Thursday, January 23, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Quick and Dirty: A notebook of news and politics

Dario: No council bid

Former Clark County Commissioner Dario Herrera, who recently lost a bid for Congress, says rumors that he's planning to run for a Las Vegas City Council seat are not true. "I haven't approached anyone [about running]," he says. "No one's approached me." Herrera notes that he doesn't live in the city and "I have no intention of moving."

Instead, Herrera says, he's getting back into the public relations biz. He's started a company, Aviso PR, and already has some clients lined up, including Focus Commercial Group, which is building a giant planned community in the southwest valley, and Pacific Development, operated by Steven Molasky. Herrera also has landed a PR contract with the Latin Chamber of Commerce.--GS

Going home

Exiled writer Syl Cheney-Coker is going home at the end of the month. The poet and novelist who fled his home in Sierra Leone in 1997--rebels were on his tail for criticizing their recent coup--said at a press conference Friday that his native country finally seemed to be stabilizing. However, he said, "Believe you me, I'll keep one eye open." His departure marks the end of the successful first run of Las Vegas' City of Asylum program, which aims to give haven to persecuted writers worldwide.

The next asylum-seeker is Gao Er Tai, who was persecuted by the Chinese government for his "humanist" views with hard labor in the Gobi Desert, the loss of his teaching post at Lanzhou University and censorship. Word is the writer is waiting to see if the City of Asylum, largely sponsored by Mandalay Resort Group President Glenn Schaeffer, can secure a job for his wife.--AK

Tracking toxics

Usually when the Environmental Protection Agency publishes its annual Toxics Release Inventory of industrial toxic releases, environmental watchdogs such as the U.S. Public Interest Research Group cry, "See! See! They're releasing known carcinogens into your air and water!" But when they, and health officials--in Las Vegas, at least--are asked for a correlation between the toxics and local health problems, there's always a thud of silence followed by a "No one's done that study here yet." Only California, Massachusetts and Iowa have high-level cancer and birth-defect registries and track asthma, says Ben Prochazka with USPIRG. And, he says, while infectious diseases have been tracked for a long time, chronic diseases have been, until recently, largely attributed to genetics rather than environmental causes.

But now, for the first time, PIRG has analyzed chronic health data in relation to the TRI reports, which track 600 toxics released by manufacturing, mining, electric utilities and commercial hazardous waste treatment. Also, in late 2002, a bill co-sponsored by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and introduced by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., called for setting up a national network to track chronic diseases such as asthma, autism, cancer, birth defects and neurological conditions, and relate them to human exposure to toxic chemicals. Nevada is going to be part of a pilot project, with 19 other states, in the proposed National Enviromental Health Tracking Network. Prochazka says it is hoped the number of chemicals tracked will rise above the 600-plus that the EPA reports.

"It's alarming that less than 1 percent of 80,000 chemicals on the market are reported in the TRI," Prochazka says.--HW

Buffalo, Horse

shake hands

The battle between the Buffalo and the Horse may be coming to an end. "Buffalo Jim" Barrier says he's close to cinching a deal with neighbor Rick Rizzolo, owner of Crazy Horse Too. The two colorful characters have been feuding for years over everything ranging from parking spaces to supposed health code violations, taking the battle to court several times. For his part, Barrier even proposed a no-holds-barred wrestling match with the strip club owner.

Now Barrier says he's reached a more civilized arrangement with Rizzolo. Barrier says Rizzolo has agreed to buy out the remainder of his lease for $1.5 million, and will take over the space after 90 days. (Rizzolo did not return phone calls, nor did his partner, Fred Doumani.)

"Otherwise, he'd have to wait until 2010 to do so," says Barrier. "It's an amicable deal. It gets rid of a lot of bad blood." That gives Barrier's auto marine shop about three more months at his current location before he has to move; he's yet to find another location. "I'll never find a great location like this, but I guarantee I'll stay in business," he says. And while the feud may be over, we can guarantee that Barrier will somehow continue to make the news.--AK

Sister act

Forget Las Vegas and your little spinning cherries--the real action is going on out in remote Crescent Valley, next to dead-center of Nevada, where Western Shoshone cowboys and their friends are scurrying around the hills trying to round up more than 800 horses before the BLM rounds them up and sends them to who knows where. The BLM--for decades at a standoff with elderly sisters Mary and Carrie Dann and other Western Shoshone over land rights and grazing permits--has plans to rescue the horses from slim pickins. There's been a drought, the land's eaten to the quick. The Western Shoshone, however, have a counter plan: to rescue the horses from the BLM. There's some dispute over how many horses belong to the Danns--the BLM says all of them do, the sisters say the land boundaries are permeable and many could be wild. But the Danns worry the horses might end up in slaughterhouses if the BLM's in charge, which is legal if the horses are dubbed "estrays" (stray domestic horses), rather than "wild" and thus protected under the Wild Horse and Burro Act.

So far, says Christopher Sewall with the Western Shoshone Defense Project, the sisters and friends have rounded up a couple hundred horses. And the Western Shoshone National Council has set up a Western Shoshone International Goodwill Program, through which they hope to adopt out the horses (being careful to screen out buyers for slaughterhouses).--HW

What, sweet little LVCVA?

New York Daily News TV sports columnist Bob Raissman's column, "All Bets Off with NFL: Vegas Ad Out While Beer Flows," mentions, as several have, the TV beer ads with scantily clad women being acceptable to the NFL, but a Las Vegas ad during the Super Bowl being a fright. "The NFL is in denial," Raissman writes. "When it comes to the gambling issue, the league is like a guy who swears he's on a diet but walks around holding a sack full of Twinkies while his pockets are stuffed with Hershey bars. Pro football generates more gambling dollars than any sport. And those who do the betting contribute heavily to the high TV ratings the NFL enjoys. Those ratings lead to the billions of dollars CBS, Fox and ABC/ESPN pay for the right to televise the games. By rejecting the Vegas ad, the NFL again attempts to fortify its own perception, casting a veil of innocence and righteousness on a topic it is clearly dirty on." He also has a nasty response to one story floated by NFL officials: that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority produced commercials, then attempted to place one on ABC's Super Bowl XXXVII telecast, knowing full well it would be rejected by the league, which in turn would stir up some damn good publicity for Las Vegas. "Man," writes Raissman, "that's some heavy cloak-and-dagger shtick. Is Oliver Stone on the NFL's payroll? Maybe so, for that is quite a nifty conspiracy theory the league has produced. It sounds like the kind of conspiracy riff coming from the mouths of fans, each and every week, when their team doesn't cover the point spread."--MG

Who's water?

UNLV history professor Hal Rothman's opinion piece published in Sunday's Los Angeles Times tackled the sticky issue of farming in the desert. Rothman called for scrapping the Colorado River Compact, formed way back in 1922, and reallocating the river's water to better reflect the needs of the 21st century. Rothman notes that a huge chunk of California's water allocation is used for irrigating crops. "Water goes to Western agriculture because it always has--not because the crops it produces are necessary or because it creates plentiful jobs or because taxes on its profits fill state coffers," he writes.--GS

Gov't

High and dry

Oh, how 9 million laser light bulbs, costing $16.5 million, can be blinding. While everyone's abuzz about the casino-controlled Fremont Street Experience's upgrading of its overhead light show that's supposed to bring more tourists downtown, nobody's talking about how the new tax-supported monorail is being routed at the expense of downtown's new "west end."

The "west end," located "across the tracks" on Union Pacific's old rail yard, consists of the existing Clark County Government Center and Regional Transportation/Flood Control building, the Las Vegas Premium Outlet Mall under construction, the approved World Market Center yet to be built, the new IRS building and possible "federal agency campus" and the city's unplanned and undeveloped 61 acres--all linked by Grand Central Parkway.

Altogether, less the 61 acres' sizeable impact, these businesses will employ more than 3,000 people and are expected to draw nearly 10 million visitors each year. And yet, the monorail's Main Street, casino-fed route--costing about $150 million per mile--remains on the plans without a Grand Central Parkway spur envisioned, much less talked about.--FC

Whew, that was close

This week, the County Commission approved a $750,000 contract to upgrade the old card reader system at McCarran International Airport. Airport officials say it "operates at a very slow rate, which increases the time to download updated badge information, or to remove badges from the system for security reasons."

The new equipment, which now will read fingerprints as part of the beefed-up federally mandated security system, couldn't be timelier in light of the potential for serious security breaches (which may have already occurred).

Since 9/11, aviation officials have issued 225 "lost badge refunds" amounting to more than $3,400 to individuals who've claimed to have "lost" their employee identification badges, but found them later. The badges, a free ticket that gives access behind security checkpoints, could be copied and used by terrorists or others once they're out of the hands of the proper person, whether it's for one day or a month.

What's scary about this is within 12 weeks following 9/11, 39 lost badge refunds were silently authorized by the county with no questions asked publicly.--FC