Monday, October 6, 2008
The comments
Selected reader comments on the past week’s news posted on wenatcheeworld.com:

Thursday, October 2, 2008
Fire bond would perpetuate a great waste
By Mark Peterson
Approximately two years ago, the Douglas County Fire District 2 budget was $1.16 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. Chelan County Fire District 1 costs $1.49 per thousand, but the Wenatchee Fire Department costs more than $2.65 per thousand. If the bond for new and renewed fire stations is approved, this will rise to approximately $3.25 per thousand. This is in spite of the fact that the city fire department has a far smaller area to cover, which should allow much greater efficiency. The reason is that fire districts accept, train and equip volunteers, do not build fire stations very close together and staff at levels that bear a rational relationship to the demand for services.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008
So much talent we will waste
by Tracy Warner Editorial Page Editor, The World
Gabriela Osorio is stuck. She’s drifting somewhere between two state laws and two presidential administrations. Her future is uncertain, not because she lacks ability or potential, but due to conditions entirely outside her control: her legal status and our inability to resolve any issue even remotely related to immigration.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The high rollers place their bets
by Tracy Warner Editorial Page editor, The World
They’ve done it. The United States House of Representatives rolled the dice. They bet that the chairman of the Federal Reserve and the secretary of the Treasury are dead wrong, that we are not on the verge of financial collapse, that major bank failures and paralysis of credit markets are not indicators of serious trouble, and that if government does nothing everything will be just fine. Or, if not just fine, then minimally painful, with no suffering their constituents might attribute to the politicians who decided that doing nothing was the wise course.

Saturday, September 27, 2008
An arena worth a celebration
It is a thing of beauty, the Town Toyota Center.

Monday, September 22, 2008
The comments
Selected reader comments on the past week’s news posted on wenatcheeworld.com:

Saturday, September 20, 2008
Tourists will still get a taste
We in North Central Washington benefit from something called “agricultural tourism” because of fortunate circumstance. We live in an area that is both beautiful and agriculturally productive, so much so that tourists will travel some distance both to view our scenery and sample our products. These they most enjoy simultaneously — tasting the products in a place beautiful to behold.

Build it, and fast
It would be an understatement to say these are uncertain times for public finance, most notably for any project requiring large amounts of concrete, steel and asphalt. Gasoline taxes rise, and what those taxes can buy shrinks. Fuel is precious, people buy less gasoline, tax revenue does not meet expectations, while the cost of materials balloons. We need better highways, but this is a tough time to build them.

Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Whoever wins, they’ll need those Washington insiders
By Norman J. Ornstein Special to The Washington Post
I am a card-carrying Washington insider, just the kind of guy Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin says she disdains. To be sure, I’m not a member of the inner circle. But I’m no fringe element, either.

Saturday, September 13, 2008
A small request, a big problem
Public budgets are tight, it’s true, but this is not a lot to ask — $1 each. This dollar will help ease cuts in vital public services, safeguard the public health and save the public money. Small contributions can be very worthwhile.

A hospital, raising
Central Washington Hospital plans a massive, $150 million building expansion — a five-story tower, larger emergency room, a parking garage, nearly doubling its current size. The Central Washington Hospital Foundation plans to assist by raising $3 million in contributions, matching $3 million on hand.

Friday, September 12, 2008
John McCain’s age is an issue
By Jim Russell
John McCain will be 72 if he assumes the presidency. What is the probability that he will die before he finishes his first term? There is a lot of confusion in the articles I read about his likelihood of surviving his term. The proper way to estimate the probability McCain will die in office is to use mortality rates of people at his age. The most current and authoritative data I found are published by the Human Mortality Database at www.mortality.org sponsored by the University of California, Berkeley and Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The future of the forest is in the balance
By Doug Sutherland, Doc Hastings, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers
Let’s peer into a future forest, viewed from a ridge top overlook on the east slope of the Cascades. A time-lapse camera set up in this spot would picture a mosaic shifting across the landscape through time, all in proportion and moderation.

Monday, September 8, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from a national sampling of editorials on this past week’s events in the presidential campaign:

Saturday, September 6, 2008
A new way to get together
They may need counseling, but at least the former and future partners in the Chelan County Regional Jail have agreed to try to make the relationship work. In the process, they will make it possible that the taxpayers of the region will be spared a great expense, while a significant and costly government service — incarcerating criminals — can be delivered with greater efficiency. Chelan County, Douglas County and the city of Wenatchee only have agreed not to break up, to hang on and see what can be salvaged, but this alone is a public service. It creates promising possibilities.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
McCain picks Palin, shows himself
By Dick Polman The Philadelphia Inquirer
At least in symbolic terms, John McCain has already taken the first big step toward putting his imprint on the Republican Party.

Monday, September 1, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Palin, the Obama antidote
By Nanette Everson McClatchy-Tribune
Let's face it. John McCain's a loner with a stern, "it's-a-dangerous-world" message and fairly cold eyes. He isn't charismatic. And no one can accuse him of being a sunny guy. In fact, he's better known for his short, hot temper.

Saturday, August 30, 2008
It is reality that's left behind
Despite innumerable claims to the contrary, it is difficult to engineer educational miracles by statute. The federal No Child Left Behind act takes the effort to new extremes: Federal legislators require every school in the nation to do what any freshman statistics student could tell you is an impossibility. They must, just six years from now, have every student test "proficient" in reading and mathematics. Congress orders 100 percent of America's children be learned, enough to pass a test. That feat as far as we know has not been accomplished in human history.

Friday, August 29, 2008
Property tax is a shifting business
By Russ Griffith
As the Chelan County assessor, I've been watching all the different suggestions for "property tax relief," such as a Proposition 13, a "homestead exemption," a "circuit breaker" exemption, and numerous other proposals, across the state, for many years. Now with property values taking a big jump in the Chelan and Leavenworth areas, there is a lot of discussion locally about proposals such as these. Here are some things you need to ponder about exemptions:

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Doctors, patients and bigotry
By Barbara Shelly McClatchy Newspapers
The doctors at North Coast Women's Care Medical Group in California had no problem treating Guadalupe T. Benitez for a medical condition that prevented her from becoming pregnant. But they balked when it came time to perform the artificial insemination procedure that might enable her to actually conceive.

Monday, August 25, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, August 23, 2008
This runway stops too soon
It is not often a single airplane is greeted by fire trucks spraying ceremonial waters, a marching band, cake and speeches by local VIPs, but that is the plan when the first Horizon Air Bombardier Q400 touches down at Pangborn Memorial Airport Monday at 10:45 a.m. It is an event worthy of celebration, but also a reminder of what needs to be done to improve our region's vital connections to the world.

Friday, August 22, 2008
In Mexico, mass protests against crime and violence
By Andres Oppenheimer McClatchy Newspapers
MEXICO CITY — Hundreds of thousands of angry Mexicans are planning to take to the streets Aug. 30 to protest a rise in violent kidnappings that is shaking this country, and that is driving growing numbers of well-to-do Mexicans to move to Miami, San Antonio and other U.S. cities.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008
McCain's world has appeal, but Obama's is real
By Sally Quinn For The Washington Post
When I was little, I had a recurrent dream that there was a terrible earthquake. My father, his body a horse with wings, swooped down from the sky, kneeled so I could jump on his back and flew away just as the earth cracked open beneath me. It was my most comforting dream. I want to live in that world again. I want to live in John McCain's world. My father was a military man. My parents were friends of McCain's parents and lived in the same apartment building. My father's closest friend was Barry Goldwater, McCain's mentor. Those were the days when men were men, when the differences between good and evil were clear, when they knew where they stood on every issue, when life was less complicated, when there was an air of insouciance, no matter how difficult the issues.

Monday, August 18, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers.

Thursday, August 14, 2008
Relax, everybody — gasoline isn't so expensive
By Indur M. Goklany and Jerry Taylor For the Los Angeles Times
Barack Obama thinks the government should intervene on gas prices to "give families some relief," and he called last week for releasing 70 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Monday, August 11, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, August 9, 2008
The arena gets a good name
Town Toyota Center.

Be safe, 81st
We must not forget we are at war. The relative quiet on the Iraq battlefront in recent weeks and pressing economic problems here at home, tend to divert our attention and lull us into a false sense of security. But, it is certain that the danger in Iraq is still very high, and the fighting is likely not over. That fact is probably well known to members of the Washington National Guard's 81st Brigade, as they prepare to leave for a year of active duty, including nine months in Iraq.

Monday, August 4, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers.

Don't make Ledger a legend because he destroyed himself
By Eric P. Lucas For the Los Angeles Times
It's time to stop the canonization of Heath Ledger. He's not a tragic hero. He's not a beautiful martyr. He's just a pretty good actor who did away with himself and broke the hearts of his family and friends, and he shouldn't get an Academy Award to memorialize his death.

Saturday, August 2, 2008
At last, a light for WestSide
We have waited nearly a decade for a solution to the decrepit condition of Wenatchee's WestSide High School. This past week, one finally appeared, a solution so obvious and potentially mutually beneficial you wonder why no one mentioned it before.

Friday, August 1, 2008
We spend billions, but we're getting nowhere fast
By R.T. Rybak and Bruce Katz McClatchy-Tribune
At 6 p.m. on Aug. 1, 2007, two girls in the Minneapolis suburbs helped their father with dinner and waited for their mother to return from work. She never got home, and neither did the 12 others who died in the collapse of the I-35W Bridge that day. In the aftermath, political leaders vowed that a tragedy like this, which also injured more than 100 people, would never happen again. America had awakened to the pressing need to fix our crumbling transportation infrastructure.

Monday, July 28, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Monday, July 21, 2008
Other voices
Yakima Herald-Republic on Wapato's ban on certain breeds of dogs:

Eight ways to make fun of Obama
By Joel Stein Special to the Los Angeles Times
I believe comedic change is possible. Since The New Yorker dropped a bum joke on its most recent cover, comedians have appeared on every news outlet to whine about how hard it is to make fun of Barack Obama. Really? They have an arsenal of jokes to use against a 71-year-old ex-POW cancer survivor and Obama is too touchy a subject?

Friday, July 18, 2008
An appreciation for firefighting assistance
By Marsh Haskins
Washington Interagency Incident Management Team No. 4, the state Fire Marshal's Office, Douglas County Fire Districts 1, 2 and 4 and Washington Department of Natural Resources would like to express appreciation to the citizens of Douglas County during the recent Badger Mountain and Brown's Canyon fires, which became the Badger Mountain Complex.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Working to provide access to dental care, one patient at a time
I've been a dentist in the Wenatchee area for over 18 years. My colleagues and I across the state continue to see patients come through the doors of our offices with conditions that could have been prevented with proper care and treatment.

Monday, July 14, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers.

Key time for K-12 schooling: Before it starts
By Don Gurnard
Education is vital to an individual's success, and tops most communities' concerns. But America's education statistics offer a grim snapshot.

Saturday, July 12, 2008
The bridge is a risk for all
If you bear any responsibility for public safety, statements like these should force you to act:

Count every vote
Only weeks before voting begins in Washington's first top-two primary, deck-shuffling lawyers for the two major, perturbed political parties have sent the people notice: Don't waste your time. We're suing you. There's an injunction. Don't rely on the say-so of the Supreme Court of the United States. This whole election could be declared null and void, the results tossed out and a do-over ordered, this time using a system we the parties prefer.

Friday, July 11, 2008
How can every child get their chance?
By Marilyn Watkins
My son moved out last weekend. Like many of his friends, Carl came back home when he graduated from college 13 months ago. In January, he landed an entry-level job in his chosen profession, earning decent wages and benefits. He started scanning apartment ads then, but the right neighborhood at an affordable price was more important to him than leaving the nest.

Monday, July 7, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, July 5, 2008
World class with less gas
This could be our summer of woe. The economy is down, the price of everything up, and gasoline is averaging a once-unthinkable $4.35 per gallon in Washington, according to the AAA. The traditional escape of packing the family vehicle and hitting the road is looking more and more like a bad plan. According to the AAA calculator, the cost of a roundtrip from Wenatchee to Disneyland in a midsize SUV is going to be about $450 this summer; a round-trip to Yellowstone National Park, maybe $250. That's up 41 percent from last summer, and last summer was no picnic.

A better way
Chelan County PUD Commissioner Werner Janssen is a duly elected public official, and if his constituents request information he is obligated to provide it. There is nothing wrong, and a great deal that is right, in keeping the public informed about the policies and plans of an important public agency.

Friday, July 4, 2008
Let's connect to the Cascades
by Rufus Woods Editor and Publisher, The World
In recent months, I've had the opportunity to interview a number of community leaders about the things they value most about living in North Central Washington. Virtually every person has highlighted two common themes — pride in the natural beauty of the North Cascades and a tremendous sense of community.