Comments for ClarkCountyToday.com

Comment on Opinion: No need for hysteria just because Christians are getting in the news business by nike

nike — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 02:46:20 +0000

In reply to Margaret. For some strange reason, BOTH appear to have that elusive concept of editorial integrity well in hand ....unlike a certain toxic bird cage liner.

Comment on Opinion: Legislators demand two auxiliary lanes and challenge light rail plans for I-5 Bridge Replacement by Rober

Rober — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 00:41:06 +0000

It should be obvious by now that the City wants to do anything to cause vehicle drivers to seriously consider and use light rail, no matter what the cost to tax payers or drivers.

Comment on Letter: What made and can make America great by Tony Teso

Tony Teso — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 22:40:48 +0000

Letter to the editor: The robber barons are a confession, not a defenseTim Petta asks us to give Camden and Mac Spiller “a chance” and offers the Gilded Age industrialists as the model we should want them to follow. He has picked his analogy more honestly than he knows. The men he names did build industries, and they did give away fortunes late in life. They also broke strikes with private armies, crushed competitors into a single national monopoly, and bought the newspapers that told the public what to think about all of it. If the Spillers are emulating Morgan, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Ford “in part,” the public is entitled to ask which part, and to notice that Petta has carefully declined to say.
So let us say it plainly, because the letter will not. Maddox Industrial Transformer, the company the Spillers co-own, has acquired more than thirty properties in Battle Ground through over a dozen corporations in six years. Its CEO sits on the board of a church whose pastor has spoken publicly about the importance of “governing unbelievers.” That same network now has the mayor on its payroll, a school board member among its employees, and the deputy mayor married to one of its workers. And as of last week, it owns The Reflector, the only newspaper in north Clark County. That is not philanthropy. That is the consolidation of a town’s economy, its press, and its government into a single private hand. Petta wants us to read that consolidation as kindness. The word for it is not kindness.
Notice the move the letter makes when the facts get uncomfortable. It retreats from economics into religion: critics, it implies, are really just bigots who object to the Spillers’ Christian faith. This is a substitution, and a dishonest one. No one credible objects to the Spillers being Christians. People object to one company owning the bakery, the cigar shop, the farmers market, the convention center, the newspaper, and a working majority of the people who hold local office, while its closest religious ally tells a Tacoma audience that his church wants “a very strong say in how things are done.” A businessman is free to worship as he likes. He is not thereby entitled to own the town, and pointing that out is not persecution.
Petta’s final flourish gives the game away entirely. He notes approvingly that two of his industrialist heroes “held print media as part of their holdings,” and writes this days after the Spillers bought the community’s only paper. He means it as reassurance. It is the opposite. When the same people who own the storefronts, employ the mayor, and fund the church also own the press, the question is not whether they will tell their own story. The question is who is left to tell any other one. A monopoly on commerce is a problem. A monopoly on commerce that also owns the newspaper is how a town stops being able to argue with itself.
“Give them a chance” is the language of someone asking you to suspend judgment precisely when judgment is most warranted. Battle Ground does not owe anyone the benefit of the doubt in exchange for a renovated coffee shop and a Fourth of July fireworks show. It owes itself a free press it does not depend on the Spillers to provide, elected officials who do not draw a Maddox paycheck, and a public square that remains genuinely public. The robber barons did transform their communities. Some of those communities never got the leverage back. That is the chance Petta is actually asking us to take, and it is the one worth refusing.

Comment on Letter: Congress quietly advances U.S.-Israel military integration through NDAA – Section 224 by JUSTIN Forsman

JUSTIN Forsman — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 09:21:16 +0000

In reply to David. Amen. Very well put. If you're on social media, feel free to reach out anytime.

Comment on Opinion: No need for hysteria just because Christians are getting in the news business by Margaret

Margaret — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 06:54:42 +0000

Both The Reflector, and Clark County Today accept letters to the editor that are not edited much, and allow over 200 words. Keeps community discussion lively and interesting.

Comment on Letter: ‘Eileen Quiring O’Brien has earned my trust and confidence’ by Debby J

Debby J — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 15:25:32 +0000

In reply to Roxanne. Old does not equate with stupid, just as young does not equate with intelligent. I'll take someone her age with her intelligence, experience, knowledge, and energy versus someone else just because they're younger. As far her leaving her Council position in 2022, you can't presume to know the entire story.

Comment on Rep. John Ley asks transportation secretary to deny Record of Decision for I-5 Bridge replacement project by Brad

Brad — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 15:03:33 +0000

Thank you John Ley. The IBR project is out of control. The tolls will really hurt working people. The 205 cannot handle a large increase of traffic. It is a good time to mention that the 205 is a lawless stretch of road. Neither OR or WA troopers patrol the bridge, the crazy speeders with no regard for safety are regularly in and out and from left lanes to right lanes and back and forth. Crazy shi.. almost everytime I use it. The IBR makes is worse.

Comment on Letter: What made and can make America great by Nancy Tarr

Nancy Tarr — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 02:37:04 +0000

It would be great if the Spillers would specifically address the fears of many of us who have heard they want to turn Battle Ground “Christian Nationalist”. I’m not sure what that even means, and why people are fearful exactly. The people who are concerned are gay, or have trans children for example. There are many citizens who do not want interpreted morality dictating our lives. As long as they do as they say and improve the community for all its members, I would give them a chance. There is fear that there will be a push to change the community by pressuring “undesirables” to leave. For example, our mayor wants to celebrate nuclear families. Does that mean there is something wrong with not nuclear families? He didn’t want to proclaim June pride month like so many others. And we believe he is close with the Spillers.

Those are a few thoughts I have about the Spillers, who I assume have good intentions. Just what exactly that means for people who don’t fit their vision of desirable community members is my concern.

Comment on Letter: What made and can make America great by David

David — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:32:48 +0000

Rockefeller thought “competition is a sin”, and acted like he believed it. After oil he went after medicine, and has done far more damage there.
They were rich Oligarchs who got things done.
Other Oligarchs – who opposed the formation of the federal reserve – found themselves on the bottom of the ocean with the Titanic. At least that is what I heard years ago, and haven’t seen any evidence to the contrary yet.

Comment on Letter: A bad dream of tomorrow by Susan

Susan — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 19:29:41 +0000

Great Letter, Peter! However, I truly and honestly feel that this homelessness issue has become such an industry in Vancouver, and there is so much money being made from it, that the City and powers-that-be are simply not interested in solving it.

Think about how many non-profits are raking in the money from grants, gifts, “public support,” etc. And each of those non-profits have CEO’s who are well- to very-well paid.

You think that Share and the others are going to be happy if, say, over 6 months their homelessness services were no longer needed, nor supported, by the City? What about the non-profits that operate the Safe-Stays? These outfits are being very well paid for their supposed expertise.

Until the people of Vancouver start voting out the cadre of officials that support and keep promoting this homelessness-industrial-complex, the need for more money will continue to increase. Mayor annie ogle is the first that needs to go, followed by every one of the city clowncil with the exception (maybe) of Bart Hansen.

Don’t believe me? When was the last time you heard a non-profit with a yearly million-dollar city contract say “hey, we took care of the problem, it’s gone; we’ll now be ending our service contract” ? It never ever never happens.