Letters for Aug. 24, 2024

Baumgartner will toe the MAGA line

Randy Guldiner’s letter on Aug. 11 (“Baumgartner’s ad misleads”) is a warning that he will continue to mislead us if elected. Keep in mind Baumgartner was a big fish in a little pond when he “singlehandedly” passed all that legislation. What’s missing in his ads was a superhero’s cape. He’s forgetting, if elected, he will be a little fish in a big pond. As soon as his MAGA handlers learn of his election to Congress, he will be promptly neutered, and by the time he’s sworn in he will be singing the praises of his MAGA handlers forward and backward. Project 2025 will be his new mantra. So much for the positive changes he promised to bring to the 5th Congressional District. He will simply be a neutered version of his predecessor wearing a business suit. Nothing will change.

His predecessor followed her puppet master’s training and ended up a multimillionaire. She slyly supported their plan to destroy our democracy and Constitution, then bailed. I hope her financial supporters feel they got their money’s worth over the past 20 years. The voters of the 5th Congressional District must stop the madness of a party that stands for nothing but lies, fear, chaos, corruption and anarchism. It’s time to vote for Carmela Conroy, a Democrat. She will bring a new and positive perspective into the 5th Congressional District.

Positive change is critically needed. The fragmented Republican Party consistently proves that.

Randall Ulberg

Spokane

Students reveal downside to no phones in school

On the surface, I was all about the school cellphone ban until talking to my child and several of their friends. The valid issue they brought up is that they use their personal phones for research in class because the school computers and internet are super slow and many websites are restricted. One example given was researching breast cancer; because of the word “breast,” they were blocked from many pertinent websites. With the subpar laptops/internet my student will not be able to use their classroom time as they have in the past and will have to push more of their work off until they get home choosing either an acceptable bedtime or completion of homework.

Michele Dailey

Spokane

Time to abolish outdated Electoral College

I want to thank Washington State legislators for enacting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact. On behalf of the League of Women Voters of Spokane Area, I want to emphasize the importance of ongoing efforts to establish an electoral system where every vote counts. This is especially relevant now, while voters prepare to engage in the upcoming presidential election.

Under the current system, countless voters are overlooked in the lead-up to elections, as campaigns concentrate on battleground states considered essential for victory. As a result, many state, regional and local issues are ignored by candidates who perceive them as irrelevant to their electoral success. A 2023 Pew poll indicated that 65% of voters support electing the president by popular vote and, with 209 of 270 electoral votes needed to implement the National Popular Vote, we are nearing a point where voters will no longer be ignored during elections.

Since 1970, the League of Women Voters has supported the abolishment of the Electoral College, and so, today, we wish to thank state legislators for championing the rights of voters in our state and across the nation.

Elaine Harger

Spokane Valley

Spokane River water levels drop every year

A recent story about water flows in the Spokane River mentioned that 1,000 cubic feet per second would fill an Olympic-size pool in 8 or 9 minutes. On average, an Olympic size pool is 660,000 gallons. One cubic foot is 7.48 gallons. At that flow rate, it would take 1 minute, 28 seconds to fill that size pool. I question where this information comes from. If it is from the city, then anything they tell the public is suspect.

Apparently, because we have dropped to less than 1,000 cfs, we are now in Level 2 of the Drought Response Ordinance. The river drops to this level every year at this time and has done so for 80 years or more. Not long from now, Avista will begin to lower Coeur d’Alene Lake, and river flows will magically rise.

We are being told to limit water use, and even though there currently are no penalties for not following the mandate, the city of Spokane has instituted tiered billing effectively penalizing those who don’t want to follow it.

I am not one to callously waste water, but I do need to question why there is such a proliferation of giant car washes all around Spokane and Spokane Valley at a time when we are supposedly in such dire straits. I guess if you pay, you can play.

Pushing the agenda of “Oh no, low flow” sets the stage for increasing water rates.

Bill Foreman

Spokane