News

Pulling up the ladder

Republican leaders are making plans to prevent any more Ron Paul problems in future elections.

Paul, a member of Congress from Texas and sometime Republican, ran for president this year and has won some victories in state conventions that he could not win from the public.

Nevada is one of those states. Paul came in third, behind Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, in the Nevada caucuses in February. But his passionate followers organized skillfully to take over the Nevada Republican Convention in Sparks last month, taking all of the state’s elective delegates to the national convention in Florida this week.

In Iowa, candidates Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney battled to a near-tie in the caucuses only to see the state’s delegates go to Paul.

The same happened in a couple of other states. So a GOP body called the Republican National Convention Committee (RNCC) proposed delegate selection rules that say caucuses and primaries, not conventions, will decide who gets state delegates. How that would be done is unclear. Technically, last month’s Nevada convention was in compliance with that notion. Its national convention delegates are all Paulists, but they are all pledged to vote on the first ballot in concert with the Nevada caucus results—that is, for Mitt Romney.

The RNCC is also expected to propose a rule giving candidates a right to decide who their delegates are. But that rule existed during this year’s nominating race, and Romney or his campaign did not exercise it in Nevada or other states.

“Overall, the [proposed] change appears to be a blow to anyone considering taking the path Paul took this year and is also a recognition that the current rules leave room for discord at the convention, which is bad for party unity,” the Washington Post reported.

National convention nominating delegates were once free agents, able to move back and forth between candidates in national conventions that were fluid and went beyond one ballot. But first the Democrats and then the Republicans have been imposing more and more rules that “bind” delegates. The proposed GOP rules, like earlier Democratic rules changes, tend to aid frontrunners.

Kathy Milone

Award-winning television producer Kathy Milone Levenberg, who as Kathy Milone was an active Reno newsperson, died on Aug. 11 at St. Mary’s Hospital.

A Connecticut native who worked for the San Francisco Examiner, she came to Nevada more than four decades ago, working at KOLO Radio in Reno, then KORK Television in Las Vegas. She then returned to Reno and KOLO Television where she was a familiar figure as producer/moderator of Nevada Newsmakers for many years.

She was active in the Nevada Veterans’ Advisory Commission, League of Women Voters, and other community organizations.

Deflated Apple

Apple, the gargantuan corporation that is planning a move into Nevada, has been benefiting from a lot of journalism about how it is the “the most valuable company of all time,” a phrase used by both the Wall Street Journal and CNN Money to describe Apple’s $622 billion value. U.S. News carried the headline, “Apple’s Record as The Most Valuable Company Could Stand for a While.”

It stood for less than a day. Apple isn’t even close to being the most valuable company. The Columbia Journalism Review posted an essay pointing out that almost none of the reporters covering the story did the math. This was the headline on the Bloomberg News story: “Apple Becomes Biggest Company in History, Passing Microsoft in 1999.”

“It takes $1.38 in today’s dollars to equal the same value as one 1999 dollar,” CJR reported. “That means Microsoft’s peak market cap in 1999 was actually about $856 billion in constant dollars, $235 billionmore than Apple’s current market cap.”

Gannett’s USA Today actually did the math, but buried it deep in its story and put the false information up at the top!

Others pointed out that Apple is only the largest of public companies. Privately held corporations, such as the Saudi oil company, may be ahead of Microsoft.

Word games

Ballot language and uncertain meeting records raise questions

Shall Reno City Council members who represent wards be elected by the voters who by live in those wards or by votersDennis Myers citywide? That’s a simple way of explaining the decision facing voters in Reno on Nov. 6, but no one seems to want to make it that simple. Specifically, advocates of ward elections over citywide elections object to the way the city is presenting the issue to voters. Aballot measure approved by the Reno City Council explains what would happen with a yes vote but not what would happen with a no vote. It deals solely with the existing system. As approved by the Council, it would appear on the ballot this way: “Shall the five City Council members representing wards continue to be voted upon by all registered voters of the City in the General Election?”

“Ward voting scares the hell out of the good ole boys.”

Bob Fulkerson Progressive Leadership Alliance

When asked why it does not explain the alternative of ward elections, Mayor Bob Cashell said that is done in the separate explanations of the ballot question, not in the ballot question itself. Those explanations read as follows: “A‘Yes’vote would preserve the existing rules allowing each voter to vote for all Council members in the General Election. A ‘No’vote would change the rules and only allow each voter to vote for Council members in their respective wards in the General Election.”

That gives voters two sentences on citywide elections and one on ward elections—and the actual language of the ballot measure is regarded by ward election advocates as slanted. The part about “all registered voters,” they say, would lead voters to the conclusion that they would lose something by voting no. And “continue” suggests a status quo that would be disrupted.

It is as though the ward election advocates had proposed language that said, “Shall the council member who represents your ward continue to be elected by voters in other wards in the General Election?”

At one time, all Reno Council candidates had to run citywide, or “at large,” in both the primary and general elections. That system has been watered down slowly over the years but never completely changed to full ward elections. Right now, candidates are nominated within a ward in the primary election and then must run citywide in the general election. In addition, one of the six council seats is solely at-large, an arrangement that does not exist elsewhere in the state. In other words, Reno has five ward seats and one at-large seat, all of them elected citywide.

Citywide elections are preferred by the business community because they are far more expensive and screen out less affluent candidates who are less likely to be oriented to business concerns. In addition, candidates chosen

How Reno City Council members are elected could be influenced by a ballot measure in November—and how people vote on that measure could be influenced by its wording.

by ward voters in the primary who are not approved by the business sector can then be defeated by voters of other wards with a wise use of business money in the general election.

Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) director Bob Fulkerson said, “The current system of running city-wide in the general election helps ensure that candidates who raise the most money from casinos, developers and other special interests always win. That’s why ward voting scares the hell out of the good ole boys.”

“No one except this small group is agitating for changes,” Cashell said.

The current system is raising federal Voting Rights Act concerns because Reno’s Ward 3 now contains a majority of racial minorities. When that ward electorate nominates candidates in the primary, those candidates then face a majoritywhite citywide electorate in the general election, most of whom do not live in the ward. “That may cause the Department of Justice to look at the situation and say, ‘OK, maybe the system you have in place isn’t fair,’” City Attorney John Kadlic said in May.

Abill in the Nevada Legislature last year that would have switched Reno to ward elections in the general election was vetoed by Gov. Brian Sandoval.

An alternative piece of verbiage drafted by a smaller committee appointed by the City Council reads, “Shall the current method to elect the five ward City Council Members in the general election be changed to where each Council Member representing a ward must be elected by only the registered voters of the ward that he or she seeks to represent?” The Council rejected that version.

The City Council adopted the ballot language on June 13. Not until Aug. 21 did the Progressive Leadership Alliance (PLAN) raise questions about the language, and Mayor Cashell said they should have acted in a more timely fashion.

In addition, two PLAN members serve on the city’s Charter Review Committee, which drafted the language the City Council adopted, and Cashell said they did not make any objections to the final language at the May 21 Charter Review meeting where the final language was recommended to the City Council, In fact, Cashell said, the PLAN members were not even present, according to the minutes.

Cashell: “Nobody has ever called me from PLAN or any other

groups. No one showed up at the meeting to object.”

But the two PLAN members who serve on Charter Review, Theresa Navarro and Mario Delarosa, say they were present at the May 21 meeting, and they did object to the proposed language during the meeting. The minutes say Delarosa was absent for part of the meeting, which he flatly denies. He said he sat next to Cashell. The minutes do not describe Navarro as absent. The minutes also do not record any objections to the ballot language. Navarro said if that is the case, the minutes are not complete.

As for the supposed delay in PLAN publicly objecting to the ballot language, Navarro said after the language was adopted in June over her and Delarosa’s objections, the city revived the issue three weeks ago when the city clerk’s office informed her and other Charter Review members of new meetings on the issue.

“It came out of the blue,” she said. “We thought the issue was settled.”

When that additional process merely resulted in reconfirming the language, that was when PLAN spoke out. The group is considering calling a boycott of that ballot line or encouraging people to vote against it so the city cannot cite it as evidence of public sentiment.

The Reno Gazette-Journal’s Brian Duggan last week quoted political analyst Eric Herzik as saying the group would make a mistake in boycotting because “PLAN agitated to get this on the ballot.”

Fulkerson said that is not true. His organization prefers to work through the normal lawmaking process. He has previously been critical of over-use of California-style ballot measures where lawmaking is responsive. It was the City Council’s idea to put the ward measure on the ballot. All PLAN wanted, if the issue was going to be on the ballot, was fair language. “PLAN has never supported putting ward voting on the ballot,” Fulkerson wrote in an email message to a community activist.

With Cashell quoting the May 21 minutes, we tried to examine those minutes. It was discovered that although the city’s website has a place for those minutes to be posted for the public, along with the agendas, the minutes for the last 16 meetings are missing. Acity spokesperson provided the May 21 set and said the missing minutes will be posted this week.

Incidentally, the ballot measure is non-binding. That is, the voters will not determine whether the City Council election system is changed. They will simply give an opinion.Ω

“No one except this small group is agitating for changes.”

Bob Cashell Reno mayor

Partnership

In Tahoe City, young members of the Gottesman, Perkins and Bovich families did a thriving business with an old fashioned lemonade stand by the side of the road.

Treat yourself to gift certificates up to 75% OFF!

www.newsreview.com

GIFT CERTIFICATES FROM RESTAURANTS, BARS, CLUBS, TATTOO, RETAIL, THEATER, SALONS, SPAS, GOLF, VACATIONS & MORE

Pipe’s up

The controversial Keystone XL pipeline is now under construction, as announced in the LA Times on Aug. 16. The pipeline was approved last month after months of heated debate (“Put that in your pipe,” Dec. 15, 2011). Construction began on a portion of the pipeline in Livingston, Texas, but a group of protesters, called the Tar Sands Brocade, had planned an Aug. 16 Day of Action and turned up near the construction site with signs. The Brocade hopes it will have a similar impact to earlier protests, which were effective in delaying the project, but many activists are unsure of how feasible it is to stop further construction. Those who oppose the pipeline are concerned about potential disasters which could contaminate the Ogallala aquifer, through which the pipe will pass. The aquifer is a primary source of water for the Great Plains region, which grows and provides much of the food for the world.

Bright kids

Just in time for the new school year, High Desert Montessori is the latest local school to use renewable energy to power its facilities. Through NV Energy’s Renewable Generations, the school installed 360 photovoltaic solar panels on the roof and shade structures of the school, which will generate 79 kilowatts of electricity, which equates to 142,000 kilowatt hours of energy per year. The school also added four solar thermal collectors on the school’s roof, which will help reduce the facility’s natural gas usage. The project was completed by the Clean Energy Center and was funded through two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy—$15,000 for the solar thermal project and $20,000 for the photovoltaic panels.

According to NV Energy, the school will save around $17,000 in its power bill over the course of a year. It will also receive at $369,650 rebate for the solar panels and a $8,949 rebate for the solar thermal collectors.

“Finding ourselves in the wider universe involves tracking energy sources and uses, especially solar energy,” said assistant principal Linda Aaquist in a statement.

“We aim to leave the smallest footprint possible to allow for sharing energy with other Planet Earth citizens, an important part of our sustainability goals. Having solar hot water and solar electric, while making the solar panels our own through study in all our classrooms and viewing the structural components, inspires great connections in our student’s minds. Our solar projects will be incorporated into our science curriculum for kindergarten through eighth grade.” Aaquist is also a geologist and a Montessori education specialist.

A celebration for the new energy project will be held on Aug. 31, 5:30-7:30 p.m. at the school on 2590 Orvada St., and will feature food and live music. —Ashley Hennefer

ashleyh@newsreview.com

ECO-EVENT

The Geothermal Energy Association will host the Geothermal Energy Expo on Sept. 30-Oct. 3 at the Peppermill Resort and Casino. The expo will showcase national geothermal projects and will open up discussion about future plans for geothermal programs. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend. To register for the event, visit http://www.gifttool.com /registrar/ShowEventDetails?ID=1872&EID=1233 6. Learn more about the event on Twitter by following the Geothermal Energy Association @geoenergist and search for hashtag #GEAExpo.

Got an eco-event? Contact ashleyh@news review.com. Visit www.facebook.com/ RNRGreen for more.