Several weeks back, your newspaper did a 25-year review of the MGM fire of 1980. It was appalling to me to see the efforts made to give credit for the retrofit program to the current governor, Kenny Guinn.
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Allow me to acquaint you with a few facts as to how Nevada became the leader in fire protection involving high-rise buildings. The retrofit of hotels and all buildings 50 feet in height or designed to accommodate more than 150 people was covered under Senate Bill 214 of the 1981 session of Nevada Legislature. I was the prime sponsor and author of this legislation. All the senators were asked to become co-sponsors. Only one accepted, Bill Hernstadt. SB214 was assigned to the Human Resource Committee, which I chaired. The bill was fast-tracked for hearing, it passed the Senate, and was sent to the Assembly.
In the Assembly, it was discovered this was a major piece of legislation. Gov. Robert List had his bill introduced in the Assembly as a counter-measure to SB214. Jack Jeffreys, an assemblyman from Henderson who chaired the committee to which SB214 was assigned, would not let the governor's men strip me of the prime sponsorship or authorship of this legislation. Assemblyman Jeffreys contacted me and asked me what I wanted to do. I requested all good things pertaining to fire safety be taken out of the governor's bill and put into SB214 and to then send the bill back to the Senate for passage.
This is a snapshot of the action involving the passage of the best fire protection law in the world. You will have to wait for my autobiography for the rest of the story.
Joe Neal
NORTH LAS VEGAS
THE WRITER IS A DEMOCRATIC STATE SENATOR.
Deserve better
To the editor:
Are school board members paying attention? Education researchers blamed the poor performance of Nevada's public school students on a lack of leadership by school principals (Review-Journal, Jan. 18). If you have an effective leader, the students move forward.
Need more be said about the hiring of a new superintendent of Clark County schools? The superintendent search should be narrowed down to one. If nothing negative regarding Eric Nadelstern is found on the trip to New York City, then the choice is obvious. If not, then back to the drawing board and find someone new for the position who favors accountability and is willing to put principals to the task of improving the school system.
The present system is a failure and we should not be content with the status quo. Our kids deserve better.
bryce a. lee
LAS VEGAS
Stardust fan
To the editor:
The impending demise of the Stardust Hotel this year will be a historical tragedy that irritates many tourists. There is absolutely no reason for Boyd Gaming to demolish this hotel. They could easily build their new megaresort (Echelon Place) in conjunction with the Stardust.
This is a continuing and infuriating trend in Las Vegas -- demolish affordable hotels with character to build overpriced impersonal megaresorts.
The average tourist can afford only reasonable hotel room rates. Las Vegas is squeezing these people out of the Las Vegas market, which will spell only problems for tourism in the future.
Dave Pinard
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
Day's work
To the editor:
A good political cartoonist should inform and stimulate the minds of the masses. Week after week, the Review-Journal's Jim Day says more with one cartoon than a whole page of editorials
Now, I don't always agree with his point of view, but I'm always impressed with his insight and ability to translate thoughts into cartoon form. A political cartoonist worth his salt can make your blood boil one day and give you a heartfelt smile of agreement the next day: Jim Day is such a man.
I would love to see Jim Day's personal all-time favorite cartoons published in an edition of the R-J.
John J. Erlanger
LAS VEGAS
Ethics reform
To the editor:
Your Thursday editorial, "End to 'earmarking' step in right direction," makes some good points but doesn't go far enough. You explain why ethics reform will mean very little and even why members of Congress actually like the system the way it is. But why don't you take the next step and explain that the only way to stop the ethics violations in Congress is to make the members actually pay for the transgressions?
As long as 85 percent of the members are re-elected each term, they have no reason to change the status quo. We need to replace the current members in office and then explain that we did so because they "talked" ethics reform but did nothing. Then the members might take notice and make some real changes.
