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.

Monday, June 30, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Press for property tax reform
By Sen. Linda Evans Parlette
Judging from the concern evident at last week's public forum on property taxes, the term "sticker shock" may not be strong enough to capture how many are reacting to the new property valuation notices that have hit Chelan County mailboxes.

Let's find a better way to fight climate change
By Bjorn Lomborg For The Washington Post
The bitter arguments in the Senate this month over the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill, which would have required major emitters to pay for the right to discharge greenhouse gases, proved that climate change caused by humans has come to the fore of U.S. policy debates. This fact may comfort those who believe that future generations will judge us on the zeal with which we face the challenge. It may even assuage the fears of those who believe that warming will end life as we know it. But political rhetoric is unlikely to put us on a path toward solving the problem of climate change in the best possible way.

Saturday, June 28, 2008
A good pick for the council
Wenatchee has a City Council — this is a fairly recent development — primarily to broaden the public's representation in government. Its seven elected voices are vastly preferable to the old commission system's three. More people, more ideas, broader experience, broader representation, more debate — it all increases the possibility that decisions will be good.

Choose choice
In arrangements for public employment, especially at the upper levels, certain procedures can and should be followed. The hiring agency should advertise the job opening and consider more than one candidate, if there is one. If it wants to create a position for a potentially superb employee, fine, but provide something for comparison purposes. Give the public some confidence their money is used to hire the best person for the job. Offer some evidence that all these things are not inside deals.

Monday, June 23, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

The fossil fuel frontier is closed
By Bill McKibben For The Washington Post
In July 1893, 115 years ago, the historian Frederick Jackson Turner told an academic symposium that the American frontier was closed — a shocking notion for a people who'd defined themselves by their steady expansion across the continent. This spring, something just as profound and defining has happened: Pulled back by the inescapable gravity of higher prices and the growing scarcity of fossil fuels, we're starting a slow recoil into more dense and compact regions and localities. The frontier of endless mobility that we've known our entire lives is closing.

Saturday, June 21, 2008
State shouldn't take a cut
Many political observers make the assumption that it would be a good and wise and enriching thing for the state of Washington to collect a share of profits from the state's many tribal casinos, which are now raking it in. They euphemistically call it "revenue sharing." Tribal casinos pull in about $1.3 billion a year in this state, so there is much revenue to share.

Friday, June 20, 2008
To plan for the foothills, we must know the price
By Bob Bugert
I thank the city of Wenatchee for leading a community discussion on potential development for the Wenatchee foothills. Although the possible growth scenarios in the foothills looked distressing, the Chelan-Douglas Land Trust is encouraged that the city is studying its Urban Growth Area and formulating alternatives for accommodating growth. We see this study as an important step for the public to have a meaningful dialogue about what kind of community we want to be.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The way we set property taxes has to change
By Courtney Cox
I, like many of you, have had my property reassessed this year and am horrified at the new tax assessment. For me, the tax is now as much as my mortgage. The new assessment is a 316-percent increase from the previous one.

Monday, June 16, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, June 14, 2008
Grow west? Use caution
Any discussion of expanding residential growth west of Wenatchee should begin with an understanding: The undeveloped hills and mountains that surround our city, our relatively unscathed and unpopulated backdrop, constitute an asset that benefits everyone. It is what makes ours a unique setting. Its effects are tangible — this scene makes this a more desirable and valuable place. And, intangible — quality of life is real, if not measurable. So, to imagine the hills dotted with houses, the canyons filled, the ridgeline vistas broken by new strings of mansions, is difficult, even painful.

Friday, June 13, 2008
Class of 2008: Diverse and proud
By Ingrid Jans
A Wenatchhee High School senior, selected by faculty to share her thoughts on this day of graduation, offers this essay.

Monday, June 9, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, June 7, 2008
Help for the four-year shock
Shock. It's what most people feel after getting that letter from the county assessor announcing their property's new official value. But that is far too mild a term to describe the mood in the Lake Chelan area lately, after property owners got the good and the bad news. The good news, if that's how to put it, is they are wealthier than they once were, on paper anyway. The bad news — it won't give them an extra cent to pay their property taxes, which are likely to rise substantially. Congratulations were not in order.

Friday, June 6, 2008
Class of 2008: You are achievers
By Jodee Hickman
An Eastmont High School senior, selected by faculty to share her thoughts on this day of graduation, offers this essay.

Monday, June 2, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

We need to understand mental illness
By Richard Kellogg
Mental health is how we think, feel and act as we cope with life. It helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescents through adulthood.

Saturday, May 31, 2008
Don't accept the definition
The rural economy should have some means to exploit rural beauty. In recent years in North Central Washington, the wine industry has shown us one of the best ways to do that, to make a landscape bankable. Tourists seeking an agricultural product are drawn to agricultural areas, and are able to sample it in places with a clean natural appeal and a landscape so sublime they never could have guessed such a place might exist. The industry has prospered so in this section of the state, it has risen from virtually nothing to better than 30 wineries in the span of a few years.

Friday, May 30, 2008
For high schools, think big, build small
By Mike Hartley
The Wenatchee School District needs to pass its next bond. WestSide High School, Washington and Lincoln should continue to head the list of major projects, but the district needs to start planning for critical overcrowding at Wenatchee High School in the next 10 years. Building a new WestSide could be a first step toward an educationally and fiscally sound solution to overcrowding at WHS.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008
A teacher stands against the WASL
By Donald C. Orlich
Mr. Carl Chew, a middle level teacher in the Seattle Public Schools, has been sternly criticized by several editorial writers for his act of civil disobedience by refusing to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning — WASL.

Monday, May 26, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, May 24, 2008
'To lay down all my joys ...'
On Memorial Day it is the tradition of this page to reprint this letter, written by Maj. Sullivan Ballou of the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteers to his wife soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. Ballou describes the motives, fears and ultimate sacrifice of a citizen soldier more clearly and eloquently than any editorial. It is a fitting reminder of the sacrifices we honor on this holiday.

'I will never forget him'
By R. John McKay McClatchy Newspapers
Robert Michael "Mike" Snell, West Point Class of '66, was one those very rare people you get to meet.

Friday, May 23, 2008
A major step for local health care
By Dr. David L. Weber
On Thursday the U.S. Senate approved a supplemental appropriations bill that includes language that will allow the physicians at Wenatchee Valley Medical Center to maintain their ownership of Wenatchee Valley Hospital under a grandfather exemption.

Thursday, May 22, 2008
Wealthy farmers? They're hard to find
By Graydon Painter and Jennifer Stevenson
WATERVILLE — National news headlines read, "Subsidies for wealthy farmers — should it continue?" Experts on television agree that farmers shouldn't receive subsidies from the proposed farm bill currently awaiting a final vote in Congress. They recommend the farmers go it alone in a free market, and this would solve the food shortage and higher prices.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008
If you don't like food prices, don't blame ethanol
By John Block and Clayton Yeutter
As evidenced by the screaming headlines of recent days, global commodity prices — including food grains such as corn, wheat and rice — are at or near all-time highs. Not surprisingly this has created a lot of political unrest, reminding both of us of the political turmoil that surrounded Russian grain purchases in the 1970s. Politicians everywhere are looking for someone or something to blame, and many have now chosen to castigate biofuels as the chief culprit.

Monday, May 19, 2008
Other voices
Excerpts from recent editorials in regional newspapers:

Saturday, May 17, 2008
On the river, plans change
We imagined a long string of tasteful riverfront condominiums, attractive shops, restaurants, sidewalk cafes, all along a beautiful, serene, well-landscaped riverfront. We saw the architect's drawings, the artists' conceptions. They were gorgeous and inviting. They made Wenatchee look like a prosperous place, young and modern, the kind of place where smart and wealthy people might like to live. It would all come true, we were told, and soon.

Friday, May 16, 2008
The roots of terrorism are close to home
By Nancy Jarmin
Terrorism is "the use of overpowering fear, violence or intimidation by a government, group, or individual to achieve an end." Domination systems since before the Roman Empire have utilized acts of terror to control subjugated peoples. Terrorism controls through a climate of fear in which the perceived dangers exceed the actual risks of destruction. Terrorism has been used often by subjugated peoples who find themselves powerless and hopeless to achieve their ends through either the rule of law or through open conflict. The history of terrorism is replete with groups which found that the system under which they were rendered impotent was so heinous and intolerable that they would rather die. Fear posed by the threat of terrorism can lead the established order to erode freedoms and move toward autocracy.