My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | MAY 7, 2014
Marla's birthday
Sterling and Bundy
Marla McGee will celebrate her 60th birthday party at the Tap Haus at 1 p.m. on May 10. Marla is currently the store manager at one of the Ross stores in Phoenix but has had a busy background in Cave Creek. She was the owner of the Buffalo Chip Saloon, co-owner of the Lazy Lizard, president of the local chamber of commerce, founder and inventor of Wild West Days and a salesperson for Sonoran News.
She also is the daughter of the late well-known Green Bay Packers legend Max McGee. After discussions with locals she has decided to broaden the birthday celebration and make it an annual one called Cave Creek Reunion. She invites Creekers to bring pictures, albums, etc. to the event to share with attendees.
See you there! 
Sterling and Bundy
The news has been dominated by two individuals of late. One was owner of the NBA Los Angeles Clippers Donald Sterling. The other is Nevada rancher Clive Bundy. Both have received a thorough trashing and racist branding by the media. Sterling is not likable for many reasons, including the way he became a billionaire, by trodding on home and apartment dwellers to create profitable homes from which his wealth came. Further, if you are conservative or Republican (there is a difference) you wouldn't be a fan since he is a big Democrat Party contributor. Then, although he is married, there is the fact he openly has a girl friend on whose support he spends a fortune.
Many think he was set up when he was taped. TMV had the story online and it quickly went viral. Sterling later admitted it was him on the tape where he admonished his mixed race girlfriend not to be photographed with retired NBA player Magic Johnson again and not to bring black friends to his basketball games. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban made an important statement and said even though he would vote against Sterling in the proposed NBA sanctions it was a "slippery slope" and indeed it is.
When a business owner is threatened not to involve himself in his business because of perceived racism our First Amendment is gone. Apparently, in this case, such statements are prohibited by NBA policies to which he is subject.
This raises the question as to whether the tax exempt organization should have that power. Remember the power of the NFL’s blackmail, which forced a Martin Luther King state holiday on us? MLK was many things, some good and some bad. I would never celebrate a communist and he was one. That statement has nothing to do with race and MLK should be measured by what he did for humanity as well as what he did that was poisonous to the country at large. In no way should our subsidized sports teams be using their clout as blackmail.
Sports announcers spent hours berating Sterling. Dozens of them attributed the growth in value from Sterling's team purchase price of $12.5 million to its current estimated value of somewhere between $600 million and $1 billion solely to players. Hello? The owner and his organization had nothing to do with the appreciation?
Also, in saying they would force a sale of the team, fire sales, especially with all the negative publicity, will normally bring nowhere near the estimated value. No matter what foolishness an owner utters, his ownership should remain in his hands. And let's not forget what kind of ex-players are adored by NBA fans. Magic Johnson has AIDS from incredibly promiscuous behavior and Charles Barkley shared his proclivity with anti-white statements. Why, with their views, are they highly paid TV commentators?
Recently it has been rumored Sterling has prostate cancer, and to their credit Clippers’ players have had nothing bad to say about him and instead spoke in support of him. Yes, he said incredibly stupid things, but he has every right to his opinions. In a similar case, the feds were going to fire sale Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's property to pay for alleged payments owed for grazing his cattle on federal land. There are issues about the fed’s hopes to save desert tortoises that reside on the land where Bundy grazes cattle.
I have had personal experience with the tortoise issue. Nine people and I purchased commercial property in Palm Bay Florida. Our expectations, based on commercial property values, were that we would each make $250,000 upon sale.
That is before Carol Browner stepped in as the head of the EPA for Florida before President Bill Clinton hired her for the federal position. She ruled that all the tortoises on the property had to be caught and relocated. Our cost was about $15,000 for each turtle caught and relocated. Further, she ruled that puddles which formed after a rain classified the property as wetland, that it would have to be surveyed and the same amount of land would have to be purchased elsewhere and given to the state. After ten years of this maneuvering and associated cost, we investors actually made $50,000 profit, one-fifth of that anticipated, thanks to Carol Browner and her bureaucratic abuse.
Bundy's problem seems similar because desert tortoises are again being used as justification for a federal land grab. Bundy like Sterling had diarrhea of the mouth, but he had the right to say want he said. Even Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomyor said race should be discussed openly and honestly. This probably isn't what she meant but it is what she got.
