Letters for November 8, 2007

What’s News & Review worthy?
Re: “My piece of Paradise” (In My Eyes, by Evan Tuchinsky, CN&R, Nov. 1):

Mr. Tuchinsky, so far since you have been editor, I have read about your wedding, your baby, your honeymoon, and now that you’re buying a home.

Sorry pal, this is not news! How many died in Iraq today? What else has Bush done to fuck up our country? What happened to the News & Review? Do you have an opinion? How about how lucky you are to be able to buy a home in the first place?

Save the drivel for letters to Mom and all your childhood friends. Let’s see some news and reviews.

Bill Strom
Chico

Editor’s note: The bit about my baby is news to my wife, at least …

Two responses to Gore-bashing
Re: “A Convenient Lie” (Letters, by Chad Wozniak, CN&R, Nov. 1):

I feel sad about—and bewildered by—the recent attacks on Al Gore and his work in exposing the very real threats of human-influenced global warming. I ask: Is this man really such a threat to us? And is he deserving of the abuse he is taking from a small minority?

After all, he is not asking us to give up our life savings or to greatly abandon our abundant lifestyle. He is asking us to become aware of and act on a problem that will (or I can even simply use the work could) dramatically change life as we know it on this planet.

In my thinking, all things done to offset global warming are, ultimately, good things that will move us toward sustainability. Some of us may get by unscathed by global warming, but our children and generations following will be the inheritors of our denial and failure to act.

I ask those who still question and expend energy trying to refute what an overwhelming percent of the scientific community believes to be true: What if you’re wrong?
Rex Stromness
Chico

Hey dude, perhaps you should take a break from the pain pills, and you will see what the rest of the world views as an issue that can be fixed by a collaboration of human endeavor as opposed to waiting for a miracle to fix it. Or maybe you should just smoke a joint, let your troubles float away and “shine on until tomorrow, let it be.”

Kevin Hendren
Chico

Reading between the bottom lines
Re: “Slow down on gambling” (Editorial, CN&R, Nov. 1):

Your report was a fair general summary, but you left out some important facts.

First, the governor is not working with the majority of the tribes, only six.

Second, no tribe is required to pay any taxes at all—the six agreed to pay taxes in exchange for expansion, which had been limited.

Third, the problems you mentioned with gambling (spousal abuse and gambling addiction) are peripheral. There are also alcohol problems, violent crimes, and then the worst: Since gambling is not an easy set-up, tribes have gone to casino operators in Nevada and cut them in for a share of the profits. A big chunk of the revenues leave this state.

Jim Smith
Paradise

Use the golden rule
Re: “Trying kids as adults” (Editorial, CN&R, Oct. 18):

According to media reports, the Butte County district attorney has decided to charge Las Plumas High School student Greg Wright with attempted murder and try him as an adult for discharging a .22-caliber pistol, on campus, that he allegedly carried to school to use in confronting a romantic rival.

The district attorney should reflect back to when the prosecuting attorney refrained from charging his daughter with attempted murder and trying her as an adult that time she used an automobile to attack a romantic rival at the high school.

Therefore, fairness dictates that the district attorney should ask for the community’s “understanding and their prayers” for this kid and his family, just as he did when his daughter fired his .45-caliber pistol during a fight between himself and his former wife.

Hopefully a judge will overrule this unjustified decision and the matter will be resolved in juvenile court where it belongs.

Dick Bjork
Oroville

Better response, please
I am a downtown business owner in Chico. In the past year, I have caught one person shoplifting and another vandalizing my storefront in the middle of the day. In both incidents, I caught the person red-handed and detained them for the police, and each time I had a long wait until the police arrived.

Is a 15- to 20-minute response time from our Chico PD the best I can expect?

Mac Noble
Chico

Plea to Enloe
What if taxpayers and homeowners paid only 60 or 70 percent of their mortgage and taxes? You’d be looking at foreclosure or jail, because it’s the law.

This is exactly what our medical center is doing to its employees. Market value is the issue. We deserve industry standards, yet are paid 60 or 70 percent of that value. Employees should expect 100 percent from their employer.

We hear about market surveys and comparisons to other hospitals, yet not in the disparity of reimbursement between us and, say, St. Elizabeth Hospital. We’ve heard that not being Sacramento, we’re not compensated at their rate—but Red Bluff?!? We have at least the same standard as they do and a wee bit more.

We employees do our part; Enloe, do likewise.

Peter Calo
Chico

Diagnosis MRSA
News just came out that 31 students at Chico State have come down with MRSA (staph infections). I have been trying for over three years now to bring this looming problem to the attention of the authorities so something could be done before it becomes an epidemic.

Because most people in a position to get something done have chosen to do nothing, we are well down that road now. It is still not too late, but we must start now and with a big campaign about cleanliness and hand washing.

So far 19 states have passed legislation requiring hospitals to keep accurate records of their infection rates and to make that information public. This has been successful in lowering infection rates. Are our “leaders” here in California going to wake up and join the leaders in these forward-thinking states in this fight against deadly infectious diseases, or will California become known as a backwater disease pit?

Ann Marie Robinson
Chico

Chilling coda
Using the apathy and fear of the American public and the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment passed by Congress (and voted for by Hillary) as authorization, Bush/Cheney will bomb Iran before leaving office. The result will be World War III with the United States versus the Muslim world.

Wake up, America! Wake up, Congress!

Norm Dillinger
Chico