Brown doesn't care
Kate Brown thinks the marijuana industry is a great thing for Oregon. She doesn't care how much is illegally shipped into other states. She doesn't care how much goes into the black market and ends up in our schools.
She doesn't care how many crimes are committed against innocent people to support drug habits. She doesn't care about how many stoned drivers are out on our roadways. She doesn't care about the ugly fences and the offensive stink we experience everyday. All she cares about is the tax money the pot sales bring in.
This is an outrage and it's time to vote Kate Brown out of office in the next election.
Diann Cody
Applegate
A great newspaper
Any utterance by Trump is fake news, period! Newspapers are not fake news. On the contrary, newspapers tell truth. Our own Mail Tribune is one great newspaper, as are others ...
Jeff Kassman
Central Point
Please keep our streets clean!
You might have seen us picking up litter along the roads around Jacksonville/Medford/Central Point. We will put a sign on our back window that says “Litter Patrol” and we’ll pick up garbage. It’s not that fun and it’s maddening that it’s needed. We know the Jacksonville Lions Club will pick up along Old Stage Road at least once a year and there are other people/organizations that pick up litter on roads on a regular schedule.
We want to thank everyone who pitches in. We’re sure that some of the litter is there by accident, but we’re also sure that a lot of it is from people being lazy or careless.
We would like to ask everyone to pitch in, keeping our streets and ditches clean. If you see litter near you, near your workplace or home, please pick it up…just go out once in a while, tidy up, and put the litter you pick up in your garbage can for removal. You’re doing a good deed cleaning up for the entire community.
Keep our streets clean and we can all be proud of our Rogue Valley!
Jerrine and David Rowley
Jacksonville
The rest of the story
Project promoter for the Jordan Cove LNG export terminal Michael Hinrichs recently carefully stated that gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels. While correct, this isn’t the whole story.
What Hinrichs failed to acknowledge, presumably because it negates his argument, is: natural gas is some 90 percent methane; methane is 86 times worse than carbon dioxide on a 20-year basis; natural gas leaks substantially from fracking source to combustion sink. This leakage makes natural gas at least as bad as coal in terms of causing global warming, if not worse. Obscuring reality, and then accusing opponents of generating reports that support their opposition, demonstrates a lack of both professionalism and integrity. It’s fake news in the vein of another fake news purveyor we know so well. The greenhouse gas emissions that this project would generate are one of the many reasons we oppose the LNG project.
Short-term, this may look like a good deal, but what is the long-term effect to our environment? Jordan Cove is about corporate exploitation. Is an LNG project in the best interest of protecting and revitalizing our region? Let’s accept reality — natural gas isn't clean. The Clean Energy Jobs Bill would be better and environmentally positive.
M. Trocker
Talent
Kate Brown and the facts
Your article, “Report Warns of Jordan Cove Emissions,” cited new research showing that the proposed Jordan Cove fracked gas export terminal and pipeline would generate greenhouse gas emissions equal to 15 coal plants.
That’s while it would impact the land of hundreds of ranchers, farmers, and other landowners, under the threat of eminent domain if they did not agree.
I was interested in the quotes that were included in the article.
A spokeswoman for the coalition opposed to this project by a Canadian company to export gas to Asia was quoted as saying, “We need Governor Brown to stand up for property rights, tribal rights, the environment, and the climate over corporate special interests.”
The Canadian company had a lot of quotes too, but it never tried to prove that the facts in the report were wrong. In fact, the worst thing it could find to say was that the findings of the new research were similar to findings in a previous report.
I hope Kate Brown will look at the facts and stop this project.
Colette Pare-Miller
Talent
Who's destroying whom?
The AP writer Fares Akram perpetrates the myth that Palestinians in Gaza are the aggressors and neo-Zionist Israel is the victim. In the Jan. 7 article, "Prayer activists find new dawn in Gaza," Akram states, "Hamas, an Islamic militant group that seeks the destruction of Israel, seized control of Gaza from the Palestinian authority in 2007 ..."
First of all, Hamas is a social services organization, not a "militant group." They beat the Palestinian Authority in an election that was legitimate by international observers. Israel and the U.S. wanted the PA to win, because they could be bribed.
After the election, Elliot Abrams (famous for his role in Iran-Contra) secretly hatched a coup by the PA using Israeli arms and U.S. money. Hamas beat the coup. They did not "seize" anything, but the filtered U.S, and Israeli mainstream media always portrays Hamas as the unscrupulous aggressor and Israel as the victim, regardless of the facts.
Every rocket attack by Gaza has been in response to provocations from Israel's bombing and shelling, death and destruction. Obviously, Israel seeks the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, Israel's open-air prison, where food, medicine, energy, clean water, building materials, etc. are rationed. Gazans are not allowed to enter or leave freely.
Fred Caruso
Ashland