People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has spent more than $150,000 defending arsonists and other violent animal-rights criminals, including at least four who are currently in federal prison. The group actually wrote a check to the terrorist Earth Liberation Front in 2001.

And the senior staff of the Humane Society of the United States includes at least one former spokesperson for the terrorist Animal Liberation Front. The super-rich lobby group fought tooth and nail against passage of the federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, our nation's toughest law dealing with just this sort of crime.

The animal protection movement's wealthy "above-ground" charities often defend and promote its underground bomb-throwers. The federal government should be aggressively investigating to fully expose these connections.

David Martosko

WASHINGTON, D.C.

THE WRITER IS RESEARCH DIRECTOR OF THE CENTER FOR CONSUMER FREEDOM.

Gift from God

To the editor:

As a former resident of Long Beach, Calif., I distinctly remember Cherry Hill as an area among schools, churches, shopping centers and homes. What was unique about Cherry Hill? This area had numerous oil wells pumping night and day.

Were there demonstrations? No. Where were the authorities? The authorities had their regular jobs and everyone went about their own business. The students went to school. The people went shopping or went to church.

This was a time after World War II, when people on the West Coast were so grateful they were never bombed by the Japanese. People on the East Coast faced the fact that German submarines were in the Atlantic Ocean and the German military could set foot at any time on their shores.

Wake up, Americans. Write to your congressman. We desperately need offshore drilling. Hearing the oil wells pump night and day is truly a gift from God.

TISH PIERCE

LAS VEGAS

Give drilling a chance

To the editor:

In the '70s, amid the oil shortage and energy crisis, President Jimmy Carter extolled the virtues of alternative energy and called for increased usage of biofuels along with solar and wind power. Since then billions of dollars, private and tax-funded, have been poured into these technologies. Today, 30 years or so later, none of these alternative sources provides enough energy to offset the use of petroleum.

During the same span, not a single new oil refinery or nuclear power plant was built, and more of our domestic oil reserves were placed off limits for exploration. We now import most of the oil we need.

When will it be understood that these alternative sources of energy are not and will not be the answer to the current problem, just as they were not the answer to the problems in the past? We are told that we cannot drill our way out of this. I ask then, since we have given alternative energy a try and it has not worked, why can't we at least try drilling and see if it will work? This doesn't mean that money spent researching and developing other sources of energy should dry up.

All I am saying is give drilling a chance.

Regina Couvrette

LAS VEGAS

Halverson hearing

To the editor:

I just finished reading your Saturday report by David Kihara on suspended District Judge Elizabeth Halverson's hearing before the Judicial Discipline Commission ("Halverson's illness halts discipline hearing; forum rescheduled") and was jolted by the comment from her attorney that she is no different from anyone else in the work force who gets sick from time to time.

It makes me wonder: Does he, too, have a severe physical disability? I mean, is he blind? For him to say she is no different from anyone else in the work force is really a stretch. In what real-world work force, pray tell, could a person with Judge Halverson's physical and emotional problems survive and be paid $130,000 per annum?

What work force would allow her to do nothing but complain for more than a year on full salary while producing zip?

Only at the trough of the public sector could such nonsense exist.

AL CIRICILLO

LAS VEGAS

Nance must go

To the editor:

As reported in your Saturday and Sunday editions, State Board of Education member Greg Nance showed up at a meeting in a muscle T-shirt and spent the time sleeping and kissing his wife. This is not only unprofessional, but it shows that Mr. Nance has no business serving on the board in the first place.

We need people who are serious about education on the state board working to give students the best possible education. Obviously, Mr. Nance contributed nothing during the meeting, so why was he there?

When a state board member cannot show an interest, why then should educators expect any more from the community? Mr. Nance has to go.

Jan Fisher

LAS VEGAS