Letters

Easy like Sunday morning

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

The world has changed for journalists. Many people complain about the death of daily newspapers, and while I mourn their shareholders’ and boards of directors’ consternation at trying to maintain profits at the expense of quality, I see it more as suicide than death by internet. Mostly, I’m sad for the real, committed journalists who got into the business because money wasn’t their priority, but they now serve at the whim of predators who care only about money.

Weird. I hadn’t intended on writing about that at all, but that’s the risk of stream of consciousness composition. I intended to write about cool new tools that are making journalists’ jobs so much easier, and will enable one of the hardest parts of the job, interviews, to be much more efficient.

The hard thing about interviews, besides skittish sources, is getting the information you want in a useful format. If a journalist does an interview in-person or on the phone, he or she has two choices: Ask questions from a script prepared before the interview, or go in with a few questions but prepared for a lengthy interview. (Of course, there are always the fools who go in unprepared.)

The problem with an indepth interview is the transcription that follows: four hours to an hour of interview. I’m loving the advances my cell phone is bringing to this chore. For one, the app Tape-A-Talk produces great sound quality for in-person interview or Google Voice is great for phoners. I can then take the .wav file and put it into VoiceBase.com, where it will machine transcribe the interview. I can then either edit it on VoiceBase or drop it into Transcribe, http://transcribe.wreally.com, for clean up.

It’s still fairly work intensive, but when the transcription files are in the same place as the sound files, I only have to clean up the words that I want to appear in the newspaper. I love the future. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Fiddlesticks!

Re “Trump trumps Romney” (Upfront, Feb. 9):

Fiddlesticks, Mr. “Wannabe” Trump. Do you suppose that Romney’s loss to Santorum had any thing to do with your endorsement? Just asking.

Susie Ellis Orland, Calif.

Fiscal gee-wizards

Re “Friends and family” (Feature story, Jan. 26):

I am amazed that the Republican Party can’t find anyone more qualified to campaign for the party’s nomination.

Newt Gingrich would be a total disaster for the nation. Every federal agency’s operation degraded [in part because of Gingrich’s actions in office]. How could this occur? It occurred because the Republican Party is dedicated to destroying the federal bureaucracy. It is impossible for anyone with Newt Gingrich’s temperament to manage the federal bureaucracy well.

Recently, the nation has experienced a financial collapse approximately every eight years. The next financial collapse is due in 2016, just at the end of the next president’s term in office. The only thing that might prevent or mitigate a national financial disaster is a federal government that works well at monitoring and regulating the financial industry. Newt Gingrich is not temperamentally disposed to pay attention to the minutiae that will be necessary if the nation is to avoid a 2016 financial collapse.

Considering Mitt Romney, who will the nation really get as president? The Mitt Romney who enacted the Massachusetts health insurance plan, or the Mitt Romney who wants to prevent the same plan from operating nationwide? Will one get the Mitt Romney who supported a woman’s right to choose or who now opposes that right? Similar to Newt Gingrich, there are many other issues where Mitt Romney has taken one position when it was politically advantageous only to reverse himself when the former position was politically disadvantageous.

On the issue of defense, Mitt Romney has advocated a larger military. Afew months ago the Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner publicly declared that the nation was bankrupt. If the nation is truly bankrupt, how is Mitt Romney going to pay for a larger military?

Considering Ron Paul, he advocates, among other things, returning to the “gold standard.” Areturn to the gold standard would end the world’s economy. There exists an insufficient amount of gold on the planet to provide the liquidity required for international and national commerce.

And as for Rick Santorum, his performance as a Pennsylvania senator was so poor that he couldn’t get re-elected.

I believe there are good Republican politicians who could well serve this nation as president. Unfortunately, the Republican Party’s base, including the Tea Party, is so out of touch with what it really takes to run this nation that no qualified Republican will contend for the party’s nomination. Such Republican politicians know that becoming the party’s nominee would require taking positions such as those advocated by Gingrich, Romney, Paul and Santorum, which won’t work for the nation or the world. Donald E. Schreiber Incline Village

Fraudulent elections

Re “Government-approved voters?” (News, Jan. 26):

The Iowa caucuses demonstrated that Republicans place their controls at the wrong level, the ballot box. After claiming Romney the winner, they found “typos” in the vote counts from 131 precincts. Then they found counts from eight other precincts had vanished. Then they decided that they couldn’t truthfully name a winner due to the close vote and the number of screw-ups. Then they reversed themselves and declared that Santorum was the official leader. Yet they never did finally certify the results from all precincts. They reported zero instances of voter fraud. V.I. Lenin was absolutely correct: People who vote don’t count. People who count votes do. Fraud at the ballot box is retail, difficult to arrange in sufficient volume. Wholesale fraud is far easier at the level where votes are counted, or consolidated, or reconsolidated. Yet Republicans ignore that potential. Their own system in Iowa shows the hazard of so doing. Robert C. Leavitt Sun Valley

Freedom>fascism

Re “Welcome to the Machine” (Feature story, Jan. 19):

This article is very well written. I am not a conspiracy theorist or any of the likes, but from the view of the journalist’s article, I can see where it is a likely and probable scenario. So what would Americans do facing this type of government? I wonder if our own military would join that agenda, forcing their fellow Americans to obey the new fascism dictatorship. Or would it spark the opposite reaction and create a revolution? Would our government have the U.N. forces come police American soil against opposing forces? I am sure that in small sectors at a time the government would dominate. On the other hand, a fullon revolution of all Americans vs. the government—well, I would have to throw my money on the citizens for the win. And when I say “win” I mean that there is no way to stop or suppress freedom completely. Just one individual has the taste of it, shares it with another, the desire for it, as we know, will make a man give his life for it. That is exactly what our Founding Fathers did. History repeats itself. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are very powerful. They were extremely well written to protect us from the evil fascism and such. Problem is that Americans are clueless to the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They don’t even know their own rights and continue to allow themselves to give their rights up. Everyone should take a moment to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights, educate yourselves to what you already own, your freedom and your complete control of your government. Government has no authority without you giving it to them. It’s that simple. Just say no! If you don’t, then you deserve to be under a totalitarian ruling society. This is just my opinion, and I am just me, one free American! Joe Daily Reno

Fuming mad

Re “This is all true” (Editorial, Feb. 2):

I read with interest the editorial regarding quitting smoking and the unsuccessful public health campaign with the same goal. I agree with the writer’s belief that most smokers could care less about the effects of their drug habit on themselves. Perhaps, then, more success might be met by informing smokers of the effects of their drug habit on others.

In case there are nicotine addicts out there who are not cognizant of how their drug habit affects others, here’s my personal anecdote: I work at a music store where one of the teachers habitually smokes, even while teaching children. The store has become his personal ashtray. The front of the store is littered with the refuse of his habit, the inside smells like an ashtray now, and customers, clients, students and fellow employees are forced to run the gauntlet of toxic, cancer-causing air he creates in order in order for them to enter the store.

It’s hard to believe one person’s drug habit could cause so much destruction and negativity, even harder to understand how one could be so callous as to not care, but there it is. Do smokers care about the misery they inflict on others? If they were made more aware of it, would they be less inclined to force their drug habit on the rest of us? I could care less if someone is foolish enough to smoke cigarettes. In fact, I say smoke ’em up. Smoke so much you render yourself infertile. Just quit making the rest of us share your disgusting, incredibly dangerous and addictive drug habit.

Dennis Fecko Reno

Our Mission To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages people to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare. To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live. Editor D. Brian Burghart News Editor Dennis Myers Arts Editor Brad Bynum Special Projects Editor Ashley Hennefer Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Photographer Amy Beck Contributors Amy Alkon, Megan Berner, Sharon Black, Sean Cary, Carol Cizauskas, Matthew Craggs, Mark Dunagan, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Audrey Love, Casey O’Lear, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Bruce Van Dyke Design Manager Kate Murphy Art Director Priscilla Garcia Associate Art Director Hayley Doshay Editorial Designer India Curry Production Coordinator Sharon Wisecarver Design Brennan Collins, Marianne Mancina, Mary Key, Skyler Smith, Melissa Arendt Art Director at Large Don Button, Andrea Diaz-Vaughn Advertising Consultants Gina Odegard, Kelly Funderburk, Matt Odegard, Bev Savage Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office/Distribution Manager/ Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker Assistant Distribution Manager Ron Neill Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Jesse Pike, John Miller, Martin Troye, David Richards, Warren Tucker, Matthew Veach, Neil Lemerise, Daniel Golightly General Manager John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Senior Accountant Kevin Driskill Credit and Collections Manager Renee Briscoe Business Zahida Mehirdel, Shannon McKenna Systems Manager Jonathan Schultz Systems Support Specialist Joe Kakacek Web Developer/Support Specialist John Bisignano 708 North Center Street Reno, NV 89501 Phone (775) 324-4440 Fax (775) 324-4572 Classified Fax (916) 498-7940 Mail Classifieds & Talking Personals to N&R Classifieds, Reno Edition, 1015 20th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 or e-mail classifieds@newsreview.com Web site www.newsreview.com Printed by Paradise Post The RN&R is printed using recycled newsprint whenever available. Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in the RN&Rare those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons or other portions of the paper. The RN&Ris not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form. Cover design: Priscilla Garcia Feature story design: Priscilla Garcia

THIS MODERN WORLD BY TOM TOMORROW

Hope like hell

We Renoites have had our teeth kicked in these last couple of years. Many of us have gotten cynical. We’ve seen businesses we never expected to close, close. We’ve seen sophisticated organizations make absolutely predictable, but seemingly suicidal errors. We’ve seen our elected officials throw their legacies to the wind in their efforts to glad hand their buddies and establish jobs for themselves when they’re out of office. (And just watch how this increases as some approach their term-limited time in office—oops, that’s our inner cynic talking.)

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results each time. It’s also said that hope springs eternal. If both these statements are true, then it must follow that hope is insane.

So call us nuts. We hope.

We hope like hell the Silver Legacy is able to work out its debt problems with its creditors. The joint venture between the Eldorado and Circus-Circus owes $142.8 million in mortgage notes on March 1. The entire casino is only valued at $98 million. That would be like making a $438,000 balloon payment on your $300,000 home in 16 days. Abank would foreclose on you faster than a Grammy tribute show could be put together for a singer who kicked it in the bathtub. The thing that gives us hope is the sheer amount of debt that casino has. Creditors would surely prefer quarters to pennies on their dollars. Cross your fingers.

We hope with our whole hearts that Burning Man will work out its lottery SNAFU. The problems were predicted by more Burners than we can count. And you know, those Burners, while creative, are not exactly known for their financial acumen.

The Susan G. Komen for the Cure public relations disaster—same way. Absolute buffoons were able to hear with absolute clarity the likelihood of a nationwide freak-out when the news first broke that Komen was going to discriminate against Planned Parenthood, an organization that does so much for the prevention of cancer. The thing that gives us hope for both these organizations is that there’s so much pre-existing goodwill. Everyone screws up, now and again. Admit it and move on. Knock on wood.

We’ve watched members of the Reno City Council give away so much of our taxpayers’capital and real property that we didn’t have much hope when Our Lady of the Snows made a grab for yet another chunk of public property. Remember when Mill Street used to go all the way to Virginia Street before the City Council gave a block of our property and our right of way to the Siena Casino? We had hopes that situation would be rectified when the casino closed. That hope was unfounded. But our hope sprung eternal when, against all odds, the City Council did not give Lander Street to the Catholic school.

That gives us a little hope when the same City Council begins talking about what to do with the proposed park at historic Moana Springs. There’s a capped geothermal well there that could give year-round use to that publicly owned property. Go ahead and hang that horseshoe.

We hope they make the Harvey Whittemore story into a movie. Well, that’s more about cash than luck. And how crazy is that? Ω

Should contraceptives be covered by insurance?

Asked at the downtown Reno post office

Robert Mulvana

Clipping service owner I guess we have no choice. Yes, I think everybody’s entitled to it.

Sandra Bountis

Property manager No. I’m a Christian, and so I truly believe that we have a responsibility, you know, to pay for our contraceptives if we want them. I don’t believe that our insurance should be handling that.

Tim Smith

Disaster worker Absolutely. It’s cheaper to not have a baby than to have one. It costs tens of thousands of dollars to have a baby. It costs to have an abortion. It costs six or eight thousand if you have a miscarriage. … So, yes, give kids and women condoms.

Brad MacKenzie

Retiree Yes. People have a right to avoid unwanted children. I think that’s reasonable.

Michelle Austin

Student I think absolutely. It’s too expensive to go out there and pay out of our pockets sometimes. It may be eliminating a lot of unnecessary pregnancies, accidents. People getting pregnant who can’t afford it necessarily—it’s just not fair to the children, being brought up where they’re unwanted or the parents can’t afford it.