Nevada State Journal from Reno, Nevada • 6

Rebate Jftate journal was CM before Anthony Lewis Glorious Revolution Now Dreary Mediocrity groups County just as and had me get this straight you fellows are supposed to be the good guys Wanen Leiude Robert Nilsche us Cobb rank Delaplanc oster Church Executive Editor Managing Editor Associate Editor News Editor Editorial Page Editor YOUR GOVERNOR: Gov Mike O'Callaghan State Capitol Building Office Carson City Nevada 89701 YOUR SENATORS: Senator Paul Laxalt Room 326 Russell Office Bldg Washington DC 20510 Senator Howard Cannon Room 259 Russell Office Bldg Washington DC 20510 YOUR CONGRESSMAN: Congressman James Santini Room 1408 Longworth House Office Bldg Washington DC 20515 minor exceptions every major scandal in public office over the past 20 years was uncovered by the Legislators in many states have passed to supplement the irst Amendment in protecting reporters from harassment about their sources But some prosecutors and judges wear the mantle of Richard Nixon the kina of coveruo Nixon was I in an attempt to hide them committed first the blunders and then the crimes that produced the greatest political scandal in American history Watergate A little of Watergate still lingers at all levels of government In California Connecticut lorida Idaho Indiana Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York and Ohio reporters have been sub poenaed more than 50 in the past four months and placed in varying degrees of jeopardy over this matter of confidential sources A We will cite three cases at random resno Calif four newsmen from the resno Bee have been sentenced to indefinite jail terms by Judge Denver Peckinpah for refusing to disclose where they obtained grand jury evidence of local corruption California has a shield law which supposedly prevents judges from ordering reporters to divulge their sources But Judge Peckinpah con siders himself above the law saying it intrudes on his prerogatives Appeal pending 1 Moscow Idaho Jay Shelledy of the Lewiston Morning Tribune has been sentenced to 30 days in jail by Judge Roy Mosman for refusing to reveal a news source Appeal pen ding WASHINGTON In the American drama reporters constantly try to uncover the misdeeds that the authorities cover up It is not sur prising therefore that some officials want to muzzle cantankerous reporters 1 The big weapon against the press today is the subpoena It is used to wipe out the irst Amendment right to conceal the identity of his sources This is essentially an attack on investigative reporting which cannot exist without confidential sources Any reporter who divulges con iiaences ooiamea in ms professional capacity will lose his sources Most of our own confidential in formants are dedicated public ser vants who become disturbed over mismanagement misspending and corruption in their agencies To whom should they report the wrongdoing? Many come to us tained and managed amusement parks Other developers might move into the Independence Lake Area piecemeal with none of the overall plan and sound financing of the Balanced against these known advantages of the Disney development is the unarguable fact that development degrades a wilderness area These factors legal practical environmental must all be weighed before an intelligent decision can be made concerning the Disney development Announcements of support or opposition are premature he lhrk We celebrate this week the first anniversary of a great occasion in American history a transforming moment in our lives One year ago Peter Rodino rapped his gavel and asked his colleagues to proceed good will with honor and The country watched on television as the House Committee on the Judiciary debated the impeachment of a President The faces and the voices of those 38 committee members remain very much with us It is as Shakespeare had Henry say before the battle of Agincourt: day is the east of Crispian And (it) shall ne'er go by but we in it shall be And their words Barbara Jordan of Texas: faith in the Con stitution is whole it is complete it is total and am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution the subversion the destruction of the James Mann of South Carolina: there be no accountability another President will feel free to do as he chooses The next time there may be no watchman in the night or six nights and days the Judiciary Committee wrestled with evidence and conscience and history It voted three articles of im peachment against Richard Nixon charging that he had failed his con stitutional duty to "take care that the laws be faithfully by obstructing justice abusing his power and ignoring the subpoenas The proceedings were prolonged and contentious but their very un tidiness was satisfying in the end The 38 committee members were in tensely American in their variety To see them I wrote at the time was to see ourselves as guardians of the Constitution and that was strangely reassuring Perhaps we romanticized that week Even as it happened we were Broken rom Bread of Life Used wisely and constructively the desire to be important can be a blessed thing! Remember when Gen Oglethorpe wanted permission from King George to found a colony in the New World? The King was not in terested inally Oglethorpe tried to impress on the king how meaningful it would be for England to have a colony in the New World how wonderful to plant the English flag on new territory King George replied we already have colonies in the new said Oglethorpe none of them is named after you" And that is how the state of Georgia received its name All of us desire to be important God gave us this desire to be worthwhile let us use it for the best ends Whosoever will he chief antAna a let him be your servant (Matt Custom Bilt Venetian Blind Co In the Journal Days Gone By 100 Years 1875 Most of the ranchers have their first cropof hay inthebarn 75 Years 1900 Wells Herald reported a Republican club was being organized 50 Years 1925 Rev Collins of the Sparks Episcopal Church returned from Walker River where he took a group of boys on an outing 25 Years 1950 ire of tremendous swiftness wiped out three buildings and a lumber yard The fire was controlled only after it had threatened entire blocks in the southeast and southwest sides of Wells Avenue and East ourth Street intersection Totally destroyed were Eveleth Lumber warehouse storage shed and the arisen among Reno City Council members concerning inspection procedures for construction of the Stead sewage treatment plant City Manager Bob Oldland recommends the council retain the companies which are engineering the project Wageresource Consulting Engineers and John Carollo Engineers to inspect it Oldland believes this will guarantee the expertise with which they designed the project will also be expended in the inspection Councilman Clyde Biglieri objects and believes an engineer who designs a project be hired to inspect his own work One cannot help but be reminded of another huge city project which was inspected by the same firm which designed it that project was the Wells Avenue Overpass The overpass is uncontested even now as the biggest boondoggle The $74 million structure began to crack soon after its completion in 1968 The 2 City of Reno collected more than a half million dollars in damages from the designers and contractors But it has still been unable to recover a substantial amount of the costs expended in repairing the bridge And the2? overpass is still not considered safe for heavy traffic 2 In deciding the suit in favor of the City of Reno the US District Court jury ruled that inspection of the overpass which had been performed by Ken 2 Associates the designer been adequate Rllt riiirintJ iho ivial frequently testified that the design of the bridge was faulty and even vague Then there is Congress One of the memorable moments in the Judiciary Committee proceedings last year was the statement by Walter lowers of Alabama just before he voted to impeach that henceforth more would be expected of Congress will and should be lowers said "by our willingness to share in the many hard choices that must be made for our nation I want my friends to know that I will be around to remind them when some of these hard choices are up and we will be able to judge then how responsible we can be with our newly found Congressional How far from that standard is the reality A Congress that came to Washington last January with trumpet calls of reform and activism has lost its way has lost even its self respect The House of Representatives has actually just spent days punishing one of its members Michael Harrington of Massachusetts because he violated the Old Boys' code and told about some of the Central In telligence Agency's wrong doing The measure of disappointed expectations was in one event above all: The Mayaguez affair After the years of futile brutality in Vietnam the automatic reaction of the Executive to a pin prick was bombs After all the lessons of Watergate the response of Congress to the crude violation of limits that it had itself imposed was to cheer So much for responsibility and respect for law one year after our rededication to the Constitution Of course the enduring problems of society are more complicated than Watergate The riddles of energy or the Middle East do not have clear solutions acceptable to nearly everyone We can look back on the evil of Richard Nixon with a certain nostalgia for a problem with only one right answer Looking back tempers our sense of letdown We are free from the" burden of a criminal president and we freed ourselves Nothing can dim that achievement nothing should make us forget that moment of shared wonder and love of country in the summer of 1974 Mudd Dr Ellsberg you have a code tran scriber in your rumpus room I understand and you've been listening in on the communications I from the Soyuz Apollo mission Can you tell us what's going on? I Ellsberg Well Roger as you are aware I I believe in the people's right to know and the Supreme Court upheld 7 2 the publication of the i papers I gave to the New York Times in 1971 Mudd Yes yes Dr Ellsberg But could you tell us what in fact is going on right now? Ellsberg Well Roger the Astronaut Stafford reports that the Cosmonaut Leonov says that he and the Cosmonaut Kubasov demand political asylum and refuse to release the linking module and land back in the Soviet Union The I cosmonauts want to land jointly with the Americans in the Pacific They insist on being flown back to the United States Wait a minute they're saying something else Mudd Yes! Yes! Ellsberg They say that it's the only way they can ever get to meet Solzhenitsyn Mudd Well what is the White House saying? i Ellsberg President ord is negotiating He's asking Houston Control whether the Apollo I I Mediterranean somewhere if we can get I Mudd What is Houston saying? Ellsberg Something about our fleet in the 1 I situa i Cronkite Roger? Roger! We seem to be I having some er technical difficulties ladies and gentlemen Please stand by sure be able to clear all this up in just a Screen goes blank Shows only Apollo Soyuz Project shield with Russian American hand I clasp Where to Write III Washington because they trust the govern judges welcome the help of the press ment to investigate itself They come in exposing corruption So essential is confidence because they fear this function that Sen Lowell reprisals from superiors who may be Weicker Conn has said: iiiipuvaicu ui me iinscoiluuci There is nothing devious about this process It is precisely what our ounding athers intended It is the reason indeed that they established in the irst Amendment certain freedoms and immunities for the press The function is to give the people an alternate source of information so thev are not denenrient 1 UIV VVVV4UU 1Y1AUII only upon official pronouncements to haunted by dark secrets and i vauuoc anu inua biuu a Danicinar nir of public mischief to set in motion the reforms that will prevent its recurrence Only tangentially is the reporter concerned with the conviction of the guilty parties which is the task not of the press but of the state Good lawmen prosecutors and William Buckley Jr Technical Difficulties: Soyuz Crew Wants Asylum On the Right Wallace What would be the nature of such confidential communications? Thornton sure I know Mike but I suppose if Stafford wants to communicate privately to Houston that means he want what he says to be broadcast live on CBS television Wallace Vmi nnnnu ho'c mnainn MWfffrvwv IIV BVUUjIlg 11UJ11 Supreme Court if he reads it in code? Thornton We are not encouraged to speculate Mike Cronkite (cutting in) We have something from Soyuz mission could arrange to land in the Dan Schorr at the White House Come in Dan Mediterranean somewhere if we can get Schorr a lot of excitement here Solzhenitsyn to agree to fly back to Europe neuter me prebiaeni is reported to be in direct communication with Houston Control and maybe even with Stafford Secretary of State Mediterranean is not big enough to cope with the maanigci uamv in num me oicue Liepartmeni with a police escort and James Schlesinger of the Defense Department has joined the huddle something going on Walter but we got the Cronkite Excuse me Dan but Roger Mudd has just located Dan Ellsberg at Santa Barbara and he has something here for us Roger? Consider All acts The Walt Disney organization has revealed plans for its In dependence Lake Project which' will be 13 miles northwest of Truckee and 50 miles west of Reno The project will be large: A 275 Disney organization room ski lodge 375 con dominiums 200 lakeside camp sites 10 ski lifts a railway a restaurant and a road Sides are squaring off to do battle Those who are already taking firm sides are denying themselves the benefit of thoroughly examining the issues It is quite apparent that some individuals and some organizations had their minds made up the moment the Disney promoters leaked news that they were considering the In dependence Lake recreation 2 complex The Greater Reno Chamber of Commerce has been for it since last summer before the 2 preliminary details were even known Many environmental 2 particularly the Sierra '2 Conservation Club are vehemently against it Even at this time i studies have been made to determine whether the area can 2 support such a development I without environmental damage a few factors are clear The Disney organization is experienced and well financed with a reputation for hokey plastic yet impeccably main AbroadatHome aware that our expectations for a post Nixon America were probably too high A year later there is indeed reason for disappointment It was the sense of the possibilities in America that exhilarated us in the summer of 1974 and that has been deflated There is an aimless quality to our political life now unfocused dreary 4 We knew a year ago as the Nixon presidency sank that Gerald ord would not give us exciting leadership We thought we had had enough excitement for a while But we may not have been prepared for a mediocrity so suffocating He is a decent man We said it then and still say it now But he is also a man of massive insensitivity to the pain and diversity of life His outlook is parochial his philosophy evidently founded on the belief that wealth is nobility his vision so limited that he lets himself be led into indicating to the world that he fears the ideas of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Geniality without understanding is not enough in a President Washington Merry Go Round Los Angeles Calif reporter William arr awaits an appeals ruling on whether he wili be returned to jail where he already has served 46 days for refusing to reveal his sources to Judge Charles Older Such judges are not necessarily corrupt Some are merely in competent others arrogant In their puffed up importance they demand that all considerations must yield to the majesty of their courts In their narrow circle of om nipotence they resent the necssary immunities that made the institutions that preserve freedom immunities traditionally given the family the church the university the doctors the press Others like Chief Justice Warren Burger with his talk of regard the press that has embarrassed the Establishmeent as a menace to be put in its place So it is that in many places the courts to augment their own power are making war on the Constitution SPACE GENESIS: Last linkup between the Apollo and Soyuz spacecrafts is a monumental step towards peace on earth ew people realize however how it all began The ideas was conceived by editor Jess Gorkin of PARADE Magazine who also first proposed the hot line between Moscow and Washington His suggestion of a joint space flight was published in PARADE in 1966 Three years later astronaut rank Borman discussed the concept with Soviet cosmonaut Ghermain Titov A final agreement was signed on May 24 1972 Soyuz commander Aleksey Leonov has acknowledged Gorkin's con tribution Said Leonov: we will meet in space as this man (Gorkin) said Together we have begun an irreversible 1 This is Walter Cronkite and we are continuing our coverage of the historic link up between our own Apollo missile and the Soviet Soyuz missile which have been linked in space for i almost three days now and are preparing now for separation and re entry: The Soyuz will come down directly into the heart of Russia and the Apollo will come down as is the American 1 practice in the Pacific Yes? Yes? Cnme in nn I "uZK I routine communication with Tom Stafford which we have been monitoring has suddenly gone into code Walter Gone into what Dan? Dan Gone into code There is active com munication between Stafford and Houston Control but we discern what they are saying flashing over to Mike who has collared Dr Thornton at the communications center see what he has to say Mike? I Wallace 1 have Dr Thornton here Dr I Thornton what is the reason for the trans missions in code? i Thornton Well Mike our rockets are er equipped with er scrambling devices in case it should be necessary to communicate con fidentially to Houston Control Jack Anderson wftft Le WMtten Attacks on Press Continue Unabated Richoid St husipr William Clemens Dean Smith a Donn I Wheelei John Oates A Speidet Newspaper Publisher Controller Advertising Director Production Manager Circulation Manager riday July 25 1975 Editorials After the Boondoggle A minor disagreement has And it is reasonable to conclude that although the firm may have conducted proper in spection their reports did not question the entire design and concept of the bridge The designers of a structure may insure that construction is proceeding properly But they can no more criticize the overall concept than most people can satisfactorily criticize them selves It is standard procedure in the construction industry for designers and contractors to inspect their work According to one estimate between 80 and 90 per cent of all construction projects are inspected in this fashion Having been burned once it would seem logical for the Reno City Council to insist on outside inspection But at this time it appears to have no choice other than scrapping the oroiect and starting over which would be time consuming and expensive A compromise solution would be to employ an independent inspector This inspector would not necessarily be a licensed professional but he would be thoroughly experienced in con struction and fill a position usually described as of the This employe would not have the power to halt a project in the case of a disagreement but he could report to the city if he detected poor procedures or design and a solution could be worked out between the city and the contractors Particularly in the light of the colossal Wells Avenue Overpass misfortune the city council would be prudent to hire such a person and protect itself to the fullest ILlBSAL TAS wlr II 1 rLmT i ff gk rf trw Vi fewcifefc fl BdGSANHMM TaDD i'rxX 1 ill A i a 2 I.