Katie Couric

Good-bye, Katie.

When the Today show this morning turned into a big thank you and farewell to Katie Couric, I left the room. There are some network news people who rub me the wrong way, and Katie is one of them.

Katie was one of the first network news people who I noticed who reveled in her celebrity status. I mean, would you see Chet Huntley or Harry Reasoner doing the celebrity things -- magazine covers, for example -- that Katie does?

At least she's leaving for an anchor spot on an evening network news show. That means I won't see her again for a long time. But another up-and-coming broadcast journalist will follow Katie's footsteps and become a celebrity, meaning I will find a new person to learn to dislike.

IGCC in WV before OH?

American Electric Power has filed regulatory paperwork to build its new coal-fired power plant in Meigs County, Ohio, just downriver from Ravenswood, W.Va., but that does not necessarily mean the plant will be built.

According to Reuters, AEP CEP Michael Morris told the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York City on Monday of last week that he expects West Virginia to be where AEP builds its next clean-coal plant.

The reason is that West Virginia has an easier regulatory process than Ohio.

The story on the Reuters Web site goes on to say AEP could get the regulatory go-ahead from West Virginia to build the plant late this year or early next year. The plant site is next to AEP’s Mountaineer plant near the Mason County town of New Haven.

AEP plans to build two plants that use technology known as IGCC. The IGCC process converts coal to synthetic natural gas, which is burned to produce electricity. The process produces fewer pollutants than the traditional method of burning pulverized coal, but IGCC plants are more expensive to build.

AEP has selected three sites for two plants: Meigs County, Mason County and a spot in Lewis County, Ky., near the town of Vanceburg. Morris said it is possible the plants will be built in West Virginia and Kentucky if the regulatory process in Kentucky is finished before the process in Ohio.

I contacted AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry by e-mail to ask about the Reuters report on Morris’ comments.

She said Ohio is “transitioning” to deregulation, so it is likely that a decision for IGCC cost recovery will be litigated. That sounded like what I had heard out of Ohio before, that several people and groups oppose any rate increases to pay the increased costs of building an IGCC plant.

On a sort of related matter, some people in Illinois are trying to have a new coal-fired power plant there be designed as an IGCC plant instead of a conventional plant. The reasons are environmental.

But City Water, Light and Power of Springfield, Ill., wants a traditional plant because IGCC plants cost more to build and operate. Company officials also expressed doubt about an IGCC plant’s reliability, according to an article in the State Journal Register of Springfield.

Toyota's 10th anniversary thoughts

Eight days ago, I went to Buffalo, W.Va., to attend the 10th anniversary celebration of Toyota's announcement it would build an engine factory in West Virginia. I covered the story then, and I covered subsequent news out of Toyota until I moved from the straight news side to the opinion side about two years ago.

In that time, I've seen a lot of changes at Toyota. The town of Buffalo has remained remarkably unchanged, however.

Toyota has been good for West Virginia, but we don't seem to have learned one of the big lessons. We need to have sites available for companies looking to build something that big. You can talk about the benefits of small businesses to a local economy, but big business such as Toyota plays a big role, too. And we don't seem to have sites ready for the next Toyota plant.

Shell buildings are good. Industrial parks are good. But a big site ready to go would be even better.

Speaking of which, the city of Ironton has a good site within its city limits. It's where Ironton Iron -- formerly Dayton Malleable Inc. -- once stood. There are ownership and other considerations before that site could be redeveloped, but with brownfields legislation, it would seem there would be some sort of push to redevelop that site. If there is, it's awfully quiet.

Income taxes paid by the rich

So I was on the Internal Revenue Service Web site looking for something else, and I found some tables giving information about the top 400 adjusted gross incomes in the United States. If I read the tables right, here are some nuggets from that data:

In 1992, the returns covering the top 400 incomes had total income of about $18.7 billion. That's in the neighborhood of $47 million income per return on average. In 2000, the top 400 returns totaled $69.6 billion in income, or $174 million per return on average.

The top 400 returns in 1992 accounted for .52 of 1 percent of the total personal income in the United States that year. In 2000, they accounted for 1.09 percent.

What about income tax paid? In 1992, the top 400 returns paid $4.9 billion in taxes, producing an average tax rateof 26.38 percent. In 2000, they paid $15.5 billion in taxes for a rate of 22.29 percent.

In 1992, the top 400 paid 1.04 percent of all personal income taxes. In 2000, they paid 1.58 percent.

Memorial Day gasoline prices

If you plan on driving far from home this weekend, don't bother filling up your tank here.

Gasoline prices in the Huntington area are higher than in surrounding places. If you're headed to Columbus or Dayton, you might want to fill up in Chillicothe. The lowest prices are in Columbus and in Louisville and Lexington, Ky.

Be careful about those cities, though. Retail prices can vary as much as 23 cents a gallon, depending on where you buy.

It's odd that what sells for $2.639 a gallon in Lexington or Columbus costs $2.839 a gallon here.

Accident avoided

It almost happened again this morning while I was on my way to work. I was on 6th Avenue, heading east. I came to 10th Street. The light was green, and I was about to turn left to get to my parking spot. I was in the turn lane for left turns. In the other lane was a white car. It did not have its turn signals on, but it was moving awful slow. That caught my attention. Just as I was about to turn, the driver of the white car turned left in front of me. I honked my horn. She was an older woman with another older woman in the passenger seat. The driver waved her hand and smilled as if to say, "Hello" and went on her way. After I parked in my space, I walked to work and noticed her car parked off-street. It had a big dent on one side. No wonder.

What were two of the rules for driving in Huntington? Use of turn signals is illegal and right lane must turn left.

Anonymous drug dealers

Someone tell me I'm wrong on this one:

Wednesday, the Cabell County Sheriff's Department arrested four people at a Huntington-area motel and charged them with possessing crack cocaine with the intent to deliver. Three adults and one juvenile were arrested. We ran the names of the three adults, but authorities did not release the name of the juvenile.

The kid whose identity we don't know was 17 years old. I don't know if he just turned 17 or if he turns 18 tomorrow.

The law prohibits authorities from releasing the names of juvenile suspects and offenders as a way of protecting them in later life. But we have come to the point where the law does not serve the needs of society.

If a 17-year-old in my neighborhood sells crack, I want to know about it. If a 16-year-old is charged with murder, I want to know about it. But those names are shielded unless a judge agrees that the kid should be tried in adult court.

We're not talking about a 12-year-old who spray paints his love on a railroad bridge. By the time they reach 16, kids know that drug dealing and murder are serious stuff, and if they are arrested, the rest of us should know.

Tell me if I'm wrong.

The return of John Kerry

Sen. John Kerry has put us on his mailing list. For several weeks now, we've received regular mailings from his office. In this week's mail was a copy of a speech he delivered at Faneuil Hall in Boston and later at Grinnell University talking about dissent. He even included a CD along with the speech.

It's odd that a U.S. senator from Massachusetts would keep a newspaper in West Virginia informed of his thoughts.

You would think he's running for something, and he wants our votes.

Ethanol

Two things:

1. We're looking for people who own cars that can burn flex fuels. That is, cars whose engines are designed to run on fuel that's 85 percent ethanol as well as they do on regular unleaded gasoline. If you fit that category or know someone who does, please contact me at jimross@herald-dispatch.com or (304) 526-2803 or (800) 444-2446.

2. I had a "Well, duh" moment recently. I was pondering the shutdown of South Point Ethanol in 1995 or 1996, and it hit me. That was probably the start of Ashland Inc.'s corporate departure from the Tri-State. It was about that time that noises became public that changes had to be made. The noise became public in late 1995 or late 1996, but something had to be brewing under the surface before that. Ashland was the dominant investor in South Point Ethanol, and the plant would not have shut down without Ashland's okay. On top of that, the shutdown came around the time John R. Hall was leaving the company and turning it over to Paul Chellgren, the man who decided it was time for Ashland to leave the old home place.

WESTEST

This is WESTEST week, and it brings to mind the standardized tests used in Cabell County before West Virginia adopted WESTEST.

A week before the testing, school system officials would send out the same list of helpful hints they sent out every year. One of the funniest was encouraging parents to make sure their kids got enough sleep so they could be alert during test week.

And when was this testing done? Usually the first week of daylight savings time, when kids would be getting up an hour earlier than usual.

Nowadays, WESTEST is done in May, long after kids' biological clocks have adjusted to daylight savings time.

Cabell school calendar

The Cabell County school calendar for 2006-07 is out. Students report to class on Monday, Aug. 28. I assume kindergarter starts a day later as usual. The last day of school for kids is Friday, June 8. For some reason, there's a day off on Thursday, June 7. That doesn't make any sense on the surface, so maybe something will change and kids can finish up on Thursday and have Friday off. Spring break is the week of April 9. As with this year, WESTEST dates are April 15-18.

Marshal faculty studies city business woes

As explained in a story in The Herald-Dispatch today, some faculty at Marshall University have begun a study of city finances. After examing the situation here and comparing with what's happening in similar cities, they expect to issue a report in late summer or early fall.

Will it do any good? We won't really know the answer to that question until this time next year. The good part is that Huntington will be able to compare itself with cities of similar size and geography. And the whole situation will be laid out in black and white for all to see and argue over.

The bad part comes from the way city politics has worked lately. One one side, the mayor and his allies on the City Council have refused to consider meaningful changes in the way the city does business. Until a few days ago, the mayor resisted the idea of even considering privatizing some nonessential government operations and selling city property that could be operated better by the private sector. He also vetoed an ordinance allowing voters to decide if they want to go back to the council-manager form of government. In effect, he saved his job by not allowing people the opportunity to choose their form of government.

The other side of the divide will have to be watched, too. Some members of City Council might be planning to run for mayor themselves in 2008, and they could have their own agendas in either praising the report or panning once it is released.

In other words, any response to the report will have to be watched with a wary eye. But at least the study is being done.

Janice Cox

My kindergarten-age son cried on my shoulder this morning when I delivered news that I read in The Herald-Dispatch a few minutes earlier, right before I left for work. Janice Cox, a kindergarten teacher at his school, died yesterday, I told him. Mrs. Cox wasn't Adam's teacher, but her room was right next to his, and he knew her.

Mrs. Cox was the kindergarten teacher for my first two children. They found her strict. She expected them to follow rules and learn.

I liked Mrs. Cox. We had some good conversations about my kids and about teaching and learning. Some teachers in Cabell County should be paid two or three times what they make now, and some should be shown the door and forever barred from school property. Mrs. Cox was one of the first group.

E85 etc

Whether by coincidence or design, both "Dateline NBC" and "60 Minutes" had pieces last night on ethanol. Was it 11 years ago that South Point Ethanol shut down because the market couldn't support the ethanol industry despite all the subsidies it received? And now a new ethanol plant might be built on that site.

We will have E85 and other fuels when we demand them. People are buying hydrid cars even if they are a bad deal for most of us over the long run. Not only is their price higher, but we really don't know how long their batteries last or how much it will cost to replace them.

Today's high gasoline prices are more of an inconvenience than anything else. Let's hope we're moving past the demagogue stage and into the acceptance stage. What are those stages of dealing with energy prices again? Shock, disbelief, anger, bargaining, acceptance. . .

WH Dickhoner

I had to go up the river this past weekend to see some family in from Mississippi. On the way up, I saw the towboat W.H. Dickhoner at Point Pleasant. A week ago, coming down the river on the Ohio side, I saw the towboat Omar between Crown City and Miller. Back in the goodle days (as John Hartford called them) when I lived along the Ohio River, I remember seeing those boats from time to time. Back then they were owned by Ohio River Co. Now they're owned by Ingram. The Omar and the Omega were two Ohio River Co. boats I particularly liked. They had different engines and propeller systems. When they went by, the vibrations from those things rocked your house and your windows. Really. It was like one of the cars with the boom-boom-boom bass systems that give you a headache, only much more powerful. I understand the Omar and the Omega (since renamed) have been repowered and they might not talk to the windows the way they used to.

Gasoline prices are back to normal

By "normal," we're not talking about $2.399 a gallon for self-serve regular unleaded. We're talking about a geographic price spread that could save you several dollars when you fill your tank.

Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I filled my tank. But anyway...

Every so often I check the different prices regionally. If everything is about the same, that means we have just gone through a price surge. Marathon and its retail arm Speedway are the dominant suppliers in this region, so I get on speedway.com to see what the difference is between Huntington and Catlettsburg. If there is a difference, that means Marathon and Speedway are getting settled in with their new price structure and things should be stable for a while.

Here is what I found this morning when checking price ranges at Speedway stations over a wide region. Remember that prices can vary widely by neighborhood in the same city:

Huntington: $2.939 to $2.999
Ceredo: $2.839
Catlettsburg, Ky.: $2.839
Ironton: $2.959
Gallipolis, Ohio: $2.829 to $2.899
Chillicothe, Ohio: $2.799 to $2.809
Columbus: $2.659 to $2.899
Lexington, Ky.: $2.689 to $2.759
Louisville: $2.749 to $2.899
Bowling Green, Ky.: $2.769 to $2.779

The odd thing about these prices is that Bowling Green, Ky., and Louisville are higher than I expected. Louisville isn't all that surprising, though, considering it's Derby week.

The best explanation I ever heard for the level of gasoline prices came from someone within an oil company. That person told me the retailers will charge what the market will bear.

I don't like paying $3 a gallon for gasoline instead of $2.25 or $1.50, but I'm not ready to call for something as foolish as a windfall profits tax.

Whenever people can drive to Ceredo or Catlettsburg and pay 10 to 15 cents less on the gallon than they do in Huntington, things must be settling down for a while.

Viaducts and underpasses

I'm about ready to give up a fight that I have nearly every week here in The Herald-Dispatch newsroom.

A story in today's newspaper talks about a man seen in a viaduct. After every heavy rain, we have stories about the viaducts flooding. New editors and reporters get excited when the police scanner tells of a tractor-trailer caught in a viaduct.

According to my dictionary, the viaduct is the part that goes over the underpass. In Huntington, the railroad tracks are on the viaducts and cars and passengers travel throough the underpasses. When the viaducts flood, we're all in trouble.

So the language barbarians who insist on using "viaduct" and "underpass" interchangably win.

For now. I'll get cranky enough some day and renew the fight.

But I'm not letting up on people who use "towboat," "tugboat" and "barge" interchangably.

$2.879 a gallon

Was in Jackson, Ohio, yesterday and paid $2.879 a gallon for gasoline. Got home that evening, and convenience stores here -- owned by the same company -- were charging 15 to 18 cents a gallon more.

Before traveling, it pays to get on the Web and compare prices. If you can.