Wanted to get caught?

I read The Spokesman-Review’s April 29 story about the body of a fugitive found in a bunker. Peter Keller spent eight years carving himself a bunker into Rattlesnake Ridge. As if he had been planning to kill his wife and daughter all along.

The bunker was said to be “amazingly fortified.” Yet it only took 22 hours to break into, which was a last-chance effort of blowing down the roof. Keller was setting himself up for suicide whether it was from his own gun or from knowing that the consequences of his actions would lead to his own death.

He said to his co-workers that he would not return, which leads me to think that this was Keller’s way of suicide by police officer. Keller understood that there was no way of escaping and that there were other hikers and bystanders that could identify him.

Why would Keller stay in a traceable bunker if he wasn’t trying to get caught?

Aurora D. Mackie-Meuler

Spokane

Government shouldn’t interfere

It was surprising to read your April 29 editorial praising the law allowing the government to require a private company to spend a certain amount on its product or return a portion of what is paid for that product to the consumer (health insurers must spend 80 percent of premiums on medical care rather than other business expenses).

You praised that government intrusion in private enterprise, saying it encouraged “efficiency” and would have a “sentinel effect” likely to produce more savings for consumers.

Perhaps the government could interfere in other business ventures so we as consumers could pay less for their products. For example, our life insurance, car insurance and other similar type policies could be less expensive. Oil companies could be told they would have to spend less on salaries of their managers and directors so the price of gas could be lower. A monopolistic energy company could be required to lower the cost of a product within a certain time after the wholesale price to the company drops.

This idea could extend to other companies making products like groceries and newspapers cheaper.

How can government interference into private companies be good when the government cannot run itself well?

Don Brockett

Spokane

Palin, Bush must be proud

Wow! Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers was so impressive on “Meet the Press” April 29. She was so confident and clear, direct and forceful in her answers representing us women. She reminds me so much of Sarah Palin in how succinctly they agree and articulate women’s values and needs. Cathy’s voting record is almost perfectly conservative with Sarah and the GOP. She supported the GOP Bush administration economic policies until the bank failures and recession.

The opposing lefty gal tried to stump Cathy about voting against the Lilly Ledbetter bill, but we don’t need big government forcing business to give equal pay to women when we have a free market that will do it eventually. Voting for Cathy is the same as voting for George Bush’s policies and Sarah Palin.

We need to keep conservative values foremost in running our government. Big government has no business interfering in how women live and raise families, except regulating birth control. Cathy, Sarah and Mitt will ensure that conservative values prevail there. Oh, and not letting gays marry either.

The GOP won’t let gays marry, and Cathy will do something about jobs after we get Obama out.

Evie Wright

Spokane

Military lobbies, marches

So the Spokane parade organizers do not want anyone connected with lobbying in their parade, such as the Washington Wheat Growers Association. I wonder who they think is feeding our military, as they are sent around the world to fight wars that other deep thinkers have deemed necessary, while they sit at their meeting places and devise their own set of rules and regulations?

If lobbying is enough to get you blackballed, then why is the military in this parade? They have lobbyists who beat a constant path to Congress and the Senate to get what they want.

Only they are called generals! I guess that makes the difference.

Jerry Harnois

Oakesdale, Wash.

No money? Stop smoking

On April 28, there was an article in The Spokesman-Review regarding pregnant women smoking. The part that caught my eye was that the lower the income the woman had the more likely she was to smoke. My question is why? Cigarettes are about $7 per pack.

It seems to me that if you have limited funds, the first thing to do would be to quit smoking. Prior to moving to Spokane, I worked for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services for 12 years. Clients would come to see me trying to get more funds, saying that they could not make it on the money we allotted them. About 75 percent of them would be lighting cigarettes during the meeting. At that time, smoking was allowed in public buildings.

My gut reaction to respond to the smoking client was, “If you stopped smoking, you would have more available funds to meet expenses.” Of course, I was not allowed to say that. I will never understand why folks with limited finances would start smoking.

Patricia A. McManus

Spokane Valley

Thanks for nothing, SPD

I am a member of a local Oxford House here in Spokane. An Oxford House is a house rented out by former alcoholics and drug addicts. We pay our taxes; we all pay our own way. We don’t drink or do drugs, or we will lose our home.

Recently, our treasurer forged checks from our house to the tune of $2,000. We called Spokane police, or I should say Crime Check, to report it and make a police report. We were told that a detective would talk to us. We gathered up all the evidence. Everything was in black and white, no problems. The police held him for a few days and sent him back to Seattle on a different warrant, never charging him with the crime he did to us.

All they had to do was send someone, anyone, to come and get the evidence. Needless to say, this psychotic thief is now free to rob and forge again. We almost became homeless because of this person. Our belief in justice is shot. What more could we have done? Next time we will take care of it.

Thanks for nothing, SPD.

Dave Stevens

Spokane

Terrorized by TSA

I am giving up flying. For the last time I have had my scrotum patted down by the Transportation Security Administration. This happened on April 23. Asking why I was being groped, I was told the X-ray backscatter machine showed two anomalies. Pat-down was normal.

My wife usually has her breasts patted down because she wears underwire bras. She is 68. Since she has two metal knees, the TSA person sticks a wand up her dress as if she is getting a pelvic exam. What law allows poorly educated and unskilled people to examine my wife’s and my private areas?

The traveling public are not criminals (mostly). My guess is that if every congressman and senator were treated this way, the law would be changed. Out of curiosity, where in the Constitution does it say the government can have us examined this way?

I am 73 years old. It is highly unlikely that I am a terrorist. It is the TSA who are terrorizing me in the name of a questionable law.

Edward H. Parker Jr.

Spokane

Baumgartner being truthful

Shawn Vestal’s weak and feeble attempt to discredit Sen. Michael Baumgartner, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, by questioning his recent statements concerning Obamacare as “government taking over our health care” and relating it to truthfulness was certainly the pot calling the kettle black.

During a recent medical appointment, my doctor, a leading Spokane internist with a large and closed practice, stated to me that over time treatment options will be designed and mandated by government bureaucrats at the expense of our traditional doctor and patient choice arrangement.

Who’s correct, Baumgartner and my doctor or the Seattle Times’ “Truth Needle” and Vestal’s “gut” (his description)? Baumgartner doesn’t have a battle with any newspapers (as Vestal stated). He’s battling Sen. Maria Cantwell, a solid member of the 1 percent and her media “tweeps” that skirt, distort or simply do not know what the truth is.

Michael is simply far too intelligent, informed and honest to lie, and Vestal knows it.

Ed Walther

Spokane

Veterans need to vent

In the fall of 1974, I got into a heated argument with a shipmate over the last seat on the liberty boat departing to the aircraft carrier that we were stationed on, which was anchored in Chesapeake Bay. I was given the seat, and my shipmate was so angry and, screaming, took off to the parking lot. The next morning, I found out he had committed suicide.

I felt terrible about what happened. It wasn’t until two years later that I found out that when he got home he found his wife in bed with another man, went into the next room, and killed himself with a shotgun. Those details helped me to feel better, and I stopped blaming myself for his death.

I guess the point that I am attempting to make is that I see the Veterans Administration doing a lot of good for veterans. If veterans would open up more about what hurts and troubles them, chances are life would get easier. I see more veterans helping veterans transition back to civilian life. The more ears listening to veterans will help create an environment of fewer suicides.

James Gordon Perkins

Colville

No whining about wolves

I am writing in response to Meg McCoy’s April 24 letter. I am a little confused as to why she is protesting and boycotting Idaho. Is it just trapping, or is it the fact there was a wolf? All I can say is if she is boycotting because of trapping being legal in Idaho, she should first look up trapping laws in Washington, then pack her things and move on because her state is also “unenlightened.”

Otherwise, she is a hypocrite and should stop whining.

Patrick Larsen

Sagle, Idaho

Mitigation, not incarceration

We have just learned that the city of Spokane can no longer afford the county jail beds, and the county can’t afford to keep the Geiger Corrections Facility open. The real news is that Spokane cannot afford to continue to rely on expensive incarceration to prevent criminal behavior, and create a safer community.

The research of the Washington State Institute for Public Policy shows that spending money on treatment, education and employment is cheaper and more effective in preventing crime than incarceration. Taxpayer dollars should be shifted to these programs that work to end the cycle of crime, and also shifted to alternatives to incarceration for low-risk, nonviolent offenders.

Electronic home-monitoring, work release, day reporting and active community supervision can reduce the need for expensive jail beds. Let’s save the costly jail beds for the individuals that present a real risk to the community. We need to work together to create a safer community, where criminal behavior is reduced and taxpayer dollars are spent more wisely.

Mary Lou Johnson

Spokane