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Publisher's Note: Good pork
By Jody Reese
With all the presidential candidates running around saying they’ll stop pork barrel spending, let’s consider that Manchester just got a good $1.7 million bite of it from U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg to help complete the Granite Street expansion at Exit 5 off Interstate 293. It’s always pork when it’s some other state’s road expansion, but it’s needed money for infrastructure when we get it.
And that’s the real reason pork won’t go away. Much of it is needed to help communities build new schools, roads, hospitals, museums and bridges. Working through the appropriate federal government channels can take a long time and doesn’t always score the money. Congressmen can short-circuit the process and get the money to the project much faster. Regardless of who wins, pork will remain on the plate.
Low crime in high-crime city
Boosters of Detroit and St. Louis, both ranked as the most dangerous cities in the country, argue that the statistics are misleading. In their cities they say that it’s more appropriate to look at crime neighborhood by neighborhood. When you do that, large parts of their cities rank low in crime. These boosters have a good point. The difference in crime rate between neighborhoods is greater than the differences between cities’ crime rates. That said, Nashua rated one of the safest cities in the country, coming in at number 27, as opposed to number 371 for St. Louis. Manchester didn’t fare as well, coming in at 124, slightly better than New York City’s 145 ranking, and better than Lowell’s 196.
Support your neighbor
’Tis the season to support your local retailer. Sure the monster box stores will be selling iPhones for a buck, but what about your neighbor? When possible and reasonable, support local businesses owned by people living in your community. These business owners are the folks who tend to give more to local charities, such as the Boys & Girls Club. Check our our gift guide in the center of the paper this week. It’s loaded with local businesses you’re sure to enjoy supporting.
Another good reason to buy local
Almost every week comes news that goods from China are contaminated with something bad for us. Last week officials discovered fresh ginger from China sprayed with banned chemicals made its way into California supermarkets. At this point it’s fair to say we don’t know how much of the imported food and goods from China and other unregulated Third World countries are safe.
China has become the manufacturing breadbasket for the world by offering cheap labor and cheap operation costs. It achieves those cheap costs by cutting corners. The drive to keep costs low even drives Chinese factories to outsource. Work is sent to little factories run out of people’s homes where even China’s lax rules are not followed.
The federal government has done little to fix the problem. It’s up to us. When you can, buy goods produced in the country.
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