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Show I ' Sunday, August 24, 2008 P A , AS HERALD I L V EPITORIAL BPARP . Rons Rahlf, President A Publisher Randy Wright, Exccutfvs Editor Jim Tynen, Editorial Page Editor IN OUR VIEW FuWMB PATOU WMKtoTF tn the 100 --YEAR IRAQREIA- Yf Questar Gas Co. wants to about $621,000 from the rest of treat its customers fairly " its customers to help make up the or just wants to be pro-- : difference. Questar would absorb dent it will drop its hunt only $98,000 of the loss. to charge customers for its Thats unconscionable. Questar should eat the whole amount. ; own mistakes. We consumers have totrust The Utah Division of Public Utilities ougifr to pay heed to its the company to accurately record how much natural gas we use, be7 name, and protect the public. It should not let the utility company cause its not a commodity we can measure on our own After all, if off the hook for a $700,000 the customers knew how much blunder. For a decade, the company has their gas bills really were, they installed transmitters, often called could have made adjustments to transponders, in homes and bust-- ' conserve. Instead,they're being nesses. These send out electronic treated as debtors. .Utahns ought, to be able to meter, readings that are recorded This on state oversight agencies count saves trucks. by company V. to monitor the companys doings. .. the company (and consumers) The Division of Public money by making me-' Utilities has hinted faster and that the Public Service more accurate than if Questar Commission should by workers performed ' consider ordering Quetrudging from meter to could reap a - meters st arto pick up at least PR bonanza some of the $621,000 So far so good. But shortfall that .. .. a couple of years ago, by stepping otherwise be might on the company incorrect- -. passed forward and to customers. V installed transput- Some? It should be ders at 400 homes and saying: "Our alL Its the company's 117 businesses. The fault and the compa- devices reported only mistake. nys problem. The com... about half the gas that was actually used. pany picked the tech-- . Forget the nology and installed it. Questar discovered money. We ' So it has to live with the , the error, and earlier bock-billefallout. Besides, its en- - ; . this year ; will redouble those customers for " tirely within a modern our efforts company's capabilities thegasthey had actuto catch an underally used $100 on toward billing like this much average. , Talk about sticker .. accuracy The company de--, shock. Customers -to profit from serves and were. howled, they , the valuable services right to dp so. it provides. But it shouldnt seek Yes, they did use the gas, But avoid the pain from its own in all transactions, the seller is mistakes. .. the for charging responsible As a utility, Questar has to pubright price, Fur example, say v licly document its costs, revenue you're at the supermarket, and and expenses. None of the items you see hamburger marked at in any report thatwe could find $1 a pound. You pick up a pack- is labeled,Money were allowed it and home the take cook up age, to grab from consumers when we hamburger. If the supermarket called the next day and said the. v goof up., i The PSC will hold hearings on packages, were mislabeled and demanded that you come back 7 the Issue starting Oct. 22. We urge to pay another $1 a pound, you'd the commission to make Questar ;; pay for the underbilling. Its the laugh and hang up. And most of us would be pretty fair thing to do. steamed if the Utah Division of Its even the smart thing to do. ' Questar could reap a PR bonanza Hamburger Regulation said we had to pay any part of that tab. . by stepping forward and saying: Our mistake. Forget the money. After pondering customers We will redouble our efforts tocomplaints, the Utah Division .' ward accuracy. of Public Utilities told Questar it The current approach carries those 900 customcould back-bil- l ers for six months of gas and seek the faint scent of bad hamburger. : . V . . . . HERALDPOLL : . - . . - . f . . " . . .' . ' A recent Herald Poll asked if cities should raise taxes during the economic cmuch.. Among the v replies' Think needs, not wants I Paul and Paula Clark, " ' ' Saratoga Springs Herald poll Recently w asked the following question at the Daily Her dd Web site, . www.herilclextra.conr Gov't agencies have can't the government bailout the little guy? ' Actms iheeM cities ami (dual beards rake taxnsT already spent their wad ' . In this time of fiscal Yes governmental agencies should trim costs where possible. I think some cities have been living The city is ignoring the signs of our off the impact fees from new construe-- . economy: higher food, fuel and utility tionfor years., costs and job cuts. Despite assessing those fees inthe.' Every day we have 5 foredo- - V sures in the newspaper. The building .. name of paying for new infrastruc- starts are down. Our home ia valued at ture, they've been used mostly to fund, $200,000; taxes proposed are $257.81, city operations Now theres not much new 265 percent higher than last year, and somebody is going to which was $97.86. ' have to pay for what has been lost in They say they have cut the budget. impact fees due to the slowing econo-my- . They need to think more of all the .; in our community strugTheyre going to have to pay for young people gling with higher costs for everything. all that needed new infrestructure and It seems that our government and. increased city services that were sup-- . posed to have been paid for already.. . Congress are bailing out the Big ' fGary Zabriskle, Guys What about.us,.the Average ' v .' Pleasant Grove Joe"? - - 10-1- . . ' . doy-t&da- y ' NOTCAnufc . infra-structur- e, '4ndnumban.mil' imadUupibl OO patent dur lo founding . . Jr'-;- TutU yutac 263 . Current pell: Should the U.S,.back the Pickens Plan to us more Wind Power? Polling It open et out Web site until tlwiiiday at 1V4S yje. ' I ITMeOM,Mrai Koii - Oljmpic. Spring . MEDIA VOICES -- I . ' kltpf.' &i. j was One World, One Dream." If anything, the Olympics stand for the universal dream of realizing -one's individual expression, notaleast in the gold medal and as an Olympics bly through athletic excellence but also in many areas of life. Beijing has pulled In China's fr off. The world wiU remember ;. police China for its athletic prowess state, however, the Olympics and glorious stadiums in the 2008 were designed to instill pride Games. But after Sunday's dosing among the Chinese in their system of governance, not the individual which could match ceremony the Opening spectacle in proclaim: In the opening ceremony, with its a different goosestepping soldiers, the mass ing China's "rise" displays of thousands of performhistory may be written.. " ers moving as one attested to the Sure, these Olympics were party's powerand friability to mainly about the 10,500 athletes, especially superstars such as Mi- -. hold onto it. But the system's facade showed chad fishman" Phelps and Upain cracks. Lightning Bolt, and notably It was quickly discovered, for athChina's government-traine- d letes. Beijing the city was mostly instance, that the cute girl singing in the ceremony was lipsynching an efficient but largely colorless to hide the real singer, a girl backdrop. or didn't whose looks didn't meet official But what happened standards. happen in that backdrop was Thousands of Beijing residents the telling story on whether China were removed to beautify the has successfully opened itself to the world and earned the respect city. Social activists were rounded it so.desperately sought from up, and 400.000 security forces these Olympics. patrolled the streets, often roughThe most poignant reminder of ing up foreign journalists who apthe real China under Communist proached political dissidents. The average Chinese was Party rule was the arrests of two from attending women the Chinese discouraged during elderly Games. They had applied to dem-- . the Games, leaving many seats onstrate in a special protest zone embarrassingly empty. The govset up at the urging of the Interna- ernment had to bring in loyal tional Olympic Committee (IOC). party members to fill seats and The women simply wanted to de- - to cheer in ordered chants Even cry load officials who had evicted the weather was manipulated and them from their homes. For their city traffic cut in half to keep the legal action, they now face a year skies clear. China's leader, Hu JintaO, has of imprisonment, or reeducation hinted that political reforms might through labor." follow the Olympics The world Dozens of applications to can only hope that the Chinese The few were ignored. protest win see more freedoms soon. The protests (hat did occur were elseIOCs desire for these Olympics to where and quickly suppressed. Most foreigners with a record of improve Chinas human rights record was clearly not realized. protesting China's human rights The Games were meant to be and who wanted to be in Beijing China's coming-ou- t party. Instead, during the Games were denied of the visas.. they were a coming-ou- t China's slogan for these Games Communist Partys true colors From the Christian Science Monitor, Friday, Aug. 22: 5 psewstwwe BIESIIIBITRIIORKniIBKCKfrniRinKRXBiODDIIBIWMiniBM At , RUTH MARCUS one-par- ty . . ' ' : . - . . . . the time Election Day arrives, might be forgiven far think- that Barack Obamas running mate is named Lilly Ledbetter. Okay, Im exaggerating, but, realty, the Obama campaign wouldn't mind. Ledbetter was on the losing end of a Supreme Court case last year on equal pay. A manager at a Goodyear tire plant in Alabama, she consistently received smaller raises than her male counterparts. The Supreme Court threw out her suit because, the majority said, she waited too long to complain, even though she didnt know about the pay difference earlier. Now. a bill to fix this equal-pa- y Catch-2-2 is pending in Congress and the Ledbetter case has emerged as a key piece of Obama's effort to . woo women In particular, working women, older women, women Women who voted for a certain woman and havent come around ' to the guy who defeated her. Its not that Obama has problem with female voters. To the contrary, he does significantly better among women than among men. It sounds paradoxical, but the campaign, lagging badly among white men, may have its biggest growth potential among female voters. Women, especially women without a college education, tend to make up their miiuis later. Recent polls show twice as many women as men are undecided. Women also account for more than half the electorate: 54 percent of voters in 2004, 52 percent in 2000. AT Gore won among female voters by H points. Four years later, with security moms defecting to George W, Bush, By five-justi- . marJohn Kerry had just a three-poigin among women. In short, Obama's abOfry to equal or exceed Gores vote among women could determine the outcome. So far, that's looking doable. In a survey released last week, the Pew Research Center found that women favored Obama over John McCain by .51 percent to 38 percent, a dramatic advanimprovement from his tage in May. Men, by contrast, backed McCain by 49 percent to 41 percent in the recent survey. Looking exclusively at white voters, McCain led Obama among men by 55 percent to 35 percent, among women by only 46 percent to 43 percent. Barack Obama has a good lead with women and an even greater potential to increase that lead, said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who conducted a recent poll for the Lifetime television network with Republican Kelly anne Conway. The poll showed Obama with a advantage among indepenr dent women, more than Gore or Kerry received. At the same time, Obama faces an enthusiasm gap among older women. Exactly how much depends on which Pew had his advantage at just poll four points among senior women, while a survey to be released today by Emilys List showed Obama enjoyadvantage among that ing in his than better margin group, among female baby boomers. Yet the Emily's List survey also found older women far more inclined toward congressional Democrats, with a advantage. Where he has shown the most room to grow is among these senior 47-to4- 2 six-poi- women," said Maren Hesla of Emily's List.. To slice the demographics even more, a new analysis from Democracy , Corps, a Democratic polling firm, found that Obama is not living up to his full potential with white older unmarried women, Hence, the appeal of Ledbetter as si campaign issue. For all the fuss over vote for HQlary Qintan at a the convention, worrying about such logistics was to some extent a luxury indulged in by women who don't have to worry about how to afford the next tank of gas. Ledbetter, by contrast, puts a human face on a pocketbook issue. This is an issue that realty demonstrates youre in touch with womens lives, Lake said. Obama was an original cosponsor of the legislation to reverse the result in Ledbetters case; McCain opposes the bill because, he said in April it opens us up to lawsuits for all kinds of problems Well yes, that would be the point of law prohibking pay discrimination. The Obama campaign has asked Clinton to talk about Ledbetter when she campaigns for him. Obama, who didn't focus much on the issue during the primary campaign, hosted a meeting Monday on pay equity; the campaign released a memo contrasting Obama and McCfcin on womens issues. As I sat down to write this colarrived from the Demoumn, an cratic convention announcing that Ledbetter would be speaking there. Which probably puts her off the veep list, but you never know. roU-ca- . il Marcus is a columnist with the Washington Post Writers Croup. I Ruth I |