ronhoon's Blog

I've never been to the towns in France and Belgium where old timers remember how the Americans came through in 1944 and 1945, pushing the Nazis out, and restoring freedom to millions of people.  But I'm told that even to this day, they are grateful to the Americans for the sacrifices made on their behalf.  It's poignant as I write this...on Monday, the 25th, as today marks the day that Americans liberated Paris.

But now I fast forward to today.  It appears that all American troops will be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.  Iraq's leader has stated that an agreement on that is now in place.  It wasn't long after learning that news, that I ran across a story that tens of thousands of people gathered in Baghdad's huge Shaab Stadium for a soccer match.  With a capacity of 50,000...the stadium would've been a tempting target for terrorists.  But nothing happened.  Nothing but a soccer game, that is.  And thousands went home talking about nothing more than their team and how they played.

After great turmoil, and predicitions that U.S. efforts in the country would never work, it now appears that in fact, life is moving toward a more normal pace in Iraq.  Violence is down dramatically.  The dictatorship of Saddam Hussein is gone.  The people of the country now have the freedom to choose their leaders in democratic elections.  Many others are committing to the future with their savings, opening up businesses in a young, but promising free market.

There's still a long way to go to bring Iraq to the point where it could ever be considered the most stable democracy in the region (outside of Israel of course.)  But considering the kind of countries that sit nearby....Iran....Saudi Arabia...Syria....it has to be considered a success.  It sure has a more promising future than those countries that still cow their people into submission.

The question is this:  Will the Iraqis remember the American lives lost, the blood shed on their behalf, to bring this democracy to a part of the world where many thought it would never work?  Will visitors to this country 50 or 60 years from now, find Iraqis who are still grateful for the American sacrifices on their behalf?

I've joked about this in the past.  And it would be a constant source of laughs, if the government wasn't wasting so much of your money.  I'm talking about the so-called "virtual fence."

Now comes a report that all work on the fence has come to a screeching halt, because the Interior Department hasn't signed off on it.  This is typical government red tape that we see all the time...and which leads many Americans to think many people within the bureacracy don't care about getting anything accomplished.  They just want to keep their cushy government jobs.  If more paperwork can be pushed, if more decisions can be delayed...well, then...that's just job security.

But...you may be thinking...didn't the building of the fence get fast track authority from Congress?  Yes.  But that only applies to building the real fence, which by the way, will be the only thing that works...not this kooky star wars style border project that has been a joke from the start.

So, you're reading this right.  If they were just going to build a real fence, the job would be humming along right now, and voters might begin to believe their government can get something accomplished.  But since someone, somewhere along the way got sold this ridiculous "virtual fence" project...and since it wasn't included in the fast track authority...work has come to a grinding halt.  And will probably get lost in paperwork forever.

The honorable thing to do would be for every high level government offiicals who approved this laughingstock of a project to resign...and maybe even reimburse taxpayers for this foolhardy decision.  Instead, you will see that no one will take responsiblity.  And as a result...you'll also see that no fence will ever be built along huge chunks of the border.

Hope you'll get a chance to check out our new 9am hour of Fox 10 Arizona Morning.  It's going to be entertaining...with some news...some of the stories beyond the top headlines that people are talking about that day...and some features that provide you information you can use in your life right away.

Rick and Andrea host.  And all of us are part of the show.  You'll have to check out Cory's Corner.  I can't wait to see some of the places he decides to show up and just start talking to people.

We used to say that our most loyal viewers were in the "Four Hour Club."  Now, to qualify for this honor, you'll have to enter the "Five Hour Club."  And while lots of you can only tune in for a half hour or hour of your morning, I'm sure there will be some who spend all morning with us.

Thanks for making our first four hours such a ratings success.  We hope you'll love number five!

Like a lot of people in Arizona, I've been wondering the last few years, "Where'd the monsoon go?"  Last year's monsoon rainfall total of about a half an inch at the airport, had me thinking maybe we should just quit talking about "the rainy season."

Well, it's back, and with a vengeance, this year.  The airport has logged over 3 inches, and other measuring locations around the Valley have seen bigger numbers.  While it's not enough to pull us out of the drought, we are headed in the right direction.  Did you know that our rainfall total this year is already around 6 inches?  So now, we're approaching our average for a full year of a little over 7 inches.  At the current rate, we could top that number with the next good storm!

I know lots of folks don't like the humidity in Arizona.  I mean if it was that way year round, we might as well live in Louisiana or Mississippi.  The dry weather will be here soon enough...using the new criteria from the weather service, somewhere around September 15th.  And, as opposed to other cities that seem to deal with a lot more rain on a much more regular basis, every time we get a good soaking, it seems to cause havoc at Sky Harbor. 

Still, it's worth it, to keep the desert blooming and the mountains green.  I got caught in a rainstorm this week in Payson, and the temp dropped to 68 degrees in the middle of the afternoon!  An hour later, I was back in the Valley at 100!

So, let's hear it for a monsoon that's finally not wimpy.  Who knows when we'll get another one?

Here I am in my 50's, and I can remember being a kid in junior high, listening to the music of James Taylor.  We were on a family vacation in 1970 or '71, driving along a highway in Northern Idaho, and a tune of his called "Carolina On My Mind" came on the radio.  I looked out the window, watching the trees rushing by, and fell in love with his music right then and there. 

So, here we are in 2008 now, and he's been around that time, consistently making great music.  And in his concert the other night in Phoenix, he showed no signs of slowing down.  He loves his band, they love him, and the audience eats up their music.  JT said at one point during show that he'd fight anyone who said he didn't have the greatest band in the world...putting up his dukes to the camera to make his point. 

But as good as that band is, where James Taylor becomes almost magical in his performance is when it's just him and his guitar, as he sits on stage under a single spotlight.  That voice of his, so unique, you recognize it instantly on the radio, is as smooth and clear today, as it was when he started cranking out hits almost 40 years ago.

It's been several years since he came to Phoenix.  And it seemed like both he and his fans didn't want to say goodbye.  The few people I saw leaving at what appeared to be the end of his show, missed a lot of encore music...another good 20 minutes worth.  Considering that the show started at 8, and didn't let out til almost 11 am, that was three great hours of music.

Except for the intermission.  "I don't know why we take 'em," he said, "but we have to, so we'll be back in 20 minutes.  All the members of his band left the stage for a well earned break.  Except for James.  And this is what makes his different.  He seems so humble, almost shy, on stage.  That's a change from so many performers who think the world revolves around them.  But Taylor never left the stage during the entire intermission.  For the full 20 minutes, he leaned over to shake hands, pose for cell phone pictures, and sign autographs.  Talk about somebody who knows he owes his success to his fans.

I realize you have to be in the 40-plus age group to have been there when some of his biggest hits first hit the airwaves.  I'm talking about songs like "Fire And Rain," "You've Got A Friend," "How Sweet It Is," "Your Smiling Face," "Mexico," and "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight."  I just hope a new generation appreciates his music, too.  His is the kind of talent we're all lucky to enjoy.

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Did you go to the show?  Do you have a favorite tune of his, even a memory of listening to his music when you were younger?  Where would you put him on the list of greatest vocalists?

Let's run through the list of problems Delta Airlines has had in the last few days.

First, there is the still unexplainable holding of passengers on board an aircraft for SEVEN HOURS.  This is after virtually every airline promised it wouldn't keep passengers trapped on board planes any longer.  That was at JFK, and a spokesman for the airline said they had no idea why it happened...other than a thunderstorm in Las Vegas.  Still waiting for an explanation from the pilot...I guess.  But it's not hard to pull the plane up to a gate and let people off.

Then there's the story about the lady who ended up dead in the restroom of a Delta flight.  This was an overnight flight from LA to Atlanta.  It's still unexplained why the flight attendants didn't check to see why the restroom was in use during final approach and landing.  But after all that, they went to go look, and found the woman dead.

The capper is the new policy that charges the poor guy whose traveling with a lot of luggage.  By the time you get to a third bag on Delta now, they'll charge you $125.  Add the $50 for the second bag (OK, it's true they don't charge for the first), and you're at $175 each way.  Do the math on that one:  That's $350 per round trip.  That could be more than the cost of the ticket to fly there in the first place.

Compare this to Southwest.  Somehow they fly people all over the country without charging for luggage.  And, as opposed to Delta, and virtually all the other airlines, they make a profit.

Looking at the one time industry leader (I put Delta in that group along with American and United), is it any wonder the whole airline business is in trouble?

The headlines blare than gas prices are down a dime in the last two weeks.  Big deal!  The price of oil has dropped from $147 a barrel to $123 a barrel.  That's close to a 15% decline.  Doing the quick math, that means the price of gas should have gone from $4.05 a gallon in Arizona to $3.45. 

Ah, but it takes a while for the price drops to be passed through, some might say.  If that's true, why were we seeing nearly instantaneous increases at the pump here in AZ when the oil price would go up that same day? 

Maybe you saw on our show where I quoted prices from other places around the country.  Rick's hometown of Euclid, Ohio is as low as $3.79.  Alexis and my hometowns (Sacramento and Wenatchee) are higher...at 4 bucks and up.  But there are several places now where has gas has already fallen to $3.60 or less.  By mid-morning on Monday, gas in Oklahoma City was down to $3.35 a gallon!    At that rate, they'll be $2.99 a gallon before we even get back down to $3.50.

Being next to California, which pays about the highest in the country, hurts us a lot, since we get so much of our gas from them.  But we're not that far from Texas, and I just saw $3.49 a gallon there...let alone those Oklahoma prices.  

So while it's a little good news in Arizona...it could sure be better.

Is John Edwards for real?  His wife is fighting cancer, he's just been accused of having an affair and lying about it, and his response is to release a statement that he doesn't respond to lies?  That it's all tabloid trash?  He thinks that will make it go away?

Listen, John Edwards was one of the major candidates for President this year.  Four years ago, he was the Vice-Presidential nominee.  He has spent most of his life developing his reputation.  Think about it.  Isn't that more important than almost anything to him?  I would think so.  So, shouldn't he be absolutely OUTRAGED that the National Enquirer is reporting that he has a mistress and a child with that mistress?  To dismiss this with a brief statement, to pretend that most everyone in the country hasn't already heard about it, doesn't make sense. 

Here's what he should do (at least if he is innocent.)  He should file a Billion dollar lawsuit against the Enquirer.  He should then go under oath, and prove all the reporters who were waiting for him in the basement of that hotel (why not just walk in and out of the lobby if you're not trying to hide anything?) made everything up.  Because someone is lying here.  If it's the reporters for the Enquirer, the tabloid should be forced to pay so much they might as well go out of business.  But if it's John Edwards, he should be called out for being a man who cheats on his wife while she fights cancer, and then lies to all of us about it.

If you were innocent of such sleazy charges wouldn't you file a HUGE lawsuit?  Anything short of that makes John Edwards defense not too believable.

Here's a conversation I found myself having in the newsroom.  Why is there not an unprecedented effort underway from the highest levels of government to try to come up with solutions to the energy crisis?  Seriously, where is the leadership?  Why hasn't President Bush called the top leaders in business together with key people in his administration and the leadership in the House and Senate and said, we're not leaving until we come up with some concrete solutions?  The simple fact that it's just fodder on the campaign trail makes it seem like the two top candidates are just throwing out ideas (John McCain:  Drill More!) (Barack Obama:  Make Smaller Cars!) to see if anything sticks.

In the meantime, $4 gas is slowly choking our economy to death.

I remember having to give a speech on a newsworthy topic during my days in college at the University of Washington.  The problem, as I saw it then, was that we were relying on foreign countries to import approximately 50% of our oil.  That was 1979.  Here we are almost 30 years later, and guess what, we haven't learned anything.  We're now moving toward the unbelievable number of 70% of our oil being imported.  It was a problem 30 years ago, and we've done nothing! 

Oh, no, wait, we have done something.  We've handed our very security and way of life over to Middle Eastern nations that we are now entirely dependent on.  So far that's only brought us to $4 gas.  Imagine what would happen if they decided to shut off the oil.  Don't laugh.  They did it to us in 1973, and it crippled us economically.  And that's when we weren't importing more than 30% of our oil.   Oh, yeah, and we've also allowed our standard of living to slip while enriching places like Dubai as we've sent billions and billions and billions of our dollars to the Middle East.

I know President Bush is in his last year in office.  But to simply wait for the next person to take office and try to come up with some solutions in mid-2009, won't cut it.  No issue...Social Security...Education...Iraq...is as important as this one.  I really don't know what the solution is.  In fact, I don't think there is one solution.  It has to be many things.  Everything should be on the table.  A consensus needs to be built.  This problem needs to be solved...or at least the first big steps need to be taken toward solving it.  Now.

Here we go again.  Hikers who get themselves lost decide to set a fire to announce to anyone looking for them, where they can be found.  We all remember when it happened several years ago, and ignited what eventually grew into the worst wildfire in our state's history.  The loss of forest lands in the Rodeo-Chedeski fire was so great, that some areas will not return to their prior state during our lifetimes.  The homes of many, many Arizonans were destroyed as well.

Now, the Lane Two fire rages in the mountains near Crown King.  It appears that hikers set the fire because they got lost.  I realize that accidents happen, but if you are going out hiking or camping, you have an obligation to take enough care that you don't get lost or stranded.  That's where the irresponsibility starts.  If you are not prepared with enough in the way of water, maps, and other items of survival, don't go out in the first place! 

But then to set a fire in the hottest, windiest time of year...meaning June, July,and August...when you know what can happen...moves beyond just irresponsibility.  Now, you are talking about the homes and the lives of hundreds of people being placed in danger.

We cannot afford to lose another thousand acres (let alone 400,000 acres as with Rodeo-Chedeski) to a man made fire...set for any reason.

I believe that anyone who sets a fire in Arizona's national forest lands...even if they think it will solve the problem they got themselves into...should be charged with the cost of fighting that fire.  That could become a staggering amount of money, but will be only a fraction of the cost, if you add it up, of the homes lost, forest land destroyed, and lives changed by a fire that rages out of control.

If you don't like your neighbors, you'll be interested in this story.  I've never heard one this wild before. 

Vicki and Jeff Mead have been trying to get an approval from Boulder County, Colorado to open an ATV rental business out of the building they bought back in 2007.  It's right along a highway in the town of Allenspark.

The county didn't like the idea, apparently, and neither did some federal officials.  But if the Meads have a real bone to pick, it's with their neighbors who have been fighting hard against their plans.  One neighbor in particular, Margaret Patterson, appears to be upset over damage done to nearby areas by ATV riders. 

So the Meads have come up with a unique plan to get back at their neighbors, and Ms. Patterson, specifically.  They've decided if they can't open an ATV shop at their location, they'll open a porn shop!  And it's all perfectly legal.

A sign has already gone up on the business announcing what's coming soon:  THE PATTERSON XXX PORN SHOP.  That's right, they named it after their neighbor!

Since the business used to be used as an art gallery, the county can't touch them for displaying "art", which as we all know is in the eye of the beholder.  The Meads said they never thought they'd be getting into the porn business...but here they are about to do it...and to try getting some pretty impressive revenge on their neighbors.

What do you think?  Whose side do you take?  And how have you resolved a dispute with a neighbor in the past?

It amazes me, when you consider how fed up about the economy, and Iraq, people are...that John McCain is as close as he is in the polls to Barack Obama.  You would think in a year where voters want to see major changes happen that Obama would be running a 20 point lead in the polls right now.  Instead most show him up by about 5 to 7 points.  And that's after Hillary Clinton drops out, endorses him, bringing along lots of positive coverage.  There is even one poll out there showing that people want change so badly, by a margin of about 15 points, that they are willing to vote for a candidate with little experience (Obama) over someone with a lot of it (McCain.)

It remains to be seen which candidate will get those rural, blue collar voters...who probably didn't like being portrayed as "bitter" by Obama, who have seen their candidate Hillary, drop out...who would identify more with the Democratic Party, but who like John McCain as a war hero.

The key, as we sit now, less than five months out from the general election, is this:  Who can win a handful of battleground states.  Among them: 

OHIO

PENNSYLVANIA

FLORIDA

VIRGINIA

WEST VIRGINIA

MINNESOTA

MICHIGAN

Hey, that almost looks like a college football poll!  (Sorry, I'm getting a little impatient waiting for September.)  But keep an eye on these states in the next several weeks.  Now that the general election matchup has been set, we should see new polls coming out from these battlegrounds soon.  And most of them are wide open.

Two polls in Virginia show entirely different result.  Both taken in late May...one shows Obama up by 7...the other has McCain up by 8 points.  Florida, for now, doesn't appear to be as much of a toss up.  Polls there show McCain up 4 to 11 points.  But then there's Michigan...where a poll in late May showed McCain up 4...shortly after that, another one showed Obama up 3.

This isn't one of those "in the middle" kind of elections, either.  Many observers say Obama has been the single most liberal guy in the U.S. Senate.  And while John McCain isn't the most conservative, he is conservative, more in the fiesty Barry Goldwater mode (another Arizonan with an independent streak.)  So, this time around, the voters have a very clear choice.  And the states listed above will play a huge role in deciding it.

I remember voting back in 1985 on something called Proposition 300. The hope was that a couple hundred new freeway miles would be built, and that the gridlock that existed then could be eased. Believe it or not, back in the early 1980's, there was only one completed freeway in the Valley, the I-17. The I-10 actually dead ended out around 99th Avenue, and you had to get on Van Buren Street to drive toward downtown and then hook onto the 17! The Superstition Freeway had been built just a few miles into the East Valley, and dead ended into a wall of dirt at Gilbert Road.

Most of the time, when I travel to other cities, I'm struck by how little they've tried to keep up with their growth...and bad freeway situations have only become worse. Here, at least, we've tried to keep building new roads. I know the politically correct move would be to have poured all that money into mass transit, so we can "get people out of their cars." But realistically, cars are how we get around. It really doesn't matter how many busses you add, people are still going to drive their cars.

So, its interesting to note that the last leg of all those Prop 300 freeways is open to open. It's the Red Mountain Freeway (the 202) out in Northeast Mesa. The last remaining section stretches from Power Road east to about Ellsworth then south to University. Not only will it be great for people in Northeast Mesa, it'll be a big help for people living south of the Superstition, out east, who are fed up with the drive down the 60 to the 10 or down the 60 to the 101. Driving the full loop north on the 202 could turn out to be a time saver for them.

ADOT is soon to set the date for its opening. The community party is set now on July 15th. (I love how we party on a brand new freeway in this town!) The actual date to use it will follow shortly after that. And considering this freeway was first projected to open closer to the end of 2008, that's a success.

I do think that we've shifted too much money into busses and the light rail in the new tax package. I think it's close to 60%. Which is out of whack for the percentage of people that will use mass transit, versus their own cars. And that means not nearly as many miles of freeway will be built in the future. Someday down the line that will cause us some big problems.

Though it probably won't get a lot of coverage there is a fascinating story happening on a remote island that must seem like it's at the end of the world.  Few people know it, but there was one battle during World War II, where Japanese forces did take over a small piece of U.S. territory.  It was a cold, windswept island in the Aleutian Chain:  Attu.  The next tiny island over, Kiska, was also taken.

There was no real significance to the place, except that it did give a foothold to the Emporer's army, for possible future incursions deeper into America.  This was in June of 1942, six months after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.  There was significant fear on the West Coast that Japan would eventually launch a full scale invasion of our country.  So, even this success of the Japanese army could not be allowed to stand.

The next year, in May of 1943, in a fight  that has almost been lost to history, U.S. forces arrived.   Soon after, a 19 day battle, and an incredibly intense one at that, began.  Much of the fighting was hand-to-hand combat...and it happened in cold, damp fog at times, at other times, the winds would blow as strong as 120 miles an hour.  Five hundred Americans died.  But for the Japanese, only 28 of their 2,500 troops got off the island alive.

Now, all these years later, the two former enemies have been cooperating on a search for the Japanese bodies that were buried here.  In the last few days, after a large scale effort by both governments, shovels have struck the graves.  Eventually, all those soldiers remains will be returned to Japan.

To find out more, do a Google search on "Attu Battle."   And if you know a Veteran, of World War II, or any more recent war, thank him or her for their bravery and their service.

Every time I sat in those near parking lot conditions on the 101 Freeway in Scottsdale, I'd look over at the on-ramp on some road like Indian Bend, watch another 14 cars try to squeeze on at once, and think to myself:  why?  Why would ADOT build a freeway that it had to know would be busy immediately (anybody remember what it was like to try to drive to the north part of Scottsdale on two-lane Pima Road?)...and not put it those ramp meters?  It's been that way for years...and only now is it changing, as they are finally up and running.

For every commuter that had to spend each day crawling along that freeway in the morning, and again in the afternoon, there should now be a letter of apology landing in your mailbox from ADOT saying, "Sorry we took so many years to take care of this.  Of course, you'll never get back the hundreds, maybe thousands of hours that you wasted out on that road, with a problem that could have been solved years ago.  Guess we thought we could save a little money up front, but it probably cost us more in the long run to wait.  Oh well.  Hope you still like us."

I called ADOT months ago to ask what the hold up was on these ramp meters.  It was in the works, I was told, but even since then, it's been a long wait.

I drive the 202 Freeway mostly, so this problem didn't affect me much.  Although everyone in the Valley knew this freeway could be a big mess every afternoon.  What I don't get is why a lot more people who live in Scottsdale (or live in Tempe, Chandler, etc. and drive it every day) didn't pick up the phone and call...

1) ADOT,

 2) their city leaders,

 3) their state lawmakers,

 or 4) their Congressmen...

...and demand some action.  That kind of thing does get action, you know.  Take a look at the ruckus raised by people living in the north Valley.  The I-17 at two lanes up to Anthem?  That was going to be a 20 year long project...but not anymore.  So, congrats to them for insisting their roads be improved.  And to anyone else wondering when they're going to see an improvement in a road or freeway near them, I have only one word of advice:  Pick up the phone and call somebody!