Posted on 12/07/2016 6:44:47 PM PST by GSWarrior
NBC News paid for a hotel room for the man who ran the Ghost Ship, the Oakland warehouse-turned-artists-collective that burned down Friday night, killing 36 people at an underground electronic music show.
Mainstream media outlets frown on paying money to sources. A network spokesman said NBC “absolutely” did not give money to Derick Almena in exchange for a series of exclusive interviews, but bought him a hotel room at the Oakland Marriott City Center for “a couple of nights.” The spokesman described that as “standard TV booking procedure.”
Almena, 46, stayed at the hotel with his wife, Micah Allison, and their three children. The NBC spokesman did not say how much the hotel room cost, but on the Marriott’s website, a room for two adults and three children goes for around $450 a night. Numerous news agencies have been seeking to speak to Almena about the fire, but he has granted extensive interviews only to NBC. He appeared on the “Today” show on Tuesday morning, saying he was “incredibly sorry” about what happened but that he “didn’t do anything ever in my life that would lead me up to this moment.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
His next “hotel” will have complementary gray bars.
They probably got $$$ for incidentals and room service which, for a family of 5, can be quite pricey.
Locally, there is continued speculation as to what Derick did with his profits from this warehouse. He had at least 15 residents paying at least $1000. per month. His rent was only $5000. for the entire space. This does not count the additional tenents paying a few hundred dollars a month for a much smaller space. Was he sharing the profits with others? Who? Alemena was foolish to even go live on the air with NBC for that morning interview with no lawyer present. He probably couldn’t resist the lure of the cameras.
They need to go after the local building inspectors as well as they did nothing for several years knowing this warehouse was in violation of several building codes. Instead, they sat on their asses with their cushy govt.jobs while raping the hardworking taxpayers of their money.
Yup. Ghost Ship fire and deaths were not prevented by the countless City Inspectors...many of whom may have never left their cushy desk jobs to actually canvas violations.
Methamphetamine and heroin and marijuana.
It is obvious to all except the naive/stupid that they would have paid him cash as well as for room...scumbags paying a scumbag for an interview.
This would not surprise me at all. Such expenditures would be ongoing, and may explain why his kids had to exist in such ramshackle conditions. Secondly, I had no idea such drugs mentioned could be so expensive. I’m heard about prices for Marijuana, but know nothing about what Meth and heroin would cost. It’s a world I have avoided except as something to be read about or seen via films.
In the old days, he’d be gone and the search would be on. I’m guessing Almena, the building owner, and even some folks in the city will have a lotta ‘splainin’todo.
Check their bank accounts for payoffs.
There was a time in the mid 90’s when cannabis actually cost more than gold, by weight.
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