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Seems like a bit more compatible than once thought. At least for the western power grid.

From the link:

More than a third of the electricity in the western United States could come from wind and solar power without installing significant amounts of backup power. And most of this expansion of renewable energy could be done without installing new interstate transmission lines, according to a new study from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. But the study says increasing the amount of renewables on the grid will require smart planning and cooperation between utilities.

The NREL findings provide a strong counterargument to the idea that the existing power grid is insufficient to handle increasing amounts of renewable power. As California and other states require utilities to use renewable sources for significant fractions of their electricity, some experts have warned that measures to account for the variability of wind and solar power could be costly. At the extreme, they speculated, every megawatt of wind installed could require a megawatt of readily available conventional power in case the wind stopped blowing. But the NREL findings, like other recent studies, suggest that the costs could be minimal, especially in the West.

“The studies are showing the costs are a lot lower than what people thought they were going to be,” says Daniel Brooks, project manager for power delivery and utilization at the Electric Power Research Institute. Even if wind farms had to pay for the necessary grid upgrades and backup power themselves, they could still sell electricity at competitive rates, he says.

Toxins for the Fourth

Editor, The Times:

After reading “Puget Sound’s slow oil spill” [Opinion, May 20], I thought how the Northwest has one of the most concerned and environmentally devoted populations in the country, except on the Fourth of July.

Has anyone noticed how the awareness our actions take a vacation every July? How many thousands of tons of toxic byproducts do we send into our local waters in the form of incendiary fireworks? Residents all along the waterfront spend hours doing this with abandon.

What percentage of the yearly toxins that we send into our waters occurs on our nation’s birthday? Think about that.

— Steven Short, Mercer Island

The Lancet has just published a large prospective study demonstrating the protective effect of HIV treatment on the risk of viral transmission:

3381 couples were eligible for analysis … Only one of 103 genetically-linked HIV-1 transmissions was from an infected participant who had started ART, corresponding to transmission rates of 0·37 (95% CI 0·09—2·04) per 100 person-years in those who had initiated treatment and 2·24 (1·84—2·72) per 100 person-years in those who had not—a 92% reduction (adjusted incidence rate ratio 0·08, 95% CI 0·00—0·57, p=0·004).

A similar observation was made in an earlier study presented at CROI 2009, not yet published.  (Both that study and the Lancet paper were covered in AIDS Clinical Care when originally presented; see here and here).  Would the rate actually be zero if limited only to those with undetectable viral loads on treatment?  Perhaps.

Nonetheless, here’s the bottom line:  HIV treatment dramatically, hugely, ginormously reduces the risk of HIV transmission. 

(My daughter several years ago predicted that ginormous would become a word.  She was right.)

Yes, we can quibble with some of the details — the 2009 study did not include viral load measurements, this one in the Lancet was actually part of a study of HSV treatment hence the results are observational, protection is not 100% – but is there any doubt that HIV treatment is currently our most effective way of preventing the spread of HIV?

Some will say that the definitive study on this issue is HPTN 052, which randomizes the HIV-infected member of a couple to go on treatment or to wait until the CD4 cell count drops below 250.  Primary endpoint is rate of infection to the seronegative partners.

But that study is likely to exclude those most likely to transmit HIV, since it’s limited to people with HIV who have no symptoms, a relatively high CD4 cell count, and hence on average a lower viral burden.

Seems a no-brainer to me.  Treatment is prevention.

Only days after the Center for Science in the Public Interest ruined everyone’s dinner plans with their list of the worst meals available at U.S. restaurants, the muscle-bound dudes over at Men’s Health Magazine have released their own list of the worst drinks in America.

Topping the list is the PB&C shake from Cold Stone Creamery, which in the 24 oz. (aka “gotta have it”) size contains 2,010 calories, 131 g fat (68 g saturated) and 153 g sugars. The Men’s Health people put it in perspective, equating one shake to 30 Chewy Chips Ahoy Cookies and claiming it has as much saturated fat as 68 strips of bacon.

Also on the Men’s Health Worst Drink list:

* Smoothie King Peanut Power Plus Grape (large, 40 fl oz):
1,498 calories; 44 g fat (8 g saturated); 214 g sugars

* McDonald’s Triple Thick Chocolate Shake (large, 32 fl oz):
1,160 calories; 27 g fat (16 g saturated, 2 g trans); 168 g sugars

* Krispy Kreme Lemon Sherbet Chiller (20 fl oz):
980 calories; 40 g fat (36 g saturated); 115 g sugars

* Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Soda (vanilla ice cream and cola) (large, 28.6 fl oz):
960 calories; 40 g fat (25 g saturated, 1.5 g trans); 136 g sugars

To see all 20 belly-busting beverages on the list, head over to Men’s Health.

20 Worst Drinks in America 2010 [Menshealth.com]

The president of the Harvard Alumni Association today announced the results of the annual election of new members of the Harvard Board of Overseers. The results were released at the annual meeting of the association following the University’s 359th Commencement. The five newly elected Overseers follow:

Cheryl Dorsey (New York City) is the president of Echoing Green, a global venture fund that supports emerging innovators seeking to bring about positive social change. She is a graduate of Harvard College (A.B.’85), Harvard Medical School (M.D. ’92), and the Kennedy School of Government (M.P.P. ’92).

Walter Isaacson (Washington, D.C.), former editor of Time magazine and past chairman of CNN, is the CEO of the Aspen Institute and the author of several books, including biographies of Albert Einstein and Benjamin Franklin. After graduating from Harvard College in 1974, he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford (M.A ’76).

Nicholas D. Kristof (New York City), a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, is a columnist and former international correspondent for The New York Times. He graduated from Harvard College in 1981 and studied law at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (M.A. ’88).

Karen Nelson Moore (Cleveland, OH) is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She previously served on the faculty of Case Western Reserve Law School. She received two degrees from Harvard, an A.B. in 1970 and J.D. in 1973, and is a past vice president of the Harvard Alumni Association.

Diana Nelson (San Francisco, Calif.), an advocate for education reform and a trustee of the World Childhood Foundation, is director of the Carlson Companies, which operates hotel, travel, and restaurant enterprises. She is a former chair of the Harvard College Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard (A.B. ’84) and Northwestern (M.B.A. ’89).

The five new Overseers were each elected for six-year terms. They were chosen from a slate of eight candidates, who were nominated by a Harvard Alumni Association committee according to the election rules. Harvard degree holders cast 31,945 ballots in the election.

The primary function of the Board of Overseers is to encourage the University to maintain the highest attainable standards as a place of learning. Drawing on the diverse experience and expertise of its members, the board exerts broad influence over the University’s strategic directions, provides essential counsel to the University’s leadership on priorities and plans, has the power of consent to certain actions such as the election of Corporation members, and directs the visitation process by which a broad array of Harvard Schools and departments are periodically reviewed.

Filed under: Etc., Government/Legal, Marketing/Advertising, GM

If Albert Einstein were alive today, he’d be very old and quite wealthy. In fact, the world famous scientist still banks about $10 million per year solely from corporations purchasing one-time rights to his likeness. Einstein has been dead since 1955, but an institution is still collecting money on his behalf, and there is a rather substantial price to pay to use his likeness. Just ask General Motors.

The Detroit News reports that The General is being sued by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem for $75,000 over a fall, 2009 print ad that contained Einstein’s likeness without the school’s blessing. The ad, which appeared in the September issue of People Magazine, features Einstein’s head Photoshopped onto the body of a young, muscular guy with the tagline “Ideas are sexy, too.”

But while the Hebrew University feels it has an open-and-shut case, GM claims that it purchased the rights to Einstein’s image from a reputable firm. GM spokesperson Ryndee Carney told the DetNews that the company guarantees that clients have rights to use the images selected.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Report: GM sued for unauthorized use of Einstein originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 27 May 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The House-Senate financial reform conference committee is gearing up, with the House due to name its members some time next week and the process due to be done by July 4. But the negotiations to merge the House and Senate versions of the financial regulation bill — under intense lobbying efforts already — will happen mostly behind closed doors. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), the head of the conference committee, has said that he will allow C-SPAN to air only final-stage negotiating and voting. Today, Simon Johnson has commonsense recommendations to keep some sunlight on the process, in The New York Times.

1. Any amendments need to be posted online not less than three business days before any relevant conference meeting. Second-degree amendments (that is, amendments to amendments) need at least two days’ notice on the same basis.

2. The House and the Senate will not discuss any conference report until the report as amended by the conference has been posted online in its entirety for at least five business days.

3. A red-lined version of the conference report as amended — making all changes visible — must also be posted online for not less than five business days before any vote on that conference report.

The fundamental idea is to allow more voices into the process — to give time for public debate to influence the private debate. And I think it is a good one.

by Agence France-Presse.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama on Thursday unveiled moves to suspend new oil drilling and exploration following the Gulf of Mexico disaster, while denying the government was too slow to tackle the crisis.

After reviewing an Interior Department report into the massive oil spill, Obama outlined four steps to prevent such an accident from happening again, including suspending 33 deepwater exploratory wells being drilled in the Gulf.

“If nothing else, this disaster should serve as a wakeup call,” Obama told a press conference, as official data showed the five-week-old spill was now the worst in U.S. history.

The government was extending an existing moratorium on deepwater drilling as well as suspending the issuing of new permits for six months, Obama said, as expert data said the oil was gushing at up to four times previous estimates.

Planned exploration in two locations off the coast of Alaska was suspended, and “we will cancel the pending lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico and the proposed lease sale off the coast of Virginia.” And, Obama added, “we will suspend action on 33 deepwater exploratory wells currently being drilled in the Gulf of Mexico.”

He was speaking as BP’s risky “top kill” of the ruptured Deepwater Horizon well appeared to stop the oil flow Thursday.

Obama dismissed charges that the government had acted too slowly in the crisis. “The United States government has always been in charge of making sure that the response is appropriate,” Obama said.

“This notion that somehow the federal government is sitting on the sidelines and for the last three or four or five weeks we’ve just been letting BP make a whole bunch of decisions is simply not true,” he said.

“This entire White House and this entire federal government has been singularly focused on how do we stop the leak and how do we prevent and mitigate the damage to our coastlines.”

But the president said that “more than anything else, this economic and environmental tragedy—and it’s a tragedy—underscores the urgent need for this nation to develop clean renewable sources of energy.”

He said it was time to move forward on legislation to promote renewable energy sources.

“It’s time to accelerate the competition with countries like China who have already realized the future lies in renewable energy and it’s time to seize that future ourselves.”

Related Links:

The Climate Post: BP oil spill washes up on Potomac shores

Michigan: Where U.S. clean energy, emissions, efficiency policy really counts

Obama preaches green tech gospel to California choir

We’re not sure how Carlos Ghosn feels about this but Daimler has just announced that it has signed a joint venture contract with BYD Company Limited to produce electric-vehicles in China.

“BYD and Daimler will invest RMB 600 million to use as registered capital for the Joint venture,” Daimler said in a statement. “The new generation of electric vehicles developed by the joint venture will capitalize on Daimler’s know-how in electric vehicle architecture and safety as well as BYD’s excellence in battery technology and e-drive systems. The vehicle will be marketed under a new brand jointly created and owned by Daimler and BYD.

“Our new joint venture is well positioned to make the most of the vast potential of electric mobility in China.,” said Dr. Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG. “We are fortunate to have excellent joint venture partners in China and the establishment of this research and technology center with BYD adds another dimension to our growing presence in this important market.”

Daimler recently launched the Smart ForTow electric-drive and this year will introduce two Mercedes-Benz electric-cars including the B-Class F-CELL with fuel-cell technology and the electric A-Class E-CELL.

Renault/Nissan and Daimler recently announced an alliance where both companies will strategically cooperate on new tech and product-sharing that will benefit all who are involved.

– By: Omar Rana

The good folks at Sprint dropped off the EVO 4G for me to share with you. The EVO has the 4.3-inch display that is simply beautiful. It’s also packing 4G that can be shared with up to 8 devices at once over the Mobile Hotspot. It is running Android 2.1 and sports two cameras, the 8MP on the back and another on the front for video chatting. There’s a kickstand for watching video on that big screen and as you might guess there is not much that this phone doesn’t have.

I’ll be putting the EVO through its paces and grabbing some video to share soon; meanwhile enjoy this photo tour of the Sprint EVO 4G. There are even photos comparing the EVO with two other Android phones — Nexus One and the Droid Incredible. The EVO is not available until June 4 but have a look and see if it’s worth standing in line for.

Quick Impressions:

Likes:

• 4.3-inch display is gorgeous
• 1 GHz Snapdragon is very responsive
• Multitasking- fired up 15 apps and no lags
• Lighter than I thought
• HTC Sense
• Kickstand

Dislikes:

• Touch buttons on front are too sensitive
• Camera needs lots of light
• Power button hard to hit

You can see a short test video I shot with the preinstalled Qik application to gauge the camera quality.

Related research on GigaOM Pro (sub. req’d): Google Takes the Open Battle to Apple on Multiple Fronts

King County Council’s taxing spree

It is extremely disturbing to me that the King County Council creates expensive ideas, whether it is the legal or the social side of business, and does not consider that there may be too many of these ideas being offered to the public. [“County looks to property tax after defeat of sales-tax plan,” page one, May 25.]

The sad part of it is that when there are hard economic times, such as the current period, the various governmental organizations refuse to do anything other than attempt to force the taxpayers to maintain the status quo by increasing taxes.

I was glad to see that the County Council decided not to present either the .2 percent sales-tax increase or the property-tax increase to the voters for the August ballot. I sincerely hope there is no change in that voting when it comes to the November ballot.

Taxpayers are sick and tired of having further taxes imposed on them to maintain the status quo for every one of the programs when so many people are out of work and many are losing their homes. There does not seem to be any will by the government to rein in the union demands or to increase the employee share of health-insurance costs.

Maybe at the same time, there should be a significant, permanent reduction in all government employees.

— John Marthens, Normandy Park

Taxes and levies in Mill Creek could sting

Next year, the state budget shortfall is expected to be approximately $7 billion and after November, the Legislature is looking to increase taxes again. This does not include a state income tax. The Legislature did not raise taxes more than it did this year due the upcoming election.

The King County Council is considering a sales tax, a property-tax increase or a tax transfer.

In addition to any legislative-mandated tax increases, the following levies are being proposed for the Snohomish County Library, Everett School District and the city of Mill Creek.

The Snohomish County Library is considering a levy for a new library in the Mill Creek area with a cost of $80 on the average house, in addition to the large increase last year for operations and maintenance.

The Everett School District is considering an additional levy to add $100 per year to homeowner property taxes. Board members say this is a temporary increase, but seldom is any tax increase temporary.

Mill Creek is placing on the August ballot a $108 per year Emergency Medical Service levy increase. This is without consideration of an alternative using demand-based staffing at a significantly reduced cost.

There is a rumor from a fire-service insider about adding a fire station to Mill Creek environs. This could add another $200 per year to homeowner property taxes, not including facilities and equipment.

In addition to any state-mandated tax increases, the levy increases if implemented could cost homeowners about $500 per year for a total of $3 million to property-tax collections just for Mill Creek, which amounts to about a 12 percent increase in property taxes.

Considering the current state of the economy, these tax increases are not sustainable.

— Will Nelson, Mill Creek

A ‘make-work’ project

Reading “An honest debate” [NWVoices, May 27] on Referendum 52, then “Be honest with voters” [Opinion, May 24], was an eerie reminder of the tremendous power that lobbyists have in taking away our money.

Forgive me if I misinterpret, but R- 52 sounds like a “make-work” project for the construction industry, which would increase the amount of taxes I would need to pay with little to gain.

Do all of the schools in the state have mold and leaky roofs? Are none of them insulated? Why not just use the existing school-district maintenance funds to fix the mold or leaks as they occur —or like in Bellevue, gradually replace the schools that are old and out-of-date?

The eerie reminder: Living in a condo development, my daughter-in-law, along with all the other condo owners, must pay out approximately $40,000 each to replace the sheathing and siding. As I understand it, water leakage was found in some of the condos, and a state law forces them with the choice to either renovate

— Jim Spray, Bellevue

Just in case you believed the rumor that Microsoft’s own Steve Ballmer would be speaking at Apple’s WWDC in the coming weeks (I mean seriously, you believed it?), Microsoft would like you to know that the rumor is false.  If you didn’t hear it, here’s how it went: Trip Chowdhry, an analyst at Global Equities Research, stated that Ballmer would be appearing at WWDC to announce Visual Studio for the iPhone platform.  And as you can imagine, the rumors went rampant from there.  However, in a message posted on Twitter a few minutes ago, Microsoft laid the rumor to rest by saying: “Steve Ballmer not speaking at Apple Dev Conf. Nor appearing on Dancing with the Stars. Nor riding in the Belmont. Just FYI.”  Of all the rumors I would like to have seen, I am sorely disappointed that Dancing with the stars is not in Mr. Ballmer’s future.  The end.

Via Engadget

An alienating proposal

I read the editorial “Ensuring the safety of international students” [Opinion, May 25], which supported the U.S. State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affair’s proposed safety checks for exchange students’ host families with special interest.

I was an exchange student last year, so I absolutely understand the need for safe host families.

My family is now having a wonderful time hosting an international student. However, we would be not hosting if we had to be fingerprinted and to divulge our financial resources — not because we are criminals, but because we value our privacy.

Criminal-background checks could catch the few sex offenders who try to host a student. But they would also deter a much larger percentage of safe families from hosting. Due to the current economy, many families no longer feel they could afford to host a foreign student. By adding additional regulations on hosting, it is going to be even more difficult for exchange programs to find families.

The suggestion to ban single people from hosting exchange students is just ludicrous. That is discrimination based solely upon martial status. I have known several exchange students who have had a wonderful experience with their single parent. It is unreasonable to assume that because someone is single, they are likely to violate a young person.

— Elliott Brooks, Seattle

Group supports construction of new 520 floating bridge

For Kirkland is a Washington state nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a healthy, sustainable city by promoting service to the community, active citizen engagement in city decision making, and a robust, honest dialogue regarding issues facing our community and region.

In keeping with our mission statement, we ask our elected leaders to support every effort to move forward with construction of a new Highway 520 floating bridge to replace the existing structure.

The vulnerable condition of the bridge is well-documented, pointing toward the very real possibility of a catastrophic failure in a wind storm or earthquake.

The replacement project has been studied for nearly 15 years and the time for action is now. The current recession has created a construction environment that would save millions of dollars in construction costs.

The project would also produce thousands of well-paying jobs for the especially hard-hit construction industry at a time when those jobs are critical to our economic recovery.

While we understand there is more work to do to resolve the issues around the final design of the west end of the bridge, we strongly favor moving ahead as quickly as possible with the projects on the east side of the lake, which have been designed and agreed upon.

To not move forward now with those projects would be to waste an opportunity to save the taxpayers of the region millions of dollars.

— Dan Krehbiel, president of For Kirkland, Kirkland

If legibility is the issue, why not practice better printing?

This is a response to “Teacher reintroduces the lost art of cursive” [page one, May 24].

Making the case for relearning cursive is not an easy one. I, for one, am just finishing up my junior year of high school, having taken both Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry and AP U.S. Government tests, and then the SAT.

Little did I know that I would have to be writing a three-sentence statement in cursive. Now having learned cursive back in the third grade, I had to dig back through my brain to remember some of the more archaic characters, but in the end I got it done. This application of cursive however, is the first time that I have used this skill since I first learned it.

Now what teacher Nora MacDonald seems to stress is that the cursive is a remedy for her kids writing in block print, and doing so almost illegibly. There are, however, simpler ways to fix such a problem.

Instead of trying to resurrect an outmoded form of communication —which, it should be noted, is also what is being taught in her class —she could simply have them practice better printing so that she can read their writing. Perhaps she could even stress that the ability to print legibly allows the AP graders to read their work as well.

If we should all start relearning how to write in outmoded forms of communication, I may as well take both AP Cuneiform and AP Egyptian Hieroglyphics during my senior year, as neither Latin nor cursive are really defined as “outmoded” yet.

Perhaps next year, instead of having her students learn cursive, MacDonald could be pursuing Latin, a topic relevant to that other outmoded form of communication.

— Brad Russell, Bainbridge Island

3 Quarks Daily has embarked on an annual hunt for the best blog posts in four areas: science, politics, philosophy, and arts & literature. Nominations have now opened for this year’s science prize; you have until May 31 to suggest your favorite science blog post from the last year; then there will be a round of public voting, and a final award bestowed by a celebrity judge. Last year the science prize was awarded by Steven Pinker; this year it will be Richard Dawkins. Someday I’m sure they’ll work their way up to having a physicist serve as judge.

Feel free, of course, to nominate your favorite posts from Cosmic Variance; I’m far too shallow to be reluctant to win awards. But even better would be to find a really great post at a smaller blog that not as many people know about, and use this contest as a vehicle for bringing more attention to really good writing. There’s too much good stuff out there, it’s impossible to follow all of it, so it’s always nice to hear about new bloggers doing great things.

Posted by Tribune staff at 1:51 p.m.

The Illinois Senate today overwhelmingly booted
aside the changes Gov.
Pat Quinn wanted in legislation to overhaul McPier, with Republicans
charging the governor tried to alter the bill to gain political support
in the November election.





The House quickly joined the Senate today in voting overwhelmingly to
reject Gov. Pat Quinn’s proposed changes to legislation aimed at
overhauling McPier, putting a law in place aimed at luring back
convention business fleeing Chicago because of high costs.



The
House voted 93-19 to override the governor’s proposed alterations that
came in an amendatory veto as he sought to retain some power that the
legislature stripped away. The Senate acted earlier Thursday, voting
51-2, with one lawmaker casting a present vote. The House then adjourned
at 12:24 p.m. as the Senate wrestled over how to get support for a key
piece of the state budget package.

Senators voted 51-2, with one
voting present, to override Quinn’s changes, which included a move to
ensure he would have the ability to name an interim trustee who would be
put in charge of righting the ship at McPier, where conventions were
fleeing because of high costs. Quinn’s amendatory veto attempted to
remove James Reilly, a former McPier chief, as the designated man in
charge during the interim period.

Read more from Tribune Springfield correspondent Ray Long and business writer Kathy Bergen by clicking here.

We need Murray

Editor, The Times:

This is a response to “Sources: Rossi’s in, will make it official Wednesday” [page one, May 25].

A high tide brings in a lot of things, and some of it does not smell very good.

Washington state voters have twice rejected Dino Rossi, and should do it again.

His own Republican neighbors rejected him when he first ran for state Senate in 1992, too. Back then, all three of his Republican opponents refused to endorse him after the primary, leading to his defeat that year.

They knew then what a growing number of voters know now: Rossi is too cozy with the kinds of questionable corporate power brokers who nearly destroyed our economy.

I served three terms as a Republican county councilman representing the area that Rossi calls home. I have never endorsed him, either. His right-wing brand of politics is too extreme for Washington state voters.

We need to reclaim our country and reclaim our prosperity by charting a new course. That course would create new jobs in new industries that pollute less, use fewer resources and make products that last.

We need to get control of our government budgets by enforcing the discipline of frugality and paying as we go with taxes that are fairer to working families. We need to confront powerful interests that threaten to destroy our democratic republic.

A vote for Dino Rossi is a vote backward into a negative and dangerous past. This time, regardless of your party affiliation, vote for Sen. Patty Murray. She has earned a reputation for hard work and integrity, and we really need that right now.

— Brian Derdowski, King County Council member 1990-2000, Issaquah

Seek pay and benefits cuts

King County Executive Dow Constantine has inherited a budget problem created by the former King County administration. [“County looks to property tax after defeat of sales-tax plan,” page one, May 25.]

However, his proposal to solve the problem and protect basic police and criminal-justice system services is not going to work. Voters are not going to approve a raise in any taxes.

There is only one solution: Constantine must sit down with the union leaders representing King County employees and law enforcement, and get them to agree to reduce employee pay and benefits.

If they fail to work this out, the criminal-justice system and police services would be gutted. The county administration and unions would try to blame the voters, whereas the unions and employees hold the only viable solution that would work.

— Walter Huff, Des Moines

Vote out the incumbents

I am in disgust today after our elected leaders, again, failed to lead. If fact, they did not even have to lead, they just needed to decide to let us decide.

The Metropolitan King County Council cannot seem to allow the voters of the county make a decision on what we need in our communities.

While I do not want a tax increase, I would rather have the option to vote for one if it meant saving King County’s criminal-justice system. I find it hard to believe that there are no other options available to cut rather than our Sheriff’s Department and courts.

It is really time to vote out all incumbents.

— Jeff Keller, North Bend

The financial nanny

If the residents of King County are savvy enough to elect a County Council, I am not sure why the council then thinks it needs to operate as a financial nanny.

The tax measure was to put it on a ballot —not to move forward with a tax increase. I am perfectly capable of deciding whether or not I am willing to pay a tax increase to maintain criminal-justice programs.

Although I am retired, have limited income and do not live in a $400,000 home, I do believe I could manage $38. Give me a choice.

— Deanne Gilbert, Kirkland