Odds and ends, 6/26/07 Updated

Okay, bear with me on this one ...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An employee whose religious beliefs conflict with the political positions of their labor union cannot be forced to pay dues, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Frost’s ruling broadens the category of employees who may opt out of unions because of religious beliefs beyond Seventh-day Adventists and Mennonites.

A Roman Catholic teacher who refused to pay dues to the National Education Association, claiming its views on abortion conflict with her own, sued the State Employment Relations Board after the panel ruled against her claim for a religious exemption.

Carol Katter, a teacher in St. Marys in western Ohio, said the union supports abortion rights and she does not. “I was not going to give 1 cent to those causes,” she told The Columbus Dispatch for a story Tuesday. ...

In his ruling Thursday, Frost struck down the Ohio law that held only members of religions that “historically held conscientious objections” to union membership could opt out. The judge said anyone with demonstrated religious beliefs should be exempt from paying dues to unions whose positions they find objectionable. The law discriminated among religions by recognizing the Seventh-day Adventist and Mennonite objections to joining unions while denying the same right to others, the judge said.

My question: What business does the NEA have in getting involved in the abortion debate?

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Like that's going to happen. . .

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Construction will begin in August on a $16.3 million bridge for the King Coal Highway, Gov. Joe Manchin said Monday.

Ahern & Associates of South Charleston won the contract for the project, which is tentatively scheduled to be completed in October 2009, Manchin said.

The four-lane bridge will span U.S. 19 in Bluefield. ...

When completed, the 95-mile (King Coal Highway) will run from Bluefield to Williamson, where it will join the Tolsia Highway. The two highways will be part of Interstate 73/74.

U.S. 52 from Williamson to Bluefield needs to be upgraded, but I don't know that four lanes are justified, unless it gets a lot of coal truck traffic. And anyone who thinks there will ever be an Interstate 73/74 had better talk to highway officials in Michigan and Ohio. The last I heard, Ohio had no desire to spend millions to bring various roads there up to Interstate standards for I-73/74.

It sounds like people in southern West Virginia are spending lots of money preparing for something that probably won't happen.

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I just got an e-mail from something that sounded like a think tank. The summary was of something called, "The State of White America." It could be either racist trash or a thoughtful essay. It was the first.

There's room for a thoughtful, well-researched piece on the state of white America. But not from people who think desegregation was the worst thing that ever happened in this nation.