Amtrak's funding needs are real

Inter Lake editorial

Amtrak's struggle to retain federal funding for America's passenger-train service has been a recurring battle in Congress.

The Bush administration repeatedly has pushed for sweeping cuts, saying the government can't afford to keep subsidizing Amtrak at the rate it has been. Congress so far has stuck by the rail corporation, last year approving $1.325 billion, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous year, but $255 million less than Amtrak requested.

Now more than ever, Amtrak needs all the support it can get from the federal government. With gas nearing $4 a gallon in the Flathead and other parts of the state, train service will become increasingly important for alternate transportation. Amtrak's Empire Builder serves up to 150,000 Montana passengers annually and boosts our economy to the tune of $8.5 million annually in wages and visitor spending.

Only our oldest citizens remember the days when passenger trains traversed the Flathead, and you didn't need to jump in a car to get from Whitefish to Kalispell. Perhaps the time has finally come to invest in the kind of railroad infrastructure that works wonderfully in European countries and elsewhere in the world.

A local hero was honored last week on National Peace Officers Memorial Day.

Montana Highway Patrol trooper David Graham died in the line of duty on Oct. 9, 2007, after his patrol car was struck head-on by a pickup that crossed the center turn lane on U.S. 2.

Graham was performing his everyday work at the time, patrolling the highway making sure that everything was safe for the rest of us. His death under such circumstances should make us all doubly aware of how dangerous our highways are.

To protect innocent lives such as Trooper Graham's, let's vow to drive with the utmost caution and respect from this day forward. And let's remember to be thankful to those patrolman and law officers who put themselves at risk everyday.

Pat Stoken of Eureka just might be the fastest logger in the world.

The fastest, that is, in a quarter-mile drag race.

Stoken, a logger by trade but a drag racer on the weekends, set a nitrous Pro Modified world record of 6.066 seconds last month. That means a top speed of 233.44 mph from a standing start - and the envy of drag racers everywhere.

Stoken, 53, has been drag racing since he was a teenager in Eureka.

And while he still runs his family logging business out of Eureka, his drag-racing success now takes him to the big tracks on the East Coast and the top level of competition in the International Hot Rod Association.

It was at an IHRA event in Rockingham, N.C., on April 19 that Stoken made the fastest drag-racing run that a nitrous car has ever made.

"This is a big deal in the racing community," Stoken said.

And it's a big deal for Eureka and Montana to have the fastest logger on wheels (in this case those wheels are on a 1968 Camaro with a 799-cubic-inch, 2,500-horsepower engine).