Three protest cuts by boycotting ball
Nevada TV station owner-operators Jim Rogers and Ralph Toddre, along with former first lady Dawn Gibbons, boycotted the governor's Southern Nevada inaugural ball on Friday.
They were protesting Gov. Brian Sandoval's proposed budget cuts that would halt funding for the autistic.
Gibbons, the ex-wife of former Gov. Jim Gibbons and now director of communications and public relations for Rogers' Intermountain West Communications, said the cuts "will leave 176 kids in the lurch with no services and no voice."
Gibbons said Rogers and Toddre backed out of purchasing a table of 10 for the ball, which was held at Wynn Las Vegas.
"To make a presence would be saying we support the cuts," said Gibbons. "We don't. We support making families whole."
Toddre has two autistic children.
Rogers owns Intermountain West Communications, formerly Sunbelt Communications Co., and Toddre is the president and chief operating officer of the company, which includes KSNV-TV, Channel 3 in Las Vegas, KRNV-TV, Channel 4 in Reno and KENV-TV, Channel 10 in Elko.
During a break at the ball, Sandoval, said "a lot of difficult decisions were required" and a number of programs were restored.
NEW TIGER-VEGAS CONNECTION
Tiger Woods' first golf tournament of the year may offer a stroke of delicious irony today.
It figured to be a cold day in Hades before Woods' image makers would want him to have anything to do with Las Vegas, at least for now, after so much of his infidelity scandal involved Vegas.
The golf gods must have a sense of humor: Woods is likely to be playing in the same group today with rising newcomer Jhonattan Vegas in the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
Both are tied for 12th, six-under par and five strokes behind leader Bill Haas.
The last headline Woods wants to see is: Vegas Humbles Tiger Again.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Troubled actor Charlie Sheen owes plenty to his Good Samaritan neighbors.
"Housewives of Beverly Hills" star Adrienne Maloof and her husband, plastic surgeon Paul Nassif, got a call early Thursday from a young woman who said she was at Sheen's home and he was having a medical emergency.
Paul Nassif ended up calling 911 to get help for Sheen, who co-stars in "Two and a Half Men."
With that the Nassifs headed to Cedars-Sinai Hospital to visit someone else, only to run into Sheen as he was exiting an ambulance. Later Nassif gave the actor a ride home.
Sheen checked into a rehab center on Friday and the sitcom's producers announced the show was going into a production hiatus.
THE PUNCH LINE
"On the way to work today I drove by another homeless guy with a great voice looking for a job: Keith Olbermann." -- Jay Leno
Norm Clarke can be reached at (702) 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com. Find additional sightings and more online at www.normclarke.com.
