Your blogmeister has been tied up with RL business all day long. But that shouldn't prevent our gentle readers from having a dedicated place to speak their minds, while Rudi is away from the computer.
We'll probably doll up this page with a few news article links when we find the time to do so; but in the meantime...
Chat away!
Update 1/23/07 6:18 p.m. Mt: Breaking news for our many Hill AFB readers. Drop-dead gorgeous USAF Sgt. Michelle Manhart has been stripped" of her military duties," according to this Yahoo News report. We're gonna assume all available Playboy Magazine copies are already sold out @ the base PX.
What a hottie!
Active duty military personnel of all branches of the military services on combat duty around the world are now hoping Sgt. Manhart will be transferred to their unit, ordering each of them "give me twenty-five," and become their platoon leader. In honor of military traditon, We're all trying to keep our flags at half-staff, while being inclined to stand at full military parade attention.
Heh-heh.
5 comments:
Every now and then, the Managing Editor of the Standard Examiner, Mr. Andy Howell, does a column on the paper and how it works. He has one in today's SE. He criticizes what he believes is an increasing tendency toward secrecy and actions behind closed doors by various elements of local government. Particularly interesting is one of the reasons he thinks local governments are increasing secrecy [unmwisely, he thinks]. He writes that "One factor that seems to be pushing the doors shut on public government is the Internet. In both the Davis boundary dispute and the Ogden council vacancy issue, we heard that decisions about how the matters would be deliberated were made out of fear of bloggers, Web sites and instant-messaging." He goes on to argue that the new technologies are here to stay, and public officials had better get used to them. The column is a strong statement in favor of open government and against secrecy in public administration. Howell's collum can be found here. It's worth a read, I think.
I've just read through the materials mailed to the Planning Commissioners in preparation for their work session this Wednesday, January 17. At this work session they will discuss both of the controversial zoning ordinances that were tabled late last year. Here's a very brief summary:
Sensitive Area Overlay Zone: Looks like the administration is sticking to its guns on this one, still asking the PC to approve essentially the same revision to the ordinance that we saw last November. The revision would remove the prohibition on building on slopes steeper than 30%, remove all reference to the value of protecting native plants, wildlife habitat, and scenery, and insert a couple of additional loopholes big enough to drive 400 luxury homes through.
Mixed Use Zone: It's not clear at all what's happening here. The new report from staff to the PC is a very general document about various approaches to mixed use ordinances, discussing the advantages and disadvantages. A copy of the PowerPoint slides from last December's PC meeting is also attached, but otherwise there seems to be no reference to the "Ellison ordinance" (which is really a resort development ordinance disguised as a mixed use ordinance). So I can't tell whether the administration will try to push the Ellison ordinance through at this time, or start over and write something that could be used for the River Project, or somehow try to modify the Ellison ordinance to accomplish both purposes, or try to get two separate ordinances passed, or some other variation. One distinct possibility is that the administration is as confused as I am.
It looks like the corrupt Republicans are going to give Officer Jones the boot. Why doesn’t the S.E. report the facts? I call it as I see it ( CORRUPT REPUBLICANS)!
CORRUPT REPUBLICANS FIRE POLICE OFFICER FOR SPEAKING OUT.
Thats what the headlines should say.
Thanks for the link, Curmudgeon. As you can see, we've pasted it into today's lead article. Openness in government is one crusade in which we can join the Standard-Examiner most wholeheartedly.
And an aside to Dan S: we expect to post your comment (or something similar) to the front page probably Tuesday. We need to get geared-up for the Wednesday commission meeting, of course. We'll also try to obtain and upload the meeting agenda materials to which you refer, if possible.
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