Senator Judith Zaffirini’s ties to the Las Vegas Gaming Industry and why Governor Rick Perry’s ties to Lehman Brothers are as dangerous to the Teacher’s Retirement Fund of Texas as is Senator Judith Zaffirini’s apathy and ambivalence towards the 8 liner industry in Laredo                

Teachers… if you think Senator Judith Zaffirini is your friend…think again…

We pointed out earlier this week that TRS has committed to investing 4 Billion dollars of the Texas Teacher’s Retirement Fund to 4 Major Investment Banks, three of which have been in the news due to financial woes related to the subprime mortgage crisis.

Of those four banks, Lehman Brothers poses the biggest risk as it is apparently on the verge of collapse…of course with the TRS investment…perhaps it will survive.

We have now discovered a connection between this bank and Governor Rick Perry that we believe Texas Teachers need to be aware of.

Governor Perry is hooked into Lehman Brothers due to the little know fact that he and his administration are being aggressively lobbied by Investment Banks that are seeking to partner up with various gambling interests that wish to privatize the Texas lottery.

When Senator Phil Gramm of Texas left office in 2002, he dumped $610,000.00 into Rick Perry’s coffers. Gramm then went to work for investment bank UBS as a Vice Chairman. In 2006, UBS submitted to Governor Perry a proposal to privatize the Texas Lottery.

Hum…wonder if Rick is paying attention…

Interestingly enough, three other investment banks shortly followed suit by submitting their own proposals, including Lehman Brothers.

Is the TRS Pension Fund about to be used to lobby for gambling in Texas?

Hey kids, your teacher wants a casino in your back yard!

All of the proposals that have been submitted to Governor Perry indicate that in order to raise the kind of Money the Governor wants to raise through privatization would require a massive expansion of legalized gambling in Texas.

One wonders if Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry are at odds on this as the AG’s office has done significant work in uncovering and going after the 8-Liner business in Texas...

So much for the Texas Moral Majority, right? Or is that far right…or just left of right?

Apparently, the company that is seeking to privately operate the Texas Lottery is on a mission to test the laws and tenacity of Greg Abbot’s office as they continually seek ways to circumvent current law on what is and is not legal in the 8-Liner business.

According to Texan’s for Public Justice, this company, Dallas based Aces Wired is behind the push at the governor’s office.

A man by the named of Gordon Graves is the Chairman of Aces Wired. Graves was once the CEO of the contractor that currently operates the Texas Lottery.

Graves is dumping big bucks into the Texas Political Machine. He has donated over $400,000.00 to PACs and candidates.

He has given $102,500 to Governor Rick Perry, $100,000 to David Dewhurst, $41,000 to Greg Abbott…..

Wait a minute Jack…what do you mean he gave money to both Perry and Abbott? We thought you said Perry and Abbott where at odds on this issue…so to speak…

No, we said we wonder…but if I were a betting man, I would gather that the odds can be rigged when it comes to gambling in Texas…something like a high-finance term called a Straddle might just apply in this case…

Graves has also given $40,000 to Carole Keeton Strayhorn, $30,000 to Talmadge Heflin, $20,000 to Texans to Cure Cancer(A Rick Perry favorite), $18,375.00 to Susan Combs(Comptroller) and $12,000 to Texas 2020 PAC.

Aside from the money Graves is passing around, Lehman brothers and the Bankers backing the Gambling Lobby have spent over a $1 Million Dollars on 23 Texas lobby contracts. The idea seems to be to get big, well known interests involved in order to make gambling more palatable to the Texas Voter.

Lehman Brothers lobbyist includes Rick Perry’s former campaign director Luis Saenz. In 2006-2007 Lehman Brothers has spent an estimated $50,000 lobbying Texas PACs and legislators. Saenz has profited handsomely as a newly shielded carpet bagger.

Gwyn Shea, former Perry appointed Secretary of State now apparently works for Harrah’s Casinos.

Gee Jack…we thought these Baptists were all in church on Sunday…

Now look folks, just because the Moral Majority is running Texas, doesn’t make them all Baptists, and certainly doesn’t land them on the front row of a church on Sundays…

That is more the reason why Texas teachers need to be wary of just who is dipping into their pension fund assets.

When society has to turn to gambling to fund its public works, it is an indication of not only moral decay, but also a precursor to serious financial woes down the road.

The Teacher Retirement System of Texas should not be party to this type of risk.

Ok Jack, so how does all of this tie in to Senator Judith Zaffirini and what do Las Vegas Gambling Interests with purported Mob ties have to do with her?

Ah…the million dollar question…or should we say the Zaffirini Jackpot.

You see folks, if you pull up Senator Zaffirini’s latest campaign finance report you will find that she took $10,000 from a couple of gentlemen that go by the names of Tom Lozzi and Ralph Lampman. You will notice that this particular donation comes from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Hum…that’s right…we thought the same thing you are thinking right now when we first discovered it…that being Why is Senator Zaffirini taking campaign donations from Vegas? We thought at first perhaps these two might be helping her Ghost-write a book to be entitled Self Esteem Building for Aging Senators, but it turns out to be something far different than that.

The story gets interesting from here on out, so you may want to brace your self with a good shot of whiskey before you read further…

Tom Lozzi and Ralph Lampman are front men or principals for an investment group named Triple L Management. One of Triple L operating entities is known as Verano Land LP.

Other investors in Triple L include William McBeath, Chief Operating Officer of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino and William Paulos and William Wortman, co-owners of Millennium Management Group.

Millennium Management Group up until recently ran the Rampart Casino and the Cannery Casino and Hotel that was known as a locals hang-out off of Las Vega’s main drag. The Cannery Casino was structured under Cannery Casino Resorts which also owned The Meadows Racetrack & Casino up in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Bill Paulos, (Partner of Bill Wortman who is Partners with Renate Schiff) & Land Donor to A & M

What the San Antonio paper either missed or failed to report is that the Cannery Casino, before recently being bought out by Australian gaming giant Crown Casinos, had a third partner…that being Oaktree Capital LLP.

Oaktree Capital is known as a private equity partnership that basically looks for high return deals that need huge sums of cash to either get off the ground or as in the case of Cannery Casino be turned around to a position of profitability.

Oaktree Capital is also used by a few Texas entities such as Texas Tech University to help them invest part of their investment funds. These funds are known as alternative investment funds.

Ah…OK Jack…you mean like the 4 Billion Dollars of alternative investment funds that the Texas Teachers Retirement Fund recently put into play with four large investment banks including Lehman Brothers.

Yes…exactly…you’ve got it Toyota…pardon the pun…but you will understand the meaning to that in a few minutes...

So why is it that the Las Vegas Gaming industry is so interested in Texas? Well, we think we sort of spelled that out for you at the beginning of the article…if they can start with the Texas Lottery and get it privatized; perhaps a big gaming room next to…say…a Toyota plant might be in order to help the workers alleviate some stress at the end of the day.

Ok…back to the Vegas Family tree for a moment…and how they came to take up a prominent position in the San Antonio Real Estate scene.

Verano Land LP moved into San Antonio like gangbusters a few years back and started buying up real estate close to the proposed Toyota plant that is now in operation.

According to the San Antonio Express News, they spent $20 Million cash over a six month period buying up 1700 acres north of the Toyota truck plant, and as of January of 2007 had another 800 acres under contract.

Their stated goal at the time was to donate 400 acres to Texas A & M for a proposed South Side campus and 150 acres for an irrigation technology center. They would then develop the rest of the land into housing, entertainment, and retail facilities.

Verano Land faced some stiff competition from other proposals being offered up to A & M , but at the end of the day Verano was the “chosen” site…never bet against thoroughbred, what?

To make a long story shorter…let’s jump ahead to November 15th of last year…2007… and we find Senator Judith Zaffirini delivering a speech at the dedication ceremony of the Verano site which in the end turned out to be over 694 acres. Verano Land’s Tom Lozzi and Ralph Lampman are also there to represent Triple L Management’s donation.

Senator Zaffirini as many of you already know happens to serve as Chair of the Higher Education Subcommittee and vice chair of Senate Finance. At the podium she stated the following:

“Last year it was my pleasure to sponsor and pass the bill that authorized $40 million in tuition revenue bonds for A & M San Antonio. Today we celebrate not only growth and progress, but also new opportunities for students.”

What she failed to mention was the “new opportunities” for Incumbent Senators who are suddenly in the game so to speak courtesy of the Las Vegas Gaming syndicate.

Remember…this ceremony takes place on November 15th, 2007. Less than three months later Zaffirini receives a check from Lozzi and Lamphand for $10,000.00.

We don’t really know what one would call that…do you?

Perhaps…Services rendered? Or did the Senators bubbly personality just inspire these two Vegas power brokers into a sudden fit of compassion for education.

Did we mention that Lozzi and Lamphand were partners with Mssrs. Bill Paulos and Bill Wortman? Yeah…I think we did…go back up a paragraph or two and you will find this pair to be partners in Triple L Management LLc, the land donors. What we did not mention is that Bill Wortman at the time was partners in another casino by the name of Nevada Palace with a colorful character by the name of Renate Schiff. Bob Mendenhall, Bill Wortman, and Paulos were all partners in Millennium Management which ran Greektown.

Renate Schiff owns a building in Vegas that housed a strip club owned by a cat by the name of Rick Rizzolo called the Crazy Horse. Rick Rizzolo was known to have a lot of pull down at Las Vegas City Hall and allowed a City councilman by the name of Mike McDonald to live at a reduced rate in a mansion he owned. According to Steve Miller, reporting for the Las Vegas Tribune at the time, Jan Jones, the now former Mayor of Vegas used to be a frequent guest of Rizzolo at his estate which was not to far down the road from the free pad McDonald was being put up in.

Steve Miller and the Tribune did quite a bit of reporting on Rizzolo and the Crazy Horse as it seemed to be a joint that attracted a good bit of violence back in the late 1990s. Miller got under Rizzolo’s skin so much that Rizzolo attempted to sue him for defamation of character due to Miller’s characterization of him in the paper. Miller currently writes for Rick Porrello’s American Mafial.com website.

In the meantime…back to the story…

It seems that Rizzolo and Schiff were leaning on Rizzolo’s next door neighbor, a local Allstate agent by the name of Buffalo Jim Barrier(names like that only come from Vegas)…and attempting to get him to vacate his lease space so Rizzolo could expand his strip club.

According to the Las Vegas Tribune’s Steve Miller:

“On July 12, 2000, Frederick Rizzolo, owner of the Crazy Horse Too topless club, was accused of "Conspiracy, Bribery, Pandering, and Sales of Illegal Drugs" in a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) lawsuit brought by his neighbor Buffalo Jim Barrier.”

Barrier brought suit after an unsuccessful attempt was made to evict his two businesses to make way for the expansion of the topless club. Barrier owns an auto repair shop and a wrestling school that abut both sides of the topless club.

On September 14, following arguments by counsel, Clark County District Court Judge Nancy M. Saitta denied Rizzolo's motion to dismiss the Conspiracy/Civil Rico Causes/for Evidentiary Hearing/Rule 11 Sanctions clearing the way for the case to proceed.

This in the wake of another of Rizzolo's motions being denied by the same judge in an unrelated case assigned to her court.

The family of Scott David Fau brought a wrongful death action after he was found beaten to death next to railroad tracks behind the Crazy Horse on Aug. 4, 1995. Witnesses reported seeing him being severely beaten by Rizzolo's employees in the parking lot after he was ejected from the club. The case is scheduled for trial by jury on March 18, 2002.

In an unrelated event, Thursday, September 20, Las Vegas fire and rescue units responded to reports that a man was lying unconscious in front of the Crazy Horse Too. Officials would not answer questions other than to say a man had been "beat up." At press time, the man's condition and identity are unknown.

Barrier's racketeering complaint alleges: "Sometime prior to April 14, 2000, said Defendant, acting through the conspiracy alleged herein above devised a scheme and artifice to deprive Plaintiff of his leasehold interest in and to the property located at 2480 Industrial Road, Las Vegas, Nevada, by attempting to evict Plaintiff through illegal and improper means and through a court proceeding without legal foundation. As alleged herein above, such actions and acts on the part of all Defendants, was for an unlawful and ulterior purpose of creating additional space for the expansion of the enterprise known as the Crazy Horse Too."

Judge Nancy Oesterle on April 3 dismissed the eviction action brought by Barrier’s landlord Renata Schiff. Barrier then dismissed Schiff from being a third party defendant in his RICO lawsuit, but continued with his action against Rizzolo.”

Hum…Jack…that sounds like some old fashioned Vegas Mobster action don’t it?

Well, perhaps…Rizzolo did end up in prison…and the US Marshals currently own his Strip Club….

Surely not folks…our good Senator Judith Zaffirini wouldn’t be involved with folks of such dubious character now…would she?

But before we wrap this up, let me give you an update to that story up above on Buffalo Jim Barrier being muscled by the mob…

Buffalo Jim was the recent (April 5th, 2008) victim of what may be a Mob Hit…

Let’s put this in perspective and tie up the lose ends as we see it. The Vegas Casino “Lobby” (we will refrain from gangster speak) would like to expand its empire and sees Texas as being ripe for the pickings…caveat…we are not alone in this…California is being heavily lobbied in the same manner right now…

Rick Perry doesn’t seem to mind and owes his buddy Phil Gramm for a war chest full of cash…

The Vegas Casino Lobby understands that to win the war, they first have to win the hearts and minds of the people…sound familiar?...apparently the Casino Lobby has wised up over the years…therefore…how about an endearing 694 acre land donation for a University in South San Antonio…

And who is it that is capable of influencing the site selection? Hum…wonder if someone with the title of Higher Education Subcommittee Chair would have any influence in such matters?

Investment capital will be needed down the road. The Texas Teacher’s Retirement Fund is flush with over 115 Billion Dollars of Texas Teacher’s Money…surely Texas Teachers don’t mind an “Alternative Investment or Two”

The religious right may be backsliding a bit…put this altogether and what you have…hum…your guess is as good as mine…

I won’t leave you with a conclusion…but I will leave you with a teenage memory…something personal about ole Jack you didn’t know.

The summer I turned 17, I joined the Illinois Teamster’s Union, working the Brass Alleys on a Nuclear Power Plant construction site…I received an education that summer that I will never forget…I was young, impressionable, and fast learned that I could make more money in a week running numbers and various other “errands” for the local Union Bosses than could make I made from my Union wages all summer.

Jimmy Hoffa had disappeared a few summers back and it was understood that you just didn’t mess with the Union Pension funds…or their way of life…I am fairly certain that going to college that fall saved me from going down a sideways path that surely would not have been the best to take…

I made the right choice…

The question I have now is: Will we as Texans make the right choice with the Retirement Money of Texas Teacher’s or will we sit by and watch snake- oil salesmen like Senator Judith Zaffirini open the wallet to the likes of the Vegas Gaming Industry.

I don’t know about you, but Senator Zaffirini disgusts me…her and her pompous-a$%sd-holier than thou TV commercials….Wake up Texas! Wake up District 21! Wake up Laredo! Wake up Laredo Teachers!

I also wish to challenge my good friends Rene De La Vina and Hillario Cavazos to do a little digging before they stuff anymore money into Zaffirini’s purse in the name of teachers.

Voters, you have a choice this time around. I’m personally betting on Louis Bruni…one thing about Bruni you can always count on…he takes a position…and as we all know…he damn well sticks with it…no wishy- washy…see what I can hide from the taxpayers…no…it’s just Louis…straight up…no chaser….

In closing, I think we now all will fully understand why Zaffirini did not have the courage to publicly speak out against the 8-Liner Industry here in Laredo…she couldn’t…she had already made her bed…with the Las Vegas Gaming Industry…

In the research conducted by Texans for Public Justice they ran across emails from the Casino Lobby that discussed the fact that Big Corporations needed to get involved in order to sell legalized gambling in Texas…they also discussed the fact that studies have been conducted that show poor people are more likely to be the ones to gamble than the affluent middle class as Governor Rick Perry seems to naively envision.

The research in this article was made fairly easy thanks to the astute and thorough reporting of Steve Miller, and the good folks with the Texans for Public Justice Organization. I thank them for their dedication to exposing the corruption that these days seems to be running rampant throughout the halls of government across the United States. I am almost ashamed to call myself an American…then again, perhaps I am being a bit naïve and wishing for the Utopia that was sold to me back in my formative years of the early 1960s when The America Dream seemed alive and well…

What I do know is this…we still have the power of the vote…and I damn sure know how I will be using mine come November…

Care to join me?

Or you can download the following PDF Files which cover most of the points related to our article and assertions. The Vegas stuff is classic…it makes for good reading…I think you will be able to draw a lot of parallels between Vegas and Laredo as far the corruption of City Government…both cities are rife with it.

Click here to Read Lottery for Sale.

Click here to TRS Bailout of Wallstreet Investment Banks.

Click here to read how Vegas moved to San Antonio.

Click here to see a copy of Senator Judith Zaffirini's Campaign
Finance Report showing Lozzi and Lampman Donation.

Click here to an article that shows how the TRS Pension Fund

is actively courting Alternative Investment Houses.

Click here to learn how the A & M Land Donors are tied to Vegas.

Click here to read the History of the Rizzolo connection.

Click here to read about the Racketeering Charges being brought

against Bill Wortman's Vegas partner Renato Shiff.

Click here to read Federal Pleading on Rizzolo.

Click here to read about the purported Mob Hit on Buffalo Jim Barrier.

Click here to Closeup of Rizzolo Crew Member Joey Cusumano.

The two groups to whom the governor would grant a monopoly on Texas slots dominated these contributions. Texas racetrack owners contributed almost $3.1 million since 2000, led by investors in San Antonio’s Retama Park.

Two Indian tribes, the Tigua and Alabama-Coushatta, gave $698,350 more. (The Kickapoo tribe—which opposes slots that would compete with its casino—gave $96,000 in the same period.)
 

Racing animal interests contributed another $251,075, led by the Texas Quarter Horse Association. The top dog-group donor was the Texas Greyhound Association. Slot manufacturing interests gave $71,100, all of which came from Gordon Graves. Graves was chair and CEO of Austin’s Multimedia Games until 2003.

Slotted politicos
Governor Perry, who invoked slot legalization in calling the current special session, is the top recipient of slots money, collecting $572,175 since 2000. His GOP party took another $98,200.

Former and current Comptrollers John Sharp and Carole Keeton Strayhorn were the next-largest recipients, clearing well over $300,000 apiece. The comptroller