NEws

William Bills returns

The Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended trading in a marijuana company based in Douglas County and Carson City that claims an association with the Winnemucca tribal colony.

The company, formerly called IX Biotechnology, merged with American Housing Income Trust in March 2017, to become Corix Bioscience Inc. Its base of operations is described variously—the SEC makes it to be Surprise, Arizona—but its Nevada license names both Carson City and Douglas County.

An SEC statement reads in part, “The Commission temporarily suspended trading in the securities of Corix Bioscience, Inc. because of questions that have been raised about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information concerning, among other things, the company’s assets and operations in Nevada. This information includes claims that CXBS holds a valid, state-issued export license in Nevada for growing, processing and distributing industrial hemp.”

Reports on the dispute include frequent mention of William Bills, a Filipino who has claimed to be a member of the Winnemucca tribe.

Bills was adopted by a member of the Winnemucca tribe. After the tribe elected him tribal vice chair, a hearing was scheduled on whether Bills has Indian blood. Tribal chair Glenn Wasson was to preside and was expected to oppose Bills’ membership. Wasson was murdered before the meeting could be held (“Murder of a leader,” RN&R, Jan. 11, 2001), with the result that Bills served as acting chair for a time while the blood and membership issues were still in doubt.

The Winnemucca colony has posted on its website a 2011 federal court order recognizing Thomas Wasson as the tribal chair. Efforts to contact colony officials listed on the website were unsuccessful. In 2016, some business websites named Bills as chief of the Fort McDermitt tribal allotment. The Fort McDermitt reservation is 74 miles north of Winnemucca.

Over the years, Bills has re-emerged in the news occasionally, sometimes reportedly claiming to be the Winnemucca colony chair.

The website Vice, which portrayed the new dispute as officialdom trying to block legal marijuana commerce (“Somehow, the Ridiculous War on Hemp Is Still Going On,” Vice, April 10, 2018) reported that last summer, sheriff’s officers in San Joaquin County, California, came across a 26-acre “hemp farm … operated by William Bills of the Winnemucca Shoshone nation, though the farm wasn’t on the reservation, which is in Nevada. Bills had planned to start a business extracting cannabidiol, or CBD oil, the non-psychoactive cannabis chemical used as medicine by many but not recognized as one by authorities. He had rented a plot in California and partnered with a company that claimed to be a university, as well as cannabis consulting firms that tout their own research in press materials—an attempt to comply with federal and state laws that only allow hemp to be grown for research purposes.”

After the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors responded to the discovery of the hemp farm by banning such farms, the sheriff’s office uprooted and removed the plants, prompting a lawsuit on behalf of the Winnemucca colony against the supervisors, county counsel, district attorney, sheriff and the Drug Enforcement Administration. We were unable to learn if colony officers knew of the lawsuit. Signature gatherers are busy around Nevada qualifying various issues for the ballot. This one is at the Department of Motor Vehicles on Galletti Way.

PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

To the ballot

Will two energy questions confuse voters?

supporters of a ballot measure providing for increased use of renewable energy in Nevada are concerned the measure will be confused with a second ballot measure that would change the energy market in the state.

The energy market petition could be called the Adelson measure—billionaire Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Corp. is the prime mover behind it.

The renewable energy petition could be called the Steyer measure—Tom Steyer, a former hedge fund manager worth more than $1.6 billion, is its principal backer (“Petition,” RN&R, March 29).

Both measures would amend the Nevada Constitution, meaning they must be voted on by Nevadans twice. The Adelson petition has already been approved by voters once with a 72.36 percent vote and must go through second-round balloting this year. The Steyer measure faces first-round balloting this year.

The Adelson petition is ballot Question Three. The Steyer petition is still being circulated for signatures and will not be numbered until it qualifies for the ballot, which is considered likely. The state requires 112,544 signatures.

The Adelson petition went on the ballot after several Clark County casino corporations sought to break away from NV Energy as their power supplier. The Nevada Public Utilities Commission said they would have to pay hefty multi-million dollar “exit fees” in order to find different power sources. Some casinos paid the fees, but the Sands chose another route—using an initiative petition to change state law, which currently says there can only be one electric utility company per service area. The measure pits Adelson against fellow billionaire Warren Buffett, owner of NV Energy’s parent corporation.

In a 2016 statement explaining its decision, the Sands corporation said, “While Las Vegas Sands did not exercise its option to exit NV Energy, the company maintains a strong desire to purchase and use the cleanest and most cost-efficient energy available on the open market. Big business should not be the only ones participating in a discussion about energy choice though. It’s important our employees and all Nevada ratepayers have a voice in this debate and we will absolutely support efforts to help those voices be heard.”

That “big business” shot at NV Energy comes from a corporation that, besides the Sands, also runs an expo hall plus the Palazzo and Venetian casino hotels.

In its first round campaign, Adelson’s campaigners portrayed the measure as offering “choice,” and most journalists followed that cue.

Among critics of the Adelson measure in 2016 was the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 1245, whose business manager, Tom Dalzell, said the IBEW was worried about jobs: “The secretive backers of

this measure want voters to believe it’s about ‘energy choices,’ but in reality, it would help a handful of ultra-wealthy casino moguls get even richer, at the expense of Nevada’s working families.” The union has gone all-out in trying to defeat Three.

This week, Democratic candidates for governor Chris Giunchigliani and Steve Sisolak both came out against Three. Educating thE public Steyer’s petition seeks to require power utilities to provide at least 50 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2030. It would be achieved in increments—at least 26 percent in 20222023, 34 percent in 2024-2026, 42 percent in 2027-2029, and 50 percent in 2030 and thereafter. Right now, the state requires that 25 percent of electricity sales be derived from renewables by 2025. In 2016, the state achieved 21.6.

Kyle Roerink, communications directory for the Steyer petition, said, “Right now, Nevada spends $70 million annually on out of state fossil fuels. Consequently, Nevada’s abundant sunshine and geothermal resources go unused, and we squander an opportunity to improve lives and create jobs.”

The worry for Steyer petition supporters in particular is that with two energy measures on the ballot, the public will not distinguish between them very well.

One state legislator who spoke on background said, “Ballot campaigns are difficult. Voters are really going to have to pay attention, and reporters need to do a good job of pointing out the differences” between the two ballot measures.

The two petitions do not necessarily have the same interest in keeping the lines straight between them. A supporter of the Adelson measure said with a laugh, “I’m OK with them confusing us with Steyer’s effort.” She said the Steyer petition is more marketable and that “piggy-backing” the Adelson measure onto Steyer would be helpful.

Question 3 is expected to face a much more rigorous challenge in second-round voting, and its supporters are also expected to spend heavily to block that challenge.

Adelson’s organization last week announced it had hired two high-powered and expensive political consultants, one of them former Harry Reid campaign advisor Brandon Hall.

Steyer, in addition to funding the renewables measure, is also planning to spend heavily in two other Nevada campaigns— mobilizing 18-to-35-year-old voters with a precinct level campaign to turn out to help defeat U.S. Sen. Dean Heller’s reelection bid and Republican candidate for governor Adam Laxalt. He hopes to lure a quarter of a million young voters to the polls in the state. Heller has been The receiving financial contributions from, among others,

Question Berkshire Hathaway, the company that owns NV Three campaign Energy. Among other ballot is expected to petitions filed this year, be very, very two have already fallen by the wayside. One, expensive. seeking to repeal the Nevada commerce tax, was withdrawn. A second petition with the same goal is still in the field. The second, which sought to ban Nevada sanctuary cities, was stricken from being circulated by a district court judge. There was doubt among political professionals whether its supporter would be able to gather the signatures necessary for ballot status in any event. Still alive are a measure that would provide for “ranked choice” in elections and do away with primaries, and the second petition to do way with the commerce tax. Ω Fan On a city bus, Joe Ardans carefully handles a stack of autographed posters of people who have appeared at the Silver Legacy. The stack included Florida Georgia Line, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Brad Garrett and Jim Jeffries. Ardans works on lighting at the casino hotel. PHOTO/DENNIS MYERS

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