Odds and ends, 8/21/07

Twenty-nine years ago today, I showed up for my first day on the job here at The Herald-Dispatch. As I looked around the newsroom this morning, I saw mostly people who were born after that date. I'm getting old.

The news business has changed so much in that time. If I had had the Internet and the Microsoft Office package back then, I'm sure my career would have taken a different turn. There's not much better than compiling data and analyzing it.

Well, there is one thing better. Street-level work. I enjoy getting around and checking things out myself.

I won't be here 29 years from now, I hope. Given the state of my retirement savings, I'll probably be working somewhere, trying to pull down a few more bucks to make my trailer payment.

I have told some people that my goal during my lifetime is to have one of my children elected president of the United States. Then I'll retire to a single-wide trailer in the backyard of the White House and tap into its water and sewer lines. It's the southern Ohio and West Virginian way.

###

Some folks form the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform came by today to drop off material. They say a survey of small-business owners shows most think West Virginia's legal climate inhibits economic growth in the state.

I told them they need to get some good anecdotes together, like the one I'm about to share. It comes from the owner of a small business in Huntington that has been around more than 30 years. I don't know if the business was founded by the present owner, his/her father or his/her grandfather.

Anyway, this business was sued in a West Virginia court as part of an asbestos lawsuit. More than 30 years ago, a company not based in West Virginia was building a large project in a nearby state. This Huntington company sold some supplies to that construction company. Years later, the project was caught up in asbestos litigation. So the people suing the construction company or its customer sued the Huntington company in a Cabell County court, naming it as a defendant in the asbestos litigation.

Here's the kicker. The material supplied by the Huntington company did not contain asbestos, and it had no real connection to whatever asbestos-bearing material that was used on the construction site. The local company had to pay its lawyer to get it dismissed from the litigation.

In a just world, the Huntington company would have received some compensation for its expenses. But not here.

###

(More to come, I hope).