Time to deregulate the local taxi industry

In reference to the Review-Journal’s Dec. 16 article, “Las Vegas taxi numbers plummet”:

In reference to Uber and Lyft, Stan Olsen, chairman of the Nevada Taxicab Authority, said he is a big believer in “playing fair.” When has the the Taxicab Authority ever played fair? The agency is quite possibly the most corrupt institution in the state.

The authority is responsible to the 16 approved taxi companies and the small group of elites that own those companies (the taxi cartel). The authority is charged with enforcing taxi company policies, making law through cronyism and corruption and ensuring the taxi monopoly remains intact.

There has been only one new taxi company approved in the past 50 years. The best thing that could happen for the Las Vegas riding pubic would be to deregulate the industry and abolish the Taxicab Authority. The small group of elite families that own every cab in Las Vegas would probably go bankrupt, but the taxi industry would survive.

Eric Lier

Henderson

Fake news

To my knowledge, at no time did Hillary Clinton set foot in Wisconsin during the general election campaign. Yet now the alt-left is telling us she lost that state due to meddling by the Russians.

Congress took seriously the complaint about Russian hacking and called the intelligence community to appear and present evidence. The intel types didn’t have any evidence — and didn’t bother to show up.

Could it be that she needed to campaign there to win? No, that can’t be it. Must be the Russians.

These are the same folks who are complaining that they have been the victims of “fake news.” Oh, the sweet irony.

David Bender

Las Vegas

Death drugs

I’m confused that our state has the death penalty yet isn’t able to purchase the drugs needed to perform executions. Just recently Georgia held an execution. And other states — such as Florida and Texas — perform executions on a regular basis. Nevada has a brand new facility to carry out the death penalty, as well.

Maybe state officials need to make a phone call to one of these other states to find a source from which they can purchase the lethal drugs. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Pat Ropella

Henderson

On time

During Nevada’s last regular legislative session, a bill was introduced to put us on permanent daylight savings time. Unfortunately, the bill died.

I’m a long-time resident who absolutely adores living here. However, we’re subjected to around four months — a full third of the year — where the sun is down by the time many people get off of work at 5 p.m. This is horribly depressing and robs us of time when we can get home and enjoy some lingering sunlight and our stunning sunsets.

It also robs us of afternoon daylight on our days off when we’d like to be out enjoying our mild winter days — whether hiking Red Rock or simply running errands before it gets dark.

I implore our legislators to re-introduce the concept in the coming session and get it passed. We could either keep us on daylight savings time all year, or put the eastern half of the state into the Mountain Time Zone, where we really belong.

Ted Newkirk

Las Vegas

Tip this

I would like to respond to Roger Eisenzopf’s letter from Dec. 14. In response to the parking fees, he suggests just spending less at the Strip casinos when we locals go there. I think that is all well and good, but it is probably a little too subtle for the casinos to notice.

I am physically disabled, so I always use valet. I don’t have any intention of going to a Strip hotel again where there is a charge for parking or valet. If I should, however, I intend not to tip the valet attendant at all. Since this is now a paid service, that relieves me of paying any tip.

This is a much more noticeable form of protest — and it will start the valet attendants screaming to management. This is bad for the attendants, but we have to fight fire with fire.

William H. Isaac II

Henderson