Fire starter

Welcome to this week’s Reno News & Review.

Our cover story last week, Jake Highton’s essay making a progressive argument in favor of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton, has generated a lot of fiery discussions. We’ve received a lot of letters to the editor—which will run soon—and personal emails about it, as well as hearing a lot about it around town over the long weekend. This has been, and will no doubt continue to be, a strange, passionate and contentious election. We didn’t run Highton’s essay merely to stoke the fires of the proverbial angry letter writers or to present a straw man argument. It’s just a different perspective—and one we found fascinating, even if we don’t agree with it.

And of course there’s no more fitting way to celebrate our country than a good ol’ fashioned American political argument.

Speaking of politics, don’t forget to vote in the Best of Northern Nevada readers’ poll. Voting end at 7 a.m. on July 14, so this is your last chance to vote in the contest that really matters: which casino has the best carpet.

I want to take a quick minute to congratulate Laura Davis and Bryan Jones on their recent engagement. Laura was a freelance writer who contributed regularly to the RN&R circa 2010 to 2014. In the summer of 2013, I assigned her to write a story about Bryan, who had recently become a solo act after years performing with the excellent Reno band Buster Blue. They had never met before, and now, three years later, they’re getting hitched. That’s about the only time I’ve ever successfully—albeit unintentionally—played matchmaker. They live up in Seattle now, and they’re a great couple—the kind of people who warm all the hearts in a room—and I wish them all the best.

And finally … does our paper look any different?