Grumpy Editor

Los Angeles braces for another ‘Obamajam’ today

Anyone notice the workout Air Force One is getting these days in shuttling President Barack Obama around the U.S., asks Grumpy Editor. 

Media in the entourage are having a difficult time figuring out what state they are in.

Last Friday the Boeing 747 flew the president to Minneapolis and Chicago for six fundraisers in one day.

On Monday the commander in chief appeared in New York. 

Today, after two fundraisers in San Francisco, the 747 flies to Los Angeles in Obama’s second visit to L.A. in less than a month for an evening gay and lesbian community fundraiser in Beverly Hills. 

Then tomorrow morning he heads for a breakfast in Los Angeles’ View Park neighborhood, called the “black Beverly Hills,” where more than 80 percent of residents are African-American and the median income is $85,000 a year. 

Both of the Los Angeles area events are expected to cause “Obamajams,” a recently-coined word in the City of Angels for messed-up traffic, irritating motorists, triggered by presidential motorcades causing street closures and traffic delays. 

Then the 747 is off to Las Vegas where Obama speaks mid-day tomorrow in an indoor arena at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. 

The UNLV appearance marks the president’s fourth visit to Nevada this year.

 

First Lady collects campaign funds in Las Vegas today

No doubt about it, the president and first lady love Las Vegas.

Michelle Obama makes her second visit in little over a month to Las Vegas today, part of a four-state campaign swing, where a breakfast fundraiser carries a price tag of $2,500 a person, notes Grumpy Editor. 

Las Vegas in this election year is high on the charts for the Obamas. 

Nevada is an important swing state in November’s voting. 

President Barack Obama also has made two trips this year to Las Vegas, a city that he knocked in recent years that resulted in scaring off tourist and convention activity. 

In February, 2009, aiming at business gatherings, he declared, “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.”  Then a year later, he warned, “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” 

With ebbing of visitors in a sour economy, thousands of casino workers lost jobs and Las Vegas rose to the top of the foreclosed homes list in the U.S. 

Last year’s unemployment in Las Vegas, at 13.3 percent, was among the highest in the nation. 

Following the Las Vegas visit, Mrs. Obama is schedule to make campaign stops in Colorado Springs, Colo.; Tucson, Ariz., and Albuquerque, N.M. 

 

Editors miss First Lady in Vegas; $100 million to Tunisia

Two interesting stories --- especially to taxpayers finishing up income tax returns and wondering how their money will be spent --- somehow escaped most print and broadcast editors’ attention late last week:  First Lady Michelle Obama, with her two daughters, visited Las Vegas one week after President Barack Obama made it to Sin City, and the United States plans to give $100 million in cash to Tunisia, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Mrs. Obama’s trip, not announced to media, came to light following a Las Vegas reporter’s query on a special closure at Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport. 

Her Wednesday-Thursday visit with daughters Malia, 13, and Sasha, 10, was noteworthy because the president shot arrows at Las Vegas twice in recent years, scaring off tourist and convention activity.  

In February, 2009, aiming at business gatherings, he declared:  “You can’t take a trip to Las Vegas or down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayers dime.” 

Then a year later, he warned:  “You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.” 

A sour economy followed, resulting in thousands of casino workers’ jobs lost plus Las Vegas rising to first place in the U.S. with home foreclosures. 

Last year’s  unemployment in Las Vegas, at 13.3 percent, was among the highest in the nation. 

Meanwhile, most editors also missed Thursday’s announcement from the Obama administration that $100 million, subject to congressional approval, will go to Tunisia for short-term fiscal relief --- to help improve its economy. 

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the funds would allow Tunisia to “use this money for its priority programs, accelerating economic growth and job creation.” 

In addition, the U.S. is negotiating a separate package that would offer loan guarantees to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for Tunisia.

 

Obama praises solar plant: 5 jobs, no power for Nevadans

National media on President Barack Obama’s solar energy visit to the Las Vegas area on Wednesday neglected to mention that the one million glittering photovoltaic panels that served as a backdrop for his 17-minute televised speech that brought applause from the audience and heavy print/broadcast coverage, would not provide one watt of power to Nevadans who helped foot the bill, observes Grumpy Editor. 

And as for total jobs created at Sempra Energy Corp.’s Copper Mountain Solar 1 plant in Boulder City, 30 miles east of Las Vegas:  only five full-timers run the plant. 

That wasn’t exciting news to Nevadans in a state that has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, 12.7 percent. 

San Diego-based Sempra owns the facility that cost $141 million with a portion of that funded by Nevada taxpayers who consistently receive hikes in power rates --- now among the highest in the nation --- from NV Energy, Inc., which serves the Silver State.

Yet, Sempra's solar energy output from Nevada is being directed to California. 

Both NV Energy and Sempra are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. 

Meanwhile, Obama’s short visit to Boulder City did not win applause from many of its 15,000 residents who were curbed from their daily activities. 

On the afternoon the president’s motorcade traveled from Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport, where he arrived on the Boeing 747 Air Force One, motorists, including visitors and business people, were advised to stay away from Boulder City because of congestion and road closures.

 

Las Vegas unveils glittering $146 million non-casino

Las Vegas quietly added a new attraction last week:  a sparkling $146.2 million, seven-story building with high-tech features and Italian marble floors and walls inside the main entrance --- but no slot machines or craps tables, thus not much appeal to tourists from around the world, notes Grumpy Editor.

Without glittering casino action, the unveiling didn’t get much media attention outside of Southern Nevada.

And it will be a while before tour books include it as a Sin City sight to see.

It’s the new Las Vegas City Hall, owned by taxpayers in the city.

City fathers, in the U.S.’s foreclosure capital, went all out to build a monument to local government.

It replaced an “old” city hall built in 1973.

Cost of the 310,000-square-foot building compares with $24.7 million for New York City’s 102-story Empire State Building that opened in 1931 during the Great Depression.

The City Council chamber has a Vegas-like ambiance, similar to a Strip casino sports book --- namely, several 103-inch flat-screen displays above the council dais, making it easy for up to 450 people seated in the room to view displayed information.

First Las Vegas City Council meeting in the new quarters is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Don’t be surprised if showgirls appear at the debut.

Then media will be on the scene.

That’s Vegas, baby.