Letters

Fatal attraction

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

This week’s cover story originally ran on Gawker. com, but we thought RN&R readers would want to see the latest chapter in a saga that has played out largely in our pages. We know as well as anybody how hard former RN&R editor D. Brian Burghart worked building Fatal Encounters, his database of people killed by police. Since leaving his position at the RN&R earlier this year, he’s devoted even more time to the project.

He started it back in 2012, and we ran a series of stories he wrote related to the project throughout 2014. Those stories and the database won some prestigious recognition from the Nevada Press Association and the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, but it was still disheartening to hear that the Washington Post had won a Pulitzer Prize for the “innovation” of imitating Fatal Encounters.

It might seem petty to argue about who developed what database first—especially when we’re talking about a subject as serious as people killed by law enforcement—but it does matter. It matters because this story illustrates how a well-heeled news organization—especially one with the established reputation that comes with breaking the biggest investigative news story of the last century—can copy other people’s ideas and still be called “innovative.” And it matters because it illustrates how difficult it can be for a plucky little independent news organization to get the recognition it deserves. And it matters because honesty matters.

It’s a little reminiscent of the music industry, where it doesn’t matter how good a band or artist is; the ones who sell records and win awards are the ones with corporate major label backing.

—Brad Bynum bradb@newsreview.com

Measuring candidates by Sanders

Re “Forward to the past” (Left Foot Forward, April 14):

Sheila’s sly suggestion that Clinton is the champion of the $15 an hour wage is funny beyond Hillary-ous. Fact is, she has been dragged kicking and screaming into the real world by Bernie, and even yet her webpage still says $12 an hour is enough for us “little people.”

And before you paint me as an anti-feminist (I’m not), let me say that yes, it is time for a woman president, but not this one. I would eagerly vote for Elizabeth Warren, in a heartbeat. A woman who fights to regulate and prosecute crooked Wall Street banksters is far superior to one who takes their money on the sly for giving “secret” speeches that we’ll never, ever hear about.

I will support and vote for courageous women, ones like Lucy Flores, who bravely stood against the Clinton Machine special interests, and instead endorsed a peoples’ candidate—you know, that socialist democrat guy who wants health care for all, and greedy CEOs to be brought to justice, and an end to corrupt money buying elections.

All in all, I will vote for any candidate who is Bernie-friendly, regardless of whether they are Dem, GOP, Libertarian, or even those silly AIP folks if they start to make any sense.

The good news is I will vote to bring about the defeat of the Evil Obstructionist Republican Congress, which has held America hostage for far too long.

If that’s not good enough for you, well, that’s how the cookie crumbles. I’m too weary of having to vote for conservative Democrats in a world in peril.

I’m here for political revolution. Craig Bergland Reno

Define ‘OK’

I decided there’s three places it’s OK to steal from—WalMart, Amazon, and the food co-op. This food co-op is something else. When I hear the word, “cooperative,” I start thinking along the lines of collective, Kibutz and commune.

You know, like for common people, not a place whose prices are even higher than Whole Foods. After they got many of their members to pay dues in advance for 10 years so they could finance the remodeling of their new place on Court Street, they discontinued member’s discounts! What a deal! These girls are smart, and hard as nails.

This is indeed a for-profit corporation.

Jon Obester Reno

Street fighter Our man in Tempe

The issue: Reno Aces security moved the security guard from Fourth and Evans to a location in the middle of the block past the bus station. With the cars having to make U-turns in the middle of the block and all the pedestrian traffic going to the game, this has led to numerous close calls. Someone is going to get hurt.

My attempt at resolution: I asked one of the security guards standing in the street—a nice, helpful man in his 50s or 60s—if I could speak to a supervisor regarding the dangerous situation on Evans. He radioed my request and then I stood there 30 minutes engaged in pleasant conversation with the guard waiting till two very young (positive they’d never shaved yet) gentleman arrived and told me they were supervisors. After I told them my feelings, they abruptly dismissed me with a very cavalier attitude toward other peoples’ safety. If the Aces management is going to insist on disregarding the most minimal safety precautions by not putting the security guard back at Fourth and Evans, I am going to have season tickets for sale. Richard Birdsong Sparks

Having become aware of extraordinary incompetence and waste in a state agency, I shouldered some civic responsibility and went to testify at a Senate appropriations committee hearing. The experience was rather shocking and showed me why our government no longer works. The senators were polite, interested and appreciative. However, when the hearing was over, a lobbyist for the state agency angrily confronted me and told me that I had no right to come down to the Capitol and criticize “his client.” Really? I, a state citizen, taxpayer, and voter, have no right to speak to our elected representatives? Where does such unbridled arrogance come from?

Subsequently, I slowly learned how much our elected representatives are manipulated by lobbyists. Politicians come and go, but the lobbyists are always there. They give politicians cash, are on transition teams after elections, and write bills during legislative sessions. At times, they even presume to speak for the government. I once attended a public meeting where an authoritative sounding person was saying that what the people wanted would not even be considered. From the message being given, I assumed the speaker was a member of the governor’s staff. Later, I learned that person was a lobbyist.

For a republic to work properly, lobbyists need to be reined in. They are currently required to register with the state, but there are few other restrictions. Change is needed. To start, there need to be term limits for lobbyists. No one should be allowed to be a lobbyist for more than 5 years. We need to have our elected leaders operate our government, not the lobbyists. Dick Zimmermann Tempe, Arizona Erik Holland

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