When's the little guy going to get a break?
Is there no end to this crap? AIG gets a $150 billion bailout. After which, 168 of their top executives received "retention incentives." Incentives to retain the engineers of the train wreck that is our economy?
Republicans in the Senate have no problem throwing $700 billion at the big banks and their eight-figure execs, but when it comes to saving the jobs of millions of auto workers, bring out the filibuster. Our Senator, John Ensign, is a part.
How about throwing a bone to the little guys? We only need $15 billion. AIG could spare it. This isn't a simple issue. The UAW needs to come to the table. I was left a bit breathless finding that the average UAW worker's wage and benefit package was $73 an hour. Frankly, if you want to save your jobs and possibly the economy of this country it's time to make some serious concessions. Otherwise the big three are going to be Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
Let's get closer to home. NV Energy, aka Sierra Pacific, wants a 17 percent rate increase. There is a reason criminals keep changing their names. To avoid detection. Same crook, different name. A 17 percent increase in our power rates? What for? Sierra Pacific's fat bottom line and seven-digit executives. At a time when we are all struggling to make it?
We can count on our PUC to find out why, right? After all, don't we pay these people to look out for our interests? In my naivete I imagined this commission as a panel of knowledgeable people, you know, telecommunications, oil, gas, power, those kind of backgrounds. Not so. Three people, one appointed by Guinn, two by Gibbons. Two English majors, one chemistry. Excuse me? Turns out this commission is a full-blown bureaucracy. I spent an hour on the Web site and couldn't find their budget. At least eight attorneys, three of which are personally assigned to the commissioners. So why pay the commissioners? Why not just pay the lawyers?
Wake up! Who's paying? You are. Get involved or kiss your business goodbye.
PATRICK MCGUIRE
Carson City
Bureaucracy thwarts potential investor
The struggles of our economy have definitely been felt in Lyon County. During such a time one would think that the homes for sale should be purchased by those who have the means to support it and funds to pay the mortgage. I continue to reinvest in Lyon County through various investment opportunities, one of which is purchasing homes that I turn into rental properties.
The current sales price of a home is cheaper than purchasing land and building a new home. Therefore, I decided I would like to purchase 10 homes in Lyon County as investment properties. After the purchase of my fourth property I was declined financing by both Wells Fargo and Bank of America, of which I have high-standing balances in multiple accounts with each bank for over 16 years. This decline in financing is a result of a recent government mandate, which does not allow banks to resell loans if the borrower has more than four second homes or investment properties. If the investor has more than four investment properties the bank is not able to sell the loan and would have to keep the note in their own portfolio.
This does not make any sense to me as I am a Lyon County citizen who has the funds available to make multiple investments that result in helping with our housing decline and our community, but I am not being "allowed" to do so.
DENNIS HOF
Lyon County business owner
Bailout would give each of us $277,826
The criminals we've sent to Washington, D.C., to collect money from lobbyists, er, I mean to represent us, are discussing an $850 billion "stimulus package." I just Googled the population of the United States and as of 21:13 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on Dec. 23, 2008, the U.S. population was 305,946,539. If you divide the $850 billion by the U.S. population you get a figure of $277,826 for every man woman and child in the U.S. Now that would stimulate me! I want mine in cash.
Hey, Harry Reid, how about you and your criminal friends giving us our money back instead of giving it to insurance companies, car companies, banks and mortgage institutions that have already proven they can't run their businesses profitably? You give it to us common citizens and we'll get the economy going!
RON LANDMANN
Minden
Overturned sentence shocks victims' families
The recent decision to overturn the sentence imposed on Ricky Sechrest shocks the families of the victims in this case. It never occurred to us that after over 25 years his sentence would even be up for discussion.
The jurors in this case were misled to believe that by imposing a sentence of death Sechrest would actually die.
Maggie and Carly disappeared on May 14, 1983. For 24 agonizing days we searched for them, and on June 7, 1983 their little bodies were found - beaten, molested and buried - with their ice skates.
I'm not sure at what point Sechrest became a suspect, but I do remember his confession, and that by September 1983 he was on trial for murder, and by October 1983 he was on death row. That's how well Mills Lane prosecuted this case; that's how certain Sechrest's guilt was.
This crime took more lives than just two. My aunt and uncle were tortured every day of the rest of their lives by thoughts of what Maggie must have gone through.
At this point, being completely disillusioned by the system, my only hope is that the guys in general population at Ely State Prison have a subscription to the Nevada Appeal.
TAMARA COSAND
Dayton