Editorial: "Wastewater treatment costs are adding up"

The unnamed Courier editor correctly points out that the numbers on City wastewater services are mounting up. Lay those numbers next to the proposed costs of diverting the base flow of the Verde River into Prescott toilets and you do indeed start to talk 'real money.' But conveying that information is a news-beat job. Editorials are about taking a position, and in this case the editor missed an opportunity. I get the feeling there's a certain unease about all this in the Courier office, but he's not willing to go further.

There are plenty of people in town who've been expressing unease about this issue for years while the Courier poo-poohed them. Now faced with the hard numbers, the Courier goes wishy-washy. Progress?

Oh, and guys, I know the Senate Minority Leader has been much on your minds with the Renzi thing going on, but our public-works director is still called Craig McConnell. You knew that, of course.

A1: "Nurse treats abused children with smiles"

Departing from recent practice, in its obligatory page-one picture/fluff space the Courier today is carrying a human-interest story that angles in on the very real public issue of child abuse. Here's a cookie for Mirsada Buric and the editors.

Talk of the Town: "Life’s not a beach thanks to council naysayers"

Earl Burden gets in a massive whine because the City isn't buying into his wacky dream of artificial beaches on our lakes. Oy.

A few years ago, when the water was almost entirely drained from Watson Lake, I hiked with a pal across the center of it. It's an impressive landscape, ringed with weird rocks, dotted with the ghostly white heads of still-rooted trees draped in lost fishing gear, all buried dozens of feet deep in stinking black muck. Why anyone would think it safe to swim in that cesspool is utterly beyond me.

Then there's Willow Lake, nothing more than a marshy floodplain, more fit for grazing pronghorn and cattle than swimming -- well, wading, really. A beach on the edge of this puddle makes about as much sense as socks on a chicken.

Thanks to the Courier for showing us just how out of touch some of our neighbors are.

A1: "Parking system strives for flexibility"

Leaving aside the dumb headline, in which a thing can somehow 'strive,' Cindy's coverage points out very clearly how short-sighted codes impede useful downtown development, and how pressure from downtown landlords and businesses may be turning that around. Good stuff.

A1: "Prescott lags behind in public transit"

No kidding.

Cindy Barks' story has a lot of good, clear info. But what's going on at the end? Of the 15 pitiful souls who managed to show up for this meeting, only one appears -- the guy who thinks that this should all be handled by private companies. I smell something missing here.

A1: "Parties float names as Renzi probe heats up"

Joanna Dodder mixes it up with the wire reports to provide a good overview of this breaking situation. What was a blog rumor early yesterday has developed into Arizona pols on both sides lining up for a possible special election. Renzi's not dead yet, but his pals have already rented the hearse.

Coming: More Renzi

Apparently Grant Woods (the former AZ attorney general, no?), now working as a lawyer for Rep Renzi, revealed a big lump of unreported cash last week to reassure prosecutors that all was on the up-and-up. Will it work?

The Hill:

"Failure to disclose a large payment properly would be a violation of House ethics rules, but more significantly, prosecutors could use it as evidence that Renzi knew the transaction was illegal and tried to hide it."

Think we'll see more on this in tomorrow's Courier?

Talk of the Town: "More than talk, water worries are in the numbers"

In a piece that for some reason didn't make it onto the free site, zoology prof Richard Clark drones on wonkishly about the basics of water budgeting, warning that because we're taking out more than is going in, we're gonna run out.

Pretty basic, I think.

Why is it that our various legislators, supervisors and Councilcritters don't get it? Maybe this piece, a difficult and stodgy read unhelped by a cloudy headline, is an example to answer that.

Editorial: "Laborer bill deserves governor's signature"

In his first words the unnamed Courier editor gives away his highest priority in this issue: "The view."

That's really what it's about, isn't it? We don't mind having the positive effects of the work these people do, we just don't want to see them. We don't even care whether they're illegal, really, only that they're brown and untidy.

Farther down we get a nice little frame for the Governor's decision: if she signs it, she's courting independent voters, if she vetoes it, she's courting Hispanic voters. Of course there's no chance that she'll decide on the basis of whether she thinks it's good law, right?

By the way, guys, it's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not "Immigration Customs and Enforcement."

Letters: Anarchy, MJ and bags of poop

The letters column today kicks off with a guy who thinks taxpayers need more say in how their money is spent. Here's you clue, Dave: it's called a vote.

In the middle we see a familiar comment from MJ, cross-posting to the Courier online comments system. Go MJ, and I encourage all readers here to do the same.

Finally a Vietnam vet confirms just how awful those peaceniks are by repeating the legend of returning troops being taunted and pelted with shit. Like everyone else I've heard these stories, but also that no one has ever reliably confirmed they actually happened. Anyone have a good source?

A1: "Bill seeks to protect Agua Fria, other sites"

The nice, straightforward information piece by Joanna Dodder comes with a light dessert. This bill has been part of Rick 'Richie Rich' Renzi's new greener strategy, but he's had to hand off to Raul Grijalva and isn't answering phone calls from the press. Awww.

A1 "Great Lakes, Mesa vie for Prescott air service"

The public contention seems to be focused on which passenger air service to use. But about halfway down we learn why it's a public issue at all: the 1.7 or 1.8 million bucks in public subsidies to provide the service.

I'd have liked to see a declarative sentence stating exactly where this money is coming from. If I recall correctly it's all federal, but readers would be excused for inferring that since the City Council is voting on it, it might involve some from our local coffer.

It would also have been interesting to read a response by Mr Lamerson, for instance, to the question of why he supports federal subsidies for business travelers.

A1: "Granite Gate annexation plan opens debate among residents"

Cindy Barks details how once again the City Council is in hot water for failing to discuss changes to a neighborhood with the neighbors before putting them on the public agenda. Architect and former Councilcritter Tom Reilly knows more about this than most, so his surprise at the reaction is likely feigned.

The story's OK, but the headline is misleading, giving the impression that residents disagree with each other, rather than pretty uniformly with the City action.

How it's done in the big leagues

An especially egregious example of editorial chicanery came to light today, involving The New York Post, operated by Rupert Murdoch (Mr Fox), "rewriting" an AP story under byline. This might be instructive for Courier readers.

Editorial: "Prop. 200 represents Arizona voter's will"

At last, a Courier editorial that is all original writing conveying a viewpoint with relative clarity. The viewpoint amounts to pointless flailing at a favorite inflatable punching clown, the Ninth Circuit, which did something the editor didn't expect, which is uphold the law -- we've grown so used to the other thing under the Bush adminstration, after all -- but the unnamed editor gets a cookie anyway.

As a poll worker I've had to deal with the effects of Prop 200 on the retail level, and believe me, guys, it's not just Dems and minorities who are pissed off about this. Those most affected among my customers have been older Republicans.

Letters: Love for Lovell

Tom Gatchell gives Terry Lovell another attaboy for facing down a whole planet of scientists with a brain so amazing it got him a job on KYCA.

Anybody else on this bus remember when those of us who understood the threat of atmospheric heating due to fossil-fuel use were the radical fringe? It's fascinating how people can deftly shift their arguments from 'we're the majority, so we're right' to 'we're smarter than the majority, so we're right.' The rub is that science may not accept a given theory, but once it does it never rejects it again in favor of the previous model, because the previous model has already proved inadequate. The boat's already left, folks.

Goodman: "Conservatives taking women out of the abortion debate"

Today's column, originally headlined "Politicians Playing Doctor," on the Supreme Court ruling is complete and only marginally harmed by the Courier's arbitrary edits and introduced errors. It slays me that the editors are compelled to 'improve' on work already done by some of the nation's best writers and editors.

A1: "Sewer upgrade costs could exceed $500 million"

So now we're getting an idea what the bills will look like for the large-scale growth the City has been encouraging for two decades. If the projections are roughly correct -- and for $300,000, they'd better be -- new sewer projects, no maintenance, no repairs, will cost $5,000 per living soul in Prescott, or $10,000 per person showing up to live here over the next 25 years. That's a fair bit higher than the impact fees on new construction, of course, but you can bet this cost won't be paid by developers.

Good work, Cindy.

A1: "Program teaches girls self-defense techniques"

Brava, PV! Shari Lopatin's story on the collaboration between PVPD and educators to teach girls about self-defense techniques demonstrates good thinking by both. I suspect it also has something to do with promoting women police officers to positions of authority.

Couple things: We learn that it's a new curriculum, and in the last graph one of the girls says it's mandatory, but we're left to infer that all middle-school girls will get this training. I'd also like to know how many girls are involved and whether girls in charter and home-school programs will be included.

A1: "Renzi steps down from more committees"

Joanna Dodder gives us a rundown on the sniff-test situations that Rick Renzi has been slowly simmering in since October, resulting in Friday's FBI raid on the Renzi business in Sonoita and his committee resignations. But she missed a couple of important details: Attorneygate and ROMP.

Update, 1pm: WSJ continues its coverage with new stuff, via Kos.