Thumbs up,Thumbs down
Training saves lives
When Craig Wiles of Prosser stopped at a Kennewick gas station on his way to work earlier this month, saving a man’s life was not among the tasks he expected to face that day.
As Wiles was leaving the gas station, he heard the driver of a vehicle behind him call out for help. A passenger in the vehicle had stopped breathing. Wiles pulled the man from the passenger seat and started cardiopulmonary resuscitation. After several rounds of chest compressions, the man started breathing. But the man again stopped breathing, and Wiles resumed compressions until paramedics arrived.
Thumbs up to Wiles for his heroic action and to his employer Apollo Mechanical Engineering, which has all supervisors take first aid and CPR training that meets American Red Cross standards.
Few of us ever consider that we might be in Wiles’ position one day, where a life depends on whether or not we’re trained in CPR. Should that day ever arrive, will you be prepared?
The local American Red Cross provides training for individuals and for area businesses. For more information contact the Red Cross at 509-783-6195.
Food Truck Friday is back
If you’re looking for a unique lunch experience with an eclectic menu, the place to be on Fridays is at the Pasco Farmers Market. After an inaugural 33-week run last year, Food Truck Friday will open its 2016 season from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 1
Six to eight trucks are expected to participate opening day, according to Marilou Shea, director of Pasco Specialty Kitchen, which organizes the event.
The Pasco Farmers Market is at Fourth Avenue and Columbia Street downtown. Seating is under a shelter but outdoors, so dress for the weather.
Regents skirted law’s intent
“The right way to do it is, well, just the opposite of what they did,” said former state Auditor Brian Sonntag about the way the Washington State University regents selected the university’s new president.
As a public agency, the regents are subject to the Open Public Meetings Act, and the vote to choose a new president was held in public. But rather than discuss the three finalists by name the regents assigned each candidate a letter.
After a brief discussion of “candidates A, B and C,” the regents voted unanimously for candidate C. Later, after a closed session that involved a negotiation on the phone with candidate C, they publicly announced the name of the new president.
The regents said WSU’s attorney approved the procedure, but recently, the Municipal Research and Services Center of Washington, a nonprofit that provides consultation to local governments, told a hospital district commission they could not vote on candidates identified only by numbers.
The regents say they drew a better pool of candidates by promising confidentiality. But once the field is narrowed to where a vote will be taken, the public’s right to know trumps a job candidate’s wish to remain anonymous.
Whether such a charade was legal may be open for debate, but there’s no question the regents intentionally violated the intent of the law.
This story was originally published March 30, 2016 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Thumbs up,Thumbs down."