Cartoon: The phones don't work

More space wasted on Paris Hilton. Gag me.

A1: "Couple watches lion kill deer in yard"

Oh, this must have been fun to write. How often does a writer get to use 'catamount,' after all? Joanna Dodder seems to relish the opportunity. Plain ol' straight news, no one hurt unless you count the deer, and the sidebar is a nice, informative touch. Here's a cookie. I love living here.

A1: "Contract non-renewal causes peaceful protest"

It's a drag that this otherwise interesting story doesn't include the other side of the conflict, although the 'call me on Tuesday' quote is arch, if uninformative. This hits an important voter-interest story, that of charter-school management and funding, and it would be easy to infer from the photo box at lower right that we may have a theme building. I'm wondering whether the Courier has considered covering the board meetings where this conflict has been apparently playing out, and if not, why not? In any case it's good to see something on these usually invisible education experiments.

I had some direct experience with Kestrel some years ago, and I have to say I met some great people there, but management problems have dogged it. I hope it gets better, because it offers a great mission.

A1: "Former deputy was once head of the Washington state Aryan Nation chapter"

Oy. I hear he's a bass player, too.

A1: "City moves forward with roundabout study"

Councilcritter Suttles goes to school on roundabouts, and I hope she'll be able to borrow Cindy Barks' notes, she'll need them for the quiz. Voters should take a few notes here, too, for the coming election.

A1: "Police arrest second PUSD teacher"

We don't learn why it took two months between taking him out of his classroom and the actual arrest, but Mirsada Buric covers this ugliness pretty well. I'm thankful for the quote from Kapp at the end in defense of all the good teachers whose reputations are indirectly besmirched by this. And for anyone thinking of putting their kid in private school to get away from this, bear in mind that PUSD has a program in place and caught the guy. You don't hear about the ones who don't get caught.

Cartoon: Memorial Day protest

Protesting the war to take our troops out of harm's way equals spitting on our veterans. Uh-huh. The mind that can buy into this drek is pitiable, but the minds that conceive this message and abet its distribution are the real serial abusers, taking advantage of those who are too weak to defend themselves.

Letters: Inattention edition

Leaving aside the standard nonprofit thank-you letter, today's mailbag is about missing the boat: Suzanne MacGowan thinks we can just tax the underground economy, Peggy McCauslin agrees with me but didn't quite read the material, and Reb Satterfield, while doing wonderful things for the troops, remains confused about the war.

Editorial: "Minutemen need to reveal secret identities"

While the unnamed Courier editor goes a bit over the top in referring to wannabe vigilantism as "noble work," his central point is correct, even if its motivation is a bit venal. (He really wants to print the vigilante rant sitting on his spike, but with no name on it, he can't.) The writing is all original, the idea is good for the town, that's enough to rate a cookie. Too bad he couldn't resist the gratuitous cowboy reference.

Talk of the Town: "Yavapai officials mustn’t keep us in the dark"

Georgene Lockwood, a friend of mine, lets the Queen Bee have it with both barrels. We haven't always seen eye-to-eye on the issues and tactics going on in Williamson Valley, but here she stays on track and I think she's right on.

A6: "Davis, Thurman support Prop. 207 land use stipulation"

Okay, this is different from what I was thinking on Sunday. The Supes voted against the Queen Bee to allow the county to revoke land-use changes requested by owners if they subsequently sue under Prop 207 rules. I'm just having a hard time figuring out when that might happen, since you're supposed to invoke 207 if a state or local authority does something that impacts your land value. Very interesting that Springer invokes the 'will of the voters' (not unlike the 'will of the hypnotized subject to bark like a chicken') and makes a big deal about what looks pretty basic to me. There's a very bad smell in the room.

Editorial: "Time has come for use of photo radar"

The unnamed Courier editor again repackages page one and -- surprise! -- comes to the same conclusion pushed in the uncritical coverage. At least there's no cowboy-movie reference, thank Cthulhu.

Talk of the Town: "Everyone has the right to protect themselves"

Most readers won't make it through the first graph of this academically styled bumble through Beside-the-Pointland, so it might be unfair to ask that the Courier editors recruit a street lawnforcement officer to reply to Tony Imbronone's ultimate point, that the government has neither the capacity nor the inclination to protect you from crime, so you'd better get a gun. That seems a mighty sweeping indictment of our peace officers, not to mention the whole concept of civilization, capping his massive naivete about the likely effectiveness of the strategy.

A1: "Sheriff's office arrests one of its own"

In the comments, Carlos Gaines gives the expected instant judgment, and things look bad for the deputy. I hope the reader will resist the urge to infer this or that, and bear in mind that using drugs recreationally doesn't make you evil.

A7: "Court of appeals ends Henson’s extradition battle"

Mirsada Buric follows up on her story from Saturday with the expected news that Arizona will send him back to California and the death threats against him. I can understand the journalistic rationale for "a misdemeanor conviction involving his threats against the Church of Scientology," but given the facts of the case it would have been nice to see 'purported' or 'alleged' in there somewhere. And I expect we'll never know whether YavCo jail personnel really withheld his drugs or kept him from his lawyer. I hope he makes it through the ordeal OK.

Herron: "Big Mess in Iraq getting worse daily"

Al gives us a nice basic summary of the issues our soldiers are facing down in Iraq. Of course, we knew all this four years ago, only the numbers of dead and maimed have changed, so it's a little late. He promises a second part to this, and I hope it will include a clear and forceful position on what we should do about the 'big mess.'

Editorial: "Why rush now on immigration bill?"

The unnamed Courier editor raises the bloody effigy of Ted Kennedy over his head to scare his tiny audience, but he collapses under the weight of his own rhetoric. Failing to mention that the other main sponsor of this bill is John Kyl and that it's supported by both St. McCain and the Current Resident puts the editor squarely in the center of the hooting platoon led by Russell Pierce. After stoking the fire for "immigration reform" for several years in a pathetically transparent attempt to stampede voters toward the Rs, suddenly now there's no hurry. Blaming the current Congress for the Preznit's massive deficit-spending rates a chuckle, as well.

Guys, you've been pandering to this reactionary put-up job for so long you've bought into the gag. The vast majority of Americans know that the situation is both complex and not an emergency, and so do you. Put a sock in it and let the adults get something done.

A1: "County workers keep buildings looking good"

I remember doing a story a lot like this for my high-school paper about our custodial department. Paula Rhoden gets the byline, but this is another in what we can expect will be a regular series of utterly uncritical features that could have been written by departmental PR flaks. Again we learn nothing about the quality or relative value of the services we're all paying for.

I've dealt with Pat Kirshman professionally, and the sooner he shuffles off to obscurity the better I'll like it. There's plenty of stink to investigate here.

A3: "Copper Basin Road project, water availability top agenda "

Another regular Monday agenda story from Cindy Barks. If there's going to be no analysis or background to the issues that the councils and boards are preparing to discuss, it seems to me that this sort of information would be easier to access in a regular, dependable notice box shared by the various government authorities. Consider how the agenda information can best serve the voter, and what the paper could include to facilitate and encourage public participation.

Update, 9:47: Page number corrected, thanks Jared.

A1: "Group recreates war for History Channel"

Joanna Dodder has a little wander through Prescott history to pad out a puffer about our local military dress-up club. I suppose it's no surprise that she doesn't mention the actual subject of the documentary, America's first unprovoked, aggressive war of expansion and conquest.