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Billy Walters is a perfect example of the American Dream made reality. Born William Thurman Walters on July 15, 1946 in the town of Munfordville, Kentucky, Billy grew up in the humblest beginnings to eventually become one of the most successful sports gamblers in American history and a storied philanthropist with a long track record of helping those in need and giving back to his community.

From Early Tragedy to Success

Billy’s home life began with tragedy. His father died when Billy Walters was only an infant, and his alcoholic mother abandoned him to the care of his grandmother to start a new life in Louisville. Without running water or indoor plumbing, Billy worked hard to help his grandmother who cared for him when no one else would. [WorldCasinoIndex.com]

Billy’s first job was mowing lawns at the age of seven, after his grandmother helped him secure his very first bank loan for $40 to purchase a lawnmower. He made enough to repay the loan within two years (quite a feat in the 1950s), and then moved on to delivering newspapers every day before school. His grandmother worked full-time cleaning local homes and taking shifts at a restaurant, and she instilled a strong sense of faith in him at an early age.

At 13, Billy’s grandmother passed away. This left him no other option but to find his estranged mother, who had since remarried in Louisville and started a new family. Despite years of abuse and mistreatment, Billy would eventually be the one to look after his mother as she approached the end of her life due to emphysema. He paid her medical bills and ensured her comfort until she passed.

Hard Work Pays Off

Billy learned the value of hard work at a very young age and never forget the lessons he learned during his tough Kentucky childhood. During high school he worked from 4:30 am to 7:30 am each morning before classes at the Davis Doughnut Bakery and then after school until almost midnight at a local gas station. He eventually moved into the world of auto sales, becoming so successful he eventually launched his own dealership.

After selling Taylor Boulevard Auto Sales, Billy decided to pursue his love of sports gambling as a profession, moving to Las Vegas and learning how to use computer analytics to improve his betting outcomes. He eventually earned a reputation as one of the most successful sports betters of all time. Separately, he also became one of the most famous poker players in Las Vegas, earning a reputation as “unbeatable” and eventually winning the No Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament of the 1986 World Series of Poker.

Billy Walters used his winnings to fund the Walters Group, an investment company he started with his wife that specialized in residential and commercial real estate development and the golf industry. A die-hard lover of the game of golf, Billy wanted to share his love of his favorite sport with the Las Vegas community.

Golf and Philanthropy in Las Vegas

Prior to Billy’s investments in the Las Vegas golf scene, most of the courses around Las Vegas were inaccessible and overpriced for many working-class people in the area. He built an affordable and accessible course in a rundown part of the city in an effort to revitalize the area and bring the game of golf to more people. He even started golf clinics for youth golfers, hosted charity events, and invested in golf course operations throughout the area.

The Walters Group regularly hosted charity events and provided funding to local non-profit youth organizations, including educational programs and youth success programs that fostered hard work, determination, leadership, and self-sufficiency among underprivileged youth in the Las Vegas area.

For years Billy avoided the media spotlight, preferring to focus his attention on improving others’ lives rather than becoming famous. However, he agreed to an interview on 60 Minutes in 2011, where he made his case for legalized sports betting and cemented his public image as not only an incredibly successful gambler, but also a dedicated philanthropist focused on improving the lives of others.

Business Work by Billy Walters

Many media accounts portray Billy Walters as one of the most successful gamblers of our time.

While he is widely regarded as one of the industry’s best sports bettors, he has also enjoyed decades long success in business. The Walters Group has been wildly successful in a variety of business ventures since its inception in 1988, when he started with just two employees. Today, the Walters Group employs more than 2,000 people in a number of commercial, residential, and mixed use properties, in addition to car dealerships, country clubs, and golf courses.

Business Beginnings

Walters has long had a dedicated work ethic, beginning his first two businesses at age 6 and 9 (a lawn cutting business and a paper route, respectively). When he lost his guardian and beloved grandmother at the age of 13, Walters moved to Louisville to rent a room in his estranged mother’s basement, which required working two jobs before and after school.

In his early 20s, Walters began his career in automotive sales at a used car lot called McMackin Auto Sales. Every time he sold a car, Walters would draft a self-promotional letter and distribute it to the 10 neighbors living around the new buyer. Working tirelessly for 80 hour workweeks, Walters would eventually net around $56,000 a year, which amounts to $400,000 in today’s dollars. During his auto career, Walters served as manager at Steven’s Brother’s Auto Sales and even started his own car business, Taylor Boulevard Auto Sales, which he would operate in Kentucky until the 1980s.

Las Vegas Business Holdings

Walters would eventually move to Las Vegas to pursue sports betting and revolutionize the game. After his retirement, Walters went back to his business roots. He and his wife, Susan, started The Walters Group in the late 1980s and have been growing the empire ever since. They started with commercial and residential real estate holdings, eventually moving into luxury property such as golf courses, resorts, and country clubs. In 2000, they would open their own golf course, the Bali Hai golf course, right on the Las Vegas Strip.

In addition to their real estate holdings in the Walters Group, the family also went back into auto sales. BW Auto Ventures owns seven dealerships in Kentucky and four in Georgia. Together, those dealerships represent thirteen different brands of vehicles: Buick, Toyota, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Ford, GMC, Hyundai, Kia, Lincoln, Mitsubishi, Nissan, and Lincoln. Walters credits much of his business success to his young start in the automotive field. In an interview, he noted that selling and working on cars served as his college experience and real-life MBA. The Walters Groups and BW Auto Ventures has made Billy Walters one of the most influential men in the Vegas Area and beyond. He continues to work closely with his general managers to ensure that the automotive businesses stay on track.

Walters is also known for being a deeply philanthropic man – his business ventures continue to generate significant revenue each year, which he donates to worthy causes benefiting the education, employment, and training off less fortunate residents of Southern Nevada. He and his wife, Susan, will long be known as pillars of the community they serve.

Billy Walters Today

Now a man in his seventies, Billy Walters has no plans to stop working toward helping others. In 1997, the city of Las Vegas named Billy and his wife Susan as the city’s Philanthropists of the Year. Their favorite project is Opportunity Village, a Las Vegas-based nonprofit organization aimed at providing employment opportunities to people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. To date, the Walters have raised more than $50 million for Opportunity Village.

Billy Walters has faced many challenges in his life. Many argue his prison sentence was unjustified and that he wasn’t treated as an equal under the law. He discusses the DOJ & FBI Misconduct on his website. Newsmax did an article that clearly discusses the matter related to Billy Walters titled, “There Will Be No Equal Justice for All Until There’s a Change in System” It discuss the case against Walters and is a must read.

Other charities and non-profit causes Billy has contributed toward include the Nevada Cancer Institute, Nevada State College in Henderson, the Las Vegas Victims’ Fund, Boy Scout Good Turn, and the Las Vegas Sun Camp Fund. There is also a quiet history of many acts of generosity and kindness for the people of Las Vegas who have been struck by tragedy. Billy continues to live the virtues instilled in him at an early age and plans to continue helping improve the lives of others as long as he can. [Wikipedia]

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/william.walters.50951101

The City of Seattle looks forward with Mayor Jenny Durkan’s announcement of her 2019 and 2020 budget proposal. Being Durkan’s first budget proposal, she excitedly began with, “Good afternoon. It is an honor to be with you today as I present my first budget as mayor of Seattle. I know the Mayor is usually at City Hall to deliver her budget speech. And yes: After 100 years, that’s what I said, ‘Her budget speech.’”

This monumental moment for Durkan was followed by the city’s plans and budget for the coming years.

A proposed allotment of money has been set aside for the employment of 40 new police officers, 120 firefighters, and 24 new call center employees for Seattle Public Utilities and Seattle City Light, according to CrossCut.com. The city’s transportation services will be greatly benefited from Durkan’s proposed budget. $2.5 million is granted toward Sound Transit with the planning of a new light rail station. King County Metro will be asked to add more bus services around Seattle as well. Additionally, new bus and bike lanes will be added in the city under the new budget.

Durkan is working for taxpayers to vote “yes” on the school levy this November in attempts to fund preschool, K-12, and community college schools in Seattle. An allotment of $2.6 billion is going toward Seattle utilities — this includes garbage, recycling, clean water, and power.

Durkan’s most prevalent headlining budget is her proposal for managing homelessness in the city. A proposed budget of $89.5 million was made toward the funding of programs, resources, and departments aiding the homelessness epidemic. In the first half of her inaugural year as mayor, Durkan’s efforts resulted in two times the re-homing of homeless individuals than the year prior. More than 500 beds were added to Seattle homeless shelters during her first year. The mayor’s budget proposal took what was once temporary spending money toward homelessness and made it permanent. Durkan’s Biennial Budget Proposal has laid out the city’s plan to implement 2,300 more emergency shelter beds, 70% of these beds being 24/7 enhanced shelter beds. Continued investment into the Seattle Rental Housing Assistant Pilot program and Seattle’s Tiny Home Village are to happen thanks to Durkan. The homelessness crisis has resulted in abundant amounts of trash and garbage in the city, especially in encampment areas. Durkan’s budget supports 4 cleanup programs to help resolve this issue. The Homelessness and Housing Investments budget sheet states, “including…removing trash from unmanaged encampments, cleaning trash in the public right-of-way, providing litter bags to unmanaged encampments and collecting syringes from public places and disposal boxes throughout Seattle.” Since the beginning of these programs a count of 111,000 syringe needles have been picked up.

Mayor Jenny Durkan’s leading-edge budget proposal leads the way to a productive and innovative upcoming few years for the City of Seattle.

Who is Jenny Durkan?

Jenny Durkan served as the Mayor of Seattle, having been elected in November 2017 and officially taking office on November 28, 2017. She is a member of the Democratic Party and was the first openly lesbian person to be elected mayor of the city.

Before becoming mayor, Durkan had a substantial career in law and public service. She served as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington, a position she was appointed to by President Barack Obama. In this role, she worked on issues related to police reform, civil rights, and drug enforcement, among others.

As mayor, Durkan faced numerous challenges, such as managing the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, navigating civil unrest and protests related to racial justice and police violence, and addressing the rising cost of living and homelessness in Seattle. Her tenure as mayor was marked by various policy initiatives and controversies, especially in relation to policing and housing.

Jenny Durkan announced in 2020 that she would not seek re-election and concluded her term at the end of 2021.

Only the best writing and production teams have worked on as many hit television shows, cult classics, and well-loved programs as the esteemed duo of Berg and Harberts. Composed of college friends and colleagues Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts, these television minds have penned episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 and Roswell, and served as executive producers for Mercy, Reign, and Off the Map.

From a chance meeting at Northwestern University to producing award-winning television shows such as Revenge and Pushing Daisies, this dynamic duo’s tenacity, talent, and wit has propelled them to the top of network television minds – and they aren’t going away anytime soon.

The Story of Gretchen Berg

Half of the Berg & Harberts duo, Gretchen J. Berg was born on February 8th, 1971 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From an early age, Berg developed an interest in telling stories and creating new worlds. She reminisces on her childhood in Pittsburgh during a 2010 interview with hometown publication Pittsburgh Magazine, remembering the days where she would disappear into the woods with her friends for hours at a time. During these play sessions, they would wander into dreamy play sessions that would last until the sun went down – encouraging and inspiring her daydreams and storytelling to this day.

During high school, Berg was a loner. Her alma mater, North Allegheny High, placed a major emphasis on sports. However, despite a lack of school spirit, Berg found her calling in acting and drama classes. School required a lot of writing, allowing Berg to stretch her writing talent and develop key skills in writing structure, plot, and narrative. North Allegheny also had a TV studio – a privilege that Berg took full advantage of to create new ideas and see them come to life.

Wanting to pursue television and film, Berg searched for the perfect undergraduate program to fulfill her dreams. She decided against attending major media programs at New York University and the University of California at Los Angeles, where the film and TV programs focus solely on themselves and leave little room for a well-rounded education. Berg craved hands-on experience in film and television production, but also an opportunity to pursue a liberal arts education. This led her to Northwestern University, where Gretchen Berg would meet Aaron Harberts, her future writing and production partner.

Gretchen Berg lives in Los Angeles, California. She is season ticket holder for the Pittsburgh Steelers and her early influences include Remington Steele and The Monkees.

The Story of Aaron Harberts

Aaron Harberts was born on January 20th, 1973 to religious parents in rural Waterloo, Iowa. He grew up in Indiana and South Florida, spending much of his life navigating between the three states to spend time with his spread-out family. Aaron Harberts is an openly gay man and one of the first of such to work on many shows in the various leadership roles he has held. He is married and lives in Los Angeles, California.

Harbert’s father is a Presbyterian minister, so he spent much of his young life in church, listening to his father’s sermons. Harberts credits this time with inspiring his writing career. According to a 2000 interview in Crackdown, Harberts stated that during church, he would sit in the pews and daydream of fantastical stories to write. He wrote a few books during his early elementary years, with titles like “The Time Car,” about a detective who hunts down criminals in a flying car.

Company: https://www.crunchbase.com/person/aaron-harberts

When Aaron Harberts graduated from high school in 1991, he attended Northwestern University to study film and television. Entering his freshman year while Berg was beginning her junior year, the dynamic duo met during a two-year program called Creative Writing for the Media.

Northwestern University and Happenstance

In 1992, Harberts was nearing the end of his first year at Northwestern University while Berg was gearing up for her last year. Berg was directing a student film at the time, which Harberts began working on as a P.A. They worked in a close capacity on these projects and through the Creative Writing for the Media course, which introduces students to the mechanics of creative writing for stage, film, and television. Although they worked together, they didn’t develop a close relationship until Harberts moved to Los Angeles in 1995.

Having graduated from Northwestern in 1993, Gretchen Berg had already moved from Chicago to California, trying to make her living in Los Angeles. When Harberts was trying to make the same cross-country move in 1995, his housing situation fell through. He moved into Berg’s place while she was trying to write a sitcom spec and struggling with revising her screenplays before presentation to studio executives. Berg recalled appreciating Harberts’ sense of humor during their Northwestern days, and asked him if he’d like to write a script with her as a team. He accepted, and Berg and Harberts was born.

Six months later, Berg recalls that they finished their first script, which she described as similar to the hit sitcom Friends, albeit a terrible version. They burned all the remaining copies of this script and from the ashes, Berg and Harberts have emerged as a multi-talented writing and production team for dozens of popular television programs.

From the Writer’s Room

In their early days roaming Los Angeles, Berg and Harberts attempted to break into the business by taking assistant jobs throughout Hollywood. They were young, broke, and determined; living off of taco trucks and other cheap meals to stretch their limited funds. They spent hours studying, criticizing, and analyzing films and television shows to determine best practices for plot construction, pacing, comedic timing, and other narrative aspects. Berg recalls that the team wrote almost constantly – everything from television dramas to sitcoms to made-for-TV movies.

All this hard work paid off. This practice helped Berg and Harberts sharpen their writing skills to a fine point and broadcast their names out into the world. By some sort of happenstance, an agent found a copy of one of their screenplays and passed it on to a television agent, who signed the duo in just a matter of weeks. This was the beginning of the big Hollywood break Berg and Harberts had been waiting for.

Berg and Harberts’ big break came when the hit television show Beverly Hills, 90210 hired them as staff writers. They penned their first episode in 1998. They are responsible for an iconic episode that re-introduced Luke Perry’s character, Dylan McKay, back into the world of elite Los Angeles teens on the show’s ninth season. Throughout the ninth and tenth seasons of 90210, Berg and Harberts worked on 32 episodes as writers and executive story editors. Following the conclusion of 90210, the cult TV show, Roswell, offered Berg and Harberts producer positions.

From the Production Floor

While on the staff of Roswell, Berg and Harberts served as producers for the show’s duration from 2000 to 2002. They served as producers and co-producers for 39 episodes and writers for 9 episodes. The show developed a cult following among science fiction fans despite its short run, and helped cement the team’s position in Hollywood’s writing and producing elite.

Following the end of Roswell, Berg and Harberts began work on the television show Wonderfalls as writers and producers. While working on this series, they met writer and producer Bryan Fuller, who would eventually hire the duo to work on his hit television program Pushing Daisies. Between Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, Berg and Harberts served as producers and writers for multiple series. They even wrote and created their own television show – 2006’s Pepper Dennis, which only ran for one season.

From 2008 to 2009, Berg and Harberts worked as writers and co-executive producers for the award-winning television show Pushing Daisies. From 2009 to 2010, the duo became showrunners and executive producers for the short-lived television show, Mercy. From 2013 to 2015, Berg and Harberts worked as executive producers for the hit show, Revenge, creating a masterful tale of conspiracies and family secrets that captivated the heart of millions of viewers around the globe. The team were the showrunners for Star Trek Discovery and it became a huge hit on CBS under their watch.

Berg and Harberts Today

As of 2018, Berg and Harberts have served on the writing team for 16 television shows, including titles such as Reign, GCB, Off the Map, and Women’s Murder Club. In addition, they have 14 producer credits to their names. They have served as showrunners for three television shows, signing deals with networks such as ABC and NBC. They have worked on medical dramas, comedies, science fiction series, and Los Angeles teen tales. Their wide range of credits highlights their ability to create compelling stories in multiple genres. Both Gretchen Berg and Aaron Harberts have IMDb profiles that feature all of their successes in Hollywood.

Suffice it to say, Berg and Harberts have come a long way from their Creative Writing in the Media course at Northwestern University. From Chicago to Los Angeles and their origins in Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Florida, and Indiana, Berg and Harberts are only just beginning their reign among the television elite. This multi-talented duo is fresh off their latest showrunner gig, and big projects are likely in the works.

We’re excited to see what Berg and Harberts’ futures hold. Based on this team’s history, long breaks aren’t part of their writing and production style. From 90210 to Roswell to Revenge and beyond, we will be seeing a lot of Berg and Harberts in the next few years. Keep an eye on their Twitter feeds – there’s no telling where these talented best friends will take their captivated audiences next.

Together their awards include: Peabody Award Nomination, Saturn Award, Logo’s NewNowNext Award, and a GLAAD Award Nomination.

Their most recent project is Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.  Read more about the show Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist and the writers Berg and Harberts here.

Follow them on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/GretchenJBerg
https://twitter.com/AaronHarberts

Early Life
Businessman Bill Gates life wasn’t always as lavish and eccentric as it is today. Growing up, his father was a senior lawyer and his mother an executive for a large-scale bank. While the family was fairly affluent, the Gates children were raised to work hard for what they wanted and stay humble. He was born on October 28th, 1955, grew up in Seattle, Washington with his two sister, Libby and Kristianne, and parents. Gates was known to be curious and intelligent child. He was enrolled in Lakeside School, a private prep school and excelled at many subjects including, math, science, and even drama. It was in school where Gates had his first encounter with a computer. He introduced himself to programming, making a tic-tac-toe game as his first coding success. After learning how much he enjoyed working with computers, he spent time on Computer Center Corporation’s computers to learn coding like Machine Code, Lisp, and Fortran. Bill was accepted to Harvard in 1973, intending to study computer science and mathematics. Realizing his true passion was programming, he left Harvard without completing his degree to found his own company with friend, Paul Allen.

Microsoft Corporation
Gates and business partner, Paul Allen, founded Microsoft in 1976, now the world’s largest software company. He initially made a deal with Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to work on a new operating system for their microcomputers. Gates was a jack of all trades in the early days of his business, from working on every line of coding, to packing and shipping off orders. Microsoft’s first big break occurred in 1980, when IBM came to them for assistance to an operating system. After many setbacks and troubles between IBM representatives and Gates, they reached a final consensus to use 86-DOS as an operating system, partnering with Seattle Computer Products (SCP) as the exclusive licensing agent. Microsoft traded the system to IBM for $50,000. As the popularity of this particular type of system arose, many hardware companies began to clone IBM’s system. Even though IBM was the name on the software, everyone knew Microsoft was the reason it all happened. Media began to call Gates “the man behind the machine.” Gates became the president and board chairman of Microsoft as the company moved to Washington State in 1981. Microsoft came out with version one of Windows in 1990—a technological breakthrough, as software replaced text interfaces with graphic interfaces. Windows 95 was released in 1995, becoming the backbone for all upcoming releases of Windows. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the dominant web browser among computer user, usually because it came pre-installed. The area of search engines has not been an area of success for Microsoft. Their engine, MSN live search (now Bing!), was and continues to be inevitably swallowed by Google. Microsoft’s inability to make a successful search engine can never trump their successes made with their software.

Microsoft’s very first product was an interpreter for programming languages called Altair BASIC that ran on a machine by MITS Computer Corporation called the Altair 8800 computer kit.

Before he founded Microsoft, Gates worked for nearly two years at Traf-O-Data, a small company that made traffic counters based on an Intel 4004 processor.

The experience gave him insight into hardware manufacturing and venture capital that helped with his later success.

Bill Gates Philanthropic Pursuit
In 2000, Bill and wife, Melinda Gates, established the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, Washington. Bill slowly weaned his hours at Microsoft to focus on the foundation in 2008. The foundation is resourced through donations and grants—the Warren Buffet donation in 2006 of $1.5 billion being one of the major grants. Bill and Melinda use funding toward infectious disease control, STD control, Reproductive health care, Family planning, agricultural development, global health, global growth and opportunity, and global policy and advocacy, to name a few. Bill and Melinda’s foundation holds $38 billion in assets, making it one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Bill and Melinda’s foundation works to aid developing countries health to give them a chance to end their struggles with hunger and poverty. Their foundation engages on a global level, rather than regional—working in North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania.

Bill Gates Personal & Home Life
Bill resides in Medina, Washington with his wife Melinda (the two were married in 1994), son Rory (18), and daughter Phoebe (16). They live in their modern designed mansion overlooking Lake Washington. Their house, nicknamed Xanadu 2.0, is an earth-sheltered house—meaning it was architecturally structured to have walls against the earth to retain heat and maintain indoor air temperature. The Gates’ home is estimated to be worth $170,449,927.

UPDATE: Bill and Melinda are officially divorced. It was finalized early August 2021.

Giving Away His Fortune

The son of a successful lawyer, Gates went on to establish one of the world’s leading technology companies, Microsoft. Although he has given away billions over his lifetime, philanthropy is about more than money for Gates.

As he once said in an interview with Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer, my father was a very giving person—I didn’t get that from him directly because he died when I was young—but I got it from my mother…

There are many people who have achieved significant wealth who are not giving back in any significant way. That bothers me more than anything.

Conclusion

Since founding Microsoft in 1975, Bill Gates has helped revolutionize personal computing and fundamentally changed how people around the world use information.

In 2006, he launched The Giving Pledge with fellow billionaires Warren Buffett and Melinda French-Buffett, an initiative aimed at getting wealthy individuals to give half their fortunes away before they die.

In 2009, he announced that he would be transitioning from day-to-day operations at Microsoft so that he could devote more time to his charitable work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The couple recently divorced in 2021.