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This is where cold facts yield to the hottest of takes. Here you'll find reader responses to stories, letters to the editor and newsletter editorials, or letters to the editor for the week. They may have been edited slightly for readability.

Kamloops councillor says he was confronted by mayor at car show, heckled by crowd

Look, this is turning Kamloops into a joke. Can we all get over the pettiness and represent our city?
Worst case scenario, we'll have a fundraising fight.
Humour is definitely needed in this city council.
Let's do a snap election for mayor and councillors. Maybe Reid will be looking for work. For sure some councillors will.
Time to enjoy Kamloops, people.

— Gary Donaldson, Kamloops, via iNFOnews.ca

Wow this is absolutely appalling grown-ups acting like children.

— Alice Manderson

I wish I was there to see, after all, Bill was a sneaky sneak himself. Can't believe the dude. We want the mayor to mayor. Stop wasting everyone's time and money.

— Rayanna Henry, Kamloops, via iNFOnews.ca

Dumbest people on earth go to car shows. Brainless chuds who follow the mayor are all regulars at idiot events.

— Richard Elmer, via iNFOnews.ca

Disgraceful as usual, Reid Hamer-Jackson. Leadership is not defined by force, sir.

— Darlene Snell, via iNFOnews.ca

RE: Monday, Aug. 11 newsletter editorial wondering about your interest in a mandatory public service in Canada

I 100% agree.

— Debley Ross, via email

It's worked well for Israel. Almost every man and woman in Israel has military training due to a mandatory military service program. This is helpful in that they can readily be summoned back into the service of the armed forces. The only Israeli citizens that do not participate in the mandatory military service program are, for the most part, members of the extremely conservative right. Interestingly, these tend to be the groups most in support of "settlements" outside the borders of Israel.

— William Mastop, Vernon, via email

I am absolutely opposed to forced civilian commitment on any level.

Maybe a better route would be to offer training with a pay structure to those that would be part of the percentage who agreed with this idea. It would be good training and prep for employment down the road. 
Anyone who doesn’t believe in it has a right for whatever reason to refuse. We are not the US….this is a quick route to the acceptance of military enlistment — the draft — it is highly un-Canadian.

I find this seeping into our culture and in my opinion is unworthy of Canadians to be thinking of this pro war thinking.

— Diane Courneyeur, via email

I read the conceptual article on civilians doing “mandatory” national civilian service.
Unequivocally NO, (not from) our parasitic public servants who prorogued Parliament for three months and then booked off on summer holidays immediately after. Seventy-five percent of what I earn is stolen with no accountability. I have no intention of putting anymore blood, sweat and tears into this trainwreck.
This is asinine.

Thanks for asking.

— Tim Nehring, via email

Two years service would do a lot of good for the current high school grads. Learn some responsibility and respect that some parents failed to instil in them. Learn that life is more than video games, getting drunk/high on weekends, cheap room and board at mom and dad's.

— Joan Johnston, Kelowna, via email

The only issue I see (but I will say I disagree with your son. It would be awesome if way more young people would VOLUNTEER for these valuable experiences) is determining who would need to be excluded. 

To be excluded on, let’s say, mental health, would likely require an actual medical diagnosis by a doctor, and with mental health care in Canada? Good luck with that! My now adult son who lives with me is autistic, has mild Tourette's, and has bipolar2. He is extremely high functioning, thus the difficulty in getting a diagnosis (it took years). And I can tell you there would be no way he would be a viable addition to any kind of service. He lives with me for a reason and I am so worried about what is going to happen to him when I am gone, that rainbow bridge is getting closer, lol, I am 72. You would be horrified at how many of us oldsters are out here with a mentally disabled offspring unable to live alone. And there is no room at the inn for them anywhere.

But what I would love to see is someone like your son get involved with public speaking, especially in high schools, that is the kind of influencer I could get jiggy with.

Thanks for bringing awareness to us through your editorials. I love learning stuff that I don’t learn any other way!

— Helen Price, via email

During my first year of university, I joined the RCAF URTP (Royal Canadian Air Force University Reserve Training Plan).

It was a good organization. Independently of any skills, travel, or long term friendships, we cadets learned to be organized.

Organization becomes second nature. You do a hundred little tasks efficiently without a thought and the mind set stays with you for the rest of your life.

Gary Strachan, via email

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Mystery of missing stone angel from Coldstream cemetery solved

Incompetent bureaucracy at work. Too disgusting for more words.

— Robert Bishop, Kelowna, via iNFOnews.ca

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iN PHOTOS: Wonky vegetables emerge in Kamloops, Okanagan

Yikes those are alien. Eat carefully.

— Gary Donaldson, via iNFOnews.ca

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Ten of the biggest, multi-million dollar companies in Okanagan, Kamloops

White Water Slides. Started in penticton. Now is the world's largest water slide manufacturer

— Donovan Sylvester, via iNFOnews.ca

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JONESIE: When 'journalists' help themselves, they don't help anyone

The irony is fantastic, you criticize Kelowna Now for being self serving when they are provided an opportunity for a real news story for their dwindling audience and then you provide a recent example of when you did the same thing for your dwindling audience.

You were the last news group to report on a break-in of likely the most popular and certainly most controversial politician Kamloops has seen since Gaglardi and only did so because you were goaded into it. This isn't an average story, it's a big story only made bigger by your reluctance to report on it.

A retired 50-year veteran journalist ran a story on the 28th, CBC did a 7 minute on-site interview on the 29th, Castanet sent a camera crew on the 30th for an on site interview, several other news outlets reported on it on the 31st yet your outlet did nothing until August 1, a full eight days after police were on site. And still to this day no one from this outlet has even interviewed the victim, aka, "The Mayor", but thank you for getting quotes from two councillors who have no direct involvement of the story.

Your whining about the lack of trust in today's media and blaming a generation of journalists before you for that lack of trust whilst earlier blaming a competitor news agency for being self serving and by extension further eroding the trust in the media at the same time as admitting you were late to the mayor's break-in story because you're "tired of chasing Hamer-Jackson's cries of wolf". Do you not see the irony?

— Mac Gordon, Kamloops, via iNFOnews.ca

— Mac, your reasoning and reading comprehension are as solid as your writing ability. You have made it clear many times over the years, you will overlook anything to support your buddy. — Mj

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THOMPSON: Good cooks have cast iron pans, and use them

Very helpful tips. I have a set of three pans, none of them from the same maker but that's okay. I am on the hunt for cookie sheets in cast iron as well. They are really a whole different experience than your usual non-stick. I love them.

— William Mastop, Vernon, via email

RFK Jr.'s war on mRNA vaccines breeds distrust, threatens Canada's access to development: experts

This shows how much the US has sunk since Trump. He picked an old guy with a worm-eaten brain to oversee all health science.

— Robert Bishop, Kelowna, via iNFOnews.ca

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