LETTERS: New stadium shouldn’t drain taxpayers

To the editor:

I read that Regent James Dean Leavitt wants to raise the sales tax rate to pay for a new stadium (“Tax hikes suggested for UNLV stadium,” July 24 Review-Journal). I have been a resident here since 1960, and this is absurd.

The taxpayers should not have to face a sales tax increase to pay for the university’s stadium. My living here should not require me to be taxed for a facility that benefits UNLV. If school and higher education officials want it, then they and they alone must find the funds and not expect us to foot the bill.

Of course, the other regents are supporting the idea of increased taxes for a stadium, because then the funds would not come out of UNLV’s coffers. We should not have our taxes raised to pay for a facility that many of us will probably never use.

SHERI WHANN

MOUNT CHARLESTON

Don’t knock West Virginia

To the editor:

The “Leftovers” column in the Sports section of the July 23 Review-Journal included an item about West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett. He made some comments regarding women and football that were inappropriate, but I found the Review-Journal’s take offensive.

As a reputable newspaper, the Review-Journal should hold itself to a higher standard than a 20-year-old college football player. Using derogatory comments against the great people of West Virginia is upsetting and wrong. According to the Review-Journal, all people from West Virginia are back-woods, 1950s-thinking chauvinists. I expect more from this newspaper.

Shame on you for allowing those comments to be printed. I’m sure you all thought the take was cute, but West Virginia is a beautiful state with great people. I’m disappointed.

MARTIN STRGANAC

LAS VEGAS

Rubio and ‘intolerance’

To the editor:

Wow, really? Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., accuses the left of intolerance, saying that Americans who oppose same-sex marriage often face “intolerance” from those who support it. Well, Sen. Rubio, I believe opposing same-sex marriage is the epitome of intolerance, and it is practiced by you and your party of right-wing conservatives on a daily basis.

The pot should not be calling the kettle black. Whatever happened to live and let live?

ANNEMARIE KUBICEK

LAS VEGAS

Solar energy surge

To the editor:

Off-grid solar power for residential homes is inevitable. The state of Nevada should seize a leadership role by requiring all new single-family residential construction to include solar panels. Because of the economies of scale, the added new home cost would be about $5,000, without any government subsidies. However, this cost would be returned in about three to five years, depending on power usage.

No doubt, such a proposal would make NV Energy very nervous. That’s probably a very good indication of its viability.

NUFF PUPKIN

LAS VEGAS

Eye for an eye

To the editor:

I’ve been reading a lot about how long it takes to execute death-row inmates. It seems the drugs they’re using aren’t doing the job fast enough, or humanely enough. Sometimes it takes an hour for the inmate to die.

I think I have the solution. Kill them the same way they killed their victims. If someone shot and killed a woman and her father, shoot that person. If he strangled his wife, strangle him. If he tortured his victim, treat him the same way. If he used a knife, club or a pickax, use the same weapon on him.

I read a few years back that a couple of guys tied a man to the back of their pickup and dragged him to death. They should have died the same way. I’d bet after a couple of hundred feet, they would have regretted what they’d done.

I don’t know where we got the idea to treat murderers with namby-pamby gloves. Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to murder if you knew you were going to get the same treatment.

DANIEL J. THOMPSON

PAHRUMP