Cover Story
Year in pictures
If you like news, inspirational or depressing, 2005 was your kind of year. Our photographer, Chris Gardner, would be one to agree, as he captured much of it through the lens of his camera, not only in SLO County but as a Red Cross volunteer in the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast as well. All of the…
Do your homework, Hornaday
Despite his lazy research, thanks to Jeff Hornaday for his willingness to at least discuss the debate over intelligent design. Instead of searching the Internet for scholarly publications offering theories to explain the challenge of irreducible complexity — virtually none exist — he looks up the same tired urban myths, those old transitional species chestnuts…
Congrats, Coach Mott and Mission Prep
A big-time congratulatory bouquet to Coach Tom Mott and his Mission Preparatory School for their work in making the recent Seventh Annual Mission Prep Christmas Classic Basketball Tournament a great success. Thirty basketball teams from as far away as Florida and New York and as close as San Luis Obispo got to try their basketball…
Nuclear answers
Does one generation have the right to leave a 30-year pile of garbage? This seems to be the NRC’s decision for the United States. Diablo Canyon and similar nuclear power stations across the United States are erecting these 30-year-capacity nuclear fuel storage facilities. The chemical processing of nuclear fuel is as old as nuclear fuel…
It takes a village
Recently Atascadero was plagued with vandalism at their school district (bus barn). This behavior was not only inappropriate but criminal. We should follow up and catch these offenders and punish them to the fullest extent of the law. Our school official felt it was appropriate to make the remark to the news media that it…
Caltrans finishes the grade, again
All Caltrans wanted for Christmas was to finish the Cuesta Grade highway project. After intense rains last winter, a landslide forced Caltrans to close one northbound lane of the recently completed section of Highway 101. Then, some — including New Times — began to question the integrity of the $4 million Cuesta Grade project. To…
Remember Kathleen Goddard Jones
This week I paid my respects to Kathleen Goddard Jones’ grave in Halcyon Cemetery. Standing there I recalled in early 1996 I visited Kathleen at an extended care center. She hurt all over and yet I also knew she loved a dissension. I mean, she singlehandedly stopped PG&E, even after PG&E purchased the land, from…
Alcohol likely a factor in Nipomo crash
Authorities said alcohol was likely a factor in the tragic accident that killed two Central Coast women on Dec. 21 in Nipomo. Police say Jami Tillema, 26, of Arroyo Grande was driving westbound on Willow Road when she apparently lost control of her 1992 BMW while attempting to make a sharp right turn at around…
A nation of morons?
Hellenism, the way of intelligence and conscience, is dead. According to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 11 million Americans are illiterate. The report concluded that one in 20 American adults lack the literacy skills to perform everyday tasks. In 2003, college proficiency tests revealed that 31 percent of college graduates have a difficult time…
Design had its day in court
The most glaring omission in your intelligent design article is the lack of any mention of the Kitzmiller decision two days before you published. Design had its day in court and lost. A federal judge struck down the Dover, Penn., school district’s attempt to include intelligent design in the science curriculum. He found that it…
Big brawl in Grover
A fight in Grover Beach on Dec. 27 sent one to the hospital and two to county jail. Grover Beach Police responded to a report of 15 to 20 people involved in a fight at Ramona Gardens Park around 5:30 p.m. When police arrived at the park all parties had already fled. The police were…
The Universal Urge
So, intelligent designers agree that evolution is the right theory for small things, but not for first things (“Origin of the specious,â€? Dec. 22-29). So, if there is an intelligence that designed the large things, what designed that intelligence? What? No one did? It’s always been and will be? We can say the same about…
One sales-tax solution
I’m writing about Chuck Reasor’s thoughtful letter: “Sales-tax increases are rarely ‘temporary’â€? (Dec. 22-29). Instead of increasing the existing sales taxes, why not tax a product that is now completely untaxed? Why not tax marijuana? Instead of attempting to nullify the immutable law of supply and demand, our government should regulate, control, and tax it.…
