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Hogs & Heifers served eviction notice, owner vows to keep fighting

By General Posts

by Joe Bartels from https://www.ktnv.com

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Downtown Grand is in a downtown dispute with its tenant Hogs & Heifers. Now the bar has been served an eviction notice and a cease-and-desist letter.

13 Investigates has been following the situation since July when owner Michelle Dell was at odds with her landlord over the use of 3rd Street between Stewart and Ogden in downtown Las Vegas.

Ultimately, the parade and gathering went on as scheduled, but then a new issue emerged.

“For me, I’m fighting the fight of my business, I’m fighting for the 40+ people I employ,” said Dell.

Dell says just 5 days after the Patriot’s Day parade and gathering she hosted, she received a 30-day notice to quit her lease.

The paperwork provided to 13 Investigates shows the bar was required to vacate the premises by mid October.

“I made a massive investment, I changed my entire life to be in [Las Vegas] and I have built a thriving business, I have been a solid contributor to our community and I love this neighborhood,” said Dell, who relocated from New York to start her bar in 2004.

On Tuesday, Dell received a second notice which demanded she stop speaking out against the Downtown Grand.

The letter claims Dell has made and continues to make false statements against the Downtown Grand on both her social media accounts and in the news media.

“On the eve of our 14th anniversary, they have sent us a cease-and-desist letter, claiming I am running a concentrated media campaign to disparage them,” said Dell.

A judge will try and sort things out next month when both sides are scheduled to be in court.

According to documents obtained by 13 Investigates, the courtroom confrontation has been building for years.

Lawyers for the Downtown Grand say Dell and her clientele have been less than ideal, writing in court filings:

“H and H has created an unsafe environment that has consistently spilled into the common areas surrounding the bar.”

“H and H routinely uses a megaphone and vulgar language to solicit pedestrians and guests of neighboring properties into its bar.”

“Numerous police and incident reports have been filed, documenting the dangerous events that are permitted and sometimes encouraged by H and H.”

13 Investigates asked Dell about the incidents and while she admits there have been troubles, including bar fights, she and her security team keep the peace and involve police when necessary

A search of online crime reports show at least 30 incidents ranging from disturbing the peace, to assault, and indecent exposure in the 200 block of 3rd Street within the past 6 months.

13 Investigates reached out to the Downtown Grand’s public relations representative but a did not receive an immediate response.

Dell says she is not backing down and she will fight the battle in court.

Meet The White House’s New Chief Climate Change Skeptic

By General Posts

William Happer, a Princeton scientist who is doubtful of the dangers of climate change, appears to be leading a White House challenge to the government’s conclusion that global warming is a threat.

Twenty five years ago, William Happer had an encounter with the White House that ended badly.

At the time, in 1993, the Princeton professor was taking a break from academia to direct scientific research at the U.S. Department of Energy. He turned a skeptical eye toward one of then-Vice President Al Gore’s favorite issues: the risks posed by chemicals eating away at ozone in the stratosphere and letting in dangerous ultraviolet radiation. As the story goes, Happer went to the White House and told Gore’s staff he saw no evidence that the ozone hole actually was hurting anyone.

Gore was annoyed, and Happer lost his job.

Today, Happer is back in the White House, still fighting against what he considers unfounded claims that our globe is in danger. But this time, his cause is backed by the man in the Oval Office.

Happer, 79, joined the staff of President Trump’s National Security Council last fall. And according to documents first leaked to The Washington Post, he appears to be pushing the White House to mount a challenge to the government’s official assessment of climate change, which calls climate change a serious national security threat.

On Thursday, the chairs of four different committees in the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Trump expressing concern about “recent reports that the National Security Council (NSC) is planning to assemble a secret panel, led by a discredited climate change denier, to undermine the overwhelming scientific consensus on the nature and threats of climate change.”

The four Democrats called it “deeply concerning that Dr. Happer appears to be spearheading” that effort.

Happer is an intriguing and controversial figure. He was born in India when it was a British colony, the son of a Scottish military officer and an American medical missionary. His mother, with young Will in tow, spent part of World War II working as a physician at the secret Manhattan Project site in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The family later settled in North Carolina.

Happer became a physicist. He taught at Columbia University and joined the faculty at Princeton University in 1980.

“He is a damn good scientist,” says Steven Koonin, a prominent physicist who is now a professor at New York University and who has known Happer for 30 years. “There are two really significant contributions associated with him.”

One of them made it possible to capture much better images of people’s lungs; the other allows astronomers to see the stars more clearly.

At the same time, Happer acquired a reputation as a contrarian, quick to challenge conclusions that struck him as unproven — especially when it came to environmental science.

That reputation was cemented by Happer’s confrontation with Gore’s staff over risks posed by the ozone hole. The incident was widely covered in scientific publications — Physics Today ran an article headlined “Happer Leaves DOE Under Ozone Cloud For Violating Political Correctness.”

Koonin thinks Happer was doing what a scientist should, demanding better evidence. “I think it sensitized him to the squishiness, if you will, of a lot of the environmental science,” he says.

Some of Happer’s scientific critics, though, see it as something more: a visceral distrust of scientists who study environmental risks.

Over the past decade, Happer has waged a fierce campaign aimed at debunking fears of global warming caused by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

In a speech to a 2015 conference organized by the Heartland Institute, which has railed against restrictions on emissions from fossil fuels, Happer scoffed at these fears, calling them an Alice-in-Wonderland fantasy. “When I got into this area and started learning about it, I learned that when I looked at CO2, I should assume that it caused harmful warming, extreme weather, Noah’s flood, you know. I remember thinking, ‘Are they mad?’ ”

Carbon dioxide is actually good for the planet, Happer claims; it’s like fertilizer and makes crops more productive.

“We’ve got to push back vigorously on the demonization of fossil fuels,” he said in his speech. “They’re not demons at all. They’re enormous servants to us.”

Some of Happer’s colleagues at Princeton are reluctant to talk publicly about him; it’s like discussing a relationship that got messy.

“I mean, I liked him. We went off for coffee after our committee meetings a couple of times,” says Michael Bender, an emeritus professor of geoscience and climate researcher.

Bender says he wouldn’t do it now, though. It’s partly because of the scientific dispute, because he thinks Happer is misreading the evidence. But it’s also because of Happer’s style — he’s labeled climate science a cult and accused other scientists of whipping up climate fears to boost their own careers. Most offensive for Bender: Happer once said the “demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the Jews under Hitler.”minnn

“You know, there came a point where he attacked my colleagues’ integrity,” Bender says, “and I felt like I couldn’t have a cordial relationship with him after that.”

Happer, who last fall went to work in the White House as a senior aide to the National Security Council, wasn’t authorized to comment for this story.

Robert Socolow, another Princeton colleague, has mixed feelings about Happer’s post. Socolow’s own biography — first a physicist, then a specialist on the environment — makes him a kind of bridge between Happer and the environmental scientists on Princeton’s campus. He doesn’t doubt Happer’s technical grasp of climate science but says that “everybody has areas of irrationality.”

“I think the environment in general, and climate change in particular, is an area of Will’s irrationality. But nonetheless, I think he can accomplish something” in his current job, Socolow says.

Socolow hopes that while in the White House, Happer will behave less like an argumentative physicist and more like the kind of person who has to prepare for every possibility — including those that strike him as unlikely.

“A military person doesn’t underestimate the enemy. A business person doesn’t underestimate the competition,” Socolow says. And even if, as Happer insists, there’s uncertainty about the course of climate change, the U.S. can’t afford to underestimate those risks.