Letters to the editor April 23

Reader enjoys Appeal's

legislative reporting

Thanks for your legislative reporting. It lets us voters see what our legislators are doing or not doing.

Most of what I see is tax, tax, and more tax along with more and more regulations. When are we going to see some reorganization and spending reduction bills?

The trouble is not declining revenue, but increased spending.

Stuart Posselt

Minden

Why isn't the oil spill in the Gulf cleaned up by now?

Lest we forget, the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon well exploded a year ago April 20. Two hundred million gallons of oil spilled in the Gulf. Oil is still oozing in the marshes, washing up on beaches, and covering sections of the Gulf floor. The full impacts of the disaster will be felt for years, even decades, to come, and Congress has done nothing to help with restoration.

BP and others will pay billions in fines, which will only go into the federal treasury - wonder where that would end up? - unless we convince Congress to do the right thing, and dedicate these Clean Water Act penalties to Gulf restoration.

Please, call, e-mail or fax your U.S. legislators and tell them to take action to get these funds used where they rightfully should go: Gulf restoration.

Patrick Paine

Virginia City

Rising debt and dollar failing equals failing government

Regarding "No government fade away" by Mr. Russell, I'm sure your $1.659 trillion profits for 2010 are gross, not net. I'm equally certain the businesses that were forced offshore, in part, became more profitable, due to the much lower wage structure. Per capita production increases in 2010 also increased business profits.

In any event, all the government revenues collected in 2010 did not even cover entitlement costs. Include a $14 trillion national debt, and a dollar that is worth 58 cents, and you do indeed have a government that is failing.

Raising corporate taxes on a smaller, weaker, 60 percent green economy would be tantamount to economic suicide. As for the 1990s growth period, the nineties started with a recession, and a four-year decline in housing, manufacturing and construction. Six months of declining gross domestic product constitutes a recession. Years of stagnant growth before and after a recession are conveniently forgotten.

Your Bush-bashing is no different than most - you leave out the four consecutive years of economic growth between his first and second terms, and his several attempts to get Fannie and Freddie to talk with him about their rumored problems.

Regarding the higher percentage of corporate tax collections in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a larger economy and better times. Since then, our government-controlled economy has become trillions of dollars lighter, while government expenditures continue to increase.

Ron Wood

Dayton

Reader wants cooking school to be yearly event

Thank you for driving the Taste of Home Cooking School to Carson. I hope you can make it a yearly event.

We received a nice package of magazines, free offers and a hard-back book. The presentation was beautiful.

Marion Bruessel

Gardnerville

Officer interrupting

Little League parade

was uncalled for

Saturday, April 9 was a chilly morning for the annual Silverada Little League's parade and opening day ceremonies. It's a day that every player from T-Ball to Majors and their family looks forward to. Cameras are ready to capture the smiling faces of their ball players in their new season uniforms.

The morning is hectic with parents escorting their players to the library, finding their team, finding a parking place, and a place to watch the players parade westerly, waving banners, behind the antique fire truck to the field.

I have attended this ritual for years. What I saw this Saturday was embarrassing.

In the middle of our 20-minute players parade, a Lyon County police officer drove east on Old Dayton Valley Road against all the teams in uniform, making them all squeeze over as he continued with his lights on going toward the library.

Even if he was being dispatched to an actual call, there is another way to get there. Instead of turning around and taking the other route, which would have saved him more time than moving an entire parade of little kids, coaches and parents, he disrupted our parade with that strait-faced arrogance and attitude that gives police officers the distrust and disrespect that they all claim is so unfair to them.

If someone has video of this ridiculous interruption, I hope they send it to "America's Funniest Videos." I would love to hear the voice-over comedy the show would write.

Sydnie Schlachta

Daytont