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Show 4 The Magna Timet, Wot Valley Newt 4 Kearns Chronicle, June 20, 2002 Editorial Letters to the Editor MAGNA TIMES Second class postage paid at USPS 325-58- 0 Magna, Utah 84044 8980 West 2700 South Magna, Utah 84044 J. BONNIE STAHLE Advertising Manager Office Manager Editor, HOWARD STAHLE Publisher MIKE WINDER Staff Writer KOLBY REBER S. DEAN LEDBETTER Staff Writer Production Manager Graphic Layout Designer DEBBI OLSON Editor Presciptions should be Medicare benefit DALE SIMONS Sports Columnist Copyright, Magna TimesWest Valley News . All rights reserved. Reproduction, reuse, or transmittal of all matter herein is prohibited without prior written permission by the publisher or editor. The Magna Times and West Valley News are published each Thursday change of address to: Subscription $18 per year $21 per year out of state Postmaster: Send is a bonified newspaper Member of the Utah Press Association Magna Times 8980 W. 2700 So. Magna, UT 84044 8 (801) 5 or FAX (801) 250-585- 250-568- magwestxmission.com The Magna Times Members of our community, no matter their age, are at the mercy of outrageously high prescription drug costs. To help remedy this potentially devastating financial burden, we need to act now and put prescription drug benefits in Medicare. The elderly, people on fixed or low incomes and those who are young yet disabled w ho don't have access to or can't afford prescription drugs are hurting. Most of us who earn a good living or w ho are retired and living well on fixed incomes also have to deal with being able to afford prescription drugs. Our community pays a big price becaue Medicare lacks a drug benefit. Some people are forced to scrimp on medicines so they can afford food or childcare. Our elected officials must realize that it makes sense to get prescription medications into the hands of people who need them at prices they can afford. Since Congress has been slow to act, AARP Utah will be working during the 2003 legislative session to develop a stopgap state-base- d prescription drug program. But this I am proud to live in Salt Lake County. You may have seen the recent media stories about how the State of Utah is experiencing record-settinrevenue shortfalls. Meanwhile. 1 am happy to report that Salt Lake County is on track vv ith a flat rate budget. I told you when 1 took office as County Mayor I would oppose any new taxation and I w ill continue to do so despite the setbacks in the economy in the past year. I am also pleased to report that the quality of programs and services we provide for the community are better than ever before. As I pondered over what makes SalrT.ake Cbiinty sftfeffi- trtenCit becamrdear to me,lt is you - the volunteers, the County ' employees, and the conscien-- ; tious citizens. I offer my most heartfelt thanks to all of you. You make Salt Lake County a better place to live. In May. I attended the dedication of a Community Garden at Salt Lake County Fire Station 16 in Sandy. Seeing a piece of unused ; property behind their station, the ; firefighters decided to create a j garden and donate all the har-- t vested vegetables to the Utah food Bank. With generous donations from i local businesses, the plot of IS.(XX) square feet was prepared for planting. After I had the honor of pi ant ing the first tomato plant, I stood back in awe. I watched as near- ly 50 firemen built fences, tilled 1 row s and planted seeds. Their children and families worked alongside them. They will continue watering, weeding and nurturing this garden all summer hours as during their Editor, I'm a Church of England minister conducting an international survey on changes in people's moralreligious attitudes following Sept. 1, and would like your readers to me with their views: Has September 1 th changed your outlook on life? Are you now more or less materialistic? More or less family orientated? Are you thinking more about spiritual matters and trying to find out about God? Are you more or less confident about the future? If you're involved in a church, have your views been changed by the idea spreading through congregations worldwide that these events fulfilled prophecy found in Revelation Chapter 18. as first observed the next day by Canadian newspaper The Toronto Sun? For those who don't know Revelation 18 talks about the fall of "economic" Babylon: v 2 states "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen" - which some feel refers to the twip towers, v 10 describes destruction "coming in one hour" -v 7 adds "in one hour such great g ! off-dut- y volunteers. This garden will provide the Utah Food Bank with an estimated 9,000 pounds of fresh vegetables - squash, potatoes, beans, peas, zucchinis. onions, and tomatoes. Thank you for making Salt Lake County a better place to live. Next, I want to tell you about your County Council. In the past. Salt Lake County has provided financial assistance to the loftt I honicess sherter" Buf' this year was different. The Olympics were coming and we knew the need for shelter would be greatly increased. 1 went to the Council and recommended additional funding for The Road Home shelter. The Councilmen rose to the occasion. They appropriated the money, and hundreds of families and individuals received the care they needed during the Winter Games. Thank you for making Salt Lake County a better place to live. Every month I have the privilege of recognizing "Vital Volunteers" during County Council meeting. This month I was scheduled to present an award to Ms. Amplus woman who Sargent, a 95 year-ol- d has volunteered as a Foster Grandparent for 29 years. Unfortunately, Amplus was not feeling well and was unable to come to the meeting to receive her award. I decided to take the award to her personally. After presenting the award to Amplus in her home, her comment was, "I receive much more than I give." 1 Amplus has been a "grandma" to hundreds of children during her nearly 30 years of service. Truly it is the community who has received from Amplus. Thank you for making Salt Lake County a better place to live. Four times a year, your Salt Lake Valley Health Department offers a Household Hazardous Waste Program to encourage residents to remove hazardous materials out of their homes. Did you know that many of the items residents bring in during these weeks are still useable? In fact, these items, such as fertilizers, pesticides and paint, are made available free of cost to the public. This program saves the County nearly $70.(XX) "" a jeaf in disposal fees. " BtlCdifs tSTOl the whole story. All the partially used paint is mixed together into big drums. County Parks and Recreation, the Sheriffs Office and other organizations use as much as they want for various community projects free of cost. Then the rest of the drums are trucked to Juarez, Mexico, w here the paint is used for its program. Each year, 70,000-plu- s pounds of purplish-brow- n paint is shipped to Mexico resulting a in a County disposal cost savings of almost $50,000. Thank you for making Salt Lake County a better place to live. As you can see, it takes all of us to create a successful community. My thanks to all the elected officials, employees, volunteers, and citizens who work together every day to make Salt Lake County the best place to live. To find out how to volunteer, call or visit our Salt Lake County Office of Volunteers on the web at "httpr'w ww.alittletime.org" Phil Riesen State President AARP Minister conducts 911 survey 1 Making Salt Lake Co. a better place to live is only a temporary solution. In order to affect a permanent fix. it is high time that members of Utah's Congressional delegation make good on their promise of accessible, affordable and reliable prescription drug benefit in Medicare. -- riches come to nothing" v 8 it says it will be "burned with fire" and vs 9 and 17 says people "will weep as they see the smoke of burning and will w atch at a distance." v states that "the merchants of the whole earth will weep because no one buys her merchandise any more" and lists the kinds of products, including oil, that would no longer be traded through her. v 1 7 adds that those who trade on the world's oceans would be affected. If you've heard this already, whenwhere did you first hear this being discussed? If it's new to you. are these similarities comforting or disturbing? Does it change your views on Christianity? I also want to hear from any who had a "premonition" that something was about to occur "we had three premonitions in my church. One minister in New York wrote in August 2001 how he had just had a vision of the 'Twin Towers" engulfed in flames. Confidentiality is assured me at Results will be published on 1 jonathanbible-ques-tions-answered.co.u- k. k. Reverend Jonathan Willans Surrey, England 1 re-u- Senator Hatch does it again Editor, ' staff. He has teamed up with violently Liberal Senators like his good friend' Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, and Daniel Inouye to cosponsor a 'clone and kill' bill. He claims that he receives no input against this bill. We've heard this story before on other issues. On one bill, we knew of more than a dozen calls placed in one afternoon that were totally ignored and not counted by him and his anti-graff- iti 468-218- 1 Isn't it time we recalled Hatch and replaced him with someone who is more in touch with Utah values? The toll free number at the Capitol Switchboard is Ask for your Senator or Representative by name, let them know how you feel on the issues.. Will Christensen Utah State Chair Independent American party 5, (HUN KWaaxnCN tt FUTURE Utahans should encourage sending nuke waste to Nevada I First off. some facts. 1 here are gazillions of people the Fast ( oast. Lots and lots of ijjiem. All crammed in together. Some of them talk funny. They all Sve there because much of the rest jf country is a barren wasteland. Exhibit A: Nevada. Now. about these East Coast people. They like electricity. Lots Of it. They use it to run their ifspresso machines. They get their electricity out of a hole in the wall, this is all pan of a complex magical thing called ConF.d. Anyway, (ii the process of making this electricity, they use nuclear power, which scientists claim is radioac-five- . Which it probably is. but radioactive stuff is better than damming more rivers to kill insignificant and smelly fish or burning more coal to generate even (bore acid rain. So, to recap: East Coast people bake radioactive waste. J But they don't want to keep it here. That's because if they keep it ijiere, maybe something will happen and it will get in the air and mey'll all glow in the dark. They jn want it sent far, far away. And they have a point. In the event of a breach, isn't it better to expose zero people to radioactivity than to expose a couple of million people to radioactivity? Answer in unison: Yes. So the East Coast people w ant to send their radioactive crud Way Out West. Which is loosely defined as somew here bey ond Chicago. This would be an excellent solution, except for one thing: The westerners don't w ant it. In fact, they kind of take offense at the whole notion. They say that if the Last Coast People want to , make radioactive waste, they should be responsible for keeping it. Which sounds like a really good argument. Except for one thing: The East has lots and lots of money and political power. The West, on the other hand, has pronghorn antelopes. So the crud is going west. Period. Do the math. Fourteen gazillion eastern voters versus nine western sheep herders. It's going to happen. The crud is going west. . V I 'J Bob Lonsberry Now here's the tricky part: Where in the West w ill it go? There are two options. One is permanent, the other is temporary. But. in this usage, "temporary" means permanent. The permanent-permaneoption is Yucca Mountain, a godforsaken pile of basalt 95 miles from Las Vegas, a godforsaken pile of basalt 20 miles from Hoover Dam. The temporary-permanen- t location is Skull Valley, an expanse of cat litter about 45 miles from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. At Yucca Mountain, waste would be buried hundreds of feet beneath a giant mountain. At Skull Valley, it wouid be put in barrels exposed to the elements. It's going to one of those two places. It doesn't matter how much nt the environmentalists and the Democrats w hine, it's going to happen. Those gazillions of people on the East Coast say so. It's one or the other. Which means, if you live in Utah, you should get really, really excited about sending the stuff to Nevada. One of life's basic rules is: If it's a choice between storing highly radioactive waste in your backyard or in someone else's backyard, put it in someone else's backyard. Especially if it's Nevada. True fact: The only reason Nevada is in the United States is because there was no way we could figure to dump it on Mexicp. Its a lot like Sonora only w ithout the corrupt cops. Anyway, the problem that's arising is that certain brain cramps, most notably the mayor of Salt Lake City and the area's Democratic congressman, are leading an effort to keep waste from going to Yucca Mountain. The Sale l ake mayor was banging the drum at the National Conference of Mayors gathering last weekend for a nationwide move to oppose burying waste in Nevada. Which would put the waste about 50 miles upwind from two million Utahns. Snap judgement: Bad idea. Remember: If it doesn't go to Nevada, it will go to Utah. Therefore: Every Utahn with half a brain should support President Bush's recommendation that a high-levradioactive waste facility be opened at Yucca Mountain. Furthermore: Every Utah who is opposing the Yucca Mountain facility is cutting his own state's throat. Yucca Mountain is the best choice for a variety of reasons. Impact is nil, safety is absolute, it is the best choice for Americans. And for Utahns, it must be the only choice. No matter what the numbskulls might say. el - hy Boh Lonsberry 2002 Boh Lonsberry is the morning talk show host of 570 AM KNRS Radio from 5:30 10 a.m. He writes a daily column that can be found at uivw. lonsberry.com -- POORC |