Let’s just keep the clunky old meters
To the editor:
I see two major problems with the Thursday, front-page article on power bills. NV Energy claims that the “average power bill changes little” when they implement the innovative “peak use price” jump as planned and outlined in the chart on Page One.
First of all, many of us are seniors who are home all day and have to use air conditioning to survive. Having to pay $500 or more in August is impossible for many.
Second, their chart shows very little use in the winter. Someone forgot to tell the planner that many of us, seniors and youngsters, have a heat pump, either up on the roof or beside the house. Our mid-winter bills are as high as our mid-summer bills so, no, our “average yearly bill” is not going to change just a little.
According to the story, much of this is the work of Patrick Morton, an economist with the State Bureau of Consumer Protection, and is based on his study of peak pricing in California. I don’t know how long he’s lived in Southern Nevada, but comparing us with San Diego and Los Angeles doesn’t work.
Let’s save NV Energy a lot of money and keep the clunky old meters we all have on our homes now.
George Appleton
Las Vegas
Food tax
To the editor:
We need to tax food.
I’m surprised lawmakers haven’t thought of this as a solution to our budget woes. For sure, the governor should consider this on a short-term basis, until the state and counties and cities get back on their feet,
Correct me if I’m wrong, but a few years ago, the sales tax on food was dropped. Reinstating this tax should bring quite a lot of money back into the state, county and city coffers, hopefully eliminating layoffs.
Yes, it’s a tax, but one I think we can live with. We can all share the burden of these tough times. Let’s not lay off people and wipe out someone’s life and the things they may have worked so hard for.
Robert Griffith
Pahrump
Too much information
To the editor:
Another bungled terrorist act and another lesson learned for the terrorists.
Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Pakistan, made a clumsy effort to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately for us it failed, and through excellent law enforcement and civilian efforts, he was tracked down and arrested while attempting to board a flight to Dubai.
But I am appalled at the news coverage that has, in great detail, pointed out the mistakes he made in his failed attempt and which will enable his successors to succeed in inevitable future efforts by these criminal fanatics.
Why do we continually educate fanatics to do better next time?
WILLIAM G. FLANGAS
LAS VEGAS
Road to perdition
To the editor:
Sherman Frederick’s May 9 column about the unfair criticism of Arizona’s new illegal immigration law is correct. Among those who compared Arizona to Nazi Germany and communist Russia was Cardinal Roger Mahony of Los Angeles.
I am a staunch Roman Catholic. I love my church. But Cardinal Mahony was out of line. We as Catholics are taught not to criticize a priest, but to pray for him. This is also a civil matter, and enough is enough.
We are also sympathetic to those poor individuals who are only looking for a better way of life. There must be a better way that we can help, but right now we must take the necessary steps to close this border.
The leftist media are trying to lead this magnificent country down the road to perdition. I love my country and I love my church. I pray that we will return it to what it once was.
WILLIAM J. PONZIO
HENDERSON
Profile this
To the editor:
I fail to understand why everyone is upset about the profiling of individuals. In reality, everyone in the world has been subjected to daily profiling for hundreds of years. Why all of a sudden are people getting suddenly upset about it?
I don’t see what an individual’s color, language, clothing or anything else has to do with it.
In one way or another, we all are profiled on a daily basis. Can you get money out of the bank without identification? That’s profiling. Can you use your credit card without ID? Profiling.
Do you have a driver’s license? Heck, you can’t even get buried without being profiled. This has been going on since the world began.
Why does it bother people? Must be politics. If it bothers you, get used to it, because profiling is never, ever going away.
HARRY L. KENEMAN
LAS VEGAS
Bad word
To the editor:
Why is it when you or I identify progressive liberal Democrat legislation as socialistic, there is an outcry about name calling?
Look up the meaning of socialism and then answer these questions:
Is the takeover of student loans by the government socialism?
Isn’t redistribution of wealth socialistic?
Didn’t Nazi Germany (National Socialists) and the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) espouse the same policies? If not, why did they identify themselves as socialists?
Why am I called a racist and bigot when I point out the obvious?
FRANK PERNA
LAS VEGAS
Open border
To the editor:
The Mexican president has a point when says the Arizona immigration status law is misguided.
The U.S. position with Mexico is to erase the border, so it is misguided for states or the people to get in the way of this.
Arizonans just didn’t get the memo.
Matt Davis
Henderson
