Blog Fodder Wish Is Granted

I tend to daydream, ponder, and even excogitate (fist bump the Thesaurus) while I'm running. During today's lunchtime run, I followed the Centennial Trail through Riverfront to Mission Park and back. I was plodding through a misty curtain of light snowflakes when a random thought jumped into the front of the line.

It dawned on me that whenever I'm on the trail, before I move to one side or the other, I always look behind me to make sure I don't get in the way of a faster mover coming from behind me. I do this whether I'm on foot or on the bike. So then I got to wondering,

How long ago did I adopt this wise, safety-ensuring behavior? Could this astuteness somehow be used in a metaphor? Maybe I could share this sagacity in a blog entry.

Intensely focused though I was, I recognized I'd reached the parking lot at Mission Park and it was time to turn around. I did a U-turn on the path and found myself closing the gap on a cyclist whom I would have seen and avoided had I looked back but now had forced to take evasive action so he wouldn't hit the stupid look on my face.

There's no telling what flash of genius will strike me tomorrow. Hopefully, not something big enough to hurt me.

Bet You Can't Say Just One

Our poor representative, the highest ranking women in the Republican Party, cannot provide one specific example of a spending cut. You'd think that after all these months of harping about spending cuts, she could at least come up with one. After dinner mints at state dinners. Anything. How hard can it be if you're one of the leaders and you know what you're doing?

The Good Ol' Days

I was passing by a recycle bin at work and this book was whistling, waving, and otherwise trying to get my attention. I love old books and this was especially interesting because I've never seen a phone book that pre-dates me. Not by much, but still. I was immediately intrigued. Where is Hastings? What was the Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company? Off to the Google....

The listing of five-digit phone numbers are for Hastings, Nebraska, about 75 miles west of Lincoln. The population in 1950 was about 20,000.  The Lincoln Telephone and Telegraph Company and it's president and chairman, Frank H. Woods, were veritable trailblazers in the telephone field during the first decade of the 20th century. The company was an early pioneer in the use of a dialing system in place of operators connecting calls. The Bell Company didn't think it would work! Go figure. Hastings, well away from the ocean shores, was also home to the largest Naval Ammunition Depot during WWII.

There. We've all learned something today.

Thumbing through the yellow pages, I found that you had to go to Grace's Bike & Key Shop (authorized Schwinn dealer) for your cycling needs. The only music school listed is Mayo's School of Accordian, dealer for Pancordian and Crucianelli. Ladies got their furs serviced at Geyermans Women's Wear. A couple of rendering plants advertised they would pick up dead livestock for free. Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, Grapette, Nehi-Royal Crown, and Seven-Up each had bottling plants in town. The FBI had an office in the Post Office building and yes, that was actually listed in the yellow pages. The KHAS radio station still serves Hastings and the surrounding area today and Hasting College is still going strong.

Kids, this was how I used a phone back in the day. But we didn't have a hook latch with which we could listen in on calls determine if the line was busy.

Notice that the phone is for the exclusive use of the subscriber, members of his family, and/or employees. No, you cannot borrow the phone to make a call. The section labeled Telephone Recording Signal is interesting. Would you please disconnect the recording machine?

I'm going to contact the museum and see if they'd like this bit of Americana.

Red Shirt, Green Shirt - What Could Coal Hurt?

One thousand chairs and horrible acoustics awaited the four to five hundred people who showed up at the Spokane Country Fair Expo to comment or hear comments on the scope of the environmental impact statement on the Gateway Pacific Terminal. Of those wishing to expand the EIS to include Eastern Washington, North Idaho, and Montana (against coal), many wore red shirts sporting the PowerPastCoal.org name, wore "No Coal Exports" stickers, and/or held up "No Coal Exports" signs. Those speaking for limiting the EIS to Whatcom County (pro coal and/or pro jobs) ironically wore green shirts with "Let's Get To Work" on the back. Red shirts dramatically outnumbered green shirts. "No Coal Exports" signs overwhelmed the mix of pro signs. (I'll refer to each "side" as red shirts and green shirts.) I figure red shirts outnumbered green shirts by 6 or 7 to 1.

Only the first 75 people would get to make verbal comments. There was some consternation earlier in the day when about 35 green shirts, some of them being paid to stand in line, took places in line today. The first five in line were red shirts who showed up around 7:45 am.

 Red shirts.

 Green shirts.

The audience was informed of the rules: Commenters have two minutes, no cheering or clapping, hold up your hands or wave a sign to show approval, and a thumbs down if you disapprove. Helpful comments included providing alternatives, affected resources, adverse impacts, and ways to minimize effects. Anything else would not be considered substantive. With that, Ben Stuckart, City Council president, was the first speaker, followed by four more red shirts from Spokane and Montana. The next 35-40 speakers were green shirts.

Green shirt commenters spoke about the need for jobs, boosting the economy, and there was a remark or two about the misguided red shirts. My impression was that most of the comments were not substantive. While the green shirts were speaking, I talked to a man wearing a green shirt who had #36. He said he was from Spokane and he was speaking because he was tired of the environmentalists running everything. He realizes we need to take care of the environment, but we need jobs, too. And even though the jobs were in Whatcom County and not in Spokane, the state and the economy as a whole would benefit. I asked him about the guidance concerning substantive comments and he misunderstood what I was talking about. He pointed to a blue sheet of paper on his chair, "It's right there. It's just bullet points." Bullet points? I calmly asked if I could see it. He rolled it up and gave me a suspicious look. "No."

Well, then.

I ran into Bart Mihailovich, Spokane Riverkeeper. He was thrilled that the hearing was taking place in Spokane and that so many people had attended. He shared my concern about the comments being substantive. Bart arrived in time to be included in the 75, but had given his number to a little girl who wanted to speak. Nice.

Pens are in hand.

I later ran into City Councilman Jon Snyder who had a different take on the comments. "Every time you see them (the panel) pick up a pen, you're saying something they're concerned about." Jon had some very nice rhetoric in his two-minute speech. He was concise and on point. He questioned the impact of increased gate times on emergency responders and the transportation plan. Pens were in the panel members' hands. 

As the evening progressed, the red shirt comments did address more impacts on the community, water, air, and more of the various communities being represented. I also noticed that after the bulk of the green shorts spoke, their numbers noticeably dwindled.

By the way, when speaker #36 was called up, the gentleman I spoke with was nowhere to be seen and had been replaced by former state senator Jeff Baxter of Spokane Valley. Well, it's not like Ben Stuckart arrived at 7:30 am and waited all day so he could be the first speaker.

Whenever there was applause or an outburst, the announcer would chastise everyone with a reminder that they were not to do so. After the fourth-grade girl from Roosevelt Elementary spoke, the crowd cheered.

"I'm going to let that one go."

Darn right you will. 

The hearing was moving so smoothly that they announced that more people could sign up to speak and they would get as many in as possible until 7:00 pm. Several ran to the sign up desk. I left around 6:20 so I could get home at a decent time since I was letting Spokane Transit do the driving.

You have until Jan 21, 2013, to submit your comments and there's an easy online form you can use.

Coal For Christmas

To read the guest opinion in today's Spokesman Review, you'd think that coal trains are relatively harmless and are the next best thing to Christmas. 

Image shamelessly copied
from Fish & Bicycles

This brings us to the subject of coal trains, which have long been traveling through Spokane. World demand for energy sources is resulting in planned transport of coal on BNSF trains from the Wyoming and Montana coal fields through Spokane to proposed port facilities on the Oregon and Washington coasts. The Washington facilities would bring much-needed jobs to our state and would promote international trade, the latter of which has had a positive impact on our nation’s trade balance.

Greater Spokane Incorporated supports federally regulated interstate commerce and international trade, and is a member of the Alliance for Northwest Jobs and Exports. The Alliance supports the construction of the Gateway Pacific Terminal, which will be undergoing an environmental impact study that – when finalized – will have incorporated all public and agency comments and proposed mitigation. The Gateway Pacific Terminal would create an estimated 3,500 to 4,400 new jobs during construction, and 300-400 permanent family wage jobs that will generate an estimated $74 million to $92 million in state and local revenues.   

Along with the contribution that burning the coal will make towards accelerating climate change, the concern in Spokane is about people being exposed to the increased amount of diesel exhaust and coal dust from sixty 1 to 1-1/2 mile-long trains each day. Last June, the city council passed a resolution expressing their concern and asking that one of the environmental impact hearings be held here. As it happens, a hearing is being held this Tuesday from 4-7 pm, at the Spokane County Fairgrounds Plaza.

Got something to say? Show up and say it.

And The Winner Is...

Lottery winnings have been in the news lately. And why not? What better way to induce people to participate in a scheme where they have a better chance of being struck by lightning (1 in 10,000 in your lifetime and 1 in 1,000,000 in a given year) than by highlighting the big winners. And there's always a big winner because the prize keeps building until at least one ticket matches up.

But this post isn't sour grapes about the lottery. I haven't bought a ticket in years. By the way, if you're interested in what happens to the money that doesn't get paid out, check out the Washington State Lottery Annual Reports and RCW 67.70.

Anyway, Spokane just had a 4.2 million dollar winner who wished to remain anonymous. The Review made a point of stating that they filed a public disclosure request to get the winner's name. That set off a mild firestorm of comments condemning the Review for intruding on the winner's privacy.

First of all, the Review didn't say what they were going to do with the information. Secondly, the commenters assume that the Review is purposely trying to expose the winner's name. Would they publish the name just because they can? I don't think so. I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt. From a human interest perspective there might be a story. If the winner chooses not to participate and still wished to remain anonymous, I think the Review would respect that. But in order to find out, they have to be able to ask them first.