In their words
A selection of quotations from people in recent news stories, big and small
“I have a master’s degree, and I got duped.”
– Seattle resident Lauren Gustafson-Omer, one of the plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit alleging Nationwide Life Insurance Co. violated consumer protection laws, leaving her with $135,000 in medical bills she thought were covered by her policy.
“The best thing you can do for the poor and the middle class is to stop taxing them to death.”
– Anti-tax activist Tim Eyman, speaking Friday in Olympia, where representatives from a coalition of health care organizations were advocating for a 0.3 of a percentage point state sales tax increase to fund health care.
“Finally, the EPA has come to the party. This is an important backstop for California and a goad to other states that have not acted.”
– Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board and a former EPA official, noting that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions will give teeth to stiffer automotive exhaust restrictions that California and several other states, including Washington, have tried to impose.
“It made me very happy, but at the same time, I’m not dead yet.”
– Star Seattle Mariner outfielder Ichiro Suzuki, whose jersey was displayed symbolically in the dugout at the beginning of the season, even though he was on the disabled list because of a bleeding ulcer.
“Why would we assume a program that the taxpayers are getting for free and then convert it to a program where the taxpayers have to pay for it?”
– Spokane City Councilman Al French, speaking about whether the Spokane Transit Authority should spend $38,000 to replace bus stop benches that were provided by an advertising company but must be removed because they violate a city sign ordinance.
“Our spartanly funded prosecutor’s office has a fixed amount of resources and must make tough decisions every day about where they will invest scarce prosecution assets.”
– Spokane City Attorney Howard Delaney, after deciding not to pursue charges against former sheriff’s deputy Pete Bunch for resisting arrest by city police.
“You have brought discredit upon the Spokane Police Department and the law enforcement profession.”
– Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in a letter to Jay Olsen, the city police officer who resigned before she could fire him over an off-duty shooting incident that originated in a bar where he was drunk and armed.
“We feel that we’re kinda at the end of the line and this is just going to make us a little more isolated.”
– Oroville, Wash., City Clerk Kathy Jones, reacting to Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposal that 25 of the state’s driver’s licensing offices, including Oroville’s, be closed.
“Unfortunately, this tension sometimes places school officials in the untenable position of either facing the threat of lawsuits for their attempts to enforce a drug-free policy or for their laxity in failing to interdict potentially harmful drugs.”
– Lawyer Matthew Wright, defending the actions of the school system in Safford, Ariz., where a 13-year-old girl was strip-searched on the suspicion she was hiding ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory medication.