Let's Talk with Leaha & Rhonda

Wesley Knight 0:00
This is a que un the studio's original program. The following is a paid program sponsored by Crawford management group and smart time consultants. Please be advised that the voices and opinions you hear do not represent the views of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of Nevada System of Higher Education.

Leaha Crawford 0:27
Hi, my name is Leah Crawford.

Rhonda Nolen 0:29
And I'm Rhonda Nolan.

Leaha Crawford 0:31
And you're listening to the let's talk with Leah and Rhonda show for all the beautiful entrepreneurs

Rhonda Nolen 0:36
out there. This is for you. Good morning. Las Vegas. Leah. How are you doing on this bright and sunny, warm Saturday morning?

Leaha Crawford 0:46
I have been working out. Yes, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Walking and talking. I want to say hello to my son in love. So is here with me. They had a turn up weekend for Memorial Day. I did not know about the day parties.

Yeah, I was like So y'all. So y'all passed out at eight o'clock. to three days two days in a row. Y'all just passed out at eight o'clock.

Rhonda Nolen 1:12
It's like a night they sleep asleep. Snoring

Leaha Crawford 1:14
snoring why I was like y'all going back out now. But apparently they had a parent that the day parties are a lot of fun around town. Okay, so they had a good time. So, so welcome to Las Vegas. I look forward to having you on the show with us one day soon as School's Out. School is out school boy you know traffic is easy now. The traffic is real easy so I'm loving it but I know you got a bunch of June has come in June is in Monday morning and well. No June is today. Today is June 1. Today Saturday June 1 Oh my God. It is June 1 Oh my god is June 1

Rhonda Nolen 1:51
The time flies five months. damn fun. Half the year is God I can't.

Leaha Crawford 1:57
So what you doing what you got going on?

Rhonda Nolen 2:00
Oh my god. I am just so excited. This week begins the bison in Vegas HBCU alumni weekend and I am so excited. We kick it off with our annual golf tournament on Thursday at Angel Park. Let's see Caesars Entertainment will be there. MGM Resorts will be there. The Venetian will be there. The Las Vegas Raiders will be there. I'll say it again. The Las Vegas Raiders will be there Clark County will be there in the energy will be there. Listen, all these organizations high paying jobs with benefits, a stable job with benefits and 401k and health insurance and all those types of things come dressed in your suit to meet directly with resumes. With your resume on your phone. Of course, you know, everything's digital, right? This is an opportunity for you young people who don't know anything about interviewing and sending in resumes for jobs and stuff. Right now you send in all of your jobs over the computer and the HR person who may or may not see the HR person's AI is AI Exactly. Or this is an opportunity for you to meet the HR person and the business leaders of the business units within the organization and speak to them directly and sell yourself to get a job. You don't get a chance to do that anymore. I mean, unless you're going for a job at a restaurant, you know, which is great because you go in person and you talk to the owners. But if you're trying to get a job in corporate America and you need to meet and see a person again next Friday, June the seventh from nine to 4pm at the horseshoe do I have to register. It will be lovely if you register but you can find out more information about registration@eventbrite.com There is no charge. There's no fee, we are trying to help the young people get their footing.

Leaha Crawford 3:37
Get there. I appreciate it. I appreciate thank you to the bison that bison in Vegas that bison is and

Rhonda Nolen 3:44
help everyone just help devices we help everyone

Leaha Crawford 3:47
everybody got to eat because everybody has to eat everybody has to eat what else yet? Oh,

Rhonda Nolen 3:52
also don't forget to mark your calendars and get yourself together for the 100 black men of Las Vegas 25th scholarship fundraiser on Saturday, June 29. At the Caesars Palace Hotel, we will be at the pool and all of

Leaha Crawford 4:07
our whites all white, all white all night.

Rhonda Nolen 4:11
We have music by kiss kiss, and DJ bins Oh nice. We're giving out $25,000 worth of scholarships to students in the Las Vegas area that will be going off to college this fall. And also we're taking scholarships. So www 100 Black men las vegas.org I believe they're taking scholarships until applications applicate right to take an applications probably until today. So you probably have until today to fill out your application, your child's application, your student applications. My child's application, you will you would advise him or her to feel about however if they're gonna

Leaha Crawford 4:47
write the essay. I mean, they can write the essay but I can walk into the I can do the application right it hits

Rhonda Nolen 4:52
the essay, you can just fill out the application, the application. Right HSA? Well, I think today is the last day so if you're a student is going off to college and they're looking, you know, possibly for a scholarship. And if they've been part of the 100 black men programs, they've been part of any of these programs, they are eligible to apply for the scholarship. So like, again, www 100 Black men las vegas.org.

Leaha Crawford 5:15
I love it. I love it. Well, today after all those fabulous announcements. You've listened to the last talk with Lee and Rhonda show. I'm Lea Crawford.

Rhonda Nolen 5:22
I'm Rhonda Nolan. And we have we have a very special Yes, in the house today, as our guests, Leah,

Leaha Crawford 5:29
gotta give her I gotta, you know, I need some hand clap. All right. I've known this woman now for almost about 15 years, and she never, ever ceases to amaze me, because it's always something it's always some bright idea. She is my sorority sister. She is a dear friend. She texts me in the middle of me. She'll text me in the middle night. Did you see? And I'm up. I don't know how me or her go to dinner together. I can tell you she is an amazing woman. Easy to talk to approachable, and no nonsense. No nonsense, no nonsense. But she likes you don't play but she is approachable. She is friendly. And the thing about it is she loves to laugh. She shared. She loves to laugh and she enjoys having a good time. No. I mean, we have on our show no other than Mrs. Berner rose, Ford, Esquire, because I always put the ESP she's like why you did it? Because we pay for those letters. That's right. Those letters call us every year. And you know, it's a lot of accountability with those letters. But welcome to the

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 6:39
show. Welcome. Oh, I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for having me.

Leaha Crawford 6:43
I'm saying is she is she is a wife. She is a mother. She's an amazing sister. She's an amazing auntie.

Rhonda Nolen 6:50
Okay, but she's my friend. Also. Let me jump in there. Yes, she's my friend. She is my girlfriend. She is my client. Oh, and I mean, I've known her now for a very long time. It's been I'd have no I have not known her as long as Leah but I have known her for quite a bit of time. And she is just a lovely person. And really her whole family is love.

Leaha Crawford 7:09
You want families that don't know but the entire family I'm talking about even the extended family because her husband's grandma. I love her husband's grandmother her Mee Mee Mee Mee Mee Mee I'm not telling every time I every time I'm gonna look here, I'm gonna take a picture with me, me, I'm not talking to you. I'm gonna go sit and talk to me for a little while. But just the whole you can feel the love when you are around them that they have for each other. And when she talks about one of her passions, because she voting, so voting is one of her passions has been one of her passions, but I'm gonna let her tell you about it. Welcome to the show.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 7:51
Thank you ladies. First of all, let me just tell y'all y'all can be my height women any day of the week. Oh, y'all made me. But no, voting really is my passion. I would say for over two decades now. I have volunteered in elections. However, whatever that looks like whether it's knocking on doors, doing election protection, the boiler room helping out with legal issues, you name it. Anybody needs help with voting issues and elections. I'm there because I really do have a passion for it. I do think the people have to have their voices heard. And so that's why I am a big advocate for making sure once people decide to register and vote and go to vote that their voices, their ballots are counted.

Leaha Crawford 8:42
I do want to ask you something, because I know we talked about this because I know some states convicted felons can vote. That is right. But in this state, that is this state. Yes. In this state, you can vote

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 8:54
yes, so released felons. In the state of Nevada, once you are released, you are automatically eligible to vote. You don't have to do anything to get eligibility to vote. But you do have to register. So for example, if you go and get a driver's license, just like with any other voter will be automatically registered to vote. So with a released felon who has served his or her time, if you don't go to the DMV, you'd have to take the steps that any other voter would take to register and vote. But absolutely, the great state of Nevada has seen fit to allow those who have served their time to come out and be part of the process

Leaha Crawford 9:41
and hear that she said the great state of Nevada and I love it the great state of Nevada with that, registering to vote because we're in early voting now and unlike a lot of no Nevada, there's no reason here. Why you don't vote because we started voting last Saturday. That's why Right, at locations around town, yes,

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 10:03
you can drop in any location that you see. In the I'll call it the olden days, you used to have to vote at a precinct, right that was near your house, and you only could vote at that particular place. Now, if you are driving down the street, and you see a pop up voting location in the shopping mall, you can pull in park park, and go and vote. I just did it Saturday. And I think my whole family of what was it four of us. We were in and out in about 10 minutes.

Leaha Crawford 10:38
And and now Oh, yeah. Yeah. Right. So I can tell in the state of Nevada, because Senator Pat Spearman always talks about this bill keeps on talking about this bill. They also get what mail ballots,

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 10:50
yes, I received. I have mine too. So mail in ballots are the wave of the future, apparently, but you don't even have to go to vote. So whereas it is how it has been made easier. So you don't have to go to a specific precinct, you can pull in anywhere you see a voting location. However, you don't even have to leave the convenience of your own home. Once you check your mail, you just put fill out that ballot and mail it back in and there's nothing else you have to do, your ballot will be counted. You can even track your ballot to make sure it was received. And I think they send you a text message or email or something,

Leaha Crawford 11:30
they send you a text, whatever, whatever is on your whatever is on your voter registration, your phone number or whatever,

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 11:35
yes, well, I receive text messages. So you might be able to get email as well. But I know that they will track your ballot. So you know, my ballot has been received. And now my ballot has been counted. So

Leaha Crawford 11:48
I can say to you, there is no reason, no reason why you are not voting. No

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 11:54
reason whatsoever. Because the issue used to be if you had to vote on election day, maybe you couldn't get time on work. Or maybe you worked during polling hours. That is no more the case. You know, that's not an issue anymore. So again, early voting, stop at any location, or simply mail in your ballot. You don't even have to leave your house. You can watch TV, fill out your ballot. It's easy. Drop it back in the mail. You're done. Okay.

Leaha Crawford 12:22
All right. I love it. So you are you are listening to I'm gonna call it the infamous Mrs. Berner Rhodes, Ford, Esquire she is here in the studio with us. She has been a voting activist. So I call her social activist because of social for over 20 years, and really making sure that you know, the laws are in place for us to be able to vote. It's everybody's right. It

Rhonda Nolen 12:46
is everybody's right. And our forefathers fought very hard for us to obtain the right to vote and women

Leaha Crawford 12:52
too, because remember, women when we couldn't vote people out,

Rhonda Nolen 12:56
especially you business owners, we talk about this all the time, we hope that you took the time this year to get to know some of the people that are running for office, so you know, what they stand on what their platform is, how, what what bills and things they have in place for entrepreneurs, so that when you make your selection that you pick the right person,

Leaha Crawford 13:14
okay, so we are in a presidential what people vote for the presidential but how important burden is it for them to go down the ballot? Oh, my

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 13:24
gosh, so down the ballot, some would argue is even more important, because down ballot affects your daily life in a lot of times more ways than other than the Presidential there actually is a really good video by a rapper name. Kodak yellow, I'm happy to get black. No, it's not Kodak Black is yellow, something Oh, yellow is something yellow voting. It's about voting. And it talks about how you if you vote for the president, and then you don't vote for the other positions, then you don't get to blame the president because the president can't do anything without Congress. And if you vote for the governor, but don't vote for the legislature legislate towards the governor can't do anything without the legislator legislature behind him or her. You vote for the mayor, but not the city council. So all of the pieces work together, I'm gonna get that rapper's name and provide it to you because it's not Kodak Black, but it's something yellow.

Leaha Crawford 14:28
But I think I saw that though. It wasn't on YouTube or something like that. Right. It

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 14:31
was a YouTube video. And yeah, he

Leaha Crawford 14:34
was breaking down government. And he was I did I saw I saw it because it was a rat. It was Iran. Correct. And I was like, Wow, this make sense. And it helped. It helped. But I understood it but it helped me to explain to my son why it is important that all of these elections so it's not just you voting for one person you need to go down the ballot because on this ballot. We have we do have a president but we have a senator. US senator that that on the ballot, Congress is always on our ballot, then you have, you know, we have the city of Las Vegas mayor's race that's going on. Yeah, we have a whole bunch of city council races because we have different jurisdictions, most of our understanding where you live in, in this county, right, and who you can vote for,

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 15:18
and not only those positions, please understand that the judiciary has a large impact on the way things happen and the way like verdicts are rendered and how juries operate. So if you don't know who the judges are, call somebody who does. A lot of times we we call our friends who are attorneys, and we say, Hey, have you practiced in this court before? Who do you know which which one of these candidates is good? Right,

Leaha Crawford 15:48
because, but the thing about okay, so burn, and it does get confusing when you get to the judges? Because we don't know. And the most interaction? I mean, well, we hopefully never to have an interaction with the court. Right. But you got family court that I think is justice to the peace, then it's I mean, it's just so many different court, District Court, so many different things you can vote for. And you're right, we don't have

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 16:12
we don't have a clue. But we have to try to educate ourselves. Actually, there's one department that I'm still trying to find somebody who knows the candidates. Oh, boy. Yeah. So they're, I guess, you know, kind of not as widely known. So we don't want to make the wrong choice. Right. But we want to do our best to try to make an educated choice. Do

Leaha Crawford 16:33
they really get out and campaign to the judges get out and campaign? They absolutely

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 16:37
do. So you will see judges that a lot of community events and dinners, they go to all of the chicken dinners do. They do they do? Now they judges cannot run as partisan, they can't run out. But they're at the events and they're getting to know people and

Leaha Crawford 16:55
I think City Council is nonpartisan? It's a few races here that are nonpartisan. So they're not they're not party racist, correct? Yeah, because I think the city council, city council, all of those are nonpartisan races, like the judges.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 17:07
So when the when the races are nonpartisan, you have to make sure you know something about that individual. Because a lot of times, their background will tell you how they would tend to rule in a particular case. And rulings are important rulings are extremely important. Important. Absolutely.

Rhonda Nolen 17:26
And most of the judges have their own websites. So if there's a you know, judge in your area that you're voting for, and you're not that familiar with, you could go to their put pull up their name on Google and go to their website, and they will give you their their whole background, where they're from where they went to school, all that fun stuff. They may talk about a couple of exciting cases here or there, you know, or, you know, it's public record, you can go look up, you know, one of their cases and find out, you know, how they rule

Leaha Crawford 17:50
cases, the regions, because people don't really talk about, you know, the important that a region phrase, and the important that we that Clark County School District trustee. So

Rhonda Nolen 18:02
Morton position, I

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 18:03
work in the Nevada System of Higher Education. And it is troubling to me that people do are not concerned about those races, they're not concerned about inching weight. That's what we call the education. They're not concerned about CCSD. This is our education system. We often talk about Nevada being at the bottom of all of the educational rankings. But we as citizens, we as voters, don't take the time to figure out who is the right person to be in this position. It is extremely important that if we want our education system to be elevated, we've got to make sure we have the proper governing body in place.

Leaha Crawford 18:45
Well, I want to say we this weekend Well, last week and couple weekends ago, Phylicia Rashad was here with 100 black women. And kudos to the 100 black women because that was an amazing event. And what she talked about was we talked about that top race. And that's hop race is not it. She was like, What are y'all doing on the school board? And she was harping, and she's not even she was like, Look, how are you educating the babies? What are we doing with the infants to toddlers? Because that's where it starts. That's where it starts. And if we grow them, right, then we get you know, we got to think about the next generation. That's how you build community and our community has grown by leaps and bounds over the past five years,

Rhonda Nolen 19:25
it's your hands and for all your residents from California that have moved here, your vote is very important as well and look at your ballot because hopefully you changed your driver's license over to your new address in Nevada so that you could receive your ballot. So you can look at the names of the folks who are running so you can do your background work because you just got here so you have no idea of what they have or have not done in the past.

Leaha Crawford 19:45
It is a large influx from California and we are feeling it. We were feeling it by the influx from California, but it's I mean people from all over. They make the rules like y'all we all complaining about how all the streets have been all messed up. Ooh, and they They messed up for about what? They're getting better now going on two years now, but they're getting better now. They're getting better now. But you know, again, who handles that? You know, is it the county commission? Is the city council? You know what, you know? Who could you talk to about that? If you have a nuisance going on in your neighborhood? Who do you talk to about that? You know, how do you get stuff done? If there's new development going on? And you don't want it there? Who do you talk to about that? You know, how do you make sure it I know, for us, we had to go and we had to talk to our county commissioner, because of where I live, to say, look, they're coming in our neighborhood, okay, they're gonna build these houses, but this is what we're gonna need them to do. They're gonna need to do this, they're gonna need to do that. And, and we all want it. And it's constant communication. You know, but I live in, you know, they, they they talk to their county commissioner.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 20:53
Well, and I think that's important. A lot of times, we this might not be a popular opinion, but we will take to the streets, but we won't go to the ballot box. And so, the electeds they're looking at people vote. And while they will, they will pay attention momentarily, to the people who were screaming, yeah, they will pay attention to that. However, they are going to see who are their constituents, and who is their voting bloc. And if they don't know you are a voting constituent. If they don't know what your concerns are, if you are not making your presence known to them, then they're not really here. My blog votes. Yes, my blog. And my blog, got some things done. Oh, yeah. But if you you've got to show up, and I've even you know, tell people just go to a city council meeting every now and then let people know, this is who you are. If you're an organization where your colors go to that meeting, every now and then they're gonna say, Who are the people in that? Who are those people? They're gonna say, Oh, they're paying attention. We better before we vote on an issue. We know they're watching us. So we need to do that. But you

Leaha Crawford 22:06
need to but it's even more important than that. Because when you talk about the government, by the time you see the shovel in the sand, or in the dirt is too late. Oh, a lot of times done is done. Because no planning commission who's on the planning commission, what are the plans that are going on for the city? What's coming up? You know, and they have a whole bunch like they have the performing arts commission I mean, just all these different Commission's that you can be a part of if you just apply you know, but But you got to get involved because this is our our community. I've been here 20 years now. Yeah, this is our this is my anniversary month, once a year. Wow. Yeah, June is my anniversary. My anniversary of 2020 years.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 22:50
Wait, wait, I want to go back. So I found a video Come on, what's his name, his name is yellow pain, yellow, yellow, yellow. Yellow, I ll O. P ai n. yellow paint yell low pay, okay. And the video was called My vote don't count my my vote don't count.

Leaha Crawford 23:13
And I want you guys to pay attention to that, because it says my vote don't count. And he's going to that video is very entertaining. But it's also informative, very

educational areas.

Yes. And he will let you know why. You know, it's look, we got to vote.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 23:28
Right? We have to vote? Yes, there is there does seem to be quite a bit of apathy. Right now. A lot of people are looking at, like, I think like, I don't know, where they're getting their information, but I don't think they're going to accurate sources. Were when I hear people saying this person isn't doing anything or this person is doing something to help me. Well, what are those statistics and facts to back that up, you need to go and look at the unemployment rate, you need to go and look at the number of judges who have been appointed, you need to look at things that impact your committee, I mean, your community? Because I guarantee you if you look at those types of things, you need to decide, does it matter to you whether a woman has rights over her own body? Hmm, that is a that's a huge. I think that they're saying that it's the first time the rights have been taken from us, as opposed to rights given to us. And so you have to decide what matters to you. Because I guarantee you, once you start actually looking at the facts, and looking at the things that matter to you, then you can make a definitive decision. And you don't have to go based on things that are on social media, and little, you know, little two or three second tidbits. You go and look at the facts and that's how you make your decisions. Talk

Rhonda Nolen 24:50
to your friends, talk to your family because I was having a meeting with someone who said, Oh, that organization hasn't done anything. I was like, Oh my God, you have no idea what that order Ovation does. They do this, this, this, this and this. And they've been doing and they were like, Oh, I didn't know. I was like, Yeah, but you're making statements like that. And you're telling other people, yeah, this organization doesn't do this, or this person don't do that. And you don't know. That's right. You know, so So please, you know, can you just, you know, if you don't know, just say you don't know, or just simply look it up, or ask someone who does know, but, you know, don't don't say that person hasn't done this. And that person doesn't know this, you don't know. But I have blocked

Leaha Crawford 25:23
a lot of times, I don't know if a lot of times people are good at telling your stories. And or getting the information out there. Because I know as part of our sorority, we do some actionable things around elections. And sometimes we just don't tell the story. Well, we don't tell the story. Well, and we've been talking about how do we tell the story better, to talk about the things that the positive things that we are doing in the community? I mean, the whole divine nine out there, it's time to vote, and they're hitting the street. How do we make this happen? Now for political candidate, not for any particular candidate, but the importance of voting? Exactly the importance of voting, you know, and just people in period because there are a lot of women, different organizations, 100 black women talking about, you know, 100 black men, just all the orcs, how do we ensure that we are out here voting? Voting, because it's it's very important, but Nevada does well, because we like 70 80% and 14 way we

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 26:20
are we have a pretty good voting way in Nevada. And as everybody probably knows, we are the word just, but we're basically a state that where it matters. What's the word call, you know, purple, were purple. But we are one of the decision states decision. Makers. Yeah, we're

Rhonda Nolen 26:39
very, very important. Yes.

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 26:40
So that is why you will often see a lot of the candidates coming to Nevada because we can make or break an election an election. We absolutely can't vote early vote is until June the

Leaha Crawford 26:51
Okay, so it's I think it's so June the 11th. Let me know June 11. Is the day. It could be June. It usually

stops before that.

So Friday is the Friday before the election, I believe, because that weekend, but you can see, we'll give you a minute to look it up to see. I think your event is on the eighth right? Is it what Friday, Friday is

Rhonda Nolen 27:15
a seven, seven

so I think is this also the vote is June the 11th. And person but early vote goes all the way up, I believe to like June 6 or seventh.

Leaha Crawford 27:24
This is seven I think it's this Friday before

Burna Rhodes-Ford, Esq. 27:26
it always stops before a couple of days before I think

Rhonda Nolen 27:29
it's Friday the seventh. So but

Leaha Crawford 27:30
let's look it up and just know that it is postmarked on the 11th. It still counts.

Rhonda Nolen 27:36
Yes. And early voting does end on Friday, June 7.

Leaha Crawford 27:40
I've been enough of these elections now notice the Friday before right

Rhonda Nolen 27:44
so it's very important. Las Vegas. You have a several people running for mayor. You have several people running for different seats, Congress person, Congress, women, Congressmen, judges, you really want to get out US Senate US Senate your vote does count is critical is Christmas primary is critical. All right.

Leaha Crawford 28:03
We are out of town Rhonda we are out of time.

Rhonda Nolen 28:05
Thank you for joining us. You've been listening to less talk with Lee and Rhonda I'm Lea crawl. I'm Rhonda darling. Thank you so much, Bernard, you for being with us this Saturday morning and we'll see you next week.