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Veteran's Affairs Plus discusses the issues that veterans in Las Vegas deal with on a daily basis. Your host, David L. Washington connects listeners with relevant community resources and information that they need to help veterans or themselves.
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This is a KU envy studios original program.
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You're listening to special programming sponsored by making moves life coaching services. The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
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Good morning Las Vegas, this Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I'm Dave Washington, your host. And coming up out. I'll do my announcements later because assistant manager Steve Smith has somewhere he has to here too. So we're gonna get him on the show right away. Good morning, Steve.
Unknown Speaker 1:08
Good morning, Dave. Thank you for having me on. I appreciate you guys. Oh,
Unknown Speaker 1:11
for sure. For sure. Steve, a couple questions for you. Where are you from? And if not Las Vegas, where?
Unknown Speaker 1:22
So my family is from the most beautiful city in the world. That's Chicago, Illinois. Oh, yes. You got outside suburbs? Oh, yes.
Unknown Speaker 1:31
I know. You're from Chicago. I got a lot of firefighters. Go Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 1:37
So yeah, we're from Chicago. I was gonna say, Yeah, we actually relocated to Las Vegas in the late 80s. So I my family is all Chicago. And so you know, if you're raised by Chicago, and you're from Chicago. Oh, absolutely. Considering the fact that I went to grade school through college here. I consider myself a local.
Unknown Speaker 1:54
Okay. So you were born here. You've been here since the mid 80s. You say you went to school? Yeah. And college?
Unknown Speaker 2:02
School here. Yes. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 2:05
So where'd you go to college? UNLV. Actually, oh, UNLV. Well, we're in the studios of UNLV 91.5 Jazz and more housing the greenspon. Hall of urban affairs, I believe it's called. But anyway, appreciate y'all. I
Unknown Speaker 2:23
I know it very well. And that's why I wanted to do the show, too. Besides the fact that I love you guys. You said you're at UNLV. I was like, Yeah, I would definitely get on. Alright,
Unknown Speaker 2:33
great. I got my grandson, David. He's a second eldest of our grand boys. And of course, we have now six boys and six girls. In fact, sometime in the near future, I plan to get David. And KJ and Chris on here. How you doing, Dave? Doing all right today after doing that jargon. All right. Look, Steve. I know that you're employed by a Nevada Wellness Center. How long have you been there?
Unknown Speaker 3:03
I have been with Nevada Wellness Center since the very beginning. In 2015. We laid the fiber down in this old building. And I was here when it was medical only. We were the first dispensary to open in the city of Las Vegas. So the only other dispensary at that time was way out in the county on to Container Robindale Am I gonna say their name? But it was just us too. And yeah, man. Yeah, we take a lot of pride in what the team has built here. We come so very, very far. The whole industry has come far actually. And like it's really impressive when I take a look back and think about it all.
Unknown Speaker 3:41
Well, I know you and your wife or assistant managers, and I know, Frank, we talk about you guys from time to time, and I know he thinks highly of you guys and and how you handle things and how you step up to the plate when there's things that need to be done. So kudos from Mr. Hawkins to you, my friend. So how we appreciate that, and how's the business going right now?
Unknown Speaker 4:06
Well, the marijuana business is not as strong as I believe it could be or should be. It began with a lot of excitement. You know, legalization in Nevada brought locals and tourists from around the globe to our city and into our doors. You know, it was very exciting time for all of us. But as the years passed, more and more states legalized cannabis, so there's more access to people. And then the third, the veteran granted many more retail licenses and cultivation licenses. So at that point, I feel like supply and demand economics started to kick in, and then that's when the price wars began. So I think when you manage a marijuana company, you really have to be mindful that this is not the streets. We're not here to compete with the streets. I think too many businesses try to we can't we pay taxes, we pay rent Gotta pay for testing delivery, we have employees, those employees have benefits, right? So it's like I've seen many companies fail, lots of retail operations, even more cultivation. And, um, you know, every boss, Frank Hawkins, he always says, If you keep lowering your price, you will find yourself out of business. And I have been seeing that firsthand. So I would just say, I think every Canvas business owner knows where we really could use some relief from the federal government. And I'm talking about section 280 II of the tax code. Okay, so for people who aren't familiar with that, it forbids businesses from deducting otherwise ordinary business expenses from gross income associated with schedule one or schedule two substances. So basically, we are heavily taxed far more than any other business. And so that doesn't help our pricing when we're trying to persuade people to buy in the legal market. Right.
Unknown Speaker 5:59
Wow, very, very interesting. So what do you consider as to what makes you guys more unique than any others in this industry?
Unknown Speaker 6:12
Oh, well, for one, we're the only 100% black owned marijuana company in Nevada. Yeah, we're a mom and pops dispensary. So we're privately owned. And we're surrounded by our competition, which is mostly a corporation's corporate dispensaries. We are a tight knit family group. I believe many of our customers feel that when they come in to shop. I mean, like this is really like the type of a place where like, you're not just like a number. This is a place where we will actually greet you by your first name. And like you got to see like, I see the look on people's faces when we greet them by name the first time they look at us like we're aliens, but like, this place, this place is different.
Unknown Speaker 6:55
Okay. I think that is very important, because I do check out the way people smile. In fact, you know, as I drive and bring people to the dispensary one thing people say to me is, they're so cordial. Well, why should why shouldn't they be? I mean, this is a customer service type industry. And anytime you're in sales, to me, you just like being my sister's a long time I'm thinking 30 to 40 years a waitress, and people love her because she she leaves ugliness and, you know, attitude at the front door when she comes to work. And as a result, they tip her will very well. Yeah. So tell me, considering we, of course, this is a veterans affairs show. What do you guys do for vets? And if nothing, I'll certainly encourage you guys to consider the veterans out there. Who are who are cannabis users? Yes,
Unknown Speaker 7:56
yes, we have actually a lot of veterans come see us. And the reason why is because we provide those daily deals. We also do something that's very unique in this industry, which is tax included pricing. So basically, what you see is what you get in WC, like we don't bait and switch, you see something online, you can go to the ATM and you can pay your debit card, and you're gonna know exactly how much you're gonna pay. So we got something for everyone, you know, from like, the smallest amount for the largest amount. It's like we got you covered. And
Unknown Speaker 8:25
you know, see that's very interesting in terms of not bait and switch. I tell people all the time. The price is the price. You don't get that in people tell them when they go to other sources. They say, wow, it was such a great deal until they say Would there be additional 1520 for what? Oh, oh, yes. For the taxes. Interesting. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 8:49
People love us for that. Yeah. So that's something that I don't think we're going to change.
Unknown Speaker 8:53
No, absolutely. So give us a rundown on the types of products that you care.
Unknown Speaker 9:01
So we basically have at all we have a very diverse selection of flour. And then that includes our house brands silver and black attack cultivation. And then from from our cultivation, you know, some of our really premier strands are fight the power tropical cherry and Cushman so those are like two of the local favorites. You can get pre rolls so you know your joints already rolled up. We offer infused products which for those who don't know it's basically marijuana rolled and concentrate so that can be hash or sometimes Keith, we offer vaping options. So we have a cartridges or disposable so either way it goes for that we got the batteries too. If you want to eat it, we provide edibles. We have gummies and different sorts of drinks. And then one thing that we have that a lot of other dispensaries don't have is we have CBD products. So we have CBD balms lotions, we actually have CBD flour, some straight CBD and we have flour mixed with THC and then we have straight CBD edibles. You
Unknown Speaker 10:04
know I use the it's like, I guess it's like a cream. I use it when I'm golfing and it really helps to keep my back from flaring up. Even though I have to make a little quick pitstop to add more because it usually lasts about about two hours and around a golf. It's anywhere from four to four and a half, sometimes five hours, depending upon who's out in front of you.
Unknown Speaker 10:29
So that's interesting. Yeah. And usually you only use it when you go. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 10:34
I use I use it for the person when I'm golfing for because of my bag. Yeah. Okay. It's
Unknown Speaker 10:39
okay. And how long does the usually last year I think you get that remedy pain balm I believe. I'm just curious.
Unknown Speaker 10:45
That's correct. And it lasts again, about two hours. And as I mentioned, I'll make a little pit stop to to rub down a little bit more to keep me going on through the rest of the round. Okay, so you have multiple locations now, please give us the address of those, as well as inform the our listening audience if you actually have a website.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
Okay, yeah. So like you said, we have two locations. First, the flagship store is located at 3200, South Valley View Boulevard. And that one's going to be near the strip, Valley View and desert area. And then we opened a new location recently in the southwest area of Las Vegas, that one's going to be 9030, West Flamingo. That one's in the flamingo and tupid teen area. And then we have a website. So the master website is www dot Nevada wellness centers.com. That's the Master Site. And so from that site, there's links to both locations. So that's the better wellness centers with the s.com.
Unknown Speaker 11:56
Excellent, excellent. Any closing remarks that you'd like to share with our listening audience and again, this is Veterans Affairs plus, on 91.5, jazz and more, we have Mr. Seats, Lee Smith, one of the assistant managers, along with his wife holding the same title for the Nevada Wellness Center, under the leadership and ownership of Mr. Frank Hawkins in the minor partner, Mr. Andre road, so close.
Unknown Speaker 12:25
I think I kind of said it all. You know, I just want to say once again, it's definitely an honor for me working for this company. I really feel blessed because not many people get to participate in an industry that they are really passionate about. And I have the utmost respect for the man I work for. Like I said, I truly have a passion for my job. I really understand and love the marijuana community. And I just want to really make sure that legalization succeeds for future generations. I personally believe everyone should have the right to legal, safe access of cannabis. The benefits are real. Once scientists can legally study cannabis, I think they're going to find with generations of marijuana advocates of like no and all the law. And that's this is really a miracle plant. So that's all I want to say, man. Thanks for having me on. Dave, I appreciate you giving me this platform to talk a little bit about our story means a lot,
Unknown Speaker 13:24
for sure. And I can tell you this that, you know, they got me on something. It's like a 5000 milligram and I can tell you that, you know, my doctors say are you taking any other medication outside of you know, what we were prescribing in terms of the this chemo treatment? I said, Well, yeah, because I'm trying to help to repair my body. And he said, Well, okay. I mean, you know, I'm willing to do things I ain't I'm not waiting on anybody just pass over his magic one Western say you're a cure. I've tried to do some things to help myself. David, you got anything to say to Mr. Steve Smith as we close this section? All right, David has nothing to say. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5, jazz and more. I am pleased to have a Mr. Steve Smith, with the Nevada Wellness Center. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate you.
Unknown Speaker 14:16
Thank you, Dave. God bless.
Unknown Speaker 14:18
Thanks now.
Unknown Speaker 14:28
Once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on any 1.5 chairs and more, and we had Mr. Steve Smith. He's one of the system manager at the Nevada Wellness Center in their last segment. I generally do my announcements prior to the first segment with Steve had some where he had to get to so our condolences, a very dear friend of particularly myself and the former president and CEO the O R We had a we had a company that raised not only raise money, but actually did loan packaging. It's called New Venture Capital Development Corporation. And Ernest was the president CEO. And I was chairman of the board, and one of our board members. Transition today, Mr. Jeffrey Walker. And Jeff was a longtime member of our board. So we want to acknowledge his family and let them know how much we appreciate him. We'll be praying for God to give them some release relief in the loss of Jeff and Jeff was a ball it. In fact, Jeff, I think Jeff was he was either a soldier, or well, Soldier and military, marine, you know, the Marines they did at that top tier level in their minds. But Jeff was a definitely a, a veteran, and we appreciate that service. But also, as a baller, they just call Jeff because he has a big fee to call and foots. So, Jeff Well, we hope that God was pleased with the work you did while you were here on this earth. And again, condolences to his family. In the month of June, we have quite a number of birthdays that I like to shout out kg, and kg is a ball of speaking of ballers about six one and probably gonna wind up six to six, three, and he can play. So wish you a happy birthday kJ. And then my nephew, Cliff, Cliff, Washington's Birthday is this month, and so was his mom who was deceased. His mother's name was Debra Washington, we call her her nickname was tipo. So she transitioned many many years ago. And we just hope that God was pleased with the time that she had on our excuse me, and another nice. Andrea's birthday is this month. So a number of birthdays this month that we certainly want to to acknowledge because they come fast and furious when you get like me into them 60s and 70 years of age at the time goes extremely fast for a dunk and Daniel is having a function in her city. It's Helena Arkansas, and I want to pass this on in case anyone's down in that area of our of our world. Helena Arkansas first family gospel and fish phi fish fry festival featuring local performing artists, excellent poets etc. etc. This will be on July 27 at 5pm at the Pavilion so those of you who will be down in here in Memphis in Little Rock, Arkansas area. Thank you have a lot of fun and get to meet a lot of local artists. And while I speak of Fay, something you guys have heard me say about her many times on this show. Faye, if you look into the dictionary, you'll see Fe as one of the supermoms. Her daughter Mia passed away a couple years ago now. But she was 50 years old when she passed. And that's due to the love of her mamma. Mia is mama love to great health. They didn't expect me because she was a special needs child. They didn't expect me to last beyond maybe five to 10 years of age. And again, because of her mother's love. She was around this earth for 50 years. So once again, Faye, I want to salute you because I think you are a guide and a role model for a lot of women. And it's it's something that I know is important was important to you to ensure that your daughter was taken care of. So once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and more, we'll take a brief break. And then we'll come back on the other side. And I'm going to engage my grandson in some of the the activities that he's been involved in, particularly David knows. And I remember when when we used to go to the barber shop, they'd be waiting on David whereas though, David, because he knew all the stats of the various sports. So with that, we'll take a short break. See you on the other side
Unknown Speaker 19:25
once again, this is Veterans Affairs plus 190 1.5 Jazz and more. I have my second eldest grandson sitting in the studio with me, David Washington. So how are you doing? Pretty good, good. So David, I'm gonna make a quick cup, make a couple of quick statements about some of our guests for next week. And as Mr. Bryan Stevenson, military veteran and Mr. Ramon Savoy, former owner of the central voice newspaper here in our city, so they will be one Next week's show, so David, tell me what's going on in your thoughts particularly with the NBA Finals going on What are your thoughts
Unknown Speaker 20:12
I believe the the Celtics are gonna close it out in five. I just think that they have one through eight on their whole roster that can play both sides of the floor. And they just match up very well for Dallas. They can match Dallas the size they can all physical Dallas on. And if one of Kyrie or Luka don't show up, it's trouble for them because Boston doesn't have to have their two best players play well, for them to win. As you can see from the first two games, Jason Tatum, issued and under 40% and Jalen brown play good the first game but he didn't play very well to his standard and second game, so drew Holliday stepped up for him and Christoph Porzingis, who actually got injured. And he's questionable for tomorrow's game. So I think that Boston has it. If Porzingis is healthy Porzingis they can close it out. And five I believe. I think that was a win tomorrow, though.
Unknown Speaker 21:27
So you think that we're seeing is has to play for him to take him out? Take them out in five? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 21:33
he asked to play. He's been playing well, because Tatum hasn't played very well. If Tatum plays very well, and they can win in five as well. But Tatum is more it seems like he's focused on passing the ball more and doing the little things instead of scoring.
Unknown Speaker 21:52
You know, something jumped up on my phone yesterday, one of them tic tac deals. And Jalen Brown, this do is a brainy. I mean, this dude is extremely, extremely bright. I think he may have done something that MIT or one of those, you know, mechanical type schools, and he can't even teach certain things. They say is math skill is off the chain. So that's, that's really something you you love to see. Athletes who are not just athletes, but they there will round it in terms of their their knowledge base.
Unknown Speaker 22:26
Right. Jaylen brown graduated from Cal Berkeley. Or he went to school at Cal Berkeley. So, you know, to get into Cal Berkeley, you have to your grades have to be up there for sure.
Unknown Speaker 22:39
Right. Now, as we talk about basketball, how about you, boy, how you doing?
Unknown Speaker 22:46
datian. He's doing pretty well. It was a pretty good season, he was on a two way contract. And you know, they took the loss to the Mavericks pretty, pretty hard. But he's getting ready for the next season. He'll be playing in the summer league on July 12. So he's getting ready. So
Unknown Speaker 23:06
he'll be in a sum up because what they have multiple summer leagues, right? In locations, I should say, no,
Unknown Speaker 23:11
they will do the NBA Summer League is just one. It's in the summertime. It's at UNLV. Actually,
Unknown Speaker 23:17
so what are these? There's places where people go in Florida. I think Utah, those are not
Unknown Speaker 23:23
what do they have three of them. They have Utah where they are for Florida is not they don't have the Florida one anymore. Oh really have California, like a Northern California one, like Sacramento. And then they have one in Utah. And then they have one here.
Unknown Speaker 23:38
And those will run after Vegas will run concurrent.
Unknown Speaker 23:42
So like the California and Utah ones are like two days before the Las Vegas one will start. And it's only about four to six different teams for that list. Not the whole league. No one in Vegas has the whole league playing
Unknown Speaker 23:56
from all the different teams.
Unknown Speaker 23:57
The one in California is only the California teams playing mostly. And it might be one or two different teams of NBA coming there. And then Utah, it you'll have, like four or five different teams.
Unknown Speaker 24:09
So you know your grandma y'all think y'all know all about the NBA. Tell me your thoughts in terms of the LA Lakers in particular. And I noticed scouting around I saw that. What's his name? UMass.
Unknown Speaker 24:27
yerli. Hurley, he turned it down. I don't believe they offered him enough money. He they offered him 70 million, but the coach in Detroit makes more than that. And Detroit is horrible. So like he should if you're gonna offer a back to back national championship coach who has the opportunity to go win three in a row, which has never been done before in college sports, right? I wouldn't take it either if I was him. Okay.
Unknown Speaker 24:53
Thank you, Jake. Get a little insight from David. Like I say when David and I used to go to the barber shop, they'd be way didn't bring the camera Where's David because he knew all the stats and I'm talking about when this boy was between eight and 10 years old. With that I'm going to swing over. Thanks, David for for making some comments for me. I'm going to swing into the 33rd session of the car homes executive Development Institute, where we're housed at Deloitte University. And thank God I was able to travel down for a couple of days, I went down for Thursday, Friday. And Friday. On Thursday, we we did the first of our the inaugural of our what we call the virtual wall of honor where we honored one, Mr. Romeo spalling, former president of the IBP FF he was the fourth president. And he was one of the brains thrust along with Dr. Carl Holmes, who put the whole executive development program together, along with many other fire service professionals. And also his wife, Miss Marvella. Holmes was also inducted as well, because those were three key people who kept the organization going, and is continuing to grow. In fact, I was really fabric blasted about the number of students we had, we were almost back to our heyday, we had dropped down to about 155 160. A few years back, we had 100, excuse me, 248 students this year. And of those mod one had 80 students. It's a five month program, we also have my 60s More like a master's program, or whether you actually do projects and you have the right, I'm talking about the students now. And we keep that as a small group, anywhere from 10 to 14, we may expand it a little bit bit bigger in the future, but it's certainly something that is important for us to do. And then finally we had our graduation, probably one of the smaller graduations. ceremonies that we've had in a few years we had 19 student but we're very, very proud of them. And they are from various ranks in various departments throughout the United States of America. With that, I'm going to roll over to our our next guests that you will hear from next week is Mr. Bryan Stevenson, and Mr. Ramon Savoy, as I mentioned earlier, and then on the 18th, we're going to have the honor of having an interview with Mrs. Anna Bailey, longtime business woman, her and her husband, Dr. William H. Bob Bailey, of course, we know her her daughter, Kim and the work that she's doing in the community as it relates to business development. And then her son, John Bailey, of John Bailey's, I forget his partner's name, but he's got a big law firm. We appreciate John for the work that he's done in the law arena. So with that, we're going to prepare to close out the show. And I appreciate so much the various and many prayers and texts and affirmations and different Bible verses that are sent to me particularly by Mr. Romeo Spalding, John ri, Bobby Mack, Roy, Bobby, Joe, these are these are folks that I've known for a number of years, particularly those the latter ones because I've been in Las Vegas for 70 7070 to know 70 years, just turned 73 and more. So actually 69 and a half to be precise, but we certainly thank you all for listening to the show. We encourage you to tell others about it. And we will get Mr. Tony Marshall back on as you know he's certified now. We're getting back on the show soon to update. Thank you very much, Wes. I appreciate it. This is Veterans Affairs plus on 91.5 Jazz and.
Unknown Speaker 29:25
Hey when they step on the way
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