letters

Fight with power

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

I started a little tempest in a teapot last week when I posted a photo of my new solar panels on Facebook. Here’s slightly abridged version of one of the responses. It’s by my friend Bob Tregilus of the podcast “This Week in Energy” and other green energy groups. “Because you installed solar, with the intent of zeroing out your electric bill, that shifts all of the utility’s overhead and enormous fixed costs onto other ratepayers. Because you are compensated for the solar you generate at retail rates, on the consumer’s side of the meter, NV Energy lost a customer and someone has to make up the difference.

“However, if we had a feedin tariff program, like we got through the state Senate in 2011, but [which] died in the Assembly, you could have connected your system to the utility’s side of the meter. Then NVE retains you as a customer, and they would have gained a resource, you as a generator.

“Being on the wholesale side of the meter, then, the energy you generated could be used to displace more expensive energies on the grid, in particular, costly sources such as energy from peaker plants which can cost the utility as much as a $1 kWh [kilowatt hour]. So the $0.14 kWh NVE pays you for the solar you generate would be displacing $1 kWh peak energy saving the utility $0.86 kWh, a savings which, theoretically, they would pass on to ratepayers.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Bob. I am now my own utility. I should be able to sell the energy I produce anywhere I want, maybe to those very neighbors Bob is talking about. I should be able to install as many solar panels as I want, without the monopoly being able to prevent it. This is anti-competitive, pro-dirty energy, and anti-American, and it artificially increases rates for everyone, including me, because I paid for the hardware.

This screwed system was bought and paid for by NV Energy. Until Nevada legislators get a dog in the fight—maybe by installing solar modules on state buildings and selling back to the “utility”—we’ll all continue paying more for dirty energy we don’t want. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

For locals only

Re “13 Songs” (Arts & Culture, Jan. 9):

It would be nice to have some local music on the list, or at least a separate list for local bands. Dah well. Maybe next year.

Austin Anderson Reno

Cruel service

I am disgusted by the uncaring and heartless display of Eldorado HotelCasino Reno Security New Year’s Eve.

At 10:30 p.m. my friend and I noticed a bird stuffed into a party hat just inside the doors of the casino. Upon investigation, I found the pigeon to be alive, but perhaps injured and in discomfort.

I notified two security guards and suggested they call a supervisor, who in turn could call the SPCA or a wildlife recovery agency.

A female supervisor arrived, but to my astonishment, unsympathetically and coldly told the two junior officers to just dump the pigeon outside and don’t bother wasting her time. Another officer even rudely joked to call a man who feeds pigeons to an eagle.

Two junior security guards complied with the supervisor’s barking commands and put the bird on the sidewalk.

I followed alongside, picked up the bird, and carried it to a treed area a few blocks away where I removed a branch which some idiot had stuck in its rectum. After that, the pigeon began to clean itself and began to perk-up. The bird could not obviously remove the large and horrible object by itself. All it took was a few minutes and a little caring to help save the discomfort—and probably life—of this bird. It will no-doubt take a lot longer for Eldorado Hotel-Casino security staff to learn more caring skills when it comes to wildlife—maybe humans, too—and not be as heartless as I observed.

These cruel and insensitive employees should be chastised and reprimanded for their disgusting behavior and lack of humanity. Kevan Shaw Nanaimo, B.C., Canada

This land is my land

Re “A new battle over public lands” (Let Freedom Ring, Jan. 9):

Another Nevada “land grab”? Every paragraph of this opinion piece omits or obscures the facts, and is mainly a thinly-veiled privatization scheme. While most agencies could use a lot of improvement, these lands belong to all the people of the U.S., not just Nevadans. I mean, Nevada has one national park, one of the least-visited; the state’s and counties’ legacy isn’t very good when it comes to sustainability. By having federal oversight, a more diverse workforce and consistent programs are more available than piecemeal “local” control. Federal overseers also include Department of Energy and Department of Defense, and Tribal/BIA lands. The feds granted lands to the railroads in order to promote westward expansion; the railroads used primarily immigrant labor, by the way.

The Tea Party rhetoric about “earmarks” is ironic, in that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid has resisted any effort to collect meaningful revenues from federal mining leases in Nevada. The “shovel brigade” was an ill-conceived grandstanding that ignored the diminishment of the habitat of so-called bull trout, proving that “locals” value driving over fishing. This goes against the “multiple-use, sustained yield” motto of the Forest Service. Renegade ranchers, plinking four-wheelers, rock art thieves, are any of these on states’ rights advocates’ radar? I think not. What this would result in is: coal-fired power plants, water transfers to cities, and continued irresponsible resource extraction. A better approach would be along the lines of the land transfers from Las Vegas Burea of Land Management, which benefit Lake Tahoe, and the Lyon County proposal for an expanded copper mine. But recall this ore has a boomand-bust history, like most so-called “rebellions.”

Steve Klutter Sun Valley

Management issue

Re “A new battle over public lands” (Let Freedom Ring, Jan. 9):

The terms “reclaim” and “recover” are bandied about like the federal government somehow took the lands from the state of Nevada. The state never owned these lands. The federal government obtained what would become the Territory of Nevada from Mexico in 1848 via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and by marginalizing the native Americans already living therein. When Nevada became a state in 1864, it was awarded 3.9 million acres of School Grant Lands, and as a condition of statehood, gave up all claims to the remaining unappropriated (federal) lands forever. In 1880, Nevada not being happy with the set formula of the state getting all the lands in sections 16 and 36 across the state, the U.S. Congress allowed the state to exchange those 3.9 million acres of mostly arid, desert land for 2 million acres of the state’s choosing. Nevada selected the most valuable land, mostly those with water and in the river bottoms, that had not been already been settled by homesteaders and miners. The state then sold off essentially all of these lands, leaving only 3,000 acres of the original 3.9 million acres it received at statehood. That is how the state of Nevada manages its land.

Ron Rogers Redding, Calif.

The people’s court

Re “Fields of dreams” (News, Jan. 9):

This is a complete misrepresentation of Eddie Lorton and the reason he filed suit. It also seems to be a slap in the face to the Nevada Supreme Court. Dennis Myers, the author of all this spin, seems to feel it is “surprising” that the Nevada Supreme Court accepted Lorton’s case. As if there ever was a question of the validity. This case, stopping career-minded politicians from flagrantly disregarding established—voted on by the people— term limit law, will set national precedent. Myers then follows up with this little gem: “In similar electoral cases, the Nevada Supreme Court has a history, when the facts of the case leave any doubt or flexibility at all, of defaulting to the voters’ judgment and allowing the widest possible choice.”

The people of Reno voted overwhelmingly for term limits in 1996. There is nothing unclear or the least ambiguous about the Reno City Charter where it clearly states the mayor is a member of the City Council. Section 3.010 states that: 1. The Mayor: (a) Shall serve as a member of the City Council and preside over its meetings. Why media lapdogs on the Left want to say any of this “has flexibility” is beyond me. Eddie Lorton didn’t file suit to “keep some of his prospective opponents—term limited City Council members—from running.” He filed suit so more people could be on the ticket; because the political hacks who are term-limited out would have sucked up all the oxygen and kept the “regular” people from even joining the race. Benjamin Gaul Reno

Too tipos

Re “The Bobbit” (Feature story, Jan. 9):

After weeks of resisting the urge to jump on the anti-Bob Grimm bandwagon, I’m finally joining the rally. Here we have a man who expects us to value his pompous opinions on film, yet, ironically, in one review (12 Years a Slave), he admits he’ll never be able to spell the leading actor’s name “without looking it up,” then carelessly misspells Carey Mulligan’s name not once, but twice, as Carrie. Please, I beg you, give us someone we can take seriously.

Mary McGlothlen Reno Editor’s note: Having misspelled Miley Cyrus’ name as Sirus in the same issue, myself, sometimes we journalists have to admit that honest errors occasionally happen, fix them, and try to be more vigilant. While we don’t have a copy editor, we have four staffers who read every word, but we still miss stuff.

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 Calendar Editor Kelley Lang Editorial Intern Sage Leehey Contributors Amy Alkon, Chanelle Bessette, Megan Berner, Mark Dunagan, Bob Grimm, Ashley Hennefer, Sheila Leslie, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, K.J. Sullivan, Kris Vagner, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Art Director Hayley Doshay Junior Art Director Brian Breneman Design Vivian Liu, Serene Lusano, Marianne Mancina, Skyler Smith Advertising Consultants Meg Brown, Gina Odegard, Bev Savage Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office Manager/Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker Distribution Manager Valerie Mets Assistant Distribution Manager Ron Neill Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Ron Large, Joe Medeiros, Andy Odegard, Jesse Pike, Martin Troye, Warren Tucker, Matthew Veach, Gary White, Joseph White, Sam White General Manager/Publisher John D. Murphy President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Chief Operations Officer Deborah Redmond Human Resource Manager Tanja Poley Business Manager Grant Ronsenquist Business Nicole Jackson, 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&R are 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

Stop cheerleading Marijuana dispensaries in Washoe?

One of the good things about producing our news story this week about Nevada again falling behind in education is that policymakers we spoke with made no excuses.

As you can read on page 8, the annual education survey by Education Week showed Nevada with poor grades in six out of six categories. It placed last in the nation.

When we spoke with state legislators, they didn’t try to sugar-coat it. They made it clear that Nevada is not just failing but is falling back.

They did not say, “This is a Clark County problem. Washoe County is doing well.” That’s the argument officials in Washoe County have been making for decades. It’s time to admit Clark into Nevada.

Nor did they say, “This is stale data.” That is the excuse state officials have used time after time.

So we were disappointed when the Reno GazetteJournal interviewed Washoe school superintendent Pedro Martinez, and he used both of these arguments. Though no direct quote was used, the newspaper reported Martinez said the Education Week survey “is based on old data. … on 2012 graduation rates and test scores.”

Let’s set aside the fact that 2014 was only 13 days old when that RG-J article was published and that 2012 isn’t exactly when Columbus sailed. Last week, we noticed different year dates in the report, and we inquired at Education Week about methodology.

The annual survey from the publication is anxiously awaited each year in part because it is an ongoing survey. That is, it tracks trends, not just the information of the moment. It’s a film, not a snapshot, so data overlaps from year to year. Each year half the categories are updated. This year, the “chance for success,” K-12 achievement, and school finance data categories have the most current data available. The standards and accountability, transitions and alignments, and teaching professions data are carried over from the last report. Next time the last three will presumably be updated.

This isn’t stale data. Nevada operates on a two-year budget system. The new budget approved by the lawmakers in June hardly had enough time to have any impact on this survey.

The Gazette-Journal also reported, “Martinez said the only F on the report given to Nevada is in funding.” This is a reference to a subcategory of school finance. School finance is broken down into equity and level of spending, and Nevada received an F on the spending level. But that wasn’t the only F. Under the kindergarten-12th grade achievement category, Nevada received an F for the current status of student achievement. But even if Mr. Martinez were correct, and Nevada had received “only” one F, what kind of school superintendent brags about such a thing?

The trend line in the Education Week report is clear, and claiming stale data is just an excuse. Fortunately, Superintendent Martinez administers, he doesn’t set policy. But he should know that in a state with dozens of poor national rankings, a happy face on bad news is a mistake.

If there’s one thing this state does not need from officialdom, it is more cheerleading. For a half-century an upbeat spin has substituted for actual achievement in this state, not just in education but in mental health, economic development, tax equity, and dozens of other fields. How urgent can things be if a survey placing Nevada last in the nation is sugar-coated? The state needs harsh talk. Ω

Asked at Michael’s Deli, 628 S. Virginia St.

Fernando Cervantes

Gardener Great. I think it’s always better to be able to get it legally than get it some other way. People are going to get it one way or another.

Gabe Viquez

Student I don’t really mind. It’s going to help people, right? I feel like that’s better than patients getting it off the street.

Alex Holmes

Office manager I think it’s great. I’ve always been a proponent of it. When I was living in California, I met people that it really helped. And even recreationally, I don’t see any problem with it.

Maureen Dugger

Hairdresser I feel awesome about that, because it would be great revenue for our state. I think we can see that in Colorado. I think it should be decriminalized. There are many studies out there that show moderate use is way less damaging than alcohol, which is totally saturated in our society, [and] I think is way more negative than marijuana.

Wendy Gray

Payment specialist I’m not quite sure how I feel about that. I understand that some people do have medical needs for marijuana, but I also think it could be abused. Even with a medical marijuana license in effect, I know it still can be abusive. So I would probably say, if you’re looking for an against-or-for, I would probably say against.