Reporter Steve Miller, Las Vegas

The neon city that never sleeps

By Judi McLeod

Monday, March 26, 2007

Plucky reporter Steve Miller has a lot of enemies--and they're all in the mob.

Based in the "city that never sleeps", Miller is a firm believer that "some things that happen in Vegas should not stay in Vegas". No mobster boss, no matter how threatening, no politician no matter how corrupt or influential, no lawyer gone wrong, is safe from his pen.

Frustrated at his ongoing exposes, the enemy daydream about bullets with Miller's dreaded name on them, but only throw darts at his picture at night. By the next day they're cringing at the headlines in his internationally syndicated columns for Rick Porrello's AmericanMafia.com.

Although Miller would be the first to deny it, he's a throwback to Sheriff Buford Hayse Pusser whose life was celebrated in the film Walking Tall. But no one's making a movie out of Miller's extraordinary life.

The first time I ever talked to Miller, he returned my telephone call on Christmas Day. On his way to a much-needed vacation, he gave me his cell phone number. Miller is one of those reporters who knows that news never takes a break.

Miller laughs at the Sopranos, he's too used to the real McCoys.

The skinny he gets on the bad apples comes naturally.

A former Las Vegas City Councilman, he knows what goes on in the backrooms of some city halls. In 1991, the readers of the Las Vegas Review Journal voted him the "Most Effective Public Official" in Southern Nevada.

Though mob bosses and their political buddies, give the cheeky reporter a wide berth, readers look for his latest scoop.

As time was to prove, Miller could do a lot more for Las Vegas residents from the outside of City Hall, than he ever could inside.

Many of Miller's reports of late focus on former strip club owner Rick Rizzolo who has less than three months remaining until he must turn himself in at Taft Federal Correctional Facility where he will be joined for five months of his 12-month sentence by his associate Vinny Faraci who got off with a slap on the wrist. Faraci's excuse for a lighter sentence was that he would lose custody of his child; however his ex-wife is now married to Rizzolo's lawyer Tony Sgro, who is the child's stepfather. Steve notes that the judge in Faraci's case, Kent Dawson, was appointed by Nevada's U.S. Senator Harry Reid, who is a business partner of attorney Jay Brown. Brown works in the same 520 South Fourth Street law office as Faraci's lawyer David Chesnoff. Brown also served with Oscar Goodman as a resident agent for Rizzolo's corporation, and is now representing Mike Signorelli who claims to be buying the Crazy Horse Too."

On Sunday March 11, Miller took himself off to visit the federal prison camp that will become the temporary home of ex-Las Vegas topless bar moguls Rizzolo, Faraci and Mike Galardi, soon to be known to their fellow campers as the "Vegas Three".

"I wanted to know firsthand if they were being sent to a "country club"," Miller explained to his readers.

An ex-inmate given his freedom from Taft soon contacted Miller, giving the reporter first hand details of life inside Taft, including the most important one that it is a minimum security facility with plenty of opportunities for walking away.

Reading Miller's columns is as good as going to a movie.

"If there were a sequel to the movie Casino, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro (played by Joe Pesci) would be shown conducting business at the Crazy Horse Too topless bar," he wrote in late February.

Although you wouldn't know it from Democrats dancing attendance on it, Las Vegas is now the crime capital of America.

Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and other Dems rallied in Las Vegas on the weekend. They spoke Saturday at a forum on health care and were joined by three other presidential candidates, including Senator John Edwards.

It's not only the mob still doing business in Las Vegas. Allegedly corrupt politicians are making headlines too.

Last month federal authorities confirmed that Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons was being investigated for failing to properly report gifts or payments from a software company that was awarded secret military contracts when he was in Congress.

Before justice caught up with them, the "Vegas Three" were being cut breaks from friends inside City Hall.

That's the criminal side of Las Vegas. Percolating round the clock in the civil branch of the law is the business breaking class action lawsuit fast becoming as popular as the casinos in the entertainment capital of the world.

Indeed, frivolous class action lawsuits know no boundaries in a city that sings to lawyers in siren song fashion.

The characteristics of the local water supply that play havoc with plumbing systems in Las Vegas make it open season on plumbers and homebuilders.

Pulte Homes/Del Webb, billed as one of America's largest homebuilders, is harassed by class action lawsuits in Las Vegas at every turn.

Las Vegas crashes the dreams of untold legions of gamblers up against the rocks.

Gamblers are willing to take calculated risks. But it could be the little guy, drawn to the good life promised in real estate brochures paying the biggest price.

Playing real life in the adult playground in the middle of a desert claims many hapless victims. Caught up by the promises of class action lawyers, homeowners often end with paltry sums they wait years for. In Las Vegas, new homeowners often find red tape and chaos rather than the quiet golden years for which they worked.

Looks like reporter Steve Miller will always have his work cut out in the city that never sleeps.

Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com

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