With this year's Democratic takeover of Congress, voters were promised a new culture of openness and an end to the "culture of corruption," as the previous Republican-controlled Congress was characterized by many Democrats.

But just last week, when the House of Representatives passed an emergency spending bill that contains funding for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and also sets a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq, Democrats added $20 billion in unrelated spending.

While the debate over the war effort in Iraq is appropriate, the $124 billion war-funding bill should have been limited to just that, war funding. Instead, the bill that the House passed included $74 million for peanut storage in Georgia, $25 million in aid to California spinach growers and $100 million for citrus growers impacted by a recent freeze.

The pork spending was reportedly included in the bill to coerce the votes of still-on-the-fence representatives to back the troop-withdrawal plan.

After their dramatic victories in the last election, Democrats promised a culture change in Washington. But the pork-barrel spending included in the war-funding bill suggests little has changed, except that it's the Democrats instead of the Republicans slipping unrelated pork spending into legislation.

Responding to Republican criticism over the Democratic-sponsored pork, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, "They are a strange group to talk about buying votes. This is the crowd that took pork-barrel spending to new levels of irresponsibility." He's right.

But, apparently, Hoyer believes that since Democratic pork has not (yet) reached GOPlevels of recent years, then it is acceptable.

So much for a changed culture in Washington, D.C.

Young Butler County residents who use drugs or alcohol need to hear Jamie McKinley's story.McKinley, who lives in Summit Township, is a former drug and alcohol abuser who turned her life around and now is using the dark chapters of her existence to try to help others avoid the same woes.In addition to working at a clothing store and attending college, she works with Butler County Detective Pat Cannon, speaking at schools and to groups about substance abuse. She also serves as a mentor for Butler Memorial Hospital's Recovery Project, performing that work at the Grapevine Center on Elm Street.McKinley's focus is on younger audiences, geared toward saving them from years of pain. Her own problems began when she started drinking at age 13; her addiction problem worsened as her substance abuse expanded to pain pills and even to heroin.As McKinley noted in an article in Wednesday's Butler Eagle, the key in helping others is understanding that the change has to come from within them. "A person has to be ready," she said.Cannon has rightly praised McKinley for her courage in speaking publicly about her experiences, and about her willingness to use her full name in the presentations — which adds a measure of honesty and trust to her important message.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter deserves praise for coming on board regarding the need for a federal shield law that would protect journalists.But Specter, who announced his position at a conference of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, was right when he told the editors that it probably would take a fair amount of momentum from media members for a federal law to protect reporters from having to identify their sources.While right-thinking lawmakers should not need prodding regarding the importance of such a law, the media should begin the kind of concerted effort that Specter described.In announcing his position, Specter observed that journalists do more to shed light on corruption and mismanagement "than all congressional oversight combined."He also was correct in noting that the fear of being jailed can, in some instances, have a chilling effect on news-gathering efforts.The senator said it was the jailing of journalist Judith Miller that convinced him of the need for a federal law to protect journalists. Miller, as a reporter for the New York Times, was jailed for 85 days after she refused to cooperate with prosecutors in the Valerie Plame leak investigation.Specter, who visited Miller while she was in prison, told the editors that he still was trying to figure out exactly why she was jailed. He shouldn't give up until journalists are protected by law and can avoid the experience Miller endured.