Employment services, RHS doing great job putting people to work

The Rural Human Services Work Force Center has done an incredible job by correlating services to put women and men to work in short notice (known as the Tsunami Work Force Crew) since June to restore our harbor, city and Del Norte County.

Rural Human Services and Redwood Coast Employment Services are professional groups who regard their patrons and employees with the highest respect in a safe, positive manner. Their project managers, assistant project managers, supervisors, safety managers and RHS crew members alike have worked at full force to restore Del Norte County and beat winter’s wrath.

Redwood Coast Employment Services have exceeded any temporary employment services that I have ever worked for in the past. They excel in professionalism and job standards. RHS and Redwood Coast Employment Services educated workers in OSHA safety classes and with CPR classes.

Don’t forget or neglect veterans of recent wars

First, a very sincere thank-you to the entire community for the tribute given to our Bruno de Solenni (killed in Afghanistan in 2008) and the condolences given to our family. We believe Bruno is in a better place,  free of strife. We miss him terribly, but feel he is still with us in spirit.

My concern is for the surviving veterans and their families. Many of them have physical signs of their wounds that we can see. Others have inner turmoils and scars that still haunt them. Many have both. Their families are challenged by the ongoing  demands  of caring for them.

I know there are some services available, but I recently spoke with Jerry Cochran to see how we  can reach out to these veterans  and have community support to see how we can be of some help to them. These persons should not be ignored, nor their needs neglected.

Perhaps homeowners should get more aggressive with burglars

Recently there has been a rash of burglaries in the Fort Dick, Hiouchi and Washington Park areas.

As usual, the suspects in these crimes cause a large amount of damage to the homeowner, steal their hard earned valuables, and invade their privacy, not to mention that the items are usually pawned for pennies on the dollar or traded for drugs.

I wonder how many of these crimes would occur if the front page of the Triplicate read, “Burglary suspects shot by homeowner while attempting burglary.”

Rick Barry

Crescent City

Editor's note: Rick Barry is a California Highway Patrol officer.

If it had been anyone else, the police would have jailed Riese

The Nov. 1 article “Riese faces criminal complaint”  by Anthony Skeens opens up a number of questions that were not answered in the article.

First, I believe District Attorney Jon Alexander did the right thing by turning this case over to the state Attorney General’s Office. But I believe Mr. Alexander should be asking a number of questions of Chief Douglas Plack and of the Crescent City Police Department.

My first question: Why wasn’t Mike Riese booked into County Jail on the evening of Aug. 22?

Letter writers mischaracterizing handling of Eileen Silvey case

Now let me get this right. The district attorney gets word at the last minute that Eileen Silvey might have an excuse for some of the food purchases she allegedly charged to the weatherization program and does the ethical thing and voluntarily dismisses them (“28 Senior Center charges dropped: 18 counts remain agains the former program manager.” Oct. 25).

And letter-writers who support her say this is a bad, bad thing and Jon Alexander’s a bad, bad man?

Oh, and this is Martha McClure’s fault as well for being one of Senior Center Board members who has commented on this case?

Occupy Wall Street is about capacity to reach full potential

The Occupy Wall Street movement’s message is “hope.”

These are people are trying to contribute additional constructive solutions to people’s capability to freely realize their own potential. Participants are acting upon an intuitive sense as to what is needed in America (not just for a few, but for many).

These are patriotic people who feel that by creating awareness there will be hope for future results (a useful productive end) such as in areas of a peaceful direction to U.S. foreign policy, health care for all, decent housing and the ability to earn a living wage.

Silvey wrongly blamed, but all charges will be cleared

Again, I find myself feeling the need to come to the defense of Eileen Silvey after reading the skewed, poorly investigated facts about what was going on at the Senior Center (“Failing the ‘people in need’: Some who sought assistance with weatherization frustrated,” Oct. 15).

 What I want to know is, how did the people interviewed about weatherization come to the attention of the Triplicate reporter?

Did the reporter attempt to look at the Senior Center’s files to find out if they were noted as to why these people didn’t get the work done that they wanted?  It’s easy to jump on a bandwagon, playing the part of the victim.

History shows GOP presidents have worse deficit records

There should be no more rhetoric from Republicans that they can control our runaway debt better than spend-thrift Democrats.

Shouldn’t we see what the data says about past history, say from Eisenhower to George W. Bush?

How much has the national debt increased when Republicans and Democrats were in the White House? From the first budget year of each president until the end of the last budget year for that administration, here are the debt percentages increased for each adminstration: Eisenhower (R) 9 percent; Kennedy (D) 8 percent; Johnson (D) 13 percent; Nixon/Ford (R) 98 percent; Carter (D) 43 percent; Reagan (R) 186 percent; George H.W. Bush (R) 54 percent; Clinton (D) 32 percent; and George W. Bush (R) 105 percent.

Thanks to Del Norters showing support for ‘hometown kid’

The Hoffman family would like to express our gratitude to all of you Del Norters and our friends from the East Coast that joined the “Cody Express” and made the trip to Corvallis on Oct. 15.

What a fun time we all had. It means so much that so many of you came out and supported our hometown kid. But then Del Norters are known for their support when it comes to football. Most of you have followed Cody through all his football days here in Crescent City. Whether it was youth football or Warrior football, you guys have been there to follow him and now through college football.

Government can’t create jobs, should help private sector do it

I see by Marsinah Murakami’s Oct. 15 letter (“Keep pressure on GOP to make jobs, not posturing, its priority”) that Obama’s campaign strategy is working.

Murakami seems to think Obama’s plan is actually designed to create jobs. I don’t think so. I suspect it was presented with the knowledge that even his own party wouldn’t support it, and certainly not the GOP, thereby giving him something to blame on those bad old Republicans. As Murakami says, “... since when are Republicans against building roads and ... against creating jobs?”