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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 23, 2005 Thanks to Bellview PTO I have been teaching at Bellview Elementary for five years now, and I can honestly say I love going to work! It is a wonderful school of happy children and very supportive parents. The teachers at Bellview are loving, caring, flexible, creative and wonderful people. I am proud to be part of the staff. Standing behind these exceptional teachers are a group of very supportive parents. The Bellview Parent Teacher Organization has gone well beyond the call of duty. The people in the organization can be found here most school days, weekends and holidays. They have a done a million things for the school, including painting our cafeteria. Over spring break they painted and decorated the staff room. This was done from the goodness of their hearts. They wanted to show their appreciation of the hard work put in by all of the staff. There are several women I know who put in many hours to make Bellview a welcome haven for students and teachers. Some of these women are: Serena Robinson, Denise Baxter, Christine Compeau, Jackie Hassell, Joleen Nagareda and Kimberly Bruhn. (Hopefully, I am not missing anyone!) Besides supporting the teachers financially and emotionally, they make Bellview the kind of place where children love to come to learn and where teachers want to teach. Thank you Bellview PTO for all you do. Candace Palmesano Kindergarten teacher Rights, liberties now under seige It is a positive sign that The Spokesman-Review editorial (April 13) raises serious questions about the monstrous “Patriot Act” and opposes a rubber stamp extension of those of its provisions invasive of our rights and liberties. You did well to publish it. Note this: on Dec. 4, 2000, Bob Herbert wrote in his New York Times column: “Those who cherish the idea of judicial independence can only be chilled by Mr. (Tom) DeLay’s utter contempt for it. Listen to him as quoted in the Washington Post in September 1997: ‘The judges need to be intimidated. They need to uphold the Constitution.’ If they don’t behave, he said, ‘we’re going to go after them in a big way.’” What is happening to our liberties, our rights; what is happening to our workers and our poor people? Our very Constitution is under attack by the present ruthless and dictatorial Republican president and Congress. We all had better wake up very soon. The terrorists are right here. Gerald Cavanaugh Ashland Courts’ role in society is valid Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, recently described judges in the Schiavo case as “arrogant, out-of-control and unaccountable. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.” Several days later, DeLay characterized his remarks as “inartful.” Webster’s tells us that there is no such word as “inartful.” How do we view his remarks? Threatening? Self-serving? Ignorant of the value of an independent judiciary? An April 14 Mail Tribune article about California’s case before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in which California seeks more than $6 billion in refunds for overcharges on electricity during the state’s energy crisis brought another interesting characterization of the power of the court. “You do not have authority to review how we settle a case or how we dealt with past conduct,” said attorney Dennis Lane. Really? Those who would seek to denigrate our courts should be exposed for what they are — unmindful that the courts stand as our refuge from the voracious appetites of big business and the vagaries of the political winds that beset the executive and legislative branches of our government. Ruth Walsh Ashland Dog owners are ignoring city laws The end of December, the Tidings printed a proud and happy backpage article about “a dog’s life in new city park.” I’m concerned that other Ashland dogs are having the time of their life in North Mountain Park, not the Dog Park! There are large, clear signs at all the entrances to the wildlife park: “No Dogs Permitted in North Mountain Park or any Parks except the Dog Park located on W. Nevada Street. Ord. 9.16.060.” The signs have a picture of a dog circled in red with a red slash across its body. In addition, there is another sign: “NO ANIMALS ORD 9.16-060.” Yet, I just watched a neighborhood dog roar out of its open-gated yard, right next to those signs, and chase away three deer grazing on the hillside. This dog (and there are others) is let loose nearly every day to romp in North Mountain Park and to deposit feces. The dogs have flushed out families of quail and frightened away Canada geese. When I have worked up the courage to speak to dog owners, I am told, “Our dog has been playing here since long before the signs were put up,” or “Don’t worry, the birds fly right back when my dog leaves,” and, “My dog is so little she wouldn’t scare anything.” I’m scared. I’m afraid of the blatant disregard of laws in our city (laws designed for our protection and for that of our beautiful, natural environment). I’m afraid for the wildlife that was supposed to be protected in North Mountain Park. And I worry about children in the playground on the hill and those in the Sports Park below who are exposed to the abundance of dog droppings. If the Dog Park is too far away, why can’t dog owners walk their dogs on leashes, along the street, picking up after them? Your article about the wonderful new Dog Park ended: “(This shows that) anything is possible in Ashland.” For the sake of our children’s health and the safety of animals in North Mountain Park, I hope this is so! Lynn Ransford Ashland JPR director answers critic Mr. Cory asserts that JPR is unresponsive to the public because it has made a decision not to broadcast “Democracy Now.” JPR receives thousands of pieces of communication from its listeners and members each year and we consider each one in making programming decisions. Any piece of communication, whether it be a single letter or a petition with multiple signatures, is factored with all other feedback that we receive. Obviously, JPR cannot please every one of its listeners, and equally obvious, JPR cannot put programs on the air or take them off solely based on some type of casual popularity contest. JPR makes independent programming decisions based on listener feedback, consistency with its organizational mission, compliance with professional journalistic ethics and standards and according to its legal mandate to be balanced in its coverage of controversial issues. Mr. Cory also asserts that JPR and NPR programming has been influenced by commercial interests. I challenge any listener to cite any specific news coverage on any program JPR broadcasts — regardless of source — whose content he or she believes has been influenced by any funder and give examples of unfair or partisan treatment of the topic which has resulted from such influence. In fact, both at JPR and NPR a strict firewall exists between the news and underwriting departments. For example, at NPR the news department doesn’t know who has provided underwriting support to NPR when they are working on a story and they don’t know whose underwriting credits will appear adjacent to any story. Moreover, NPR maintains an Office of Ombudsman in which the public can file complaints about any allegations of editorial bias. Those complaints are then investigated and receive a public response. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has just announced its own creation of a similar office. Mr. Cory asserts that, based upon Jefferson Public Radio’s acceptance of CPB grants, JPR is “indebted to corporate underwriters/advertisers.” He intimates that CPB is controlled by the Bush administration and it has somehow sought to move the programs we broadcast toward a more politically conservative stance. CPB was created by the federal government (under a Democratic administration) to insulate public broadcasters from just such political pressure on programming and continues to serve precisely that function. While JPR receives a block grant from CPB, CPB has no information about the programs we purchase or broadcast with those funds, has never requested such information and has never sought to influence our programming. CPB’s only requirement of us is that we provide an overall program service which is politically balanced. That statutory obligation was also adopted during a Democratic administration and passed by a Congress controlled by the Democratic Party. Perhaps more to the point, “Democracy Now” is distributed by the Pacifica Foundation, which itself annually receives over $1 million in CPB grant funds. Pacifica, in turn, provides over $600,000 per year directly to “Democracy Now.” Finally, Mr. Cory incorrectly asserts that “Democracy Now” is a program that is 100 percent listener funded and, therefore, free from influence by interest groups. In fact, in addition to “Democracy Now’s” income from Pacifica, “Democracy Now” has received a variety of other large grants such as a gift of Amazon.com stock worth over $53,000 and numerous grants – totaling in six figures – from Rob Glaser’s Glaser Progress Fund. Glaser is CEO of RealNetworks Inc. and chairman of “Air America.” In my listening to “Democracy Now,” none of these major funders are identified during the broadcast of the program, which violates both FCC disclosure rules and federal statute. “Democracy Now” should not mislead the public about its funding and should be disclosing its major funding sources so the public can make its own judgment as to the editorial integrity of programming . JPR is committed to a public broadcasting system that improves the quality of the civic dialogue and is not manipulated by partisan political interest groups. We believe the public deserves nothing less. Ronald Kramer executive director Jefferson Public Radio Who mourns for the Chinese? I think it’s long past time for the Japanese to admit to atrocities and war crimes they committed. They still print school books which don’t mention the horrible atrocities committed against the Chinese and to prisoners of war of all nations. The recent riots against the Japanese in China attest to the world-wide outrage to their refusal to admit how barbaric they were and possibly still are. Members of my family died because of this barbaric nation. Don’t weave your little flags of reparation in my name, ever. Justice was served. As a further point, what has this Zen group done for the thousands of victims of Japanese atrocities? Only in Ashland, ever politically correct. Thomas Walters Ashland Greenway needs management plan The Rogue Valley Audubon Society strongly endorses the current effort to develop a comprehensive management plan for the entire Bear Creek Greenway. Bear Creek and its associated habitats are a continuous natural corridor, and the integrity and habitat quality of the whole cannot be effectively maintained with piecemeal management. As guiding principles for the Bear Creek Greenway management plan, we need look no further than the “purpose” as stated in the regulations establishing the Jackson County Greenway District: “The major goals of the Bear Creek Greenway are environmental protection and public access for recreation.” Thus, Greenway managers should always ask these questions first: • How will this action improve the environmental protection provided by the Greenway? • How will this action improve the public’s recreational access and/or experience on the Greenway? If a proposed Greenway management action will not improve environmental protection and/or public access for recreation, then extraordinary compensating justifications for taking the action must be demonstrated before the action can be approved — and it is to be expected that this would happen very rarely. Based on these fundamental principles, we offer the following general recommendations: • Publicly-owned land in the Greenway system is irreplaceable, and should never be leased or transferred to private interests. This applies equally to land owned by the various municipalities along the Greenway, and by Jackson County. • The Greenway management plan should explore ways to promote protection of the Bear Creek corridor through additional conservation easements with private landowners. • Development of parking areas, trails, bridges and other infrastructure needs to be carefully planned to minimize negative impacts on the environmental values that the Greenway was established to protect. This includes both the riparian and instream environments. In most places, the Greenway corridor is very narrow, and cannot accommodate extensive development. • A comprehensive plan should be developed regarding vegetation management along the Greenway. It must be recognized that while non-native vegetation (especially Himalayan blackberry) is less desirable than native plants, it does provide significant wildlife habitat value. Therefore, removal of blackberries must go hand-in-hand with replanting of suitable native species. • We urge that the management plan facilitate formation of groups of Greenway volunteers in each community. These volunteers can help with essential tasks such as trail maintenance, blackberry removal and native plant restoration. • We urge that an advisory group of environmental experts be established to provide unbiased scientific recommendations to Greenway managers. Disciplines that should be represented include botany, wildlife biology, fisheries biology, water quality, fire ecology and plant restoration. • We strongly support use of the Bear Creek Greenway as an educational resource for area schools. Rogue Valley Audubon has much experience in this area, and we offer to continue to assist in whatever ways we can. The Bear Creek Greenway is a precious legacy that must be managed with great care, so that we may pass it down in its present form — or, if possible, restored to its former condition — to our children and grandchildren. Pepper W. Trail conservation chair Rogue Valley Audubon Society DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Free Musick Downloads Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress tcg student loan consolidation home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms Tatoos student loans African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Student Loans Tatoo Poker Games Homeschooling Click Here .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams