Friday, April 29, 2005 | 11:01 a.m.
It's hard to get cabdrivers to share an opinion, much less pay to join an organization.
But local cabbies Greg Bambic, Phillip Alexander and Craig Harris are doing their best to stir up interest in their fledgling group, the New Professional Drivers Association.
What makes the organization special is that its mission is not to promote the professional interests of drivers, but rather to raise money for colleagues who have fallen victim to violent crime on the job.
The new venture is a natural extension of what this trio of cabbie activists has been doing for months amid a wave of violence plaguing the taxi industry.
Last year the veteran drivers raised more than $50,000 for the son of Nellis cabbie Pairoj Chitprasart, who died after being doused with gasoline Aug. 20 in a robbery attempt.
This year they collected several thousand dollars for Sunny Kim, a Yellow Cab driver who's recovering from a dozen stab wounds he suffered in a vicious attack on March 1.
"We are a nonprofit force for the welfare and benefit of working Las Vegas cabdrivers and their families," Bambic, the group's president, told the state Taxicab Authority Board this week. "If a driver gets terribly hurt or killed by the bad guys, we will have the funds to help him and his family."
The drivers have banded together because the companies and industry regulators have been slow to take decisive action to keep them safe on the streets.
There's still no regulation in place ordering every company to install a camera system that will protect the drivers from the "bad guys" and the riding public from an intrusion on its privacy.
Bambic says his organization, so far, has raised about $1,500 toward its goal of creating a $50,000 fund.
The group is recruiting dues-paying members at a restaurant owned by Alexander, The Don's Pizza, across from the Rio hotel. The Don's, inside the Flamingo Stop convenience store, is a favorite hangout for cabbies trolling the Strip.
The only downside to the charitable effort is that it probably can't expect to meet its goal without contributions from the companies.
They've turned a cold shoulder to such fund-raising efforts in the past.
Those close to Rick Rizzolo say he's definitely looking to sell the Crazy Horse Too, as he contemplates a deal with federal prosecutors to end a racketeering probe at the strip club.
Rizzolo, I'm told, has accountants putting together financial information about the popular joint so that he can entertain formal offers.
Last week I reported that the topless club operator was fixing up the strip mall that houses the Crazy Horse too, giving it a fresh paint job and paving the back parking lot.
This week Rizzolo is spreading new blacktop on the front parking lot.
So what's the reported asking price for the troubled Crazy Horse Too?
Would you believe somewhere between $20 million and $30 million?
No one ever said Rizzolo wasn't ambitious.
Bad news, meanwhile, is coming in droves for the Crazy Horse.
Vinny Faraci, a former shift manager there, has decided not to answer questions under oath today in a bigtime civil suit against the club.
The suit was filed by Kirk Henry, a Kansas City man who suffered a broken neck in a parking lot altercation at the Crazy Horse.
Faraci, the son of a ranking New York mob figure, isn't a defendant in the lawsuit.
But his lawyer, David Chesnoff, this week informed District Judge Jackie Glass and Henry's lawyer, Don Campbell, that Faraci would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination if questioned about the altercation, which also is the subject of the federal racketeering probe.
This is creating a buzz at both courthouses.
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