Well, today's Journal pretty much makes clear who said what and when. Probably not the best choice of words on the part of Mr Lofgren, but far from a hanging offense. In fact I understand his sentiment completely. It reminds me of the story of a person who moves to town and buys a house next to some railroad tracks that have been there for 100 years. She then complains to the city council about how she can't sleep because of how loud the trains are. The city passes an ordinance forbiding trains from running at night!
The one who really "blew it" was Tom Courtney. He said when asked about a proposal to hold third graders back who can't read, "If we could just find the money to get them in preschool, they'd be able to read in third grade"!! Spoken like a true Lib. Funny, I thought that was the job of the kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade teachers. That's who used to do it.
If clean air muscatine is going to appear at every Legislators Forum and every month harp about the same thing this behavior hinges on harrassment. In the Forum that I viewed on Sunday every person on the panel indicated that GPC is building a new facility that should solve the air quality problem and that the facility is scheduled to be finished in 2014. They also stated that both the DNR and the EPA are monitoring the situation. Who else should we get involved in this situation? Should clean air muscatine be monitoring neighborhoods to make sure that backyard grilling isn't violating standards? Pleas remember that the requirments for the amount of emissions has become even stricter as time goes by, so that even when companies have added scrubbers the EPA has demanded more and more. Some persons would love to see GPC be shut down/run out of town. I am not one of those. If clean air muscatine has some positive ideas I'm sure they are welcome to share them at future Forums.
