Free Republic

The family of Chris Privett wept in court Monday. So did the family of his killer, Gerald Davison. But the 17-year-old simply smirked in court and offered a halfhearted apology for shooting the Palo Verde High School student in February 2008. "I dont know how to apologize for for taking your son's life away," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "Sorry ain't going to cut it but that's all i can tell y'all. Sorry."

ACORN,the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, faces still another high-stakes challenge — and more embarrassment — in Nevada, where it has been charged with 13 felony counts related to potential voter registration fraud during the 2008 campaign. This is the only state where ACORN, as an organization, is accused of criminal wrongdoing. Similar investigations in Pennsylvania and Florida have resulted in charges against individual canvassers the group hired to register voters. “With ACORN, one wonders how it could get worse for them,” said Tom Fitton, president of Washington-based Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog group that has been...

CROC hunter Steve Irwin's dream of opening an Aussie zoo in Las Vegas is to be realised, three years after his death. Nevada officials say plans for an Australia-themed zoo in desert gaming mecca are back on the agenda. Representatives for the Irwins met Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman last week to discuss resurrecting their proposal for a US Australia Zoo featuring crocodile wrestling. "It looks like a great project with a crocodile-type enclosure where they would wrestle with the crocodiles and feed the crocodiles and have a real educational component to it and we're going to continue those discussions,"...

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist will head to Las Vegas at the end of the month for a well-backed, high-priced fundraiser with perhaps the Republican Party's wealthiest donor. Crist will benefit from a fundraiser at the Palazzo Hotel and Casino, one of the newest casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, on Oct. 29. His host, Las Vegas Sands Corp. CEO Sheldon Adelson, is the 26th-richest man in America, according to Forbes magazine. Adelson funded the conservative group Freedom's Watch during the 2008 campaign, spending millions of dollars to attack then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Democratic candidates up and down the ballot....

The Nevada Secretary of State was on television all weekend discussing his office's prosecution of ACORN. The Secretary of State, Ross Miller, is himself a Democrat. That's important, obviously, because ACORN's first reaction to most investigations is to say they are political. Given Miller's party affiliation that is harder to do. Much more important that that, Miller's office isn't going after some of the help. Instead, they are going after ACORN itself.

If an organization that is funded largely by George Soros, Herb and Marion Sandler, and a variety of other foundations (often established by conservative businessmen and which now are totally controlled by left-oriented administrators like Ford and Annenberg) tells you it does serious journalistic investigation in the public interest and calls itself the Center for Public Integrity, I suggest you take their offerings with a boulder of salt. Last year at this time, it was evident to every open-minded person that ACORN was engaged in widespread voter registration fraud under the cover of helping 1.7 million unregistered (and given the...

A judge has ruled that political advocacy group ACORN and a former employee will stand trial in District Court on felony charges they paid canvassers to collect voter registration cards last year. Arraignment was set for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 14. Former ACORN Las Vegas field director Christopher Edwards testified Tuesday that he created a bonus incentive program called “Blackjack” or “21+” that awarded an extra $5 to any canvasser who collected at least 21 registration cards. His immediate supervisor, Amy Busefink, welcomed the idea and he bragged about its success on conference calls with his peers around the country,...

Chris Edwards, the former Las Vegas Director for ACORN has "flipped" for the Nevada AG's prosecution of ACORN in voter fraud case. Matthew Vadum of Capital Resource Center claims the Nevada AG has possession of ACORN Resource Manual which includes a registration incentive scheme called, "21" that paid cash bonuses.FOX News video of interview here and at link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFaIeMogWa4

LAS VEGAS — When ACORN took to Las Vegas and started playing "Blackjack" and "21," the activist group was making a far bigger gamble than it ever guessed, according to Nevada prosecutors. There's nothing wrong with playing the tables in Vegas, but authorities say ACORN was using the names of those casino games as a cover to illegally pay workers to sign up voters as part of an illegal quota system. A preliminary hearing Tuesday in the downtown Clark County courthouse has put ACORN on trial for the first time as a criminal defendant. Until now, prosecutions for voter registration...

LAS VEGAS -- Testimony has begun before a judge hearing allegations that the political advocacy group ACORN illegally paid canvassers to register voters in Nevada during last year's presidential campaign. The judge will decide after an evidentiary hearing whether to bind the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now and former regional supervisor Amy Busefink over for trial on felony charges. They are accused of paying bonuses to canvassers who turned in at least 21 voter registration cards per day in the summer of 2008. Prosecutors said that violates state law banning voter signup quotas. Former ACORN organizer Christopher Edwards...

Note: The following text is a quote: Jury Convicts Defense Department Official of Unlawful Communication of Classified Information and Making False Statements James Wilbur Fondren Jr., was convicted by a federal jury today on charges involving providing classified information to a man working with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and lying to the FBI about it. Fondren was convicted of one count of unlawfully communicating classified information to an agent of a foreign government and two counts of making false statements to the FBI. He was acquitted of two unlawful communication of classified information, one count of conspiracy to...

Over the past 25 years, Larry Valdez has worked as an electrician in Grand Junction, Colo.; Duluth, Minn.; Salem, Ore.; and more than a dozen other places. A skilled tradesman with a union card, he could always hop from one job to the next, building a mall, a power plant or a microchip factory. Five years ago, he landed in Las Vegas as developers were breaking ground on a series of lavish hotels and casinos on the Strip. Thousands of carpenters, ironworkers, electricians, pipefitters and other tradesmen were lured here by the concrete and steel rising from the desert --...

LOVEBIRDS Steven and Kathryn share a well-organised home in bustling Las Vegas. They have a neat, if compact kitchen, a furnished living area, and a bedroom complete with double bed, wardrobe and bookshelf featuring a wide selection including a Frank Sinatra biography and Spanish phrase book. And they make their money in some of the biggest casinos in the world. But their life is far from the ordinary. Because, along with hundreds of others, the couple are part of a secret community living in the dark and dirty underground flood tunnels below the famous strip. Rather than working in the...

Unemployment continues to set records in Nevada and Las Vegas, and experts forecast higher joblessness in coming months even as the city's biggest resort begins hiring Monday. Unemployment has spiked nearly a percentage point statewide, jumping from 12.5 percent in July to 13.2 percent in August, the state Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said Friday. August's statewide unemployment rate was nearly triple the level at the recession's beginning in December 2007, when joblessness clocked in at 5.2 percent. [Snip] Officially, 183,000 Nevadans were out of work and actively hunting for jobs in August. In Las Vegas, 135,100 residents were...

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- Nevada authorities said Tuesday they raided the Las Vegas offices of the controversial voter-registration activist group, ACORN. The Secretary of State's Office confirmed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal that a search warrant was served at the ACORN office as part of a probe into suspected voter registration fraud. The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, has been under withering attack from the Republican Party for allegedly signing up unqualified voters in order to boost Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama. ACORN has stated that while it indeed targets low-income voters, it is...

This editorial from Investor's Business Daily is worth the read.And, this part is worth a fleeting note: Part of it has to do with Reid's rise to Senate minority leader and then majority leader in 2006. His constituents increasingly feel left behind. Sherman Frederick, publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, wrote in 2006: " 'Sen. Reid;s undoing came early in his last term when he became a big shot in the Democratic Party and quickly morphed into someone Nevada voters did not recognize - his political girlfreind in the House, uber-liberal Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California.' "

Politics: The senator who called the president a liar and never apologized may have worn out his welcome in his home state. Harry Reid may be riding the liberal agenda into political oblivion.In 2004, Republicans defeated Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle largely on the theme that he neglected his home state in favor of national party interests. The GOP is hoping that in 2010 lightning will strike a second time, and Nevada polls indicate it may be more than wishful thinking. In 1998, Reid beat John Ensign by a hair-thin 428 votes. Ensign would go on to win Nevada's other...

Luck runs out on Vegas boom Construction slows, tourism plummets, discounts pervade. Can the city keep believing that if it builds, visitors will come? Michael A. Hiltzik and Ashley Powers Los Angeles Times Staff Writers September 6, 2009 The Currans of Granada Hills have been taking family vacations on the Las Vegas Strip for years. They weren't about to pass it up just because Jeff Curran's business selling upscale cookware is down sharply. But this summer it would be a smart Vegas vacation. A year ago they plunked down $100 each for tickets to the Blue Man Group show at...

TEA PARTY EXPRESS CONDEMNS HARRY REID’S ATTACK ON LAS VEGAS NEWSPAPER Reid Expresses Hope for Job Losses of Hundreds at Las Vegas Paper As the Tea Party Express (website: http://www.TeaPartyExpress.org) crosses through Nevada (holding 5 tea party rallies in the state), the Las Vegas Review Journal newspaper is reporting that Senator Harry Reid launched a broadside against the newspaper, telling advertising director Bob Brown: “I hope you go out of business.” At a time when Nevada is suffering an unemployment rate of over 12%, Harry Reid has revealed he hopes hundreds more will become unemployed at the Las Vegas newspaper....

The government wants to control when and how you die, what you can access online and, frankly, pretty much everything else you do in your private life. So said hundreds of people Monday at a gathering billed as one stop on a nationwide tour that will culminate with a humongous event in Washington, D.C., intended to let the big shots on Capitol Hill know who's really in charge. "I'm scared," said one of those hundreds, Patricia Somers, 62, who traveled from Thousand Oaks, Calif., to Las Vegas, the closest tour stop for the Tea Party Express. "We're losing so much."...

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<p>The Tea Party Express is in Las Vegas this morning for an 11:00 am Tea Party, then it's on to Flagstaff for a 6:00 pm rally!! CNN and FOX News networks will be covering our Las Vegas Tea Party!!</p> <p>Woo hoo!! Thirty-five cities, thirty-five tea parties in sixteen days!!</p>

Before he addressed a Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce luncheon, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) openly wished for the Las Vegas Review-Journal to “go out of business” … a newspaper which has held opposing political viewpoints with the Senator. The comment came when Bob Brown, the Journal’s Director of Advertising met with Reid during the simple process of handshaking. Reid exclaimed to Brown: “I hope you go out of business.” Harry Reid Threatened Las Vegas Newspaper

<p>The Tea Party Express is rolling on through Nevada today!! We're now in Ely for an 11:30 am Tea Party, then it's on to Las Vegas!! We just learned that at least two national TV networks will be covering our 11:00 am Tea Party in Las Vegas tomorrow!! We need all of our Las Vegas area FReepers to spread the word. We want a large crowd for our national audience!!</p>

This newspaper traces its roots to before Las Vegas was Las Vegas. We've seen cattle ranches give way to railroads. We chronicled the construction of Hoover Dam. We reported on the first day of legalized gambling. The first hospital. The first school. The first church. We survived the mob, Howard Hughes, the Great Depression, several recessions, two world wars, dozens of news competitors and any number of two-bit politicians who couldn't stand scrutiny, much less criticism. We're still here doing what we do for the people of Las Vegas and Nevada. So, let me assure you, if we weathered all...

<p>And the Tea Party Express launches today from Sacramento!! We're expecting a big crowd at our noon time Tea Party rally today at the Capitol, then we launch our cross-country tour!</p> <p>Woo hoo!! Thirty-five cities, thirty-five tea parties in sixteen days!!</p>

Greetings! An acquaintance of mine is going to be going to Las Vegas with a group of friends for the first time. I was stationed there from 84-94, and have been back once or twice since then. I told her that the best places in Las Vegas are the places that aren't on the strip. Not the big houses, but the mom and pop places out there. Now, I need recommendations from the folks on scene. Food, shows, places to go, things to see and do - off the beaten track and away from all the big touristy stuff.

Red Flag is underway at Nellis Air Force Base, and will be going until Sept. 5. Las Vegans and tourists alike sometimes get a hell of an air show when Red Flag is going on, but there is something new about Red Flag this year. For the first time, fighters from the United Arab Emirates will be participating in the combat exercise over the skies of Las Vegas.

If you’re a fan of The Deadliest Catch, and would like to meet some of the cast members … now’s your chance! Straight from the icy waters of the Bering Sea, Captain Phil Harris and his sons from the Cornelia Marie, along with Captain Johnathan Hillstrand from the Time Bandit, will make two appearances at the Gold Coast Hotel and Casino Showroom Saturday, August 29 at 1 p.m. and at 4 p.m.

Nevada's unemployment rose to 12.5 percent in July, while joblessness in especially hard-hit Las Vegas surged to 13.1 percent. It’s the highest jobless rate both statewide and locally since the state began tracking data in 1976. No “green shoots” for Nevada. As economists and policymakers nationwide hover over the tender little economic tendrils that herald recovery from recession, Nevada’s economy looks as barren as the Mojave Desert. As a trickle of data points to the national downturn’s end, Nevada’s economy continues its descent. Joblessness in the Silver State jumped to 12.5 percent in July, while unemployment in hard-hit Las Vegas...

Hooters celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, but it's not clear if its Las Vegas casino will make it to 4. Hooters Casino Hotel opened just off the Las Vegas Strip 3 1/2 years ago, hoping to add some spice to what had been the frumpy Hotel San Remo. Its ownership group includes some of the founders of Hooters restaurant chain, which was launched in Clearwater in 1983. However, the casino hasn't been nearly the success Hooters restaurants have been. On Friday, the business entity that controls Hooters Casino Hotel, named 155 East Tropicana LLC, announced it lost $5.1 million...

[...] After two decades as one of the fastest-growing metropolises in the U.S., Las Vegas has seen its population growth flatten. It's got the highest foreclosure rate of any major metro area, and the unemployment rate jumped from 3.8% to 12.3% in just three years. Even if you have a job, it's not a good time to have your wage be dependent on lavish tips. The No. 1 convention city has also had a wave of cancellations from the AIG effect — companies don't want the bad publicity of being seen in Sin City. Just as Las Vegas was the...

(English-language translation) Washington - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who will turn 63 on August 19, celebrated his birthday in advance and to the hilt in an exclusive Las Vegas restaurant where a 225-gram [8-ounce] "wagyu" veal steak costs $240. The one person conspicuously missing was Hillary Clinton, who is touring Africa and who missed the gathering which some Washington heavyweights attended, such as John Podesta who was [White House] Chief of Staff during Clinton's presidency. The former President, who yesterday was one of the main speakers at a renewable-energy conference in Las Vegas, aroused suspicion among the press when...

About 100 people turned out this morning to protest at the National Clean Energy Summit. They waved flags and carried homemade signs denouncing everything from carbon cap and trade proposals to reform for the nation's health care policy to the presidency of Barack Obama in general. Read more.......... http://www.ask.com/bar?q=lvrj&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=0&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lvrj.com%2F

On Thursday, Sen. Harry Reid said don't blame the Obama administration for the government travel restrictions to resort destinations like Las Vegas. Reid said the policy came from the Bush administration. Holding nearly 50 pages of e-mails and memos, Reid explained.

This morning on KXNT, Casey Hendrickson broke the news that the legislation that resulted in the federal agency travel ban to Las Vegas was supported by Harry Reid, and was not a Bush policy. Hendrickson had Mayor Goodman on the show to explain what headway was made in handling the situation. Yesterday, Mayor Goodman was furious at the policy on KXNT with Alan Stock. He vowed to get to the bottom of it, and call back … he did. The Mayor said that Rahm Emanuel told him this all stems from a law that was passed years ago. That law...

Uh huh? Reid really can’t let Bush go can he? This is where Reid unnecessarily took a bullet for the White House. The memos Reid presented appear to be nothing more than part of an official procedure to approve a destination before booking arrangements. That should be standard policy to begin with. I would assume an audit of rates for certain destinations would be made, and that would approve certain destinations. Following that list of approved destination, the agency could make its arrangements. Simple enough, and common in virtually all businesses. Reid presented nothing that would suggest that Bush had...

Is Las Vegas too fabulous? Earlier this year, President Obama specifically condemned companies who received bailouts and then held meetings in Las Vegas. As business after business — fearing political backlash — cancelled their trips and conventions here, the Vegas tourism and meeting industry took a beating at the time it could least afford it. Mayor Oscar Goodman loudly expressed his outrage and demanded that President Obama apologize. Last week the RJ reported that Sen. Harry Reid had gotten the White House to issue a letter saying it was OK to come to Vegas for a government meeting. Federal government...

During the boom years, Las Vegas wasn't just a place where gamblers could hit the jackpot, but where hard-working hotel maids and cocktail waitresses could, too. The city offered something almost no other place in America did: upward mobility for the working class. Now, that is evaporating. The recession has jolted Las Vegas in a fundamental way. Like other job-creating cities in the Sunbelt, Las Vegas saw its population, income levels and housing prices surge over the past decade. And like those cities -- including Phoenix, Orlando and San Diego -- it's been battered in the bust. But by many...

Drew Johnson and his wife, Tina had the life many Americans only dream of: A big house in a swanky suburb, a backyard hot tub, and a $100,000 deposit on a new condo with views of the Las Vegas Strip and 24-hour concierge service. They did it all on the salaries of a construction-equipment salesman and a cocktail waitress who brought in $1,000 a week in tips alone. But the recession has slashed their incomes by nearly half, and financing for the condo might not come through. "It's Vegas," says Mr. Johnson, who fears he could lose most of his...

With the current recession driving states to beg for handouts from the Obama Administration, some legislators will invariably begin to look at other areas for revenue. And some states will probably consider what could be called the “Nevada model.” The “Nevada model” began in 1931 with that state’s legalization of casinos, which in turn directly created one of America’s most desired vacation spots, Las Vegas. According to Nevada’s Gaming Control Board casinos raised 928.2 million dollars for that state just through taxes and licensing fees in 2006. Since the Nevada legalization of casino gambling -- and various rulings simultaneously allowing...

As tourists lined up to snap photos of the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign Monday morning, many noticed something amiss. Red graffiti was scrawled on the famous landmark, defacing the main face and one of its structural legs. Cameron Randall and friend Kevin Daniels, visiting from North Carolina, noticed it right away and were disappointed someone would damage the popular tourist attraction. "It's kind of sad someone would vandalize something like that," Daniels said. "It's the entrance to the city and everything." The Young Electric Sign Company owns the sign and leases it to Clark County, county spokeswoman Jennifer...

As much as Republican gubernatorial challenger, former State Senator Dr. Joe Heck, would hate to be compared to President Obama … I couldn’t resist. While at the Las Vegas Independence Day Tea Party today, of which Dr. Heck was a speaker, a man had some sort of seizure that I believe was heat induced. The man collapsed, and without hesitation Dr. Heck (a doctor) sprung into action to provide medical aid to the man … who will be ok. You couldn’t have written a better script for Dr. Heck to assist in his quest to unseat a RINO in Gov....

I was on political easy street as a Democrat. President Obama, the party head, is a political rock star in America and a near-god in Amsterdam and Cairo. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is portrayed as grown too big to fail, and he's convinced everyone who's anyone in my home city of Las Vegas to join him on the Obama freight train to socialism. Next stop: Rationed health care, union card check and $10-a-gallon gasoline. All aboard! Democrats own Washington, D.C., as well as the Nevada Legislature. Meanwhile, Nevada's Republican "Luv Guv," Jim Gibbons, couldn't be on a more prolonged...

Live Internet TV Feeds (Direct Windows Media Player Links)Pittsburgh NBC | Pittsburgh ABC 06.15.09: Pittsburgh Officials Prepare for 350,000 fans at Penguins' Victory Parade The City of Champions has gone Cup crazy. As Pittsburghers basked in the glow of a second pro sports championship in four months, the Stanley Cup toured PNC Park on Sunday, Sidney Crosby talked about the excitement of a two-title town and people crammed hotels in advance of today's celebration parade Downtown. "It's been an amazing couple of days," Penguins winger Bill Guerin said after throwing out the first pitch at yesterday's Pirates game. "This city...

Tina Frundt was 13 when it began. The man smiled. He said nice things to her. He pretended to help her. "He was a pimp," Frundt, now 35, said Friday night. "I didn't know what a pimp was. He didn't walk up and say, 'Hi. I'm a pimp.'" So began a decade of hell for the Chicago native. She was raped, beaten, forced into the sex industry, sold and traded like a used car to an out-of-state outfit so she couldn't run back home. This happens every day. Here, in Las Vegas. So went the message at a rally and...

I have a story up on the homepage today about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's sudden about face on one of his pet projects — a high speed rail line between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I strongly encourage you to read the full story but, in a nutshell, Reid has been championing a 300 mph, magnetic levitation train between the two cities for years. In June of 2008, Reid got a $45 million earmark for the project. And then during closed-door, last-minute "stimulus" bill negotiations, Reid succeeded in quadrupling the amount of money allocated in the bill for high...

Sam Butera, a hard-swinging tenor saxophonist who formed a rowdy and successful onstage partnership with entertainers Louis Prima and Keely Smith in the 1950s, died Wednesday at a hospital in Las Vegas. He was 81. He had Alzheimer's disease, according to a report in the Las Vegas Sun. Prima, nearly 20 years older than Butera, was a composer ("Sing, Sing, Sing"), trumpeter, singer and irrepressible stage performer, a combination of Louis Armstrong and Jerry Lewis. His career was on the wane when he teamed in 1954 with Butera, who a few years earlier had been named the country's outstanding teenage...

President Obama chided all those companies that took bailout money and then proceeded with planned company trips to Las Vegas. On Tuesday, Las Vegas boosters lashed back at comments by Obama and other politicians who say executives at companies taking taxpayer bailout money shouldn't hold meetings in Las Vegas. They say harsh words citing Las Vegas meetings as examples of wasteful spending threaten to undermine a business sector that brought 22,000 events, $8.5 billion in spending and directly sustained more than 43,000 jobs in 2008.

Remember that little speech the President made in Elkhart Indiana in February. The one where he said: But, you know, you are not going to be able to give out these big bonuses until you pay taxpayers back. You can’t get corporate jets. You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers’ dime. There’s got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that’s something that I intend to impose as president of the United States. This afternoon that same President took his wife on the "Corporate" Jet (Airforce One)...