What if interchange were a school?
To the editor:
Your Sunday editorial on the unopened Lake Mead Boulevard-Las Vegas Beltway interchange, wasting taxpayers' dollars, made every major point. Your conclusion was also on the mark: Open it now!
If the Clark County School District built a school and left it unused for two years, the whole valley would be screaming for someone's head -- and the Sun City Summerlin taxpayers would be right there with them, if not leading the chorus.
As to the residents' concerns about pollution and noise from any increased use of Lake Mead Boulevard, Far Hills Avenue has a Beltway interchange and runs through housing developments without any ill effects.
Politicians, do the right thing with our taxpayer money and open the interchange now.
Phillip Mlynek
LAS VEGAS
Shooting range
To the editor:
As I read about the gun range the county is building in the northwest valley, which has been planned for nearly a quarter century, I find it absurd for Nick Uchyn to attempt to lay the blame on the county for the ignorance of any local resident who will be affected by this project ("Study to gauge gunfire noise," Saturday Review-Journal).
I came to Las Vegas in 1994 and bought a home behind Nellis Air Force Base. We could actually see a portion of the base from our master bedroom. We had to sign a document for the builder acknowledging our understanding that the base was there. I thought this to be rather silly since it was so obvious, visually and aurally, especially since I had spent the past 18 years working on Air Force fighter jets; after all, that is why the Air Force had sent me to Nellis.
The point is, those who have a problem with the gun park because they did not know of the plan to put it there have a beef with whomever they bought their home from. How did they expect the county to advise them of the plan to construct the park?
I will bet that these folks all signed documents with their builder advising them of the plan to construct this facility.
Don Dieckmann
HENDERSON
Better choice
To the editor:
In response to your Friday editorial, "Judicial recommendations":
Without question, I agree that District Judge Jessie Walsh of Department 10 needs to be replaced. Those surveyed in the Review-Journal's "Judging the Judges" feature also agreed with your assessment by rating Judge Walsh next to the last-place finisher, Elizabeth Halverson, this year and rating her last in 2006 and in 2004.
Clark County attorneys have also voted with their clients' checkbooks as well, having paid at an alarming rate to be in any other judge's courtroom, rather than be subject to the decisions of Judge Walsh in their civil cases. Nevada law provides that only civil cases, and not criminal cases, can be moved in this manner.
Many people agree that William Kephardt would be a good addition to the District Court bench. Mr. Kephardt has an extensive, successful record as a criminal prosecutor, as your editorial points out. However, Department 10 currently focuses solely on civil cases, many of which can be extremely complex and costly. Civil cases are quite different from criminal cases.
My entire 25 years of practice in Clark County has focused solely on these kinds of complex civil cases. I am honored to have an AV rating from Martindale-Hubble, the highest rating one can obtain. Civil lawsuits are growing at an exponential rate in Clark County, far outpacing the growth in criminal cases. From construction defects to business differences, as civil lawsuits continue to escalate in volume, so does the length of time needed to have them resolved, which is costly to everyone.
Based on my extensive experience in this area, it is my goal to ensure that expensive, lengthy, complex civil litigation be resolved in a fair and expedient manner. That is good for taxpayers who fund our courts and good for litigants as well.
For those reasons, I believe I am the better choice for Department 10.
David Rivers
LAS VEGAS
Justice delayed
To the editor:
The Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners' decision to put off the disciplinary hearing for Dr. Dipak Desai should be considered outrageous by the general public, as much as it is to the victims of his money-making mill ("Stroke delays hepatitis hearing," Thursday Review-Journal).
I urge a mountain of protests to the governor -- phone calls, letters, whatever it takes. This matter should be taken out of the board's hands and sent out of state to be re-examined by an independent board to determine whether Dr. Desai is indeed unable to testify.
Do you believe this board is looking out for the public's safety and victims of the unscrupulous people in the medical field, or these lousy doctors?
William Lathrop
PAHRUMP
