Letters

Ground floor opportunity

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I’m sitting here chomping at the bit. I’m actually somewhat ahead of deadline—my general state these days. It’s basically because I’m working on this master’s degree; I’m so busy I never have a moment to get off task. It kind of relates to that “flow experience” I wrote about last week.

But that’s not why I’m chomping at the bit. It’s because when I get home today, I’m going to have new hardwood floors in my house. You folks who’ve been reading this newsweekly for a few years know that every year around tax refund time, I do a big project. Last year, my big project got sidelined because my car developed a mechanical issue, and the mechanic shoved his ratchet wrench sideways up my ass, fixing a bunch of secondary issues while leaving the check engine light bright amber.

I got a new mechanic, Kelly Enget, Jr., and I’m quite happy with him. The Jeep is running better than it has in a long time.

My buddy Bill Ring put the floors in. He’s a perfectionist, which drives a guy crazy while he’s waiting for the work to get finished, but whose attention to detail will be fully appreciated for many years to come.

Bill and I are good friends, and he’s put floors in my houses for 14 years or so. I totally respect his craftsmanship. I believe that anything— the cut of a lawn, the placement of a verb, the exterior of a government building—should be judged on its quality, its rightness. A small home can exhibit more quality than a mansion—it’s all about the pride taken in the work. Both Bill’s and Kelly’s work exhibits that character I’m talking about.

Barring some disaster, this floor will be firmly underfoot in that house long after I’m gone. But I’ll be able to walk away knowing that I made the decisions that will give the next residents firm footing. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Gold standards

Re “Back to the Gold Mine” (Left Foot Forward, Feb. 14):

In Sheila Leslie’s column, “Back to the Gold Mine,” regarding Barrick’s newly constructed mine in the Dominican Republic, she creates an off-base, apples-to-almonds comparison when she directly compares Barrick’s contributions in a sovereign nation to those in Nevada, one of 50 states within a larger nation.

While using the Dominican’s federal tax rates for comparison, Leslie fails to mention that Barrick also pays federal income taxes on its Nevada mines in addition to paying all the same state taxes paid by every Nevada business. On top of these taxes, Barrick pays a 5 percent net proceeds on minerals tax that no other Nevada industry pays, which was prepaid in the amount of approximately $150 million in 2012. When combining various federal, state and local taxes, Barrick pays an overall tax rate of about 43 percent—not far from the 50 percent the Dominican government will receive from the Pueblo Viejo Mine—and expects Nevada mines to generate $2.6-3 billion in revenue over the next five years.

The Dominican Republic operation is distinct from the United States in that it was acquired through auction and an agreement with the government as the owner of the company that owed the existing mine and offered the known reserve of 20 million ounces of gold for future development. The agreement with the Dominican government allows recovery of the capital investment before certain payments kick in.

Ms. Leslie draws a failed comparison. If we want real progress in Nevada, all of us need to work thoughtfully toward a compromise that serves all Nevadans. Michael J. Brown Barrick Gold, North America Washington D.C.

No worries

Re “Back to the Gold Mine,” and others (Left Foot Forward):

Please accept my sincere appreciation and congratulations on the needed and insightful political contribution to your paper made by Sheila Leslie. I believe many of us greatly miss her presence in the legislature and look forward to her early return. You have at least provided a needed forum for her honest insights. Please convey my thanks to her. Gary Horton Reno

Our pleasure

Re “Back to the Gold Mine,” and others (Left Foot Forward):

Thanks for carrying Sheila Leslie’s column each week. It’s the best column in your paper, and it becomes a topic of conversation for me and my friends. We appreciate her common sense approach to Nevada’s problems, and we are glad to have a link to other sites for further information. Keep up the good work. You have a great little paper. Janice Flanagan Reno

Not exactly

Re “Killer ex-cop causes justice reevaluation” (The Liberty Belle, Feb. 21):

Let me see if I have this correct: Chanelle Bessette is at least acknowledging that it is understandable for Christopher Dorner to act in the manner he did because he claims to have been unfairly terminated by the Los Angeles Police Department. Ergo, anyone who feels unfairly treated should seek retribution through violent means.

I believe that Ms. Bessette has already stumbled on her own slippery slope.

Walter Prendergast Reno

A win-win

Listening to the President’s rhetoric about the catastrophic consequences of sequestration, I’m struck by the inconsistencies in his comments. First, the sequestration was his idea, one that he promised he would not allow to be changed. Now he doesn’t seem to be able to take yes for an answer.

Next, this sequestration will not involve any budget cuts. While the President plays the scare card with threats of draconian layoffs of teachers, prison guards, air controllers and border patrol, along with criminals not prosecuted, military equipment not repaired, and children not fed, a little research shows something quite different.

The only cuts here are to the increases over last year’s spending. Read that sentence again. The budget is going up, just not as much as the president wants.

So are the president and the liberals consciously lying to us? Or are they just so incompetent that they really can’t make ends meet with 3,500 BILLIONS of our dollars? In either case, it’s pretty clear we have the wrong people leading us. Robert R. Kessler Las Vegas

Total BS

Re “Going soft” (Film, Feb. 21):

“Anybody who whined that the previous chapter Live Free or Die Hard ... will discover that film, which I happened to like a lot, was a party compared to this one.” No way. That is total BS. AGood Day to Die Hard is light years better than the total crap Live Free or Die Hard. AGood Day to Die Hard is most certainly a weak Die Hard, but at least his relationship with his son humanizes John McClane. In Live Free, he was a total superhero with no sense of humanity sleepwalking through the film. Neither film is great, but if one needs to choose between the two, choose A Good Day.

Joe Fargus Philadelphia

You’re welcome

Re “The Game” (Feature story, Feb. 7):

I want to thank you for this story. I am the mother of the two teenage girls, 12 and 14 years old. I planned to start a program in Reno when I read this story. I plan on dedicating my life to taking a stand against pedophiles and pimps. I want [to show] other parents they’re not alone and help the girls and get them off the street. My 14-year-old wants to tell her story and inspire others like this story did for her. It has been a very hard road, but we have had a lot of support from agencies in Reno. I would like to thank the Reno Police Department street team and gang units for doing a great job. Name withheld Reno

Word of mouth

I am 76 years old and enjoy reading Reno News & Review very much, but please instruct your advertising department to not print ads with a black background and small red letters like the Fresh Bakin ad in your latest edition. I am old, but I challenge an 18-year-older to read it. Also, I know times are tough now but how about just a teensy bit of bolder, and maybe a little larger print on your main articles. From an old fart who still wants to stay informed. Dan Archuleta Sparks

Blue all over

Re: “Game change” (Feature story, Feb. 21):

For many years, the Democrats have said that they represent the workers. The Republicans have avoided saying that they represent the rich and the super-rich, but their actions show that they do.

GOPcandidate for president Mitt Romney didn’t hide the fact that he has fortune here in the states and more in Switzerland, more in Bermuda, and even more in the Cayman Islands. The millionaires, the billionaires and the wannabes voted for him, but the rest of us said, “Hell, no!” More and more people, not just in Nevada, but across the country, are recognizing that the Republican Party has nothing for us.

Look at the gridlock in Washington, D.C. I have reached the conclusion that the true meaning of GOPis Greedy Obstructionist Plutocrats.

Brad MacKenzie 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 Editorial Intern Tracie Douglas Contributors Amy Alkon, Chanelle Bessette, Megan Berner, Matthew Craggs, Mark Dunagan, Marvin Gonzalez, Bob Grimm, Michael Grimm, Nora Heston, Sheila Leslie, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Kris Vagner, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young Design Manager Kate Murphy Art Director Priscilla Garcia Associate Art Director Hayley Doshay Design Melissa Arendt, Brian Breneman, Vivian Liu, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Advertising Consultants Meg Brown, 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, Gil Egeland, Neil Lemerise, John Miller, Russell Moore, Jesse Pike, David Richards, Martin Troye, Warren Tucker, Matthew Veach General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Business Mary Anderson, Tami Sandoval 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.

THiS ModeRn WoRld by tom tomorrow

Tell us about the craziest dog you’ve known

Asked at Animal Control/Humane Society Complex, 2825 Longley Lane

Ari Puente

Health management specialist Gosh, I don’t know. I’ve never really seen a really, really, really wild one. They’ve all been pretty mellow. My favorite dog lived with me for about two years, and then we lost him. He was very, very, great—awesomest dog.

Patrick Cummings

Job seeker Petal. Two years old. Loves to chase her Frisbee, and once she gets it, she won’t let it go. She loves to chase it, but she won’t give it back. She’s a rescue dog.

Size matters

The way journalists are over-awed by people with titles was on full display last week in a story involving the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.

The Tahoe Daily Tribune performed the laudable service of disclosing a letter from U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Harry Reid urging the Sierra Club to go slow in confronting the TRPA over its pending master plan, though the Club subsequently sued TRPA.

The first paragraph of the Tribune article read, “Federal legislators urged the Sierra Club not to delay the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s regional plan update prior to the environmental group’s challenge to the wide-ranging plan this week.”

So far, so good. The lead gave the senators their say. But where was the second sentence? That sentence should have read, “But the Club responded that it was forced to sue after TRPA refused to negotiate on improvements to the plan.”

The Sierra Club’s viewpoint was left for paragraphs 11, 12 and 13, all the way at the end of the story. In a 609-word story, the Sierra Club was not heard from until 408. An Associated Press rewrite of the story used a similar frame.

In the Reno Gazette-Journal, that meant the attack by the senators was splashed across the top of the front page, while the Sierra Club made its case inside the paper, on the jump page—which, of course, many readers never see. Moreover, the day’s main headline portrayed the Sierra Club as conducting lèse-majesté against—gasp!—the two senators: “Tahoe suit defied warnings.”

It is the Sierra Club that is on the front lines. The two senators, briefed by their aides on the matters at issue, stood off at a safe distance and dissed the Sierra Clubbers

in the trenches. The senators are not the experts. If anyone was being defiant, it was the senators. They were defying fully informed environmentalists who know the terrain. Placement and size matter. When a newspaper and a wire service elevate one viewpoint over another—and devote much more space to one than the other—it sends a message about the validity of those competing views. The Tribune and the AP put an imprimatur on the Feinstein/ Reid stance while trivializing the Sierra Club’s position. It’s true that the Nevada Legislature in 2011 enacted a bill to pull Nevada out of the TRPA unless pro-growth people got their way. But that should be treated as a related but separate Placement and issue. Tahoe affairs can’t stop because Nevada has painted itself into a corner size matter. on pullout from TRPA. Pullout would never have been enacted if Democrats and Gov. Sandoval had not been trying to curry favor with moneyed interests and believed they could do it without actually risking a pullout because that decision was down the road. While the pullout measure was enacted Sen. Reid was silent—though he found time in his message to the legislators to discuss a dead-onarrival proposal about brothels. Well, down the road is now and since the politicians have gotten their mileage out of that measure, the Democrats should come back to life and repeal it. U.S. senators, other politicians, corporations, executives, people with money all have an easy time getting public attention. It’s the others, the workers, the people in the trenches, the gadflies, the activists, the minorities, who have trouble getting a hearing. There’s no reason to make it harder on them. Ω Ron Mentgen

Retiree A friend of ours just adopted a small dog that had been abused. It’s an unusual breed. It’s just a darling dog, but I had never heard of [the breed] before. It’s becoming acquainted and rehabilitated, and turning into a marvelous pet.

Marcy Reddick

Therapist The one I have now that I just came to rescue. He was picked up by Animal Control this morning. I adopted him two months ago. He had been running around Lake Tahoe. He’s pretty. He’s very friendly, loves everybody, but he also loves to run. I get to know the nice people here.

Terri Braunworth

Humane Society worker Hard to say. I wouldn’t call them crazy. I would say some of them are exuberant. Here right now, Tank. He’s a very tall dog. He looks like he’s wearing stilts. He’s a love. He’s a giant puppy. He’s about 11 months old, and he acts like he’s 8 weeks old. Tank’s the one that stands out in my head right now.