LETTERS: VA shouldn’t scale back prescription services

Sen. Bernie Sanders' run for the White House is even scarier than the thought of Hillary Clinton becoming president, but I think recent local news about the Department of Veterans Affairs is more important to many veterans in Southern Nevada. As of March 4, the primary care clinics around town will stop processing prescriptions, leaving that to the pharmacy at the North Las Vegas VA Medical Center.

What that decision means is that any prescriptions that cannot be mailed will have to be picked up at the North Las Vegas hospital. That means long wait times, long drives and an additional burden. I am on a medication that has to be prescribed on a monthly basis. Even though the VA will give me travel pay, which in my case amounts to $8.60, it takes a month to get a check. Then that check has to be taken to the bank for cashing or deposit. It's not worth the hassle. Of course, before any of this happens, the veteran has to hope whatever clinic he has an appointment with has the form to sign in order to get reimbursed for mileage.

Because of narcotic drug mandates, any narcotic drug has to be renewed each month. That means veterans have to contact their primary caregiver every time they need a renewal. Because of budget restrictions, some primary caregivers only work in that capacity two or three days a week. My primary caregiver works in geriatrics and is only at the Southwest Clinic three days a week, and is overloaded as a result.

The health care system for Southern Nevada veterans has never been good. New buildings do not a good system make. The best employees are mixed with the incompetent, and there are plenty of those to go around. Efforts have been ongoing to improve care, but regulations that protect inept employees from being fired make any marked improvement impossible. Those regulations need to change.

Jim Armbrust

Las Vegas

Cruz's citizenship

Going back many years to my first year in law school, I remember studying the Constitution. In the discussion of citizenship, we learned there were two recognizable methods of becoming a citizen: jus soli (the law of the land) and jus sanguinis (the law of the blood). A person can have dual citizenship at birth. Jus soli means one automatically becomes a citizen of the country in which that person is born. Jus sanguinis means one becomes a citizen of the country of which his/her parent(s) were born or citizenship was subsequently acquired; this is a derivative citizenship.

There is also another form of derivative citizenship, as my father, who was a minor when his father became a naturalized U.S. citizen, automatically became a U.S. citizen. My father was not eligible to be president of the U.S. under constitutional provisions. He was neither born in the U.S. nor a child of a U.S. citizen at birth — not a "natural born" citizen. Does "natural born" exclude derivative citizenship?

I've read many commentaries about Sen. Ted Cruz's citizenship, as to whether or not he was "natural born." I am not a constitutional scholar, but I would like to see specific citations interpreting that constitutional provision by the Supreme Court, the ultimate resolver of constitutional issues. This is not immediately necessary if Sen. Cruz isn't elected president, but it should still be resolved.

Earle Malkin

Las Vegas

MGM parking fee

My husband and I make several trips to Las Vegas each year. We always rent a car so that we can explore areas beyond the Strip. If parking fees are added to the already ridiculous charges imposed by hotels, we will move our stays off the Strip and not even frequent MGM Resorts properties for gaming ("MGM to charge for parking," Jan. 16 Review-Journal).

Taking action just might change this decision. There are plenty of wonderful hotels, restaurants and gaming opportunities beyond the Strip.

Dolores Randmark

Mount Prospect, Il.