Alan Finkelstein

The menu is different, but the golden arches — global emblem for billions and billions served — remain the same.

In 1971, a 16-year-old Alan Finkelstein started work at a McDonald’s restaurant at Seattle’s University Village, earning less than $2 per hour. The early days included stints minding the milkshake machine — a more complicated task in the pre-electronics era, because orders had to be tracked on paper tickets.

Nowadays, Finkelstein is responsible for a lot more than milkshakes. The longtime Sammamish Plateau resident and entrepreneur owns McDonald’s restaurants in Kent, Maple Valley, Sammamish and the busy-as-a-beehive eatery along Northwest Gilman Boulevard in Issaquah.

In 40 years beneath the golden arches, Finkelstein has amassed encyclopedic knowledge about the company — he can quote freely from McDonald’s mastermind Ray Kroc — and intertwined his restaurants into the surrounding communities.

“Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s, said, ‘You want to give back to your communities, because they are the people that help you every day,’” Finkelstein said.

The experience behind the counter means he can relate to employees assembling a Big Mac from the bun up or pulling french fries from a deep fryer, because he used to handle the same tasks. Sometimes, he pops in after midnight at the restaurants to meet employees. (McDonald’s, for the record, did not remain open 24 hours in 1971.)

Building a family

For Finkelstein, the connection to the restaurants is personal, too. He met his future wife, Cassie, then a coworker, at a McDonald’s in the 1970s. The younger generation of Finkelsteins — son Steven, and daughters Cherie Knudsen, a first-grade teacher at Discovery Elementary School in Sammamish, and Elissa Finkelstein — all logged time behind the counter in McDonald’s as teenagers. Elissa is a tasting room manager at a Woodinville winery. Steven is a Texas A&M University astrophysicist.

For the family, the connection to the community does not stop at the restaurant door.

“I think it’s great that our daughter works at a school that’s in the same neighborhood as our McDonald’s, and that we all live in the neighborhood, too,” Cassie Finkelstein said. “That’s something I always dreamed of.”

Knudsen said her parents emphasized hard work to her and her siblings. Before she joined the staff at Discovery, she worked for a time at the Ronald McDonald House in Seattle — a nonprofit organization set up to allow parents to stay near hospitalized children.

“My dad’s had the same job for 40 years — that’s a work ethic,” she said. “I always say that I have a really good work ethic. That’s one of the things that my parents brought me up knowing.”

McDonald’s estimates half of its franchise owners started as crewmembers behind the counter. Kroc, the legendary McDonald’s executive responsible for reshaping the way billions and billions eat, said “ketchup in your veins” is essential for restaurant owner-operators, such as Finkelstein.

Finkelstein has built a career in the company as McDonald’s shifted from offering a plain-Jane menu to including items like lattes, wraps and oatmeal. The constant evolution is something Finkelstein has experienced day after day for the past 40 years. He describes the updates as a way to remain relevant and adapt to customers’ changing palates.

Like everyone else in McDonald’s management, he attended the famed Hamburger University in 1976 and again in 1991. The corporate college is on the McDonald’s campus in Oak Brook, Ill. Finkelstein remembers a setting akin to a traditional university, although in addition to traditional business courses, instruction is heavy on McDonald’s 101.

Closer to home, Finkelstein serves on the Sammamish Chamber of Commerce board and has long supported schools in the Issaquah and Lake Washington districts. Forging ties to communities surrounding restaurants started almost as soon as he started working at McDonald’s, he recalled.

Building a community

Finkelstein hosted a McTeacher’s Night at a Sammamish restaurant last month as Issaquah organizations attempted to raise money for updated science textbooks and materials. Knudsen joined colleagues to staff the drive-thru and punch orders into cash registers as students sold chocolate-chip cookies by the fistful and gathered tips from jars set atop the counter.

“It’s exciting to be able to help my dad out and make money for our cause,” she said.

Meanwhile, as teachers and school administrators juggled orders for Chicken McNuggets and cheeseburgers, a standing-room-only crush of parents and children swarmed through the restaurant.

“It’s all about giving back to the community,” Finkelstein said amid the swirl. “This is just a way that we can provide the venue and give them a chance to come in. You should see the kids when they come in and they see their principal or they see their teacher.”

Finkelstein said such experiences allow customers to put a “face to the restaurant” and, as if to reiterate the commitment, greeted customers with, “Thanks for coming in. Thanks for supporting the school.”

The dedication stretches back 40 years, to a different McDonald’s on the other side of Lake Washington. The menu is different now, but Finkelstein said his values remain the same.

“The community’s important. They’re the ones that are here for us,” he said. “It’s been a fun time to give back.”

Warren Kagarise: 392-6434, ext. 234, or wkagarise@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Ahh, our annual photo contest. The people, the animals, the scenes.

Kathleen R. Merrill Press editor

Everyone on our staff can help judge the contest every year and it’s one of the most enjoyable things we do. We have some really amazing amateur photographers in our coverage area!

This year we had 208 entries — 64 in the animal category, 52 in the people category and 92 in the scenic category. Each first-place winner gets $100. Not bad for doing something most people enjoy — capturing a fun, silly, spiritual, beautiful, inspiring moment in time.

The contest will be held again next year, so start saving your best photos now!

Congratulations to all of the people who won. See their photos on the front of our Community section this week, Page B1.

But I’d also like to congratulate the finalists in each category, who don’t get prizes, but will be in our online slideshow along with the winners and who took some awesome pictures. It was really hard to choose the winners!

The finalists are:

People — Jared Kirkham, Steve Fu, Ajay Aggarwal, Nancy Colburn, Dana Verhoff, Gabrielle Gevers, Susan Stainsby, Richard Edelman and Matt Matches.

Animals — Tom Anderson, Jeannie Bodenstab, John Pavlish, Jennifer Orr, Kara Roberts, Parket Mayberry, Xing Du, Gabrielle Gevers and John Micheal Wachhals.

Scenic — Ashok C Kamath, Albert Perron, Darren C. Ross, Jeff Bennett, Steve Fu, Robert D. Harris and Mike Montgomery.

My personal favorite in each category was:

Animals — “Spider and the lily,” by Parket Mayberry. “I was testing out my new camera, just taking pictures of my yard and other things, to see how well it performed,” Mayberry said. “When I came to this lily flower, I was surprised to see this white spider living in the lily. Naturally, photos needed to be taken.” I agree. The detail is incredible and the spider is actually quite beautiful.

People — “State park people,” by Richard Edelman. It was taken at Tastin’ n Racin’ this year and shows a young man and woman with a huge fish. The man is holding the fish, whose mouth is wide open and the woman, whose hand is also on the fish, appears to be reacting with surprise and delight. She actually has nearly the same look on her face that the fish has, which is really funny, although I can’t think that the fish was feeling delight.

Scenic — “Lake Sammamish winter,” by Logan Stromberg. This was the first-place winner in the category and people on our staff marveled at how beautiful, serene and stunning the photo is. It gives me a feeling of nostalgia about winters, and summers, long past.

But I love all of the photos we get. I can’t say that there’s been a bad one, ever. Good thing, I guess, that I don’t have to judge this contest all by myself.

I enjoy seeing people’s pets and children in unique and sometimes fun situations. I love the memorial photos of people and pets who are now gone. I love the fun poses people choose for some photos. And even though they don’t have anything to do with our coverage area, I love the vacation photos people send in.

Speaking of great photos, we publish reader photos on a regular basis, when people send them in. Did you see last week’s front-page photo of the bear in John Winkler’s yard or Albert Perron’s recent photo of local mascot McNugget the rooster on our A&E page? Good stuff.

You can e-mail your awesome photo anytime, all year long, to me at editor@isspress.com.

Kathleen R. Merrill: 392-6434, ext. 227, or editor@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

No ban is effective without enforcement

The lead story Aug. 18 reported that people are allowed to carry guns into state parks if they have a permit, but that it is illegal to fire them. How ironic is that?

They should not be allowed in, period. But the bottom line is that without enforcement, no gun or booze ban can be effective. Enforcement requires manpower and severe penalties for violation.

Ray Extract

Issaquah

Park Pointe

Despite overwhelming opposition, land swap approved in sham public hearing

If there were any doubts that the city’s public hearings are a sham, the Aug. 16 hearing on the Park Pointe land swap should have ended any such doubts. The hearing had one of the largest turnouts in years, and the vast majority of speakers were opposed to the swap. Yet, the council unanimously approved it.

Whether you agree with the land swap or not, it was painfully clear to everyone that every councilmember had already made up his or her mind long before the hearing. In fact, if you look at the various transactions and negotiations that have already taken place, it’s probably been a done deal for months.

So, what on earth was the point of having the hearing? The council certainly wasn’t interested in actually hearing what residents had to say. The council was simply putting a checkmark on its list of legal requirements. Held a sham public hearing? Check!

The process is broken. The public hearing should not take place during the same meeting that the council votes on an issue, especially when it’s an important subject that the council has been considering for years. It’s patently absurd.

How are the councilmembers going to digest and sincerely consider comments from 20 speakers in the few minutes before they vote? What if residents raise questions and concerns that the council or staff needs to research?

The solution is to conduct the public hearing earlier in the process — at least one meeting before the vote — hopefully while the councilmembers are still undecided and while they still have time to review the feedback provided.

Or, at the very least, having seen the intense public outcry at the Aug. 16 meeting, the council should have extended the hearing to the next meeting. Ironically, in the past few months, the council repeatedly extended a public hearing (that no one attended) for a trivial vacating of a tiny undeveloped street behind Home Depot that will never be used. But no such extension for a standing-room-only hearing on a controversial issue that affects the entire city. Simply pathetic governance.

Matthew Barry

Issaquah

Reader poem

Thank you for a poem that perfectly captured the essence of McNugget

I just had to write to say how much I really appreciated and enjoyed the reader poem, “Issaquah’s McNugget,” by Albert Perron.

I have enjoyed watching this rooster for years. During some parking lot meetings with him, I find him sweet, funny and talkative. I have also learned that he likes the crusts of Pop-Tarts, lol.

The poem Mr. Perron penned perfectly described the McNugget that I have seen myself. It made me smile and made my day. Thanks for posting such fun hometown “news.”

Kathy Monroe

Hobart/Issaquah

Rules of the road

Letter writer needs to reread state law before complaining about bicycles

Perhaps while a child, Ken Sessler fell off a bicycle never again to ride one, and never to forgive or forget his hurt?

His most recent letter regarding bicycles offers an opinion that “Bicyclists need to stay off the sidewalks,” and if I read it correctly, out of the crosswalks. His warning about “nonlaw-abiding bike riders,” implies sidewalk and crosswalk violations.

Perhaps a few moments reading the Revised Code of Washington might show Mr. Sessler that bicycles are legal on sidewalks, and in crosswalks, as well as on the roadways of Washington. The law obliges automobiles to yield to bicycles and pedestrians on sidewalks and in crosswalks. See RCW 46.61.261 “Sidewalks, crosswalks — pedestrians, bicycles” as a starting point to an informed opinion.

Bob McCoy

Sammamish

Discovery’s stock market team took second place in the state Council for Economic and Financial Education’s Stock Market Game May 5.

The game started Feb. 22 with more than 2,250 fourth- through 12th-grade kids in 50 schools competing to build the most profitable portfolio. The game asks students to manage and diversify a virtual cash balance of $100,000.

Students researched investments, used global market rates and business trends to trade and learned economic principals in the mean time. Congratulations to Emily Sullivan, Addies Mejia and Nic Paduano and coach Jessica Daley!

Issaquah High School Junior Statesmen of America

Thirty-six of the school’s Junior Statesmen of America club members attended the spring convention April 24-25 at Redmond Town Center, making Issaquah one of the largest chapters in attendance.

The team won nine Best Speaker gavels, three awarded to Austin Siedentopf. Matt Sekijima was elected to be mayor for the Greater Pacific Northwest Region. Mark Vernon was recognized for his work as the head of the Department of Debate Logistics and Liza Romanow was recognized for her work as Pacific Northwest Governor.

Tristan Auclair and Vincent Smith

Instead of hitting the books, Issaquah Valley Elementary School fifth-graders Tristan Auclair and Vincent Smith got down to work.

As custodians for a day, the pair got to hang out with the school’s custodian Dusty Duke. During their adventures, they tested fire alarms, used walkie-talkies, talked to the principal, released students to recess after lunch and learned about transformers. To boot, they received special shirts for their work and a 10-piece McNugget meal from McDonald’s.

Gold Stars highlights accomplishments — big or small — by Issaquah students. Send a few sentences and the student’s name, age, grade, school, good deed and a photograph, if possible, to clusebrink@isspress.com.

David Hayes Press reporter

In one week, The Issaquah Press will publish its top 10 stories of the year for 2009. Among such issues as the school and city budgets, banning dogs in Timberlake Park and the weather, I have no idea where a rooster falls.

That’s right, a rooster.

When we vote for a story, we usually weigh how much impact it had upon the community as a whole. Of all the weighty issues we’ve covered, none elicited as much passion, vitriol or feedback from our readers as McNugget the rooster.

When I went to cover the latest breaking story of McNugget, I had no idea I was opening another Pandora’s box.

In Greek mythology, out of curiosity, Pandora actually opened a jar gifted by Zeus, which became a box in the retelling over the ages, and released all the evils, ills, diseases and burdensome labor mankind had not known previously.Who knew that my coverage of the latest tale of a rooster would release the floodgates of pent-up emotions for the well being of a fowl? Our Web site became a running blog entry for those involved and everyone else with an opinion. If we actually went back to when our Web site relaunched in its new format, it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that the McNugget story generated more comments than every other story combined.

What could possibly be written about a rooster to generate such a prolonged reaction? Essentially, its attempted rescue from the extreme cold weather a couple of weeks ago.

Just who is this rooster that elicited such an emotional response?

McNugget escaped from Issaquah Grange Supply several years ago during a customer appreciation day petting zoo and he made the Staples parking lot his new home. After already surviving several winters and animal attacks, an effort to remove him was twice thwarted.

Now, in full disclosure, I did not talk to both sides of citizens involved to get the story to the Web quickly, just the potential rescuers. I did get a copy of a police report filed regarding the issue and those who complained I left out their side of the story, however, could not dispute any of the facts. But that did not stop the opinions from streaming in.

Check out some of the comments left on our Web site:

There were those who imparted human emotion upon an animal: “McNugget is happy where he is and he always will be. If he wasn’t, he’d do something about just like how he did when he left his previous home.”

There were the misunderstood: “I feel sad by the fact that there are people out there who can listen to one side of a story and completely write us off as bad, neglectful, money-hungry citizens, when we have been doing right by the community and also our dear friend McNugget.”

The “experts” weighed in: “I have chickens myself and have learned a great deal about taking care of them over the past seven years. … People need to understand that chickens are stupid and that they (like every stray animal) will stay where the food is.”

The participants kept the narrative rolling: “Give me a break. I didn’t say one thing to the reporter that was a lie. Why don’t you tell me what that was?”

There was the incredulous: “Really? This is what is of utmost importance to you and the community? Really? Are there no other important social issues that need addressing? Really? How very, very sad.”

And there was off the wall: “This rooster should be moved to a much warmer place…such as the fryer at KFC.”

Our editor cut off the comments at 134 for the original story and 13 for the follow up when they became an argument back and forth between a small group of people. And those were just the ones approved for family reading. It’s just amazing the hornet’s nest I riled up.

After releasing all the evils from the jar, Pandora did find hope at the bottom. Here’s to hoping we uncover more hot topics on the minds of our readers in 2010.

David Hayes: 392-6434, ext. 237, dhayes@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

McNugget the rooster, the center of controversy in a dispute to move him to a warmer climate, gets some sun in the Staples parking lot last week. By David Hayes

Issaquah icon McNugget the rooster became the center of controversy Dec. 8 and 9 when a group of concerned citizens were blocked from moving him to a warmer environment.

Kristen Parshall and her friend Debby Welsh, both of Fall City, became worried about McNugget’s welfare in the face of temperatures reaching overnight lows in the teens and below.

“Our biggest concern is the winters,” said Parshall, a former employee of Pasado’s Safe Haven. “He needs to be in a coop with a heat lamp.”

Their efforts were met by those who disagreed, saying McNugget had ample care at the Your Espresso stand and had survived just fine in previous winters.

“McNugget eats three times a day and gets fresh water provided as a second source of water intake,” barista Candice Mercado wrote in an e-mail. “McNugget uses the small creek mostly for all his drinking needs. He never leaves the property and if a rooster were unhappy, he would have left over five years ago.”

Parshall said Welsh called the nearby Issaquah Grange Supply the next day, this time asking for permission to remove McNugget.

McNugget escaped from the Grange years ago during a customer appreciation day event. Grange General Manager Gary Olson said McNugget was brought in as part of the petting zoo, but somehow got away.

The rooster later adopted the parking lot of the Staples store as its new home. Employees of the espresso stand in the lot adopted the rooster and gave him his name and a crate for shelter. Your Espresso owner Michelle Schneider said customers, baristas and local residents all provided feed for McNugget over the years, enough to give him three square meals a day.

About three years ago, Parshall, a regular customer of the espresso stand, provided a home upgrade to a doghouse and stopped by occasionally to feed him.

She and Welsh’s concern for McNugget peaked when the temperatures dropped to overnight lows of 10 degrees.

“It also looked like his comb was frost-bitten,” Welsh said. “I just felt so bad for him, standing there shivering while I was feeding him.”

Parshall said she later offered Schneider hundreds of dollars to purchase McNugget, but the offer was declined.

“I would leave them alone if they put up a proper coop with a heating lamp,” she added.

Schneider said that over the past weekend a couple of her employees had offered to take McNugget to their family’s farm, where they have chickens and a coop. But the offer proved unnecessary.

“I called both the Renton Animal Control and King County Animal Control,” Schneider said. “Both said to just leave the rooster alone. So, that’s what I’m going to do.”

She added that if animal control officials told her McNugget needed to be moved to a farm, she would have acted without hesitation.

Olson offered to provide a chicken coop hand-crafted by a Grange employee should a new home not be found for McNugget. Even so, Olson said a coop does not provide a surefire safehouse for the rooster.

“The reality is no chicken is absolutely safe in a coop,” he said. “Predators, like raccoons, have gotten into coops on my farm and killed chickens. So, it’s not a sure bet, but it is better, keeping him out of the wind.”

He said providing a coop is still not the end of the situation. Someone has to be committed to stay at the end of the day and lock McNugget safely inside the coop and again let him out in the morning. Those logistics have yet to be worked out.

David Hayes: 392-6434, ext. 237, dhayes@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

Issaquah icon McNugget the rooster became the center of controversy Tuesday and Wednesday when a group of concerned citizens were blocked from moving him to a warmer environment.

Kristen Parshall, and her friend Debby Welsh, both of Fall City, became worried about McNugget’s welfare in the face of the freezing weather reaching overnight lows in the teens and below.

“Our biggest concern is the winters,” said Parshall, a former employee of Posado’s Animal Rescue. “He needs to be in a coop with a heat lamp.”

Their first effort to catch McNugget was met with resistance from a barista who alerted Issaquah Grange Supply staff.

Parshall said an argument ensued over who could best provide for McNugget’s well being. Frustrated by the resistance, she and Welsh gave up.

Parshall said Welsh called the Grange the next day, this time asking for permission to remove McNugget.

“A manager said, ‘If you can catch him, you can keep him,’” Parshall said.

Yet again, they were met with resistance, this time from customers of the espresso stand and a couple of other employees from the Grange.

“I was really surprised,” Welsh said, who also volunteered at Posado’s. “They called us terrorists and crazy PETA people. The hostility was extraordinary.”

So extraordinary, that Issaquah police were called to the scene.

According to the police report, employees from the Grange and the espresso stand stated McNugget was fine. King County Animal Care and Control was contacted for information about the incident.

The police report said animal control representatives indicated Parshall and Welsh had no right to remove the animal from the property, as it was considered owned by the espresso stand owner. The owner was not at the scene at the time of the incident.

McNugget escaped from the nearby Issaquah Grange Supply years ago as a chick and adopted the parking lot of the now Staples store as its new home. Employees of the espresso stand in the lot adopted the rooster and gave him his name and a crate for shelter.

About three years ago, Parshall, a regular customer of the espresso stand, provided a home upgrade to a doghouse and stopped by occasionally to feed him.

She and Welsh’s concern for McNugget peaked when the temperatures dropped to overnight lows of 10 degrees.

“It also looked like his comb was frost-bitten,” Welsh said. “I just felt so bad for him, standing there shivering while I was feeding him.”

Parshall said she offered the espresso stand owner hundreds of dollars to purchase McNugget, but the offer was declined.

“I would leave them alone if they put up a proper coop with a heating lamp,” she added.

Parshall said they showed no inclination to take that measure either, even though the Grange sells both items.

Parshall and Welsh said they are far from quitting their crusade to provide McNugget a better home. They plan to stage a protest and alert other media sources to bring attention to McNugget’s plight.

Headline belies progress school district making under No Child Left BehindThe Issaquah Press did an excellent job of reviewing the Issaquah School District’s test scores in the context of the No Child Left Behind federal law. Unfortunately the headline, “School district fails to meet federal progress standards”, falls right into the trap established by the Bush administration when it created No Child Left Behind.

For readers who only scan headlines, your wording creates the impression of another failing school district, when your article details just the opposite. Issaquah students are making good gains in many academic areas. How, then, can the district fail to meet federal standards?

The federal No Child Left Behind act created a set of incrementally increasing standards that rise annually until, as your article accurately states, 100 percent of Issaquah students will be required to meet the federally mandated standards, or the district will face severe sanctions.

You might want to ask yourself if it is realistic for 100 percent of 16,000 students, including special-education students and students with limited English proficiency, to take and pass a test on any given day.

A better headline for the article might have been: School district makes significant gains, but still fails to meet unrealistic federal standards. A little longer, perhaps, but more accurate. I join Superintendent Steve Rasmussen in his call for the reform of No Child Left Behind.

Barbara de Michele

Issaquah

McNugget

Story of rooster’s survival was refreshing

In this gone-crazy world of political news, it was so refreshing to read about The Beloved McNugget, your story of Aug. 20 of the rooster attacked by a pit bull, and earlier surviving coyote and cougar attacks.

I so enjoy seeing and hearing McNugget and duck friends as I shop Issaquah.

I wish them a long and happy life.

Mary Schurman

Issaquah

Sammamish developments

City Council showing no signs of slowing approving needless regional ball parks

Ten years ago, when Sammamish was created, one of the biggest concerns was to find a way to manage the intense growth that was predicted to come. But, like the brooms and buckets Mickey conjured up in “Fantasia,” the City Council now can’t seem to stop doing what it has always done and that’s develop, develop, develop.

The latest scheme is to turn Beaver Lake Park into a regional sports complex. Never mind the growth in Sammamish has all but stopped. Never mind the Issaquah Highlands just approved two new sports fields to meet needs of regional youth sports. Never mind citizens and current park users overwhelmingly oppose this development — as apparent by the city’s online survey and three public meetings where the majority of the attendees made it clear they didn’t want this.

What’s this project going to cost? Millions. This when every homeowner I know is receiving, or planning to petition for, a lower tax assessment. Maybe the city hasn’t figured it out yet, but a lower assessment will mean way less tax money to them. And the reality is, there simply won’t be enough resources for a project like this and essential city services.

Who will be biggest beneficiaries of this new regional sports complex? Not Sammamish Little League, which will actually lose field space. The biggest winners will be regional sports teams that commute from elsewhere to use this park and don’t even live here. And you’ll pay the tab for the additional security, maintenance and road use.

Never mind that we moved here because we didn’t want to live in an overdeveloped city. Never mind the wildlife will be impacted by the loss of natural fields and the disturbance the additional use will cause. Never mind that the actual citizens that live near and currently use the park like it just the way it is. Nope, as you’ll hear Sept. 3 at the next public meeting, the magical brooms of the city have already decided to sweep more traffic, growth and cost into our city.

And, like Mickey, apparently we’re powerless to stop it.

Ed Steenman

Sammamish

Government overreach

Sustainability hoax is bad for Issaquah and the world

Mayor Ava Frisinger and others are being duped by the United Nations’ ultra-leftist sustainable community gang into considering enormously expanding local government employees’ power.

I just got the latest issue of City News, put out by city employees, and was disgusted to see that even our nice little town is not immune to attack by “community organizing” crazies wearing the sweetest environmental clothing.

If you hated the global warming, Obama healthcare and cap-and-trade hoaxes, you’ll really loathe the misleadingly named “sustainability” recommendations report. Read it and ask yourselves how much freedom you would have left if you allowed government employees to implement all of its recommendations. See it at www.ci.issaquah.wa.us/Files/SB%20Final%20Rpt.pdf.

The report is crammed with leftist code words and doublespeak that have been used worldwide by wannabe dictators to mislead innocent people, then enslave them. Read it cautiously.

Mike Huber

Issaquah

Health care

Don’t let Big Brother make power grab for one sixth of U.S. economy

Hank Thomas stated in his letter that his wife had an unexpected $222,000 health care cost that was covered by his insurance. I am grateful that he makes my point for me.

The current health care system we enjoy is the best in the world. Like the majority of the population that does have health care coverage, our politicians are screaming that now is the time to change to Canada or England or France’s state-run, single-payer system of care.

This is foolishness and a power grab by them and they need to be voted out of office as soon as possible.

Why are Americans so willing to give their freedoms away? Do you really believe the government knows how, and really cares about you and your family as much as you do? What government entity has ever been run financially successfully?

Competition and choices are good for everyone. The government is in it for the power grab of controlling one-sixth of our economic lives. If you aren’t scared by Big Brother by now, when will you be? What will it take to wake you up?

Paul Williams

Issaquah

Warren Kagarise Press Reporter

Maybe the newspaper in front of you arrived at your doorstep, fashioned from ink and paper and delivered in a plastic bag. Perhaps you steered your browser to the Web counterpart, www.issaquahpress.com. Now, another option exists: The Issaquah Press has joined popular microblogging site Twitter. Follow us @issaquahpress.

Wait. What? Microblogging?

Let me explain how it works: Twitter users — tweeters — post updates, known as tweets, capped at 140 characters, or about the length of a text message. Each tweet is a condensed burst of information — a useful device, especially as news breaks and reporters gather information piece by piece.

Users follow other tweeters to build a network. As a user follows others, their tweets appear in his or her timeline. A conversation begins.

Like other news outlets worldwide, we utilize Twitter to speed information to our readers. Unlike other news providers, we strive to deliver hyperlocal content and news about regional issues that affect Issaquah residents. Since we first tweeted July 27, we’ve used the medium to chronicle a record heat wave, City Council decisions, ArtWalk and Concerts on the Green, the arrival of new businesses and the departures of others.If all of the lingo and symbols are tough to comprehend, point your browser toward www.twitter.com/issaquahpress. The clever folks at Twitter, headquartered in San Francisco, have created a slew of how-to guides for the site.

In our newsroom, the Twitter idea germinated as a way to deliver breaking news at a pace even faster than we could with our Web site. The initial proposal evolved from news updates into a way to engage our readers and ask questions about past coverage and future projects.

We use Twitter to keep abreast of news and collect tips from around Issaquah and our coverage area. The boundaries mirror the Issaquah School District, so news from Preston and parts of Renton and Sammamish is welcome, too.

Twitter also affords us another way to converse with our readers. A pair of headline-making events last week provided us with a way to test the new medium. When fire broke out in a Cedar Grove Composting woodpile, our tweets about the blaze were picked up by other users and republished to their accounts — or retweeted, in Twitter parlance. A few days later, when Port Blakely Communities announced the impending construction of a Regal movie theater in the Issaquah Highlands, our tweets were retweeted once more.

The retweets, credited to The Issaquah Press, allowed us to reach even more readers than we could have on our own.

As we delved deeper into the Twitterverse, we found dozens of businesses, nonprofits and residents scattered throughout Issaquah and the Eastside. We discovered familiar faces, too, including the Issaquah School District @IssaquahSchools; Eastside Fire & Rescue @EastsideFire; Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce CEO Matt Bott @issaquahchamber; and dueling City Council candidates Nathan Perea @nathanperea, and Tola Marts @TolaMarts.

We also use Twitter to keep up on updates from King County @kcnews, Gov. Chris Gregoire @GovGregoire and state agencies.

But the tweeters we want to hear from most are the people throughout our community with stories to tell. A handful of you have already taken us up on the invitation. For example, when we tweeted last week about the pit bull attack on popular rooster McNugget, a follower tweeted back and recounted how she once almost struck the would-be broiler with her car.

In the weeks ahead, our Twitter presence will evolve as we tweet through the first day at Issaquah schools, the Salmon Days Festival and City Council and school board campaigns.

Follow the conversation @issaquahpress.

Warren Kagarise: 392-6434, ext. 234, or wkagarise@isspress.com. Comment at www.issaquahpress.com.

McNugget

McNugget the rooster was attacked by a customer’s pit bull Aug. 2, but it seems he’s going to be OK.

McNugget lives near The Grange, Staples and Your Espresso.

“I was here when it happened,” said Teresa Mercado, who works at Your Espresso, previously known as Espresso Time. “Basically, I was working and I heard the rooster screaming — the pit bull had the rooster in its mouth.”

Luckily, the rooster was freed from the pit bull’s jaws, but after the attack “he was limping and scared, and he was hiding for three days,” she said.

Now, McNugget is back to his normal habits.“Just the same old thing,” Mercado said.

Patti Kreager, clothing buyer at The Grange, said McNugget has previously “escaped a coyote coming down Gilman Boulevard and a cougar.”

He has escaped everything so far, but the pit bull was the closest encounter he’s had with other animals.

The workers at The Grange and Your Espresso are the main caretakers of McNugget. They feed him poultry feed and cracked corn.

However, many customers from the businesses often feed McNugget various treats.

This rooster is truly a “very friendly little guy,” very calm and he seems to never disturb customers and shoppers, Kreager said. He enjoys shiny things, she added.

“I have rims on my car that are really shiny and he loves to stare at himself,” Mercado said.

“He’s a little legend around here,” Kreager said.

Reach intern Hunter Deiglmeier at isspress@isspress.com.