Daily Archives: July 11, 2009

Historic Boulder Dam Hotel & Museum Closes Today

Say sayonora to the 76-year old historic hotel in the heart of Boulder City, Nevada.  Apparently, there hasn’t been enough political momentum to rescue the hotel from its financial woes and keep the museum  and resturant open. BoulderDamHotel

The two-story, white-brick structure, with 20 rooms, restaurant and museum that originally opened in 1933, two years before the Hoover Dam was complete, served as ritzy lodging and a retreat for such famous guests as James Cagney, Bette Davis and Howard Hughes, is now three months behind on its mortgage and last-minute appeals for money from the local government have failed, leaving the property operators no choice but to shut down operations at midnight tonight. 

The closure will leave 22 workers without jobs and two on-site caretakers will need to take up lodging elsewhere. 

The Boulder City Museum, located inside the hotel, will also close.  Once the depository for Boulder City’s memorable past in journals, photographs, tools and supplies related to Hoover Dam’s construction– the Great Depression-era edifice that altered the flow of the Colorado River, brought electricity and reliable irrigation supplies to much of the desert Southwest and put Boulder City on the map. 

Some independent small businesses and offices inside the property, however, will remain open, at least for now. 

The hotel-museum has about $8,000 in monthly mortgage obligations and the occupancy rate has fallen from about 68 percent to 57 percent since the national economy went into a tailspin last year. 

The historical association sought to raise private money before turning, unsuccessfully, to Boulder City’s redevelopment agency earlier this week to ask for about $135,000. The redevelopment agency deadlocked 2-2 on a vote to provide a loan that would carry it through the summer. 

The group is also seeking grants from the federal government, but now that it is 90 days past-due on the mortgage, foreclosure appears imminent. 

“We can’t compare ourselves to a casino that can give away a room for $9 and make money from other things,” said innkeeper Roger Shoaff of the historic property’s niche in the marketplace. 

However, with any luck, the nonprofit association that owns the property hopes to raise $250,000 by September 10 to reopen the property.

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Hunt on for Michael Jackson’s ‘Doctor Death’

Doctors for hire which “freely” write prescriptions for the right price- willing pawns in an almost daily celebrity drama that is orchestrated expressly by and for entertainers and other high profile clientele for getting that legal high, which, many believe, contributed to Michael Jackson’s ultimate demise.  

Many doctors were apparently sucked into the scheme of coming when beckoned to numerous Jackson residences, supposedly to help the entertainer with this or that urgent personal malady, only to eventually find out the entertainer illnesses were largely feigned and dramatically orchestrated to merely try to get prescription drugs to make life and living more palatable. 

If one doctor didn’t play the game, it wasn’t a problem:  Michael Jackson’s handlers, it is alleged, merely went “doctor-shopping” anew, quickly filling the drug need vacuum. 

Drug and law enforcement detectives are now working day and night reviewing Michael Jackson’s prescription drug history and are feverishly on the hunt for his many former doctors throughout the world, especially in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. 

Dr. Conrad Murray from Las Vegas, with offices also in Texas and California, who regularly makes house calls to many high-profile clients, including those in Washingon and New York, is the doctor at the heart of controversy and who was admittedly administering care to Jackson in his Holmby Hills residence.   A lawyer for the physician said Dr. Murray did not administer Demerol or other life-threatening, powerful drugs and those reports were “absolutely false.” 

“There was no Demerol. No OxyContin,” Edward Chernoff, the attorney for Dr. Conrad Murray, told The Times. Murray had not “furnished or prescribed” Jackson with Demerol, the lawyer said. 

At least that’s the proper thing to say, since, according to federal drug regulations, Dr. Murray couldn’t legally prescribe even a powerful cough medicine for the King of Pop in California, and he couldn’t go to the pharmacy to get drugs for him, either. 

Federal authorities recently told FOXNews.com that Dr. Conrad Murray is not licensed to administer certain levels of controlled medications in the state, and that if he gave Demerol or Oxycontin to Jackson, as has been reported, it would have been illegal. 

Investigators with the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office removed two bags filled with prescription medications from Jackson’s Holmby Hills home. Among the drugs recovered were bottles of Diprivan, at least some of which were found without labels indicating where they came from, law enforcement sources told FOXNews.com. 

At least two of Jackson’s doctors – Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Conrad Murray – who were cooperative with authorities in the beginning are now hindering the investigation into Michael Jackson’s death, sources tell TMZ. 

They have turned over some of Jackson’s medical records but not his entire file, as sought by the L.A. County Coroner’s office. 

As the investigation unfolds, Michael’s drug usage is appearing increasingly grim. 

One of Michael’s drivers reportedly told Coroner’s office officials that the singer was visiting Dr. Klein more than once in a week, spending as many as 3-4 hours in his office and appearing disoriented while leaving. 

During Michael’s child molestation case investigation a bodyguard had similarly told the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies in 2004 that Michael appeared disoriented when leaving doctors’ offices, including those of Klien. 

Records of that investigation reveal that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies recovered a large quantity of drugs from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, including IV stands and oxygen tanks, consistent with the use of Diprivan. 

Amongst the documents recovered was a letter dated July 21, 2002 from a Dr. Alex Farshchian recommending that Michael use the drug Buprenex instead of Demerol because Buprenex was less addictive. 

A preliminary toxicology report submitted to the Coroner’s office says Michael Jackson had lethal levels of painkiller Demerol and heroin substitute methadone in his body at the time of his death, reports UK’s The Sun. 

It is likely that the investigation into the death of the singer on June 25 will ultimately result in manslaughter or homicide charges.

Michael also had very high levels of the OTC anxiety drug Xanax, high levels of Dilaud, a painkiller to numb post surgery pains and lower levels of other drugs such as the potent pain killer Fentanyl, Vicodin, Valium and Ambien.

Traces of Propofol, an anesthetic administered only in hospitals, were also found. The drug is rapidly absorbed by the body and is practically undetectable within 20 minutes of a single dose.

The drug levels found in his body could have killed any normal person instantly, but Michael was probably still walking around because he had developed some immunity following years of abuse.

Adding fuel to the speculative fire, Jackson’s’ outspoken father, Joe Jackson, recently told ABC New in an interview that he believed “foul play” was involved in his son’s death, but did not elaborate in the interview aired Friday on “Good Morning America.”

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