Speak Out 8/28/11

Woodland example

MICHELLE Obama wants to take all the soda machines out of high schools and replace them with juice machines. There has already been an experiment. Ask Woodland R-IV. Two years ago they took the soda machines out. The children couldn't afford the orange juice, and people aren't going to pay $2 for a bottle of orange juice when you can get soda. And guess what, they couldn't go to these basketball tournaments and other things because the soda money was paying the way.

Highway proposals

IT would be good for Cape Girardeau if Illinois would build a four-lane Highway 66 from the Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge in Cape Girardeau to the Interstate 24 bridge at Paducah, Ky. But it has been blocked for years by the Shawnee National Forest. A better solution would be to use Highway 60 from Springfield to Charleston, Mo., as I-66. Then use the I-57 bridge into Southern Illinois. Build a shorter I-66 from the Cairo, Ill., bridge to the Paducah bridge. This would make I-66 more of an East-West interstate without any need for a new bridge.

Jensen column

HERE is another question to go with Mike Jensen's questions in a recent column: How can a woman using WIC stamps have a $40 nail job?