Burned by the Olympic torch

Extract from a Steve Dunn editorial which appeard in the Oregonian newspaper:


. . .


I'm impressed that organizers of the Salt Lake City Games spent $7 million greasing the palms of the International Olympic Committee.


I'm amazed that Congress,thanks to a number of slick maneuvers by the Utah delegation, is pouring $1.5 billion in taxpayer dollars into the Salt Lake City area. As Donald L. Barlett and James

B. Steele reported in a Sports Illustrated article titled "Snowjob," that's an average of $625,000 for each of the 2,400 competing athletes (not

a penny of which will go to the athletes), almost 11 times the amount spent per athlete for the 1996

Atlanta games.


I'm incredulous that beyond the $326 million light-rail system and the $240 million for security, taxpayers are -- Barlett and Steele discovered -- paying for highway projects, access roads and land swaps that are enriching the private businessmen who own the ski resorts and real-estate developments at the heart of the Olympic complex.


Full article:


http://www.oregonlive.com/morenews/o...6811119194.xml