Mr. Bennett found the INTERNATIONAL CLIMATE SCIENCE COALITION (ICSC) is claiming once again that the science academics of every country in the developing world are all wrong about global warming.

This “report” with 500 signers is being promoted by an energy industry huckster who is working full time on climate change denial.

The recommendation calls for all taxes, regulations, and other interventions intended to reduce CO2 be abandoned.

The “report” was re-released with help from the tobacco industry promotion folks, the energy industry lobbyists, coal mining industry, and discredited organizations with the science- and earth-friendly names who promote the idea that if you repeat “new information” over, over, and over, it becomes regarded as true.

There must be some REALLY BIG money to be made discrediting global warming.

Joan Zuber

Molalla

The choice is obvious, Sheriff Roberts is the only reasonable choice

We were surprised to learn that there are two candidates who have filed to run against Sheriff Craig Roberts.

One isn’t running a campaign and the other has less than five years law enforcement experience and is not even a full-time resident of Clackamas County.

This opponent’s idea to keep criminals off the street involves building a tent city on unspecified land where up to 150 inmates would be guarded by only one deputy.

As an award-winning Clackamas County home builder, we are concerned with the safety of our neighborhoods.

This person is not currently certified as a police officer. He is a resident of Washington County, and even that county’s sheriff doesn’t publicly endorse him.

How would he know how to best handle the bad guys and protect the citizens of Clackamas County?

Sequoia Custom Homes has deep roots in Clackamas County; we’ve grown up here, operate our business here, and raise our children here.

Keeping Clackamas County a wonderful place to live is a big concern for us.

We support Craig Roberts for Sheriff. Sheriff Roberts is honest, hard-working, and dedicated to public safety.

We urge you to vote for the most qualified, experienced candidate, Sheriff Craig Roberts.

Darcy & Brian Snodgrass

Owner, Sequoia Custom Homes

Do me a favor, just look at the the endorsements and make up your own mind

Hard work, trust, and integrity are the characteristics that people look for in their elected officials.

This is especially true when it comes to our law enforcement officials. These qualities can best be measured by the individuals and organizations who endorse a candidate.

I am going to assume that Mr. LaManna values endorsements as much as Sheriff Roberts, and has worked hard to obtain as many as possible.

I made a quick check of who is supporting whom in the endorsement race and to say that it is a little lopsided would be an understatement.

Sheriff Roberts has received the endorsements of all the eight police chiefs in Clackamas County, two former Clackamas County Sheriffs, 12 other Oregon Sheriffs, the district attorneys of Clackamas, Washington and Multnomah Counties, the mayors of eight Clackamas County cities, all of the county commissioners, and several newspapers, (pausing take a breath) Firefighters of Clackamas County, IAFF Local 1159, Joint Council of Teamsters No. 37, and the NW Labor Council, AFL-CIO, local business leaders, and a host of other notables.

But most importantly, the men and women who have worked for Sheriff Roberts these past three and a half years — his deputies — respect and trust him.

They voted overwhelmingly to endorse him for another term, and that speaks volumes.

If you check out Mr. LaManna’s Web site under “endorsements,” you will find 11 names. Last time I looked there were 12.

It previously included an old letter of support from Washington County Sheriff Rob Gordon, which LaManna was apparently trying to pass off as an endorsement. It has been removed and is no longer on his list.

The only other endorsements whose names I recognize is Commander Mike Garvey, who left a neighboring police agency after being caught and disciplined for running up over $5,000 worth of personal calls on his police cell phone and allegedly having sex with male prostitutes.

Heading his list of 11, is David Broomfield, a disgruntled former employee of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office squeezing out a few sour grapes. Most impressive!

LaManna has an $800,000 home in Washington County, but rented a basement room from a friend in Milwaukie last fall to establish residency in Clackamas County, so that he would be eligible to run for Sheriff. He would have us believe that he is actually living in this basement room.

This choice should be a no-brainer, but rumor has it that LaManna is spending a great deal of his own money on this contest, so watch out!

If you have any doubts about who to support as election day approaches, just look at the list of people supporting Craig Roberts.

That’s support he has earned by serving for four years as our sheriff, and the 25 years of service right here in Clackamas County that led up to it.

John Van Huizen

Molalla

It’s time we started a new kind of school that teaches knowledge

I am writing to let residents in South Clackamas County know about a group of parents, myself included, who are in the planning phase of opening a public charter school to be possibly located in south Clackamas or North Marion County.

Charter schools are free, public schools, held to the same standards as other schools in the state and report to their sponsoring district board.

Regardless of where the school will be situated, school boards want to see broad community support before they make a decision about whether or not to allow the school.

To that end, let me briefly describe the model of school we are planning.

The school will offer the Hirsch Core Knowledge for students in grades 6-8.

Core Knowledge includes, for example, the basic principles of constitutional government, world history, math, oral and written expression, art and music. The curriculum is sequential and specific, preventing repetition and gaps.

A classical curriculum will be utilized for the high school, and it is not easily summarized. Classical means to uphold a standard of excellence.

This system values knowledge for its own sake, studying humanity by examples in history, politics and the like. High standards of behavior are woven throughout the curriculum and in the school itself.

All students will complete courses of traditional liberal arts such as language, literature, math, history, government, sciences, music and art, presented in a coherent and orderly program.

Logic, philosophy and rhetoric will be taught within each course as well by utilizing variations of the Socratic Method. For more information about this curriculum, there are a number of Web sites with details.

This curriculum is rigorous, but it prepares students for college and for success in life, whether or not they choose continuing education, because it focuses upon a basic skill-critical thinking.

This enables students to analyze issues and decisions to be made in a coherent, logical fashion.

If anyone is interested in this sort of free, public option for their children, please contact me either by email at cruthers@monitorcoop.com or leave a message at my home phone, 503-634-2744.

Our parent group is beginning our public outreach process now and we will be contacting some of the civic groups in the area very soon and holding public meetings for parents.

These public meetings will be announced soon via several methods of communication, including but not limited to email, flyers and brochures.

Liz Cruthers

Molalla

The city of Molalla needs to tighten its belt just like us

I’m tired of all the arm-twisting!

“The sky is falling” is the city of Molalla’s constant plea to raise taxes to “save” the pool and to fulfill its “urban growth” fantasy via an ABSURDLY GRANDIOSE PARKS PLAN.

It is obvious that Molalla “forgot” to plan or budget for public parks when the housing boom was in full swing.

What happened to all the public funds that were raised while all the hammers were flying? It appears it went to an ever-bigger public payroll and for endless, expensive, and now UNNECESSARY “ growth planning.”

Now, for the sake of the “GROWTH PLAN”, we are asked to dump ourselves into a giant METRO TAX POOL, the North Clackamas Parks District.

Tiny Molalla would be dwarfed by this huge “tax and spend” agency of 100,000-plus urban dwellers who would decide our tax fate in the future.

To “save” an aquatic center that has never been anything but a financial drain, we’re asked to vote to build and maintain more potential boondoggles.

Faced with the real estate crisis, Molalla begs us to join this massive METRO Parks District to foist ever-larger tax burdens upon us (.538/$1,000 with 3 percent a year increases). I think that is wrong!

Molalla should have budgeted during the housing “boom” to build parks and shore up the pool.

Joining North Clackamas would make Molalla a ridiculous “island” of service, far from all those expensive parks north of the Clackamas River.

In a time of escalating fuel prices, being a far-flung satellite makes no sense. We are too far south to benefit from the METRO parks and green spaces; the cost of North Clackamas staff maintaining such a small service zone here would be prohibitive.

What will happen when those 100,000-plus METRO residents decide they need tax increases to buy and maintain more METRO parkland and park service payrolls?

Our small voting block will get lost in the shuffle. And, METRO voters love to pass parks bonds!

Molalla must stop trying to play poker with our taxes and show their whole hand of “needs”.

At recent meetings we’ve learned we’ll be asked for money for the middle school, and the library vote is coming in the fall.

No one knows how much more public money Molalla will waste on the “$300,000 and counting” Winterbrook “growth plan” — in a time of recession and a falling real estate market.

The city has a plan to keep the pool open if we vote “NO” to annexation.

Why did Councilor Needham “forget” to tell us about that contingency plan in his letter to the editor last week?

Please display some courage and leadership in these risky times and stop trying to manipulate us with lies and half-truths about “needs.”

I am voting “NO” on annexation to North Clackamas Parks District.

Wake up, Molalla city government: America is tightening its financial belt; it is overdue for you to follow!

Stop your spending spree before we are all drowning in debt!

Susan Hansen

Molalla

Reader’s comments about Sheriff Roberts were wrongheaded

John Van Huizen’s letter was wrong.

Sheriff Craig Roberts has not improved his office. If his deputies’ morale is up, it is because Sheriff Roberts isn’t supervising or disciplining them.

It’s time for a change. The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office needs to be run like a business.

Shouldn’t voters be able to make a decision to build a $61-million dollar closet that will more than likely end up sitting vacant and unused just like Wapato Jail in Multnomah County?

Since 2005, our current Clackamas County Sheriff has allowed his deputies to shoot several people

One of the victims, Fouad Kaady, whom was completely naked, unarmed, and severely injured from a car accident that he had just been in.

Six Clackamas County deputies have been arrested and convicted of crimes including drugs, sex and robbery at gunpoint.

Sheriff Roberts deputies are now intimidating people who display Richard LaManna for Sheriff signs.

One of his deputies threatened to arrest a state transportation worker who was removing a Roberts sign from state land.

Clackamas County is long overdue for a fresh, responsible perspective. A new sheriff such as Rick LaManna has the courage to be our Sheriff.

LaManna is an experienced law man. He knows how a law enforcement agency should be run.

He will run the sheriff’s office effectively. He will fire the dangerous deputies and hire qualified, honest deputies. The deputies need to be held accountable for their actions.

Rick does reside in Clackamas County. His living parents own and reside in a house in Washington County.

The Washington County Peace Officers Association for the last eight years has asked Rick LaManna to run against the current sheriff. Rick has respectfully declined them.

Family, friends, respected business owners, and residents of Clackamas County have all asked Rick LaManna to step up and run for Clackamas County Sheriff.

Clackamas County needs a responsible businessman with more than adequate law enforcement history which exceeds some 14 years of service over the past 30 years.

I have a suggestion for the voters of Clackamas County. If you want to go down on a sinking ship full of rats, vote for Craig Roberts.

If you would rather ride on a stable boat with a responsible captain, lets stay afloat and vote for Rick LaManna.

I live in Clackamas County. I operate a business in Clackamas County. I support Rick LaManna.

Jim Smith