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John L. Smith
Court lets vote in North Las Vegas Ward 2 election stand
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Updated: Sep. 23, 2011 | 8:12 a.m.
A district judge ruled this week that Greg Mich'l's vote in the North Las Vegas City Council Ward 2 race was legitimate.
Although he owned a home in Las Vegas at the time he decided to register to vote at his brother's house in Ward 2, the judge determined Mich'l had violated no laws because he testified he was staying at his sibling's place. Sounds reasonable enough.
For the record, however, when I interviewed Mich'l outside his actual Las Vegas home some months ago, he never indicated that he had been living with his brother. On the contrary. He said he hadn't stayed at his brother's home for several years.
Further, it's interesting to see just who registered Mich'l to vote. In his deposition, Mich'l clearly recalled the man. He could hardly be expected to forget it.
It was then-candidate-for-City-Council Wade Wagner, who surely knew and respected all applicable election laws at the time he approached Mich'l.
Under oath Mich'l said, "Wade was just street campaigning door-to-door and registering people to vote. And he handed me the form, and he asked me if I had registered and I told him, 'Yes, I have registered, but it's probably expired.' And he asked me if I would want to re-register, and I told him, yeah, I would be interested. And he provided the forms, and I filled them out. I used my address on my driver's license, and I gave it back to him."
At this point, the smartest thing frustrated candidate Richard Cherchio could do is fold his tent and end his election challenge. If Mich'l's vote goes, anything does.
POKER TROUBLE: It was only a matter of time before some of the biggest names in the poker world were added to the U.S. Justice Department's $440 million fraud probe of online poker companies, including FullTilt Poker.
This week, the department named Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer to its FullTilt list. Lederer and Ferguson helped create the worldwide popularity of online poker. Around online poker circles, Lederer is considered a visionary by many. Now the government is considering him a participant in a fraud scheme that has reverberated throughout the gambling world and all the way to the halls of Congress.
MILLER'S CROSSING: Former Las Vegas City Councilman Steve Miller, who has dedicated much of his life in recent years to harassing former Crazy Horse Too topless cabaret boss Rick Rizzolo, recently got his wish when the ousted skin merchant was sent back to jail. Not satisfied, Miller continues to pound away at his nemesis via Internet missives and articles on the Canadian Free Press website.
Less well known is that Miller as a kid was a member of the Teenbeats rock band, which played local gigs around the time Sputnik was in the news. Miller's fellow band mate, Don Frassa, died this past week of a heart attack, an event that made the remaining Teenbeats skip a beat.
ON THE BOULEVARD: I wonder how longtime Judge Nancy Oesterle is feeling these days about her friendship with Nancy Quon, a lawyer embroiled in the HOA scandal. Remember Bob Gilbert, the College of Southern Nevada vice president who was convicted of swiping scrap lumber and bricks? After leaving the slammer earlier this year, I hear he immediately went to work in a supervisory position at a large construction project. Don't forget the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open golf event starting Sunday at TPC Summerlin. The cause is incredible, and passes to the star-studded golf tournament are available at jtshinersopen.com/tickets.
Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? Email comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.
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If anybody wants to read previous blogs they can judge on who made the most logic out of our debates. Apparently the (many) judges agree with me, considering that they side with Wagner time and time again! But they're just doing "favors", huh? I choose to believe that your argument is wrong!
@Stargate: You're just made because we can both make a rational argument while you can only attempt pottymouth humor.
Hey Tom.p and plastron, since cherchio is finally done with this saga! You guys can give back your knee pads and chapstick to the rental store because you won't be needing them anymore! -Brother Stargate!
It's likely that Lederer, Bitar, and Ferguson took the money and hoped that online poker would be legalized at which time they could sell out their stakes and pay back the money while taking a nice profit. Unfortunately the DOJ's maneuver wiped out that plan. Now Full Tilt is worthless and Lederer and the gang have to pay back every cent they stole. They are crooks plain and simple and need to spend serious time behind bars.
One important question for Dr. Wagner and his political patron, Shari Buck: "Are you honest in ALL your dealings with your fellowmen?" Perpetrating election fraud is not honest, whether you knew about it before or after the fact. Mr. Mich'l clearly changed his story and was coached how to answer the question about his living arrangements. This sounds like the kind of backroom conspiracy that give Mormons a bad name.
Did someone call in a favor from the District Juge that called this one or what! As Mr. Smith says, "If Mich'l's vote goes, anything does." So, Mayor Buck gets to keep her "puppet on a string" & she continiues to go forward as one of the worst mayors ever in Nor'Town.
Casinos have been running schemes for years; they just give the money to every politician that will watch out for their interests....
It will be interesting to see what happens with the Lederer and Ferguson cases. It's entirely possible that the government has no case and that the two will be exonerated. It's also possible that the original money laundering charges will fail. Unfortunately, it's hard to get good information about this. The press coverage has been uniformly awful, simply because it's being reported by people who don't know the issues. Even now, months after the original indictments, the press is still saying that the NY prosecutor "shut down" the sites, when he did no such thing. The government was so ignorant that they thought that seizing the websites cut off poker play, when in fact the poker games did not use a web interface. Play never stopped for a single second, until Full Tilt's license was revoked in its home country. The recent coverage of the allegations against Lederer and Ferguson has been similarly done by people with no knowledge of basic accounting or cash management. We'll see how this plays out, but it will take some digging to get the real story. Don't expect John Smith or Howard Sturtz to give you the full story.