Copper thefts

It hasn't happened here yet, but it probably will.

The AP reports that David Bruce Husband of Taylorville, Ky., was pronounced dead at the scene at an electric substation near New Castle in Henry County, Ky., on Tuesday. His body was discovered around 1 p.m. Tuesday. Police suspect Husband and others entered the substation early Tuesday morning to steal copper wire.

Capital punishment for copper wire thefts? The Darwin principle at work? We've heard of this happening before. Considering the year-long problem this area has had with copper thefts, something like this will happen here sooner or later.

I mean, in the West End, a guy came home after being gone two days and discovered someone had crawled up under his house and stolen his copper plumbing pipe.

Scrap metal dealers are probably griping about having to fill out all those forms and notifying police electronically when they buy large amounts of "scrap" copper, but it's a small price to pay.

Katrina and Ernesto and counting storms

This week, various people are marking the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Has anyone noticed that the tropical storm that everyone is watching this week is named Ernesto?

'E' is the fifth letter in the alphabet, while 'K' is the 11th, meaning a year ago we were dealing with our 11th tropical storm or hurricane of the season, while this year we're only on the fifth.

Also, five hurricanes had their names retired last year, the most in any one year that has happened since the practice began in 1954. Those storms were Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma. There were four names retired in 2004.

Please help this child

This news nugget just in from MSNBC.com:

Britney Spears has registered online with a high-end baby store in L.A. known as Petit Tresor. Among the gifts she would like to receive for her new baby's room is a $1,200 chandelier. Spears has already spent something like $30,000 at the store.

Oh, how I love following Britney Spears. I can't bear to listen to her talk, and the few minutes of "Britney and Kevin: Chaotic" confirmed all my worst opinions. But I love to read about her.

Should I register at my local camera store or my local pawn shop for a Nikon digital single-lens reflex camera and about a half dozen lenses I would like? No occasion. I just want someone to buy me something expensive, the way Britney does.

Hatred toward Marshall

I'm not a Marshall grad. I've never taken a class at Marshall, except for 60 minutes my employer had me sit through for a training session learning something about Microsoft Word that I already knew.

Anyway, the level of hatred against Marshall in some parts of this state never ceases to amaze me. I won't give any quotes from the callers and e-mails I've received in the past week, because I don't want the folks to think they've gotten to me.

About half the time, these folks start out saying, "I'm not a WVU fan, but. . . " A friend I had in college said one of her philosophy professors told her the word "but" negates all that precedes it. So these non-WVU fans proceed to gripe about what a penny-ante school Marshall is compared to WVU. They don't say anything about WVU's defects or faults, but they pour out the hatred toward Marshall.

For people who say WVU is so much better than Marshall that no "rivalry" exists, WVU folks and people who are not WVU "fans" sure are letting their feelings known abut Marshall this week.

I'm starting to really dislike deer

So I went out to the apple tree in my back yard one evening last week to see how my apples were doing. Hardly any apples were on my small tree. The only apples I saw were the ones too high for the deer to reach.

The same with my peach tree. All gone.

This is at least the third year in a row this has happened.

This fall, when the West Virginia DNR puts out its annual news release telling us how much deer hunting means to the state economy, I hope the agency includes these numbers about those car-smashing forest rats:

> How much was spent by gardeners, farmers and orchard owners on fencing to protect their crops from deer.

> How much insurance companies paid out in claims for car-deer collisions.

> And how much damage deer have done to lawns and shrubs in urban and urban-type areas.

I've said it before, and I say it again. This area has too many deer. The herd can't be managed solely for benefit of hunters.

Oh, yes it can. And it is.

The state charges hunters for licenses to kill deer, but it does not compensate the rest of us for the damage these forest rats cause.

15 leading causes of death

For those who are interested, the 15 leading causes of death in 2004 (according to the Centers for Disease Control) were:
Diseases of heart (heart disease);
Malignant neoplasms (cancer);
Cerebrovascular diseases (stroke);
Chronic lower respiratory diseases;
Accidents (unintentional injuries);
Diabetes mellitus (diabetes);
Alzheimer’s disease;
Influenza and pneumonia;
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease;
Septicemia;
Intentional self-harm (suicide);
Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis;
Essential (primary) hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (hypertension);
Parkinson’s disease; and
Pneumonitis due to solids and liquids.

Robert C. Byrd visits Huntington

Robert C. Byrd didn't arrive at Marshall University today by car, limousine, SUV or helicopter. He arrived in the back of a small RV. When the door opened, he stood there for a few moments with two canes in his left hand.

There has been some talk lately out of Washington, D.C., that Byrd is having trouble getting around, that he used a cane in each hand, and that he didn't always sit at his desk in the Senate chambers because of limited mobility. (Source: Syndicated columnist Jules Witcover). But when he got to Huntington, the only hint of any such problem was his use of his canes. Otherwise, he was the same old Robert C. Byrd.

He was here to speak at the dedication of the new Robert C. Byrd Biotechnology Science Building on the Marshall campus. The building will house some faculty and classes of both the College of Science and the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine. Byrd used his influence in the Senate to secure $36.5 million in funding for the new building.

When he stepped out of the RV, Byrd walked up the street toward the Marshall band rather than had straight into the building. After that, he walked toward the building and into the lobby.

He sat through several speeches, and then it was his turn to speak.

His voice isn't as strong as it has been in years past, but Byrd knew how to work his crowd. He started with a poem, then worked the crowd by leading a cheer of "We Are... Marshall." He spoke from his prepared remarks, often winging it by adding a few choice words impromptu. Most of his speech was what his staff had written for him, but Byrd knew when to deviate from the prepared text.

At one point he called himself "Big Daddy" twice when he told how he obtained the federal money for the new building. In the first paragraph of his prepared remarks, he went off script. Where he was supposed to say "right here at Marshall University," he said "right here, in the center of the world."

Byrd's legs may not be what they once were, but he appears to have every bit of his intellect working.

Nukes

You know all those nuclear-tipped missiles that we used to have pointed at the Soviet Union during the Cold War?

The Cold War is over, and now we have to deal with North Korea and Iran, making me wonder where some of those missiles are pointed nowadays.

Just wondering.

A planet no more

The IAU has voted. Pluto is no longer a planet. Henceforth, the solar system will contain eight planets and various other objects.

The sad part about this is that Quaoar has no chance of being a planet. I was looking forward to my kids asking me how to pronounce Quaoar (khaw-wurr, I think) and spell it, and I was looking forward to telling them to figure it out for themselves.

The Bush-Clinton axis of political power

One thing I've been waiting on the pundits, the talkocracy and the chattering classes to address, but they haven't:

People used to talk about Hillary Clinton as though she could claim the White House in 2004 or 2008, whichever she chose. Now they don't say that as much. Also, there used to be talk about Jeb Bush running for president some day.

Am I the only person who thinks the American public wants someone other than a Bush or a Clinton in the White House come 2009? Someone from those families has been in the Oval Office since the election in 1988 -- or 18 years ago. Add Bush 41's eight years as vice president, and it's been 26 years that a Bush or a Clinton has been president or vice president.

Maybe we don't need Britain's royal family. We have two of our own. The White House does not belong to those two families.

Or am I totally wrong on this? Hillary in 08 and 12, and Jeb in 16 and 20. That will take us through 2024, giving us 36 years of Bush-Clinton.

Performance pay for teachers

I will have three children in Cabell County schools this fall. One will be in high school, one in middle school and one in elementary school. My children have had some wonderful teachers and some dreadful duds. Teachers should held to a standard of accountability that goes beyond not committing a felony. To me, the freshman academy system being introduced into Huntington and Cabell Midland high schools can do just that.

Here’s the thing: One of every four freshman who enters Huntington High School won't graduate, says Gerry Sawrey, Gerry Sawrey, assistant Cabell County superintendent. To combat that, the school system has created an environment to ease ninth-graders into the transition from high school to middle school. From what I understand, they are being placed in the environment they should have had in middle school.

Students will deal mainly with four-teacher teams, all of whom will teach the core classes to all students in their academic clusters. The school district will provide each freshman with a three-ring binder to bring to class. Teachers will assign seats in class. Parents will be able to make one phone call to set up an appointment to meet with the teachers of the four core classes students will take. The high schools also will have an online homework hotline.

The district will continue some programs initiated earlier that proved successful. Those include an amnesty day to make up missed work, a senior mentor program to help those who dropped out just a few credits away from graduation and a recovery school to give students a second chance to improving failing six-week grades.

It seems to me if this system works and more freshmen hang around for 10th and 11th grades and graduate after 12th grade, the system will be a success, and the teachers should be rewarded with a bonus. Make the bonus contingent on meeting certain goals.

If that introduces a new level of accountability and pay for performance, then something can be done at the higher grades so those teachers can earn bonuses, too. And the program can work down into the middle and elementary schools from there.

Why not tie pay to performance?

Ties

I have a column running in Sunday's newspaper. It talks about the election season coming up and how we will handle letters to the editor pertaining to the election.

The column includes a photo of me taken two years ago. In the photo, I'm not wearing a tie.

Normally, I don't wear ties. For a special occasion I will.

I don't like ties. They're useless. They're a bother. They get in the way.

Have you noticed President Bush leaves the tie at home when he makes public appearances outdoors? And two years ago, John Kerry did the same, I believe.

In my book, those men are real leaders.

ATV death statistics

West Virginia has passed its previous record of 40 ATV deaths in a year. The state recently recorded its 42nd fatality. In one of those cases, the accident occurred in Ohio, but the victim died in a West Virginia hospital, so it is considered a West Virginia death.

Rather than discuss ATV safety, I thought I would look at the statistics. Here is what I found, based on a list provided by The Associated Press:

Youngest victim: 8
Oldest victim: 88

Average age: 31

Deaths by age group:
Age 17 and under: 6 (8, 10, 15, 16, 17, 17)
Ages 18-64: 34
Age 65 and older: 2

Deaths by day of week:
Sunday - 4
Monday - 2
Tuesday - 7
Wednesday - 3
Thursday - 4
Friday - 8
Saturday - 14

Deaths by month, through Aug. 18:
January - 3
February - 2
March - 2
April - 9
May - 6
June - 5
July - 8
August - 7

Counties with the most ATV deaths:
Fayette, Monongalia, Nicholas and Wood, each with 3.

That is all I have. I am not drawing any conclusions. The reader can draw his or her own. Meanwhile, I might see what other data I can dig up and analyze.

Incident at Tri-State Airport

I didn't want to blog about this until things had calmed down and we could get some better information.

What does everyone think about what happened at Tri-State Airport yesterday? My first thoughts are:

> Everything that happened in the UK last week sure hit home here regarding airport security and how life has changed bit by bit since 9/11.

> Also, the issue of racial profiling has hit home now in a way that it has not done before. The person detained was Rima Qayyum, a 28-year-old Pakistani woman dressed in traditional Islamic headcover. Her mother,Mian Qayyum of Jackson, Mich, told The Associated Press in an interview that Qayyum is four months pregnant, lives in Barboursville and is innocent. "It was not only a false alarm, it was racial discrimination because there was nothing," Mian Qayyum told the AP. "They should clear her name and apologize on national TV."

> I assume the entire incident will be reviewed thoroughly be all federal, state and local authorities and a public report issued in the near future.

This incident shut down an entire airport and drew national attention. While we're sure everyone acted professionally, there are many questions remaining to be answered.

Park district user fee

So the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District is asking voters to approve a $95/year user fee to be added to their property taxes.

I can understand why the park board is putting this on the ballot. There are several reasons, including one that goes beyond the immediate need for money, but when I read of this plan, several things went through my mind.

Nope. Ain't gonna happen. This plane's not leaving the ground. That dog don't hunt.

More on this in a weekend editorial.

I would be very surprised if this got 40 percent of the vote, given the anti-tax climate, and especially the anti-user fee climate in this area right now.

But the park board did what it had to do.

Again, more this weekend.

Play football, stay out of jail

A judge in Ohio has decided two teenagers who pulled a prank that badly injured two other teens can wait until after their high school football team completes its season before they have to spend any time in a juvenile detention center.

Really.

"I shouldn't be doing this, but I'm going to. I see positive things about participating in football," Gary McKinley, a retired judge from Union County, told Dailyn Campbell, 16, a junior quarterback at Kenton High School in saying Kimball and Jesse Howard, 17, could wait until after football season to serve their time. Each was sentenced to 60 days.

Back last November, several teens stole a decoy deer and set it up in a road so they could watch drivers swerve around it. Robert Roy Jr., who was 18 at the time, saw the decoy, swerved and crashed his car into a pole and a fence. His neck, collarbone, arm and leg were broken. He's had 10 surgeries and will have at least one more. His passenger, Dustin Zachariah, 17, has brain damage. He's in his teens, but his family says he now has the cognitive ability of a sixth-grader.

Kids do stupid things. Both Campbell and Howard are sorry for what they have done. But they must pay the price. McKinley's sentence shows that the price they must pay is not as important as Kenton's High School football season.

And we wonder why Maurice Clarett turned out the way he did.

Oh, Howard and Campbell must each write a 500-word essay on "Why I must think before I act."

Charges against other teens in the case are pending. Let's hope a different judge hears them.

Of planets and plutons

This has nothing to do with politics or how city government works or fauxtography. I just find this really interesting. Our understanding of the solar system is about to change, and some science textbook publishers are scrambling to keep up.

From the Web site of the International Astronomical Union:

"If the proposed Resolution is passed, the 12 planets in our Solar System will be Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon and 2003 UB313. The name 2003 UB313 is provisional, as a 'real' name has not yet been assigned to this object. (Ross note: Some folks have given this planet the working name of Xena, after the warrior princess of TV fame). A decision and announcement of a new name are likely not to be made during the IAU General Assembly in Prague, but at a later time. The naming procedures depend on the outcome of the Resolution vote. There will most likely be more planets announced by the IAU in the future. Currently a dozen "candidate planets" are listed on IAU's 'watchlist' which keeps changing as new objects are found and the physics of the existing candidates becomes better known.

"The IAU draft Resolution also defines a new category of planet for official use: 'pluton.' Plutons are distinguished from classical planets in that they reside in orbits around the Sun that take longer than 200 years to complete (i.e. they orbit beyond Neptune). Plutons typically have orbits that are highly tilted with respect to the classical planets (technically referred to as a large orbital inclination). Plutons also typically have orbits that are far from being perfectly circular (technically referred to as having a large orbital eccentricity). All of these distinguishing characteristics for plutons are scientifically interesting in that they suggest a different origin from the classical planets.

"The draft 'Planet Definition' Resolution will be discussed and refined during the General Assembly and then it (plus four other Resolutions) will be presented for voting at the 2nd session of the GA 24 August between 14:00 and 17:30 CEST."

They always told me Ceres was an asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. Before the end of this month, it could graduate to planet status. And Pluto stays on the list, with its former moon, Charon, being promoted to planet, which I assume makes Pluto-Charon the only binary planet system in the solar system. And Xena (or whatever its official name will be) will be on there, too.

I love the word "pluton."

Lawrence County, Ohio, schools

The Ohio Department of Education today released its report card for all public schools and all public school districts in Ohio. For only the second time since the state began issuing its report card a few years ago, the Fairland Local district did not achieve "Excellent" status.

But several individual schools in the county did: Fairland West Elementary, Dawson-Bryant Elementary, Symmes Valley Elementary, Whitwell Elementary in Ironton, Burlington Elementary and Chesapeake Elementary.

Fairland High was on that list last year, but it dropped off this year.

All of which mirrors something in West Virginia. It's easier for elementary schools to achieve good ranking than it is for middle schools and high schools.

I plan to do some more number crunching from the big charts the ODE released today. Maybe something will turn up in the details.

Richard Jefferson's sentence reduced

If you check the afternoon updates on The Herald-Dispatch Web site, you may have come across this item, courtesy reporter Curtis Johnson:

HUNTINGTON — Cabell Circuit Judge Dan O’Hanlon has reconsidered his decision to send a long-time Cabell County educator to prison.
Richard “Dick” Jefferson, 63, of Barboursville was released from the Western Regional Jail Monday, after O’Hanlon granted a defense motion to place the former Cabell County superintendent on home confinement.
On Friday, O’Hanlon had sentenced Jefferson two to 10 years in prison for using the Internet to sexually solicit who he thought was a 14-year-old girl.The alleged victim turned out to be an undercover police officer working in New Martinsville, W.Va.
O’Hanlon was not available for comment Tuesday morning, but in his order, the judge states that Jefferson’s request for home confinement “is well-taken.”

The question is, how will the public react to this? Will it cut Jefferson some slack because he never committed a criminal offense with a real 14-year-old girl, or will it think Jefferson got a break because he is well-connected?

If I were a gambler, my money would be on the second.

For more details, check Curtis' story in tomorrow's newspaper.

Katie Couric Watch

According to the New York Post, CBS is cutting back on Katie Couric. It seems Katie will make $15 million a year from CBS, so the network thinks she should pay her own air fare to events she wants to attend. It seems NBC picked up those expenses when she was with the "Today" show. Couric's p.r. person disputes the Post report.

Imagine, making $15 million a year and still having to pay for your own airplane tickets. What's the world coming to?

Pluto

Most of us were told in school that the sun has nine planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. What our science teachers didn't tell us was that astronomers debated among themselves whether Pluto was really a planet.

Now Pluto is considered to be a Kuiper Belt object. But whether it's a plant depends on what the definition of "planet" is. It seems astronomers don't have a formal definition of the word. This week, a group of astronomers is meeting in Prague, and the agenda includes a debate of the definition of "planet."

Some astronomers want to kick Pluto out of the club and say the solar system has eight planets. Others want to define "planet" in such a way that we could end up with as many as 53 known planets, based on recent discoveries at the farthest reaaches of the known solar system.

What does that have to do with the price of beer at Ribfest? It means science teachers in our local schools had better be careful what they teach our kids about the solar system. If the teachers aren't up to date on their science, they could find themselves knowing less about the subject that some of their students. And it means the school boards in the region had better review the astronomy sections of any textbooks in use or being considered for use.

How to spend $600,000, Part 1

Huntington city government ended the 2005-06 fiscal year with $600,000 more than expected. The question now: What does a local government accustomed to living on the edge of a financial razor blade do with $600,000?

At least one councilmember wants to spend half on buying new police cruisers and half on street paving. Another wants everyone in the administration and on council to develop a list of priorities. Among those priorities is a new computer system for City Hall. The councilman has a point there. From what we've been told, the City Hall system predates Windows 3.1. It's expensive to maintain. And it's inadequate for the job of tracking who has not paid their city taxes and fees.

Sounds good from here. Let's get a list together of how the city needs to spend its unforeseen $600,000.

Beer and the Huntington city budget

From a story in this morning's paper by Bryan Chambers on how the Big Sandy Superstore Arena, which cannot sell beer at outdoor festivals, has arranged for Mohawk Tribe No. 11, Improved Order of Red Men, to sell beer instead:

"The arena will receive 60 percent of the profits from beer sales at Ribfest. Mohawk Tribe No. 11 will receive the remaining 40 percent.
"(Arena general manager A.J.) Boleski said because the arena is no longer allowed to sell beer at Harris Riverfront Park, he may have to ask the city later this year for more money to cover operating expenses at the arena. The city provides an annual subsidy to the arena. This year's subsidy is set at $266,000, Boleski said.
" 'The licensing situation will definitely have a negative impact on our revenues,' he said. 'Hopefully, we'll be able to make up the difference by scheduling more events at the arena.' "

If I read that right, if beer sales come up less than expected this year, then the arena management will need a supplemental appropriation to keep the arena out of the red. Meaning potholes on a street won't be filled or a police officer will have to make do another year with an aging, trouble-prone cruiser.

Who would have thought beer is so important to the Huntington city budget?

Maurice Clarett

(I tried posting this on Friday, but for some reason the machine wouldn't let me do so.)

By now, anyone acquanited with college football knows that former Ohio State running back Maurice Clarett was arrested by Columbus police on Wednesday. He was found wearing a bulletproof vest and driving a vehicle full of weapons. He was picked up near the home of a witness set to testify against him in a robbery case.

If Maurice Clarett has served a useful purpose for society, it lies in his showing us all how far arrogance and an unjustified sense of entitlement will get you. From what I have read, he thought he was in line for millions of dollars playing in the NFL. Too bad that when he got to camp with the one team that would take a chance on him, he behaved as though he owned the place.

Not only is he in deep legal trouble, but he thought he was such a football star that he developed no marketable skills.

What a waste. I have neither sympathy nor pity for the man, and I shed him no tears.

UPDATE: A judge has ordered a mental health evaluation of Clarett. It does not change my opinion.

New Ohio River bridge at Portsmouth

Someday soon I'll have to pack my cameras and get on down to Portsmouth, Ohio. The Ohio Department of Transportation says it should have the new bridge at downtown Portsmouth ready for traffic by the end of October. However, ODOT has yet to set a date for opening the bridge.

I haven't been down there for about two years. At the time, one tower was going up on the new cable-stay bridge.

Likewise, I'll have to get up to Pomeroy, Ohio, soon to see the new cable-stay bridge being built there. The last time I was there was about 18 months ago, when my older son, Joey, was working on a fifth-grade social studies fair project about bridges of the Ohio River. Speaking of which, he didn't win at his school, but he learned a lot about bridges and local geography in the process of preparing his display. I did the driving, I supplied some background information and I typed and printed out the title of his display, but he did everything else himself, from arranging photos to writing copyblocks about the various bridges to deciding what colors to use. The morning I dropped him off at school, I saw parents carrying some displays that simply astounded me, because I didn't know that many kids to design and assemble such elaborate efforts. (A co-worker with a son the same age as Joey but at a different school noticed the same thing when he took his son's display to school).

Back on topic: Portsmouth and Pomeroy are getting cable-stay bridges, but that design was too expensive for the new bridge planned for Ironton. That's not a complaint, just an observation.

Huntington street levy, part 2

Seven councilmembers attended this afternoon's meeting to discuss the proposed street levy. No vote was taken. Bryan Chambers attended the entire meeting and should have a comprehensive story in Thursday's edition of The Herald-Dispatch.

After Councilman Garry Black gave his reasons for offering the ordinance, a good part of the discussion was whether the city user fee is supposed to be used for street repaving. Councilmembers Jim Ritter and Jim Insco said that was what council voted for. Dick Thornburgh, director of administration and finance and Mayor David Felinton's top aide, said the user fee is for police and for street maintenance.

Ritter was unsure how he will vote whenit comes time to pass a yea or nay. He said he's all for letting people decide these things for themselves, but he's not sure he could support a levy. Insco said he does not favor the ordinance because street paving should be funded through the user fee.

More on this tomorrow and later in the week as we prepare our editorials through Monday, but one thing is clear: If people don't trust how City Hall is spending their user fee money, will they trust City Hall to spend street levy money on streets only? Black says the levy would restrict the ordinance to resurfacing only.

In the end, it's a question of credibility.

Huntington street levy, part 1

I'm waiting until after today's special meeting to discuss the proposed Huntington street levy to post detailed comments. Until then, does anyone have any thoughts?

Capital punishment

From The Associated Press:

LUCASVILLE, Ohio (AP) — A man who called Satan his lord and said he enjoyed killing three people was executed Tuesday, keeping his promise to show the family of his victims no remorse for stabbing and beating them and stomping on them with steel-toed boots.

Darrell Ferguson’s mother said he made up the Satan worshipping and the claim that he took pleasure in the killings to ensure he was executed.

“He didn’t worship Satan. He used Satan to be put to death because he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in prison,” said Donna Davis, who watched the execution by injection at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. “He’s in God’s hands now, and Satan is running.”

Ferguson, 28, the youngest person put to death in Ohio since 1962, asked for the death penalty at sentencing and chose not to pursue appeals, which could have delayed his execution for years. ...

Ferguson said nothing before he died to the witnesses for the victims. He taunted the victims’ family at his sentencing in 2003, saying that if released from prison, he would pick up where he left off.

“I will never show any remorse, even on the day I die,” he said in court.

Ferguson’s mother said he told her and other family members on Monday that he was sorry.

“He wasn’t going to say he was sorry to the victims’ family because he was afraid that it would stop his death,” Davis said. ...

Ferguson, who grew up in Dayton, frequently wandered the streets and spent nights in warehouses and alleys. He said at age 9 he began huffing — inhaling chemical vapors to achieve a feeling of euphoria. He started drinking at 15 and using crack cocaine at 18.

His mother said Ferguson was mentally ill, and his trial attorney Victor Hodge said Monday that he had given the court documents that showed Ferguson was borderline mentally retarded.
(End AP story)

I put this up here because I have conflicting emotions about the death penalty. Some people I have no trouble having executed. But those people are rare. It’s how the death sentence is imposed and carried out that bothers me, so I have to be against the death sentence on those grounds.

This Ferguson case points to all the conflict within me on the subject.

I’m glad West Virginia doesn’t have capital punishment. There are some occasions when I wish it did, but overall I’m glad it doesn’t.

Too many geese

We have deer. South Carolina has Canada geese.
Okay, we have Canada geese, too. When I first took note of them years ago, they were kind of pretty. That was before I knew then as rats with wings. They took over large areas of public parks near the Ohio River and other waters. Their droppings rivaled cow patties in size.
And they just won’t leave.

South Carolina imported thousands of Canada geese from 30 to 20 years ago to provide a sufficient population for hunters. But their numbers have grown faster than expected. Now, according to The Associated Press, state officials are looking at ways to reduce the flock. Possibilities include an extended hunting season.

I really wish they would do the same thing with deer here. We have too many deer. Drive along any two-lane country road and you’ll see what I mean. At certain times of the year, I can’t make the 20-minute drive home from work without seeing a dozen deer close to the road.

We have too many deer, just as South Carolina has too many Canada geese. We can’t manage wildlife populations solely for the benefit of hunters.

W.Va. age distribution

We had an editorial last week about how the college-age population in West Virginia will begin shrinking in a few years. The day after the editorial ran, the Census Bureau released its latest population estimates. These new estimates break down the state's population by year of age as of July 1, 2005.

Look at these numbers, and college officials in the state should worry about where their future students will come from:

Age 18 ... 23,274
Age 17 ... 23,174
Age 16 ... 22,775
Age 15 ... 23,555
Age 14 ... 23,162
Age 13 ... 22,731
Age 12 ... 21,832
Age 11 ... 21,315
Age 10 ... 21,082
Age 9 ... 20,782
Age 8 ... 20,264

What single year of age would you think had the most people in it here in West Virginia as of July 1, 2005? (Scroll down for the answer)


























The largest single-age group was 48, with 29,311 people, followed by age 47 (29,163) and age 50 (29,088).

Workers comp in WV

There are too many jokes about the old workers comp system in West Virginia and too many true stories to list here. But let’s try a couple.

Joke (abridged version): Jesus returns to earth and offers to heal a man with a withered arm. “Get away from me,” the man says, “or I’ll lose my check.”

Real story: A few years ago, a person who owns a Huntington business said he was approached at least once a week by an able-bodied person wanting to work, but for cash only. Otherwise, workers comp might find out and take away the job hunter’s disability check.

Workers comp in West Virginia is no longer a political tool. Since BrickStreet took over workers comp earlier this year, it's been run as a business. No longer is workers comp a means to reward your friends or hurt your enemies.

BrickStreet and the state Insurance Commission are going after employers who shirk their responsibilities. Last week, the Insurance Commission began posting notices on doors of businesses that were delinquent in their premiums. The notices warned employees they were working without workers comp coverage, and they warned employers they could be held personally liable for the cost of treating on-the-job accidents.

Such steps are long overdue. Right?

Even the wind is hot

The National Weather Service says tomorrow's high will only be in the mid-80s, but after that it's hot, hot, hot until Tuesday. Even then, Tuesday's high will still be in the 80s.

I took a walk a little while ago. The wind blew, but it had absolutely no cooling effect at all. It was just hot air blowing over me.

A few years ago, a colleague asked why if our body temperature is around 98 degrees, why are we so hot when the outside air temperature is that high. I had a hunch, and I looked around and confirmed it. Our bodies produce heat, and we must shed some of that heat to maintain a constant temperature and stay healthy. For most people, the best outside air temperature for maintaining that balance is in the low 70s. Any higher than that, and our bodies produce heat faster than the environment can carry it away.

This week's weather reminded me of growing up on the farm in Ohio. We did our outside work in the early morning and in the late evenings. We stayed out of the afternoon sun as much as possible. We had all the windows in the house open and fans blowing.

About 15 years ago, I did a story on some old homes in Ironton being restored to their original conditions, or as close to their original conditions as modern living allows. The person who owned one of the homes said the towers that were often built on one corner provided a draft in the summer that moved air through the house, helping cool it. Also, they had wooden shutters on the interiors of the windows to keep heat in. The interview was done in wintertime. The shutters on this particular window where we stood were open. When he closed them, the room felt much warmer, almost immediately.

Not that any of this has any bearing on the great issues of the day, but I remember a lot of hot days of my youth.

Now that I think of it, there was one memorable afternoon when we worked in the hot sun. My father took me to one of my brothers' houses. He had just mowed a field of tall grass a few days earlier, and in that heat it was my job to load it into my father's struck with a pitchfork. We rode over to our barn, and I tossed the loose hay into the loft. That was the only time when I had to work in the sun, when my father could get some free hay. I was 12 or 13 at the time, I believe.

About that 11-cent-a-gallon profit

Remember yesterday, when Marathon reported that its Speedway stations were making about 11 or 12 cents a gallon profiton their gasoline?

Well, today they raised retail prices from about $2.899 or $2.919 to $3.159 a gallon throughout the region. Columbus is at $3.159, too. Lexington is a little lower, and Bowling Green, Ky., near the Tennessee border is only at $2.999.

By coincidence, Iran warned today that if the U.N. or anyone tries to impose sanctions over its nuclear program, crude oil would go from the present $75 a barrel to $200.

Nothing like a good scare or an earnings report to send retail prices gushing.

UPDATE: Here is a chart I began compiling last year of record-high gasoline prices in the Huntington area. I kept a daily chart for a few years. Now I just worry about record highs.

DATE PRICE
8/5/05 $ 2.459
8/8/05 2.499
8/11/05 2.559
8/15/05 2.699
8/31/05 3.099
9/1/05 3.119
8/3/05 3.159

Marathon's second-quarter results

Marathon Oil Corp. released its second-quarter earnings report today. Some highlights from the Tri-State's only oil refiner:

> Net income was $1.748 billion for the quarter, compared with $673 million for the same quarter last year.

> In refining, marketing and transportation, profit was just shy of 30 cents a gallon, compared with just shy of 16 cents a gallon same quarter last year. For the first six months of 2006, per-gallon profit was a bit short of 21 cents, up from about 11.6 cents last year. This is for gasoline, propane, heavy fuel oil and other products the company refines from crude.

> At Speedway SuperAmerica, the company reported profits of about 10.2 cents per gallon sold, down from 12.1 cents at this time last year. Profits are better on the merchandising side (beer, cigarettes, candy, etc.) than on the gasoline side. In the second quarter, Speedway earned $171 million on sales of $690 million.

If my math is correct and I'm using the right numbers, Speedway earned about 25 percent profit on merchandise sales and far less than that on gasoline.

Before you ask, I don't know if the 10.2 cents profit on gasoline is part of the 29.78 cents profit on all refined products or if it is in addition to it.

Toyota beats Ford

From The Associated Press:

"Ford sold 224,447 vehicles in July, down 35 percent from 346,429 in July 2005. Toyota’s July sales totaled 241,826 vehicles, up 12 percent from 216,417 a year earlier."

It was the first time Toyota had outsold Ford in the U.S. market for any month.

No surprise there. Toyota's model mix is more in line with what people will want and can afford. Ford put a lot of effort into pickups and SUVs. That worked for a few years. Now that gasoline prices are back up -- probably to stay -- people are shying away from pickups and SUVs.

I don't know if that's necessarily true around here, but it seems to be happening throughout the U.S.

I have a Jeep and a Ford. If I could buy any vehicle I wanted when the Jeep gives out, it would be a 2006 VW Rabbit, preferably the GTI model. Until a month ago, I wanted a new Mustang, but the new Rabbit/GTI are more in line with what I want and what I figure will do me best in the next few years.

A lot of folks around here seem to buy based on brand loyalty. My guess is that is what keeps GM's and Ford's market share up.

But some of the brand loyal folks are dying off or getting off the road. Think about how many Cadillacs and Lincolns are on the road now compared with 15 years ago. And then count all the Lexus, Infiniti and Accura models you see.