HUTCHINSON -- The Careyville houses near the sinkhole should be moved, if possible, instead of being demolished. Vigindustries should go ahead and pay the owners the full price for the houses, but allow them the option of moving their houses if they wish..

Hutchinson has numerous vacant lots that could use houses, including a lot a block south of Allen School at 8th and Monroe. Perhaps South Hutchinson or some of the other smaller communities in Reno County would be interested in taking some of the houses.

For the owners who don't want to move their houses, Vigindustries should give the houses to anyone willing to move them. Non-profit organizations like Interfaith Housing and Habitat for Humanity might be given the first opportunity..

To the Editor: I know you print a lot of crime news on The Effort, but both you and the newspaper are ignoring the crime of the century: smokers are now paying a lot more for cigarettes, and the cigarettes won’t stay lit!

I don’t know if it’s Big Tobacco’s fault, or Big Government’s fault or Big Health’s fault. But it’s highway robbery.

 HUTCHINSON -- Well, I’m all Twittered up, I guess. There’s a “button” to your left, below the weather/subscriber/RSS feed buttons where you can elect to, er, “follow me on Twitter.”

But don’t have great expectations. I won’t be sending a whole lot except stuff subscribers get before others. Which is usually nothing more than a notice that I posted a story that I thought was either interesting or relevant to someone, somewhere.

But I am thinking about passing on police scanner traffic. It’s frequently not very reliable -- dispatchers can only repeat what lying, excited, drunk citizens tell them in the middle of the night -- but it sure sounds good.

Yes, that would be irresponsible -- passing on unverified information is at least irresponsible. But I might do it anyway. Life’s a crap-shoot, so what the hell.