Letters: Fighting hard for justice: What a joke

Jeff German has written a brilliant piece exposing the lunacy of public officials (“Pension tapped for restitution,” April 5 Review-Journal). A former Family Court judge named Steve Jones, whose job was to deliver justice for the public, instead used the power of his office to steal $2.9 million from the public. He pleaded guilty and now he’s in prison collecting a pension of $120,000 a year until he drops dead. Guess who is paying him? Why, the public of course!

The folks at the Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada are fighting to make sure that $10,000 gets delivered on time every month right into his prison bank account so he’ll be sure to have a nice little chunk of change when he gets out of jail.

PERS officials are unhappy that 25 percent of his money will go to help pay the victims of his crime and are paying lots of lawyers lots of money to make sure the good former judge keeps his pension intact. They are fighting hard for justice, you know, the way Judge Jones used to in Family Court.

And every single year I get pleas to help Nevada schoolchildren pay for pencils and paper and lunches and warm coats. How many pencils you can buy with $10,000? Keep up the good work, guys.

Geoffrey Leigh Tozer

Las Vegas

Water, water everywhere

I read Richard Strickland’s March 30 letter, “Watering ban will add up to nothing.” I agree with the author, but I want to take it further by having the Southern Nevada Water Authority mandate that all restaurants cease and desist serving water in huge 16-ounce glasses unless requested. There is no need to fill a glass to the brim with both ice and water.

In my many visits to local eateries, I see so much water waste when full glasses of water are left on the table. I’m begging water authority officials to get serious about water conservation.

Albert Belanger

Las Vegas

Science fair

I’m sure the Clark County School District is congratulating itself for the success of its science fair held last weekend at UNLV. But it was very poorly organized.

There were hundreds of projects on which the students spent thousands of hours. The district allowed one hour for guest viewing and one hour for award presentation. Of course, the award presentation took two hours because they thought it necessary to give out medals to far too many of the students.

Recognition of achievement should have been given back to the individual schools. The guest viewing should have been for one entire day so all parents could have attended. The presentation tables should not have been so cramped that it was difficult to move through the aisles.

Years ago, I won a science fair in Chicago. The viewing period was three days long at the Science and Industry Museum. The judging was the day before the viewing and the medals were placed on the projects themselves so the viewers knew which projects were winners.

Next year I hope district officials realize the purposes of the event and recognize who their customers are.

Wayne Schaack

Las Vegas

UNLV basketball

Can someone explain to the UNLV men’s basketball fans and supporters why the Board of Regents is dragging its feet in approving the contract for the new men’s basketball coach? How do they expect him to hire assistants and staff, recruit -- especially since it appears that no more than four players plan to return -- meet with the media and talk to the fans?

It seems “fishy” that the Review-Journal reported a few weeks back that the regents approved a $2 million per year multi-year contract for the Cincinnati coach, who turned down the job. Why not put coach Chris Beard’s deal to bed and allow him to do his job?

The Board of Regents is making a mockery of the hiring process. Coach Beard (can we say this?) resigned from his previous position. Are they looking for a way to disapprove the deal and make UNLV look like a (not sure what to call it).

John Turzer

Henderson