matters in life, will ever succeed in that
field. Those individuals who want
to be “executives,” “promoters,”
“activists” or “leaders” and want
their names or pictures on every
page of the newspaper can never
become a successful publisher.
But the bottom line is that those
who think they have something to
snitch on about this newspaper, we
can only say: GO AHEAD! MAKE
OUR DAY!
Page 8 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
Unemployment rate rises to 5.7 percent
The U.S. economy added a surprising 257,000 jobs in January, but the unemployment rate
increased 5.7 percent. The unemployment rate increase is good news, because it means
more Americans are upbeat about their job prospects and beginning to look for work.
By Schuyler Velasco
Christian Science Monitor
On its face, January was yet another great month for job creation.
But 5.7 percent unemployment in
2015 looks very different than it did
a few decades ago.
The U.S. economy added
257,000 jobs in January, according
to figures released Friday by the
Labor Department. That exceeded
economists’ expectations for about
234,000 added jobs. It was the 11th
straight month that the labor market has added 200,000 jobs or more
— the first time that’s happened in
over two decades.
“An unequivocally strong report, highly unusual for a month
notorious for disappointments,”
MFR Inc. economist Joshua
Shapiro writes in an e-mailed report.
Additionally, jobs numbers for
November and December were revised upward by about 147,000
jobs; November jobs growth now
stands at a whopping 423,000 —
the biggest single-month gain since
May 2010.
The unemployment rate did go
up, rising slightly from 5.6 percent
to 5.7 percent, “but this was linked
to an increase in labor force participation,” Markit economist Chris
Williamson writes in an e-mailed
analysis. “The rise in the participation rate from 62.7 percent to 62.9
percent suggests that more people
are re-entering the job market as
optimism about the economy improves.”
That uptick in labor participation
— the percentage of Americans
working or actively looking for a
job — could mark an essential sea
change in the economy’s recovery.
Job growth has been undeniably
robust in the past year, but the proportion of working-age adults who
aren’t looking for work is the highest it’s been in nearly four decades.
When the unemployment rate goes
down, the worry is that just means
more workers are giving up on finding a job altogether.
The issue got some attention this
week, when the head of the Gallup
polling organization released an oped arguing that any celebration of
the falling jobless rate is shortsighted. “If you, a family member
or anyone is unemployed and has
subsequently given up on finding a
job... the Department of Labor
doesn’t count you as unemployed,”
it reads. “Right now, as many as 30
million Americans are either out of
work or severely underemployed.
Trust me, the vast majority of them
aren’t throwing parties to toast ‘falling’ unemployment.”
It’s not that the job market hasn’t
improved, says Diane Lim, an
economist with the Committee for
Economic Development (CED), in
a phone interview. “But I agree that
on its own the unemployment rate
is not a very helpful statistic.”
If the participation rate doesn’t
start climbing soon, she says,
People wait in line to enter the Nassau County Mega Job Fair in Uniondale, N.Y. The economy added a
surprising 257,000 jobs in January, and the unemployment rate rose to 5.7 percent because more Americans
were looking for work, the Labor Department said Friday, Feb. 6, 2015.
policymakers need to start looking “It’s difficult to tell a middle-aged because [there are jobs in other inat the problem a little more closely. auto worker who’s laid off to go dustries], the economy is just
“Who are these people? Why are find something else in health care transitioning.”
they still unemployed?” she asks. or retail. You can’t tell him it’s fine
The other nagging issue on the
jobs front is wages, which also
showed signs of life in January —
average hourly earnings grew a
plodding 0.5 percent last month, but
a heartening 2.2 percent year over
year. As with labor participation,
any forward movement on wages
is a hopeful sign. But experts will
look for both to start accelerating
in a meaningful way in the coming
months. The Federal Reserve has
cited wages as a major factor in its
decision on when to finally raise
interest rates this year.
“At present, as far as policy is
concerned, the signs from the labor
market are all positive,” Mr.
Williamson writes. “Policymakers
will no doubt be minded that, with
job creation as strong as this and
wages picking up, the economy
looks increasingly able to withstand
a modest tightening.”
But on a more basic level, wage
acceleration and higher participation rates mean the recovery will
finally start to hit the wallets and
the outlooks of ordinary Americans,
six years after the end of the Great
Recession.
Brian Williams suspended: How big
a blow was dealt to network news?
Brian Williams was suspended for six months from his ‘NBC Nightly News’
broadcasts. While some are wondering if he can redeem his reputation, others ponder
whether his embellishments are indicative of a larger problem in network news.
By Gloria Goodale
Christian Science Monitor
“NBC Nightly News” anchor
Brian Williams was suspended for
six months without pay Tuesday
evening. But the debate over what
he has done to the credibility of
broadcast news continues to take
shape.
The revelation that the widely
popular newsman fabricated a story
about being hit by a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) while flying
in a Chinook helicopter during the
invasion of Iraq — and may have
embellished others — has in many
ways called the entire reputation of
broadcast news into question. Some
media experts suggest that Mr.
Williams’s fall from grace is one
sign of the increased focus on news
as entertainment, which has crept
into network broadcasts since cable
and online news broadened the
playing field.
The drive for ratings makes
Williams’s story a cautionary tale
about today’s news landscape, says
Len Shyles, communications professor at Villanova University just
outside Philadelphia.
“Once upon a time, news was a
money loser, but was kept separate
from the other divisions of the networks so that the journalists in their
(See Williams, Page 9)
February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 9
Michelle Obama, the conservative? How
to keep big government out of your lunch
Michelle Obama says that ‘if you don’t like government... messing with your life,’ you should make
better eating choices. Is Michelle Obama starting to sound more like a conservative than a liberal?
By Husna Haq
Christian Science Monitor
How’s this for a counterintuitive
source on conservatism: Michelle
Obama is now offering novel advice on how to keep the government
from meddling in peoples’ lives.
“If you don’t like the doctor, if
you don’t like government, if you
don’t like folks messing with your
life, the best thing to do is make sure
you’re healthy,” Mrs. Obama told
Cooking Light in a piece entitled,
“The First Lady of Food.” “Because
that’s going to increase your odds
for making sure that you don’t have
to deal with the system.”
The interview was a first for
Cooking Light — the first time in
its 30-year history that it has featured a person on the cover. It was
also a first for the “first lady,” who
has long been known as a determined crusader in the fight to promote quality eating.
This is, of course, the same antiobesity crusader who rocked with
a turnip to Lil John’s “Turn Down
for What.” This is also the Michelle
Obama who hosted the first-ever
Kids’ State Dinner at the White
House to cap a nutritional recipe
challenge, who started a White
House garden, a Let’s Move! campaign, and who has campaigned
hard to change school lunches.
In other words, if not a change
of heart, Michelle’s latest comments appear to be a change in tactics: Promoting good eating habits
by promising less, not more, government.
How are conservatives reacting
to Michelle’s newfound conservatism? What they aren’t saying appears to be more telling than what
they are. They aren’t exactly applauding her comments — the conservative Western Journalism
writes, “So, essentially, Michelle
Obama seems to be suggesting that
if you do what she says, she’ll be
more likely to leave you alone.”
That said, the kind of overwhelmingly negative coverage, as Mrs.
(See Michelle Obama, Page 10)
(Continued from Page 1)
will go before the County Commission on Feb. 17. If ratified, Cassell
would become the department’s
10th fire chief.
Cassell has worked his way up
the ranks of the department, which
he joined in 1989. He has been a
battalion chief since 2006, serving
in the last 18 months overseeing the
department’s Training Division, directing and overseeing the development and delivery of fire and rescue training to more than 900 career and volunteer fire personnel.
Before that he served for more than
seven years as a line battalion chief
overseeing the daily operations of
Fire/Emergency Medical Service
personnel.
Cassell also had been a captain
and team member of Heavy Rescue from 1991 to 2006. He additionally served 16 years as a paramedic. Most recently, Cassell deployed as the Operations Section
Chief to the Moapa Indian Reservation flood last September. The
native Las Vegan has a bachelor’s
degree in Fire and Emergency Service Administration and a
bachelor’s degree in Technology
Education and Training.
“I am honored to have been selected as the next fire chief of the
Clark County Fire Department,”
said Cassell. “The Clark County
Fire Department is a great organization and I look forward to working with the fine men and women
of the department as we handle the
challenges that we face as an organization.”
Ryan Beaman, president of International Association of
Firefighters Local 1908, praised the
appointment. “Chief Cassell understands the first priority for the first
responders in Clark County is the
safety of our community,” Beaman
said. “He will make an excellent
Fire Chief for the Clark County Fire
Department and we look forward to
working with him.”
The CCFD has 29 full-time fire
stations and 13 volunteer stations,
responding to 143,263 incidents in
2013 — 2,834 fires, 132,963 medical calls and 7,466 other calls. Some
489 fire investigations were conducted that year. Fire losses totaled
$17.4 million. The Fire Department
also maintains one of only 28 urban search and rescue teams in the
country and provides fire and rescue services to the nation’s 9thbusiest airport. Its full-time staff
numbers include 703 paid employees and about 200 rural volunteer
firefighters.
The department has had nine
previous fire chiefs, including William H. Trelease (January 1954 to
December 1964), Herman “Kit”
Carson (through January 1971),
Clell Henley (through November
1974), Leroy O. Hawks (through
December 1977), Roy L. Parrish
(through December 1990), William
S. Bunker (through November
1996), Earl A. Greene (through
February 2006), Smith (February
2006 through September 2010) and
Washington (November 2010
through November 2014).
Fire Chief
First lady Michelle Obama, accompanied by Sam Kass, talks with school children as they prepare to eat
lunch in Oct. 2014 in the East Room of the White House following the annual fall harvest of the White
House Kitchen Garden in Washington.
lasvegasprintingcenter@gmail.com
Page 10 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
Michelle Obama
(Continued from Page 9)
Obama experienced for other eating policy initiatives, is largely
missing.
In fact, it isn’t the first time Mrs.
Obama has turned, somewhat surprisingly, to the right. After the release of “American Sniper,” the
controversial film that served as a
flashpoint for pro- and anti-war activists, as well as conservatives and
liberals, the First Lady spoke out
publicly in support of the movie.
“While I know there have been
critics, I felt that, more often than
not, this film touches on many of
Williams
the emotions and experiences that
I’ve heard firsthand from military
families over these past few years,”
Mrs. Obama said recently, at the
launch of “6 Certified,” an initiative toward accurate portrayals of
veterans and military families in
movies and television.
In singing the film’s praises,
Mrs. Obama publicly joined the
conservative choir of Sarah Palin,
Blake Shelton, and Kid Rock, all
of whom have spoken out in support of the movie.
That said, are Michelle Obama’s
Cooking Light comments part of a
Brian Williams speaks at the eighth annual Stand Up for Heroes,
presented by the New York Comedy Festival and Bob Woodruff
Foundation in New York, Nov. 5. Mr. Williams is stepping away from
NBC’s ‘Nightly News’ as the network looks into the anchor’s admission
that he told a false story about being on a helicopter hit by a grenade
while reporting on the Iraq war.
(Continued from Page 8)
employ could operate without much
attention to the bottom line,” he
says via e-mail, adding, “No more.”
The pressure to gain ratings
grew from the change that melded
news with entertainment divisions
for the networks, he says. The proliferation of digital media, presenting further competition to the
legacy media, has added more pressure to collect eyeballs, Dr. Shyles
notes.
Even if loyal NBC viewers stay
with the program, Williams will
now be viewed as the anchor who
exaggerated the details of his frontline reporting experiences, says Jeffrey McCall, who teaches in the
communication department at
DePauw University in Greencastle,
Ind.
“This matter is important because Williams is one of the leading news agenda setters for our nation,” he says via e-mail. Williams’s
decisions affect what topics will get
covered and how, “not just on his
network, but on other news outlets
that follow his agenda lead.”
If his agenda topics or his approach to those topics can’t be
trusted, says Mr. McCall, “that is
very bad, indeed, for our news consuming public.”
Williams’s newscast had been
regularly winning the evening news
race against CBS and ABC, with
some 10 million viewers nightly.
However, just two days after he
made his on-air admission, NBC
lost out to ABC — fallout that may
have more to do with the future of
Williams than anything else, says
former ABC and CBS producer
John Goodman.
“The fact that there’s even a
mini-debate about Brian resigning
shows how far network news standards have fallen,” he says via email.
During the era of Walter
Cronkite, Chet Huntley, and David
Brinkley, or more recently the Tom
Brokaw, Peter Jennings, and Dan
Rather years, he says, “there would
have been no debate.” Williams
would have been dismissed.
Williams has become a punch
line for the late-night comics and a
target of the Twitterverse, Mr.
Goodman points out, adding, “How
can that help the credibility of a
news division?”
However, in a time of corporate
ownership that puts a premium on
profits, ratings may well drive this
decision, he says.
“Unless the ‘NBC Nightly
News’ ratings tank,” he says, “it’s
possible Brian might survive.”
NBC brass announced that the
network has launched an investigation of not just the Chinook incident but others as well, including
his report that he witnessed a dead
body float by his hotel during his
coverage of the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.
Even as such venerable figures
as former NBC anchor Tom
Brokaw are quoted as saying that
Williams’s future is “up to Brian
and NBC News executives,” most
observers lean toward the view that
Williams has done irreparable damage both to his own and the
network’s credibility.
“The problem Williams has is
that he never came really clean
about what he said,” says brand and
crisis communications expert Stan
Steinreich, who is also a former
ABC producer as well as New York
Times reporter.
“It’s an unforgivable sin when
you exaggerate or don’t tell the truth
in that position, so I don’t know
how you come back from that to sit
in that critical role of newscast anchor again,” he says, adding that he
is “confused” by the announcement
that NBC is investigating Williams.
“What does that mean?” he says.
“That if you only lied once, that’s
OK, but if you did it more than
once, well, that’s not?”
Fellow media strategist Scott
Sobel points out that the story itself is a major hurdle for Williams
to overcome. He says that he has
flown in Chinook helicopters himself and spoken with military veterans about the impact of being hit
by RPG fire.
“No way Williams would have
accidentally misremembered what
happened to him unless he had a
mental breakdown,” he adds via email.
A recent Rasmussen Reports
national telephone poll revealed
that some 40 percent of Americans
think Williams should resign as a
result of his misrepresentation,
while 35 percent of the 800 participants polled Feb. 7-8 feel he should
keep his job. Another 25 percent
were not sure.
larger Michelle-volution? Is this a
deliberate move away from the “unpatriotic, angry, black woman,” she
was criticized as when her husband
first entered office, one who was
criticized for her designer taste and
Oscar appearances, to an “American Sniper”-praising, governmentdistancing all-American patriot?
Not quite, but after more than a
decade in politics, it is evidence that
Michelle Obama is getting the hang
of things.
As Breitbart reported, Mrs.
Obama admitted that change is difficult, particularly when dealing
with a personal issue such as eating habits.
“Change is hard for anybody.
And when you’re talking about
food, food is really personal,” she
said. “So when you’re telling
people to rethink their dietary habits that they’ve lived with all their
lives, it’s really personal.”
Part of her strategy, Breitbart
continued, was to be more “positive” and less “accusatory” without
“making people feel judged.”
As with life, so with politics, as
a famous food-centric adage goes:
You can catch more flies with
honey than with vinegar.
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business, politics and money. No subject will be taboo and all questions
will be addressed.
*****
Open Mic
Every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 a.m., Gordon Martines hosts
“Open Mic,” a popular RadioTribune.com show. The Anti-Corruption
Coalition of Nevada is the basis for and theme of “Open Mic.”
Gordon Martines was a career police officer with 39 years of on-thejob Law Enforcement experience. Past cases involving Kevin Daley,
Trayvon Cole and a variety of other covered-up criminal cases, and a
billion dollars worth of missing taxpayer money, are discussed in depth
and at length on the show.
Martines spent four years as police officer with the Hermosa Beach
Police Department before moving here and resuming his police career in
Las Vegas as a Detective in the Robbery/Homicide Bureau, retiring from
the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department after 36 years of police
service.
The amount of corruption and cover-ups by executive Police Administrative officers witnessed by Martines inside the department led to his
decision to contest the good ol’ boy’s club and run for Clark County Sheriff three times against what he knew were almost insurmountable odds.
“Open Mic” carries the voice the LVMPD does not want you to hear,
yet it is always there, every Tuesday and Thursday at 11:00 a.m. on
www.radiotribune.com. Tune in!
*****
Face The Tribune
Face the Tribune is heard every Monday through Friday at 12 noon,
hosted by Rolando Larraz.
For the last five years “Face The Tribune” has been the premier show
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part of the Las Vegas community for over 18 years and is the only independent newspaper in Clark County.
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their opinions and share the issues that pertain to Las Vegas.
The show’s host, Rolando Larraz, has been a journalist in Clark County
for over 50 years. He has been a fixture in the community and a highly
respected publisher who has covered local news and events in Las Vegas
since the mid-’60s.
For stories and information not available anywhere else in Las Vegas,
tune into “Face The Tribune” Monday through Friday at 12:00 noon.
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Vegas, Nevada for the last 32 years. She graduated from Durango High
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In addition to running a document-preparation company, she finds time
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Tune in on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. on
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The Victoria Seaman Show
“Nevada Speaks”
Nevada State Assembly Speaker Victoria Seaman, District 34, interviews fellow legislators in an open forum talk show every Saturday at 1
p.m, giving voters an inside look at what’s going on in Carson City during the 2015 session. You’ll find it only on www.radiotribune.com, Las
Vegas’ #1 online talk show radio network.
The Victoria Seaman Show
“Nevada Speaks”
From The Desk
(Continued from Page 1)
scribed as a group of prostitutes
who will sell their souls at the drop
of a hat, a subtle wink, or a sloppy
wet kiss, and of course, with the
offer of the ever-powerful almighty
dollar.
Having personally gone through
four attorneys that were sadly compromised by the LVMPD, and hired
to help bring to light corruption and
criminal acts via my 2011 Federal
Lawsuit against the LVMPD, Sheriff Douglas Gillespie, et al, along
with fourteen high ranking police
officials (see Federal Lawsuit, Gordon Martines vs LVMPD, Sheriff
Douglas Gillespie, et al), I can directly attest to the fact that this type
of prosecutorial and Judicial misconduct exists and is still being
practiced in our community on a
regular basis. Regardless of how
egregious the complaint may be,
along with the insurmountable
amount of physical evidence, witnesses, eyewitness testimony, and
facts and circumstances, the fix is
always injected to prevent the possible criminal exposure, devaluing
or destruction of the infrastucture.
Case in point, the Billion Dollar
rip-off of the taxpayers’ of Nevada,
whereby in 2006, a complaint filed
by then-Assistant Attorney General
David Otto, Esq, against the private
company known as EICON, or
Employees Insurance Company of
Nevada. The official legal complaint was filed in the District Court
of Washoe County, which essentially says that then Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval, now
Governor Brian Sandoval, along
with then-Governor Kenny Guinn
and others, unlawfully transferred
One Billion Dollars into the private
bank accounts of EICON. These
taxpayer monies were supposed to
be put into a trust, to be used for
Workers Compensation Benefits
and Disability Claims for Neva-
February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 11
dans. Instead, the One Billion Dollars, which is now Two Billion Dollars, was used by EICON for their
private investments and gain in
other states and off-shore businesses. To date this complaint has
been shoved under the rug by our
Judicial System, and has not been
addressed. For further info, Google
EICON, Complaint by Assistant
Attorney General David Otto, Esq,
Disclosure Statement by David
Otto, Esq, Complaint against
EICON (Employees Insurance
Company of Nevada), documents
supporting complaint (PDF).
Coincidentally, former Governor
Kenny Guinn died from an accident
falling off the roof of his home, the
same year that the Complaint
against EICON was submitted to
the Washoe County District Court,
2006, and which also contributed to
ending the public service career of
Deputy Attorney General David
Otto, Esq, who now practices law
in Las Vegas, NV.
The question that Nevadans
should ask themselves is, how could
this happen? How can the law be
violated so openly by our own
elected representatives? What is it
going to take for somebody, especially the Feds, to do something
about this? Has the corruption gone
so deep that even the Feds are afraid
of doing the right thing?
Stand up for something or fall
for anything.
Most of the other conspirators in
this Billion Dollar theft have since
either retired, disappeared, been
threatened about keeping their
mouths shut, or died, but the evidence can easily be reconstructed
and brought to light in a court of
law. But again, all are going up
against a stacked deck of prostitute
lawyers, and at best, anyone bringing this matter up has only a marginal chance of succeeding, unless
it is being witnessed by the masses
openly and covered by an honest
news media.
Remaining silent is not an option for all of us now. The small
criminal element percentage in our
government has spoken by these
cover-ups. They have successfully
stifled a legally submitted complaint to a District Court and have
obstructed Justice because they can,
and nobody is going to say anything. Another example is the
Benghazi investigation’s stalling
tactics used by subpoenaed witnesses, which is in full swing.
Just remember your planet’s history: in 1933 only 15 percent of the
entire German population supported the Nazis, and when the Nazis gained power, it was too late for
anyone to do anything about it and
stop them. Folks, we are headed in
that direction, because of our apathy, silence, and indifference to the
open violations of law, committed
by our local and state leaders.
The saying “See Something, Say
Something” applies not only to
turning in your neighbors and any
alleged perceived threat to our
safety, but also to turning in your
elected officials, when they too, are
caught with their hand in the cookie
jar breaking the law.
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.
Open Mic
with Gordon Martines
11:00 a.m.
Tuesday and
Thursdays
on
RadioTribune.com
Face the
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by Rolando Larraz
Monday thru Friday
at 12 noon
on www.RadioTribune.com
Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at 8:00 a.m.
with A’Esha Goins
Assemblywoman
Victoria Seaman
will hold a forum
with state legislators
every Saturday
at 1:00 p.m. on
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Call-in Number: 702-983-0711
This show caters to the 21st Century woman;
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This show will focus on men, love, children, business,
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EDITORIALS
Page 12 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. — Thomas Jefferson
Our Point of View
Metro ignoring
main cause of
pedestrian deaths
Almost every day someone dies on the streets of our city;
some of those accidental deaths are truly sad situations, while a
larger percentage of them, it seems, are those irresponsible
people who refused to follow the traffic laws of our city. Yes,
that is a sad truth about those deaths.
Just in one day, two teens lost their lives in two different
incidents, probably because they refused to pay attention, thinking or believing that just because they were walking, they were
entitled to traffic preferences. Most people cross busy intersections in the dark and most likely with dark clothes on, as that
appears to be the “uniform” of jaywalkers.
Perhaps police officers need to start paying more attention to
people walking and creating possible injury or death probabilities and put less energy on harassing drivers whose only traffic
infraction often is minimal compared to the dangers of jaywalking and those thoughtless pedestrians taking chances with the
vehicles and depending on the quick thinking or life-saving reactions of the drivers on the road,
Instead of targeting the drivers on their way to work, or maybe
on their way home after a long day at the office, the police should
target the jaywalkers and the so-called children (teenagers) who
do whatever they want on our city streets — talking on their
cell phones while jaywalking from the school side of the street
to the 7-Eleven, and back and forth, giving the drivers a nasty
look and slowing down their walk to deliberately further aggravate the drivers.
Instead of targeting the drivers, they should look for those
women with two or three kids and one in a carriage ignoring all
traffic rules, laws and plain common sense, to say nothing of
putting their own children’s lives in danger.
Instead of being so concerned about a driver or two not wearing a seat belt (something that has not always been an issue),
those motorcycle cops that normally invade Charleston Boulevard — once we counted eight motor cops between 10th Street
and the Boulevard — should notice and ticket those thoughtless jaywalkers (whose actions have always been an issue) crossing the street right under their noses. Not issuing them citations
just encourages them to keep being thoughtless and causing more
accidents.
Instead of being so concerned about a driver who may have
forgotten to activate the turn signal when no one is behind them
or no cars are coming, those motor cops should be on the lookout for those homeless people pushing a shopping cart full of
items they have been collecting and piling three feet high in the
cart they may have taken from a faraway store without permission.
Those people are frustrated, have nothing to lose, and maybe
are looking to take their frustration out on anyone that has nothing to do with their bad luck.
We have seen people in wheelchairs crossing Charleston Boulevard in the middle of the street — we believe it is called jaywalking. The METRO cops use jaywalking as an excuse to give
tickets to tourists on Fremont Street, where traffic is minimum,
but allow jaywalking (by not citing the jaywalkers) on Las Vegas Boulevard, Main Street, Charleston Boulevard or Maryland
Parkway, choosing instead to harass the drivers for minimum
traffic infractions in order to meet their quotas.
Don’t tickets given to jaywalkers count toward their quotas?
Or do the police only accrue “extra points” for benefits like
days off with pay by ticketing the drivers of cars?
The famous Evel Knievel amazed and horrified onlookers
on Dec. 31, 1967, by vaulting his motorcycle 151 feet over the
fountains of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, only to land in a spectacularly bone-breaking crash.
However, Mr. Knievel did not inconvenience anyone on their
way to work, or obstruct a family’s safe ride to enjoy dinner
out; he broke his bones but did not destroy anyone’s life by
standing or walking in front of their vehicle coming toward him
at 35 MPH.
It is time for police officers to realize that even the few Evel
Knievel wannabes on our streets need to be protected and saved
from the many “harmless-looking” accident-creating jaywalkers — and the police are the only ones that can do the job they
are getting paid to do.
Motorcycle cops need to stop hiding behind trees and stop
signs waiting for their hapless victims to come to them instead
of coming out into the open to do their job as normal police
officers should do.
Maybe, and only maybe, if the police do their job as they are
supposed to do, and watch both side of the street, they would
realize that some crazy drivers are speeding along at three miles
over the limit, but there are also selfish walking humans of all
ages who don’t care for anyone but themselves, acting like they
own the street.
If motorcycle cops want to hide AND do some good in the
community, they need to hide behind something in front of any
school, and bring two ticket books to enable them to write up
all the tickets they want when these “children” start using their
cell phones in the middle of the streets, putting on lipstick while
crossing, or kissing during the entire crossing cycle in front of
their school.
But then those tickets probably don’t count toward the quotas; better to spend energy on ticketing the seatbeltless driver
going three miles over the limit, than losing benefits by working to save a child’s life.
ON A PERSONAL NOTE
A Valentine’s Day thought:
What Love Means to Some People
By Maramis
And to yet others, love means living
“Love” is not necessarily selfevery day in a loving way, which way
explanatory nor accepted by all as
is defined for all to see in the Bible,
meaning the same thing. That may
in the writings of Khalid Gibran, and
well be why a man can tell a woman
in practically any good greeting card
he “loves” her and then in the heat
intended to convey the love of the
of an emotional exchange lash out
sender for the receiver. And of
at her and leave her needing medicourse, “love” can be defined in any
cal care. We see it all the time on the
dictionary, as unromantic as that may
news. Celebrities “love” each other
sound.
this way all too often. We may even,
Take the NIV (New International
sadly, learn of this kind of love in
Version of the Bible) for example. It
our own circle of family or friends.
offers up, in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7,
MARAMIS CHOUFANI
And needless to say, some strange
this description of love: “Love is paversion of “love” may also be why a woman can say tient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it
she loves her man all the while she is either planning is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not selfher escape from him or researching the perfect way to seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with
kill him so she can get at the insurance.
Of course many people simply lie, and love has the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always
nothing to do with their relationship or their marriage; hopes, always perseveres.” Regardless of whether or
but it’s also possible that many people just don’t un- not the Bible interests a person, who wouldn’t want to
be the recipient of that kind of love?
derstand “love” to begin with.
That biblical definition sounds like a good measure
If we go to the very top of the list of lovers or what
love means, we might find that God is the greatest against which to see if we know how to practice love,
lover of all, since he loves us no matter how unlov- even if we don’t necessarily know its definition as
able we may be. HE never takes his love away from found in a dictionary. Which brings us to Webster’s
US, it is always the individual person who decides to New World College Dictionary, and one or two suckick God out of his life. In fact, if God’s love means cinct definitions of love, in part: “A deep and tender
that we get to live forever in Paradise and/or in some feeling of affection for or attachment or devotion to a
marvelous state of affairs that is actually worth pur- person or persons... A feeling of brotherhood and good
suing because of his love for us — for those who have will toward other people...” Needless to say, the dicgotten to the point of believing that — then to not tionary definition does go on to include all the sexual
achieve that outcome cannot be blamed on the Very feelings and actions that seem to go along with that
One who wants that for us most of all. In other words, word, “love,” as well as examples of all the way people
it’s about time the unloved, so to speak, or the love- employ that word in their speech patterns to indicate
less, as they might see themselves, take responsibility great like or passion for something. But maybe that’s
for not having any “love” in their life, especially the where people go wrong. They go for the sexual feellove of God, which is available to all, if we can be- ings and forget the part about being patient and kind.
lieve God’s own words on that subject, as presented They’ll feel attached or some version of devoted to a
person, but only for reasons that yield them some perto us in one book or another.
Okay, you might say, but what about earthly love, sonal and very significant benefit — and once the benperson to person. Well, there really is no “one size fits efit is gone, so is the “love.”
Not that I am against the “benefits” of love — au
all” in that category. To some, love means not wishing anyone any harm, and that certainly is person-to- contraire — but I am against fake and selfish love that
person. To some others, love means lots and lots of seeks only the outward physical “benefits” or simply
(See Maramis, Page 16)
feeling and emotion and expression of that emotion.
Why beheading journalists backfires
The Islamic State has now beheaded three journalists, the latest being
Kenji Goto of Japan. His reports on the innocent in conflicts only highlights
why groups like ISIL need a spotlight of journalistic truth on them.
By the Christian Monitor’s Editorial Board
Journalists are frequently targeted simply for doing their job of helping others better understand the
world. Most people want this truth-telling service and
might even pay for it. But often those in authority or
those with guns seek to jail or kill a news messenger.
These days, reporters from China to Egypt and even
in the United States face various types of repression.
But nothing quite compares to the beheading of three
journalists in recent months by the Islamic State militants.
The latest reporter to be killed by the jihadist group,
Japanese freelancer Kenji Goto, knew the dangers of
reporting near a war zone like that in Syria. He had
once been captured by Al Qaeda and released. Two
American journalists beheaded by IS last year, James
Foley and Steven Sotloff, also knew the dangers. All
three may have been killed as much for their nationality as their profession. Yet that should not prevent a
reaffirmation of the journalist’s role in casting a healing light on the darkest corners of the human condition.
Mr. Goto’s special reporting skill was in highlighting the plight of innocent people caught in the midst
of a tragedy. He had reported on Syria’s refugees during the four years of the country’s civil war. One of
his reports focused on how the use of torture by the
Syrian regime had driven many people to support the
rebellion. During Sierra Leone’s civil war, he focused
on the war’s harm to children.
“The ‘front lines’ of my reporting are where people
suffer the unbearable and yet where they are still trying to live,” he told a Japanese newspaper, Christian
Today. “If I manage to find an outlet for their stories
in the world, that might lead to a solution.”
He described his approach as “cuddling” with
people to better understand their pain and their hopes.
In video released by his captors before his death, he
said calmly to the camera, “No matter what happens
to me, I will always love the people of Syria.”
One reason for his focus on the innocent in Syria is
that he wanted to show that a majority of Muslims are
not extremists, thus correcting a mis-impression often
presented by other media. The pastor at his church in
Japan, Hiroshi Tamura, asked that his killing should
not trigger a negative reaction. “It would be the unhappiest thing, if fear comes to dominate people’s
minds because of this,” he told the English-language
Japan Times.
As purveyors of truth, journalists are by default
often players in those places where people prefer to
bend or avoid the truth. Last year, at least 60 journalists were killed in the line of duty, according to the
Committee to Protect Journalists. Another watchdog
group, Reporters Without Borders, stated in a recent
report the targeting of journalists is “becoming more
and more barbaric and the number of abductions is
growing rapidly, with those carrying them out seeking
to prevent independent news coverage and deter scrutiny to the outside world.”
As traditional media cut back on the number of reporters in foreign posts, the world must rely more on
freelancers like Goto, or even “citizen journalists” who
use social media. Protecting them is as necessary as
protecting each person’s desire to “live in truth,” as
the late Czech human-rights activist Václav Havel put
it, and in the need to support a desire for peace among
the innocent in a conflict.
VIEW POINTS
February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 13
Editors note: The views expressed are entirely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Las Vegas Tribune.
Is “Wire-gate” an effort to
criminalize political action?
You can run (drive)
but you can’t hide!
further donations.
By Chuck Muth
And it appears that
So the alleged extortion
from that point forward,
claim by Assemblyman
Edwards’ panic shifted to
Chris “Let’s Make a Deal”
stopping the recall effort
Edwards took a new and,
that had begun to take
literally, far-reaching turn
shape within his district
on Thursday, as Metro de— especially since it aptectives, accompanied by
pears his debt problem
Virginia state troopers, rewas resolved thanks to
portedly raided the home/
donations such as Gov.
office of GOP activist
Brian Sandoval’s $5,000
Tony Dane in Front Royal,
Christmas gift!
Virginia.
So Mr. Let’s Make a
CHUCK MUTH
Dane is the financier of
a PAC that has produced mailers and robo- Deal began asking people what it would
calls into Mr. Edwards’ district over recent take to make the recall disappear. Indeed,
weeks.
such deal-making conversations continued
Understandably, Metro did not disclose with recall organizers in Mesquite as rewhat it was looking for or if they found it, cently as this week.
but it is becoming increasingly apparent that
Now it’s one thing, if true, for someone
Edwards may very well have been wearing to offer an elected official money, in the
a wire for several weeks back in December form of a campaign contribution or otherand January — including during conversa- wise, to change his vote in a leadership elections with legislative colleagues.
tion.
Awkward.
But it’s another thing altogether for citiUntil Metro concludes its investigation, zen activists to apply political pressure —
only the parties who may have been re- in this case with a possible recall campaign
corded really know exactly what was said — to get a politician to vote a certain way
and if any laws were broken. But here’s on a certain issue.
what’s starting to worry me about this
In this case, we’re talking about the
mess...
governor’s proposed $1.3 billion tax hike.
The key date is January 2, 2015.
The citizens organizing the possible recall
Prior to January 2nd, the focus of deal- committee want Edwards to vote against
making with Edwards reportedly had to do it. Edwards, however, refuses to take a firm
with paying off his campaign debt. Edwards stand and wants to hide his position on it
was clearly and openly frantic about it.
until sometime down the road.
Now, whether Edwards was soliciting
Since the money aspect was removed
donations in exchange for his caucus lead- from this matter on January 2nd, and the
ership vote or whether anyone attempted offer of money in exchange for a vote
to bribe him with donations for his leader- would be bribery, not extortion, I’m worship vote will remain unknown until Metro ried that what Edwards is attempting to do
finishes its investigation and we see if any- with his alleged extortion accusation is to
one was, in fact, recorded and exactly who criminalize hard-ball politics.
said what.
Special interests groups, especially orAfter January 2nd, however, Edwards ganized labor groups such as the teacher’s
(See Chuck Muth, Page 14)
was prohibited by law from accepting any
By Mace Yampolsky
veillance. The existence of
The Wall Street Journal
the program and its expanrecently wrote an article
sion were described in inabout DOJ. The Justice
terviews with current and
Department has been
former government offibuilding a national datacials, and in documents
base to track in real time
obtained by the ACLU
the movement of vehicles
through a Freedom of Inaround the U.S., a secret
formation Act request and
domestic intelligencereviewed by The Wall
gathering program that
Street Journal. It is unclear
scans and stores hundreds
if any court oversees or
of millions of records
approves the intelligenceMACE YAMPOLSKY
about motorists, according
gathering.
to current and former officials and governA spokesman for the Justice Department documents.
ment, which includes the DEA, said the
The primary goal of the license-plate program complies with federal law. “It is
tracking program, run by the Drug Enforce- not new that the DEA uses the license-plate
ment Administration, is to seize cars, cash reader program to arrest criminals and stop
and other assets to combat drug-traffick- the flow of drugs in areas of high trafficking, according to one government docu- ing intensity,’’ the spokesman said.
ment. But the database’s use has expanded
Sen. Patrick Leahy, senior Democrat on
to hunt for vehicles associated with numer- the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the
ous other potential crimes, from government’s use of license-plate readers
kidnappings to killings to rape suspects, say “raises significant privacy concerns. (REpeople familiar with the matter.
ALLY?) The fact that this intrusive techOfficials have publicly said that they nology is potentially being used to expand
track vehicles near the border with Mexico the reach of the government’s asset-forfeito help fight drug cartels. What hasn’t been ture efforts is of even greater concern.’’
previously disclosed is that the DEA has
The senator called for “additional acspent years working to expand the database countability’’ and said Americans shouldn’t
“throughout the United States,” according have to fear ”their locations and movements
to one email reviewed by The Wall Street are constantly being tracked and stored in
Journal.
a massive government database.’’ (Well, we
Many state and local law-enforcement all should.)
agencies are accessing the database for a
The DEA program collects data about
variety of investigations, according to vehicle movements, including time, direcpeople familiar with the program, putting tion and location, from high-tech cameras
a wealth of information in the hands of lo- placed strategically on major highways.
cal officials who can track vehicles in real Many devices also record visual images of
time on major roadways.
drivers and passengers, which are someThe database raises new questions about times clear enough for investigators to conprivacy and the scope of government sur(See Mace, Page 15)
BEHIND THE MIKE
By Doug Dickerson
3. Lack of trust. Most
The harder the conflict,
conflict that divides any
the more glorious the triorganization at its root is a
umph. — Thomas Paine
trust issue. If team memA story is told of two
bers do not feel they can
men who lived in a small
trust each other- or their
village that got into a terleader, then conflict is inrible dispute. They could
evitable. Conflict is the
not resolve it so they delanguage of lost trust.
cided to talk to the town
The conflict that
sage. The first man went to
unites us
the sage’s home and told
As already mentioned,
his version of what hapI do not believe all conflict
pened. When he finished,
is harmful. If we do not unthe sage said, “You’re abDOUG DICKERSON
derstand the source of consolutely right.” The next night, the second flict that divides us we will have a hard time
man called on the sage and told his side of understanding conflict that can unite us. So
the story. The sage responded, “You’re ab- how do we make the connection and rally
solutely right.” Afterward, the sage’s wife around conflict or ‘storming’ that can bring
scolded her husband. “Those men told you us together? Here are a few ways:
two different stories and you told them they
1. Mutual trust and respect. It all comes
were absolutely right. That’s impossible, back to trust. If conflict that divides is the
they can’t both be absolutely right.” The language of lost trust then mutual trust and
sage turned to his wife and said, “You’re respect is the language that unites us. Valabsolutely right.”
ues must be clear, mutual, and fully subLeaders know a thing or two about con- scribed to in order to move forward as a
flict. And most don’t like it. But conflict or unified team. Honesty is the key word for
“storming” as I once heard it described, can conflict that unites.
be beneficial if handled the right way. Much
2. A focus on what’s best for the team.
of what you hear in leadership or manage- When personal agendas are set aside for
ment circles focuses on conflict “resolu- what is best for the organization then every
tion” which is based largely off the belief ‘storming’ session is about what’s best for
that conflict is always harmful. But is it? all of us rather than just one. The airing out
Can an organization embrace a healthy form of ideas then becomes team focused which
of conflict that works for the organization creates an atmosphere where, because of
in a positive way? I believe so. Here are trust, a free-flow of best ideas can be voiced
two key lessons about conflict and their and no one is threatened. Differences of
characteristics that you need to know.
opinion or approach are now welcomed
The conflict that divides us
because no one is questioning motives. It
There is no denying that unresolved con- can breathe new life into your organization
flict can be very detrimental to an organi- and creativity can flourish.
zation. But a greater question needs to be
3. Principled leadership. “Everything
addressed. Do you want the conflict to go rises and falls on leadership,” says John
away as quick as possible because it makes Maxwell. It is incumbent upon leaders to
you uncomfortable or do you want to get position their organizations in a way that
to the root of the problem? A Band-Aid fosters healthy conflict by means of muapproach will not help you in the long run. tual trust and respect and open communiWhat are some of the characteristics of the cation. Values must be clear and everyone
conflict that divides us? Here are a few:
must be engaged.
1. Clashing values. One of the most sigHealthy conflict can thrive within your
nificant causes of conflict that divides or- organization but it won’t happen unless
ganizations happens over clashing values. there is a principled leader in place who
When values are not clear, not embraced, understands the difference. Not all conflict
or are compromised then the end result will is harmful and not all of it is helpful, but
be unhealthy conflict.
hopefully now you have a better under2. Personal agendas. If the people standing of the two.
within your organization place their perWhat do you say?
sonal agendas over the mission of the or*****
ganization then conflict that divides will
Doug Dickerson is a syndicated columexist. If your people are score-keepers and nist. He writes a weekly column for this
are only interested in what’s in it for them newspaper. To contact Doug Dickerson,
then perpetual conflict will ruin your orga- email
him
at
ddickerson@
nization.
lasvegastribune.com.
Why Bother to Exercise?
frigerator and the televiBy Michael A. Aun
sion set.
One of my twin sons,
Every time I feel like
Cory, is the Head Coach of
hitting
the gym nowathe St. Cloud, Florida
days
I
lay
down for a few
Weightlifting team as well
minutes
until
the feeling
as the Strength and Condigoes
away.
And
since extioning Coach for all the
ercising
is
like
a poor
Bulldog athletes.
man’s
weight
loss
proI often wonder where
gram
and
a
poor
replaceall three of my sons got the
ment for plastic surgery,
affinity for weightlifting.
I’m content to remain
Cory’s twin brother, Jason,
ugly. At age 65, I’m in no
attended Northern Michishape to exercise.
gan University on a
MICHAEL
A.
AUN
About the most runweightlifting scholarship.
ning
I
get
in
these
days
is when I volunteer
NMU actually trains the U.S. Olympic
to
be
the
ball
boy
for
the
St. Cloud Bulldog
athletes. Jason never earned a spot on the
high
school
football
teams.
Sometimes I get
Olympic Team, but he did win his bride
a
real
workout.
Jessica, who was also there on scholarship
We opened the 2014 football season with
trying to make the same team.
a
scoring
fest. We were hosting Eaglecrest
Both came away with a quality educaHigh
School
from Centennial, Colorado at
tion which was more important than anythe
ESPN
Sports
Complex in Orlando, FL.
thing else in the grand scheme of things.
The
halftime
score
was 48-40. We went
Jason is now a Molecular Microbiologist
on
to
win
69-56.
I
think
I must have run ten
with the FDA and Jessica is a doctor in the
miles
chasing
incomplete
passes that night.
same emergency room where my third son
Both
teams
ran
fast-paced,
no-huddle ofChristopher is a Registered Nurse. Like his
fenses.
I’m
an
old
man;
I
decided
right then
twin brothers “Gutt” (a moniker he came
and
there
to
hire
a
“runner”
to
help
me chase
by at birth which was bestowed on him by
wayward
passes.
So
much
for
my
exercise
his older brothers) is also a weightlifting
program.
freak.
After the bariatric surgery, it took me
None of my sons inherited the love of
about
a year to lose 150 pounds. I lost so
the gym from yours truly. Although I’ve
much
weight
so quickly I noticed I only had
been a frequent visitor to the gym, no one
one
back
pocket
in my pants.
is going to confuse me with my sons. ExerNowadays,
I’m
getting more exercise
cise is something of a dirty word for me.
acting
as
a
pallbearer
and a ball boy than I
Every time I say it I want to wash my mouth
do
anywhere
else.
I
figure...
why work out?
out with a Yuengling.
No
pain,
no
pain!
That’s
my
philosophy.
Even when I was at my so-called athThe
folks
who
count
calories
are the
letic best, I was slow on a good day. Iniones
that
kill
me.
Big
deal...
one
exercise
I
tially, I bought into the idea that I could
did
equated
a
60-calorie
count,
which
took
exercise and lose weight. The problem was
I was exercising my chewing muscles more care of the half-and-half I put in my coffee
than the rest of my body. After bulging to that morning. So now the best thing I exeralmost 350 pounds, I decided on a bariatric cise is the good judgment not to try to lift
by-pass, losing nearly 150 pounds and re- weights like my sons do.
When I was twenty, I was concerned
gaining my health.
with
what others thought about the way I
My wife says I cheated, to which I relooked.
When I turned 40, I didn’t really
spond... and your point is? I tried losing
care
what
they thought. Now that I’m 65,
weight the old fashion way. I was the poster
I’ve
noticed
that nobody thinks about me
boy for every weight loss program on the
at
all.
market. Nothing worked.
So why bother to exercise?
I turned to things they sell you in a bottle
*****
and quickly surmised that if it’s in a bottle
Michael
Aun
is
a syndicated columnist
and all you have to do is take it, everyone
and
writes
a
weekly
column for this newswould be in great shape. Not! About the
paper.
To
contact
Michael
Aun, email him
only exercise that I was getting was the path
at
maun@lasvegastribune.com.
I was wearing in the carpet between the re-
The Two Faces of Conflict
COMMENTARIES
Page 14 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
Editors note: The views expressed are entirely those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Las Vegas Tribune.
Contradictory Defenses and Metro’s Self-Destruction
By Norman Jahn
I just read a story about a trial
involving the police department in
Washington D.C. The case is reference a police commander who
was demoted by the police chief so
he filed a lawsuit for retaliation
against him as a whistle-blower.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/
news/2015/feb/6/judge-rulesagainst-lanier-contradictory-defense/
A civil suit had been filed by the
family of a mentally ill man who
was killed by the police during a
barricaded subject incident. The
department defense was that the
incident was handled in a ‘reasonable’ manner hoping to avoid liability for wrongful death. Later the
chief used the same incident to justify demoting the commander. On
the one hand the department called
police actions ‘proper’ in the killing, but then they slammed the
commander by spinning 180 degrees in response to his civil suit.
In a key ruling, the judge decided
that the jury could not hear both
stories because of the conflicting
defenses.
Telling ‘stories’ about proper
policing to avoid civil liability and
then changing the story for a different audience reminded me of the
LVMPD. If you are targeted at
Chuck Muth
NORMAN JAHN
Metro, I believe a narrative is created for Internal Affairs. Once the
predetermined conclusion is
reached, another story is presented
at a pre-termination hearing or discipline board. Ultimately, they embellish even more at arbitration and
beyond. I believe it is highly unethical for people who are seeing this
process to allow it to continue.
Who is in a perfect position to
pay attention, take notes, obtain
transcripts, and confirm that there
are different stories being told at
different times? Who is in the position to recognize conflicting testimony and even lies? Who should
be acting HONORABLY and putting a stop to this when they see
(Continued from Page 13)
union and the AFL-CIO, issue political threats all the
time.
And indeed, Assembly GOP caucus leaders have
been threatening their conservative colleagues with
the possible loss of committee assignments and death
of their bills if they don’t get in line and stop rocking
the boat.
If that’s now considered “extortion,” we’re gonna
need to build a lot more jails and hire a lot more Metro
detectives!
P.S. Happy Birthday, Ronald Reagan!
*****
If only sugar was produced
on Planet Nirvana
In a recent column for the Cato Institute, Daniel R.
Pearson lamented “the difficulties of trying to balance
sugar supply and demand by government fiat” in an
effort to buttress the arguments against the U.S. sugar
program constantly being put forward by Big Candy.
“If the marketplace was made open and competitive, there is little doubt that sugar still would be produced in the United States, that some of it still would
be imported from other countries, and that consumers
would buy some combination of the two,” Pearson
wrote.
“If supply and demand were allowed to guide sugar
production, marketing, and consumption, resource allocation and economic efficiency would improve a
great deal.”
Amen.
Indeed, life on Planet Nirvana is always special,
wonderful and fair. Unfortunately, we live on Planet
Earth, so we’re constrained to deal with the reality of
someone like “my favorite captain”
take one position in a hearing for
an officer, then testify under oath
and tell a different story for another
officer he is trying to fire, and then
spin it all over again for an arbitrator or a court? Why not? they really face no sanctions for perjury
from Metro because Metro rewards
them for saying what Metro wants
them to say. I once asked the union
about lying supervisors. I was told,
historically, nothing had ever been
done about it.
The answer to WHO should
have some integrity includes union
reps, union attorneys, and the
LVMPD attorney who I call “Tricky
Nicky.” Yes, they are all in a position to see what is happening because they are the only ones that can
compare what is said at one proceeding with others that they are
allowed to witness. The conflicting
defenses strategy was viewed as
‘dishonorable’ in D.C., so the judge
instructed the jury to disregard all
testimony
criticizing
the
commander’s handling of the barricade.
I thought about similar situations
in Las Vegas which have involved
(or could have involved) the same
issues. For example, if a civil lawsuit had been filed by Stanley
Gibson’s family and Metro wanted
a global sugar market dominated by some of the biggest government subsidy providers in the universe.
And it’s not just sugar export powerhouses such as
Brazil, India and Thailand that heavily distort the international sugar market by heavily propping up their
homeland sugar industries. Heck, even third-world Nigeria is getting into the act. According to a recent story
in The Guardian...
“DR Latif Busari, the Executive Secretary of National Sugar Development Council, said on Wednesday that the sugar sub-sector would generate over
180,000 jobs in the economy if well developed.
“Busari told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in
Abuja that ‘If we implement the National Sugar Master Plan as planned by the Federal Government, it would
create over 180,0000 jobs.’”
It’s estimated that around 12,000 Nigerians are
employed in the sugar industry presently, many “in
packaging foreign sugar.”
However, part of the federal government’s master
plan is an outright “ban on the importation of sugar.”
And that ban on sugar imports means the nation’s sugar
industry will be protected from heavily subsidized foreign sugar, thus creating more jobs outside of import
packaging for the hometown folks.
This is the “open and competitive” high-wire market Mr. Pearson wants the U.S. sugar industry to walk
across without a net.
If we were living on Planet Nirvana, his argument
would actually hold water.
Chuck Muth is president of Citizen Outreach, a nonprofit public policy grassroots advocacy organization.
Chuck Muth may be reached by email at
cmuth@lasvegastribune.com.
to fight (instead of settling out of
court) it, there would likely be a
‘story’ of reasonableness or proper
police tactics told to minimize liability. I can hear it now, “The
LVMPD used proper tactics in order to render the situation safe.”
The ‘contradictory defense’
comparison occurs if Metro then
decided to ‘punish’ the same
people. For example, Officer
Arevalo ended up being terminated
by Metro for his role in the incident
(firing a rifle at Gibson when he
thought shots had been fired from
the car). The contradiction is claiming that we did a good job on the
tactical incident but actually realizing there were screw-ups. Do police departments play the game for
the initial lawsuit and wait to impose discipline, demote, or terminate? Of course they do!
Don’t forget, the Gibson incident ended up with the demotion of
a lieutenant and the suspension of
a sergeant who has now retired.
This makes me wonder what might
have happened to those ‘in charge’
of the Chartered Oak incident when
over 600 rounds were fired into an
apartment. Oh, that’s right — corrective action didn’t need to be
taken because the suspect was
killed and the folks lucky enough
to avoid bullets didn’t get hurt. No
harm, no foul on that oneÖ but no
corrective action to prevent the next
nightmare!
I know of many situations where
Metro decides that an officer (or
supervisor) used ‘bad judgment’
and I actually have seen some
shooting reviews published on the
Office of Internal Oversight page
where they use the term ‘administrative approval’ or ‘administrative
disapproval.’ This is a judgment by
management, but it does not always
result in discipline. One remedy is
additional training such as realitybased or scenario training. Another
might include updated incident
command system training or tabletop exercises if a supervisor was
viewed as not doing a good job. In
‘legacy’ Metro, it would be very
rare to see a supervisor demoted.
Some have been given an extended
probationary period, but taking
away their rank was a rare occurrence during my career. Speaking
of deadly force reviews, why there
are so few of them being released?
Did Metro bamboozle the Department of Justice so easily?
There was more to that D.C.
police story. The Washington Metro
PD came under fire after actor
Charlie Sheen tweeted photos in
April 2011 indicating he received a
high-speed police escort from
Washington Dulles International
Airport in Virginia to a performance
in the District. The former commander testified that the police
commonly provided celebrity escorts which contradicted what the
chief had been telling the public. Do
the celebrity escorts sound familiar? Remember Metro’s helicopter
flight-marriage proposal? Celebrity
escorts occur at Metro just like in
D.C.
The demoted commander had
also ‘pushed back’ against the chief
regarding overtime issues. Overtime distribution is also a very important topic at Metro as well.
Many feel there are ‘special’ people
who are favored in the system and
they seem to always get overtime
assignments. I have to wonder if
police work still comes to a stop on
the mornings when the overtime
call-in line is open? How many
drunk drivers could possibly be arrested if so many cops don’t go ‘out
of service’ and spend time on their
cell phones trying to get some overtime?
As the D.C. commander learned,
once you are ‘targeted’ they come
up with stories about how you were
‘not operating at the level expected
of a commander,’ or they look back
and study all of your actions and
all of your decisions. The good
news for the D.C. Metro commander is that he has his chief on
the witness stand giving testimony
about her decision to demote. I
don’t know if anyone ever got that
far with Sheriff Duh-G and actually
got him testifying under oath in an
employment-related civil lawsuit. It
is very expensive to take on Metro’s
half-billion dollar legal machine.
SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO
EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL
I’ve heard from multiple people
that Internal Affairs is refusing to
take complaints from some officers. Who would have ever believed
that the unit would end up being for
political payback and retaliation by
the regime? And what is Henderson
doing trying to silence employees
by threatening termination if they
speak to the media? Imagine how
much information can be suppressed when Internal Affairs won’t
take complaints made by their own
officers or when city employees
can’t give facts to the media?
**** *
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.
February 11-17, 2015 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / Page 15
Is it the truth or a lie?
By Jerry Schafer
Today the world is one big computer-filled arena of true and false
information.
Sadly, it seems that much of what we read on the Internet these
days consists of an abundance of false information or lies.
Looking at television programs that profess to give us information on real historical facts can be quite disheartening when we see
programs that tell us things like Abraham Lincoln slept with men!
Or Christopher Columbus did not really discover America. Or information about the final days of our Founding Fathers who, according
to one program, said that most of our them were alcoholics and died
penniless.
The moment we’re born, information is starting to be put into our
computers (our brains), including information we might even imagine. Accordingly, every human being has his or her own personal
computer.
Information put into the seven billion human computers presently living on this earth varies according to the country of origin,
religious upbringing, political orientation and information, schooling and more.
Our computer is continually being filled with information that
we hear, see and taste throughout our lives. This information is put
into our computer according to where we decide to store it in our
memory banks.
Some information we want to forget so we erase it from our computer. Other things we wish to remember we store in our memory
banks so that we can recall the information anytime we wish.
Make no mistake about it, all human beings have their own personal computer.
The information put into those computers over time defines the
character of the person. What each person learns may differ from
what another may learn thereby setting up certain forms of conflict
between them on this earth.
The difference between right and wrong may also vary according
to the place of birth and the local and national laws that are accepted
therein.
Our world is filled with approximately 4,200 different religions,
all believing in the same thing in 4,200 different ways. This, of course,
is another area where our computer is filled with the information
that was put into it according to where in the world we were born
and raised and educated.
Some computers believe in and call the almighty God. Others
refer to God as Allah, Jehovah, Brahman, Krishna, Maheswara, Ha
Shem, Christ, Ahura Mazda... and the list goes on to approximately
4,200 different designations for God.
With all the different religious information that is taught in all the
different countries and placed in all the different computers in the
world, is it any wonder that the computers of the people who live in
their particular countries, who are taught and practice their religious
beliefs the way they have been taught and practiced for centuries in
their countries, think differently than we do?
Actually it’s expected when one looks at the reality of how all
human beings function. The mind controls the body; that’s an indisputable scientific fact.
So, if that’s the way it is, and our brain is our computer — storing
information it receives and learns as we grow — is it any wonder
that disagreements arise between people of different cultures?
People are actually taught different rights and wrongs in many
ways.
Notwithstanding the fact that people around the world have different religious beliefs, the information that is stored in their computers also cause them to have different versions of morality.
All normal humans have the same senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching.
At the same time, all humans have different computers that have
been fed different information thereby causing them to have different sets of rules and regulations to live by, different religious thinking, different morals and completely different mindsets.
Because of these things, I believe there is no way to bring about
worldwide unity of thinking in matters that eventually cause conflict in one way or the other.
As far as I’m concerned, the single most important, kindest, most
endearing element on the face of this earth is LOVE.
Love exists throughout the world in every culture no matter what
information our computers have received. The feeling of love cannot be matched by any other human emotion, yet for some reason,
man has not learned to use this powerful and wonderful emotion
when dealing with the political or religious elements that are, without a doubt, the two most harmful elements on the face of this earth.
Watch the television news broadcasts on any preferred station
and you will not see or hear very many stories about the element of
love. Instead you will hear the sad details of war throughout the
world, man’s inhumanity to man, religious conflict, political unrest
and the topics of discussion even on a local level depict things like
how many people have been killed by drunk drivers.
Is it any wonder that people in this country strive to do things
such as causing smoking marijuana to become legal?
Let’s face it — people today believe that it’s better to relax their
minds by being high on weed, then it is to be caught up in the reality
of the nightmare of stories that are told to us each day through the
media.
Once again these news reports go from the radio, or television, or
newspaper or magazine or periodical, directly into our computers.
Without really understanding what hearing the kind of disparaging
news we hear on a daily basis does to our psyche. I’m here to tell
you that it puts the negative stories we hear and read about into our
computers.
Is it any wonder why people are nervous these days wondering
what the situation in the world is destined to bring about? Wondering about the kind of life their children or grandchildren are going to
have? Wondering what the bottom line will be?
Oh well, fire up a joint, sit back and relax for, after all, there’s
really nothing we can do about it anyway.
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Page 16 / LAS VEGAS TRIBUNE / February 11-17, 2015
Mace
(Continued from Page 13)
firm identities, according to DEA
documents and people familiar with
the program.
The documents show that the
DEA also uses license-plate readers operated by state, local and federal law-enforcement agencies to
feed into its own network and create a far-reaching, constantly updating database of electronic eyes
scanning traffic on the roads to steer
police toward suspects. You can
run, but you can’t hide.
The law-enforcement scanners
are different from those used to collect tolls.
By 2011, the DEA had about 100
cameras feeding into the database,
the documents show. On Interstate
95 in New Jersey, license-plate
readers feed data to the DEA —
giving law-enforcement personnel
around the country the ability to
search for a suspect vehicle on one
of the country’s busiest highways.
One undated internal document
shows the program also gathers
data from license-plate readers in
Florida and Georgia.
“Any database that collects detailed location information about
Americans not suspected of crimes
raises very serious privacy questions,’’ said Jay Stanley, a senior
policy analyst at the ACLU. “It’s
unconscionable that technology
with such far-reaching potential
would be deployed in such secrecy.
People might disagree about exactly how we should use such powerful surveillance technologies, but
it should be democratically decided; it shouldn’t be done in secret.’’
License-plate readers are already used in the U.S. by companies to collect debts and repossess
vehicles, and by local police departments to solve crimes.
In 2010, the DEA said in internal documents that the database
aided in the seizure of 98 kilograms
of cocaine, 8,336 kilograms of
marijuana and the collection of
$866,380. It also has been connected to the Amber Alert system,
to help authorities find abducted
children, according to people familiar with the program.
One email written in 2010 said
the primary purpose of the program
was asset forfeiture — a controversial practice in which law-enforcement agencies seize cars, cash and
other valuables from suspected
criminals. The practice is increasingly coming under attack because
of instances when law-enforcement
officers take such assets without
evidence of a crime.
The document said, “...DEA has
designed this program to assist with
locating, identifying, and seizing
bulk currency, guns, and other illicit contraband moving along the
southwest border and throughout
the United States. With that said,
we want to insure we can collect
and manage all the data and IT responsibilities that will come with
the work to insure the program
meets its goals, of which asset forfeiture is primary.”
Maramis
A number of lawmakers have
been planning to offer legislation to
rein in what they call abuses of asset-forfeiture laws. The Justice Department recently announced it was
ending its role in one type of asset
seizure, known as “adoptions,’’ a
process by which local officials take
property, then have the assets
adopted and sold by the federal government. Often, that allows the local agency to keep a higher percentage of the money from the seizure.
The policy change doesn’t affect the
bulk of asset seizures in the U.S.
Also they hide the source of this
information so that defense lawyers
cannot use it to defend their clients.
The national vehicle database
program was launched in 2008 and
opened to participating state and
local authorities a year later. The
initial focus was on tracking cars
moving on or near the Southwest
border, in order to follow the movements of drugs and drug money,
according to officials and documents. Requests to search the database are handled by the El Paso Intelligence Center in Texas, which
is known as EPIC in law enforcement circles. EPIC is staffed around
the clock to both take in and send
out information about “hits’’ on requested license plates.
The effort began in border states
like Arizona, California, Nevada,
New Mexico and Texas, but the
goal has always been expansion, according to current and former federal officials and documents. Officials wouldn’t say how many other
states are now feeding data into the
system, citing concerns that disclosing such information could help
criminals avoid detection.
The federal program hasn’t always been embraced by states. At
a 2012 hearing, Utah lawmakers
balked when DEA officials sought
to have license-plate readers in the
state feed into the database — one
of the few times the agency has provided even limited facts about the
program. That same year, a DEA
official made a general reference to
the program at a congressional field
hearing about the Southwest border,
saying it was built to monitor and
target vehicles used to transport
bulk cash and other contraband.
Under questioning from Utah
lawmakers, the agency said the program began with an effort to track
drug shipments on the Southwest
border, and the government wanted
to add monitors on major drug-trafficking routes like Utah’s Interstate
15, in order to hunt a wide array of
criminals. That alarmed privacy
advocates, who noted at the time
that the DEA’s map of major drug
routes included most of the national
highway system.
The agency has reduced the time
it holds the data from two years to
three months, according to a Justice Department spokesman. The
EPIC database allows any police
agency that participates to quickly
search records of many states for
information about a vehicle. One
May 2010 redacted email says:
“Anyone can request information
(Continued from Page 12)
chooses to “love” a person in their own ignorant or arrogant way, disregarding all the outward signs of their true affection as mentioned in 1
Corinthians above. I believe in the kind of love that takes all mankind
into its circle first (that “...feeling of brotherhood and good will toward
other people...”) and then applies the meaning of personal love as found
in 1 Corinthians and in the words of Kahlil Gibran’s poetic renderings:
“It is a heavenly love that is free from jealousy, rich and never harmful to
the spirit. It is a deep affinity that bathes the soul in contentment; a deep
hunger for affection which, when satisfied, fills the soul with bounty; a
tenderness that creates hope without agitating the soul, changing earth to
paradise and life to a sweet and beautiful dream.”
When I muse about love, I sometimes wonder how those who kill in
the name of their god can also believe in being rewarded by that same
god. Is it a reward that’s cold and calculated, as in “Do this, receive that,”
with no notion of love attached, or do they believe it is a reward of love?
So a god that wants one to kill and requires one to kill (so they say) will
be rewarded by that same blood-thirsty god? Don’t they ever wonder
what might happen if their blood-thirsty, not known for loving, god decided to kill them?
I guess to some, love is NOT patient and kind, it IS easily angered, and
it DOES keep a record of wrongs. Or maybe to some, “love” really is not
a consideration at all; but if it is, it apparently DOES delight in evil while
it will happily obscure the truth. And to round it out, to some, apparently
“love” doesn’t have to protect, or trust, and as long as the one in control
in the “love” arrangement stays in control, one doesn’t even need hope,
as one has what one wants as long as he or she perseveres in the selfishness of his or her own version of that “love.”
So, to paraphrase what I often say, I would rather feel love than know
its definition. And I would certainly rather have a lover who believes in
the kind of love found in 1 Corinthians than the kind who buys me flowers and chocolates on that one day of “love” every year.
As with all things, “love” has a source. If the lover does not reflect the
source, it seems like we may have a real case of fake love.
May you all look for the genuine article and feel the real thing, and
have a truly happy day that celebrates real love!
*****
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.
from our [license-plate reader] program, federal, state, or local, just
need to be a vetted EPIC user...’’
The data are also shared with
U.S. border officials, according to
an undated memorandum of understanding between the DEA and
Customs and Border Protection officials. That document shows the
two agencies specifically said that
lawmakers might never specifically
fund the work, stating: “this in no
way implies that Congress will appropriate funds for such expenditures.’’
The disclosure of the DEA’s license-plate reader database comes
on the heels of other revelations in
recent months about the Justice Department, as well as the agencies it
runs, gathering data about innocent
Americans as it searches for criminals.
In November, The Wall Street
Journal reported that the U.S.
Marshall flies planes carrying devices that mimic cellphone towers
in order to scan the identifying information of Americans’ phones as
it searches for criminal suspects and
fugitives. Justice Department officials have said the program is legal.
Earlier this month, the DEA filed
court documents indicating that for
more than a decade it had, without
judicial oversight, sifted through
that data looking for drug suspects.
That program was canceled in
2013.
Does this stuff scare you? It sure
scares me. Big Brother is here. I’ve
facetiously said, “What’s next?
Microchips for every citizen?” It
may not be too far off. Be afraid...
be very afraid!
*****
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.