Vol. 3, No. 8
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February 15, 2006
Nevada's Online State News Journal
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COPYWRITING
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Top News Story:
Dawn Gibbons Takes Early Lead In Second Congressional Race
Dean Heller Found To Be Associating With Alleged Drug Dealer/Sex Offender
by Johnny Gunn
The latest edition of the Citizen Outreach/Battle Born News released figures on the 2nd Congressional District Republican primary race. The poll surveyed 852 registered Republicans in CD 2 who are highly likely GOP primary voters.
The results:
Sharron Angle - 9.8 percent
Dawn Gibbons - 26.1 percent
Dean Heller - 15.2 percent
Undecided - 48.7 percent
The survey was conducted by Global Automated Telesystems from a randomly selected list of 10,000 Republicans in the second congressional district who voted in the last non-presidential primary in 2002. The survey has a margin of error of plus/minus four percent.
Gibbons recently opened campaign offices in northern Nevada at 1320 Freeport Blvd, Suite 107. According to office personnel, campaign flyers, bumper stickers, and Gibbons' "Contract With Nevadans" cards are available. The office can be reached at 775-233-8288. The Dawn Gibbons For Congress web site is at http://www.dawngibbons.com.
Attempts to reach Angle and Heller were unsuccessful. Heller has not put up a web site and has no plans to attend Lincoln Day affairs in the north or the south according to sources within his campaign. He has made very few personal appearances around the state and seems to believe that since he is the leading money procurer currently that he doesn't need to make himself available. Angle has a well-defined web site at http://www.sharonangle.com.
Heller's primary areas to be seen and heard have been on the northern Nevada radio program called "Nevada Matters" hosted by Eddie Floyd who was just arrested as a drug trafficker and money launderer. Floyd owns U.S. Realty and an interest in the radio station KBDB in Reno, home to the program Nevada Matters. Over the years he has had Heller on the program numerous times.
According to investigators and court papers, Floyd allegedly used his business U.S. Realty, which buys and resells used manufactured homes, as part of his money laundering operations. According to the indictment Floyd used a couple of the manufactured homes as places to prepare the marijuana for distribution. Floyd has openly solicited some of Nevada's leading politicians to become shareholders in the U.S. Realty business.
In 2004 during a quarterly shareholders meeting at a Reno casino hotel, key speakers included Secretary of State Dean Heller and Nevada Assemblywoman Sharron Angle. Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick was also a speaker during the fete. It isn't known at this time whether or not Heller is a shareholder in the Floyd managed corporation. Two shareholders of record are Washoe County Sheriff Dennis Balaam and Assemblywoman Sharron Angle.
Walter "Eddie" Floyd (Photo courtesy of Washoe County Sheriff's Office)
Floyd was indicted following a federal grand jury investigation of more than one year. He pleaded not guilty to several federal charges that include 18 counts of money laundering, two counts of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute marijuana, and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments. His son Joshua Floyd along with others has pleaded guilty to various federal charges in Kentucky dealing with Floyd's alleged Nevada and California operations.
The indictment indicates that Floyd allegedly had others growing marijuana on a piece of property in California, then making the product ready for distribution in one or more manufactured homes he owns, and then having the product transported to Kentucky for distribution. Floyd denies all the allegations and claims he is being set up by, among others, his own son.
Floyd is currently free on $100,000 bond and trial is set for April. During his first appearance before Federal Magistrate Judge Valerie Cooke, federal prosecutor Craig Denney told the judge that Floyd had failed to register as a convicted sex offender. Denney said Floyd had been found guilty of a gross misdemeanor charge in 1985. It is believed that Floyd pleaded guilty in that affair and that the charge came about during a divorce.
So far few of the politicians that were so willing to back some of his investment schemes and be interviewed on his radio program have come forward with any public comments. It's expected that those who were also named as co-conspirators on the various federal indictments will testify against Floyd. Federal investigators have indicated that other charges may be brought, and that other people in Nevada may yet be indicted. Federal investigators are generally tight-lipped when discussing an open investigation.
According to court records Floyd has been convicted of Driving Under the Influence (DUI) twice, but has managed to stay out of the hoosegow by using his radio program as a means of "Public Service." His first conviction was in 1995, and his most recent on January 3, 2006.
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