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A note from the editor - Who's Ellie Light?

(Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2010, 4:51 PM)

In recent weeks, Ellie Light has had "Letters to the Editor" in support of President Barack Obama published in more than 40 newspapers in 18 states including the San Francisco Examiner. Variations of these letters also ran in papers in Ohio, New Mexico, South Carolina, Virginia, Main, Michigan, Iowa and Pennsylvania.

Every letter listed a different town that Ellie Light apparently lived in that matched the towns of the newspapers each letter appeared in.

Now you can add The Sierra Star to that list of papers who were duped. A letter from Ellie Light was published in the Star on Jan. 21.

The letter came to the Star without a town attached to it. When an e-mail from the Star was sent asking what town she lived it, the response came back Ahwahnee. Pretty sophisticated system.

The letter was well written and not controversial, so no further contact was made.

A North Fork reader alerted us to this national letter writing scheme that she found on the Internet.

It is the policy of this paper that all "Letters to the Editor" include the writer's name, physical address and phone number. We will do a better job in the future verifying the Ellie Lights' of the world.

Brian Wilkinson, Editor, Sierra Star, Oakhurst