DA’s grudge is getting mighty expensive

To the editor:

Clark County District Attorney David Roger, who’s retiring in a few days, finds it necessary to waste tax dollars on a nonsense matter to settle a personal grudge with a Family Court judge? Really? (“Judge, lawyer to face probe,” Saturday Review-Journal.)

I am appalled my tax dollars are being spent on his grudge. I realize Mr. Roger has nothing to lose and no one to answer to. However, this is just petty vindictiveness, in my opinion. I do not know if Judge Steven Jones and prosecutor Lisa Willardson lied about the start of their dating relationship. I do not care. It is so petty I cannot believe I read about it every day in the newspaper.

I was a legal assistant in this town for 25 years. In each and every case, someone lied in sworn affidavits. Sometimes the lies were subtle. Sometimes they were real whoppers with huge consequences to the opposing side. Often the consequences were visited upon innocent children in Family Court matters.

Off the top of my head, in 2005, a man told Family Court Judge Cheryl Moss the guns in his home had been secured. They weren’t, and directly or indirectly, that led to the death of the litigants’ son. No perjury prosecution for that party. He pleaded guilty to child endangerment.

Many litigants wanted to see perjury prosecutions. Guess what? They got nowhere. The average taxpaying Joe got no relief.

So what is the big deal? Ms. Willardson has been fired and is no longer practicing before the judge. End of conflict. Problem solved. No need to waste money and resources on overkill because of bruised egos.

Paula Herwig

Las Vegas

Not like pigs

To the editor:

In response to James Thomson’s Thursday letter to the editor, in which he asserts that America’s wild horses are “just like pigs,” I’d like to point out that horses are believed to have originated in North America. There are cave drawings in the Rocky Mountains and in the Great Basin of horses.

Horses returned to the Americas in the 1600s with the Spanish. Horses are part of American Indian heritage. And horses do not do “billions of dollars in property damage,” as pigs do, according to Mr. Thomson.

The costs of caring for wild horses are paid for by not only the general public, but also by sponsoring private citizens.

A few questions for you, Mr. Thomson: What “native wildlife species” do horses threaten? And just how do horses “threaten” the natural environment? Furthermore, if indeed true, how has “poisoning rivers and lakes and burning millions of acres of land” to eradicate invasive species — a category in which you include wild horses — had a positive effect on any wildlife?

Connie Brady

Las Vegas

The party of hate

To the editor:

If you are making between $40,000 and $60,000 a year, you are considered middle-class. If you are making $20,000 to $30,000 a year, you are the working poor. The middle class make up the whole of America. They are the ones who drive our economy.

When congressional Republicans return from vacation, they will again use the middle class as a political tool. But I have to hand it to the Republicans — never have I ever seen a political party so out of touch with reality. They oppose every Obama administration proposal even though doing so has also hurt their own states.

With the approval rating of Congress around 8 percent, Republicans will learn in next year’s election that the people are not stupid enough to vote for just anyone. The people want somebody with some sense, and that is President Obama.

Michelle Bracey

Henderson

Vote them out? And then?

To the editor:

What can we do once the realization sinks in that Congress has actually reduced funding for our formerly stable Social Security system and funded a hodgepodge of programs without a tax increase to pay for them?

The initial salvo in the thrust toward the elimination of our viable, old-age insurance has been launched without tracers. This was accomplished through merely re-labeling the cuts to Social Security withholding to “payroll tax reductions.”

Inside the deal to achieve this: Postponement of government spending decisions for at least two months. No increase in unemployment benefits or Medicare payments to doctors. Lost in the deal: the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline, with thousands of construction jobs.

If we don’t like our elected representatives, we’re told, simply vote them out. Then show me some unaffiliated replacements.

Richard E. Law

Las Vegas

Clock is ticking

To the editor:

Many seem to believe that continuing to cut taxes over the long term is our salvation. The problem isn’t that we are taxed too much, it’s that we don’t recover or allocate taxes properly. As a result, all of the honest people become major tax contributors and the tax cheats get a free ride.

Even if we are successful in our collection efforts, we have an undereducated work force that is ill-equipped to compete in a 21st-century global economy. Re-jiggering our tax structure will only delay the inevitable unless we find better and more effective methods to motivate, train and educate our young people. The clock is ticking, and time waits for no man or country.

Richard Rychtarik

Las Vegas