Environmentalists block fire control on mountain

In response to the Oct. 24 story, “California’s disaster a warning sign for residents of Mount Charleston”:

To reduce the hazard, several years ago the U.S. Forest Service provided a grant to remove all the fire-ready, dangerously long burn, dead trees in the area. Yet by years of stalling, environmentalist continue to prevent the removal of those explosively combustible dead trees, allowing a waiting fire bomb to continue to tick.

What’s more important, the lives of resident homeowners, or rats and roaches that roam amongst those dead trees?

Don wendt

LAS VEGAS

Anti-Bush

To the editor:

Cheers to Michael Maze for responding to frequent letter writer Dan Olivier. Mr. Maze’s Oct. 31 letter was right on the money regarding Social Security not being intended to fully fund retirement income.

As is the case with most suffering from ABDS (Acute Bush Derangement Syndrome), Mr. Olivier conveniently tries to never be bothered with facts. He seems to ignore that Medicare drug coverage came on board during Mr. Bush’s watch.

I would also add that my cost-of-living-adjustments for Social Security have averaged 2.75 percent under Mr. Bush, compared to 1.93 percent under William Jefferson Clinton.

I trust Mr. Oliver also wrote letters to the editor during Mr. Clinton’s years in office complaining of those paltry increases. You think?

ROBERT KUHN

LAS VEGAS

Teacher victim

To the editor:

William D. Cuff, the “poor teacher” who is employed by the Clark County School District, is truly a victim (letter, Oct. 31). He is a victim because here in Nevada, once you choose a career as a teacher, you must remain a teacher for life.

There is no possibility of career advancement within the Clark County School District. You do not have the option of changing your career during your lifetime, like the rest of us.

He is a victim, because he got only a 2 percent pay increase this year. He is a victim because the Nevada Power rate increase applies only to teachers employed by the Clark County School District, not the rest of us.

Matthew Cox

LAS VEGAS

Power bill

To the editor:

My wife and I are senior citizens. We are very concerned with the constant increase in our power bill.

We are aware of the plans for the coal plants being built in rural and Northern Nevada and understand it will help feed power to our increasing population.

My wife and I are both Democrats. I’ve been a hunter and fisherman my whole life, so I’m also concerned about or environment and the impact pollutants have. I also understand that the new technology for coal processing has made the process of converting coal into electricity more environmentally friendly.

I wish we could use renewable energy for our power, but it’s nowhere near being affordable. With our increasing population, we need affordable power now.

We are thankful there are Democrats out there such as John Hunt, chair of the state party, who brings this issue out for an intellectual debate. He stands up for people who live on fixed incomes and might have to choose between turning on the lights or paying for food.

Sid drobkin

LAS VEGAS

Getting warm

To the editor:

I am so tired of reading the letters and editorials that the Review-Journal prints disputing the science behind global warming. I no longer go fishing on Lake Mead because it has become too difficult to launch a boat. All my relatives in the Midwest talk about now are the mild winters and the extreme violent storms of the summers. Towns in Georgia are running out of water. And the glaciers are disappearing. And you keep printing stories from people who say, “It’s all right. It’s cyclical.”

Who cares whether it is or not? Who cares if we are causing it or not? Why can’t we just agree that it is happening and that we have to work together to adapt to it?

Aren’t we all tired of being dependent on oil from the Middle East? Why can’t we just agree on that and pressure our government to do something about it?

A Manhattan Project-type effort that spent our tax dollars researching alternative energies that wean us from our oil addiction and that do not contribute to the greenhouse effect would go a long way toward helping us adapt — no matter who is right. I’d like to go fishing again without having to wait 15,000 years.

Allen Dohra

HENDERSON

Mining reform

To the editor:

Thank you for your Oct. 21 editorial headlined: “Draconian mining reform.” It was well-timed, as the Democrat-controlled Congress attempts to rewrite mining law to the detriment of a stable domestic mining industry.

If passed into law, H.R. 2262 will have severe consequences for all Americans — and especially the citizens of Nevada. Any efforts to reform mining law should encourage stable investments and increase the incentives to mine domestically while ensuring protection of the environment. Revisions should also be made with an eye toward reducing lawsuits involving mining on public lands and encouraging the public’s involvement in the process while allowing for a fair return to them for opening the lands to mining activity.

As your editorial illustrates, H.R. 2262 does none of these things.

The public should not allow themselves to be fooled. If this legislation is passed in its current form, it will have a direct impact on our local economies through substantial increases in the prices we all pay for goods and services. It will also force us to move toward an increased reliance on foreign sources of minerals, while providing for no environmental protection or return on the public’s investment.

The predictable, resultant decimation of local economies where mining is the No. 1 industry would drive the last nail into the coffin of rural stability.

We should thank Nevada’s congressional delegation for standing up against this short-sighted bill and demand that Congress do a better job in achieving honest mining law reform.

Joni Eastley

TONOPAH

THE WRITER IS VICE CHAIR OF THE NYE COUNTY COMMISSION.

Old Vegas

To the editor:

Do you wonder why Fremont Street Experience is losing spectators? The overhead experience is boring. I remember when they had nostalgia with Old Vegas, Roy Rogers, Elvis, etc. It was great — and not only the older people enjoyed it, so did the young. There is no substance to the new. And I was disappointed when they had the centennial and didn’t have any of the old experiences on the overhead.

Each time I go down — and it is about every two or three years — the experience gets worse. Bring back something of Vegas, not the loud, zooming vehicles screaming across the ceiling.

I loved the old, but I truly dislike the new.

BEVERLY FRASE

LAS VEGAS