Area is still mired in a deep housing slump
To the editor:
In response to the Thursday story, "Housing shows signs of recovery," I almost choked on my toast. Are you kidding me? When are you going to stop trying to force-feed us this propaganda being whispered into your ears by the local Realtors?
In my neighborhood alone, there were at least four moving trucks last weekend. All in all, at least one in 10 houses is abandoned, not even listed as for sale or bank-owned. Did you all not see the line of tens of thousands of people trying to save their homes last weekend at the convention center? Please.
And to the giddy investors who are swooping in to take over single-family homes and turning them into rentals, your day will come. Home values are dropping, and you're not helping. No one wants to live in a neighborhood full of rentals. Your greed is driving prices lower, and your investments will be crime-ridden and worth nothing in a few years.
The housing market is doomed until the banks are forced to stop foreclosing and made to refinance with principal reductions to current home values. Plain and simple.
Mary Bartels
HENDERSON
Pulled over
To the editor:
Several state Supreme Courts have ruled that police cannot stop a motorist based on an anonymous tip that the driver appeared intoxicated until police witness the driver committing a traffic violation. This logic is absurd, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts knew it (Thursday Review-Journal editorial, "No probable cause").
Let's say a citizen witnesses a person shoot or assault another citizen and then ride off in a car. The citizen then anonymously reports this. Using the court's logic, the police would not be able to stop the car until the driver commits a traffic violation. That is silly talk.
The Review-Journal supports the state court rulings by citing one example of an incident in which the police used an anonymous tip and entered a house with a no-knock warrant. Unfortunately, during the execution of that search warrant, the police shot and killed a 92-year-old woman. Then come the scare statements: "decades of watching such terrors become 'routine,'" and that this "madness" must be reined in. Silly talk again.
A no-knock warrant or any warrant requires a judge's approval. The judge must evaluate the officer's affidavit to determine if "probable cause" exists before he signs off on the request.
The U.S. Supreme Court should have heard the case.
Michael O. Kreps
LAS VEGAS
