Two resolutions on nuke waste await Lincoln County voters

Lincoln County residents will face two resolutions about nuclear waste on their November ballot.

Citizens signed and approved a petition for an advisory resolution asking if the county should oppose routing high-level nuclear waste through Caliente, Pioche and other small towns in the county northeast of Clark County as truckloads of the radioactive wastes move to Yucca Mountain. Yucca Mountain is located in Nye County, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The County Commission approved its own petition asking residents if they want Lincoln County officials to continue their actions to attract a transfer station to Caliente for switching trainloads of waste containers to trucks for the haul to Yucca Mountain. There is no railroad track leading to Yucca Mountain. Officials have said the transfer station could bolster Lincoln County's economy.

The U.S. Department of Energy is considering Caliente as an alternative to the Las Vegas Valley for transferring high-level nuclear wastes from train to truck if Yucca Mountain opens by 2010.

CARSON CITY -- The first complaint under a new law to stop dirty campaigns has been filed with the state Ethics Commission by former state Treasurer Ken Santor, who is objecting to radio and newspaper advertisements by his opponent.

But Brian Krolicki, who is opposing Santor in the Republican primary election next Tuesday, says the ads are true and he doesn't intend to pull them.

The commission set Thursday for a hearing in Reno on the Santor complaint. It has the power to impose a $5,000 fine on a political candidate for making false statements. Or it can impose a similar fine on a candidate if he or she files a complaint with the commission that is frivolous.

Krolicki's ad says Santor has been found guilty of fraud by the Nevada Supreme Court. And it poses the question of whether you could trust Santor with millions of dollars in the treasury.

"This is pretty low," Santor said. "This was a civil case, not a criminal case. What does that have to do with my office? The election is next Tuesday. This is pretty terrible."

Krolicki, chief deputy in the treasurer's office, said he stands behind the message and welcomes the opportunity to have the Ethics Commission look at it. The advertisement is backed by a judgment by District Judge Peter Breen and the Nevada Supreme Court.

Santor was found guilty of civil fraud and ordered by District Court to pay $58,000 in damages plus $5,000 in punitive damages to another business involved in an oil drilling deal. The Supreme Court in 1989 upheld the decision saying Santor had "intentionally misrepresented material facts" in his dealings with a company called Precision Rolled Products.

The 1997 campaign reform law included a section aimed at stopping candidates from making false statements about an opponent with actual malice on the subjects of education, training, profession, military discipline or whether a candidate committed or was indicted for a felony or other crime.

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