This Saturday in Baghdad, Iraq the Barnich Sports Field will be dedicated by State Dept. Ambassador Hill. This is meaningful to me because the field was built and named in memory of Terry Barnich, my first boss after college who until his death by a roadside bomb last summer was the Deputy Director of the Iraq Transition Assistance Office in Baghdad. I last spoke with Terry a couple of years ago when he was back in Chicago after having been in Iraq for several months. He was upbeat about the work he was doing and fervently believed in the mission of helping the Iraqi people develop the stable democracy they deserve.

You may have caught this article in today’s U-T regarding area water districts’ dilemma over the fact that San Diegans have taken their water conservation campaigns to heart. In some districts water usage is down 20 percent or more over the same period last year, causing water district revenues to fall accordingly. As such, many district managers say their boards may have to consider rate increases as a way to make up the lost revenue brought on by the very conservation efforts they mandated we make!