A wish and a promise for the new year

This morning, reporter Michele Young came into my office chuckling about how we narrowly escaped a tiny disaster in today’s edition.
She filed a story yesterday on a new surgical technique for kidney operations. In our quest to avoid headlines that might misrepresent the story, we ask reporters to put a “suggested headline” at the top [...]

Some mornings, I have no sympathy for Vancouver

For publication in The Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2008
When the David Brown wouldn’t start for the third morning in a row, I stopped feeling sorry for those poor Lower Mainlanders and their bit of snow.
Check that — I never did feel sorry for them, but standing out there at 31 below with the [...]

Merry Christmas on this special day

Today, Christmas Day, I celebrate with family the way I’ve done all my life.
I don’t believe in the divinity  of Jesus Christ. I believe he was a special, remarkable man, a courageous leader who gave his life for what he believed. But I don’t believe he was conceived as the son of God, and I [...]

News from a wandering son of Kamloops

Bob Egby, on December 24th, 2008 at 1:08 pm 
Hello Mel: Glad to see you’re still stirring the pot and running a damned good newspaper. You must have one super-sized wall to fit all those achievement awards. Sorry to see you didn’t get the Senate job. Among my very large collection of tomes is “They’ve Killed John [...]

Senate appointments could have been worse

I am not impressed. Once again, I have been passed over for the Senate. Every time a vacancy comes up, I wait for the phone to ring, and the call never comes. I know just how Betty Hinton feels.
A certain source, who shall remain nameless (anonymous sources not remaining sources for long if you out [...]

Why Nancy Greene is a great choice for Senate

A look at some of the blogs today would suggest Nancy Greene is a controversial choice for the Senate. This surprises me — I can’t think of anyone better qualified.
I’ve just finished reading our editorial for tomorrow’s Daily News, which says she is certainly unqualified if political experience is the criterion. On the other hand, [...]

Frootloops council plans menu for Christmas dinner

For publication in the Kamloops Daily News, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2008
Frootloops council chambers are decorated in a festive manner as Mayor Peter Saladbar settles into his chair and calls everyone to order.
MAYOR SALADBAR: OK, if you newbies would stop milling around and find your chairs, we’ll get this special meeting of Frootloops council underway. As [...]

Christmas cards aren’t what they used to be

The realization came upon me slowly, but I began noticing over the past few days that I wasn’t receiving as many Christmas cards as I’m used to. Sure, the occasional nice card was coming in — like the one signed by all the City council members — but usually, by now, my office is cluttered [...]

Trustee pay raises out of line

Sometimes I think we spend too much time worrying about how much politicians get paid. At others, I think we need to pay more attention.
For example, in my view, $18,000 a year for school trustees (they raised their own stipends to that Monday night) is way out of whack. A conscientious trustee probably spends, on [...]

MLA a no-show for his own nomination

I’m guessing Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger received a very important text message today, wherever he is. The gist of the message would have been that he is now officially the Liberal candidate for South Kamloops riding in next May’s provincial election.
Local Liberals held their nomination meeting last night, and Krueger is officially the man. [...]