Regarding the mold; unfortunately, until fairly recently, mold was not part of a home inspection because there were no protocols or standards for inspection and testing. Within the past few years, Environmental Solutions Association, based in Williamsport, PA, has tackled this situation and has developed protocols and standards for mold testing. Although not formally adopted by the EPA, these standards have been approved.

Still, most home inspectors do not do mold testing for fear of liability. They don't get it! Moisture in a home, no matter how it gets there, is a concern. A home inspector should report the moisture, try to determine where it came from, and the consequences INCLUDING MOLD.

As to referrals from realtors, this is the only method really available. Good realtors refer good home inspectors, that's the bottom line. There are lots of realtors in our area who do not recommend us because we do too good a job and find things that make their life difficult. Our position is "too bad for them". We work for our client, the buyer.

Has the ability to identify mold, report it in the home inspection report, and do the testing made our business a bit more difficult? Yes, it has. However we are doing a better job for our clients. Ask any realtor if they would like to know about a mold problem in a home they are buying to live in, and they would all say yes!

Mold has been with us forever, but the issue of mold in homes is new. I hope you were able to resolve your problem. I would be pleased to continue this correspondence with you, but for now just want to give my two cents.

J. Fawley

Ham Khan

 

Watch Out for Real ID

Is anyone aware that this is happening? The federal government in May 2008 is requiring all states to completely revamp their drivers licensing guidelines. The guidelines will be dictated by the Homeland Security Department. Some of these guidelines will include having to be fingerprinted, retinal eye scan and the actual card having rfid chips attached to them, holding all this information in a digitized format. The federal government will not recognize your ID without this Real ID card. You will not be able to fly, enter federal buildings, collect Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid and many banks will require you to have it.

This bill, called the Real ID Act, was earmarked on the sixth revision of a military spending bill in 2005 and hardly even debated. Thankfully many states are rising up to this and working to undo this wrong. Please contact the representatives in your area and demand that something be done to stop this. If you want to inform yourself on this bill and what implications this will have on all of our lives just google "Real ID Act", "Real ID cards" or search newspaper archives for this at your local library. (The bill is HR 1268 ENR in the drivers license sub-section). I try to be informed myself and yet the first I heard of this was in a very short story on King 5 news on Sunday night at 11:00 pm (2/4/07). Most people I speak to about Real ID haven't heard of it either. Suspicious, that something so significant is this much under the radar!

Imagine, next year going to get your license renewed and finding out you have to be fingerprinted or eye scanned for this. This is for real, it will happen, unless people speak up loudly and demand it to be changed!

Jim Wright

Bush Criminal Gang

Walter Reed Veterans' Hospital, Katrina, US Attorneys fired, torture, habeas corpus, illegal domestic wire tapping, illegal invasion of Iraq, signing statements, extraordinary renditions.....the list of abuses by the Bush criminal enterprise goes on and on. The horror of it all is overwhelming!

The answer? The people demand impeachment of the Bush administration. The people demonstrate, write letters to Congress and petition state legislators to begin impeachment. The response? The Democrats are too busy to even discuss impeachment, they don't want to be distracted.

Nancy Pelosi states "impeachment is off the table". Rick Larsen says there's too much other important stuff to do. Governor Gregoire, when asked by some state legislators to call on Congress to investigate and consider impeaching Bush/Cheney says "she agrees with Democratic Senator Patty Murray and Representative Jay Inslee" who have told their colleagues that such efforts are a distraction and a waste of time (SVH 2-28-07).

Apparently Governor Gregoire failed to notice that the people want an end to the Bush criminal enterprise and want legislators and congress to impeach. Gregoire fails to understand that we will have to battle for funding state services as long as the US is fighting an illegal occupation of Iraq (Example Walter Reed). That thought should bring the impeachment issue home to Gregoire.

The Declaration of Independence states whenever a government becomes destructive to the citizens natural rights to govern themselves, it is the right of the people to alter and abolish that government and to institute a new government.