Sunday is Valentine’s Day - the most hated holiday on the calendar.  Some 49 percent of all Americans hate Valentine’s Day.  That’s all of the males in the country.

Valentine’s Day is the day when all men are expected to be attentive, tender loving lovers.  It’s the day when we are required by common law to be extra romantic and expressive.

It’s the day when women expect gifts.  It’s the day when men are required to give gifts such as candy, jewelry, flowers, even lingerie; gifts that express our love and faithfulness.

It’s the day every man hates.

You can forget her birthday, you can fail to buy her a gift on your anniversary, but woe be unto the man who forgets his sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.

Because, come Monday, all around the office, women will begin comparing their Valentine’s Day with the Valentine’s Day of other women.  Each will tout the gifts, the gestures, the love expressed by their man and any woman who doesn’t measure up with her man will be the wallflower of the office.

Valentine’s Day is the most hated holiday by men.

How did this little innocuous holiday come to be so important in the lives of women?  How did this day set aside for lovers become a national embarasment for those women without thoughtful men?

It’s the media by god.  Let’s blame the media.  Without their constant harping about this day, without the commercialism of Valentine’s Day, without the red hearts hanging in every store, men wouldn’t have the pressure to perform.

Every man hates this day.

There are more flowers sent on Valentine’s Day than any other day except Mother’s Day; and 85 percent of all flowers delivered on Sunday will be roses.

Men will spend more than a billion dollars this week on candy, most of it in heart shaped boxes.  And Valentine’s Day cards are flying off the shelf.

What do men get?

Some women do send their men Valentine’s Day cards.  Some women do buy their men gifts on Valentine’s Day.  About 25 percent of all flowers purchased this week will be by women, who send them to their sweethearts.

But women aren’t required to do it.

No man really expects to get a gift from his woman.  Oh, they’ll appreciate it but women aren’t required to do it.  Men won’t be standing around the water cooler next Monday talking about the gift or card they got on Valentine’s Day.

But, every man is expected to buy a gift for his woman.  The pressure to do so is just overwhelming.  The expectation that they will express their love through a gift is a symbol to a woman that her man loves her.

So, woe be unto any man who forgets to express his love for woman this Sunday.  You many find solace from other men on Monday, but you won’t find any forgiveness on Sunday from your woman.

God, I hate this day.

(A similar commentary has run on Valentine’s Day for the past 11 years on KGY Radio)

In his annual state of the city address to the Lacey Chamber of Commerce, Lacey City Manager Greg Cuoio told some 175 members and guests that the city was committed to annexing to Lacey Fire District 3.

Cuoio said  the city has had a 62 year relationship with the fire district, long before there was a city and that annexation will be a good thing for city residents.

Cuoio said that once the annexation is completed, city residents will have a say on who represents them on the fire commission.  He also explained that the fire district is committed to putting a measure before the people, once the annexation is complete, to increase the number of fire commissioners to five.

The city manager also told the business group, that the city will reduce its collection of property tax to make up for the increase in property taxes residents will pay when they annex to the fire district.  City residents will pay $9.4 million to the city this year.   Next year that will drop to $4.7 million when the annexation is approved.

He estimates city residents will pay about $30 a year more once they annex to the fire district.  That election will be held in April.

Cuoio also said the city was on a continual search for water to serve its 65,000 customers.  The city currently pumps about 2.6 million gallons of water every year, from 18 wells,  enough to give 40,000 gallons to every man, woman and child in the area it serves.

The population served by Lacey water is expected to increase to 120,000 by 2030 and that means almost a doubling in the needed water.   Cuoio said the city is working to reduce its water consumption and has done so every month but one last year.  (June which was extra hot in 2009.)

The city will get 770 acre foot of water when it starts to receive the water from the Olympia Brewery.   That will take construction of new facilities and will take some time, Cuoio said.   The city has also gone after water right permits for additional drilling and hopes to have some of them approved this year by the Department of Ecology.

The Lacey city manager pointed to a number of accomplishments last year including the opening of the Regional Athletic Complex.  He also acknowledged that Cabellas has been in the top five stores, for sales, of the 30 stores chain, every since it opened.

If everything goes as planned, by May 1, KGY radio will go all High Definition (HD) with expanded power and a new FM format.

Under  the HD concept, each frequency, in this case 96.9 FM. can carry two additional channels called HD 2 and HD 3. 

The HD 1 or 96.9 FM will change from a real country format to a new format called The Sound, a mix of cool classics and hot hits.   According to Kevin Huffer, the station’s program director, the new format is just making its way to America’s shore from Europe and is currently only in two stations in the United States - - New York and Chicago.

The format will combine the best hits of the 80’s and 90’s with today’s contemporary stars such as Taylor Swift, Snow Patrol and Christina Aguilera.

Helping the new format is a new boost in power with a clear, strong signal reaching into the Seattle market.   A member of the Kerry family, Mike Kerry, which owns the station, said that  ”local to us is now an expanded area.”

The station will be programed locally and use local DJ’s, many of whom are familiar names in the community.

In addition, because the HD allows the use of two additional channels, the AM 1240 will also be broadcast on 96.9 HD2.   1240 AM will also be continued to be broadcast on its current dial station, but those with HD radios will be able to pick up the broadcast throughout the entire FM HD area.

Mike Kerry said that the AM will be helped when the new AM antenna comes on line, something he expects to happen shortly.

The final new element is on 96.9HD3 which will broadcast a real country format with more music and less talk.  It can only be picked up by those who have a HD radio.

Station manager Dick Pust admits that HD radio is not yet standard around the country but sees it as a wave of the future.  “More and more people are buying HD radios,” he said.  “Next year it will be a standard fixture on many makes of cars including those made by Ford.”

“This is going to be a brand new radio station for us,” Pust said. “96.9 The Sound.”

It’s election time in Thurston County.  As a full “Vote By Mail” county you should have already received your ballot.

You will find just one issue on the ballot, a request from your local school district for money.  In Lacey, Tumwater, Griffin and Rainer it’s a two-year maintenance and operation levy.  In Olympia it’s a levy to upgrade school buildings and improve the technology in the classrooms.

Every year it seems, we have school levies on the ballot.  It has become a rite of Spring - - voting on school levies and school issues.

Friends of mine who live in Canada and visit here often can’t believe that we have as many elections as we do. They say that no matter what time of year they come down we have an election of some sort.

I reply, “that’s what you do in a democracy.  You vote on isses and candidates.”  Apparently in Canada they let the elected officials make the decisions in regards to spending money.

But here in Thurston County we the taxpayers, are charged with making the spending decisions, particularly when it comes to our educational system.   While courts have ruled that it is the paramount duty of the state to fund basic education, the burden always falls on us - - the taxpayers.

What makes the burden even more difficult is that local school districts can always ask us, the taxpayers and voters, for more money than the state gives them.

There is currently a lawsuit pending that will determine, again, what constitutes basic education and require the state to fully fund that decision.

But, we’ve had such lawsuits in the past and each time the legislature, under great pressure from special interest groups (teacher’s unions) has always buckled under and allowed school districts to collect more.

Over the years basic education as defined by local school districts has always included local levy money.

In the North Thurston district local levy funds about 19 percent of the basic education budget.  In Tumwater it funds about 18 percent and I suspect its similar in all local school districts.

It’s unfortunate that local taxpayers have to make the decision every two or three years as to whether or not they’re going to tax their property more, in order to fund basic education.

But, as my friends from Canada also noted “It’s great that you have the opportunity to say how your money is spent.”

That’s the way I look at it.  And that’s the way you should look at it.

We’re lucky to live in America where we have a say in how our money is spent.

If you’ve ever cut down a tree in your back yard, you know what’s going to happen.  Come Spring, you’ll have dozens - maybe hundreds of new shoots popping up all over the yard.

That’s similar to what’s happened with the demise of our daily newspaper.

As the paper fell,  its place was taken by dozens of blogs, all hoping to fill the void left by the daily newspaper.

Some of them are written by former politicians or want-to-be politicians.   Others are written by individuals with a chip on their shoulder, while still others are written by people with a particular political agenda.

What all of them have in common is a lack of journalism experience and any desire to be unbiased.

That’s not so with Ken’s Corner & The Real News.   Ken’s Corner been around since 1971 and has appeared in four separate local newspapers.   Ken’s Corner & The Real News as a newsletter is now in its 23rd year of monthly publication.  The radio show Ken’s Corner has been on KGY Radio 1240 AM for 11 years.

While each publication often borrows from each other, there are some differences.

The newsletter tends to run towards opinion pieces and satire.  The radio show is more broad based and encompasses a variety of soft news stories.  This web page is more news oriented with less editorializing and more hard news.

As our society finally accepts the demise of the daily newspaper and orients its readership towards the internet, be aware of blogs which editorialize but don’t educate.

If you want to get local news and views, then you need to access this web page on a weekly basis, subscribe to the monthly newsletter and pay attention to what radio station you listen to.

As for those other shoots, cut them off.

At a work session Thursday night, members of the Lacey City Council wrestled with appointments to boards and commissions. 

A minor revolt errupted through the newbies - Ron Lawson, Cynthia Pratt and Andy Ryder - over land use issues and what the role of the city council should be in developing land use policies.

For three years, the city has had a Finance, Economic Development and Land Use Committee.  Issues from those areas come to that committee to be worked out or refered to the full council.

At its retreat two weeks ago and at the meeting Thursday evening, Pratt insisted that Land Use be separated from Finance and Economic Development and be made a separate council committee.

When she ran for office, Pratt made land use and development one of her priorities.  In running for the city council, Pratt said, “I’m, running for a number of reasons, but primarily because I have seen Lacey develop without keeping up with services and starting to sprawl without utilizing existing areas.”

Her push to get more control over land use decisions was supported by both Lawson and Ryder.  They said that a large number of land use plans were coming due this year and had to be revamped.  They wanted to create a separate land use committee to deal with these land use plans.

City staff pointed out that the Planning Commission dealt with land use issues and the planning commission members were appointed by the council to do that work.

“Planning commission members are not elected officials,” Pratt said.  “Now the planning commission does everything and the result don’t get the full scrutiny of us, the elected officials.”

In the end, the council agreed to create a separate Land Use Committee on a trial basis.  They will revisit the decision in one year.   Appointed to the Land Use Committee were Mayor Tom Nelson, Deputy Mayor Virgil Clarkson and Pratt.

While council committee appointments took up the bulk of the time, apointments to 18 regional boards and commissions were also made.

Jason Hearn will be Lacey’s representative on the EMS Board, Mary Dean will represent Lacey on Intercity Transit and Pratt will represent the city on the LOTT.   (Those are the big three of regional bodies since they all have taxing authority of some kind.)

The only conflict arose when business owners Ryder and Hearn both wanted to be appointed as the city’s representative to the Economic Development Council.   Ryder had the appointment by the mayor and Hearn wanted it, pointing out that he has served as alternate for two years.  When the dust settled, Ryder still had the appointment and Hearn was still the alternate.

If you think you had a tough year, try being in the media business.

According to Vocus Media Group, which keeps track of such things, 293 newspapers folded in 2009.   In addition eight magazines with circulation of more than one million also ceased publication during the year.   Additionally 1,126 magazines of all types, folded.

It wasn’t much better in the broadcast industry.  Across the country last year radio stations laid off more than 10,000 employees.  As many as 100 television stations were impacted when their parent companies declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

If you want a full account of the catastrophe that befell media in 2009  go to Vocus Media Group’s web page.

And, don’t forget, you can always get local news and opinion right here or you can subscribe to Ken’s Corner & The Real News, now in its 23rd year of publication.   You can also hear Ken’s Corner on KGY radio AM 1240.

The election of Republican Scott Brown to the Massachusetts senate seat previously held by Democrat Ted Kennedy, should send shivers up and down the spine of all incumbents up for election this year.

In 2008,  after the excesses of the Republican administration, voters voted for change by electing  Barrack Obama to the presidency and giving the Democrats a super majority in congress.

But the change they asked for wasn’t to turn the country into European socialism but to work on issues in a bi-partisan way.   Obama promised that it wouldn’t be “business as usual” and that a new element of bi-partisanship would prevail.

But that promise wasn’t kept.  It was business as usual.  Only this time it was the Democrats running things instead of the Republicans.

Compromise and bi-partisanship has always been the hallmark of American democracy.  It’s been the only way major changes have occurred.   It was cooperation and bi-partisanship which approved the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act.   Going back even further it was compromise and bi-partisanship which created Social Security and Medicare.

If  incumbents in congress can’t find a way to work cooperatively to assure that all sides of an issue are represented, then the people will send them packing and find candidates that can.

Voters are surly and angry and they’ll take it out on the incumbents this year just like they did in 2009.

The City of Lacey has been planning improvements and changes to College Street, to carry the increased traffic.

Plans call for widening College Street to five lanes to encompass a center turn lane, and the construction of two additional roundabouts.  All left turns on College Street will be eliminated except at designated locations.

The city has already started the project by creating a concrete barrier to stop people from turning onto or off of 14th Avenue.   This action has caused several residents living on 14th to complain.

Newly elected councilmember Ron Lawson has taken the issue before the city.   Although the city held several public meetings about College Street before embarking on the plan, it has agreed to hold another hearing to address the concerns of 14th Avenue residents.

That meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 20 beginning at 6 p.m. at the Lacey City Hall Council Chambers.

As a revolt it wasn’t much, but the new members of the Lacey City Council put the council on notice that they weren’t going to go along with the status quo.

The first order of business at the Lacey City Council meeting on Thursday was the selection of a new mayor.  Newcomers Cynthia Pratt, Andy Ryder and Ron Lawson joined with old-timers Virgil Clarkson, Mary Dean and Jason Hearn in selecting Tom Nelson to represent the council as mayor.

The  mini-revolt started in the selection for deputy mayor, when Dean nominated Clarkson for deputy mayor and Pratt nominated Ryder for the same position.

Mayor Nelson called for a vote on Clarkson and all the old-timers cast their vote for Clarkson giving him four votes and the deputy mayor’s job.   In his exuberance at Clarkson’s four votes, Nelson never called for a vote on Ryder’s nomination and the newbies didn’t get a chance to cast their votes for anyone.

It was obvious that serving on the Lacey City Council was going to be a long learning curve for the newbies, who peppered staff with questions on two planning issues, both of which has already had a public hearing and been approved by the planning commisson.

And, the task of integrating the newbies doesn’t get any easier.  Next week the council will have a work session on appointments to the city committees as well as to the various  regional boards and commissions.

From Republican House Minority Leader Richard DeBolt, when he found out that we lost 170,000 private sector jobs since February 08 but gained 8,200 government jobs.  “The state can’t tax its way out of this nor can it recover by creating government jobs.  Otherwise we’ll be like France.”

We are run by interlocal governmental boards and commissions.  We, the residents of Olympia, Lacey, Tumwater and Thurston County, and occasionally Yelm, are indebted to some two dozen regional bodies, that provide us with services.

Regional bodies like Intercity Transit, LOTT, Olympic Region Clean Air Agency, Solid Waste Advisory Commission, Thurston County Law & Justice Council, Water Resource Inventory Area, Emergency Medical Services, Joint Animal Services Commission, and several others.

In most cases, oversight of these agencies rests in the hands of an appointed committee of elected officials, who hire an administrator, approve the operating budgets, and provide guidance and feed back from their respective cities.

Over the years, over the decades, these regional bodies and the administration of these bodies, has worked.   I’ve often been critical of some decisions, I’ve often complained about the lack of accountability to the voters, I’ve often railed against some action or another.

But, for the most part, these interlocal agreements have worked; primarily because the elected officials from the different cities, have taken an interest in their assignment and developed expertise in the field.

But, now we have a problem.

This last election turned out several incumbent elected officials.  We now have in place three new councilmembers in Lacey, three new councilmembers in Olympia, three new councilmembers in Tumwater and one new county commissioner.

Together, that’s ten elected officials who will soon be taking their seats, representing their constituents on these regional boards.  

Many of  them have never held elective office before and they will have a quick learning curve.   If we expect them to provide oversight to the various agency heads, we are probably in for disappointment.

It takes a great deal of work and often a great deal of time, before a board or commission member can understand and appreciate the agency over which they supervise.

In the meantime, those few elected officials with any time in office, will have to provide the leadership.  

It is incumbent upon the three cities and the county to work together to make certain the best and most experienced council member or county commissioner is appointed to the most important of these regional bodies.

To me, that is those agencies which have taxing authority such as Intercity Transit and Medic One.

The ten newly elected officials can serve on the those interlocal agencies with lesser authority.

Thurston County taxpayers will be ill served if novice board members try to supervise taxing agencies.

At its planning retreat Friday, the Lacey City Council wrestled with how to get public input into the process early enough to make it effective.

New council members Andy Ryder, Cynthia Pratt and Ron Lawson were adamant that the council have debate and discussion on important city issues in public, where the public can have input.

All the pros and cons on issues are debated in committees, said Mary Dean, one of the senior members remaining on the council.  The minutes are posted on the city web page, Dean said.

“It’s a question of when the discussion is undertaken,” said Ryder.  If it’s done in committee then if feels like its being done behind closed doors.”

“It’s important that we have the debate and discussion in public,” Pratt added.

Lacey City Manager Greg Cuoio said the point raised is a legitimate point.  “The public has the opportunity to have input but we need to do a better job of explaining how we arrived at the point where the issue comes before the council.”

The issue of public input wasn’t the only issue of concern for the new councilmembers.  They wanted the council to be more visible.  To that extent, the new members have held public meetings to hear from constituents.

They pushed for the council to have more meetings with the public at scheduled times and places.   To that end, they have decided to attend the four neighborhood meetings scheduled this year

They also decided to have a council presence at community events such as the Spring Fun Fair, the Mushroom Festival and the Lacey Community Market.

Puget Sound Energy is getting a larger amount of its energy from alternative sources.  That’s the word from Andy Wappler (yes, that Andy Wappler).

Wappler told the monthly forum of the Lacey Chamber of Commerce, Wednesday,  that wind farms in Eastern Washington, are producing enough energy to serve 100,000 homes.

Making it somewhat easier to get to market, according to Wappler, is that transmission lines are already in place because of hydro power from the Columbia River and Snake River dams.

Wappler told the 200 Lacey business owners that despite the recession, demand for power continues to rise in PSE’s service area.   “Twenty years ago the average home had 3 plug in appliances.  Now we have as many as 25 devices.  That helps to create demand,” he said.

Because of the increased demand, PSE doesn’t have any excess power to sell to other systems, as it had in the past.

Wappler pointed out that 2009 set some record useages.  In August we had temperatures as high as 105 degrees, he said.  That set a record for summer use.  Last month we had temperatures in the single digits.  That set winter record power useage.

In additon to wind, PSE is also using solar, hydro, natural gas and even bio-mass to generate energy.

Last year, some 500 PSE customers added solar panels to their houses to take advantage of incentives.  The State of Washington has an incentive to pay residential customers for any excess power they produce from solar panels.

He said that any business or residential customers who are interested in solar energy can get more information at the PSE web page.

I don’t think government gets it.  I don’t think those agencies which control our lives and tax our money understand that we’re in a recession right now.  One that’s not going to go away anytime soon.

For the life of me, I can’t understand some of these government agencies.  Take Intercity Transit for example.

The Intercity Transit Board just approved its 2010 operating budget that calls for the expenditure of some $41 million dollars to provide a wide range of transit options for the traveling public in parts of Thurston County.

It gets its money from a local sales tax of around one-half cent and that funds most of its operations.  It gets some state and federal grants but sales tax revenue makes up most of its income.

Now the Transit board is thinking about raising the local sales tax to fund future operations.  Thanking about — - hell - they’ve already decided to put a sales tax increase on the ballot, of three-tenths of a percent, to fund future operations.

The transit system says it needs the money to continue current services and increase future services.  Since sales tax revenue is down because of the recession, they need to increase the tax to fund current and future operations.

Now, bear in mind, that Intercity Transit has a reserve fund of $11 million dollars.  There’s nothing wrong with a reserve fund.  I think the managers of the system would be negligent not to have a reserve fund.  But a reserve is supposed to be used when there’s a need.  And, the transit system thinks there’s a need this year.

But it isn’t only the sales tax revenue which is impacting the transit system’s bottom line.  It’s what they pay their employees.

The machinest union, which represents a major portion of the employees, is getting a three and a half percent pay increase this year 2010.

A pay raise?  Are they serious?  A pay raise in a time when people are losing their jobs and those that aren’t losing their jobs are worried about losing their jobs.

That’s the problem with government unions.  They don’t care one whit about the taxpayer.  They can’t see the future any further than the next pay raise.  They don’t care how badly off you are - - as long as their members get their pay increases.

Intercity Transit has decided to go to the voters in this time of  economic chaos and ask for an increase in the local sales tax - - already nearing 10 cents - - so it can give its employees a pay raise.

What short sightedness.  Who’s running Intercity Transit.  Is it the Three Stooges or the Marx Brothers. 

A sales tax increase this year is just laughable.

City of Lacey officials have scheduled a full council retreat as early in the new year as they could.   The council will meet in a day long retreat on January 8.

Because of three new council members, none of whom have any previous experience as an elected official, the retreat will concern itself with team building and other exercises to absorb new members into the council’s culture.

The Lacey council has never had three new members at one time and there’s a concern on the part of some city officials that melding three new members into the council’s culture will take considerable effort.

Some of the new members have signed up for a day long educational program in February for new council members sponsored by the Association of Washington Cities.

Cynthia Pratt, one of the newest members of the Lacey City Council, will hold an open house on Wednesday, December 30 from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the Lacey Community Center.

Pratt wants to get input on the upcoming Fire District annexation vote, explain the newest utility tax increases and give her views on issues facing the city.

Pratt says the meeting will be a drop in so that people can come and go as needed.

Tom Nelson, a member of the Lacey City Council, is the top candidate to become Lacey’s next mayor, when the Council meets at its first meeting of 2010 on January 7.

Unlike in Tumwater and Olympia, Lacey voters do NOT elect their own mayor.  The mayor is elected by the members of the Lacey City Council to represent them at functions and to run council meetings.

The defeat of former mayor Graeme Sackrison has left the field wide open to someone new.   That new council member is Tom Nelson, who has been on the Lacey City Council for two years.  But that still makes him one of the senior members of Lacey’s governing body.

Former mayor Virgil Clarkson is still interested in becoming mayor again, but hasn’t lined up enough support from among the council.   Mary Dean has made it known that she doesn’t want the job. 

New members of the Council  - - Andy Ryder, Ron Lawson and Cynthia Pratt will make the difference and to date there’s no idea of how they will vote.

But, from all indications, Nelson will be the next mayor.  Nelson isn’t new to politics.  He served 12 years on the North Thurston School Board and currently works for North Thurston Public Schools.

Jason Hearn, who also has two years under his belt has indicated he would be interested in becoming deputy mayor.   Former deputy mayor John Darby was ousted in the same election that sunk Sackrison.

Washington State has now reached the population of 6660,000 and we’re now the 13th largest state in the country.  Any concern?

Sensing new tax money in the air, Washington State legislators wearing the Democratic stripe are pre-filing bills to raise taxes.

Representative Marko Liias from Mukilteo has announced a bill that would levy a street utility tax.  Similar to other utility taxes such as on water or sewer, the street utility tax would allow local governments the option to enact it.

A similar bill was filed last session but went nowhere.  That bill would have allowed income from the street utility tax to go into the city’s general fund.  The new bill would restrict use of the money from “sidewalk to sidewalk.”  Thus freeing up some money which could then go back into the general fund.

The cost of the street utility tax would be calculated on the number of automobile trips generated.  The average single family home would pay $5 per month.   Businesses would be taxed based on square footage.

This is just the first of many new tax bills which will make their way through the Democratically controlled state legislature and many have a chance to become law.

Governor Christine Gregoire has let it be known that she wants to raise new revenue to the tune of about $700 million dollars.