Letters

Vote for sanity

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Have you voted in the Biggest Little Best of Northern Nevada yet? I’ve been seeing the usual social media campaigns of some of my favorite people and businesses striving to humbly ask for votes to be declared the best. You guys have to help your friends out; sometimes the campaigning gets a little pathetic.

If I calculate correctly, we should be about halfway through. Voting ends on July 25 at 4 a.m., so if you’re waiting for an opportune moment to get started, consider this a hint. We’ve already had more than 1,500 people vote, so when you consider the last-minute bump, we’re running at about the usual clip. As always, we don’t care what you do to get people to vote for you, but if we catch you using technological means to game our little popularity contest, we’ll punish you. + + + The last time I wrote, I talked about the internship that I was doing for my journalism master’s. I optimistically hoped to work seven days a week for 16 hours a day. You might have thought I was kidding when I wrote that, and maybe I was, sort of. But spending a solid eight hours a day researching incidents where someone was killed by a law enforcement officer is some of the most soul-sucking, depressing work anyone can do. Fortunately, it’s not that easy to get into therapy, and except for being a little edgy, I’ve pretty much normalized. I added in the neighborhood of 500 entries to the database, which meant I was going along at a little better than three entries an hour for the entire time. I’ve got around another 2,500 more incidents already logged to research, and I’m sorry to report that that’s barely scraping the surface.

I have yet to figure out the crowdsourcing angle to this. Only about 10 percent of the total incidents have been input by strangers, but I think when I finally get that part sussed out, the database will fill up pretty quickly since I can fact-check research at about five times the rate I can do the research. —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

Needs more facts

Re “No kid gloves for them” (editorial, June 19):

While the editorial regarding the pay and benefits for Reno police officers and firefighters was interesting and brought much valid information to Reno citizens, it was somewhat misleading in the comparison with military members and their pay. The editorial implies that military pay is similar, if not even greater, than police and firefighter pay. Nothing could be further from the truth. Comparing starting salaries and salaries throughout the time of the career of these professions, the members of the military enlisted is on average less than half over a 25-year career span. The article should have included the pay scales so that a valid comparison could be made by the reader.

This letter by no means is questioning the other valid points made by the author of the editorial as to the fair compensation that should be paid to the members of both dangerous professions in the city of Reno or for any other city in this nation. There is also no question that the members of the military profession that face the dangers of wars and ongoing training under dangerous conditions are not paid enough. Frankly, I believe that neither of these professions can ever be compensated fairly for the dangers they face.

Fred Speckmann Reno

Street smarts (or not)

Re “Climate change—true or false?” (Street talk, June 19):

Climate change, the actual warming of the planet, shouldn’t even be a question. It is established in ice core samples, vegetation changes, glacial melting, and dozens of other means of physical proof. I can only hope that those participants who answered in the negative were responding to the manufactured debate that is happening politically: Is man responsible for climate change? I say politically manufactured because even that isn’t debated in the scientific community. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states unequivocally that current climate change is accelerated because of human activity.

Humans are the only animal to have had such a global impact in deforestation, atmospheric composition, and declining biodiversity. Meteor impacts have done worse, but that’s about it. The only people still arguing against mankind’s direct attribution to climate change are either misinformed or reimbursed for that opinion. Asking people “on the street” about whether climate change even exists can only be a way of shaming those misinformed, using them for lazy news filler, or to stretch out the real debate that is happening in Washington: What do we do about climate change?

Felix Danger Reno

Act accordingly

Re “Election could turn on Affordable Care Act” (Let freedom ring, June 19):

Brendan, you missed it! Here are the highlights of the 2009 Republican Health Care Reform Act:

Most health care would be financed by for-profit insurance companies. They’ll charge as much they possibly can, but pay for as little care as they can get away with. They’ll be able to arbitrarily drop anyone’s coverage at any time; they won’t have to cover anyone who’s already sick. Older people and the poor will still have Medicare and Medicaid—for now. About 45 million people will be left out of any program. Look for them in the ER when they get sick. A million and a half people—many of them insured—will file for bankruptcy each year because of medical bills. No one will keep records in any standard format, and 45,000 Americans will die each year because they lack (or lose) a way to buy care. Every year this “system” will kill 15 times as many people as the 911 hijackers did.

Rep. Heller and his GOP frat brothers waved copies of this plan at that joint session in 2009. After the address, Rep. Alan Grayson walked over to retrieve one. It was a blank sheet of paper.

C.G. Green Reno

High job satisfaction, too

Re “Did you see our crack item?” (Letters to the Editor, June 26):

There is no correlation between sexual abuse and adult film industry workers. Many people who suffered abuse don’t grow up and star in pornography. The Journal of Sex Research published the most comprehensive study done on the matter, you can find it online. The study compared people in the adult industry to matched people from airports and universities. The conclusion was not that adult film stars have a higher incidence of childhood sexual abuse or that they are less psychologically healthy. It found many were happy and healthy—not just by their own standards but by completely objective measures. It also found they had higher levels of self-esteem, positive feelings, social support, sexual satisfaction and spirituality—quite contrary to the belief that a legal industry is full only of people lacking self worth who are forced into it. It’s about one’s own beliefs and morals and perspective. If the hot days, hotter nights didn’t make me laugh out loud, I would have been more uptight about the suggestion to smoke crack. Staisha Ray Reno

Eat your veggies

Re “Veg out” (Arts & Culture, June 26):

The recent RN&R article on vegetarian cuisine in Reno was truly pathetic. Two of the six recommendations are massive chains, another is an unremarkable sports bar, another is in Carson City, and another is in California. In fact, Reno has a great and growing selection of vegetarian options. In the Midtown district, Süp, Great Full Gardens and Laughing Planet all have delicious and versatile vegetarian options. In terms of burgers, the Great Basin’s black bean burger, Midtown Eats’ portobello burger, and Burger Me’s veggie burger are all vastly superior options to the recommended Red Robin Gardenburger. If driving to Carson City for sushi isn’t in the cards, Sushi Lover has an entire menu of vegetarian and vegan rolls. This is only a smattering of great places for Reno vegetarians; there are also sandwich shops (Rubicon Deli, Michael’s Deli), cafés (Homage, Café DeLuxe), and food trucks (Electric Blue Elephant, Gourmelt) that have lots to offer vegetarians. I expect better from the RN&R—especially when it comes to supporting small businesses. Tara Littlefield Reno Editor’s note: With all due respect, the story was about vegetarian options in restaurants where you wouldn’t expect to find them, not the great vegetarian options in places that we’ve frequently written about.

The song remains the same

Re “Missing case” (Letters to the Editor, June 19):

A letter you published from Daniel Duckworth of Scottsdale, Ariz., referred to an article I wrote for this newspaper March 8, 2012 (“Top 10 Worst Supreme Court Decisions”).

The writer said that my list was “just not serious” because I omitted Buck v. Bell (1927). That infamous opinion, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes justifying forced sterilization, declared that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.”

The ruling, as outrageous as it was, did not make my list because other decisions were far worse. Nevertheless, as Justice John Harlan II remarked in an obscenity case: “One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.”

Jake Highton Reno

Free speech zones

Since the Supreme Court has now said that protesters have the right to get in the face of the people they’re protesting at abortion clinics, does it also mean that cities and political parties can no longer restrict political protests miles away from political conventions, gatherings of the rich and powerful, etc.? We’ll see.

Michel Rottmann VC Highlands Editor’s note: I had the exact same wonderment.

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 Staff writer Sage Leehey Contributors Amy Alkon, Woody Barlettani, Bob Grimm, Ashley Hennefer, Sheila Leslie, Eric Marks, Dave Preston, Jessica Santina, Todd South, Brendan Trainor, Bruce Van Dyke, Allison Young Creative Director Priscilla Garcia Art Director Hayley Doshay Junior Art Director Brian Breneman Design Melissa Bernard, Brad Coates, Serene Lusano, Kyle Shine, Skyler Smith Design Intern Geraldine Centinaje Advertising Consultants Joseph “Joey” Davis, Gina Odegard, Bev Savage Senior Classified Advertising Consultant Olla Ubay Office Manager/Ad Coordinator Karen Brooke Executive Assistant/Operations Coordinator Nanette Harker Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Manager Anthony Clarke Distribution Drivers Sandra Chhina, Joe Medeiros, Ron Neill, Andy Odegard, Clayton Porter, Christian Shearer, Marty Troye, Warren Tucker, Matt Veach, Gary White, Joseph White, Margaret Underwood 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 Lead Technology Synthesist Jonathan Schultz Senior Support Tech Joe Kakacek Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalinn Jenkins 405 Marsh Ave., Third Floor Reno, NV 89509 Phone (775) 324-4440 Fax (775) 324-4572 Classified Fax (916) 498-7940 Mail Classifieds to 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.

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Join us for a family friendly celebration of our nation’s independence on July 4th at Wingfield park!

- Watermelon and rounds bakery apple pie eating contests With prizes from - free games for the kids With prizes from circus circus - live performance from extraordinary local vocalist Jakki ford and band - aWard-Winning bbQ food from famous dave’s - cold beverages, island ice treats and Jack’s popcorn - live music from local band Jake’s garage - tribute to veterans, military color guard and veterans honor Wall - special patriotic performance and military tribute by the reno Jazz band and the reno municipal band -