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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 16, 2011)
The INDEPENDENT, November 16, 2011 Where to Find Them U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (Dem) 1220 SW 3rd Avenue, Suite 585 Portland OR 97232 Phone: 503-326-7525 223 Dirksen Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, D.C. 20510-0001 Phone: 202-224-5244 E-Mail: http://wyden.senate.gov/ contact Website: http://wyden.senate. gov U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (Dem.) One World Trade Center 121 SW Salmon St., Suite 1250 Portland, OR 97204 Phone: 503-326-3386 313 Hart Senate Ofc. Bldg. Washington, DC 20510 Phone: (202) 224-3753 E-Mail: http://merkley.senate. gov/contact WebSite: http://merkley.senate. gov U.S. Representative David - Wu (Dem) OR District 1 ace pl 620 SW Main, Suite e 606 r Portland, OR 97205 o on Phone: 503-326-2901 – n lecti d e Ofc. Bldg. 2338 Rayburn l ne ti House g i Washington, s un DC 20515 e t Phone: R en 202-225-0855 Website: m http://house.gov/wu Senator Betsy Johnson (Dem) Senate District 16 PO Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056 Phone: 503-543-4046 900 Court St. NE, S-314 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1716 E-mail: sen.betsyjohnson@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/johnson Representative Brad Witt (Dem) House District. 31 21740 Lindberg Road, Clatskanie, OR 97016 Phone: 503-728-4664 900 Court St. NE, H-373 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1431 E-mail: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/witt Representative Deborah Boone (Dem) House District 32 PO Box 926 Cannon Beach, OR 97110 Phone: 503-717-9182 900 Court St. NE, H-375 Salem, OR 97301 Phone: 503-986-1432 E-mail: rep.deborahboone@ state.or.us Website: http//www.leg.state.or. us/boone Page 3 Letters Student seeks work to fund trip to Italy To the Editor: My name is Bridger Steward and I am a fifteen year old sophomore at Vernonia High School. Some of you in the community may know me, some of you may not. I have an opportunity to travel to Italy during the summer of 2012 with my Literature teacher, Ms. Sai- fier, and a few other students. The dates for my trip are June 27 – July 11, 2012. I am especially looking for- ward to going to Milan, Venice, and Rome. What I will be doing in Milan is visiting the town’s Roman arena, which dates back to the first century. In Venice we will visit Doges’ Palace. In Rome we will be seeing the Coliseum of course and many other sights. I need to earn money to help pay for my trip. I am willing to do any yard work (raking leaves, mowing, weed eating). Do you have any returnable bottles and or cans? I would be happy to come and pick them up if you would like to get rid of them. Also do you have a pet needing care? I’m willing to feed and take care of a pet if you are leaving and need a pet sitter for a few days. The total cost of my trip is $3362.00 plus spending money. Please call me at 503-804- 4078. This is a once in a life- time trip and I am looking for- ward to the experience. Thank you, Bridger Steward Vernonia Regulations and law are synonymous To the Editor: Thank you for including the responses of Republican Jim Greenfield to the questions posed to all District 1 candi- dates. They helped clarify his position and those of Republi- cans in general. A recurring theme of his an- swers was that business regu- lations are the root cause of all our economic woes. The gist of his argument is that if we elimi- nate regulations, like the wave of a magic wand, our economy Out of My Mind… From page 2 a library, sports facilities, etc. Oh yes, and 171 prisoners. These few suggestions add up to billions, maybe trillions, of dollars, but don’t expect Congress to accept any of them. Too many members of Congress get big “campaign donations” from defense contractors, big agriculture, pharmaceutical, com- munications, financial, heavy equipment, mining and energy com- panies. Too many members of Congress are more interested in keeping that income flowing than they are in doing the job their constituents elected them to do. When politicians talk about cutting “entitlements”, they are re- ferring primarily to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They should be talking about how ordinary people are subsidizing prof- itable corporate entitlements. They should be talking about how ordinary people are subsidizing entitlements for the wealthy through a tax code that charges them at lower rates than most of us. A recent study of 280 profitable Fortune 500 corporations, re- vealed an average effective tax rate for 2008-2010 of 18.5 per- cent, about half the statutory rate of 35 percent. Tax subsidies giv- en to all 280 profitable corporations from 2008-2010 totalled $222.7 billion. More than half of federal corporate tax subsidies for companies in the study went to four industries: financial serv- ices, utilities, telecommunications, and oil, gas & pipelines. Job creation and other community needs are increasingly un- derfunded. Recent census data reported that the poverty rate for 2009 was 14.3 percent, higher than it has been since 1994. There is also a rise in extreme poverty, with more than 20 million people living on income that is half, or less, of the federal poverty line. Economic injustice is reaching further into mainstream America than at any time since the Great Depression. But…if you paid any federal income tax last year, you paid more than General Electric, Pepco (Pepsi), Boeing, Yahoo, Yum Brands, Marathon Oil, FedEx, Hewlett Packard, American Ex- press, and Time Warner – combined. will prosper. The best way to test the fea- sibility of that argument is to look at nations that have fol- lowed those recommendations and see how they are doing. The best current example that fits that criteria is Somalia. No business laws are enforced in Somalia – no Environmental Protection Agency, no wage and hour regulations, no OSHA, no Equal Employment Opportunity regulations, no product safety regulations, no minimum or maximum interest rate on loans. No Social Secu- rity taxes, no Medicare, Medic- aid, Workers’ Comp, collective bargaining or unemployment insurance to worry about. There are no zoning regula- tions or building codes. There are no laws that protect a busi- ness from being taken over at gunpoint by someone who wants to do so. There are no courts where an aggrieved business owner or employee or consumer can plead their case. In other words, for those who says that deregulation is the cure to whatever ails ya, Somalia is the closest thing to heaven on earth. This does not prevent busi- ness from operating, in a fash- ion. The official unemployment rate is 47%. Per capita income is $600. Annually. Somalia has two highly lucrative industries: kidnapping for ransom and weapon sales. Without regula- tions to control them, they thrive. The words “regulations” and “laws” mean the same thing. Whenever you hear a candi- date lobby for doing away with regulations, s/he is proposing the elimination of laws. The ab- sence of law, by definition, is anarchy. Miles R. Wickstrom Vernonia Policy on Letters The INDEPENDENT will not publish letters with per- sonal attacks on private citi- zens. Preference will be giv- en to brief letters, 300 words or less. All letters must be signed and include a verifiable ad- dress or phone number. School continues funding search From page 1 and federal governments, and individuals to make up the dif- ference. With their help, we have recruited a great set of Portland area and local busi- ness and community leaders to assist with this effort. One of the first meetings that were set up, was to discuss bridge fi- nancing, to get enough funds to construct the school while fundraising efforts began. Through the Metropolitan Group’s work, since January 2010, our fundraising commit- tee with the ongoing help of Oregon Solutions, has identi- fied an additional $16.7 million. The major elements of that ef- fort include a $1 million chal- lenge grant from The Ford Family Foundation, which has helped to garner an additional $700,000 in contributions so far this year. With our government partners, we were able to ob- tain a $1.1 million Oregon De- partment of Energy grant for the biomass boiler and other energy saving aspects of the new schools, and Governor Kulongoski announced a $3.8 million grant through Oregon Department of Transportation to pay for the street and trans- portation improvements. Our federal legislative delegation and local elected leaders helped support the work of Oregon Emergency Manage- ment and our local flood relief folks to obtain an additional $11.3 million from FEMA. How- ever, some of these funds are needed to pay for demolition and the construction of Spencer Park, so $1.5 million is not included, since these items were not in the scope of the new schools project budget. It is our hope that some portion of these funds will be returned to the project budget. Now, we still have a way to go to finish the schools. So we are looking for ways to save on See School on page 12 — NOTICE — The INDEPENDENT pub- lishes on the first and third Wednesday of each month. Because November has five Wednesdays, there will be three weeks before the next issue, on December 7, 2011. The deadline for the Dec. 7 issue is Friday, Dec. 2.