At Larch Corrections Center near Vancouver, inmates in the therapeutic community program close their day with a motivational routine. The program offers offenders a structured "family" environment and plenty of classes to prepare them to make it on the outside.

Will 'Amnesty' Sink McCain?

The perennial controversy over what to call McCain's amnesty is silly. Every program in the world that has allowed illegal immigrants to stay has been called an "amnesty." McCain himself called it "amnesty" as recently as May 2003, when he told the Tucson Citizen "I think we can set up a program where amnesty is extended to a certain number of people who are eligible … Amnesty has to be an important part ..." But once the focus-group results were in, "amnesty" became a four-letter word. ...[snip]

P.S.: The McCain, post-focus-group argument is that it can't be "amnesty" if it has some requirements--e.g., to pay a fine, learn English, etc. But it turns out that Ronald Reagan's 1986 "comprehensive" reform, which he and everyone else called an "amnesty," had requirements too, including payment of fees.

Don’t write off this story yet

Only later, after searching the archives, do I discover why my colleagues fixed me with such vacant stares: I wrote that story back in 1996. Even our most loyal readers, the ones who keep piles of old HCNs in their garages and bathrooms alongside boxes of National Geographics, have likely forgotten my majestic prose and would appreciate a fresh take on the subject.

I went through a similar process when Terry Greene Sterling first pitched this issue's cover story on the Salton Sea. Contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis did a fine piece on Southern California's accidental inland sea back in 2000. What more was there to say? Plenty, it turns out. Seven years ago, Salton Sea boosters were cautiously optimistic that federal and state money would pump new life into the drying, irrigation-fed body of water and the struggling tourism and retirement economy it supports.

Police blotter

Benjamin Drive, 100 block: A woman called police at 7 a.m. Tuesday after she woke up to discover that her home had been burglarized while she slept. The woman told deputies she heard nothing during the night, but when she got up that morning, she saw that her X-box was on the floor, and it looked like someone had tried to unhook it. She then went into the kitchen to look for her purse, and it was missing. The purse contained $200 in cash and all of her identifying information, the woman said. She told police there was no sign of forced entry.

Forest Wood Drive, 200 block: A woman called police at 9 a.m. Wednesday to complain about harassing phone calls from her husband's ex-girlfriend. The 39-year-old woman told deputies her husband had had a relationship with the 28-year-old woman, but he had ended it.