Make union foot the bill for police shooting
To the editor:
The Las Vegas police union should be responsible for paying the $1.7 million settlement reached with Trevon Cole's family, and any other judgments related to police shootings ("Payment would set record," Thursday Review-Journal).
After all, if they want to stand behind their members -- even those with three shootings on their records (Bryan Yant is still on the payroll) -- they should be the ones to pay. That way, if the other officers have to pay for the trigger-happy ones, they might not be so protective.
But if the union still thinks its members can do no harm, let them fight the families in court and see if the jurors agree. They will probably be facing larger payouts.
Richard Andes
Las Vegas
Light shows
To the editor:
The valley's traffic signals are timed to give pedestrians time to run halfway across an intersection before the lights change. Some blink on, then off, luring you into traffic.
Who is maintaining the lights, anyway? Traffic tickets would only add insult to injury.
No one trusts the lights. They are a joke.
If you want to live, you cross where there is a divider and then continue across when it is safe.
Drivers don't understand this because they don't walk much.
W.J. Brickey
Las Vegas
New captain
To the editor:
In response to the proposal to raise local water rates:
I use below the minimum monthly billing amount, and my bill has already gone up approximately $5 per month over the past year. I don't how to cover the stated shortfall in an equitable, sustainable way.
But one long-overdue action to prevent further lack of stewardship would be to replace the current water czar, Pat Mulroy. Reasons for replacing the "captain of the ship"?
1. Justify the $300 million-plus spent on the development and maintenance of a museum, The Springs Preserve.
2. If Ms. Mulroy is so great at planning and understanding, why didn't she undertake the tunnel-boring project way before wasting money on "sucking straws"? It could have incorporated an adjustable intake to drain the lake relative to changing levels. One should always plan for worst-case scenarios.
3. Have her justify cost overruns.
4. Draining the state is cost-prohibitive, environmentally disastrous and essentially kicking the can down the road. Why hasn't she made water the national issue it deserves to be and compacted with all the Western states affected?
We need a national program to desalinate and distribute. Plus, we can redirect water (with flood runoff) from the extreme northwest, even to the Soldatna runoff from the Kenai River in Alaska.
Len Kreisler
Las Vegas
