Posted on Fri, May. 02, 2008

Green moves from MoDot

Recent letters (4/20 and 4/26) urge the Missouri Department of Transportation to consider green alternatives. We’ve turned that corner, finding ways to reduce costs, emissions and save energy. Our partners include Missouri Department of Conservation, Grow Native! and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

MoDOT’s mowing policy ensures that no growth hinders a motorist’s view of approaching traffic. We mow less, particularly in rural areas, where a more verdant right of way blends with the surrounding countryside. In urban and suburban areas, MoDOT mows less often but still maintains a tidy right of way.

MoDOT also mows as a method of weed control, while also using natural means whenever possible, such as thistle weevils instead of herbicide. And we plan new projects to include natural summer grasses such as buffalo grass, which crowds out other vegetation, requires less water and remains short.

Native grasses can be found along the corridors of I-435 from 87th to south of 95th; I-29 north of Route 92; Route 50 east of Lee’s Summit and Route 7 south of Harrisonville; the medians of I-70 throughout Lafayette County; the intersections of I-70 and I-470 and at Route 152 and I-435. Most of these are mowed less than annually.

Steve Porter

Senior community relations specialist,

Missouri Department of Transportation

Lee’s Summit

Oil company profits

I am extremely disturbed by the obscene profits the oil companies are reaping. With the economy so heavily based on energy, there should be more outrage at the gouging being practiced.

Since it seems that higher cost is the only factor that will encourage conservation, I would much rather pay a gasoline tax that would be earmarked for repairs and rebuilding of our ailing highway and bridge system. This would result in reduced costs to motorists through fewer accidents, insurance and automobile maintenance costs and provide much-needed jobs for our labor force.

We need to be more concerned about our legacy for future generations. We’ll leave them nothing if we consume oil as though there is no tomorrow.

Brian Steele

Olathe

There is much criticism of the oil companies for the price of gasoline and the large profits they are reporting.

No one seems to realize that oil companies have tens of billions of dollars invested in dry well exploration and in capital costs when oil is discovered and additional refining capacity has to be built.

I would guess oil companies’ income-to-capital investment is pretty much in line with other manufacturers.

Edward H. Barnes

Prairie Village

While we were concentrating on preventing terrorism coming out of the Middle East, up popped terrorism right here at home.

The oil companies are ruining our economy, and we can’t do anything about it.

Roberta Newth

Leawood

Miley Cyrus photo shoot

Shame on Annie Leibovitz! As a photographer she should have chosen a pose that was age-appropriate to her client. Miley Cyrus is quoted as saying, “That’s what she wanted me to do, and you can’t say no to Annie” (4/28, A-6, “Star apologizes for photo shoot”).

Therefore, I think Leibovitz should be held responsible for the inappropriate pose. Don’t blame Miley. Miley was probably starstruck with the idea of working with a photographer of such stature and fame. She has already expressed regret and embarrassment at the photograph. That shows me maturity beyond her 15 years.

By the way, I am a professional photographer.

Kim Williams

Pleasant Hill

Famous or not, Annie Leibovitz is guilty of exploitation of a child, and Billy Ray Cyrus is guilty of neglect.

Shirley Miller

Overland Park

DUI checkpoints waste money

On our way home recently from the Music Hall, my wife and I were among the 1,670 vehicles inconvenienced by a road block and huge traffic jam when the police styled a “sobriety check.” It was at the north end of the Broadway Bridge and involved dozens of police officers and many patrol cars with flashing lights. It was quite a hullabaloo.

You may imagine our irritation when we read in The Star (4/20, Local) that all this intimidating uproar netted only 22 citations for driving under the influence and 13 other miscellaneous offenses over eight hours. I consider this to be a pitiful harvest over an eight-hour period. Thus, it appears to be a waste of taxpayer money.

Before any more is spent this way, the city’s auditor should follow these charges through the courts to their final result to determine how many citations result in actual convictions. With such information the procedure can be given a fresh and meaningful analysis to determine if it is worth doing.

Joe Williams

Kansas City

End-of-life care

Regarding the letter from Judy Walker (4/14, “No choices in hospice care), imagine this: Not only have you been diagnosed with terminal illness, but you are now lying in a hospital bed for the last two or three days of your life and you have to be moved from one bed to another (exactly the same as the first) because hospice has been called on board and they now require you use their equipment because they get paid by insurance. With no regard for the comfort of the dying patient, it has to be their way.

In this particular case, the cancer patient passed away within 48 hours.

I belong to a group called Franklin County Cancer Foundation, and we formed 10 years ago. We help with bills, provide Ensure, Depends and any kind of medical equipment you would need. We are funded only by donations, memorials and fundraisers.

We are all volunteers, so our money and comfort concerns are for the cancer patients.

Karen McIlvain

Ottawa, Kan.

Friendship forged in grief

Thank you for putting front-page news on the front page of your paper. Your article “Grief became shared healing” (4/27, A-1) deserved to be a headline.

The miracle of healing and forgiveness in the lives of a murdered daughter’s mother and the sister of her daughter’s killer is a witness to the power of God’s love.

Please continue to spotlight and print such heart-inspired encouragement whenever possible.

Beverly Evans

Olathe

Global warming not trivial

Global warming has the potential to cause millions of deaths over the next few decades, not to mention the extinction of hundreds of natural species. Hannelore Snyder Brown (4/27, letters) wrote that the use of the Iwo Jima statue on the cover of Time magazine to call attention to global warming trivializes the great sacrifices and loss of life in that battle.

It is the great-grandchildren of those American heroes who will be most affected by global warming, and it is no trivial matter.

Lynn McCanse

Kansas City

Get tough on litterbugs

To those who complain about litter, and that includes me: Picking up other people’s trash and adopting highways will have no effect on the litter problem because stupid, lazy, narcissistic, juvenile and selfish people assume that others will pick up their trash. One might as well try to bail out the water below Bagnell Dam.

The only thing that will diminish litter is the decades-overdue involvement of city and state leaders. Can anyone cite a single example of a Kansas City mayor saying a word about litter? For too many years the number of trash trucks and the number of cleanup employees required was a measure of the success of public gatherings such as St. Patrick’s Day parades and concerts at Liberty Memorial.

Other cities and states have developed effective methods for dealing with litter, starting with a refusal to tolerate it. So if you’re concerned about your surroundings looking like the city dump annex, contact your local elected officials.

Joseph H. Ford

Kansas City

I call to my fellow citizens of the Kansas City area to help in any way they can to reduce the littering in our area along highways and roads. It is easy and simple to stop the source if we each do the right thing. Don’t throw anything out your car, and make sure nothing “accidentally” blows out the back of your truck.

The European countryside is spotlessly clean compared with our roads. Many other states are also much cleaner to drive through. The highways of Mississippi, for example, are much cleaner than either Kansas or Missouri, partly because of better enforcement and fines against persons who litter.

Please do your part: Don’t litter. Adopt a highway. Clean up your neighborhood. Do whatever you can, and we can all be proud and save tax dollars at the same time.

Karen Skinner

Weatherby Lake

Grow up, Democrats

Those disgruntled Democrats, who are vowing to either stay home or switch their allegiance to John McCain if their candidate loses, are acting like spoiled brats on the playground who threaten to take their ball and go home if they don’t get their way.

Shame on them. This type of Bush-league pettiness (pun intended) is the very reason Democrats could blow their best chance in years of regaining control of the Oval Office.

Eddie L. Clay

Grandview

Don’t bet on McCain

While I applaud veterans (my dad and brother served) and war heroes, I do not believe this automatically qualifies one to be president. John McCain has too many similarities to Bush. After eight years of not accomplishing much in the areas of health care and immigration, and now with the economy plunging, why would we want four more years of this?

I am a senior citizen, and my friends are also. Age does make a difference. Many will try to deny this and say “70 is the new 50,” but let me tell you: you are not as sharp and mentally alert in your 70s as you were at 50 or even 60.

Folks, this is a new horse race, so why do you want to bet on a horse that was bred from the same stable and has come in last for eight years?

Camille Buccero

Independence

Victims of Crime Act funding

This year domestic and sexual violence agencies across Kansas are facing federal budget cuts that will devastate core services in our community. Kansas will experience an almost $1 million reduction in federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding that provides emergency shelter, hotline, advocacy, and counseling for victims throughout the state.

The Kansas House Appropriations Committee is proposing a $500,000 budget item in the Omnibus Appropriations Budget to help stop the loss of the most critical services. If this budget item is not accepted, agencies will have no choice but to cut services. Although the proposal doesn’t cover the entire loss to Kansas, it will make sure victims can still access shelter and emergency services.

We particularly thank local representatives Tom Burroughs, Bill Feuerborn, Kay Wolf, and Kevin Yoder for their leadership in protecting victims in our communities.

Sharon I. Katz

Executive director, SAFEHOME, Inc.

Palle M. Rilinger

Executive director, MOCSA

LaDora Lattimore

Executive director, Joyce H. Williams Center

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