LETTERS: Caucus format disenfranchises voters

Caucuses seemed to be designed to disenfranchise a majority of voters. How many more people would have voted in Nevada’s Democratic caucus on Saturday if they could have come, pushed a button and left? Lots of people work or have other obligations that keep them from participating. The majority of retirees in my precinct were on Hillary Clinton’s side of the room. How many people with young families, who overwhelmingly support Sen. Bernie Sanders, couldn’t be there?

Let’s scrap the caucus and give everyone a vote. The difference between the candidates is clear. Sen. Sanders wants to expand social security, offer debt-free college education, a $15 minimum wage and Medicare for all. Mrs. Clinton says all of that is ridiculous and absurd, a fantasy of pie-in-the-sky proportions.

But Sen. Sanders says, why not? Every other major industrialized nation offers these things to their citizens, so why shouldn’t the U.S.? I could get on a boat to Cuba and receive excellent free medical care that, if treated in the U.S., would leave me thousands of dollars in debt.

While Mrs. Clinton says we should settle for crumbs, Sen. Sanders says we deserve the whole pie. So Bernie Sanders supporters, don’t despair. It’s far from over. Hillary Clinton won Iowa by a coin toss, Sen. Sanders trounced her in New Hampshire and was so close in Nevada, it could easily have gone the other way. The message is clear: we will no longer settle for second best.

Vicki Linkin

Las Vegas

Large-scale solar

As a rooftop solar owner, I found the article on the Crescent Dunes solar energy plant interesting and maddening (“Megawatts now flowing from new solar plant,” Monday Review-Journal). The article states that NV Energy agreed to purchase the plant’s entire output at 13.5 cents per kWh for the next 25 years. The next 25 years? Are the rates with Crescent Dunes locked in, or will the Public Utilities Commission shaft the power supplier, as it did us?

Why is the big guy, Crescent Dunes, getting a better deal than the 17,000 rooftop solar customers? And by the way, the plant cost almost $1 billion, with $737 million in federal loan guarantees.

I am amazed, through all the infighting with the PUC and us little guys, that the mayors of the state’s major municipalities and Gov. Brian Sandoval have remained silent on the issue of rooftop solar. If Crescent Dunes can expect to receive 13.5 cents per kWh for the next 25 years, then the same rate should be applied to rooftop customers, as well.

Ron Voltz

Las Vegas

Speeding crackdown

Speeding in Southern Nevada is as American as apple pie, so Henderson and local police angencies have set aside the next two weeks to snag offenders who daily zip in and out of traffic at racetrack and drag-strip speeds (“Metro, Henderson police to focus on catching speeders,” Saturday Review-Journal. The crackdown gives credence to many people’s complaints of lax enforcement of speeding and other traffic rules blatantly violated by motorists.

Speeding and drunk driving, both factors in many fatal and nonfatal accidents, are problems 365 days a year. I thought enforcement of traffic rules was part of law enforcement’s public safety mission, so why should a federal grant be needed for the departments’ “Joining Forces” crackdown?

It is no fluke that fatal auto crashes, pedestrian deaths and auto insurance rates are sky high in the valley, when speed limit signs and road rules are perceived by many as mere suggestions instead of true mandates. Henderson police should be ashamed of themselves for saying they will mainly target roadways that are “notorious” for high speeds, instead of a having a citywide dragnet.

Leon Pitt

Las Vegas