Letters

Best election ever

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Must be autumn because I’m nostalgic. But man, these cooling temperatures put me right out at night. I woke up at 6:11 this morning, 11 minutes late. You’d be surprised how rarely this happens to a guy who misbehaves so much.

It’s a good thing I slept in, though. Tonight is our Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada celebration of our winners. It’s at the EDGE nightclub in the Peppermill. It’s my tradition to wear a suit or tux. There’s just something special about getting shithoused with my peeps in a jacket. Tonight, it’s a white dinner jacket tuxedo with RN&R red vest and tie. Here’s to hoping that I don’t have any little postscripts on Monday announcing a Kickstarter campaign for my bail.

Along the lines of Best Of, I’ve been collecting a list of all the awards this newspaper has won over the years. I’m too lazy to count them line-byline, but we’ve won something like 350 state and national awards for doing, basically, what we do. The stuff we’d do even if nobody paid us. And here I go, getting all mooshy. •••

You’ve got to check out our website. With the help of the Washoe County Registrar of Voters, the Reno News & Review has partnered with Democracy Live to create an awesome platform for voters to figure out everything they need to know to vote intelligently. We’re testing, but it should be next Friday, Oct. 5. Cross your fingers.

Our website will allow voters to plug in their addresses, and their sample ballot will appear. Voters will be able to compare the candidates in the races they care about.

Our widget includes candidate bios and quick facts; candidate photos; candidate contact information, campaign finance reports; election night reporting; polling place look up; smart-phone capability; statewide initiatives; social media tools; videos/commercials; voter registration link— you name it, we’ve got it, and now, so do you. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Bull’s-eye

When businesses in Nevada have to pay sales tax, they must send the forms and checks to Arizona for payment processing. Likewise, the city of Reno Alarm Fee (for having a home or business burglar alarm) must be sent to Colorado. Our Truckee Meadows Water Authority bill payments are sent to Texas, and payments to Waste Management go to Arizona. Nevada has the highest unemployment in the nation. I can’t believe that government agencies and local utilities can’t find Nevadans to process their payments so that the money gets pumped back into the local economy, instead of “outsourcing” these jobs to other states. Steve Davis Reno

No hard feelings

Hey, how are you? The ads that you have at the end of your newspaper about the massage parlors: Do you know you are promoting Human Trafficking. I know you’re getting money from theses ads. Here is the main issue: Many of these massage parlors are a part of the human trafficking business where many Southeast Asian women are being tortured and raped. These women, trapped in the massage parlors, never see daylight in their lives. I hope that you could remove these ads from your newspaper. Also, please stop helping the massage parlors. I hope that you and I will some day put an end to these massage parlors for what they are doing these to the women. Please no hard feelings. Hue Yang Sacramento, Calif.

Editor’s note: We’re good, Hue. Just a note to tell you that you might have more success if you direct your energies toward media outlets that actually run the kind of massage ads you’re talking about.

Inspiration

Re “Life in transition” (Feature story, Sept. 27):

You are such a wonderful person, Kris. I am so proud of you for being open about who you are. You set a great example for anyone who is struggling with their [gender and] sexuality, and even to those who are not. By telling your story, you are giving them hope. Always remember that your bravery is helping others! April Maximo Reno

I remember

Re “Jewel” (Arts & Culture, Sept. 27): Apersonal (and not necessarily relevant) memory of Aug. 15, 1987: I covered the opening ceremony for the Great Basin National Park for KTVN television in Reno. I awoke late in Ely and the convoy ferrying Sen. Paul Laxalt and the other VIPs to the park had already departed. Not to worry. I had ridden my BMWmotorcycle to the event. At speeds substantially in excess of 55 miles an hour, I overtook the VIP convoy on the narrow mountain road leading to the GBNP. Anxious to get video of the convoy’s arrival, I blew past the five or six cars at approximately 87 miles an hour. (This was 25 years before the establishment of Homeland Security, lest you wonder why I didn’t end up as a bullet riddled corpse alongside the road.) When the VIPs arrived, we (including Sen. Laxalt and a couple of highway patrolmen) chuckled about the outlaw nature of riding a motorcycle at [high] speed. More importantly, I had unfettered access to the important people. Less an interview than a chat, Sen. Laxalt and I talked about our mutual affection for the Great Basin. Laxalt’s father was a shepherd in the Sierra and the Great Basin when he first immigrated to Nevada. (Legally?) Lots of warmth and smiles on that day. Alittle of Nevada’s beauty got exposed to the nation. And some politicians were revealed as human beings without a lot of ideological or political crap attached. Good Day. Good news story. Larry Wissbeck Paonia, Colo.

Cassandra says

Re “Legendary problem” (News, Sept. 27):

Who buys at retail from bricks-andmortar stores anymore? People may “shop” there—fondle the merch, try it out or try it on—then go home, log on to Amazon, etc., to purchase tax-free and have delivered to their door. Y’all are rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic when you argue for sales tax from Big Retail. Future taxable consumer spending is grocery, gasoline, restaurant and services. Learn to live on the revenue produced from that spending. Quit hanging all your hopes and dreams on The Next Big Thing. Walt Weber Centralia

Go to the head of the class

Re “The man who would be president” (Feature story, Sept. 13):

I have been thinking about coming up with a report card of sorts so that I can focus on my views of the issues and then do the same for each of the candidates and also make notes on their public statements, the debates, etc., concerning their consistency (and mine) toward the issues and the presentations. For whatever reason, I just wouldn’t sit down and list the issues. Thanks to you and this interview, I now have a starting point from which I can make my list and once started, I can go back to the Constitution to more fully develop the report card. The report card won’t be the only thing on which I base my decision, but it surely will help me elucidate the positions of the candidates and focus on mine as well. Joann Phillips Reno

Editor’s note: Assuming all the technological stars align, if you’ll come to our website, www.newsreview.com/reno beginning Oct. 5, we’ll be able to help you out with candidate comparisons.

What he said

Re “Apples and Melons” (Letters to the Editor, Sept. 27):

Valerie P. Cohen bases a series of gratuitous attacks and insults on her equivocation of a man writing a review on bras (with his wife as tester) with the statements of Rep. Todd Akin’s comments about “legitimate rape.” While I suggest the two incidents are quite dissimilar, I would rather like to call into question the idea that rape is in any way a “female-only” concern. I am not stating that only women are raped, but rather I am saying that any reasonable and significant concern is one that is not simply shared by the affected group, but should be a concern to all. I reject the idea, whether posited by the left or the right, that there is a “private language” of experience or concerns. I tend to follow Ludwig Wittgenstein’s suggestion that there is no “private language” that can be only known to a particular person or group. That is that any proposition that can be held by someone, the salient features of such can be communicated to any other person given enough context. There are no reasonable and significant experiences or concerns held by any group which cannot or should not be understood, or should not be a concern to any other group of people. If one was to hold that there was such a “private language” of concerns; why would one necessarily hold, for example that “all women” would then share in that “private language”? Why not posit that some groups of women may not share in that “private language,” down to the ridiculous extreme that each person does in fact speak their own “private language.”

It should be clear that morality is a choice that not all people decide to follow. I believe that morality is not based upon that we are all the same, or even that we all deserve respect; but that our default attitude towards each other is based upon the idea that we should treat each other with civility and with allowance for each person’s right to self-determination and that all reasonable and significant concerns are the concerns of us all. Our duty to each other is well represented by the saying attributed to Martin Niemoller in the statement, “First they came for ...”

That said, I think it is absurd that Ms. Cohen would posit that rape is a female-only concern. To be unconcerned with another’s reasonable and significant concerns is the root of evil and the beginning of one’s rationalization of horror visited upon each other. Brian Hancock 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/Publisher D. Brian Burghart News Editor Dennis Myers Arts Editor Brad Bynum Special Projects Editor Ashley Hennefer Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Contributors Amy Alkon, Amy Beck, Megan Berner, Matthew Craggs, Mark Dunagan, Marvin Gonzalez, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Bruce Van Dyke Design Manager Kate Murphy Art Director Priscilla Garcia Associate Art Director Hayley Doshay Design Brian Breneman, Marianne Mancina, Mary Key, Skyler Smith, Melissa Arendt Art Director at Large Don Button, Andrea Diaz-Vaughn Advertising Consultants Gina Odegard, Matt Odegard, Bev Savage Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office/Distribution Manager/ Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Business Manager Grant Ronsenquist 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, Russell Moore General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley 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&R is 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 BIG HE ADERS GIZA 25pt 25k Your favorite SMALL HE ADERS GIZA 15pt 55k (60% OF BIG HE AD) road trip? BIG HE ADERS GIZA 25pt 25k by Dennis Myers SMALL HE

Asked at U.S. Post Office, 1674 N. Virginia St.

Suzi Stempeck

Computer technician You know, I haven’t been on a trip in 20 years, so I would have to say my last road trip was good. It was to San Francisco.

Sherri Barker

Office manager South shore. Love the views of the lake, Emerald Bay. Sometimes we camp there, sometimes we just camp for the day.

Elect Shelley Berkley

We endorse Shelley Berkley for the U. S. Senate.

We hope Nevadans will replace appointed Sen. Dean Heller with Berkley because Heller has been bad for Nevada and for the nation.

Heller had an opportunity when he entered the federal arena with election to the U.S. House in 2006. He was a moderate Republican in the Nevada Legislature, fair and reasonable as secretary of state. He could have shown his party how to serve without being dogmatic, intransigent and contemptuous of his opposition. He could have shown how to work with the Democrats instead of obstructing business. That’s one reason this newspaper endorsed him.

Instead, like so many politicians, when he decided to play the big room, he dashed right where the big campaign money was—money whose givers demand obstruction.

In 2006, he beat Sharron Angle in the Republican primary after the far-right Club for Growth, which specialized in opposing moderate Republicans, intervened in Nevada to support Angle against Heller and fellow moderate Dawn Gibbons. They got 61 percent of the vote to Angle’s 35 percent, but after Heller was elected, he embraced the Club for Growth’s viewpoint. Last year, it gave him a 94 percent approval rating on his House votes. The Club is still far right, but Heller is no longer a moderate.

As a member of the House he became just another polarizing, intransigent Republican. He likes attention-getting issues that accomplish little, like his bill to cut off Congressional pay when no budget has been adopted. He’s a show horse, not a work horse.

Heller voted to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating greenhouse gases, voted to keep subsidies for oil companies, voted against health coverage for abortion, voted against extending job discrimination law to gays, voted against marriage equality, voted for and against lettings stockholders vote on executive bonuses.

On this last item, last month Heller got his reward—an endorsement from Financial Executives International, which reported that Heller was one of 22 senators who have “voted 100 percent pro-FEI priorities.” So Heller got his reward. What did the public get? Screwed.

This is not a race where the choice is clear cut, and we have misgivings about Berkley, who has made some bad judgments. She once attacked Gov. Kenny Guinn for creating a senior prescription drug program because it didn’t initially serve enough people. She’s been far too protective of the casino industry. Her explanations for her activities benefiting her husband’s business, now the subject of an ethics probe, do not wash. That she was helping Nevadans is beside the point. The same can be said for many officials’conflicts of interest. But there are thousands of issues, from aviation to zoology, where she can aid Nevadans. She needs to stay away from aiding Nevadans if it also engages her husband’s business. She also needs to listen to those who disagree with her.

But this is not a race between perfect and imperfect. Berkley has been less cynical, less intransigent than Heller. She doesn’t let ideology decide all her positions. She is willing to work with her adversaries.

She voted to empower the EPAon greenhouse gases, against subsidizing the oil companies, for including abortion in health coverage, for extending job discrimination law to gays, against a constitutional amendment banning marriage equality, and for letting stockholders vote on executive bonuses.

It’s time for Dean Heller to go. We hope you will vote for Shelley Berkley for the U.S. Senate. Ω Aniaya Mingo

Student From Reno to Las Vegas because that means I get to go home to see my family.

Ping Huliganga

Postal worker I go to California to see my daughter. She’s married to a marine and he was stationed at Twentynine Palms. And, of course, I get to see my grandkids there. So that’s why I’m doing the 10 hours, round trip.

Lisa Robertson

Sales representative San Francisco. It’s exciting to get away, and it’s close to home. We meet our friends down there. It’s just a great place to get together and meet. I love to take the girls shopping. It’s their once-a-year adventure, getting out with my daughters.