Business Politics – 2006 October

With only 7 days left until I cast my ballot I still have many offices to research and decide on who I’ll vote for, today I turn my attention to the Secretary of State. To summerize, I support Ross Miller for Secretary of State.

Our current Secretary of State, Dean Heller, is running for the Nevada 2nd District Congressional seat and that means either Danny Tarkanian (son of the UNLV coaching legend ‘Tark the Shark’ Jerry Tarkanian, and city council member Lois Tarkanian) and Ross Miller son of former Nevada Governor Bob Miller are the serious contenders for the position that controls much of the record keeping for the State. Miller want to increase information access and decrease corporate fraud… that’s enough for me… but let’s explore a bit to make sure.

Of course both Miller and Tarkanian have several clips on YouTUBE. I found this John Walsh endorsement for Miller creditable…

And this clip speaks to the only issue Tarkanian has really focused on, photo ID for voting

Ross Miller spoorts building an online searchable database for documents, wants to increase access for Nevada Residents to both the voting booths and public data.[source video] So far, I’m having trouble finding one disagreeable facet of Miller, his vision for the position is a technology driven approach to solving public data access and voting access nad an investigative approach to solving corporate fraud. Miller wants to reform some of the Nevada corporate goverence laws and get tougher on corporate criminals, seems reasonable and timely.

As for Danny, I’m sure he’d be adequate, but he comes across as seriously ‘out of touch’ and one issue focused to me. I truly believe access and quality of record-keeping will suffer under someone who, as a top priority wants to institute a photo-id check, a procedure that does in fact add an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to a process where citizens don’t vote! A 60% voter turn-out is expected this election.

Some of the most in-depth examination material I found of the candidates is this Secretary of State debate MP3 from KNPR.

Danny focuses on the voting process and the “integrity of the voting process and only ‘correct‘.. legal votes will be counted” –[from the above MP3]. He wants to do this using driver licenses verification via the (right now it requires a water/power/phone bill). This is a problem, but, the drivers license isn’t the solution. Miller’s response seems far more reasoned coming from the stance of a District Attroney, it’s a two pronged approach that will both increase record keeping access and use that ease of access to faciliate investigations into voter fraud.

This brings me to a final topic to touch on and that is the Nevada Voting Machines. Yes, they are made by Sequoia, no this doesn’t mean squat and Venezuela is irrelevant. They require a paper trail and are as far as I can find the most secure machines being used. However, there was a bit of a flare up back in 98’, but that was during a test long before anything was in place… and again reports of lower then expected turn-out in opposition to Tarkanian’s unsupported hypothesis (put a link in the comments to the proof, or at least statistics that back this in NevadaI could find none) of people voting who shouldn’t be these stories (and the statistics) support Miller’s position of organized fraud and vote destruction, which I did find evidence of.

One final note for Danny Tarkanian, sohuld he read this, if your such a good businessman… why didn’t the Reno Chamber of Commerce[RGJ] back you?

Posted by pokerprof at 4:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

See story: 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT: Uphill fight

Apparently said to Tessa Hafen as she passed out campaign literature by a woman who thought Tessa was passing out religious tracts, “I’m a Satan worshiper.”

Actually, this might be the correct response to all political candidates during this last week before the elections.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Las Vegas Now:

Nevada’s Gubernatorial Race Could Be a Dead Heat

The race for governor of Nevada is getting closer. New polls show Republican Congressman Jim Gibbons with a six-point lead over Democrat Dina Titus.

Congressman Gibbons has two issues he’s deflecting. He denies assaulting a woman in a Las Vegas parking garage and his people say eleven years ago his wife hiring an undocumented worker was looked into and dealt with.

Dina Titus jumped on the issues with campaign ads. She says voters are shifting in her direction.

But now Metro police claim they have surveilance tapes from the garage where Mazzeo claims the assault took place. If the tapes exonerate Gibbons, it will prove that Titus wasn’t smart enough to take a high road position. It would have been so easy to simply admit the allegations appear serious but that she had faith that the facts would come out in subsequent investigation. They might not but if the allegations blew up, she would not be covered with egg. The only winner in this mess is attorney Richard Wright, who has made sure that a day does not go by without his free advertising, I mean an on air interview with the media.

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the most confounding issues before Nevada voters this election is the issue of modification to our existing tobacco laws by amending them to include either Question 4 (the Responsibly Protect Nevadans From Second-Hand Smoke Act) or Question 5 (the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act).

The only place I’ve seen Yes on 4 is from establishments that reap the benefits of that law – bars, restaurants, casinos.I suggest, if you don’t want a ban vote NO on both and if you want a smoking ban, vote no on 4 and yes on question 5. Now for the why… Our existing law in Nevada is in Chapter 202 of the Nevada Revised Statutes. The area were most interested in is 202.2491, in particular section 1 (a-g) which I’ll paraphrase as:

Smoking tobacco is unlawful in certain public places including… elevators, public building, any medical facility and doctor offices, child care facilities, buses and arcades.

We already have a law on the books with some (small) teeth. Now we have two questions related to this law and only one can pass. If they both pass the one with the most votes passes into law.QUESTION 4. – Responsibly Protect Nevadans From Second-Hand Smoke Act

Section 2 now permits smoking public places including, all gaming establishments, bar, clubs, Retail Stores, any establishment with gaming devices… which is Nevada includes most neighborhood drug and grocery stores. In other words Question 4 adds more public smoking areas and more importantly it also adds “section 5 – All power over the regulation of smoking of tobacco shall be exclusively vested in the legislature of the State of Nevada” [emphasis added]. In other words pass this and Nevada will have to find a way to wrest the new-found power away from the easily seduced local politicians who will undoubtedly be influenced by the powerful gaming, tobacco, restaurant etc lobbies, it’s an expansion of Govt. power plain and simple.

Question 5 – Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act

Question 5 is the real smoking ban and it’s a harsh one, this is the only question of importance in my mind, Question 4 shouldn’t pass, weather people want a smoking ban or not, if not leave the existing law in place and if so it’s Question 5 that should get your yes.Question 5 greatly expands the scope of our existing tobacco laws to basically prevent smoking any places that isn’t 21 and over (a simple summary, but you can read the full law by clicking on the Question above). It doesn’t try to take the power away from citizens to impact this area of the law as Question 4 does. It expands the power of Gov’t, but is not nearly the egregious slap on the face that is Question 4.

Yep, it’s no on both for me, but for those that want an expanded smoking ban it’s yes on 5.

Posted by pokerprof at 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

First I noticed the John Ensign Question and Answer over at InBusiness… all softball questions with polished answers… what’s missing the stance on Iraq, in fact the biggest issue of this election is mentioned only in passing… When asked:

The federal budget deficit has increased dramatically during the past six years although it dropped from its expected level this year. What are your thoughts on the budget deficit, and who is to blame for the ballooning national debt?

When President Bush took office, he inherited an economy in recession and 9/11 hit shortly after that, which sent us into a deeper recession. We also had to start spending money on Homeland Security and we had to spend money on the war in Afghanistan and, eventually, the war in Iraq.

I believe this YouTube video from Nevada up North fairly balances with the InBusiness article.

Next a great find at CrazyMonk is the You TUBE that’s part of a documentary centered around the Prop. 7 issue. What’s interesting is the Sandy Heverly bit at the end. She’s a tough one… unless were taking about drunks at Strip Clubs that is, then she rolls over. Fun to listen to this holier-then-thou talk about question seven, then deny; by trying to refocus the question on the drinking and driving that she ever said a word about it. Smacks of intellectual dishonesty in my opinion.

Posted by pokerprof at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dina Titus, speaking for the first time about her opponent’s alleged assault on a Las Vegas cocktail waitress, said Tuesday that the incident shows that Republican Jim Gibbons exhibits bad judgment.

The Democrats’ U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid, said the incident adds to reasons why Titus should win the election.

Just when Gibbons had pretty much written his own page in the book of stupid actions, these two Nevada democrats couldn’t resist temptation and remain quiet and leave Gibbons to write his epitath and instead show they don’t know when to keep quiet (especially Reid with his own rewriting of the meaning of windfall land sale) and prove that they too can still write a page themselves. I think we have seen enough on TV and read enough to know how we feel about the situation and the democrats could have shown a bit more class by leaving Gibbons to suffer by his own hand.

Posted by Zounds Off at 2:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Las Vegas Sun:

Casino operator Boyd Gaming Corp. said Thursday it posted a third-quarter loss due to competition in the market for Las Vegas residents and a charge on the sale of its South Coast Hotel and Casino.

The company also blamed a three-day shutdown of casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., in July and higher marketing costs when the casinos reopened.

Las Vegas-based Boyd lost $12.9 million, or 15 cents per share, compared with a profit of $32.9 million, or 36 cents per share, in the third quarter a year ago.

Ford post its biggest losses ever, the housing market is in a dive, and gaming companies start to lose money…? Read my Print–There is no strong economy!

But Harrah’s third-quarter profit rose 5 percent (see nwitimes.com), helped by strong performances at its Las Vegas properties. So I guess everything IS ok after all. Just a few problems in health care, education, social security, job creation, trade deficits, fences on the border….

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Nevada recorded 1,919 foreclosures in September, according to the latest available statistics from RealtyTrac.com, a real estate research firm.

That’s a 237 percent increase over the number of foreclosures recorded in September 2005, and a rate of one new foreclosure filing for every 452 households.

The state’s foreclosure rate is the second highest in the country, ranking behind Colorado.

And it is not just in Nevada; Joel Hirschhorn reports “[u]p to 4 percent of America’s mortgaged homeowners might lose their homes to foreclosure in coming months, one of the nation’s largest lenders predicted recently, as those homeowners find themselves trapped by heavy debt and the housing slump. That’s four times worse than the historical average of 1 in 100 mortgaged homeowners who fail to keep up payments. First American Loan Performance, a mortgage-data company based in San Francisco, says overall the national foreclosure rate has climbed 27% from a year ago with an estimated $110 billion worth of homes expected to go into foreclosure. Rick Sharga, a vice-president at RealtyTrac, said recently ‘Over a trillion dollars is going to readjust in the next 15 months. We had almost 850,000 foreclosures last year and we are at 913,000 through September.’ He predicted that national foreclosures could hit 1.2 million to 1.3 million by the end of this year.”

I only hope that the ones who lose the house are the ones who thought they would make a killing in real estate. Somehow, by the time the infomercials come out, the market is already saturated with sharks on a feeding frenzy. Those still left in the water at the end do tend to bleed. However, I noticed that none of our “outstanding” candidates (standing out for their blandness and ineptness) seem to have noticed this problem–except for Brian Kroliki who calls it “Magic.”

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

New charges filed against Las Vegas developer in bribery case

New federal charges have been lodged against a developer already awaiting trial on corruption charges involving a former Clark County commissioner.

72-year-old Donald Davidson is accused of discussing bribing an unnamed Las Vegas city council member to obtain a zone change for a Davidson project in 2002.

….

Davidson and his son, Lawrence Davidson, have pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from allegations they funneled $200,000 to former county Commissioner Erin Kenny in 2002.

City council members, county commissioners, state officials…does anyone just say no?

Posted by Zounds Off at 5:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)