4 WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 2011

OPINION
dynamic players to remember that you have to win one championship before you can win a bunch of them. On paper, the Mavs didnt match up great with the exception of Dirk Nowitzki. Behind him were a group of mostly veteran players with a history of showing up for championships but never wearing the ring. The Miami Heat are a cautionary tale, complete with multiple metaphors for life. First off, there is more to be gained from overdelivering and overpromising. But big contracts are based on both real promise and hype. There was scant evidence in the Finals that LeBron James is even close to being the best player in the game. The coronation didnt come. Then there is the notion of team. The Mavericks, beyond Nowitzki, didnt have much shooting depth or a reputation for playing defense. Come the finals and the Mavericks were lights out shooting and kept LeBron all but scoreless toward the end of each game.

TODAYS NEWS-HERALD

OUR VIEW

Why they play the games anyway

On paper, the Miami Heat killed the Dallas Mavericks. Heck, the Heat would beat anyone in the NBA Finals. Not just this year, but multiple times in the years to come. That advantage, of course, came from LeBron The Decision James, teamed with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. They were unstoppable. Then they actually played the games. The Mavericks, despite a label as perennial pretenders, came out on top, leaving the Heats The Mavericks ultimately were better than the sum of their parts. They knew they were the better team and that belief was the difference. Thats life. Thats teamwork, whether in sports or in business or even in a community. Trust, belief and a group united by a common purpose can move mountains. In truth, the Heat had a great season. They were in the finals. But measured against the self-propagated hype, it was a total disappointment. Todays News-Herald

SKETCH PAD

YOUR VIEWS

No to annexation not development

Editor: I have been reading all the letters to the editor, as well as the editorial of May 20. It has been implied by the editorial and letters that because the annexation was voted down by the majority of the voters, those who voted against it are uneducated and dont know what they are doing. What this does show is that they are getting more knowledgeable and the days of the buddy system is becoming extinct. There could not have been more publicity put out on the annexation than what was put out. It was constantly in the papers, signs around town and meetings held. You had to be blind and deaf (no offense intended) to not know what was going on. How many of you attended the meetings? I did, and there was nothing presented at any of them to substantiate the figures presented to the council by the requester upon which they based their vote. The vote was against annexation by the city, not development of the area; that is between the developer and the residents. The city will reap the benefits from any development to the area regardless of whether it is in the county or the city. Where are the residents/visitors going to go to get what they need and to participate in activities? As an added note, I am a golfer year round and used to play at the Refuge when it was open to the public under the previous owner. However, I have not golfed there since the new owners took over and closed it to the public. I now do all of my golfing at Parker and Bullhead City, which is in most cases two times a week. Robert Warren Lake Havasu City

OTHER VIEWS

Fascination with political sex scandals unsettling

Whats worse, a love child or a sex tape? A high-priced call girl or a mistress soul mate? An illicit affair with the wife of a friend or a tryst with a stranger in cyberspace? Thats the balancing act required to figure out how New York Rep. Anthony Weiner rates in the rogues gallery of politicians disgraced by sexual shenanigans. Weiner is a Democrat, but no party has a monopoly on sexual indiscretion. I think Weiner ranks somewhere between the kings of sleaze Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had a long-term affair and secret child under his wifes nose with the familys housekeeper, and John Edwards, who betrayed his dying wife with his new age mistress and the clueless Chris Lee, the married New York congressman who resigned earlier this year after a shirtless photo revealed hed been pretending to be a divorced lobbyist while trolling Craigslist for women. Consider Weiners progenitors, culled from just the past few years: The fellows who frequented prostitutes, like former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, whose rendezvous with a $1,000-an-hour call girl led to his resignation, and Louisiana Sen. David Vitter, whose very serious sin involving a Capitol Hill call girl ring did not. The guys who had sex with their buddies wives, like former Nevada Sen. John Ensign, who stepped down in the midst of an ethics investigation into his affair with the wife of an aide, and Californias own Gavin Newsom, who was elected lieutenant governor even after admitting that as mayor of San Francisco, he had an affair with his campaign managers wife. The married men involved with men, like former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey, who held a news conference to announce that he was gay and had an adulterous affair with a man on his staff. The Marks, Foley and Sanford. Former Florida Rep. Mark Foley resigned after sending sexually explicit messages to teenage boys. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford stayed in office despite an adulterous love affair with what he called his soul mate, a woman in Argentina. question of the day back then. Now Weiner has us wondering, Is it an affair if you never touched her? The bigger question is harder to answer, and has less to do with sex, than fidelity to your family, your community, your commitment: What can we expect and should we accept from the people we elect to lead us? I feel sorry for Weiners wife and dont much care what happens to him now. I dont think we need an ethics investigation. To find out what, whether he used his government-issued phone to take embarrassing pictures of his crotch? We already know hes an arrogant liar. And we have bigger fish to fry. Maybe Ive just had my fill of tawdry confessions and tardy mea culpas. But the public spectacle surrounding Weiner has begun to resemble its own kind of porn. As I watched the televised news conference this week, our public obsession with private compulsions seemed more than a little unsettling. Did you have phone sex? one reporter kept shouting out over the din. At that moment, I felt my sympathies shift. How far are we justified to go? How deep can we, in good conscience, dig? We might be wise to take a page from David Paterson, who inherited the job as governor when New Yorks Spitzer was felled by the call girl scandal. Rumors of infidelity immediately surfaced, and Paterson and his wife addressed them. Every relationship has hard times, he told reporters. I had affairs. My wife had affairs. We repaired our marriage and moved on. Maybe its time for us to do likewise. Move on. Let Weiner slink home to his lovely wife and try to become the kind of man the child shes carrying wont be ashamed to call Dad. Sandy Banks is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Readers may send her email at sandy.banks@latimes.com.

SANDY BANKS What makes Weiners scandal so compelling is not the magnitude of his offense, which pales compared with some of these guys deeds. Its the titillation factor, and attendant high drama: The outraged denials, and tearful admissions; the crude crotch shots and trashy transcripts. And our own public penchant for voyeurism. Id never heard of Anthony Weiner before he burst bare-chested onto the national scene last month. And Im not convinced that the good of the country, as one wag said, rests on whether he resigns or not. Politicians have been calling for his resignation; hes an embarrassment to his party, they say. But Weiners constituents seem unruffled by his sexual antics. Maybe hes closer to the norm than wed like to admit. I know that not every guy is like that, but most guys are crazy for women. They lose their minds, a man from Queens told the Los Angeles Times Tina Susman. Ive heard much the same on the streets out here. At the bar, the coffee shop, the beauty salon, Weiners actions have been greeted less with outrage than with a simple, more prosaic question: How can a smart man be so dumb? If theres a lesson for Weiner its pretty simple: Girls talk. If a famous politician or entertainer or athlete sends me a naked picture, I am going to share it with my friends. And Im going to keep those text messages and Facebook posts ... just like Monica Lewinsky kept that blue dress with the stains that sunk Bill Clinton. And if theres a lesson for us, its harder to fathom. This episode of sex, lies and stupidity feels a lot like ground weve already trod, a throwback to the uncomfortable questions the Clinton scandal foisted on us. Is oral sex really sex? was the

Recycling not encouraged

Editor: We are yearly visitors to your fine city, and have enjoyed very much coming here for the past eight years. We stay at the London Bridge Resort, where we have a time-share. We love the city and the area, the desert and the Lake. We are perplexed and dismayed at the fact that there is no facility or incentive to recycle here. We live in California, and also vacation often in Nevada and Washington states, and in all three of those states, recycling is encouraged, facilitated, and the landfills are required by law (at least in California) to reduce their intake by a certain percentage over the next few years. Why does this area/state not appear to be interested or involved in any form of recycling? What is wrong with Lake Havasu City and Arizona? You are not part of a separate nation from us. We should all be participating in the recycling movement. It just makes sense. It might mean investing some money up front in the infrastructure, but where is the down side to that? Mayor Nexsen and city council members Callahan, Barlow, Barnes, Borreli, McAlin and Nyberg, get on the bus. Take some positive action on this problem that exists in your town. Laverne Moody and Rudy Polak Visalia, Calif. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR MUST BE 300 WORDS OR LESS

LETTERS POLICY
Todays News-Herald welcomes letters from our readers. Letters must be signed, and a telephone number and address must be listed to help in verifying the identity of the letter writer. Letters are limited to 300 words. We will run letters by a given author once per month. We reserve the right to edit all letters. Libelous or letters in poor taste or making personal attacks will be edited or not published. Letters about specific businesses will not be published. MAIL LETTERS TO: Editor, Todays News-Herald 2225 W. Acoma Blvd. | Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 or e-mail to editor@havasunews.com

HOW TO CONTACT ...

Mohave County Board : Gary Watson, (R) District 1 809 E. Beale Street Kingman, AZ 86402 Phone 928-753-0722 gary.watson@co.mohave.az.us Tom Sockwell, (R) District 2 1130 Hancock Road Bullhead City, AZ 96442 Phone: 928-758-0713 tom.sockwell@co.mohave.az.us Buster Johnson, (R) District 3 2001 College Dr. Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403 Phone Number: 928-453-0724 buster.johnson@co.mohave.az.us Lake Havasu City Council 2330 N. McCulloch Blvd. Phone Number: 928-453-4140 Mayor Mark Nexsen mayor@lhcaz.gov Lake Havasu City Council Phone Number (928) 453-4140 Vice Mayor Don Callahan Council member Dean Barlow Council member Lee Barnes Council member Sonny Borrelli Council member David McAtlin Council member Margaret Nyberg

EDITOR & PUBLISHER

BUSINESS MANAGER | Sandy Standifer DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Mike Quinn | quinn@havasunews.com

Owned and published by RIVER CITY NEWSPAPERS, L.L.C. 2225 W. ACOMA BLVD. LAKE HAVASU CITY, AZ 86403 (928) 453-4237 (800) 894-2109
SUCCESSOR TO THE DAILY HERALD & TODAYS DAILY NEWS

MANAGING EDITOR

Becky Maxedon | editor@havasunews.com

NEWS EDITOR

Gary Tackett | ads@havasunews.com

CIRCULATION MANAGER

Todays News-Herald (USPS 302-340) (ISSN 1084-9009) is published 7 days a week for a suggested home delivery rate of $122.03 per year. Inside Mohave County by mail is $228.32 per year. Outside Mohave County, Arizona is $283.43 per year. Single copies Monday-Saturday $2.50 each and Sunday $4.50 each. Periodicals postage paid at Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Todays News-Herald, 2225 W. Acoma Blvd., Lake Havasu City, AZ 86403. For circulation, subscriptions, news items, advertising rates and deadlines call (928) 453-4237. If you have not received your paper by 7 a.m., call 855-6392. Copyright 2011, Todays News-Herald. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part prohibited without permission.

Jim Abdon | circ@havasunews.com

PRODUCTION MANAGER

news@havasunews.com

Kelly Parks | web@havasunews.com