No Section

Netlets for Thursday, June 4

June 4, 2009 at 7:29PM

The Metropolitan Airports Commission says it gets about 15 complaints a month from travelers confused by the highway signs near the two terminals. A wrong turn here can mean a missed flight. (Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

A cheaper, clearer fix

Why all of a sudden is there a problem with the airport signs being clear enough? They've been that way for years. Why not just add the words "main" to the Lindbergh signs and "charter" to the Humphrey signs and spend a little less than $1 million?

DENNIS NALEZNY, EDINA

Top soil at risk The May 31 article on corn yields fails to mention how the pressure to increase yield in bushels per acre is stressing the very soil farmers depend on for producing the higher corn yields. The fact that farmers are planting nearly twice as many corn stalks per acre is never mentioned by the writer.

My question is obvious: Are farmers destroying the top soil by accelerating stalk density per acre? Planting stalk hills closer as well as reducing the row width means a greater concentration of fertilizer run-off causing greater pollution of our waterways. I don't call this better land management as the article suggests, especially when the reverse is true.

So-called environmentalists should be appalled at the depletion of top soil to produce a supposed renewable energy source called ethanol. Corn ethanol is touted as a pollution reducer when in fact growing corn is polluting our waterways as well as depleting the aquifer we depend on for our survival.

GORDON R. PETERSON, BLOOMINGTON

Photo insensitivity Would the Star Tribune consider writing an article about the antiabortion protesters' practice, in front of the Highland Park Planned Parenthood, of displaying large photographic images of aborted fetuses? My children (3- and 4-year-old daughters) are subjected to these every time we drive down Ford Parkway, go to the Highland Park Rec Center, or go to the Dairy Queen and sit outside.

I am so disgusted by this tactic perpetrated by people who profess to care about children, yet they are so tunnel-vision about their mission that they are past caring about their impact on the actual young children who are everywhere around these photos. Apparently, it's more important to the antiabortion protesters to give children horrifying images to take home and dream about and wrestle with than to surrender one of their tactics. Gross.

SUSAN CROSBY, ST. PAUL

The crazed and the consumed A June 2 letter writer implies that "prolife" persons find it acceptable to murder abortion providers. Why does the Star Tribune knowingly choose to print such an inflammatory and absolutely untrue letter?

In the same edition it was reported that a protester at the Republican National Convention last summer pleaded guilty Monday in Ramsey County District Court to second-degree assault for throwing a 50-pound sandbag off a bridge onto Interstate 94 traffic. Nobody was injured or killed but they easily could have been. Certainly, nobody with half a brain would ever believe that anybody who disagrees with the Republican Party platform would advocate or be just as capable of this despicable person's actions.

Clearly, there have always been the crazed and the consumed on the fringes of divisive issues who, ultimately, and wrongly, conclude the end justifies the means. They should be punished severely.

GEOFF DODD, DEEPHAVEN

The Ultimate story The June 3 Sports section article on small colleges succeeding in national competition was great -- but you missed one of the best! Carleton College, with fewer than 1,500 students, competes every year against the largest Division I universities in the country --Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, Florida, Colorado, Stanford and more -- in Ultimate Frisbee; and this year the women's team tied for ninth in the country and Carleton men's team, CUT, WON the national championship! This is the second time Carleton's men have won in this decade, and it's a great story about terrific young people. You should follow up. Go, Carleton!

FAYE KNOWLES, MINNEAPOLIS

LeRoy is thinking of you I got a new dog this weekend. I wasn't planning on it, but nonetheless, here he is. He's a beautiful Yellow Lab. Very well behaved, mellow, obedient ...couldn't have a nicer dog. There is one thing wrong with him. He has a broken heart. You can see it in his eyes. He must have been dumped off by his owner.

I live in the country and see it all the time. People find a small community and dump off their pets thinking someone will take them in. The vast majority of the time the animal is shot.

This beautiful dog, now named LeRoy, was found lying in a farmer's field...filthy, exhausted, smelly, full of ticks and starving. Yes, that's what happened to your dog, the dog that gave you so much love. He probably would have died in that field, your once-beloved pet. Shame on you. He's mine now even though I know he's still thinking of you and waiting for you. I can't afford vet bills, or heartworm medicine, but I'll give him a home, lots of love, and I pray his heart will mend on its own.

SUE OLSON, CARVER