Opinion - Port Orchard

Legislature will have its work cut out for it in 2009

Sound Off is a public forum. Articles are selected from letters to the editor or may be written specifically for this feature. Today, 23rd District Washington State Rep. Sherry Appleton (D-Poulsbo) anticipates what could be the major issues the state will be grappling with during next year’s legislative session.

Gas prices quell hope of economic growth in South Kitsap

For years now, “growth management” has seemed to involve efforts to control land use to restrict real estate development in some areas and hope for economic development in others. What happens when there is little growth to be managed by government? Many people had supposed that completion of the Tacoma Narrows bridge project would spur population and economic growth in South Kitsap. Rush-hour traffic congestion on the old bridge was an obvious impediment to growth.

D’oh! We all need to understand our rights

Quick — can you list the five rights named in the First Amendment?

For better or worse, the readers respond

“In your article about the person in Port Angeles who had received medals and benefits not awarded, it seemed the fellow did receive a proper sentence,” writes Dennis Wojciak of Marysville.

Did judge give Bainbridge vandals preferential treatment?

In the case of the recent vandalism of Bainbridge Island’s police cars, the crime itself may have been confined to Bainbridge but the troubling response to it resonates throughout Kitsap County, prompting discussions from the specific (when a prank is no longer a prank) to the general (how a permissive, affluent society can ruin our children).

Supreme Court ends union effort to silence employers

On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court (by a 7-2 decision) struck down a California law imposing so-called “union neutrality” requirements on employers in the state. The law limited what employers could say about union organizing campaigns in the workplace. The high court’s ruling should be the final stake in the heart of a similar union-backed proposal here in Washington.

Top-two primary actually limits people’s choices

I have to take issue with state Rep. Judy Warnick’s June 21 Guest Opinion (“Top-two primary best reflects people’s choice”) lauding the so-called “top-two” election process Washington state will adopt starting with the primary in August.

Can’t drive 55? Maybe we all should

With gasoline now over $4 a gallon, ethanol losing its appeal as a substitute fuel which would cost more to produce than gas, and the ANWR still locked up for the caribou, how about doing what we did when we were crying the blues over gasoline in the 1970s?

Cribbage clubbers addicted to fun, competition

They gather together in the Olalla community center, some coming from as far away as Wenatchee and Tacoma.

WEA Supreme Court decision: 1 year later

June 14, 2007. Our day started early that Thursday morning. We were expecting a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in our case against the Washington Education Association (WEA), and we knew the decision would come down this week or the next. As I waited tensely at my desk, the alert flashed on the computer screen. I grabbed the phone and buzzed (Evergreen Freedom Foundation Executive Director) Bob Williams. “Bob, we won. Unanimous.” “Good,” he said, and hung up. The rest of the day was a blur. We spent the first hour scouring the Supreme Court’s opinion. We sent out hundreds of e-mails, several press releases, and did radio interviews all day long. We rushed to Seattle for a press conference and talked to numerous national newspapers. The question on everyone’s mind: “What does it mean?”