Letters to the editor

Dog owners should respect school grounds

Is it ignorance or arrogance or, maybe they just can't read, but those dog owners who take their dogs to the middle school football field to run (no leash and not having anything to clean up the dog mess) are a sad, sorry lot. The sign at the gate states "please keep your dogs off the field."Not a difficult request to understand. They have all of "C" hill for their dogs to run around on. What a sad, sorry lot.

JOHN DAVIS

Carson City

Horses are worth saving

My Family and I have been visiting Carson City for the last 45 years. If it was not for my job I would move there. I recently read the story on the wild horses that might be put down. Gov. Gibbons should step up to the plate and intervene. If our country can spend billions of dollars in foreign aid, they should be able to help these horses. In the hills around Virginia City I have been able to see these magnificent horses running free. But at the same time I have seen over the years the large estates being built up there. Maybe they should tax the developers a horse tax when they build these large houses. I hope someone finds a solution. This is heritage we should save.

CHRIS OTTO

Fullerton, Calif.

Picture of governor shouldn't have been printed

I think you are disgusting to put that picture of Gov. Gibbons in the paper. You invaded his privacy. What does it matter who he is keeping company with? He's getting divorced. What he does in his private life is not yours or any one else's business. He is doing a great job as governor and that's all that matters. All you liberals disgust me. You blame Gov. Gibbons for the budget crisis when he has no control over how the economy is going. It's happening all over the country. It's not just Nevada who is having trouble. Just like all you liberals that blame President Bush for everything. Enough already!

To be so low as to put that picture in the paper, you should be ashamed of yourself and Brad Horn for taking the picture. It was in bad taste.

If your paper would stop writing such negative things about Gov. Gibbons, people wouldn't be so sick and tired of hearing about it. Why don't you write about the good job he is doing for a change. Stop bashing him all the time.

Stop all the inflammatory insults about Gov. Gibbons NOW!

SHIRLEY CONROY

Carson City

Some better suggestions to dispose of grass clippings

To the person or persons dumping their grass clippings behind the Starbucks Roasting Plant in Minden, I have some alternatives for you to try:

Start a compost pile in YOUR neighbors yard but do it in the middle of the night so they don't know it's you!

Place the clippings in the bed of an open pick up truck and drive up and down Hwy 395 real fast numerous times!

Make huge piles of it like fall leaves and charge the neighbor kids to play in it!

Or better yet drive the couple of extra miles to Bentley's place on Stockyard Road (it's just one road over from Starbucks) and dump it for FREE (oops forgot you are already dumping it for free) the only inconvenience you may have is that they will weigh your vehicle on the way in and out in order to track how much they take in and they will probably have a better use for it then just letting it pile up behind Starbucks!

Common courtesy and doing the right thing " it's not too much to ask is it?

COLLEEN MILLER

Minden

Use methods other than euthanasia

In response to the article "Budget cuts on the range," the government should be ashamed of themselves for even considering euthanasia as an option for these horses. Unfortunately, in my opinion, the overpopulation is the people and development taking away from the horses' roaming areas. I can see euthanizing sick or injured horses that wouldn't otherwise have a chance on the range, but as a herd reduction tool, absolutely not. Try gelding stallions and colts as a method of birth control instead. As far as that goes, as an example, why don't we just start euthanizing people that are not genetically superior to reduce the population here in Nevada as well! There must be other ways to go about getting the situation under control without having to destroy these beautiful animals.

RACHEL GILL

Carson City

Judicial candidacy is within the law

I was contacted by a reporter with the Nevada Appeal concerning questions about my candidacy for district judge in Carson City and Storey County.

I have been aware of a 2005 legislative change by Senate Bill 234 to the NRS 3.060 concerning qualifications for District Judge since 2005. At that time and again prior to filing as a candidate, I determined after legal research and a review of the legislative intent that the change had no impact on my candidacy.

The 2005 legislative change applies prospectively only to those persons who become licensed to practice law in Nevada after 2005. The law does not apply to persons who were licensed to practice law prior to 2005 and continue to be licensed today. I have been licensed to practice law since 2000 and will be licensed for nine years when I take office. I have the same vested interest in my license when I became licensed as an attorney as I do now; at the time I became licensed, I was able to be elected and sit as a district judge and continue to hold that same vested interest in my license after nine years. Ironically, the original draft of the bill required only five years of licensure for a district judge and was only changed arbitrarily immediately prior to vote without any support or rational basis for such a change.

My past, continuing and recent experience in civil and criminal law makes me highly qualified and whether I have 9 years or 10 years of licensure is completely meaningless in this context and makes absolutely no sense.

My opponents never filed a challenge within the time frame in which challenges may lawfully be filed; that time frame expired on Feb. 1, 2008. The right to run for office is one of the most important rights of citizenship and any ambiguities should be resolved in favor of the candidate. The citizens of Carson City and Storey County have the right to vote me as their next district judge.

Mark Krueger

Carson City

Heller's solution offers no change

On Wednesday I noticed the article written by Republican Representative Dean Heller and thought that I was finally going to see the Republican solutions to the energy problems facing Nevadans. When you can't even go to see a movie because the ticket is two gallons of gas, it's pretty clear something's wrong.

So what were Heller's solutions? Well, alternative energy just isn't going to work. Conservation is a waste of time. And taxing oil companies is pointless. His solution? Business as usual ... oh, and increase off-shore drilling. Because we won't really have to address the problem until every last speck of crude is sucked out of the ground.

Between Heller's "no change is good change" and McCain's "eighteen cent tax suspension plan," is it any surprise that the Republican leadership is in need of greater solutions for their own problems?

DAVID BUSHEY

Minden

Having trouble finding a doctor who cares

I am responding to Karen Woodmansee's column (The State of Medical Care Can Make You Sick). Boy, has she got that right. I moved here the same time Karen did and have gone through as many doctors in a short period. Before moving here, I also had the same doctor for many years. It seems that in Carson City in particular that the doctors just don't care enough about their patients. They figure someone else will come along to fill your place. Are they upset with the insurance companies so take it out on patients or what?

There aren't a lot of choices when it comes to insurance so we take what we can. One medical group dropped us because they no longer wanted to take our insurance but made sure they came up with a good excuse to do so. Many doctors have left the area. Some insist you return in two weeks to get meds if you are still ill instead of calling the prescription in. Some get sneaky by making an appointment for an "office visit" then charging you for a "consultation," over $200 more. Another time our health plan said there would be no dues and 5 months into the plan we get hit with huge dues. Recently my doctor billed me $40 for a return phone call.

Why is it so difficult to find a caring doctor and good medical insurance? It isn't that way in other states. Just like a soldier swears an allegiance to their country, a doctor takes an oath to care foremost for the health and recovery of their patients. But it seems after their residency, it's the almighty dollar that blurs their vision. No matter how many questions you ask beforehand and how much you research, they still get you with lies. Ask too many questions, they drop you.

I have spoken to many others going through the same thing. Sure wish there was a site on the Internet where you could go for a patient's review of doctors because I know a whole lot of folks who would take advantage of it. Maybe those uncaring doctors would suddenly start to care when their patients stop coming around. It would help the caring doctors because everyone would know who you were and your patient count would quickly increase. Ask your friends what they have heard. Word of mouth is a great tool.

KATHY RHEA

Carson City

Not a fan of conservative radio

Do I call conservative radio... sure, I call them lots of things. Liars, for starters, first for claiming to be conservative, then for claiming to have open lines to their diatribe artists when they admittedly use screeners. It's all staged anyway, for I remember on guy calling in and saying he's a liberal ... and that cued Hannity to spout five minutes of speeches and innuendo while his stooge um-duhed on the phone and made liberals look like idiots.

Well, they usually do ... and that just means there are two clowns in this circus we call politics. But the reason they take to screaming is that they don't want the quiet sound of reason to seep out to the public ... for instance, the suggestion was made to use tobacco money to fund Nevada education.

What's this? You're counting a a chemical killer to fund education, instead of dealing with this killer ... but wait ... a huge cottage industry has sprung up ... the quit-smoking bunch with another way to make money. Now, conservatives back any industry in which they own stock. Hey, kid, light up and further your education! And Mt. Hannity, the conservative volcano, went dormant! Yep, any dollar will do to quiet that conservative fervor.

Here's some real conservatism, folks, people used to quit smoking like I did. In my case, I decided there was more floor-sweepings than tobacco in the cigarettes ... so I quit. No patches, no pills, sure as hell no doctor ... but Hannity isn't on his third Escalade due to folks doing things on the cheap. So no eruption ... not a peep.

By the by, Mr. Obama, you made a deal about campaign financing with Mr. McCain. You broke your deal! And some say it's simply politics, a smart move, I say it was a damned lie! And the difference between a conservative and a Hannity is that had McCain broke his word I'd call it the same thing. While Hannity would go out, keep his mouth shut, and polish his Cadillac.

NOEL KREFT

Carson City