• Tax assessor, how in the world can you reduce taxes by $40,000 to $170,000 in one high-end neighborhood, but yet go across town and increase another high-end neighborhood by $40,000 to $140,000? More smoke and mirrors possibly? Our property values have gone down too, like the rest of the country.

• Help me out here. Kroger wants a new store? Kroger sells $870,000 worth of bonds? Griffin guarantees the bonds? Taxpayers pay off the bonds? Griffin gets 30 new part-time, minimum-wage, no-benefits jobs? Where is the upside?

• Now that the local Kroger is partially owned by our local government, are the employees going to get the day off on May Day?

• Since our local government likes studies so much, I have an idea. They should study the positive impact it would have on traffic to work with the railroad to move their switching yard to the industrial park. It is ridiculous to see major crossings in downtown blocked in the morning while people are trying to get to work.

• Every time I see Sarah Palin on the Fox News Channel, she looks prettier. It would be nice if someone would clone her, so that eventually all the women in the United States would look like her.

• Self-importance by a politician is one thing, but a politician with little credibility by some of the public, brings into question who the voters elect.