Increase in Fees…

For the first two years, our Health Department License to operate a retail food operation was $154 a year. This year, it was $254. That is a significant increase for just one year. I wish government would operate the same way that a business or family must operate. If times get tough, you tighten up on expenditures and you prioritize your needs and operate within your budget. Unfortunately, the government does not share that philosophy. When things get tight for the government, they get a ballot initiative going to increase taxes. When that was soundly defeated by popular vote several months ago, they did not get the message. They just start increasing and implementing new fees to fund their waste and fraud. We know quite a few people at the Health Dept and they are wonderful people, so these comments are not directed at them. This is just one example of how the government operates. If the people speak out (literally, or by vote), the government just figures out a way around public opinion. My Dream for the future is that the government would care about the opinions of the people they represent. Is it possible for this to happen in the coming years? I sure hope so…

Here are a few military photos for this week:

01
A snowman is on the National Mall near the Washington Monument after a near-record snowfall in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area


02
PACIFIC OCEAN (Feb. 10, 2010) A visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS)
team member assigned to the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit fast ropes
from a CH-46E Sea Knight helicopter onto the flight deck of the
amphibious transport dock USS Denver (LPD 9) during a VBSS training
exercise.


03
U.S. Army 1st Lt. Matt Jarmon, Charlie Company 2508, Task Force Furry commanding officer, makes his way out of a compound after clearing it in search of IED's and weapons caches during a dismounted patro


04
U.S. Army Private First Class Shawn Cronin, Charlie Company 2508 Task Force Furry, takes a breath as he struggles through the pain of a broken ankle suffered during a dismounted patrol


05
A U.S. Army Sergeant with Charlie Company 2508 Task Force Furry, participating in Operation Mesmar, pulls perimeter security


06
U.S. Army Crew Chief Spc. Timothy Johns, of Mitchell, S.D., with Charlie Company, Task Force Talon, checks the tail rotor of his Black Hawk helicopter, at a forward operating base, in Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Thursday Feb. 11, 2010. The Talon MEDEVAC in Helmand is one of several army aero-medical units positioned around southern Afghanistan by the 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade, known as Task Force Pegasus. (AP)


07
Two U.S. Marine Assault Breacher Vehicles (ABV), test-fire explosive line charges in the desert outside Sistani, a farming suburb of Marjah in Afghanistan's Helmand province Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2010. The 72-ton ABV vehicle that can plow mine fields and fire ribbons of C4 explosive nearly 150 yards ahead of them to blast safe passage. (AP)