Stealing home
In baseball it’s called framing the pitch — catchers trying to sell a bad pitch as good to the home plate ump.
Here’s how the Tribune’s opinion framed it’s lousy pitch to retain a city manager in Lewiston: “Much of the emotional energy behind this campaign seems to stem from the city’s decision last year to impose a face mask mandate.”
That’s a distraction from the outside pitch thrown: Citing water-related projects City Manager Alan “Boss” Nygaard backs and to which a too-compliant city council agreed over the detailed legal objections of Councilor John Bradbury.
Nothing personifies the problem with the current city dynamic more than Councilor Bob Blakey showing more interest in the contents of his nasal passages than in Bradbury’s sage caveats.
Boss Nygaard and his pet councilors had already very nearly blown any wastewater project by attempting to steal approval of the process from the voters. Bradbury successfully sued to make Boss Nygaard and his puppets give the people their turn at bat
An honest call of balls and strikes on the Boss Nygaard administration favors a mayor and council system where the people can bench all incompetent players, yet the Tribune sides against the people.
Why?
One answer is the city money that is earmarked for Valley Vision. The legalities of such expenditures are one subject of a current lawsuit by Bradbury.
Tribune owner Butch Alford is on Valley Vision’s board of directors.
And that’s why the Tribune’s opinion is letting Boss Nygaard steal home.
Thomas A. Hennigan
Asotin
Where are the fish?
In the recent Columbia River System Operations environmental assessment, there was an intensive analysis of smolt-to-adult returns, including smolt barging and environmental factors such as spillway passage, flow and ocean conditions. This was conducted by a team of state, tribal and federal analysts.
One smolt management alternative (M02) evaluated maximized barging. Another alternative (M04) maximized spillway passage. The barging alternative performed the worst and had the lowest predicted SARs.
M02 generated an average SAR of 1.2 percent, which would continue the trend toward extinction of wild Snake River salmon and steelhead.
M04, the maximum spill alternative, generated an average SAR of 3.4 percent, a level that could lead to Snake River salmon and steelhead recovery. A third alternative (MO3) included breaching the lower Snake River dams. The average SAR for MO3 exceeded 4 percent, the goal of the Northwest Power and Conservation Council for recovering Snake River salmon and steelhead. MO3 provides the highest probability of salmon and steelhead recovery of the alternatives.
The Army Corps of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration and the fishery agencies all recognize maximizing barging is not a viable option for the future, based on these analyses.
If barging is the answer, where are the fish? Why did Snake River spring/summer chinook, steelhead and sockeye have to be listed as threatened or endangered in the 1990s after 10 continuous years of maximum barging?
Will dam breaching recover these fish? That depends on whether it happens soon — before the base populations are too depressed to respond.
Richard Scully
Lewiston
Retain city manager
I am a former member of the Lewiston City Council and a former mayor.
I encourage everyone to vote yes on Proposition 1 to keep our current council-manager form of government. From my experience as your mayor, I know that running the city of Lewiston is an extremely technical, difficult and challenging task. The presence of an experienced city manager, with the skills and qualifications that the council selects, is critical to successfully leading and managing the city.
I cannot imagine electing someone without these qualifications into the job and expecting him to perform. The only requirements for an elected mayor are being an 18- year-old registered voter who has lived here for 30 days.
The results of electing an unqualified mayor for the city could be very bad, before even considering the outside influences of extreme politics and polarized biases. Our current form of a seven-person council and a qualified city manager ensures a professionally managed city. I encourage everyone to vote yes on Proposition 1.
Lovetta Eisele
Lewiston
Taking on debt
Please explain why the United States, which is supposed to be the most powerful country in the world, has to borrow money and keep raising the debt ceiling to stay afloat? ...
There are a couple of reasons.
1) We can’t make anything in this country thanks to the enviros and corporate greed.
2) The current administration continues to let illegals flow into our country, then provides for them and would like to give them citizenship in a blanket move.
There is a way to do citizenship legally, but Democrats are only interested in votes. ...
Do some investigating and see for yourself how much undocumented individuals cost our country annually.
No wonder we are broke when the current administration can’t seem to give away enough money. ...
In the Oct. 8 Lewiston Tribune, Marty Trillhaase’s Cheers and Jeers thinks its OK to raise the debt ceiling and continue to let the illegals flow into our country.
By the way, President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill, (it’s anything but infrastructure) has a $50,000 tax credit provision for journalists. Why hasn’t that been reported by the media?
In the few months Biden has been in office, his main priority has been to undo everything President Donald Trump did, whether it was right or wrong. I haven’t seen anything he’s done that makes my life better.
Perhaps China is now the most powerful country in the world since we have them make everything for us, and continue to borrow their money.
Wayne Vantrease
Lewiston
Hypocrisy
“Thank you for your service.” My aching posterior.
Talk about hypocrisy. Unless you’ve seen combat, they are empty words.
The only one who was thankful for my service was the kid in a fox hole next to me.
So now what are we supposed to say?
Thank you for abandoning our people. Thank you for the pain and misery. Thank you for deserting the people of Afghanistan.
Oh yeah. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Where are the yellow ribbons now?
“Where have all the flowers gone?”
James Claffey
Orofino
Recommends Fox News
As vice president, China Joe Biden collected his Social Security for eight years.
Now in the White House and getting a salary, Biden is still collecting Social Security.
Nancy Pelosi is worth millions. ...
Democratic California Reps. Maxine Waters and Adam Schiff are worth millions of dollars. Waters has a multimillion-dollar home she hasn’t seen since she bought it. ...
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has defunded the police ... even though there are more than 8,000 homeless people on drugs.
Under Chicago Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot, there will be 2,000 shootings this year alone. This is Black people shooting Black people. Go back in history: It was Black people enslaving Black people. ...
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was born in Somalia, which is socialist communist. She wants to turn this great nation into one, too, with help from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Under former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, illegals have been crossing the border by the millions.
Now you have Haitians moving here and voting by mail for a free life. ...
Everything I have is paid for, so all I get is $12,400. Democrats want to tax that.
Then there is the mail-in votes for presidential elections. How did this happen? These are not legal votes. They cannot be verified. ...
You have the school boards requesting the Justice Department to have the FBI to intervene with these Americans terrorists.
If you want the truth, just start watching Fox News.
Howard Miller
Asotin
By way of introduction
I am running for Lewiston School Board. Brad Rice has decided not to run for reelection so I hope to fill his seat.
Staci Baldwin is also running to retain her position on the board and I support her.
My wife, Heather, and I have lived in Lewiston for 30-plus years and have raised three kids who are all now Lewiston High School graduates. We are grateful to the Lewiston School District and the experiences our kids and family have enjoyed.
I am passionate about Lewiston students.
I worked for Columbia and Sherwin Williams paints for 25-plus years and began investing in multifamily properties while working for the paint stores. I now own Ray J. White property management and many properties in Lewiston.
Heather is a vice principal at Clarkston High School and has been a great source of insight about public schools.
A big part of being a good school board member is being a good listener. My campaign is focused on hearing from patrons, students staff and learning what is on your mind.
Let me know if you want me to visit or chat with you and your neighbors.
My email is jonnielang@cableone.net or reach me on Facebook.
I look forward to hearing from you and would appreciate your vote on Nov. 2.
Jon Lang
Lewiston
Get the voter guide
Election Day is Nov. 2 and there are many candidates. To aid you in your voting decisions, the League of Women Voters of Lewis Clark Valley has published a nonpartisan online voter guide at VOTE411.org.
The League invited all Lewiston City Council, mayor, and school board candidates to participate by answering contest-specific questions posed by the League. The hope is you, as a voter, will get a better idea of who the candidates are prior to selecting.
This “one-stop shop” for election information provides user-friendly tools to help voters navigate the voting process. VOTE411 provides candidate information, a voter registration tool, polling place information and other helpful election information for all voters nationwide.
Participation by the candidates is voluntary and many have joined in.
I invite everyone to check out the website. When you enter your address, you will find the voter information and can explore your ballot to find candidate information. A comparison tool allows voters to see candidates side by side for each contest.
The League of Women Voters of Lewis Clark Valley is pleased to provide this important, nonpartisan resource to voters. We encourage those eligible to visit VOTE411.org to make a voting plan, so they are prepared to cast their ballot confidently — whether by absentee ballot or in-person at the polls.
Laurie Lewis
League of Women Voters of Lewis Clark Valley
Lewiston
Challenges Pernsteiner
I commented in my first letter to the editor that John Pernsteiner in his statement for yes on Proposition 1 committed a lie of omission by not disclosing the city manager’s entire benefit package. He, maybe unwittingly, convincingly makes the case why the current council-manager form of city government needs to be discarded.
Pernsteiner used the word “corruption” several times. It is basic psychology that often what a person is accusing others of doing is, in fact, what he himself is doing. For example, one who accuses others of racism is usually the one who is the racist. He is just projecting his guilt onto others.
Likewise, Pernsteiner’s repeated use of the term “corruption” suggests that maybe there is plenty of corruption in the current city government. After all, he suggests that an elected mayor might be “corrupt.” He sure seems to be worried about corruption.
Pernsteiner also seems to be concerned about the qualifications for a mayor. Let’s consider the qualifications for president: 35 years of age, native born and a resident for 14 years. Our Constitution doesn’t say anything about having a degree or being a business manager. Pernsteiner’s criteria suggests that former President Barack Obama lacked proper qualifications to be president. After all, Obama was a community organizer before being elected to the U.S. Senate.
Bernie Madoff was a very talented man but would you want him running your city government? Maybe the No. 1 qualification should be honesty, something that Pernsteiner seems to lack.
Lance Reedy
Lewiston
