Las Vegas Sun

The problem with hoping that our richest citizens will lead a recall effort is 1) they've lost a lot of money recently, so don't feel like spending any (even if they are still vastly richer than the people Gibbons is hurting), and 2) they are insulated from the real pain Gibbons' lack of leadership is causing. They're free to leave this sinking ship whenever they want.

I have lived in southern Nevada for 27 years, and though it would pain me to look my optimistic children in the face and admit it, I don't believe that anyone who has the power to make a difference here will do it. And perhaps we are just doing what we do best: reflecting the country as a whole. Is this the end of the American era? It was greed that made us rich; will it be greed that makes us poor?

The problem is not WHERE the school district or CSN or UNLV are making cuts; the problem is that they are making cuts. Nevada children are being cheated in their education - from kindergarten through graduate school - and we will pay the economic and social price for decades to come. You get what you pay for in this world - and we make it very clear that we're not willing to pay much for our children or our future.

Casino Kid - If the name of our next president is Barack Hussein Obama, then our founding fathers were right, and it IS possible to create a democracy in which every human being is equal. I hope you are a kid, and have some time to grow into new ideas. The world is a bigger and more beautiful place than you imagine.

When this story first appeared, the Henderson police claimed that Mrs. Selimaj put a knife to the throat of one of her children. By the time it got to the inquest, there was no mention of a knife to a child's throat. If Deshira Selimaj had done this, you can bet that police would have used the information to clear Luke Morrison at the hearing. And if she didn't do this, why were police officers on the day of the shooting saying that she did? By the time of the inquest, had they come up with a story that the eyewitnesses could not disprove?

The operating expenses for the house are $742,000 a year? Gee, that makes me feel better about the cuts to our schools and colleges . . .

I believe what Luke Harrison is saying. I believe he was "extremely, extremely scared," that he believed Deshira Selimaj was disturbed, that time seemed to pass very slowly for him. What I don't believe is that he correctly assessed the situation; I believe a more experienced, wiser, cooler head would have assessed it differently.

I didn't know Mrs. Selimaj, but I spoke to her many times. She used to bring her ice cream truck to the HBA baseball games at Mission Park. I used to stop by and say hello during breaks in my son's games; she sometimes talked about her boys. She gave me and others her phone number, and asked us to call if ever she wasn't at a game. She said she didn't want to miss any opportunity to make a little more money. Her English was fine; I never had any trouble understanding what she was saying.

This mother of three young boys was feeling desperate that day. I'm sure $717 in fines sounded impossible to her; I'm sure she was terrified that her husband was getting into trouble with the police. I'm sure she felt scared and hopeless and up against more than she could handle.

But she shouldn't have died for that. And her boys should not be motherless for that. Three boys who don't even speak Albanian, to their father who doesn't understand much of the only language they speak, because they spoke only English with their mother.

I'm sorry for Luke Harrison, but I am much more sorry for the Selimaj family. In fact, I can hardly bear the sadness in this story. And it is someone's responsibility. There is profound power in a badge and a gun, and as a society, we are responsible for deciding who holds that power, who has a gun on the day everything goes wrong. I don't expect police officers to be perfect, I honor and appreciate all the things they do for us every day, but this police officer was not ready for this situation, and he should not have had the power of a gun and a badge on that day.