Outrageous products and scrubbing trouble – The Scooba Floor Cleaner Robot article. To quote you, Ms. Hogan: “And it definitely doesn’t do as good of a job as my Consuella.” In one sentence you did nothing but further the stereotype of Latin women. Could you have not simply made your point by saying: “And it definitely doesn’t do as good of a job as cleaning the floor by hand”? But instead you perpetuate the stereotype by using a Latin female sounding name. To further question your journalistic integrity and intelligence, you call your “Latin housekeeper” Consuella. I believe the name you were referring to was Consuela or Consuelo. Frankly, I don’t believe you have a housekeeper. I think you are just being plain hurtful and racist. I was an avid reader of the North Scottsdale Times but after the hurtful and racist statement that was made, I can ensure you that this is the last time I ever read a North Scottsdale Times. Shanna Hogan should be reprimanded, and further the publisher should be as well. I am disgusted and appalled by the lack of integrity and penmanship that this paper has bestowed. Yes, ever since the city has taken the dumpsters away from quite a few areas, you have made life a living hell for us when we want to do major cleaning or whatever around our house. We can’t now because we don’t have no place to put all the stuff. We have to do it a week at a time. I’m trying to clean over at my parents’ house. It’s a joke. Every time we finally get a weekend to clean up their yard and ask someone to borrow a truck or a trailer so we can take stuff to the transfer station – you’ve got to be kidding me – they’re closed and who knows for what reason. The street is blocked off. My husband drove all the way around and couldn’t get in. Another place they were just closed because there was something, some reason why they couldn’t be open that day. It always falls on a weekend. It’s the only time we can do this. It’s not every weekend, but it seems like just the weekends when we finally have a chance to go clean up my parents’ yard. Then we have to bring it all back.It is time these goofballs who want to do away with the highway photo cameras smarten up and obey the speed, excuse me, the state speed laws. Who do they think they are? King Farouk? They got caught speeding and it’s their own fault. After nearly being hit by a yo-yo head doing 85 or better on the 101, I’m hoping that everyone that complains about photo cameras, that the state installs more and more of these traffic devices. Speeding at way above the speed limit shows that these people have lost their loose marbles. Recently I saw a young woman speeding while talking on her cell phone and smoking a cigarette. Stupidity is shown here. How stupid can one get? Wow!(Man singing.) Huskies, fight on, win the game. Fight on, Huskies, keep your spirits high. Fight on, Huskies, you’re the one. Victory is ours. Huskies, always in the front, leading all the way. Go, fight, Huskies, fight on. Fight. Fight. Fight. You wish you were a Husky! (Two other men can be heard yelling and singing in the background.)Instead of closing the libraries on Sundays, why not close them on Mondays? I can’t think of a time during the week when I have time to go to the library. I can go on Sunday, and do sometimes. I know other people who work would feel the same. They could close the post office on Saturdays too. Why not? If you mail something on Saturday, it doesn’t go in the mail until Monday anyway. If it’s one or the other I’d rather have the library open on Sundays.Hello, good afternoon. I’m calling to say that I think some of our friends might be taking advantage of the situation. Our pastor informed us that there have been 60 percent more families in need of assistance these holidays, umm, comparing it to last year. Well, I feel bad for the families in need of the assistance. But I also think there are people who are getting some of the assistance who do not need it. I saw two families this afternoon while I was up taking care of the, umm, a committee post I hold, and they were leaving as I was. One of them got into a brand new car, and the other into a brand new van, smaller van, but these are expensive vehicles, I’m sure. If they need assistance, maybe they should get rid of their expensive cars and drive something more economical. I’ve had the same car for more than 12 years. My son asks me why I don’t get a new car. He said to me just this past Saturday that I should get a new car. I tell him I don’t because I don’t need a new car. My car runs just fine. That’s the trouble: People think they have to have the latest and the greatest. How about keeping something that works and saving some money? So, but I do feel for the families in need, but some of them are taking advantage. Thank you.Hi. I’d like to help Jack C. McVickers to stop cringing every time he hears the media refer as Barack Obama as an African American. Umm, Jack, an Arab is a person who speaks the language or who lives in Saudi Arabia. It’s a little more complicated than the middle name a person takes because people come from almost everywhere. But I think that what we do when we use the term African American is we try to identify the color of a person’s skin and where it came from. It’s, uh, kind of an identity fix. If we see someone with dark skin we want to know, umm, what their ancestry is, and in this country we call people African Americans to identify them that way. Now I understand why, uh, blacks who were brought here as slaves would not consider someone whose father was from Kenya, a country in Africa, I understand why blacks might think Obama might not deserve to be called African American. He’s not American. Okay, but that’s not how the term is used. It’s just used to explain why one of your ancestors might have been black, and of course blacks come from all over the world, not just from Africa. So it’s a little more complicated than that. You can be an Arab and also be a Christian. See how tricky language is? People in Iran are not Arabs because they speak Farsi. I’m sorry, Jack, you can’t just decide who’s what.Hey, good paper. I wanted to comment on the story you did on Rocky Point. I used to own a property down there with my best friend and his wife. He has now passed away, and we sold it about five years ago already. Anyhow, we paid an enormous pile of costs when it was sold to the real estate outfit and to the banks and seemed like everybody else. By the time we got our money we thought we’d have a nice profit, and there wasn’t much left over. Anyway, I figure we had a lot of fun and memories down there. I’m a little too old for that now, but I’d do it again. Just thought I’d say that. Sometimes the memories are more than the money. So I like reading your paper. Thank you.I read the article regarding the condos and home fiasco in Rocky Point (“Penasco Fiasco,” December 2008) and was not surprised at the partiality of your article. You failed to mention that among the U.S. residents that went down there to invest and were later calling themselves victims of fraud, a great number of these flipped their homes or condos to other residents and made small fortunes. I know at least several U.S. citizens that enjoyed the economic wave. Moreover, you fail to include that most of the salespeople “wining and dining” potential buyers are also and again U.S. residents holding Arizona real estate licenses pushing these deals. Yes, some developers suspended activities due to “unforeseen economic conditions,” but, again, some didn’t. Your overall investigation is flawed. – Jose Heleodoro

Editor’s Note: I’m not sure where you’re coming from. I feel nothing but sorry for the folks who invested money in now-defunct projects and are out their money. What difference does it make where the money came from? There are of course thousands of people who own property all over Mexico and have no complaints, but that wasn’t what the story was about. Nice re-hash of an old topic from the Arizona Republic, once again written with a leaning bias towards the negative, with opinion of property investors who think they know the real story but don’t, thus make up their own impressions which you go ahead and print as fact. This is just another article that makes no attempt at balancing what people are blurting out of their mouths, rooted in frustration and denial because they didn’t do their homework before writing a check. There are plenty of real, properly documented, properly owned homes, condos and land lots for sale that are free and clear of problems. No mention of that, no balance of facts, no credit to those of us here who work honestly, appropriately and with transparency to ensure people who do want to own a vacation home that they can legally and safely use for the next 35 plus years can buy with confidence. Look around Phoenix for the same scenario that is North Beach, an admittedly true failure in Mexico investing. You’ll find a dozen or more similar stories there that get no attention like this. Your article carries just enough balanced “reporting” to make it useable for wiping people’s (expletive), nothing more. But I am sure whoever wrote it is all proud that they (expletive) on Rocky Point, again. Developers are in trouble everywhere. Add up how many went under in Phoenix vs. the number here – big disparity. If or when you have the (guts) to write a truly balanced story, call me. However, since that’s not the way to sell your rag, I certainly will not be expecting to hear from you. – Larry Miles, Sandy Beach Resorts Realty

Editor’s Note: I guess I don’t see where there’s any conflict. Everything in the article was factual. The Rocky Point real estate market, like most others, is in the tank and many good faith investors are out their money – leaving nothing about which to debate. There was a letter to the editor in the Republic, and I wrote a response, but of course they didn’t put this in. Uh, the letter said that Muslims spoke out regarding 9-11, but Americans never heard them. What did they do? Whisper? Most of mainstream America only heard silence or that it was deserved. The letter also said that Islam is a religion of peace and that Muslims believe in democracy and civil rights for all people. In most Islamic countries today that isn’t the case. There’s persecution if you aren’t Muslim. Even in the U.S.A. the Muslims I’ve met want little to do with me if I’m not of their faith. Change your attitude toward those who are different from you and most will listen and be accepting. Allah will judge by your action. Everyone, peace be with you. Goodbye.