l hallenge rt laws Bullfrog County is not something to be laughed at

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.HENDERSON moiM'* woMriMi Cfwrra
Ifieuipoinl
[HOIWIE NEWS
MIKE O'CALLAGHAN
Publiiher
Page 4 Henderson Hotne News, Henderson, Nevada
CAROLYN O'CALLAGHAN
Co-Publlriier
Your Vieui
Thursday, December 17, 1987
<*^
Thursday, December 17, 1987
Freeway opening yet
foresight lacicing
With the freeway opening this Wednesday at Russell Road,
the age of the commuter has been confirmed in Henderson, if
.it had not been set in concrete before.
Henderson is officiaUy a bedroom community and local leaders
would be wise to start thinking as such, rather than pursue
alternatives that are somewhat outdated and certainly not in
. line with subiurbia.
If they don't, increasing tensions between the two poles of
.qonmiunity, suburban and industrial, may bring divisions as
,.yet unknown in Henderson's 40-plu8 years of existence.
Signs of the change will be a shift from the town's traditional
commercial districts to new ones near freeway interchanges,
si growing retail sector in the local economy and increased
• * pressures on industries and development to keep clean and lessen
impacts, especially visually, of construction and operation.
Location of a new mall along the freeway's path is only the
initial confirmation of what will be a trend. Commercial development will go to where the traffic is, and in Henderson's future,
, all the traffic will use the freeway.
Downtown property owners know what the freeway is going
...to do to commercial prospects and they are wisely attempting
sto order their house so that merchants will have no excuse in
,.locating downtown. Parking is a problem freeway businesses
will not have to address because they can include it, in fact
• would be forced to provide it, in their new projects.
The city is helping downtown merchants, but may still be
trying to avoid and prevent the inevitable, the commercialization of property near freeway interchanges.
Again, this is one suburban pressure few have resisted, what
makes Henderson think it can do otherwise?
^ Has the city's master plan or zoning ordinances prevented
all changes from the original design? No, but why insist on a
charade that has many interchanges abutting residential pro• perty? The commercial uses and values from those areas are
inestimable and no coimcil will consistly refuse commercial
_• development where the prospects for success are so great.
As the freeway opens, we all need a change of mind. Like
it or not, Henderson is not the industrial giant it once hop)ed
to be; we may continue to house industry and recruit it, but
the very density and land values the community now supports
will dis<;ourage industrialization here.
With suburbia upon us, we need to start thinking, planning
and acting like suburbanites. How the community appears to
the casual commuter will become increasingly important to
Henderson's success and well-being. Suburban communities that
are not well kept soon become the modem ghettos of the West.
Finally, the city's and others emphasis to recruit industry
may be in vain, first because of adverse reaction to siting such
,firms and second, because retail commerce, not production industry, should be the focus of recruiting efforts for a suburban
•:;;community.
'••'': What does a neighborhood that houses persons that work 20
: miles down the freeway need with a high-profile factory that
• makes plastic tops for the nation? The neighborhood would be
better served by a small shopping mall at its freeway interchange, or so most would agree.
And the neighborhood is where the votes are.
Tensions such as these will forge Henderson's future. Why
not accept the revolutionary impact the freeway will have on
the community and plan accordingly?
Back to school
by Richard Cohen
Once a year I report to school.
The school is my son's and the i
occasion is something called
"curriculum night." For an hour
and a half, I duplicate his
day—go from class to class to
hear his teachers explain the
curriculum. Once a year, for
what now seems like manyj
years, I have done this and
every year on this night my |
heart freezes in my chest. I am
once again a student.
Recently, it was chemistry that brought back the old feeling. The teacher seemed wonderful. But as she talked, my attention drifted to the syllabus and there I saw all the old words:
atomic structure, chemical bonding, ionic, covalent, periodic
table. On the wall was the periodic table itself, a map of the
complex and incomprehensible, a maze of letters and numbers
in which everything in the world—everything we are—is
represented by a symbol.
Richard Cohen. Please stand and tell the class the symbol
for strontium. Please define a valence. Who is Avogadro and
what is his law? Richard Cohen, please come to the board and
work out a problem. Embarrass yourself before your friends.
Richard Cohen, you who has learned little about chemistry
and will forget even that in the panic of the moment, come
to the board so that you may sweat and redden and wonder
how you look from the back.
Next, I go to geometry. I was somewhat better at that than
I was at chemistry, but I never really understood it. Here, again,
the teacher outlines the curriculum and this time a parent raises
his hand. He has been checking his daughter's homework (he
checks her geometry homework!) and found that although she
got the right answer, she didn't know why. With, that, the
man described how he thought the problem should be solved.
1 found myself nodding as if I knew what he was talking aboutbluffing, as I used to—nodding to him, to the teacher, faking
it. He might as well be talking Urdu. Hypotenuse. Sure.
Isosceles. Absolutely. The radius of the circle is... I couldn't
have said it better myself.
It has been this way since I went to my first curriculum
night years ago. Then, the desks were smaller, the courses
elemental and more comprehensible, but it hardly mattered.
I became a student. I sat in the back of the room, as if afraid
of being called on. My attention drifted. The teacher talked,
but I read, gazed at the wall or looked out the window.
Periodically, I tuned in—nodded—tried to refocus but drifted
off again. Something still tugged me from the room.
When I was a student, I believed parents conspired to lie
about school, to say it was the best time of their lives. They
would pretend envy at a 9-to-3 day and two months off in
the summer. They would depict Ufe after school as being infinitely tougher—vocational treadmill, a chore in which the
reward was what Uttle money they could earn. School, they
said, would be the happiest time of my hfe. What were these
people talking about?
As adults, we structure our lives to avoid precisely the sort
of pain school routinely inflicted. Only pohticians and athletes,
who either win or lose, still pass or fail. Most of us never get
called to the board as adults. Most of us learn to avoid situaitions in which we cannot cope, to master something and to
never do what we know we cannot do. For most of us, there
is no Periodic Table in our hves.
>
Only once in my career did I feel as I did in school. I had
to write a story on the city budget—a periodic table written
by bureaucrats. I read the budget and wrote. Somehow, I could
not account for miUions of dollars—whole sewer systems, roads,
buildings. 1 wrote and rewrote, but fatigue set in. The numbers
proved elusive—a kind of arithmetic Holy Grail, first here,
then there, always moving away. That old school feeUng
enveloped me. I was being called to the board. That was my
last budget story.
In Spanish this year, the teacher mentioned the subjunctive!
Oh, how I remember the subjunctive or, more precisely, howl
I could not remember the subjunctive. I hardly know what
it is in English. The subjunctive was my ruin, the tense wherq
Spanish turned into a tepid aspic of conjugations that ooze4
off my plate. The word brought back all those old feeUnga
of insufficiency, of not being able to cope, of drowning in aj
swamp of tenses—the conditional, the future, the pluperfect}
God, what's the pluperfect?
•
Once a year, I duplicate my son's schedule, but not his experience (he is a better student that I ever was). Then, lik*"
most parents, I return to the world I have mastered. Here there
are no periodic tables, no subjunctive I have to identify—no
getting called to the board. Once a year, I learn the curriculum,
and once a year I am reminded of what it's Uke to be a student.
Once a year is enough.
Freedom is always a challenge
From their first American history class in grade school,
students hear about the writing of the Constitution by the
Founding Fathers. There are test questions on Washington
and Madison, and often students are asked to list basic rights
protected by the Constitution.
Too many students and their parents, however, view the
subject as something rather dry and boring, belonging to the
musty past. In truth the struggle to protect and preserve our
basic American liberties is a never-ending one.
The challenge to our rights and freedoms is often subtle.
It is not a frontal attack as commonly as it is a nibbUng away
at the edges. Seemingly unimportant court cases can assume
mammoth proportions by opening the way for a host of new
attempts to erode or "reinterpret" basic rights.
Nowhere is this tendency more evident than in the First
Amendment. Justice Hugo Black once said that nothing he
had discovered in the debate over the Bill of Rights "indicate
that there was any belief that the First Amendment contained
any qualifications." Certainly the language in the Constitution is remarkably straightforward: "Congress shall make no
law. , . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or
the right of the people to peaceably assemble...."
Yet, nearly every session of the Supreme Court features one
See We The People page 5
Capitol commentary
Child's welfare spurs tough support laws
by Guy Shipler
It used to be that people who
had only sons to bring up
figured they didn't have to
worry too much if one of them
got a girl pregnant. Since his
indiscretion would not show as
would hers, it was often impossible for anyone to prove he
was responsible. Theoretically,
the kid was off the hook, home
free, not required either to
marry the girl or support the
.child financially.
*' No more. The Nevada Division of Welfare, which oversees child support enforceiticui,
has undertaken a drive to make clear to all parties that a young
man who gets a girl pregnant will have to pay support for
the child for up to 18 years. And thanks to a crackdown on
enforcement of tough state and federal laws, the division
stresses, the chances of him getting out of it are vulually
impossible.
• To begin with, a blood test can now establish paternity with
95 percent probability. The real father may try to get out of
' responsibihty by claiming that the girl might have slept with
the whole football team. That won't wash any more. Nowadays
the test can show whether the baby belongs to the quarterback, the running back, or the kid who sat on the bench for
the whole season.
But once identified, why can't the father just disappear?
•^;
"He can be found," answers Donna Klein, assistant chief of
child support enforcement for the division. 'The authorities
can trace him through credit records, through records from
IRS, the Department of Motor Vehicles, Employment Seciurity, law enforcement and other sources."
The district attorneys' offices in each county are the legal
arms of the enforcement program. They are responsible for
establishing paternity, estabUshing obligations, and enforcing child-support orders," said Klein.
But one thing that particularly concerns the child support
enforcement program, she added, is the need to get the message
out to young mothers that they can now force support from
the children's fathers. They need only go to the district attorney and pay a $2 fee for his office to represent them. It
then does all the collection activity, and whatever enforcement is necessary.
Enforcement and payment requirements are tough. Age is
no factor. At the time the father is able to earn income, as
early as the age of 16, his obUgation begins. He must pay 18
percent of his gross income for support, with a minimum of
$100 a month (about half the cost of buying a car) for up to
18 years.
If he is 30 days delinquent, support is automatically withheld
from any kind of income, not just wages. Even bankruptcy
won't lift the support burden. He must get the money
somewhere.
Enforcement is especially important in Nevada because i{
has the highest rate of adolescent pregnancy of any of the
50 states. A recent nationwide survey revealed that Nevada
is the exception to the general rule that the lowest teen preg-
nancy rates occur in states with the lowest populations. As
of 1980, Nevada had 144 pregnancies per 1,000 population
among 15 to 19-year-old8, compared to the national average
of 111 per 1,000.
The same study also ranked Nevada highest in the rate of
black teen births and in the rate of abortions to white teenagers.
Things haven't changed much since 1980. "As of November,
1985," says the survey, "Nevada was one of only nine states
which lacked a systematic focus on this problem. It is therefore
reasonable to assume that Nevada has not improved much,
if at all, when compared nationally."
Because of those factors and the tougher enforcement, the
Welfare Division is eager, says Klein, "to tell teenagers right
up front that it's not like the old days, when a boy who fathered
a child could disclaim it. We would like to educate them now,
make it obvious, make it apparent that this is the way it is."
Still, the child support enforcement laws affect men of all
ages. Because of the enforcement crackdown, even a married
man who fathered children out of wedlock eight or nine years
ago may find himself involved in a paternity suit, which can
be rather embarrassing, to say the least. And if he has more
than one such child, it can cost him dearly: The formula passed
by the 1987 Nevada Legislature requires that support starts
at 18 percent of gross income per child.
The whole aim is the welfare of the child, not its parents,
says Klein: "The child is the product of a union, and responsibihty for it is shared equally by both parents. The child is
there, and it cannot take care of itself. It is entitled to have
as much opportunity as possible to have a liveable life.
"That's the bottom line. And it's the law."
Henderson Home Newi, HenderieB, Nevada Pagif'g
Christmas program contributors tlianJced
Dear Editor:
The Henderson Christmaa
Committee would Uke to gratefully acknowledge ai^ thank
the following contributors to
the Henderson children's
Christmas program including
URS Corporation, Morrow &
Associates, Inc., Land Title of
Nevada, Inc., SEA Engineers
Incorporated, Barbara Flammang Architects, Stanton Ctmstruction, Marker Plaza,
Western Health Care Products,
Inc.
Also Foos, hic. DBA. Glitter
Gluch "D," Las Vegas Transit
System, Inc., The Plastic Man,
Bell Enterprises, Rainbow Casino, Video FUc, Creations by
Harris, CP National, J.A. Vay
& Sons, Massanari Bemis,
Freda Klein, Video Tyme No.
7, Shady Rest Motel.
Also Skyline Casino, Yesco,
Tomlinson Enterprises, Basic
Ready Mix, Nevada Financial
Services and Joel Bower, M.D.
The committee heartily
thanks these and all others for
their contributions.
Any business, arganizatkm
or individual wishing to help
the fund should contact the
Support letters needed
Editor:
The town of Caliente and
Lincoln county needs your help
in the form of signed support
letters.
Kanhaw Ryan State Park is
in the town of Calienta, and was
ruined in August, 1984 by a
severe flood. At that time, the
State Park Division received a
$100,000 insurance benefit,
covering facilities and buOdings.
Unfortunately, the insurance
didn't provide for Uability and
hydrobgy studies. The Nevada
Legislature twice denied the
funding fw rebuilding the pariE
or doing a feasibility study on
the rebuilding.
Fauitering freedom
Sphinx
iC\f^^l\^^T^
Editor
Over 200 years ago our great
country was founded on the
platform of individual
freedom.
Now 200 years later we have
employers who threaten us
with insubordination if we
Henderson Chamber of Oommerce offioe at 565-8M1.100
E. Lake Mead ^tn.
Karen Cole
Henderson ChaoklMr
of
Now the SUte Park Diviik»
reporta the money ia not available. None of the $100,000liras
used for the rebuilding of Kerahaw Ryan State Park.
Why has nothing been d(me
since 1984? Where iath^insuranoe mtxiey? We are detiermined to see this ooce beautiiful
paric rebuilt.
We know of its beauty, but
we also know of the economic
necessity of this paric for
county tourism. Lincoln Coonty and Caliente face severe
economic reverses. An3rthi2ig
that will help their economy is
something that we would
strong ui|b and support.
t *
don't reveal our personal lives
to them.
What happened to the social
and moral courtesy of being
allowed to have privacy in our
personal lives?
Mark Butler
We stron^y urge the state
to fund the necessary studies
and to Tmton Kerahaw Ryan
State Park to its previous
sptendor. Send letters to
Friends of Kerahaw Ryan, P.O.
Box 43872, Las Vegas, Nev. «
89116-1871.
Bullfrog County is not something to be laughed at
All right, folks, you can stop laughing at Bullfrog County.
What's that? You say it's not easy to stop? Well, of course
it's not. This creation of the 1987 Legislatiure is indeed very
humorous, especially to lovers of the ridiculoua.
It has no residents. Its three county commissioners do not
live there; in fact, they have not even visited the place—although
they might visit in th near future, perhaps to commune with
the jackrabbits. It is so small (12 miles by 12 miles) that you
could bicycle around it in a day. It sits in the middle of Nye
County, totally surrounded and out of place, somewhat like
' a pimple on somebody's r\mip. (Sorry, Nye, but that seems
to be what the Legislature thinks of you.)
So people are smirking and poking each other in the ribs.
Radio personahty Travus T. Hipp has even started a satirical
Uttle boardsheet dedicated to rumor-mongering and sparse
facts.
But deep dpwn in the essential heart of things. Bullfrog is
no laughing matter. It is a cynical mockery of the Nevada Constitution and of decent government. A responsible Legislature
does not create a county out of thin air and place the county
seat 270 miles away in the state capital.
Bullfrog is an invasion of the territorial integrity of Nye
County. It is a rip-off, a theft, a cheat. Ostensibly, the Legislature
created Bullfrog so it can enact higher property taxes than
Nye, and get more money from the feds. But in reality, the
state will tap all the money coming to Nye if the nation's hi^level nuclear dump is located there. Unpopulous Nye will be
"^ left only with the pittance it can gain when the money is
' redistributed to the counties on a population basis. This is not
good government.
^ Nye is suing the state on constitutional grounds, trying to
rid itself of this tumor in its belly, arifi good luck to you, Nye.
On the other hand (there is always an other hand), Nye is
We The People from page 4
or two First Amendment cases dealing with disputes over these
'fundamental rights.
Sometimes these cases concern situations that are themselves
controversial. But, for example, the right of an unpopular group
to assemble cannot be denied without jeopardizing the rights
of all.
On other occasions the cases involve specifics that appear
ao minor that the decision seems unlikd.y to have a lasting
result. For example, the Supreme Court ruled that casino adver' tising in Puerto Rico can be restricted by the government if
the ads are directed at Puerto Rican residents rather than
"tourists. Although most legal acholars disagree, this 6 to 4
decision is being cited by some as evidence that Congreaa has
the power to outlaw certain advertiaing categories, even for
legal products, such as tobacco.
It is a current reminder that the principle must never be
" lost even when the individual drcumstanoe seems unimportant
As a former chief justice of the Supreme Ck>urt once wrote:
'^very generation of Americans must preserve its own
freedoms."
This is one of a seriei^of columns celebrating the 200th
anniversaV of the U.S ConstitutionJ>M£d/toria/ Street
not entirely pure, either. Nye wants to retain all the money
that comes with the nuclear dump—and this would be unfair
to the state as a whole. All of Nevada will bear the ignominy
of having the dump, and all of it should receive the reparations.
More important, the federal government will award a huge
amount of money to the unlucky dump wiimer, and much of
this money should be used to support vital programs throughout
the state—education, help for abused children, capital projects
and BO on. Nye should get what it acutely needs to reimburse
it for economic and social prdbLaDU caused by tha dnoap-AMt
nor more than that.
The best solution still appean to be thia: ^ Congress to
award the dump money to the state, rather than to Nye. Or
have 0>ngres8 allocate a certain amount to Nye, and the rest
to the state. This process wouki follow standard governmental
procedure, and eUminate the mockery that is Bullfrog County.
What do you say legislators?
Jtaao CaaeMeJourM/
AT ISSUE
Do we need War Powers Act?
Senator Dale Bumpers (DArkanaaa) was first elected to
the U.S. Senate in 1974 and
is now in his third term. He
also served four years as
Arkanaas' governor.
YES
What is the proper congressional role In "undeclared"
wars and police actions?
The War Powers Act spells this out, giving the president
tiie flexibility to act in support of U.S. interests.
Where U.S. troops are intix)duced into hostilities or areas
where hostihties are imminent, Ck)ngre88 has 60 days to approve their continued presence. Without such approval, the
tiwps must be removed. Lesser actions like Grenada could
be accomplished as was done in 1983, but Urger ones like the
reflagging and escorting of Kuwaiti ships in the Persian Gulf
would require congressional approval.
Those who say Congress has no role on these issues really
have a quarrel with the Founding Fathers, not with those of
us who support the War Powers Act.
Why do you support the War Powers Act?
Because it's the bw. The president, Uke all of us, may not
like some laws, but he cannot pick and choose which ones he
obeys. If the president beUeves the War Powers Act is unconstitutional, he can challenge it in the courts. But unless
the Supreme Court rules it unconstitutional, it is the law, and
laws ahould be obeyed by president as well as ordinary citizens.
Senator Dan Qnayle (RIndiana) waa fbst elected to
the U& SMMto fa 1960 and is
In kb aeee^ torn. He
asrvadfavysmfathe
US. Hapss si RqgeseutaUiies.
The Constitution dearfy gives Congnss the necessary power
to request informaticm and to hold hearings on attuatiaos or
events that can be described as "undeclared wars." More important, it gives CkuigreeB the power of the purse as well ss the
power to raise and suppcnrt armies. Coogreas doesn't need tiie
War Powers Act to stop an action it doeant Hke.
The Constitution does reserve the ii|^t to declare wai^-a state
clearly defined in international law—to Congreaa.
Why do you oppose tlie War Powers Act?
For two reasons—it's unworiEsble and unoonstitutionaL The
act is unworimbte because it gives Congress mdiidi rarely naip
up its mind dedaively on large questions, e^wriiHy nuKtaiy
onee—too much authority over mOitary quertows that require
prmnpt, effective action.
If Congress had the power to make decisions aboot troop
depbyment-rather than the preoidantr-this nation would be
gripped with parajyais and virtually incspshls of coming to the
aid of our aUiee. It is also dsariy unoonstitutionaL
What are the uneuiMUiuUunri ipraviafanaT
Simply put, the War Powers Act ia unoonstittttiflnal bocmpe
it would give one house of Congress veto power over tiis praident's prerogatives as commander in dtitf. Fawntially. thep««ii>
Is it eoastitvtional?
Yes. Our Consitution gives the president the power as com- dent depkys and directs U.S. armed foroos in all itaatianaihort
mander in chief to direct hostilities, but it gives Congrasa the of an actual declaration of wax, "nis act would impinfa on that
reapoosibility by bringing Ooogrea into the pietore in timfa
power to decide whether to begin those hostilities.
Ilia Founding Fathers deliberately separated these two where wsr is nether imminait nor Ukety. If one house fluk to
powers. As James Madison, father of the Constitatioa, wrote, spedfkally authociae UJS. action in an area of boitilitMS 60 days
nrhe Constitution supposes what the history of all govern- after it is invoked, Amnican troops most be withdrawn, dea^
ments demonstratee, that the executive is the branch of power ly, this bypaases the proper legidative review prooaas and denias
most interested in war and moat prone to it. It has, according- a preaident the opportunity to veto gieajwl action he doaa
ly, with studied care, vested the question of war in the not believe is in the nation'a uttereit
(g) 1887. PM Wtotfal
itiire.