Opinion

To the editor:

After more than a decade of runaway paycheck growth, a public employee union has finally agreed to cut back the generous annual salary increases that have left local governments awash in red ink, pushing buyouts and preparing for layoffs.

Despite the ravages of recession, Carson City appears to be exuding an air of optimism. The big buzz around the Legislature concerns the potential new taxes on Nevadans and all the new government programs those new taxes will allow lawmakers to create, assuming an eventual economic recovery. The possibilities have the autocratic elite all aglow.

Maybe Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons and AIG executives can start a support group together — a place where the politically clueless can remind one another of the huge bull’s-eyes on their back sides.

To the editor:

As Nevadans suffer hard times, they’re earning less and spending less, reducing tax revenues.

Swept up by widespread assertions that “something must be done,” many Americans doubtless responded to Wednesday’s announcement that the Federal Reserve Board would purchase up to $300 billion in long-term U.S. Treasury bonds with a relieved “Well, at least they’re doing something.”

To the editor:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has recommended to the White House that it reappoint Daniel Bogden as U.S. attorney for Nevada. The Bush administration fired Bogden two years ago in a political purge of nine federal prosecutors perceived as not sufficiently supporting the Republican Party cause. Reid believes Bogden, registered nonpartisan, was terminated unfairly and should get his job back.

Taxpayers had more than enough reasons to be angry about the AIG debacle before the bailed out insurance giant paid millions of dollars in “retention” bonuses to current and former executives — including the suits whose decisions imploded the company and the overall economy.