The Columbian | Serving Clark County, Washington

Cheers: To the lowly plastic bag. Or more properly, to recycled plastic bags. Indisputably handy for toting groceries home from the store, the bags can pose an environmental scourge. That’s why some nations including China — hardly the paragon of the environmental movement — have banned them. A better solution, though, is to recycle them by returning them to the supermarket (the curbside recycling folks don’t take them.)

The big stores such as Fred Meyer and WinCo sell the used bags by the billions to companies such as Trex, maker of high-quality composite materials used in decking and outdoor furniture. By mixing the plastic with wood waste, the company ends up with a durable, desirable product.

Jeers: To would-be congressmen with spotty voting records. Seven of the nine announced candidates to succeed U.S. Rep. Brian Baird have perfect voting records over the last few years, not even forgetting to fill out ballots for school levies and other local matters. The exceptions: state Rep. Craig Pridemore, D-Vancouver, and Republican David Hedrick of Camas. Hedrick gained notoriety last summer by shouting down Baird at a town hall meeting. According to the county auditor, Pridemore has missed five voting opportunities since September 2000, while Hedrick has missed eight of the last nine. While it’s not always easy to remember to vote — Pridemore admits that at least one ballot made it to his car, but never to the mailbox — we expect our leaders to set a good example of citizenship.

Cheers: To indefatigable former Congresswoman Linda Smith and her nonprofit, Shared Hope International, for championing changes in state laws regarding sex trafficking. Smith and her staff journeyed to Olympia twice this week to testify on behalf of three important bills. Senate Bill 6330 would authorize the state Department of Transportation to place informational posters in rest areas; SB6332 would require employers of foreign workers to inform them of their rights; and SB6476 would stiffen criminal penalties for pimps and add protections for young prostitutes.

Though prostitution isn’t very visible on local streets, authorities say the problem is pervasive. Girls, many of them runaways, are transported between cheap motels along the I-5 corridor. Clark County is a favorite recruiting spot. Accompanying Smith to Olympia was a La Center teen who narrowly escaped the life of prostitution after being recruited to work in a Seattle strip club.

Jeers: To Vancouver City Councilman Pat Campbell for criticizing Mayor Tim Leavitt’s decision to host a town hall meeting in east Vancouver. Leavitt hopes the meetings will become a quarterly tradition, and will give citizens a chance to speak to elected officials without putting in for a three-minute time slot at a city council meeting.

Not Campbell. “I thought we had town hall meetings? Isn’t that what city council is?” Campbell wrote. “Individual council members having their own meetings at public expense, in addition to our city council can only add to confusion and division.”

Leavitt rightly retorts that the meetings will cost very little and, unlike a formal council meeting, consume almost no staff time. In an era where people are growing more disconnected and deeply suspicious of government, any bridges Leavitt builds are welcome.

Cheers: To high-tech traffic lights coming soon to a busy county road near you. The new controls use “situational monitoring” to vary their timing to allow for the smoothest flow of traffic. Some of the work is already under way, and the rest will follow over the next few months. In the meantime, we’ll have to be patient.

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