On Wednesday, July 1, the Pahrump Valley Times reported that the trial of former Nye County Commissioner Peter Liakopoulos was underway.
The Public Defender, Tom Gibson, in his opening statement to the jury told them the prosecution was “politically motivated”
The prosecutor, Conrad Hafen, told the jury Liakopoulos had contacted former Pahrump Town Board Chairman Laurayne Murray three times asking her to appoint Liakopoulos’ wife as curator of the veteran’s museum.
In exchange for his wife’s appointment, Liakopoulos offered to vote for a half-cent county sales tax increase.
The defense contended Murray, whose husband works for the Pahrump Valley Fire-Rescue Service, had a grudge against Liakopoulos, as did the sheriff, Tony DeMeo, as those two departments would have benefited from the added revenue if the half-cent sales tax passed. [Read more →]
..- .— ~. LAST WILL OF MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON I, MICHAEL JOSEPH JACKSON, a resident of the State of California, declare this to be my last Will, and do hereby revoke all former wills and codicils made by me. I I declare that I am not married. My marriage to DEBORAH mAN ROWE JACKSON has been dissolved. I have three children now living, PRINCE MICHAEL JACKSON, JR., PARIS MICHAEL KATHERINEJACKSON and PRINCE MICHAEL JOSEPHJACKSON,IT.I have no other children,livingor deceased. IT It is my intention by this Will to dispose of all property which I am entitled to dispose-of by wiil. I specificallyrefrain from exercisingaU150wers appointmentthat I of maypossess at the time of ~y death. ill I give my entire estate to the Trustee or Trustees then acting under that certain Amendedand Restated Declarationof Trust executedon March 22, 2002 by me as Trustee and Trustor which is called the MICHAELJACKSONFAMILYTRUST, giving effect to any amendmentstheretomadeprior to my death. All such assets shallbe held, managedand ,. distributedas a part of said Trust accordingto its terms and not as a separatetestamentary trust. .. If for any reason this gift is not operativeor is invalid, or if the aforesaidTrust fails or has been revoked,I give my residuaryestatd’tothe Trusteeor Trusteesnamedto act in the MICHAELJACKSON FAMILY TRUST, as Amended and Restated on March 22,2002, and I direct said Trustee or Trusteesto divide,administer,hold and distributethe trust estate pursuant to the provisio~sof said Trust, as hereinabovereferred to as such provisions now .’ exist to the same extent and in the same manner as though that certain Amended and RestatedDeclarationof Trust,were herein set forth in full, but without giving effectto any subsequentamendmentsafter the date of this Will. The Trustee,Trustees,or any successor Trusteenamedin such TrustAgreementshall servewithoutbond. IV I direct that all federal estatetaxes and state inheritanceor successiontaxes payable A upon or resulting ftom or by reason of my death (herein “Death Taxes”) attributableto Il/ propertywhich is part of the trust estate of the MICHAELJACKSONFAMILYTRUST, including property which passes to said trust from my probate estate shall be paid by the Trustee of said trust in accordancewith its terms. Death Taxes attributableto property passing outside this Will, other than property constituting the trust estate of the trust inentionedin the precedingsentence,shallbe chargedagainstthe taker of said property. V I appointJOHNBRANCA,JOHNMcCLAINandBARRYSlliGEL as co-Executors . of thisWill. In the eventof anyof theirdeaths,resignations, inability,failureor refusaltM serveor continueto serve as a co-Executor,the other shall S’erve no replacementneed be and named. The co-Executors serving at”any time after my death may name one or more replacementsto serve in the eventthat none of the three namedindividualsis willingor able to serveat anytime. Y ” The term “my executors”as used in this Will shall include any duly actingperson~ A 11 fl representativeor representativesof my estate. No individual acting as such need post a vv {f-’ bond. I hereby give to my Executors,full power and authorityat any time or times to sell, lease, mortgage, pledge, exchange or otherwise dispose of the property, whether real or, personal comprising my estate, upon such terms as my Executors shall deem best, to continueany businessenterprises,to purchaseassetsftom my estate,to continuein forceand Page 2 pay insurance premiums on any insurancepolicy, including life insurance,owned by my estate, and for any of the foregoingpurposesto make, executeand deliver any and all deeds, contracts,mortgages,bills of sale or other instrumentsnecessary or desirabletherefor. In addition,I give to my Executorsfull power to investand reinvestthe estatefunds and assets in any kind of property,real, personalor mixed, and everykind of investment,specifically including, but not by way of limitation,corporate obligations of every kind and stocks, preferredor common,and interestsin investmenttrusts and sharesin investmentcompanies, and any commontrust fund administeredby anycorporateexecutorhereunder,which menof prudentdiscretionand intelligenceacquirefor their own account. VI Except as otherwise provided in this Will or in the Trust refeITedto in Article m A11 hereof, I have intentionally omitted to provide for my heirs. I have intentionally omitted to(V \;1 provide for my fonner wife, DEBORAH JEAN ROWE JACKSON. vn If at the time of my death I own or have an interestin propertylocated outsideof the State of Californiarequiringancillaryadministration,I appointmy domiciliaryExecutorsas ancillary Executors for such property. I give to said domiciliaryExecutors the following additionalpowers, rights and privilegesto be exercisedin their sole and absolutediscretion, with reference to such property:to cause such ancillary administrationto be commenced, caITiedon and completed;to detennine what assets, if any, are to be sold by the ancillary Executors; to pay directly or to advance funds from the California estate to the ancillary Executorsfor the paymentof all claims,taxes, costs and administrationexpenses,including compensation of the ancillary Executors and attorneys’ fees incUITed reason of the by ownership of such property and by such ancillaryadministration;and upon completionof such ancillary administration,I authorize and direct the ancillary Executors to distribute, transfer and deliver the residue of such propertyto the domiciliaryExecutorsherein, to be distributedby them under the tenns of this Will, it being my intentionthat my entire estate Page 3 — .. . … shan be administered as a unit and that my domiciliary Executors shall supervise and control, so far as pennissible by locallaw, any ancillaryadministrationproceedingsdeemed necessaryin the settlementof my estate. vm If any of my children are minors at the time of my death, I nominate my mother, KATHERINEJACKSONas guardianof the pers~nsand estates_ofsuch minor children. If nominate DIANA ROSS as guardian of the pers I subscribe my name to this Will this On the date written below, MICHAELJOSEPH J undersigned,that the foregoinginstrumentconsistingof five (5) pages, includingthe page signed by us as witnesses, was his Will and requested us to act as witnesses to it. ‘He thereupon signed this Will in our presence,all of us being present at the same time. We now, at his request,in his presenceand in the presenceof each other,subscribeour names as witnesses. ~.Each of us is now more than eighteen(18) yearsof age and a competentwitness and resides at the addressset forthafterhis name. Each of us is acquaintedwith MICHAELJOSEPHJACKSON. At this time, he is over the age of eighteen(18) years and, to the best of our knowledge,he is of sound mind and is not actingunder duress,menace,fraud,misrepresentation undueinfluence. or Page4 .. ~ H.._ ..”"‘-._ 0<.—…… “..,.~ “–~+–’”—”‘ ~., ‘,,.~ u.-~~”"”"”‘ ‘–”-=—”– ,.—–..— .. , We declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. 1 !?xc;outed.on~ 2002 at ResidingAt ,jf”"1- ,~~__ ~ ~~ — .. , c _ \ Residing At Residing At r \ Page5 \\
On June 24th, CREW filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), as well as a companion complaint with the Federal Election Committee against his campaign committee and leadership PAC after news broke that the senator had an affair with former campaign staffer Cynthia Hampton and had terminated both Ms. Hampton and her husband Doug, who worked on the senator’s official staff, because of the affair. These terminations might violate Senate ethics rules, which prohibit discrimination based on sex.
Press reports indicate Sen. Ensign paid Mrs. Hampton a severance out of his own pocket, but neither the campaign committee nor the PAC reported receiving an in-kind contribution from the senator as required by campaign finance law. Although the amount of the payment is unknown, the failure to report contributions of over $25,000 is a criminal offense and contributions to PACS are limited to $5,000. Mr. Hampton received $6,000 from the senator’s office, allegedly for unused vacation time. If the money was really severance, it may constitute a misuse of official funds. [Read more →]
I am teaching an Internet for Genealogy Course at Great Basin College in Pahrump, Nevada during the month of August 2009, each Saturday from 10:00 am-11:30am. The Call # for the class is 25519.
Class Dates: August 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29
Class Times: 10:00am–11:30am
Class size: maximum of 10
Course Description: Introduction to exploring the Internet for researching the family tree using Ancestry.com, RootsWeb, GenWeb, Newspaper Archives and other sources. Finding and downloading Census Records, World War I and II Draft Registration records. Preserving your family tree on line.
My friend, Dan Schinhofen, is a writer. We are of opposite political views. We each write a weekly column in the Pahrump Mirror and set out our differing political views.
But that is not the reason for this post. Dan and I are also Facebook friends. Today Dan wrote on Facebook:
Site up dated robertsinadvertentpublishing.net PLEASE check it out and maybe buy a book. I know we are all tight on cash, but you might enjoy the book.
Robert’s Inadvertent Publishing (RIP) is a privately owned company formed to publish the writings of Dylan Roberts. As Dylan is the father of the owners they thought that maybe if the old man finally got published they would not have to keep reading his stories.
I admire Dan’s entrepreneurship. Why don’t you go on over to his publishing site and look it over. Maybe buy a book. Tell Dan I sent you.
A CNN poll found that fifty-one percent of people surveyed say they favor the president’s health care plan, with 45 percent opposed. [CNN]
Most people worry that their health care costs would go up if the administration’s proposals passed and only one in five thinks that his or her families would be better off under the Obama plan.
Obama’s plan calls for a government-run health insurance program to compete with private insurers.
55 percent think the U.S. health care system is in need of a great deal of reform, with four in 10 saying only some reform is needed. [Read more →]
On June 24th, CREW filed a complaint with the Senate Ethics Committee against Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), as well as a companion complaint with the Federal Election Committee against his campaign committee and leadership PAC after news broke that the senator had an affair with former campaign staffer Cynthia Hampton and had terminated both Ms. Hampton and her husband Doug, who worked on the senator’s official staff, because of the affair. These terminations might violate Senate ethics rules, which prohibit discrimination based on sex.
