Sheila Leslie

Things stay the same

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Some of the staff and I headed to Salt Lake City for the annual Association of Alternative Newsmedia convention. I haven’t been to one of these national altweekly events for a while—2010 in Toronto, I think.

I’m sometimes a little intimidated representing the little weekly in the same room with some of the great minds in alternative journalism, but it’s so refreshing to hear the thoughts of people who swim in more sophisticated waters. It’s also affirming to hear they’ve got the same problems we do, and the great minds often come up with the same solutions we do.

One thing that’s obvious is that alt-weeklies are starting to figure out the web. I listened to one e-commerce guy, Eric Bright with Deseret Digital Media, espouse publishing advertising online disguised as reviews or stories. Readers would believe it was authentic. In fact, in Bright’s mind, it is authentic.

I remarked to one of my bosses that making money is easy—if it was just about making money, I’d just publish pornography. I mean, metaphorically to journalists, that’s what Bright was talking about. But people have figured out unethical ways to make money with every new medium that comes along. Payto-play and “advertisers” have existed since cuneiform. Still, it wasn’t 10 years ago that guys like this would have been chased out of the conference on the sharp end of a beer bottle—not included as a keynote speaker. I remember one year that a publisher put out a bounty—was it $100 from Bruce Brugmann?—to anyone who would kick another publisher in the ass, although I can’t remember what the perceived crime was.

One thing Bright did have right is that old media business models don’t work on the web or mobile. The thing that new media people forget, though, is for local print, old media business models can work.

The little RN&R went head to head with the biggest alt-weeklies in the country and won first place in the Free Speech category for our Fatal Encounters series last year. Congrats to our team! —D. Brian Burghart brianb@newsreview.com

High on cannabis

I happened to tune into Sam Shad’s interview with Sen. Tick Segerblom on the subject of marijuana, specifically medical marijuana, and why it has taken years to get to where we are today. Ironically, Nevadans voted in two elections to legalize and provide distribution centers to make medical marijuana available to those who may be helped by this herbal medication. I must admit, I was shocked, and perhaps even mildly amused to learn that distribution stores are ready to do business. Wow! About time—after two years! OK, so the process was tedious and slow. But still, they are not ready to open their doors. So what’s the problem? And this is really comical—they don’t have access to any product. The senator stated that with all the red tape and hoops the businesses had to go through to obtain licenses and so forth, they forgot about growing their product, and it seems they are still sitting on their hands.

But I must say, I’m not surprised. the insanity against this plant continues. It still seems to be a futile effort to get a large portion of our population to understand the usefulness of the hemp plant. Huge business interests continue to sell their anti-propaganda to the ignorant and the uninformed. To the senator’s credit, he was very clear about the dangers of, say, alcohol as opposed to marijuana. Alcohol poisoning, impaired driving, etc. all contribute to huge societal problems, where marijuana is a relatively safe drug. Law enforcement concerns are understandable, but at the risk of repeating myself, irresponsible behavior behind the wheel of a vehicle is just that—irresponsible behavior of the individual—and should be punishable by law. But that has nothing to do with marijuana. If a person is acting a fool while driving, whether stoned or drunk, or completely sober for that matter, we all want that individual off our streets and highways.

Just consider for a moment that second hand smoke kills thousands of people per year, and to date, marijuana overdose caused exactly zero! None, nada, zero, period! And yet it remains a Schedule 1 drug. It reminds me of a line from that goofy 1936 movie, Reefer Madness—“a powerful narcotic in which lurks murder, insanity, death.” Really? Some people apparently still harbor these beliefs. Grow up! This plant should be emancipated and put to good use. Besides the medical efficacy, the hemp plant has myriad uses. Let us stop living in the dark age of ignorance and accept that we now live in the 21st century. Let’s help our planet and begin to use this green plant to provide all the things which benefit mankind instead of destroying our planet in the name of greed. J.R. Reynolds Reno

Commie Pinkos

Re “At least people are talking” (Editorial, July 9):

Bureau of Land Management director Neil Kornze, a Politburo hack appointee of Comrade Reidinski of the Politburo of Amerikka, delivers a milquetoast response to the very legitimate complaints about his agency demanding over $1 million in “site improvements”—commonly referred to as extortion in most circles—including 24-hour access to ice cream at their private compound at Burning Man. Taking a page directly from our Dear Leader Comrade Obamsakovas’ apologists’ playbook, he states, “I’ve ordered a top-to-bottom review of the problem,” and “We are reassessing BLM needs.” Textbook Alinskite obfuscation and complete denial that the real problem is the BLM director.

Secondary is the reality that said director overlooks the entrenched BLM culture of forever entitleism, while standing on the throat of the organizers and Burners and threatening to withhold the operating permit unless their extortion requirements are met.

Out here in the real world, this is referred as plain, old-fashioned U.S.D.A. bullshit. BLM being fully aware of the “spreading excrement” that had hit the proverbial fan was/is mere confirmation that Director Kornze and his fellow bumblers appear like the fools that they strive to emulate in everyday happenstance!

Any brain-dead second assistant flunkie supervisor at a volunteer knitting circle could have gotten to the bottom of this extortion attempt in one telephone call. The fact that no firings have taken place immediately following this extortion attempt is prima facie evidence of collusion at BLM, in this writer’s humble opinion.

How can Kornze look himself in the mirror? When will heads roll? BLM has been caught red-handed in their textbook jackbooted thuggery extortion activities! With the benefit of hindsight, this reality isn’t completely unanticipated. This is the same agency that gave rise to the Nevada Sagebrush Rebellion, and their Naziesque criminal involvement in the Cliven Bundy Ranch fiasco in Clark County. This is the same mob of Mafiosi—my sincere apologies to real, honest, hard-working goombas, leg breakers and goodfellas, of course—that controls approximately 90 percent of the sovereign territory of the State of Nevada as a territorial fiefdom. We have a BLM director running roughshod on 600 anticipated BLM members who didn’t have much to do other than spend a week or so ogling naked folks running around the desert over Labor Day! Who can blame them if after a hard day of pornographic photography they felt “entitled” to flushing toilets, 24/7 air conditioning, and promoter-provided freezers jam-packed with their favorite ice cream in the middle of the Black Rock Desert? K. R. Kollman Reno

Best burrito in Lebanon

Re “Two guys from Reno” (Feature story, July 9):

I’ve been waiting for a story like this ever since my first visit to El Cartel. Anthony and Justin are just amazing people. They’re so cool to hang around with, always in a cheery attitude no matter what. My friends and I spent a lot of time at their amazing place, for the sole fact that something cool always happens. Once they made me a burrito, first one they make in the shop, and it was awesome, leading me to proclaim myself as Food Taster. I’m just really happy to have people like them in my hometown, they bring us something we haven’t had here before, and I think it’s a must! So thank you guys for publishing this amazing story about one of my favorite places. Anthony El Khoury Byblos, Lebanon

A shill a minute

Re “Living single-stream” (Green, July 2):

Here’s a stat: Recycling is up all over the U.S., even Maine, as reported by NPR. If I already recycle, why do I have to be charged $9? The drop-off location on Commercial Row hums with daily activity. Yet one sees all sorts of non-recyclable stuff being dropped there. I’m talking Styrofoam and peanuts, hard plastics, lots of dog food bags. People are too lazy to toss a beer carton into the cardboard pile after tossing the glass. Who are the sorters, and how efficient are they? How much of the plentiful recyclable litter and “special events” stuff is being recycled? Seems like WM gets a subsidy and a shill from RN&R. Steve Klutter Sun Valley

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