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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2017)
4 A ❘ WEDNESDAY EDITION ❘ MAY 17, 2017 Siuslaw News P.O. Box 10 Florence, OR 97439 NED HICKSON , EDITOR Opinion ❘ 541-902-3520 ❘ NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM The First Amendment C ongress shall make no law respecting an estab- lishment of religion or prohibiting the free exer- cise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. LETTERS Q UITE AN ARTICLE In the Wednesday, May 10, edition of Siuslaw News, I came across in Section 3B an article headlined, “Healthcare could soon be on endangered list,” complete with logo. It was quite an article. It mentioned a local Florence woman, only as “P.W.” stating how she doesn’t know how she would have done without the ACA (also known as Obama Care) as it reduced her monthly pay- ments to $100 a month the first year and $200 the second year. L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR P OLICY The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor as part of a community discus- sion of issues on the local, state and national level. Emailed letters are preferred. Handwritten or typed letters must be signed. All letters need to include full name, address and phone number; only name and city will be printed. Letters should be limited to about 300 words. Letters are subject to editing for length, grammar and clarity. Publication of any letter is not guaranteed and depends on space available and the volume of letters received. Libelous, argumentative and anony- mous letters or poetry, or letters from out- side our readership area will not be pub- lished. Send letters to: nhickson@thesiuslawnews.com USPS# 497-660 I am very glad she is so happy with that. But hers is only one voice as compared to the many others I hear and read about that complain very forcibly how their costs went sky-high after the first year. Even Maxine Waters, (Democrat, Calif.) who voted for Obama Care, was on TV complaining how much her rate increased. With Obama Care seemingly imploding as time goes on, we’ll all be looking for a better system. And maybe this time members of the U.S. Congress will include themselves as they excluded themselves from Obama Care. Out of curiosity I looked up the website list- ed in the article. It was, as I suspected, nothing more than a liberal Democrat organization attempting to slam the Republican Party again. In my opinion, “Paid Political Advertisement” should have been at the top of the article. Is that why no name credit was given at the bottom of the article other than “Submitted by FOR, Florence ORganizes?” When I submit my letters to Siuslaw News I am proud to put my name at the bottom as a for- mer Democrat now turned staunch Republican who is very happy Donald J. Trump is now our President. — Tony Cavarno Florence W HERE HAVE ALL THE EDITORS GONE ? I have lived in Florence since June of 2014. I used to enjoy reading stories and events in the local paper about this amazing community. However, since the “Election of 2016,” I feel there has been a rapid decline in the content of the paper and an outright bias in the reporting of our paper, especially pertaining to politically charged issues and events. How does the person who wrote this article have access to a bill that is not yet public record? They don’t. The content of this bill hasn’t even been finalized yet. And at the end of the “article” they want readers to contact Healthcare For All, another political organization. So my question for the Siuslaw News is: Where have all the editors gone? Allowing political organizations to publish articles that give the appearance of an objective report, as well as allowing reporters to interject their own political bias in an article, is unethi- cal, inappropriate and discredits the newspaper. In conclusion, I hope this letter will result in the editors of our paper taking a step back and objectively looking at the content of what they are publishing. I do not want to cancel my subscription but I also don’t want to start purchasing my newspa- per next to the National Enquirer at the check out stand in Freddy’s. — Katie Prosser Florence N O PETS AT M ILLER P ARK I read Barbara Holler’s Letter to the Editor (April 29) and felt deep revulsion. How could anyone ask the City to spoil the only place in Florence that is free from pet waste? We need at least one place that our children can play with- out the 3Ps. Many of our streets and yards are being turned into environmental wastelands from inconsiderate pet owners. Florence needs one place where residents do not need to worry about landmines of the pet variety. — Robert Miller Florence Copyright 2017 © Siuslaw News Publisher, ext. 327 General Manager, ext. 318 Editor, ext. 313 Marketing Director, ext. 326 Office Supervisor, ext. 312 Production Supervisor Press Manager DEADLINES: Wednesday Issue—General news, Monday noon; Budgets, four days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Monday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Monday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Friday 5 p.m. Saturday Issue—General news, Thursday noon; Budgets, two days prior to publication; Regular classified ads, Thursday 1 p.m.; Display ads, Thursday noon; Boxed and display classified ads, Wednesday 5 p.m. Soundings, Tuesday 5 p.m. NEWSPAPER SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In Lane County — 1-year subscription, $71; 10-weeks subscription, $18; Out of Lane County — 1-year subscription, $94; 10-weeks subscription, $24; Out of State — 1-year subscription, $120; Out of United States — 1-year subscription, $200; E-Edition Online Only (Anywhere) — 1-year subscription, $65. Mail subscription includes E-Edition. Website and E-Edition: www.TheSiuslawNews.com WHERE TO WRITE Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore. Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439; phone 541-997-3441; fax 541-997-7979. All press releases may be sent to PressReleases@TheSiuslawNews.com. John Bartlett Jenna Bartlett Ned Hickson Susan Gutierrez Cathy Dietz Ron Annis Jeremy Gentry For example, regarding the issue of bias reporting. The arrest story of illegal aliens by Jack Davis on May 10, said “60 had criminal records, but 24, almost one third arrested, including one Florence resident, apparently did not.” So the majority of people arrested had crimi- nal records. Actually, double criminal records being here illegally and committing an additional crime. But Mr. Davis chose to emphasize and focus on the “almost one third.” He goes on to quote the park manager, who referred to them as “...Wonderful tenants who’ve never been a problem.” Are these details pertinent to the story? The story also noted that “Mr. Rendon works in the timber industry and was fully employed at the time of his arrest.” How is an illegal alien fully employed legal- ly? Next, the story describes how the ICE agents “...patted the man down, handcuffed him and then placed all three individuals back in the white van.” Everyone arrested is “patted down” and handcuffed. It’s SOP — standard operating pro- cedure. There is also an issue of inappropriate con- tent in the May 10 edition, in the article “Healthcare could soon be on endangered list” by the Florence ORganizes group. Unfortunately, editor Ned Hickson’s advice that “fake news” will usually have all capital letters isn’t applicable in this case. This group claims that it is a “non-partisan, non political” organization yet organized a protest march demanding President Trump release his tax returns. The article criticizes the “Republicans’ latest version” and states that “those with chronic health issues would bear unaffordable costs.” Pres. Donald Trump The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW Washington, D.C. 20500 Comments: 202-456-1111 Switchboard: 202-456-1414 FAX: 202-456-2461 TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213 www.whitehouse.gov 202-224-5244 541-431-0229 www.wyden.senate.gov U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley 313 Hart Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997 541-465-6750 www.merkley.senate.gov Gov. Kate Brown 160 State Capitol 900 Court St. Salem, OR 97301-4047 Governor’s Citizens’ Rep. Message Line 503-378-4582 www.oregon.gov/gov U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.) 2134 Rayburn HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-6416 541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732 www.defazio.house.gov U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden 221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg Washington, DC 20510 State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5) 900 Court St. NE - S-417 Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1705 FAX: 503-986-1080 Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us State Rep. Caddy McKeown (Dist. 9) 900 Court St. NE Salem, OR 97301 503-986-1409 Email: rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us West Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich 125 E. Eighth St. Eugene, OR 97401 541-682-4203 FAX: 541-682-4616 Email: Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us
