January 11, 2012 by bobfrank.

On April 26, 2010 the Nevada Attorney General Bureau of Consumer Protection (BCP) filed the attached review and report of the Nevada Public Utility Commission’s plans to grant Nevada energy companies to implement the “Smart Meter” Program.  
NV Attorney General Bureau of Consumer Protection Report in 2010 Opposing Smart Meter Program

Look at the following chart for some basic evidence (extracted from page 53 in the report) of the serious privacy violations possible with such devices.   

Imagine if a smart meter was reporting to Nevada Energy every few minutes or less on what power you are consuming.  Imagine if it was easy to detect what spikes are generated by what kinds of appliances.  Would it not be easy for criminals to discover when a person normally takes a bath or showers or sleeps or works or is away for hours, days or weeks at a time?  

And, why would you want to allow the power company to detect, collect, report, store and analyze such personal and private information about you, your family and visitors?  Is there anyone who could truly believe the power company could be trusted to have and keep such private information collected every few minutes of your future life?  It seems crazy to me for them to even try to bully us into accepting such an outrageous concept!

The report is two years old, exceptionally detailed, and appears to provide devastating evidence in sworn testimony by national experts against the safety, security, health and privacy claims by Nevada Energy for its Smart Meter Program.

Unless the owner, resident or visitor grants specific authority for such wire-tapping/unauthorized surveillance actions by the power company, there are major law violations being planned by the smart meter program.  Is this not conclusive evidence of fraud and other crimes by the PUCN and NV Energy?

Clearly, this Attorney General/BCP report proves that customers must be allowed the right to Opt-In.  And, if choosing to refuse the smart meters, they must not be required to pay a penny (directly or indirectly) for anyone else’s decision to use the smart meter programs.

This is not the only damning report against the smart meter program by the Bureau of Consumer Protection.  After you have read this and the other reports, you may want to participate in the efforts to demand that the Attorney General and the Governor direct the District Attorney to investigate why the PUCN’s smart meter program is being allowed to be implemented.  It is outrageous.

Meanwhile, we all need to be meeting with the BCP and getting more facts before the PUCN January 18th hearing about the apparently bogus/illegal “opt-out” proposal by Nevada Energy.

In conclusion, the enclosed BCP report and related evidence is clear.  There are no legal or economic justifications for implementing a smart meter program in Nevada.   No matter how much money has been wasted to date, we simply can not allow hundreds of millions more being wasted while our privacy and constitutional rights against unreasonable surveillance are willfully violated by the State. 

This smart meter program must stop.  All citizens have obligations to themselves and their families to tell the Govenor to terminate it immediately.

Posted in Truth Squad, SCA Board, Safety, Operations, News! | Print | No Comments »

April 24, 2010 by kayfrank.

Could someone please summarize the results of the discussions with Senator Reid’s Sara Moffat when she visited SCA last week? I was away and could not attend.

If Senator Reid is unwilling to take this direct action for our Anthem communities, we will know that he has unresolvable conflicts of interest with the mining industry that are more important to him than (1) human health and safety, (2) massive/unacceptable consumption of underground water for 30 years, (3) decades of unacceptable degradation to the air quality in the Henderson and Las Vegas areas, (4) dust and noise contamination in the Sloan Canyon Preserve, and (5) seriously degraded personal and business property values within a 10-mile area.

Posted in 2010 Campaign, kay_frank, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Safety, News! | Print | No Comments »

January 9, 2010 by admin.

 On Jan 9, 2010, at 9:16 AM, Mark Howard wrote:

Hi All,

We live in Black Mountain Village.

We had quite a scare last night. Cristina arrived home alone from work at 8:40PM. I was at South Coast Casino which is about 17 miles away with my son Chris and grandson Chris Junior watching a motorcycle race. Cristina drove up to the house and saw a suspicious car with two occupants parked with the engine running sitting in front of our house.

Cristina pulled into the driveway but did not get out or enter the garage and sat watching. It was a small burgundy colored sedan. She was only able to get a number “3″ and the letters VGB. It was a Nevada plate. She called me on my cellular but it was extremely hard to hear her because of the motorcycle race. The car did not move for minutes.

I told her to drive away and call the police. Even though it is a “bedroom community” there have been a few incidents in the neighborhood since the economic crisis, mostly caused by the construction workers who work in the area but live elsewhere. 

I was rushing out of the arena and remained on the phone with her. She said the car was pulling away making u-turn and drove away heading North. I continued through the casino to the parking lot to return   home. I had purposely left some extra lights on in the house knowing Cristina was coming home from work after dark.

She parked the car in the garage and entered the house. She called me back to tell me everything was OK and just then screamed and screamed at the top of her lungs. I couldn’t hear what she was saying. I was sprinting to the car and she was screaming something. I was able to get “someone is in here.” I told her to run and call 911 over and over again as she screamed.

I hung up and dialed 911 as I ran. My car was parked way, way up on the 5Th level and way, way back in the farthest corner of the parking structure and the parking structure at a large casino is huge (understand, it’s a new Porsche so I parked it in the “north forty’. Thank God I didn’t valet it for a change. My son and grandson were rushing to their car too.

The 911 operator was Metro Police and I had to be transferred to Henderson PD. I rushed home while on the line with 911. The operator mentioned they had Cristina on 911 too. I arrived and Henderson PD had the house surrounded.

The suspect fled and got away before their arrival. She could only describe him as a dark man. It was too dark outside and too light inside. The occupants in the vehicle were hard to see because the windows were tinted and it was at night.

Once the police left, my son and I checked our house very carefully and check the neighbor’s house since we knew they were out for the night. Everything was OK.

Our homes are all so private by design, no one in the neighborhood realized there were 5 police cars surrounding our house for over 20 minutes. Here’s a bit more….

When Cristina saw the man at the window behind the house attempting to get in, she screamed. He stared for a brief moment looking directly at her. The female Boxer tore out the doggy   door and the male Boxer remained at her side. The Chihuahua peed on Cristina. No blood so I guess he got lucky.

Cristina did exactly as planned. She rushed to the Master Bath and locked herself in. There are no windows and only one way in. It’s a door that opens out and to kick it in would require a bit more force since the door is framed on the inside. She got on 911 and remained on the phone with them until the police arrived and she could be convinced to meet them at the door.

I have a pistol stashed in that bathroom just for this sort of thing. Cristina is trained to use it but today we are going shooting for some practical drills and familiarity. 

I do not know your position on gun ownership but I will never surrender my guns and I will fight to keep our Second Amendment Rights. 

By the way, the Porsche doesn’t go 177 mph as advertised. My last glance at the speedometer was at 184 mph. I feel a little sorry for anyone southbound on the I-15 last night. Actually, it was empty. I only   passed three cars from South Point to St Rose which is about a 5 mile stretch.

I’ll be driving the construction sites and neighborhood looking for that car. I know they will be back. It’s the 2nd time they were here in two weeks. Two weeks ago I found some pool cleaning equipment tossed over the gate along the side of the house. I told Cristina to double check and keep the doors locked. 

I am canceling next week’s travel to Chicago. I will not leave Cristina here alone.

Mark

Mark Howard
California Wine & Spirits Company
10624 S. Eastern Avenue, Suite A-299
Henderson, Nevada 89052
U.S.A.
Tel: (702) 614-2807
Fax: (702) 947-2637

Posted in Safety, Operations, News! | Print | 3 Comments »

January 29, 2009 by bobfrank.

Someone recently complained because they thought I was one of those SCA members who wanted the parkway/loop speed limit be reduced to 35 mph–no matter what. That is not true.

I have consistently advocated that 45 mph COULD be a safe speed limit on the loop–IF (1) it was strictly enforced, and IF (2) the dangerous intersections were made safe by removing line-of-sight blockages, AND IF (3) traffic lights were installed at the most dangerous intersections. Phil Hight and Dan McClintock deserve great credit for their selfless efforts while serving on the Property & Grounds Committee before passing away, and a good way to honor their work would be to insist that the full project gets completed in 2009.

As a matter of background, we need to accept that Del Webb intended to have the loop speed controlled at 35 mph to allow this to be a golf-cart-permissible community–WHEN there were 3 golf courses planned. But, that goal has since become impractical due to the 2002 changes to the Master Plan, and the resulting major changes in parkway/loop use. We need to insist that the loop traffic controls be upgraded if we are going to continue to have a 45 mph posted speed limit.

We should not accept some Henderson proposals to wait for installing traffic lights until the accident rate increases significantly, i.e., until more SCA members are killed or become maimed from accidents at the intersections. It is clear the most dangerous loop Intersections need to have traffic lights. And, to provide the most efficient results, those traffic lights should be installed with access switches activated by vehicles and pedestrians entering, exiting, and/or crossing the loop.

Let’s pull together and ask the City to install traffic lights at the 4 or 5 most dangerous intersections before the end of 2009. Please help me to help you on this vital lifestyle safety issue for our community! The lives and health we save may be our own.

Bob Frank
SCA Director
bobfrank@cox.net

Posted in 2009 Campaign, SCA Board, Community Affairs, Safety | Print | 1 Comment »

May 16, 2008 by bobfrank.

Our community needs to encourage all SCA homeowners to read Mark Cook’s recent posting about flagrant and deliberate low-level airspace violations by “King Airelines” over SCA airspace. We must seriously consider the implications of this and a variety of other rapidly expanding aviation overflight problems in this area.

For example, other residents have previously reported on airline and helicopter violations of SCA airspace. Serious concern has also been expressed over the Sloan Heliport being built for about 300 helicopters–due west of SCA. The move to relocate and greatly expand Grand Canyon tours (involving both light aircraft and helicopters) from the McCarren Airport to the Henderson/Sloan area is already causing a rapid increase of flights across SCA airspace.

And, it has only just begun! Overflights (at any altitude) are guaranteed to destroy our “quiet enjoyment”. We are truly “old fools” if we wait any longer to demand that flight paths be routed way South over low populated areas instead of due East directly over SCA. While current promises are that future helicopter flight paths will go around the Anthem area, we can never be confident that ALL helicopter flights will go that way unless we closely monitor and stay involved in the activities. See this R-J article for the latest heliport info: Sloan Heliport

Concerning personal experience, I lived next to a large heliport in Vietnam in 1969; and, to this day the obnoxious operating sounds of helicopters coming and going overhead reminds me of hell on earth. The constant sleep disturbances and inability to get any quiet time from heavy helicopter operations will ruin our retirement lives. Even if you are hard of hearing, such noise and constantly interrupted environment produces high stress, constant irritability, and sustained anxiousnesses. Why would any senior community tolerate such added nonsense? This is a MAJOR change in our environment and we simply do not have to put with it.

While such a stressful environment is bad for any phase of life, it could be deadly for elders! Furthermore, we should not buy the argument that “modern helicopters” do not make as much noise as the old ones! So what! As we get older, the sounds of any kind of overhead helicopters during any hour will destroy our retirement environment. We simply MUST demand that ALL flying to and from the Grand Canyon and other areas to be routed to the South and far, far away from our senior communities. We already know that is not the case since we have serious violations by fixed wing and helicopters on a daily basis. Either way, we have to do something tangible to stop it.

But, let us not kid ourselves. It could be difficult to make all flights avoid overflying SCA since it will cost the companies a lot of money for the extra flying time. What will it take to wake up our fellow senior citizens to get engaged and to STAY engaged? The prevailing attitude in most senior communities is just “let board member Bob, or Mike, or Carl do it.” “I am retired, and I must reserve my time to enjoy my retirement”. But, that is fatally flawed. Since your fellow seniors are also unpaid and retired, who will do the work, if it is not worth your time? The good news is that SCA history shows that if thousands of our homeowners pull together, we can prevail!

So, if you share a deep concern for what massive overflights of aircraft and helicopters will do to this unique community’s future, please volunteer to help. The airport and FAA will ignore us if only a few residents complain. We need some long-run project leadership. And, in the short-run, Mark needs some SCA homeowners to volunteer to help identify airspace violations. The procedures for clearly identifying overflight violations, and for being able to accurately estimate the aircraft’s altitude can be explained by Mark. You might even find it fun to do! ;-)

Finally, flagrant airspace abuse over SCA is certain to increase and to seriously damage our lifestyles as well as our property values! Ignoring these obvious problems today will lead to very serious lifestyle degradation within a few years. Will you help?

Bob Frank
SCA Director, bobfrank@cox.net

Posted in SCA Board, Community Affairs, Safety, Lifestyle | Print | 12 Comments »

May 16, 2008 by Mark Cook.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am concerned about the safety issue with so many low flying aircraft passing over our community on a daily basis. The noise is also a significant factor, and when the Sloan Heliport is constructed, the noise problem will be compounded by an order of magnitude.

I am attempting to alert the entire community to this problem and solicit your help if you agree that it is a problem. By way of background, I am a retired pilot. I hold the FAA’s highest pilot rating, an Airline Transport Pilot Multi-engine rating, and a commercial glider pilot rating. I’ve been involved in aviation since 1948. My experience includes 3 years of flying Cessna 402 aircraft (among others) in commercial operations out of McCarran, carrying tourists to the Grand Canyon, and 27 years in the US Air Force as an instructor pilot. I spend 12 years at Nellis AFB, during three different tours (they kept sending me back) as an instructor and test project manager in the Fighter Weapons School (USAF top gun). I have spent countless hours on the local air-to-ground gunnery ranges as an instructor pilot and range control officer, where altitude judgment was paramount for safety.

That is all relevant because I believe that I am a fairly good judge of aircraft altitude, and I am well versed in federal aviation regulations, FAA operations, and commercial flight operations. That is necessary to support the following article which I have written for the community:

If you are concerned about the safety hazard and the noise of low flying aircraft, this may be of concern to you. Many will not be able to read this, but perhaps the word will slowly spread anyway. Propeller driven single and twin-engine aircraft operating out of Henderson Executive airport are violating prescribed minimum FAA altitudes for flight over a densely populated area (ours) on a daily basis. The primary culprits are the pilots of the Cessna 402 twin-engine aircraft owned by King Aire Lines.

There is only one company operating that type of aircraft out of the Henderson airport…King Aire Lines, so that makes it pretty easy to identify the source. If you live in Shadow Canyon, Black Mountain village, and Desert Sky village, and others you have seen and heard them regularly. They approach from the mountain pass just East of our community, so low that when you first see or hear them they will appear below the mountain ridge. They are required to fly no less than 500 feet over our houses, by Federal Aviation Regulations–not that 500 feet is much of a safety factor. But a few of their ‘hot pilots’ seem to have no regard for our safety or peace and quiet, and I’ve frequently observed them at 200 feet, sometimes less. It’s not likely that you can get outside quickly enough to see them, for at that altitude, and at a speed of around 120 knots, they are gone in 20 seconds.

The King Aire Cessna 402s are all white in color with narrow stripes down the side of the fuselage. The aircraft is easily recognized by the characteristic fuel tanks on the wing tips. The fuel tanks give the wing tips an upswept and streamlined look.

The reason I’m presenting this is because if we can stop this safety hazard, and the noise, we will be one jump ahead of the game in stopping the helicopter noise problem which is sure to come when the Sloan heliport is developed. You ‘”ain’t heard nothing yet” if you haven’t had a hundred helicopters passing over your house at 300 feet on a daily basis! 300 feet is the minimum altitude allowed by the FAA for those helicopters carrying passengers to the canyon so there’s nothing you can do to stop the noise. It’s illegal to shoot them down, tempting perhaps, but still illegal. ;-)

If we start now, and all complain about the low flying King Aire Line airplanes, no one can say later that no one in our community has complained for years about low flying aircraft. Whenever you observe a low flying aircraft, or wish to complain about aircraft noise, you may call Mr. Anthony Roldan, at the FAA office in Las Vegas; his number is 269-1445 ext 323. Also call the local Aircraft Noise Hotline, at 261-3694.

There’s no use calling King Aire Lines to complain, I was told to do that by Mr. Roldan, but the chief pilot refused to speak with me or return my phone calls…such arrogance. You could also notify the airport manager at Henderson Executive airport, Mr. Tom Donaldson, at 261-4802. Don’t leave this up to someone else–get involved in supporting your community. Thanks.

Mark Cook
2211 Bensley St
afkernel@cox.net

Posted in Community Affairs, Safety, News! | Print | No Comments »

September 4, 2007 by admin.

Please scroll down to login and logout in the Meta Box–below left!
This is a moderated site provided for Sun City Anthem residents by the AnthemVoice community of volunteers.

Posted in Laws & Rules, Special Events, Community Affairs, Clubs & SIGs, Safety, News!, Lifestyle, Operations, Other | Print | 2 Comments »