Letters to the Editor 8/22

Current prison plan puts people in danger

Furloughing staff at Nevada's prisons is an unacceptable solution to the state's budget crisis. The current Department of Corrections' plan of staffing prisons with a skeleton crew, closing towers, locking down units and other drastic measures will place staff, inmates and the community in danger.

The perfect solution would be that the Interim Finance Committee fund an exemption for the biennium. This should be done without cutting any positions.

Failing that, the savings from closing two small financially inefficient trustee facilities could meet the budget target without endangering anyone's safety. The Casa Grande Transition Center (CGTC) in Las Vegas has an operating cost, according to the state's budget Web site, of $4,994,382 for the biennium. CGTC has a maximum capacity of 398 but only houses 243 inmates. Similarly the Northern Nevada Restitution Center (NNRC) in Reno has an operating cost of $1.5 million and only houses 53 inmates.

All the inmates at NNRC and CGTC could be transferred to minimum security camps. These inmates currently occupy jobs in the community that could go to local law-abiding citizens who are struggling to find work in a difficult economy. Closing NNRC and CGTC would be a sensible alternative to cutting into operating costs of prisons to meet the budget. Staff at these facilities could be absorbed into other local facilities.

Plans currently being set forth by the department are too dangerous. Failing an exemption by the Interim Finance Committee, risky reductions could be avoided with the closure of trustee facilities.

Gene Columbus

Carson City

Millions of Americans getting brainwashed

Wow! A big attaboy to the Appeal for actually publishing a column from Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post.

Imagine this ever-lovin' liberal's shock at seeing a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from that leftist rag in our own local paper. Did my heart some serious benefit. Especially since my own thoughts on all the right-wing hacks getting print time has been well documented. 

I digress. Mr. Robinson's editorial opinion was on point trying to deal with this mass-hysteria of incredible misinformation on health care reform. There seems to be no end to the stubbornly ignorant protest groups who have been led like sheep by none other than the profit-making, Wall Street health care companies - companies who make that profit by routinely denying coverage. Yet millions of ignorant Americans have been brainwashed into carrying their water. Unbelievable. 

Face it folks. Medicare is a single-payer, socialist program that has worked for 40 years. How about the military and veterans care? More socialism. Police, fire, public schools? Or do you want to call Nick and Tony's Fire Department (NTFD on the NASDAQ) the next time your home is burning to the ground. 

I'll say this one more time. Too many out there had no problem with Bush's federal government taking our nation into the toilet. And now with a new set of players in Washington, an ugly case of ethnocentrism bordering on fascism is festering in this country. Very sad.

Rick Van Alfen

Carson City

A penny for your thoughts Dr. Paslov

Dr. Eugene Paslov is quite a guy!

He can infer someone's intentions by how they look. He can determine their associations by how they speak (not by what they say). And he can take a penny's worth of information and turn it into $10 worth of conjecture. What a guy!

Del Snider

Carson City