Thumbs up: Congress passes credit card restrictions
Congress passed restrictions on credit cards this week intended to eliminate predatory practices and make it easier for Americans to obtain and understand credit cards. The legislation will slow interest rate increases and mandate that credit card companies inform customers of rate increases at least 45 days in advance. It also extends promotional rates and makes it harder for companies to issue cards to those younger than 21. As college students are often the worst victims of predatory practices by creditors, these reforms are to be applauded. Credit card debt has increased more than 25 percent in the last decade, partially because of abusive practices.
Thumbs down: City commissioner opposes jail expansion
Lane County Commissioner Pete Sorenson opposed the expansion of the county’s jail capacity citing cost, while simultaneously pushing to add part-time support staff for the five county commissioners. The new staff will cost $250,000 a year, in addition to hiring a nearly full-time resource development analyst at a cost of $82,000. Though federal lawmakers and public safety advocates strongly recommend the funds be used to expand jail capacity, Sorenson and other members of the committee argue that additional support staff will improve their accountability to the community. This may be true, but Lane County desperately needs to be able to lock up dangerous offenders when necessary.
Thumbs up: Salem moves to restrict phosphate dish detergents
While many manufacturers have ceased using phosphate derivatives in dish detergents, the move this week by lawmakers in Salem to ban phosphate dish detergents is an obvious one. This means most of the popular detergents won’t be found in stores any longer. In Washington, few but “green” brands like Planet and Seventh Generation are often stocked. But the economy and environment of Oregon heavily rely on riparian ecosystems, and slowing the output of chemicals known to degrade those systems will likely prove beneficial to future generations. Similar regulations in other states have inspired the market development of effective alternatives, as it did when ozone-depleting CFCs were removed from aerosols in the 1990s.
Thumbs down: Parents object to diversity display
Parents of students at Meadowlark Elementary School in North Eugene objected this week to the principal’s decision to include a transgender woman in a display celebrating diversity. Parents said the display’s feature of 25-year-old Tobi Hill-Meyer is too controversial for a young audience. Not only do these parents demonstrate a disgraceful level of insensitivity in their overprotective fervor, they clearly have missed the entire point of the display, which is to demonstrate and celebrate human diversity. The parents would be wise to learn the lesson the display in question was intended to teach: “empowering kids to give respect and expect respect for everyone,” as the school’s principal put it.
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