Tipping ‘expert’ a total cheapskate

To the editor:

Your Thursday article, "Tips on tips," will probably have most service industry employees enraged.

The Review-Journal printed the opinions from some "experts" on guidelines for tipping. One such expert, the author of "Las Vegas For Dummies," must want the worst service ever. As a valet attendant at a local hotel/casino, I want this so-called expert to realize $1 was a tip given to a valet attendant 30 years ago.

Does this seem like it should apply now? Maybe this "expert" should talk to people who actually do service jobs before offering her opinions.

Mark Thomson

LAS VEGAS

Just take the ticket

To the editor:

I watched the entire coroner's inquest into the Henderson police shooting of the ice cream truck driver. Hearing comments from the ACLU's Gary Peck that the hearing was a sham and was manipulated by the district attorney totally disgusted me.

If this woman's husband had simply taken and signed his citation, none of this would have happened and she would be alive. Now he is filing a lawsuit. Maybe Mr. Peck should ask this man why did he not obey the law like everyone else, and simply take the ticket and go to court if he thought he was not guilty. The ACLU should start to think about what the police officers have to face every day knowing that if they defend themselves, the ACLU will not stand behind them.

Mary Manna

HENDERSON

Taken alive

To the editor:

Back in October, three Las Vegas police officers were shot by a man at an apartment complex. They took the man away alive.

How is it that a Henderson police officer needed to shoot a mother, armed with a knife, in front of her children?

Alex McConnell

LAS VEGAS

Coal-fired power

To the editor:

I applaud the Las Vegas Review-Journal's insightful April 15 editorial, "Against human prosperity."

You are correct in pointing out that coal provides half of America's electricity. Just as important, North America has more than two centuries of coal reserves. With foreign energy sources causing increased economic and political turmoil, we should not ignore a plentiful resource in our own back yard.

I am saddened by the comment you related from the Sierra Club's counsel regarding the intent to "clog up the system" with lawsuits. The misuse of due process procedures will not solve America's energy problems.

While today's coal-fired power plants are dramatically cleaner in every respect than those built a few years ago, industry and environmentalists must work together to advance technology even further. Carbon capture and sequestration are on the precipice of practical application. We cannot afford to lose this momentum to legal and bureaucratic maneuvers.

Brad Jones

ALEXANDRIA, VA.

THE WRITER IS WEST REGION COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR AMERICANS FOR BALANCED ENERGY CHOICES.

Fox, meet hen

To the editor:

Would you invite the fox to move into your hen house? That's exactly what Dr. Rudy Manthei proposed when he says he would encourage the physicians who worked for Dr. Dipak Desai to practice at the two endoscopy facilities he is considering purchasing (Wednesday Review-Journal).

It's ironic that an eye doctor has so little vision, and is willing to close his eyes to what went on at Dr. Desai's endoscopy centers.

Dennis Hetherington

LAS VEGAS

Middle East peace

To the editor:

Efforts so far to broker peace between Israel and its neighbors have been a dismal failure. Even dialogue among the rivals has ceased.

It seems unfair, then, for Israel and President Bush, whose diplomatic talents are limited, to condemn President Carter for talking to the leaders of Hamas and Arab countries during his recent visit to the Middle East.

After all, it was President Lincoln who raised the question, "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

Cornelius Harrington

HENDERSON

Just like old times

To the editor:

With the flap over the raid at the YFZ ranch in Eldorado, Texas, does anyone remember the famous Short Creek raid of 1953, when police from Arizona descended on Short Creek (now Colorado City) and carted off more than 200 minor children into "protective custody?"

What are the odds that the children in Texas will ultimately (after all of the lawyers are through) be returned to their "families?"

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Victor R. Kieser

LAS VEGAS

In denial

To the editor:

In your April 14 edition, an Associated Press report on the dismissal of 1,300 Iraqi soldiers and police officers who either deserted outright or refused to fight in Basra, despite U.S. artillery and air support, was placed on Page 13A. Previously, you gave front-page treatment to Gen. David Petraeus' hopeful projections.

You buried the bitter truth. Can you say denial?

Leric Goodman

LAS VEGAS