The Gazette-Times couldn't wait for this one. Big bold letters Tuesday morning (May 15) stood out like a sore thumb: "Sex abuser dies." It did me in, and I wanted to throw up!

The Gazette Times had every opportunity for over a year to inform readers of Ronald Clyde Vansickle's arrest, and for two months, his conviction! They printed nothing, nothing, nothing!

Now that he is dead and no longer a threat to anyone, his family has to endure one more heartache, and they did nothing wrong to deserve this! They need our support, not humiliation.

Barbara Crawford

Corvallis

Article's placement lacked judgment

I think the Gazette-Times has stooped to an all-time low. I refer to the article in the May 15 edition headlined "Sex abuser dies."

The editorial staff used very poor judgment, in my opinion, by placing this on page one or even publishing this article at all! The fact that Ronald Vansickle passed away just two days prior to this article being published, regardless of what crime he may have committed, demands some modicum of respect be shown to his family. I fail to see what purpose was served with this article?

I offer my sympathy to the Vansickle family, and my dismay to the Gazette-Times' editorial staff.

Doug Cox

Corvallis

Let monied schools run aquatic center

Economic forecasters at the Corvallis School District deserve a very big raspberry. For years, they have been telling us that the district was heading into a prolonged period of projected deficits. That was a factor in selling last year's tax levy to voters. Now the Gazette-Times reports that the district has millions in extra money to spend. The need for the five-year tax levy was based on bogus projections.

In fairness to the voters, the district should waive collection of the levy, at least for its first year. Unfortunately, the district's practice has been to seize whatever funds it can. We saw that when the district refused to return excess construction bond proceeds to the taxpayers.

These circumstances do, however, open up an opportunity for the city of Corvallis. The school district owns the Osborn Aquatic Center. The city foolishly took over the center's operation when the district was struggling financially. The Gazette-Times recently reported that the city will subsidize the aquatic center's $1.3 million budget by about $500,000 in the coming year.

Since Corvallis apparently can't figure out how to operate such a fantastic recreation facility at a profit, give it back to its owner to do so. If the school district wants to continue the senseless subsidies to the center, it is in a much better position to do so.

David Grappo

Corvallis

Geoscience might've saved ODOT money

I have read the news stories about delays in construction of the U.S. Highway 20 realignment west of Eddyville. The Oregon Department of Transportation and the contractor blame the delays and cost overruns on unexpected landslides. The contractor threatens to pull out.

Landslides nearly always take place where they have happened before.

This means they can be recognized in advance by study of air photos by qualified geologists. I bet that the slides affecting the Highway 20 realignment are no different. A geologist could have recognized them, and their mitigation could have been included in the contractor's bid.

The recent availability of LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), or airborne laser-swath mapping, in western Oregon has made the recognition of landslides even more straightforward. LiDAR is expensive, but a drop in the bucket compared to the cost overruns mentioned in your articles.

ODOT, at least, employs geologists, some of whom are highly skilled in landslide mapping. However, the ODOT management needs to use the geologists they have in designing a highway project in the Coast Range. Same for the contractor.

Bob Yeats

Corvallis

OSU Emeritus professor

of geosciences

Prove OSU sports, enrollment link

Steven Ranzoni's interesting May 8 letter, "Riley's salary is a great investment," chides a citizen's questioning of Oregon State University's football coach Mike Riley's near-$1 million salary.

Mr. Ranzoni implies that this sports trainer is most definitely worth more than virtually any professor of any other field at our university because he produces revenue (at whatever ecological cost?) and gives a "huge boost in enrollment" to OSU. Razoni declares, " … enrollment is up nearly 40 percent … thanks almost entirely to a winning athletic program."

I fear a slight exaggeration. Oregon University System (www.ous.edu), whose authors should rightly gloat at outstanding statistics, state that, based on enrollment Fall Term 2006, there were decreases in new resident students, offset by increases in new nonresident students, leading to an overall increase of 4.1 percent over 2005. "This offsets the loss of the large graduating class last spring and resulted in an overall increase in enrollment of 0.7 percent, to 19,362 students." Where, pray, do Mr. Ranzoni's statistics come from? Perhaps his sources would like to enlighten us all with their research on how this sports revenue is spent on educational, cultural or (yes) ecological improvements.

Shirley King

Albany

Our senators caved in to drug companies

The U.S. Senate voted on May 7 to keep Americans hostage to drug companies that charge us the highest prices in the world. There were no rousing speeches, no fist-pounding, no filibusters as senators voted to gut the "Prescription Drug User Fee Amendments of 2007." It was just a little two-sentence amendment to a just-passed amendment to the original bill. The result would only allow drug importation if the Secretary of Health and Human Services certifies them, and he is adamantly opposed to interfering in the drug companies' monopoly.

This little vote puts a sharp line between those supporting price-gouging profits to corporations and those supporting citizens' opportunities to find a fair price (this time Oregon's senators were on our side). Senators love to grand-stand about hot-button social issues, but true reforms die deaths of a thousand cuts.

Democratic Senators John Kerry of Massachusetts, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Ken Salazar of Colorado and Patty Murray of Washington, who are often called liberals, voted to gut the bill. Even Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, who introduced the bill in the first place, voted against it!

The whole charade is a calculated game where senators trade votes so that each senator gets to tell their constituents "I voted for it" while leaving out "before/after I voted against it."

I sincerely hope this modern era of a Congress owned by robber barons comes to an end soon!

Andrew Gray

Corvallis