Linda Gabriel

This is from the Washington State Department of Ecology’s new forum site, which opens next Monday, August 30.  See the links below to the video and the forum.

“The average person takes water for granted and assumes it will always be here: clean, abundant and cheap.”

“Those of us who work in the Water Resources Program at the Department of Ecology are reaching out to the public to challenge those assumptions. We’d like to invite you to join us in a major effort to change the way water is managed in Washington state so that water for current and future needs will always be available.

On Monday, Aug. 30, 2010, Ecology will open the Water Smart Washington Online Forum to engage the public in water management discussions.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVCEXpa92oI&feature=channel

http://ecologywa.blogspot.com/2010/08/help-us-improve-way-your-water-is.html

I will be participating in a couple of forums between now and the election, plus an interview this week with the Home Builders Association.

Meanwhile, see this interesting piece from Florida about federal stimulus funds helping to expand high speed internet for the Panhandle.

http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/101204644.html

Late this afternoon, for a little over an hour, I stood with the Rolfes campaign holding my sign and waving at the cars going past us.  We were at the intersection of Finn Hill and Viking Way in Poulsbo.  It was pretty warm, but a lot of fun, as the commuters and other drivers go by.  Lots of people honked and waved to us.

I’ve done this at Winslow Way and Hwy 305 three times, Kingston Four Corners once, Hostmark and 305 once and Finn Hill and Viking Way twice, just for this campaign.   I did it two years ago for Christine Rolfes and Sherry Appleton.

When I left, I did some sign maintenance.  Someone had pulled up all of the campaign signs at Finn Hill Road and Olhava Way in Poulsbo.  I managed to retrieve mine and Josh Brown’s, Christine Rolfes’, and Sherry Appleton’s, and pounded them back into the ground.

Tuesday evening at about 8:15 we will find out which two of us advances to the November 2 General Election.

I urge you to join me in voting for Charlie Wiggins for justice of the State Supreme Court. He is a highly respected lawyer and he has worked to pass laws limiting campaign contributions in judicial races and pushed for rules prohibiting judges from hearing cases involving parties who gave large campaign contributions supporting the judge’s election.

Compare this record to the incumbent: Justice Sanders was disciplined by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct for meeting with criminal defendants who had cases pending before our Supreme Court. He wrote a majority opinion in a decision handed down by our State Supreme Court that directly benefited him in a pending case in which he was a party.

This is becoming a contentious issue at the national level.  Should retail providers (Comcast, Quest, etc.) have the ability to charge you more to visit certain websites, or have the ability to charge those sites for your visits?

I think not.  I believe that the internet should function without profit interferring with my browsing.

The retail providers can do some very subtle things to interfere with your freedom.  Some sites can be very s—l—o—w to load, unless they (or you) have paid the appropriate fees.  Imagine if your local library charged you a fee to access reference material, for instance.  You would not submit to that!

I understand the profit motive, and would want to maximize my profits, too, if I were in business.  However, our freedom to access the information we want has to override that profit motive.

The  North Carolina legislature recently voted down a bill intended to prevent North Carolina cities from providing retail high speed internet.    According to the North Carolina League of Municipalities, http://www.nclm.org/news/Pages/IntheNews-07152010.aspx, “For the last few months, some contentious legislation has been winding its way through Raleigh that would have put a hold on local governments from getting into the retail Internet and cable TV business.”

What do you think? Should Poulsbo, Bainbridge Island, and Bremerton provide high speed internet service? Do you believe that high speed internet is a utility the same as sewage disposal, water service, electricity?

Let me know what you think about this.  You can comment here, or you can email me at Linda@LindaGabrielCommish1.com.

I have been planting my signs all over the 1st Commissioner District and will continue to do so until they are all planted.

I do my best never to block the view of any other candidate’s sign.  I have noticed that not everyone follows this policy, and I have had to move some signs when the view of mine has been blocked.  It was not signs from my opponents who blocked them – it was signs from other races.

I’m having fun with the signs.  At one stop, when I opened the back of my car and got out my crowbar, which is the tool I use to make a hole in our glacial till, another car stopped behind me and a gentlemen got out and offered to help me.  He didn’t want to help me install a sign, however – just thought that I might have a tire problem or other car issue.  Nice people out there!

If we can catch some of the water falling from the sky before it runs across the pavement into Puget Sound, Admiralty Inlet, or Hood Canal, we might come a lot closer to having enough.

We must continue to learn to conserve water inside our homes and business as well.  I support the education program of the Kitsap Public Utility District.

Kitsap County does not have a large river bringing us water from high on the mountains.  Every drop of water we get comes from the ground or from the sky.  There is no new water.  Ground water is replenished only from rain.  Politicians predict that the Puget Sound area will grow by about 1.4 million people by the year 2030.  All of those people will want to shower, run their dishwashers, drink water, water gardens, wash their dogs, flush toilets, and otherwise use water.

Today we:         Learn         Sell products and services

Do homework

Interact with medical providers         Take classes

Keep up with news                   Run our businesses

Look for jobs

Send photos to grandparents

And, even play games

…all on the internet.

Most of us need the internet.

We need it to be high speed.

We need it to be easy to access.

And, we need it without interruption.