Slowly, a new mentality is emerging in the whole area of our food choices. More and more, consumers want to have a link to their food source, know where their salad greens or milk came from and what processes were used to grow or deliver them. It's a good sign that people take that much interest to be informed and involved in something as vital and essential as their food.
  The books and speeches of Michael Pollan, who was recently up at Western Washington University, have done much to spawn this new national conversation connecting farming and food.

A sad day

EDITOR, The Tribune:
  This past Saturday (Feb. 27) as I often do, I crossed the border to visit and do business in Lynden. I often buy items from the terrific and friendly merchants in town and I always get my haircut from a longtime friend in town.
  Over the years I’ve spent many thousands of dollars of hard-earned money on goods and services in town because I knew I was getting good value and I knew my contributions would be good for a community that I appreciated too, especially now with the economy in turmoil.

Tim Newcomb
Tribune assistant editor

  VANCOUVER, B.C. — Recently a friend told me that I was practically Canadian. Rest assured, I’m not. But he claimed that my residency of four years attending school in Canada gave me at least partial claim to the country. While I still disagree, I thought that nothing would be better to bolster my Canadian heritage than to take in as much curling as possible during the Vancouver, B.C., Winter Olympics. You see, outside of hockey, curling is quite Canadian. It is their national sport, after all.

  One only has to recite what has happened recently and it become evident what a preposterous situation is forced on the rest of the county by the Bellingham Fire Department’s control of Whatcom Medic One.
  Even though a crew of five from Fire District 7 of Ferndale has gone through all the training needed — 10 months in Seattle, away from family, with the Harborview Medical Center — to be certified elsewhere as paramedics, they apparently aren’t allowed to enjoy that opportunity in Whatcom County. So deployment of a fifth Medic One unit continues to be delayed and to cost taxpayers money.

WTA is
valuable

EDITOR, The Tribune:
  All things considered, the recent recommendation by the Lynden City Council is not surprising. But rather than go off on ideologies, please consider the following.
  Last week, I had a short list of items to purchase in Cordata shops. I took the WTA bus to Kellogg, went to three shops, got my stuff and boarded the next northbound bus on the south side of Kellogg. Elapsed time: 2 hours. With my senior discount, my transportation cost was $1. Without the senior discount, the transportation cost would be $2. Let’s see you beat that in your private car.

  With two refineries at Cherry Point, Whatcom County has plenty at stake in the fate of a pair of bills, HB 3181 and SB 6851, that are currently being considered in Olympia. This is an effort to triple the tax that refineries already pay heavily into now, through the Model Toxics Control Act, to deal with the problem of stormwater management in the state.
  At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. The amount paid in has risen in 20 years from $23 million at its inception in 1989 to $127 million last year. That money should be available to help communities do stormwater upgrade projects. The trouble is, the fund is being raided to bolster the troubled Washington general fund, to the tune of $180 million over the last two years.

Nursing home tax not
equitable

EDITOR, The Tribune:
  The proposed legislation HB3021/SB6751 regarding the Quality Assurance Fee (QAF), also known as the bed tax on nursing facilities, is not equitable to all nursing homes. Some nursing homes are exempt from the tax while others carry the burden of the tax.
  Such is the case for the Christian Health Care Center of Lynden.  This tax would match federal money to the state at a rate of 60 cents of every dollar spent in skilled nursing facilities. The tax would be used to replace the cuts to the nursing homes rates the state pays for Medicaid residents.

  Now that the 2010 Winter Olympics are just days away — and barely an hour’s drive away — it’s hard to avoid the excitement that is building for this world spectacle that is almost in our back yard. There may not be a big economic payoff; in fact, on a strict dollar basis, it costs dearly to stage an Olympics. But things such as this can’t be measured on that basis.
  There is the aspiration of the athletes from all around the world to compete for the Olympic Games, to train for excellence in their sport, and then to travel and test themselves against other teams. Whether we like it or not, sports are a powerful motivator of people, and the Olympics are meant to bring that competitive drive to a head in a spirit of respect and good sportsmanship.

Lynden case files in D.C.

EDITOR, The Tribune:
  On Jan. 5, 2010, legal arguments were filed by North County Community Alliance attorney Dick Stephens in the U.S. Supreme Court against the Department of Interior and the National Indian Gaming Commission. In the months to follow, other interested parties will be adding their briefs in support of the NCCA and likely some tribal gambling interests supporting the DOI and NIGC.

  Although any one person or party in power might like to see that control continue unimpeded, such is not the way of the American political system — and thankfully so. Elections work wonderfully for the people to speak and change what they think needs to be changed.
  Just when it was unthinkable that a non-Democrat could rise up and claim the Massachusetts U.S. Senate seat formerly held by the late Edward Kennedy, Scott Brown comes out of nowhere and connects with an electorate obviously interested in sending a different message to Washington, D.C. He will be sworn in next Monday.