Recently in politics Category

This has been a wild year in the race for president, what with the surprise outcomes of the primaries and now the back and forth between Obama and McCain.

For us, there has been a local twist. Two friends of our family are each running for spots in the Missouri House of Representatives: T.R. Carr, who is running in the 78th district, and Randy Jotte, who is running in the 91st district.

This morning we saw in the the newspaper that the Post-Dispatch was endorsing both of them! I know both families have been working hard campaigning, so I'm sure this must be quite exciting for them.

If you'd like to learn more about them, just click their names above. Or, if you'd like to learn more about the other candidates in those two races, click below:

• Margo McNeil - 78th district
• Jeanne Kirkton - 91st district

If you're like me and you hate the notion of red-light cameras, you'll be pleased to learn that they just don't work. That's right, they do not reduce the number of accidents at intersections; they increase the number of accidents.

Red light cameras always bothered me because:

• Private companies run the cameras and municipalities turn over a percentage of the fines to them.
• I deplore the idea of government watching citizens by camera
• The motive is clear: profit, not public safety.

The University of South Florida study on these cameras supports that third point, since the cameras HURT public safety, not improve it.

One perfect example of this is the red-light camera on West Florissant at the entrance to the parking lot of the old Dellwood Schnucks. This strip mall has been mostly vacant for several years!