Just mind-boggling: Goodman honored by federal law enforcement group

Oddsmakers are scorching their calculators trying to handicap the likelihood of this long shot:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman was honored Thursday night at the Waldorf Astoria in New York by the Federal Law Enforcement Foundation.

Federal law enforcement?

You mean the people who doggedly pursued Goodman and his mob clients for 30 years?

Is gazillion a word? By my pencil, Goodman was about a gazillion-to-one underdog.

Goodman received a community service award during a presentation in which NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award and in which Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Frances Fragos Townsend received the group's National Service Award.

Previous winners have included Henry Kissinger and Colin Powell.

That's pretty good company for a reformed mob lawyer.

BILLBOARD BATTLE: Mobile billboard advertising company owner Marla Letizia is getting tired of explaining that her company isn't responsible for promoting direct-to-your-room exotic "dancers."

Letizia owns Big Traffic Mobile Billboards, which at one time was known as Mobile Billboards of Las Vegas.

She says the trouble started when escort service owner Vincent Bartello started a company called Mobile Billboards LLC to promote his numerous escort services. Erica Bartello is listed as the manager of the billboard company as well as a company called Sky Mobile Billboards LLC.

Letizia, who started her company with a single truck seven years ago and now is expanding outside Nevada, was incensed and embarrassed. She says that she's gone out of her way not to represent certain businesses.

Letizia changed the name of her company to help avoid future confusion. As the president of the Mobile Billboard International Association of Nevada, she says the industry has an image to protect.

ODD COUPLE: After years of suspected sleaze, Orange County Sheriff Michael Carona this week was indicted on a variety of federal corruption charges. You'll never guess who helped bring Carona's carousing and questionable ethics to the attention of law enforcement in California.

It's Las Vegas' own Rick Rizzolo, the Crazy Horse Too topless bar boss currently on vacation at government expense. Rizzolo sidled up to Carona at the popular Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach while undercover investigators winced. A picture of the sheriff and the skin merchant circulated, and it was the beginning of the end for Carona.

Not surprisingly, some of the public funds Carona allegedly misused have been traced to Las Vegas.

The indictment must come as a relief to honest members of the Orange County sheriff's office and Orange County district attorney's office, who have cringed for years at Carona's act.

HOMES, HEARTS: Don't forget the 10th annual Adoption Fair at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Clark County Government Center. With county Department of Family Services staff on hand, it's the quickest way to learn about the adoption process.

BOOK FESTIVAL: It's a natural fit: Downtown's popular First Friday art scene and the Vegas Valley Book Festival. The festival starts this morning at venues ranging from the El Cortez to the Arts District. If you missed the festival's Review-Journal insert, punch up vegasvalleybookfest.org for more information.

CLASS DISMISSED: Henderson Mayor James Gibson is understandably proud of his city's classy new Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit. Not to be outdone, I hear the city of Las Vegas plans to hire two streetwalkers named Mona and Lisa to wash their unmentionables in Oscar's River.

ON THE BOULEVARD: Speaking of class, it was an impeccable move for Broadway theaters to dim their lights Wednesday evening in honor of the passing of Robert Goulet, but I was left wondering whether Strip resorts would pay similar respect to the entertainment legend, who called Las Vegas home. ... Call it Nik at Nite. Attorney Nik Mastrangelo wears his crooner's hat in a special engagement at 10 p.m. today at the Bootlegger Bistro, 7700 Las Vegas Boulevard South. ... Authorities are still mum about the recent bust in the sports book at the Palms of a pair of major horse betting players. You mean there's no news when big-bucks bank accounts get frozen? ... Good witch Magickal Marissa, the better half of local street preacher John 3:16 Cook, was headed to Phoenix to cast a spell on mean old Sheriff Joe Arpaio in time for Halloween. No broom for Marissa: "I'm planning to use a plane this time," she quipped.

Have an item for the Bard of the Boulevard? E-mail comments and contributions to Smith@reviewjournal.com or call (702) 383-0295.