Letters to the editor June 13

Overwhelmed by a run

of very bad things

America has sure had awfully bad things going on these last 10 years or so, such as the very costly, useless war that is surely going to be our undoing, coupled with the very bad weather, volcanoes and oil spill that will last into August, and maybe longer.

That 10-year war has to stop because not even Russia could beat them in Afghanistan. And now we have at least 15 million people out of work. We have had way too much bad news - and then that umpire had to ruin a perfect game for that Detroit Tigers pitcher. It would at least be a little bit of good news if that baseball commissioner had reversed the call - or he should lose his job, too.

At least I've got this off my chest, but what good will it do, right?

Skip Brandt

Carson City

Schools report: Long time coming, short on answers

As I was reflecting on the state of Nevada education, I was looking forward to seeing the report of the committee, which was charted to recommend improvements in our education system.

I know there is plenty of room for improvement. After all, Nevada ranks in the bottom 5 percent in performance in K-12. Of state-funded universities, the graduation rank for Nevada ranks in the bottom

5 percent. This incredibly poor performance occurred despite the fact that the state ranked in the top 40 percent in expenditures.

At last the recommendations came out. All they did was recommend a change in the selection of Board of Education. This could easily be equated with after the horse race, the jockeys taking the horse back to the barn. There they changed the "colors" and anticipated that the fans and bettors would be fooled into thinking that there was a new race.

I can hardly wait to see the time-worn, historically wrong suggestion to the voters to just send more money, and this time, things will be different - trust us.

We need a governor who will not be misled by that cry.

Sam Batdorf

Gardnerville

With all the empty buildings, why build more?

I watched as the library trustees voted to give away their gift funds. This seems premature as neither the money nor the project have been approved yet.

Personally, I don't think we need this project. We have a large amount of commercial property empty as it is. Then there is the point that if it is approved, there should be a guarantee that it will be built by the people of Nevada exclusively.

Last but not least, do we really need to fund a private project with city monies, ie: the 1/8-cent sales tax? Where is the fiscal responsibility during our economic difficulties?

Dennis Cole

Carson City