LETTERS: Nevada has good weather, and that’s about it anymore

Many people come to Southern Nevada to live. The good weather brings them, then makes them stay. However, Nevada has gone from one of the best states to one of the worst. Unlimited growth has reared its ugly head. Nevada now has one of the highest sales taxes. Nevada is a leader in foreclosures. We have traffic-related nightmares and some of the worst drivers in the country.

Nevada has a terrible education system, with a shortage of teachers. The state still allows Bishop Gorman to disguise itself as a high school. We have a water shortage. Nevada has no state lottery. Nevada has banned fantasy sports, but won’t ban smoking in all public places, especially in casinos. We still pay one of the highest prices in the country for gasoline. We have a high rate of heinous crime. We have a court system that provides no justice for victims. We have high vehicle registration costs.

As if all that weren’t enough, we have a state beaming with sunshine, but we deter solar power. We have casino corporate godfathers who make members of the Mob Museum look like amateurs. We have a corporate-biased newspaper in the Review-Journal. Nevada has nuclear waste and asbestos issues. We have carpetbagger developers building cluster-close homes, with row upon row of housing that looks like an army barracks.

But like one homeless person said, “We do have good weather.”

Frank R. DiNicola

Henderson

ESAs help many

I am the mother of five adopted children, ages 5 to 15. I want to address the myth of Education Savings Accounts only being used by wealthy families. My husband works very hard running his own business. We are far from rich and consider ourselves a middle-class family.

ESAs are giving our children a chance at something we could have never attempted alone. The program will allow my family the freedom to customize the way I move forward in educating my children. We have faced numerous challenges with our public school in the Clark County School District — challenges that can be overcome via ESAs, with the help of tutors, smaller classroom sizes and safer campuses. Moving my older son into a private school setting was the best decision we have ever made.

Each one of my children has specific educational needs, and I am the person most accountable for meeting those needs. Without lifting the injunction and allowing the ESA law to move forward, the ability to utilize school choice for my children will be impossible. But having ESAs will change my children’s future for years to come.

Aimee Hairr

Henderson

Elvis Presley Way

I am up in arms over the proposal to rename Riviera Boulevard to Elvis Presley Way (“Las Vegas, and a street named Presley,” Monday Review-Journal). Las Vegas has a tradition of keeping hotel street names, even after the demise of the property (Desert Inn Road, and Sands, Sahara and Hacienda avenues). Do the powers that be want us to completely forget that one of our city’s most historic hotel-casinos ever existed?

Don’t get me wrong: I’m an Elvis fan and love his association with our city. But there must be a better option. Instead, rename the stretch of Paradise Road between Desert Inn and Sahara for Mr. Presley. Renaming of a section of a longer street has plenty of precedent. For example, Sands Avenue is Spring Mountain Road to the west and Twain Avenue to the east.

And if my suggested stretch of Paradise Road is renamed, then the Las Vegas Convention Center and Westgate Las Vegas addresses would be on Elvis Presley Way. That is much more fitting for someone of Mr. Presley’s stature.

Ted Newkirk

Las Vegas

Supreme Court

I found it hard not to laugh when I read how outraged Sen. Harry Reid and other liberal thinkers are that Republicans want to block President Barack Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court (“Republicans shouldn’t obstruct process,” Feb. 17 Review-Journal). This coming from Sen. Reid, who was one of the most partisan politicians when, as Senate majority leader, he refused to cooperate with Republicans on almost anything.

Furthermore, Democrats threatened to do the same thing to any nominee George W. Bush might have named in his last 18 months. What comes around goes around.

Marnie Wagner

Las Vegas