When Dan DeQuille wrote for the Territorial Enterprise of Virginia City fame, back in the 19th century, he used this depiction of a braying, angry, miner's burro. He always called it, as did most of the prospectors of the day, "A Washoe Canary." Below are some of our brayings, that is, Washoe Canary Songs.

Campaign Finance Reporting Laws In Nevada Don't Reflect Reality

by Johnny Gunn

There are grand jury investigations underway, criminal complaints in District Court, and other investigations being conducted into the financing of various campaigns for elected office in Nevada, yet questions about whether or not Contribution and Expense Reports are important continue to be raised. Politicians generally don't want the kinds of changes that would make the reports worthy of their own name.

From the point of view of The Nevada Observer, we feel they are not only important, we feel that many politicians are taking advantage of the lack of interest by voters in the state and the lack of aggressive investigation of complaints about these reports. The problem with reports like these; they are mandated by laws written by some of the same people that plan to take advantage of the loopholes in the mandate.

Is there a way to get around that? The change that forces C&E reports to be filed annually is a good start, but much more needs to be done, and not on a casual basis, but as law. To be a valid piece of information, there must be a beginning and an ending. In the current reports, candidates do not need to include a beginning balance, or conclude with an ending balance.

There are no provisions for providing bank records to be attached to the reports, so a loan from the candidate to his campaign fund needs no validation. Did he really have $40,000 in his account a month or so before the loan? Or did some other entity give him $40,000; he put it in his bank account and promptly wrote his campaign a check from himself, no one ever being the wiser?

And foremost, there must be audit authority given to the Secretary of State. His position as the state's election boss must have some snarling teeth attached. For Dean Heller to have to say to me, just two weeks ago, "I can see the alleged crime, I just can't do anything about it unless someone files a complaint." That is obscene in today's world.

If the politicians who will be gathering in Carson City in 2005 want to clean up their act, particularly after their abysmal showing in 2003, this would be a good place to start. Prove to us, the people who are forced to live by your laws, that you are acting in our best interests.

LETTERS WE GET

Editor, The Observer,

I am responding to your editorial. It's not all doom and gloom in fact it's the exact opposite. The only thing is that things change and the past is not coming back and it wasn't necessarily as good as you remember it.

When I arrived in town in 1978 The MGM was brand new and top of the line, the Mapes the Riverside the Holiday were all well past their prime and to an extent so was Harolds Club. Harrah's was the only place that was top notch Downtown. The Comstock was not an attractive place even though it was new (I thought at the time it was old) Circus was Circus and the Eldorado in those days was on the wrong side of the tracks.

The Nugget was fine over in Sparks and the Peppermill was a coffee shop and fireside lounge and the Atlantis was a small motel.

Today Harrah's has invested considerable amounts of money in Reno and plans to run more charters to combat the weather. You have the tri properties with great food great amenities and one of the finest showrooms in the country at the Eldorado and Silver Legacy brings in big names weekly. Bill Cosby just the other week. The tri properties bring in bigger names in the shared convention center downtown. Prince Sarah Brightman Bette Midler Hillery Duff are just a few of the biggest names who have either played here recently or are about to.

Peppermill continues to expand Atlantis has bought all the land to Moana and is planning a huge retail restaurant nightclub deal. Plus we know they plan to build another hotel across the street.

Hilton had a great year last year and is doing well this year. The reason it is for sale is that it doesn't fit with Caesars Entertainment plans. They want to concentrate on the strip.

Circus Circus has remodeled all it's rooms over the past year or two and Eldorado has just done the same.

The downtown is filling in because we are running out of room.

The thing that needs to be done is market what we have. Show people what they could do for a one day trip two day a week etc. Show them what we already know that we have a lot more than just gaming.

Even shopping is going nuts with the new half million square foot center at Mt Rose.

Things change and Northern Nevada is doing fine.

Regards

Sam Shad

(ed. note: Sam wrote this in e-mail-ese. We don't recommend this for future letters to the editor. Use English, it's the best way to get our attention)