Letters for July 7, 2011

Cars won’t yield

Re “Pedestrian targets” (Letters to the Editor, June 30):

I felt I had to reply to this one; this “pedestrian right of way” law seems to get a lot of people hurt or even killed.

I for one feel it is high time for a reality check! This law makes about as much sense as requiring trains to stop for cars. No matter what the law says, you always will have the impaired, sleepy, inattentive, cell phoning, chatting, sun in eyes, texting, and just plain mean, aggressive folks driving.

As in other countries we should be teaching kids to simply look both ways and stay out of the path of moving vehicles! So simple!

I feel in order to prevent a lot of these tragedies, we need to change the silly sense of entitlement many pedestrians have become all too comfortable with.

Replace this with self-awareness, personal responsibility and a realization that a car is a heavy and dangerous thing.

William Brinsmead
Reno

Check yourself

Re “Pedestrian targets” (Letters to the Editor, June 30):

Try this; it’s something my parents told me: “Look both ways before crossing the street.” If that doesn’t help, buy a car.

Kenny Polman
via email

It came from outer space

A 10-meter (“bus-sized”) asteroid, 2011 MD, which gave Earth a close shave on June 27, is another example of our media’s disconnect. Here’s why.

According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, asteroids less than 25 meters in size would break up in Earth’s atmosphere and not cause ground damage if such a thing were in fact on a collision course.

Yet, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research program—which, unlike NASA, discovered the item in question since it is the latter’s job to do so—a 10-meter asteroid such as 2011 MD tooling toward a date with Earth at 63,000 mph would impact and create a decent-sized crater.

So here, for information from scientists—mind you, prestigious scientists at JPL and MIT—we are served up completely opposite “facts,” the contradictions of no notice. Sweet.

Craig Ayres-Sevier
Reno

Time passages

Re “Growing out” (News, May 31, 2007):

I believe some of your facts are wrong. For instance, the girl that said she lived out there when she was 9 did not. My family owned that ranch. We were the La Rues that lived there, not this pretender. I grew up on that ranch from when I was a baby all the way up til I was 12 years old. I remember going out during the winter feeding cows and horses. We had five houses up there: my dad’s old place; my grandma and grandpa’s main ranch house; our hired help lived in one; the old cook house; and we had ours. We had one barn that had to sections to it where we would saddle horses. It had a loft, three storage places, and a chicken coop. We then had a barn further down that we kept all of our equipment in. We had several corrals and sorting pens.

We got the ranch because we had to give up my grandpa’s ranch, which was the Monte Cristo, and the government gave us three choices of ranches. We picked the Winnemucca Ranch. If you want to know more about what it was like to live there and how much I miss it, go right ahead and ask away. This is a sore subject because I had to leave my ranch because Bureau of Land Management ran us off. We had so many problems with them that it wasn’t even funny. Our ranch ran from the top of the hills of Pyramid Lake to the other side where you could look down onto Red Rock. Then if you went north to south, it ran up to California, then back down on the way to the “moon rocks.” We had a mountain called Tully, a spring called Frog Spring. If you want to know the story on that one, go right ahead and ask. I will be able to tell you everything about that ranch that belonged to me and my family not this pretender that you talked to. Get your facts straight, please. I also had wild horses on my ranch that killed two of my horses, and we were supposed to be horse free. I learned how to ride rope saddle and take care of my horses there and also learned how to drive and water fields. We had two ponds close to the main house, one on a hill, the other on the other side of the field. There is a track up there where Chief Winnemucca ran his horse races. That’s why the ranch is called the Winnemucca Ranch. We also had an area called the Milk Ranch and that’s because the water that ran through our sorting pen looked white for a while and still does when spring first hits.

Shannon La Rue
Sparks

Editor’s note: Thanks for the head’s-up, Ms. La Rue. It appears that you are writing about a much earlier time. The person in the story was talking about living in the area less than 20 years ago.

Recycling questions

Re “Keep it clean” (Greenspace, May 19):

I appreciate this story, as I have been told we can’t recycle much of what is recycled in other areas, which is disappointing.

I was really surprised to read that yogurt containers are not recycled here, as I buy yogurt packaged in Code 2 containers.

I just checked the Waste Management website which has this to say regarding plastic recycling: “Products labeled Code 1 and Code 2 are widely accepted at recycling facilities. These typically include soft drink and soda bottles; plastics from cereal boxes; containers for salad dressing, vegetable oil, and peanut butter; oven-ready meal trays; butter and margarine tubs; and containers for laundry detergent and some household cleaners” (www.wm.com/customer-service/residential-recycling-faq.jsp?zip=89509).

Also it would appear that cereal boxes may be recyclable in our paper recycling bags and bins.

What does RN&R think about revisiting this topic and writing an in-depth guide for Reno residents? I would like to know more about our local recycling. It would be interesting to follow it from pick-up to whatever the end product is.

Thanks for the work you do. I appreciate your contribution to the community.

Lynn Bowering
via email

Editor’s note: For more information about local recycling capabilities, check out www.wm.com/facility .jsp?cat=6&zip=89502&fac=S04771, which says allowable items include newspapers, magazines, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and steel cans.

Light up

Re “Smoking sneak” (Upfront, May 26):

I don’t understand how any politician, Gov. Brian Sandoval included, can reverse a directive resulting from a public vote by the people of Nevada! Is this even legal?

Kind of makes one ask the question, Why vote on anything if the governor can freely and arbitrarily change, modify or even cancel the will of the people?

Sounds like a dictatorship to me.

Scary times, indeed.

Dan Streight
Reno

Editor’s note: Article 19 of the Nevada Constitution allows the legislature to change voter-approved statutes three years after they are enacted by voters. The smoking law received final voter approval in 2006.