To the editor:

Regarding the article in Friday's business section, "Analysts: Home prices won't fall":

I and others who work full time professionally in the real estate business are amazed at how these "experts" manage to put a positive spin on the reality of the real estate market here. You can do anything with the right manipulation of statistics, but "from the trenches" we see things much differently.

We don't see a big price balloon bursting, but a lot of little bubbles floating around and popping in mid air. The trouble with articles that quote your favorite local "experts" is that they are creating the illusion that prices are still rising, when they are not. The adjustment from '03 to mid-'04 overly corrected a historically undervalued market, got the delusional investors trapped toward the end, raised homeowners expectations too high, and led lenders into quagmires of highly leveraged loans -- which has led to a startling rate of loan defaults. It also trapped a lot of nice, average people in houses that aren't worth what they owe on them.

The reality is that prices are dropping all the time -- real prices, what people actually pay.

Builders are giving away the store in incentives. The use of "median price" numbers to interpret what is going on is foolish, meaningless and serves no one, except those determined to delude people into thinking everything is OK. But like the dance band on the Titanic, they keep cranking out the same old tune.

Kurt Lehman

LAS VEGAS

Police shootings

To the editor:

According to an article last week, the Las Vegas police union came out in defense of the coroner's inquest system, saying it is a fair and open fact-finding process. I'd agree only in part.

First, I have more than two decades in law enforcement, spent the majority of those years as an elected union leader, and had a shooting that was investigated by an outside agency -- an investigation which was then reviewed by the DA's office in that jurisdiction.

The inquest system is open, but one sided. And it is not a fact-finding mission. I trust Metro, but I have also been around enough to know that without oversight we breed problems.

I propose an overhaul of the process and would assign the matter to the district attorney, since he answers directly to Clark County citizens. If not, assign the attorney general to conduct the investigation while Metro conducts their parallel internal probe.

Take a look at how our neighbors in California conduct the process.

STAN WELCH

LAS VEGAS

Land seizures

To the editor:

The Review-Journal reported on Friday that a "coalition" of elected officials and their cronies in the Las Vegas business world have filed a lawsuit seeking to block a ballot question that would limit the state's eminent domain power Their issues with the ballot initiative it being "too broad in scope," a basis for excessive future lawsuits, and a basis for increased governmental expenditures. But how did this all come about?

The Supreme Court held in Kelo v. New London (2005) that local government was allowed to seize private property, after just compensation, for future private use, despite the Fifth Amendment's "public use" requirement. The holding in Kelo did, fortunately, afford the individual states the right to limit the exercise of the takings power if they so choose. Thus we have the aforementioned ballot question for the electorate to consider.

In the Kelo holding, Justice Anthony Kennedy, while joining the court's opinion, observed that if a taking was designed "to favor a particular party with only incidental or pre-textual public benefits," then the public use requirement of the Fifth would be violated. The dissent declared that Kelo placed all private real property in the country under the risk of condemnation.

Every community has its network of good old boys, where politicians, big business and old money have banded together to keep what they have acquired and -- as a result of greed, wealth and its attendant power -- try to increase their holdings. It is not just a Las Vegas thing. But if recent local court cases and revelations concerning this abuse of power and authority have proven nothing else, it is that our local government is full of corruption. The public therefore not only has a constitutional right to vote the bums out of office, but has a constitutional right to limit just how far the current office holders may go in their power grabs.

We must not allow this so-called "coalition" to get away with this power grab and block the proposed ballot initiative. Remember, power always corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Jack Kane

LAS VEGAS