Condolences...

To fellow blogger Hush Hush (a/k/a Willo) whose husband passed away yesterday morning after fighting a long illness.

My thoughts and best wishes are with you, Hush.

Pulled Apart

This is probably the coolest magic trick ever.

Criss Angel from Mindfreak

Probably not for the squimish...

Accidental Education :: LV Gaming Vs. Amendment I

Have you ever been innocently reading something in the newspaper or a magazine and suddenly see something you didn't know, causing you to stand and shout "HOLY SHIT! IS THAT TRUE?!"

It happened to me today, and what I've learned has greatly effected the way that I am going to be doing my job from now on.

This is going to be a long post, so if you need to tinkle, I suggest you do it now.

I was reading City Life, which is an alternative newspaper here in Sin City. There was an article about a PeTA protest in front of the MGM. PeTA, in their infinite wisdom decided to protest a circus that was happening at the Orleans, in front of the MGM. They aren't anywhere near each other, and they aren't owned by the same group. But PeTA's incompetence isn't what's interesting here. What is interesting is the fact that MGM security came out and told the protesters to get lost, as MGM owned the sidewalk.

The article then goes on to mention 9th Circut Court rulings that contradicted MGM's argument.

Background:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Under Amendment One of the US Constitution, we as members of the press have a right to be on a public sidewalk or street, and because of that right, we cannot be moved or ordered to leave by police, or anyone acting under a color of authority.

Of course if there is a good reason, for instance a crime scene, we can be restricted on where we can go. But that same restriction must also be made to other members of the public. Unfortunately most states allow this restriction to expand to a 'public safety' issue - i.e. we can be booted if it's 'for our own good' to keep us alive. Debating this is for another day though.

Private property is another matter. The first amendment does not apply to private organizations or individuals, just the government. So if I go into a mall because there was a shooting, the mall property owners can expel me off their property. Some states, most notably California have laws that override that, since while a mall is private property, being as it's open to the public the media cannot be expelled.

Here in Las Vegas, the five mile stretch of Las Vegas Blvd., between Sahara and I-215 is commonly referred to as 'The Strip.' This is where most of the major resort casinos are located. The Strip is not located in the City of Las Vegas, but is actually in unincorporated Clark County.

Most of the casinos also have their own quasi-police force which tend to have unlimited powers while on their properties.

Some of the Strip casinos, in their contracts with the county, have demolished the public sidewalks and built their own in order to have a theme. For instance, Treasure Island Casino has wooden planks as their sidewalk.

Meat and Potatoes:

When the Venetian was built, it was one of the casinos that got permission to demolish the county owned sidewalk (apparently for the purpose of adding a traffic lane to assist vehicles in entering the casino) and built a private one on their property. Either during or after the construction, their was a labor dispute.

The labor union got a permit from the county for a protest and did so on the sidewalk outside of the Venetian. A lawsuit was soon after filed(PDF) by the Venetian to attempt to stop the protesters, since, in the Venetian's opinion, the sidewalk was not a public forum, being as it is on private property.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed. The technicalities of this case are complex, and talk a lot about the contract that the Venetian had with the county, but the gist is that since the Venetian has allowed unfettered access to their sidewalk by the public (in accordance with their agreement with Clark County), that is indeed a public forum. The court also ruled that since the private sidewalk was replacing a public sidewalk, it still carried over the same characteristics of said sidewalk:

"Given the historically public character of the predecessor's sidewalk, the replacement sidewalk's current public use, its similarity to and interconnection with Las Vegas' network of public sidewalks, and its dedication to public use under the Venetian's 1999 Agreement with the Department, we conclude that the Venetian's sidewalk constitutes a public forum subject to the protections of the First Amendment. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court."

Relevant article from the Las Vegas Sun

So what does this mean for us (the media)?

Quite simply, it means that regardless of the casino police's insistence to the otherwise, no casino can lawfully expel us from the sidewalk, as our presence is protected by the first amendment.

There are several casinos on the Strip which own the sidewalk, and one of the problems is that there is no notification of this fact. So when security comes out and states that they own the sidewalk and demand you leave, what do you do? Now, with this information, ownership of the sidewalks is irrelevant.

Not that this fact stops the casino thugs and METRO from violating free speech...

Downtown Restrictions

The Freemont Street Experience (FSE) is a three block area of Freemont Street that was turned into a pedestrian mall to help revitalize downtown Las Vegas a few years ago. The area is apparently owned by a corporation set up by the casinos which all share entrances on the FSE.

I've done live shots and regular shoots there before where I have had FSE security come up and ask if I have management's permission to be there. Before I always lied and told them yes, even if I didn't. They didn't seem to really care, since they just took my word for it and biked away.

It turns out that the 9th Circuit made a similar ruling (in reference to the Venetian case) regarding FSE in 2003.

In 1997, the ACLU held a rally on FSE protesting ordinances passed by the Las Vegas City Council which prohibited the distribution of literature, picketing, protesting, etc. on the FSE. METRO and LV City Marshals ordered the protest to be disbursed and a lawsuit was filed against the city and the FSE holding corporation (FSELLC) that owns the FSE.

On April 24, 1998, the US District Court for Nevada issued a memorandum order declaring that the Fremont Street Experience was a nonpublic forum. (American Civil Liberties Union v. City of Las Vegas). The basis for this determination was the fact that the City had created the Fremont Street Experience for the principal purpose of stimulating economic growth, not for the purpose of promoting expression; that great expense had been incurred in the transformation; and that the textured pavement and canopy distinguished the Fremont Street Experience from surrounding
streets and sidewalks.

This was one of the factors that led the courts to decide the way they did in the Venetian case, as the private Venetian sidewalk was connected to, and virtually indistinguishable from the public sidewalks.

The district court's decision was appealed and in 2003 the 9th Circuit overturned the lower court's ruling and declared that FSE was a public forum(PDF).

Despite its expensive make-over, the Fremont Street Experience remains a public thoroughfare. Although cars are no longer permitted to drive down the length of the Fremont Street Experience, the agreement between FSELLC and the City requires that a route for pedestrians remain open at all times, limiting FSELLC’s discretion to manipulate the landscape.
Additionally, automotive traffic is permitted to cross the Fremont Street Experience in two places, and pedestrians cross at each intersection. The addition of entertainment to the Fremont Street Experience’s uses does not alter the fact that it remains a public thoroughfare and a shopping and gambling district.

Again, what this means for those of us in the media is that regardless of FSE security's insistence to the contrary, they CANNOT remove us from FSE. Incidentally we need to ask no ones permission before shooting on FSE or going live from FSE.

Conclusion:

It's not just a catchy phrase, but knowledge is power. Having court cases and laws to cite (as the infamous Terry Toller demonstrates) can stop over zealous police and security goons in their tracks.

Plus I know that at least a few Las Vegas photogs read this blog, which is why I am writing this on here. Hopefully they will spread the truth around their stations, allowing us to all stand up to the first amendment stomping power of the Nevada gaming industry.

Thank goodness the mobs aren't running the casinos anymore, otherwise I think I'd find myself in the middle of the desert next week.

---

((Relevant Court Cases))
Strip Sidewalks -- No. 00-15136, VENETIAN CASINO RESORT, L.L.C., vs. (LOCAL JOINT EXECUTIVE BOARD OF LAS VEGAS;) CULINARY WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 226
Heard by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA. July 12, 2001

---

FSE -- No. 01-15958, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF NEVADA vs. CITY OF LAS VEGAS
Heard by 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco, CA, July 2, 2003

Both decisions are final, as the full 9th Circuit declined to hear an appeal, and it appears that it was either not appealed to, or the SCOTUS declined to hear either case.

Quote of the Week

From General George Casey regarding Iranian special forces assisting Shite resistance groups (I've bolded the most noteworthy part):

"They are using surrogates to conduct terrorist operations in Iraq both against us and against the Iraqi people," Casey said. "It's decidedly unhelpful."

Summer's Here!

How can you tell? Just look at the big board!

Six live trucks and every single one of them is down, except for Unit 16, the crappiest live truck in existence. Some homemade Suburban turned live truck... Ish. How the hell does that happen?

On another note, I have finally become a full fledged Las Vegan. Was chatting with my paw earlier today and I made a comment about how it wasn't that hot yet and it was ONLY 91.

No human should ever refer to 91 as ONLY. Heh...

Look forward to seeing if any of our trucks are working tomorrow! I'd prefer that they aren't, because then I don't have to switch into one come 4 A.M.

A Second Annual Something Or Other...

It's just about that time! Yes, I am diligently downloading gig after gig of current anime sub and will soon have the Second Annual ewink's FUNKDADFIED summer anime recommendations!

Hurrah!

300th Post!

YAY!

I was trying to think of something special to do for my 300th post. You know, something of substance, something that would sum up a year and a half of blogging in one post.

Here it is.

Yet here you are reading it still. I don't know if that's a compliment for me, or says a lot about you!

See you kids at 400! XOXOXOXOXOXO Erin

Back Online!!!

YAY!

You'd think that now I can get back to wasting time and not doing much of anything at all. But I am not going to play that game! Even though I was able to pay my cable bill, finally, I am one again almost out of money!! It's pretty fucking sad when you work 16 hours of over time, get 8 holiday pay hours and your paycheck is only $300 more than it usually is.

I have a small amount of money coming in, as I still need to bill Lovelady Racing for the work I did on their site, but that's only a couple hundred dollars. I need to get some freelance work. It's all over fucking town, but I can never seem to get any. I am getting some over time this week, as I am learning the satellite part of Unit 22 (a/k/a T-TIC), so I worked a few hours yesterday and I will be going in to work the noon show today. It's nice to go to work knowing that the ONLY thing you will have to do is set up a live shot. Heh....

Anyway, my monetary problems have just inspired me to work harder on getting my writing done. I've just completed another chapter of my fan fiction, I've half way completed the treatment on an episode of my show (the full length version), and I am pondering ideas for webisodes.

Believe it or not, they are actually harder to write than the full length episodes, because you have to have a story that can be completely told, and make the audience laugh - but you only have ten minutes to do it in.

I also have some other projects I want to finish. None I will get paid for, unfortunately, but at least if I complete them I will feel like my creative juices are flowing again and I will be able to say, for once, that I have accomplished something. For what that is worth.

In other news, work has been uneventful, with the exception of last weekend. I hope that this weekend will be just as busy, since I doubt I am going to get back to sleep today.

Word.

When It Rains It Pours...

email from John Farrell:

From what I saw on TV... you had a busy night last night. Well, compared to how damn slow it's been lately. So let's blog damn it.

He isn't kidding. When I started my shift on Saturday at midnight, I still had the same battery on my camera that I put on it at the beginning of my shift Monday. The fucking thing still had 80% charge on it! It would have been more, but I was using it as a flashlight when I had a flat tire on Tuesday. (I'll blog about that later.)

So Saturday started out typical enough. I woke up about a quarter till midnight. Considering I don't have to go into work and get my gear anymore, that's not a big deal. I can still shower and be out the door sometime around midnight.

Anyway, I drove over to Starbucks so that I could get online via my laptop and check the police and fire websites. It was then that I noticed that I had a page on my pager! I was required to get across town to an Officer Involved Shooting in North Las Vegas ASAP! And I apparently got the page at 11:35. It was now 12:20.

Oops.

I bolt across town just in time to hear the crew I was supposed to take over for leave.

Oh well.

Soon after that I hear a couple of robberies to businesses. Both seem to have been done by the same guy! I'm not interested until I hear that apparently at one the dude put a gun to some chicks head and forced her into the parking lot!

OMFG!!!!!!

So I rush over and get video of the two robbery scenes. At the same time there is a report of a crash and rollover. It's taking CCFD a long time to extract the person. The traffic supervisor asks for fatal, and I groan and head over.

Of course by the time I get there the extraction is complete. So I shoot some stale scene video and wait for my sound byte.

In between, I get a call from the watch commander. A dead guy has just shown up at UMC with a bullet wound to the head. I thank him for the tip and pretty much put that on the back burner, since without a scene, there's going to be some pretty dull video of UMC.

Or so I thought! I call back the watch commander after a bit and ask him if they had located a scene. He told me that the scene was UMC and I should start paying attention to what he tells me! It seems that the poor kid who was shot died en route. When a person is deceased, medical and the police do not move the body for investigative purposes. So the deceased was still inside the car his friends brought him to the hospital in.

It was pretty wild showing up and seeing the outside of the ER roped off in police tape. 13 and 3 join me and we get some decent video. I call and wake up the North Las Vegas PIO (since it was determined that it happened in Northtown) and he tells me to go to hell.

Not really. He was actually very nice, but didn't have much info for us.

Lunch was had, and then I went home.

Tonight didn't want to let up either.

Multiple crashes first thing. I checked out a couple, but none were very interesting. I decided to swing by the station and say hello to Adorable Producer #3. She had me check some tapes for her since it seems our video server went tits up sometime Saturday.

As soon as I was done with that I heard a 415A shooting in the Naked City behind the Stratosphere! I am mere seconds away, so I bolt out the door. Shot twice in the chest, this won't be good.

Then the unthinkable happens.

415A!!! AGAIN!!!

Two fucking shootings at the exact same time. This one is worse, so I do a spray and run on the first shooting and haul ass to the second. The second has one guy 419 DRT (dead right there) and another in very critical condition. What's worse is that there are about 100 of his friends and from the sounds of the radio traffic there is a riot about to start.

I slow down a little. I'm more into aftermath than I am into catching these things as they happen.

Once METRO has the crowd under control, I arrive. 13 and 3, who apparently have more balls than me, are already there. I get the 411 from the Watch Commander and the three of us wait for homicide to talk.

While waiting, some dude walks up to Tony from 3 and starts mumbling and calling him a fucker and all sorts of stuff. Two guys come and drag him away, as a pair of METRO officers walk in our direction. Apparently this guy was a friend of the deceased and was none to happy to see us.

The METRO officers stay by us for the remainder of our stay, and we had no more incidents. Which is good as this one guy fighting us could have quickly involved the other 50 of his friends who were hanging out on the curb.

After that was over and done with, I almost ended up going to BFE near Laughlin as a wanted man from Phoenix was in his car sleeping with a rifle. The guy was apparently suicidal and might have been considering suicide by cop.

Of course by the time someone came in that could authorize me going that far out of the city, the incident was done with and the man surrendered peacefully once SWAT showed up. Good for him, I guess, although I would have liked the overtime.

So in recap, Monday - nothing; Tuesday - nothing; Wednesday - nothing; Thursday - Nothing; Saturday/Sunday - HOLY CRAP!

It could have been worse though. I was expecting the Las Vegas version of the LA riots. On Friday, a coroners jury found the two METRO detectives who shot a fleeing suspect in the back were found justified in their actions. Of course my opinion on that is for another day as my battery is getting low.

Skywitness 8

Our traffic chopper, Skywitness 8, usually doesn't land at the station. So when it does, I love to go up onto the helipad and get some pictures of it and enjoy the noise and wind it creates.

Yesterday I managed to snap the picture to the left, which I think came out really fuckin' cool!

Here are some more!

Viewer Comments on Blog...

Check out this post from Weaver (TV Photog Blog). Interesting comments from a couple of viewers regarding a previous post of his.

I'm kind of sad myself that I don't have any viewers comment. Then again, they probably just call the station to complain about me. Not that I'd blame them.

Light Blogging Next 2 Weeks...

Usual reasons.

Mistaken Identity

Apparently in Indonesia there is some sort of columnist whose name is ewink. Here is his blog.

If you didn't already know, my Yahoo! Messanger ID is ewink. I don't know why people don't read profiles (as my picture is on mine and it's obvious I am not from Indonesia) but I am constantly bombarded with messages from people from Indonesia!

The problem is that I don't speak Indonesian, and most of them speak little if any English, so it's hard telling them about their mistake!

And I can't be as rude as I'd like to be, so I can't just tell them to bugger off!

So, if anyone knows some Indonesian, I'd love to learn how to say 'I'm just a fat white American. Sorry.'