Imagine my chagrin when I picked up the Feb. 21 Tribune and found the front page covered with a story about a merit pay increase for John Halvorson of 3.4 percent. Anyone with a calculator can figure that to be $309.37 a month.

There seems to be a conspiracy at Workforce Safety and Insurance. It's difficult to understand why its interim director can't or won't answer Jim Long's questions. Is it because he can't, or that the board, whose committee generously gave him the raise, doesn't want him to? As I read the article, there seems to be five board members who aren't so sure about John Halvorson either. Three controlled the situation. That doesn't look good.

I wonder how the external reviews of WSI are going. Maybe they are being revised by the board as to reflect a glowing image of WSI.