Case Bets: Cullotta’s moll, squeeze on Sands, gay old UFC

Local radio chatterbox Heidi Harris recently set her pants on fire attempting to rewrite history about a Mob terror campaign against then-Nevada Gaming Commissioners (one of whom went on to become Sen. Harry Reid [D-NV]). The evidence seems pretty unambiguous but Harris — not one to stop digging once she finds herself in a hole — snuggled up to an old mafioso in hopes of receiving validation. Never mind that Frank Cullotta might have his own motives for pooh-poohing the historical record.

Gov. Jim Gibbons flat-out lied about what happened to the families of Reid and George Swarts. But one expects that of the incorrigibly mendacious Midnight Jim. What Harris is doing is a subtler calumny because Cullotta’s testimony — by logical extension — paints the attempt on Swarts’ life as a fabrication, too. Harris is no Cullotta, however: She’s merely a character assassin.

Caveat emptor. That’s stock gadfly Eric Jackson‘s advice to would-be buyers of Las Vegas Sands stock. He lays out a multi-point case why LVS shareholders should be worried, very worried. Among the factors explaining CEO Sheldon Adelson‘s sudden sense of urgency to finish up his uncompleted Cotai Strip™ (below) hotels is that if they’re not done by the summer of 2011, Peking will nationalize all of Sands’ Macanese properties. Besides, “Sheldon Adelson is known for slipping delivery deadlines.” (Tell us about it!)

Another motivation for getting a move on in Macao (and Singapore) is that Sands is bumping up against the ceiling of its debt-to-cash flow ratios — ceilings which will get lower during the next 13 months. Other causes for concern are that one default by Adelson trips a series of additional ones … and that “roughly 10% of their recent $500 million in total cost savings Sands management boasted about” went straight into the pocket of Dr. Miriam Adelson, thanks to a preferred-stock dividend.

Well, maybe this. In another boneheaded move, I completely spaced out last night and forgot to cast my 20 online Dancing with the Stars votes. If Kelly Osbourne is eliminated, you can pin the blame on me if you like.