To the editor:

On March 9, I attended a televised session of the state Senate Judiciary Committee discussing Senate Bill 109, the joint parenting bill. Only two dissenting opinions were voiced, and they were from two Clark County Family Court judges. That's like asking parasites to vote against blood-sucking. Didn't anyone realize these judges have a vested interest in continuing this travesty of justice, this state sponsored kidnapping of our children?

Judge Gerald Hardcastle is not a bad man, and he has a terribly hard job. But he is just flat-out wrong, and should have removed himself from the hearing instead of dominating it. Did he not see a conflict of interest here? Wouldn't a judge have to remove himself from a case wherein his own vote would result in personal gain?

Judge Hardcastle is not listening to the statistics that prove children raised by one parent are at a terrible disadvantage psychologically and societally. He is not listening to the voice of parents being ripped away from their children. He is -- finally and worst than all -- not listening to the children whose precious hearts are broken day in and day out in his courtroom.

This must and will end. And if judges such as Mr. Hardcastle do not get the message now, they shall soon enough, as this groundswell of righteous indignation of their impervious dismissals of all our pleas grows and grows across the land and they finally get voted right off the bench, once and for all. This shall happen.

I beg Judge Hardcastle, and everyone else who wields this devastating power over the families before them, to listen. For we are here. And we are fed up.

Daniel Foster

HENDERSON

To the editor:

The congressional hearings on steroids in baseball are obvious grandstanding (editorial, March 10), but your argument that baseball should be left to police itself does not address one major factor. Major League Baseball is not like other pro sports leagues. It is operating under a sweetheart deal bestowed by Congress that exempts it from many antitrust laws. Its officials are allowed to cook up plans "for the good of the game" in smoky back rooms.

After the canceled World Series, it was obvious that baseball needed a boost in interest and the home run chase of 1998 provided it ... insiders such as Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg and Padres GM Kevin Towers suspected steroids may have been a factor but baseball, with help from the media, chose to turn a blind eye.

What effect did MLB's antitrust exemption have on the magnitude of the illegal steroids usage? Congress should use this hearing to re-evaluate the MLB antitrust exemption and, if evidence shows that it has been abused for the sake of pumping up attendance numbers, take it away and bring baseball into line with all other industries.

Deborah Barton

HENDERSON

To the editor:

John L. Smith's Friday column describes a man's recent jury award in U.S. District Court as "hitting an unlikely Vegas jackpot."

The man, Werner Umbreit, reportedly suffered a spinal cord injury in 2001 on a tour bus with subsequent paralysis "from the chest down" (quadriplegia or paraplegia, Mr. Smith didn't indicate). The man's injury occurred immediately after the bus driver slammed on his brakes.

John L. Smith frames the victim as having hit a jackpot and describes the victim's injury, which by anatomical necessity was caused by violent trauma to his spine, as a fall; however, Mr. Smith does note that the victim's lawyers "successfully argued" that it was more than just a fall.

Mr. Smith didn't mention whether Mr. Umbreit can feed himself any longer; whether he has pressure ulcers like the kind that got infected and killed Christopher Reeve; whether he soils himself with stool and urine due to lack of sphincter control; or whether he can walk, drive or have normal intimate relations with a partner.

Mr. Smith didn't mention any of these things or the psychological costs of all of Werner Umbreit's traumatic losses.

Some "jackpot."

David Tracy

LAS VEGAS

To the editor:

I refer to Ken White's article on the new Egyptian artifact exhibit at the Guggenheim Heritage Museum ("Jewels of the Nile," Friday). He quotes the exhibit curator, Dr. Betsy Bryan, who spoke about the impact that the environment had on the ancient Egyptians' world view. According to Mr. White, Dr. Bryan said, "When they [the Egyptians] got up every day, they had the Nile flowing east to west outside their door ... " Her remark makes me agree that such a phenomenon would have impacted not only their world view, but also ancient riverside real estate prices!

Dr. Bryan should know, as "professor and chair of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins University," that the venerable Nile River is one of several major rivers in the world that flows south to north for much of its course. If the quote is accurate, Dr. Bryan needs to go back to an elementary school geography class with a "highly qualified" teacher.

It could be that I am jumping to an unfair, presumptuous conclusion. Polls over the years have consistently found U.S. students largely ignorant of basic knowledge of geography. If I can assume that Dr. Bryan and/or Mr. White received their educations in U.S. schools, then they may be demonstrating the consistent inattention paid to world geography instruction. So, it's not their fault.

It's unfair, however, to future university professors and journalists who I think might need to know this stuff.

John S. Butcher

LAS VEGAS

To the editor:

The foreign correspondent of the official organ of the Italian Communist Party, Il Manifesto, was freed by the international Islamo-fascist terrorists in Iraq, apparently in exchange for a large ransom. This ransom will now finance further terrorist acts.

The correspondent was sent to Iraq to report to the world American "atrocities" and "torture" against peaceful Iraqi civilians, which she dutifully did on a daily basis. When the terrorists finally understood her mission, they abstained from cutting her head off -- as they did with numerous other hostages -- and released her so she can continue to spread the Communist propaganda.

In her haste to do so and avoid any questioning by American authorities, her car on the way to Baghdad airport ignored the quadruple warnings to stop at the American-Iraqi check point, with the result of one dead Italian security agent. The Italian Communists are now celebrating their new "martyr" with anti-American demonstrations.

I ask: How many Americans know who she is, what she did, and exactly what her newspaper is?

Marc Jeric

LAS VEGAS