Columnist Jeff German: Casinos finally heed call on dump

Friday, Jan. 11, 2002 | 4:25 a.m.

After years of sitting on the sidelines, the wealthy industry, with its heavy political connections in Washington, has decided to join the battle.

We can thank Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham for lighting a fire under gaming's brightest minds.

Abraham let the world know last week that he intends to inform President Bush that Yucca Mountain, a mere 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, is suitable in his judgment to store 77,000 tons of the nation's high-level nuclear waste.

Somebody on the Strip finally figured out that it might not be good for tourism to have so much radioactive garbage in the industry's back yard.

And so now the industry says it's prepared to put its money and political muscle -- whatever it takes -- into Nevada's massive anti-dump offensive.

Nevada's governor and congressional delegation, who have been carrying the load for far too long, are elated.

So is Strip businessman Stephen Cloobeck, who has been leading a grassroots campaign against Yucca Mountain.

"They've always risen to the occasion when the task is put before them," Cloobeck says. "And they always get the job done."

Should we thank Spencer Abraham for the wake-up call?

Entrepreneurs still are looking to use the power of the Ted Binion name well after his 1998 death.

You may recall that Binion's wealthy estate late last year sold his buried silver fortune to the Spectrum coin company in Southern California for a measly $3.5 million.

The silver bars and coins, once buried in an underground vault in Pahrump and then dug up by Rick Tabish, one of Binion's convicted killers, had been appraised at $6 million.

Spectrum recently unloaded a large share of the 100,000 uncirculated silver dollars in the fortune to Goldline International Inc., a well-known Southern California investment company.

And now Goldline International is hoping the Binion name and the publicity surrounding his controversial death will help it earn a few bucks.

The company has begun a national marketing campaign to sell what it calls the "fabled Binion Collection." A large portion of the silver dollars were made between 1878 and 1899 at mints in Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco. Some of the coins are worth as much as $10,000.

In its campaign Goldline even has established a Web page, with history about Binion, his colorful family and his coins to promote sales.

If Binion were alive, he'd probably get a kick out of this.

Criticizing Alan Dershowitz can be hard on a writer.

A recent commentary here poked fun at the Harvard University law professor for seeking preferential treatment from the Nevada Supreme Court to argue Sandy Murphy's appeal in Ted Binion's slaying.

Dershowitz, who's used to getting his way in courts around the country, was ribbed in this space for requesting special times to appear before the busy high court -- something most Nevada lawyers would never think of doing.

But the celebrity professor wasn't laughing.

After the piece appeared in the newspaper, one of his legal minions, Victoria Eiger, delivered a stern lecture to the writer's editor about the perils of criticizing Dershowitz in print.

About the same time, Murphy's media mouthpieces in Las Vegas got their marching orders to begin working over the writer.

The mean-spirited attacks, orchestrated by the Murphy Money Machine, came in the form of nasty e-mails, threatening phone calls and vitriolic newspaper and television commentaries.

It's almost enough to scare a writer into taking up a new profession -- almost.