The Year That Was And The Beat Goes On

Here Comes Y-2, With Continued Zeal And Effort

by Johnny Gunn

As Nevada celebrates its 140th year as a state of the union, The Nevada Observer celebrates its first birthday. Getting any publication, whether print or Internet, through that first year is a feat today, and we've all had a wonderful time nourishing our baby through this first year. And we ain't done yet, McGee.

Nevada is a big state, its people driven by diffuse philosophies, religions, biases, politics, but in most cases with one thought: honesty, by way of themselves, their neighbors, their leaders. Nevadans simply won't tolerate dishonesty, even when it's accompanied by an extravagant show-biz personality. In rural Nevada, the biggest compliment you can offer someone is to say, "his handshake is all I need."

We plan to continue searching out those who don't play their politics by the rules, who won't serve their constituents with honesty, who don't believe that we as the general public have a right to know. News, by its own definition is "something that doesn't happen regularly." A news magazine such as ours intends to continue pointing out those "things that don't happen regularly."

We can do this best with your help. If you enjoy what we do, tell a friend, but more importantly, tell us about "something that doesn't happen regularly." We have ears all over the state, but it is still very easy to miss something. A little tip by way of an e-mail, and we'll check it out.

We created what we hope will be a continuing tradition by publishing our first issue on Nevada Day, October 31, 2003. For the rest of the year, we published on the first and fifteenth of each month, and we'll continue doing that, but, for our anniversary issues, we want them to be published on the day Abraham Lincoln created the 36th state, the Battle Born Silver State, October 31. We'll publish our anniversary issues on October 31, hopefully for many more years.

A Look Back

In our very first issue, we took a long and expanded look at what has become our method of voting today. Electronic, touch-screen voting machines. There are several manufacturers of the devices, and at the time of the article there was concern they weren't safe. That maybe they could be "hacked." In Nevada, most of those concerns have been laid to rest, but this may not be the case nationally, and we will continue our in-depth articles when the are needed.

One of the most difficult continuing series of articles we've worked on concerns the problems with the Open Meeting Law, and how it has been interpreted by the University of Nevada System Board of Regents. The board has been challenged, brought to court, found guilty of breaking the law, and today, maintains it has done nothing wrong.

Coupled with the shenanigans at Community College of Southern Nevada (CCSN), we've had some very lively articles over several issues. That will probably continue as the new year begins. CCSN had an entire phalanx of people representing them at the last legislature. Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers has put an end to those practices.

One of the most difficult articles to put together concerned a series on the candidate Contributions and Expenses reports that are mandated by law. In order to bring what we thought would be the definitive report to you, Publisher David Thompson used the reports filed by Attorney General candidates Brian Sandoval and John Hunt.  "After all," he said, "the State's top law enforcement official should have the best report."

To our dismay, we found serious discrepancies in both filings. To his credit, General Sandoval immediately filed corrections, and of course, blamed his accounting people.

While researching Nevada's Homeland Security agency, we discovered there was no one home. Jerry Bussell had resigned, and apparently his office staff with him. When Department of Public Safety head George Togliatti was named interim Homeland boss, he didn't replace the staff. A recorded phone message said if there was a homeland security problem, call the highway patrol. Wow, did we feel safe then. But today, months later, it's rare if the phone is answered in the office.

Which leads us into the continuing problems with the Nevada Highway Patrol radios. The state is still out of compliance with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules, maybe to the tune of millions of dollars in fines. And the radios don't work. The hardest part of this story has been what appears to be complacency on the part of the Attorney General's office. On the surface, it appears that major laws have been broken, scuffed, bent, torn, and ignored, and nobody seems to care. This would be a good time for you to jump to our lead editorial in this issue and discover how it is that potentially billions of dollars of tax money could be lost.

One of the pleasures of editing a newsmagazine as opposed to a daily or weekly newspaper is being able to go in depth with articles. We've been doing that, on a statewide basis with such varied subjects as water, Yucca Mountain, and education, and we plan to continue. Education in Nevada is wracked with problems and needs a complete overhaul. Water will probably be the next major issue to plague rural Nevada since the metropolitan areas seem intent on taking it from them, and of course, there is a continuing fight based on the potential for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

The Nevada Taxation Department in a hurry to get a new computer program to handle their $833 million tax increase from the last legislature went to a company that out-sources their work. Accenture is just a shell, and what gets done is done overseas. Accenture's headquarters are in Bermuda. The Bahamas. Good work guys. Buy American. Think Nevada.

Still to come, follow up features on gaming, using the problems facing the Hard Rock Casino as an example, completing the Kathie Augustine/Legislative Impeachment procedure, if it happens.

It isn't always bad things that make up the news. During the past year The Nevada Observer took you to visit Goldfield in Esmeralda County, Kingston in Lander County, and Rachel, site of Area 51, and the little people from other places that are known to visit the area. We look forward to more features of that kind. Kudos to Don Cook.

It's been a wonderful year, and we take this opportunity to thank you for reading what we offer. Ideas? Please send them along. Thoughts? We'd like to hear them.

Remember this: It isn't all right for your government to lie to you, for government workers to steal from you, or for your government to deny you public information. We can help.