Cheers and Jeers

Flood friends
Cheers to the Coos County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Coast Guard, for their exhausting, hazardous work in evacuating flooded-out residents. If you cross paths with these life savers, thank them.

Many hands help
Not everyone lending a hand in the weather crisis wears a uniform. Neighbors have been helping neighbors throughout the South Coast. That’s what neighbors do. Cheers for our community’s compassion and generosity.

Got your ears on?
Emergency preparedness officials have been telling us for years that every household should have a NOAA radio. These devices warn of catastrophic tsunamis as well as lesser mayhem. Cheers to you if you have one.

Whose money is it?
Jeers for a campaign to legally shroud the names of workers and retirees enrolled in Oregon’s Public Employees Retirement System. The pension system’s money came from taxpayers. Taxpayers deserve to know where it’s going.

A little bit better
Cheers for a small but welcome milestone. Oregon’s unemployment rate has fallen below 9 percent for the first time in three years. At 8.9 percent, it isn’t much below 9, but we’ll cheer any glimmer of improvement.

Step by step
Restoring the Egyptian Theatre will be a years-long task, requiring unswerving dedication. Cheers for incremental progress, in the form of $6,000 in grants and a Jan. 25 meeting with a historical preservation expert.

Bravely belting
It takes a special kind of courage to stand up alone and sing in a shopping mall. Cheers for today’s Little Ole Opry auditions, to be held from noon to 2 this afternoon inside Pony Village Mall.