Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Podunk Below the Masthead Monday, March 23, 2009

The Salvation Army features large on the front page, changes to the environmental review process don't sit well with the riding's NDP MP and a breakdown on election contributors highlights the Monday edition of the Daily News.

THE SALVATION ARMY IS EARNING ITS KEEP-- Monday's front page headline story examined the impact that the Salvation Army Thrift store has had on the community, highlighting revenues of 60 thousand dollars in 2008 which helped fund the food bank, food programs and provided clothing and household goods for 450 residents of the city.

The history of the thrift store through its many locations in the city was provided in the Monica Lamb Yorski article, as well as review of the generosity of Rupertites over the years towards the Salvation Army. Included in the article was a breakdown of some of the assistance provided which sees 150 people served daily at the soup kitchen, 40 to 50 for breakfast as well as providing food staples to over 300 families. Numbers that are up from 2008, which saw 125 people a day at the soup kitchens and 225 families using the food bank.

Elsewhere in the paper on Monday, Nathan Cullen is finding concern over revisions to the environmental review process as planned by the Conservative government. Cullen the NDP MP for Skeena is worried that the move is going to provide for the most dangerous changes to our environmental assessment process, the most dangerous in the nation's history according to Cullen.

Every political campaign needs a little money to move forward and when it comes to municipal politics there seemed to be enough to go around for all candidates. The page five report provides some numbers from November's election campaign, which in total resulted in $32,540.21 in donations.

The Daily News outlined that Mayoralty candidate Don Scott led the donation parade with 29 donations including 2,000 dollars from J Gordon Industries, 1,000 dollars from Canfisco and 200 dollars from Steve Smith from the Crest hotel.

Mr. Scott's competitor and the eventual winner of the election campaign Mayor Jack Mussallem collected $1,645 in donations, about 10,000 dollars less than the Scott campaign compiled during the campaign.

On council the incumbents combined donations amounted to $8442.98 for those that once again sought office, with Sheila Gordon Payne accounting for the largest share of $3,347.54, a little less than half of which came from the BC Nurses Union and the Rupert Square mall.

Of the would be newcomers Mario Castelli received $5,500, while successful candidate Anna Ashley received $2,475 and fellow newcomer to council Gina Garon received $800.19.

The sports pages celebrated the success of Friendship House Tribesmen who prevailed in the under 17 junior boys All Native basketball championships in Port Alberni. A feature on a former Rupert swimmer now swimming on behalf of Kitimat was provided as well.

Total pages in Monday's paper (12)

No comments: