Scare tactics and Social Security checks

To the editor:

I was outraged to read of President Obama's position that the impasse over the debt ceiling threatens timely issuance of Social Security checks. Social Security was structured as a trust fund, which would be holding a cash balance today were it not for the fact the fund has been raided by our government and the money spent rather than being held in trust.

Instead of a balance, the fund now holds IOUs from that same government in the form of bonds. Delaying issuance of Social Security checks therefore constitutes a default on the debt obligations of the U.S. government at least as outrageous as defaulting on any other debt obligation.

The political posturing and scare tactics coming out of Washington are an insult to the people of this country.

John Dexter

Las Vegas

Where's the outrage?

To the editor:

There is much fervent outrage over Florida's Casey Anthony verdict due to so many believing she got away with murder and should have been put in prison for life or executed. Yet hardly a flutter of rage appeared when it was recently announced that Dwayne Jackson, a completely innocent Las Vegas man, lost four years of his life in prison due to government DNA technicians making critical errors.

What a paradox it is compared to the reaction to the Anthony verdict. Here we have an innocent person who spends four years of his life behind bars due to being wrongly convicted, yet we hear hardly a peep of anger from the public or the media.

Since 1989, more than 250 people in 34 states have been exonerated through DNA, yet you never hear anyone fuming over the jury getting those cases wrong.

Al Lasso

Las Vegas

Teacher performance

To the editor:

In her Saturday letter, "Cheating teachers," Kim L. Chesley tries to make the case that the Clark County School District, the Legislature and Gov. Brian Sandoval are to blame for the possibility of teachers cheating by altering their students' test results. Because, she argues, we now unfairly evaluate teachers with test scores, we can expect this to start in Clark County.

I can't think of a profession, other than politician, where your salary and job security aren't tied to your performance. Again, barring politicians, if you don't do your job to the satisfaction of your employer, you are fired.

In most jobs, satisfactory performance is easy to judge. How is this possible? Because on most jobs, the employer sets standards by which you are judged. If you don't meet the standard, out you go.

For far too many years, we taxpayers and parents have been told that we must throw more money into education if we want our children to learn and to compete in the workplace. So we did that. Then, finally, enough parents and taxpayers had complained to the governing bodies that officials decided teachers should also have standards by which they are evaluated. So they looked at the end product -- the students -- to see if they had learned what they needed. Sadly, the answer on too many levels was a resounding no.

Standards were set and the teachers were expected to teach the students to meet those standards. The results? Look at the Atlanta case. Not only did the students fail, but so did the teachers.

So I would ask Ms. Chesley: If not by student test scores, how would you evaluate a teacher? And please don't say by the advanced degrees they have, or their time on the job, or that some have to teach in at-risk schools. The facts of the matter are that test scores are poor districtwide.

If they have a solution, let them state it. But, in the end, if the end product isn't as expected, they must lose their jobs. Our children deserve a better education -- and they must have one.

B. Wilderman

Las Vegas

Court case

To the editor:

As a fairly new resident of Nevada and North Las Vegas, I am amazed by the apparent need for government by the courts.

Here in North Las Vegas, the City Council has embarrassed itself by trying to rig an election to get one of their own re-elected. The court had to intervene. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, but c'mon.

Up in Carson City, our politicians had to turn to the courts to decide how to hold an election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat. Sorry, no free-for-all.

I am appalled by the grade-school antics of our elected officials. There are real problems in Nevada and nationally that need to be resolved. These are not partisan problems.

North Las Vegas is in danger of being taken over by the state. Isn't it time we all got down to the job at hand?

Bruce Hotchkiss

North Las Vegas

CEO pay

To the editor:

It's great to see that the CEOs of some Las Vegas-based companies are doing so well (Review-Journal, Sunday). Gary Loveman of Caesars Entertainment got a whopping 206 percent raise this year. Maybe if they spread the wealth around to the rest of their employees who actually make their companies run so well each day, our economy wouldn't be in such dire straits.

I have friends and family who have been working for casino properties for 15 or more years. They didn't get any raises for the past two years. This year, they got a measly 1.5 percent increase.

Maybe the CEO salaries are determined by shareholders, but maybe at the next meeting, they could advocate for livable wages for their employees.

Instead of demonizing the salaries of the public sector, we should focus our energies on increasing the wages of private-sector employees. Why are we allowing ourselves to be led on a race to the bottom? We are just as valuable to these companies as the CEOs, and it's about time we realize it.

Vicki Linkin

Las Vegas