Super Bowl trees

Wow. So the NFL will plant 3,000 trees to compensate for all the global warming greenhouse gases caused by the Super Bowl.

Wait until NASCAR follows that example.

Table game bill details

This is how to get your bill to sail through the Legislature. Make sure it has something for everybody.

From the AP, here are the highlights of the table games bill introduced today in both houses as HB2718 and SB369.

VOTER APPROVAL—Each racetrack county would vote on permitting the games at its track.—If approved, at least 5 percent of county voters could petition for a new election after five years.—If voted down, the county could vote again after two years.

RACETRACK TABLE GAMES FUND—$25,000 annual license fee from each track.—24 percent tax on gross revenues.

FUND OVERHEAD—Up to 15 percent for Lottery Commission to administer and enforce table games regulations.—$250,000 for Compulsive Gambling Treatment Fund.

ANNUAL NET FUND DISTRIBUTIONS
—82.5 percent to general revenue.
—8 percent for race prize purses.
—2 percent for horse and dog breeding funds
—2 percent to racetrack counties.
—2 percent to racetrack municipalities.
—1.5 percent to state Tourism Promotion Fund.
—1 percent for track employee pensions.
—0.5 percent for municipal police and fire pensions.
—0.5 percent for deputy sheriffs’ pensions.

It still has the four county elections rather than a statewide vote. But this time voters could get rid of table games after five years if they wished; bills in previous years did not allow for such. Also, some public employee pension funds that are underfunded would get some help. Why horse and dog breeding funds need the money is beyond me.

So now the debate can begin.

Don't do this

You can tell you kids to stay away from stupid things, but . . .

CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Clemson University President James Barker on Tuesday decried a party where white students mocked black stereotypes by drinking malt liquor and at least one student dressed in black face.

Barker said in a letter to students and faculty the university was investigating. The NAACP also confirmed it was looking into the Clemson party, and at least three other similar events held at universities throughout the country.

... The party, which students said had a “gangsta” theme, was held over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

This isn't the only such party to be reported on college campuses in recent months. With stuff like this showing up on the Internet, I wonder if college kids think ahead to how this could affect their chances on the job market or for grad school.

Right actor for the role

So Venezuelan lawmakers are giving Chavez more and more powers.

When someone makes a movie of Chavez' life, maybe they can get Ian McDiarmid to play the lead role.

My high school education

Some things I learned in high school I use every day, whether at home or work.

Some things, I rarely need to know, although someday they may get me on Jeopardy!

Such as how to tell the difference between a beef cow and a dairy cow.

The back and belly lines of a beef cow tend to be parallel, while the belly line of a dairy cow slopes downward.

A beef cow has a muscular, square rump, while a dairy cow had a smaller, bony one.

And a beef cow has a short, wide face, while a dairy cow had a narrower one.

If this helps you at all, please let me know.

24 cents in one day

So I was driving to work this morning, expecting the price at a convenience store on my route to be $2.099 or something like that. But as I got close enough to see what was going on, a guy had taken down the "0" and replaced it with a "3." So I went to the next store, where the price was still $2.099, and bought $10 worth. My wife was with me, so after I went in to work, she got enough money out of the bank to fill up the car before prices went up everywhere.

I couldn't understand what was happening. I mean, we didn't shoot at anybody over the weekend. Then this afternoon, I found this on the AP business wire:

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices slipped Monday, wavering above $55 a barrel as traders took profits, but the losses were limited by forecasts of more cold weather across the U.S. East Coast. An unusually warm winter in the U.S. drove crude oil below $50 a barrel earlier this month, but the price has since risen about 10 percent as cold weather returned. Forecasters predicted below-normal temperatures on the U.S. East Coast would continue into at least the first week of February. The Northeast accounts for 80 percent of heating oil use in the country, the Energy Department says.

Oh yeah, cold weather. That beats my next best theory, that marketers have had slim profits lately because of low prices, and they needed to get their cash flow improving.

Whenever anyone asks me to explain the ups and downs of gasoline prices around here, which seem to have no rhyme or reason, I repeat what an oil company spokeswoman told me a few years ago: We charge what the market will bear.

Ends and odds, 1/29/07

Roundup of stuff:

Can we produce ethanol by using less energy? Maybe so.

A Cincinnati Enquirer sports columnist asks a good question about priorities at the University of Cincinnati.

From The New York Times:
PARIS, Jan 29 — Scientists from across the world gathered here today to hammer out the final details of an authoritative report on climate change that is expected to project centuries of rising temperatures and sea levels unless curbs are placed on emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.
One thing about climate change: If it really is caused by human activities, then those are the same activities that have produced our standard of living. China and India want the same standard of living. A political solution is not likely, so it would seem that the solution to climate change (or global warming) will be more of an engineering or technical problem than a political one. I look forward to seeing this report. I hope I can understand it once I see it. I hope natural causes are given just consideration in the question of what causes climate change. As I have said before -- or have tried to say -- I have no doubt the climate is changing. I just don't trust articles that take a "thus saith the Lord" stand as to the cause and effect.

Update:

McDonald's has decided on a trans-fat free oil for its french fries. I haven't had a fry or a potato chip since July 16, 2006. I'm a slight bit thinner, but not much. And I really don't miss either one unless I start craving salt.

Ari Fleischer disputes Scooter Libby's timeline on Plame unmasking. Okay, a show of hands. How many people outside Washington really care about this one? Three years from now, how many people inside Washington will really care?

Ohio River news, 1/29/07

Newspapers along the Ohio River are writing stories about the 1937 flood. We can have a shameless plug for our own Bob Withers' stories here.

Speaking of Bob Withers, our soon-to-retire rail fan marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of some rail passenger service for our river communities.

People in the Pittsburgh area say their Depression-era locks and dams need major overhaul work.

No, this guy says, he wasn't skinnydipping in the Ohio River in January.

It's been almost 21 years since I was there, but Cave-In-Rock, Ill., is an interesting place to visit. A cave along the Ohio River was home to pirates and other malefactors some 200 years ago. There's a little story about it here.

I had to throw this one in because you look at the address and wonder why the Cattle Network cares about conditions on the Ohio River at Marietta, Ohio. I'm not criticizing or making fun of anyone. I just like seeing odditities like this.

Our new excuse for not getting anything done

From reading letters to the editor we have published and we are about to publish, Huntington residents have a new excuse for not getting anything done.

We're too busy worrying about a pink bridge.

Really. If the City Council is not concentrating on your pet issue, it's because they're too busy fighting over a pink bridge. Of course, people who say this haven't noticed that the council has barely mentioned the bridge in two months. But that does not fit their view of the world.

At least they've dropped the I-64 location/mall location fixation.

Some random stuff

Some random stuff, to be updated throughout the day:

Charles Krauthammer has a good -- no, an excellent -- piece on energy today.

The NHL had its All-Star game Wednesday night. Who knew?

The Reds caravan is coming to the Tri-State. Remember when people around here cared about baseball? That was back when it was aimed at fans, not at the TV networks. The Reds were even competitive. But no more. With wild cards and expansion and the lack of competitiveness of most small-market teams, who can care anymore? Oh, for the days of Reds-Dodgers and Reds-Pirates. I can't believe I almost feel sorry for Pirates fans. (It will be a warm day on Mount Everest before I feel sorry for Steelers fans, though).

Update 1: I wondered why those 10 corporate execs saw the light on global warming the other day. Now I know.

Update 2: According to the AP, the Wheeling Park Commission saus visitors can no longer feed mallard ducks, Canada geese and other water fowl at Oglebay and Wheeling parks. Health and safety concerns, including "unnatural hybrids" resulting from mallard ducks breeding with domestic ducks, prompted the new rule.

I don't know about you, but if I don't want Canada geese around, it's not because of any hybrids they leave behind. Other stuff they leave behind can be nasty, and they leave a lot of it. That's enough reason to discourage feeding these pests.

Where do they go?

One minor irritation I have with broadcast news is that people never go to jail or go to prison. They usually can expect to spend the next so many months or years "behind bars."

Like this guy they talked about on the news this morning. A repeat DUI offender can expect to spend the next 15 years behind bars.

Am I the only one who sees a problem with that sentence the way it's phrased?

Interesting omission

Yesterday afternoon, the West Virginia Division of Highways issued this news release:

The East Huntington Bridge over the Ohio River will be closed to all traffic starting at 7:00 PM Wednesday Evening, February 7, 2007 for eight hours. The bridge will open to traffic at 3:00 AM on Thursday morning February 8th."

It goes on to say this is for an inspection.

Notice that the DoH released referred to the bridge as the "East Huntington Bridge." Either someone didn't receive the memo that the name had been changed to the Frank "Gunner" Gatski Memorial Bridge, or the person who wrote the release didn't care.

In either case, I'm glad. For one more news cycle, the bridge has its old name and not that awful new one.

FRIDAY MORNING UPDATE: The DoH now says the closure will begin in Feb. 13, not Feb. 7.

Nice guy, that Chavez

Granted, I’m no expert on Venezuelan politics, but it looks from here like Hugo Chavez is setting his nation up for some mighty hard times about 10 or 15 years from now.

A couple of things lead me to this conclusion. He is taking over every major business in the country.

Check this out.

But wait. There's more.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t this the same strategy that ruined the economies of whole bunches of Third World countries in the 1960s and 1970s? And didn’t it pretty much wipe out the economy of Zimbabwe? All this socialist-populist stuff sounds great to the masses, but all it is is a power and wealth grab by the ruling classes. In the end, it makes a few politicians rich and the masses poorer.

Or am I wrong?

It’s all right if you’re Chavez, I guess. What happens to the 25.7 million other people in the nation is of no significance.

Beware lists

West Virginia Attorney General Darrell McGraw was named one of the worst attorney generals in the nation by the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

I'll let others attack or defend McGraw on this. All I know is that whenever you read where a group has put out a list, the list often tells you more about the group that put it out than about the people who are on it.

Although I will say this list and the background material doesn't make McGraw look very good.

The biggest challenge

To me, the city of Huntington and the state of West Virginia share a common challenge. It's not talked about much by either the political or civic leadership because it would force those groups to answer questions they prefer to ignore. The question: Why would anyone choose to live in either when they have options?

It boils down to free market economics. The most obvious problems in Huntington are crime and housing stock. Several people have told me they would prefer to live in or close to Huntington, but they can get better housing in Lawrence County, Ohio, for the same money. And -- being blunt -- part of the crime problem in Huntington is from people who cross the Ohio River to buy their stuff.

As for West Virginia, look at this comment from the Winter 2007 edition of the West Virginia Business & Economic Review, published by the West Virginia University College of Business and Economics: The outlook calls for slow state growth during the next five years, at rates well below the national average.

How can you expect people to prosper here when they can do better elsewhere?

How do you convince them to live here?

Every place sees its young move away in search of what they want. But we don't get the young of other places coming here in pursuit of their dreams. Because they don't see the opportunity here.

That's our biggest problem, and that's one thing our "leaders" don't want to admit, mainly because they would also have to admit that they don't have any answers.

If I had an answer, I would share it here now.

Various thoughts near the end of the day

Hillary Clinton says she doesn't want public funding for her presidential bid. Why would anyone want to take that money with all the restrictions? Public funding of campaigns is one of those things that sounds great in theory but falls apart when you think about it. In fact, any legislative meddling in campaigns is a bad idea. By controlling the purse strings, the legislative body controls the content of political speech. That's not what the First Amendment intended. Most things done by campaign reformers end up strengthening the hand of the incumbents and people with name recognition.

Speaking of which, Clinton might make a good president, but I for one am tired of the Bushes and the Clintons seeing the White House as their personal property. In a nation of 300 million people, do you have to be a Bush or a Clinton to be president? I thought we settled the question of the divine right to rule in 1776.

* * * * *

From the West Virginia AP: Two Monongalia County lawmakers want to snuff out street fires set by West Virginia University fans after football and basketball victories. Delegates Charlene Marshall and Robert Beach, both Democrats, have introduced legislation that would make it a felony on second offense to either set, or incite someone else to set, fire to personal property in a public right of way. Currently, people can only be charged with a misdemeanor for illegal burning, which carries a maximum $1,000 fine. A felony offense would carry a possible $10,000 fine and up to three years in prison.

Where I went to college, we never had to worry about that sort of thing. You only burn couches after your football team wins. As you can probably figure out, the goal posts usually were pretty safe, too.

* * * * *

Again, from the West Virginia AP: Sen. Andy McKenzie wants to make voyeurism a criminal act. McKenzie, R-Ohio, said he will try to revive an old bill that would ban gazing at another person to arouse or gratify sexual desires. McKenzie said cell phone cameras and other technology have made it easier for people to peep at and record others as they undress in dressing rooms and locker rooms.

It's hard telling how many embarrassing photos are out there now because of cell phones. You can even get on the Web to find prominent people in (but not necessarily using) the bathroom. I guess some people find that stuff entertaining.

* * * * *

The governor of Indiana wants to have private companies pay for, build, operate and collect tolls on two new roads in that state.

Why not? Most of the Ohio River bridges in this area -- the old ones at least -- were built by private companies.

$1.999 and falling

Here is something I forgot to post on Friday in my rush to go home:

A gas station on I-64 just west of Catlettsburg was selling gasoline for less than $2 a gallon last week. Here in Huntington, it was still hovering around $2.199 or something like that.

By the Numbers, Part 1

Here are a few numbers I dug up from my databases yesterday afternoon while looking for some good stuff:

1,459: Percentage growth of the Nevada population from 1950 to 2006.

-9: Percentage change in the West Virginia population in the same period.

0: Of the other 48 states, the number that also experienced a net population loss in that period.

74: Percentage of voting-age population in Cabell County that was registered to vote for the 2006 general election.

109: The same number for Lincoln County, W.Va.

Ends and odds

... All school buses in Jefferson County, Ky. (Louisville), are now running on biodiesel.

... Remember the Kingdome in Seattle? The RCA Dome in Indianapolis will meet the same fate soon. I tried linking a story from the Indianapolis Star, but the link kept giving me a crime story.

... Okay, Bengals fans. Let's all say, "Not again." Another player arrested.

... A few weeks ago, I said we should get over the fact that I-64 was not built through town and the Huntington Mall was not built downtown or at the site of KineticPark. I forget one. Two people on our reader forums lament the departure of Chi-Chi's a few years ago to make way for Pullman Square. We still get a few comments about that from time to time.

... And is it just me, or does nobody around here talk about the Reds anymore?

Jimmy Carter, Al Gore -- Not in their house

Jimmy Carter once said Americans had an "inordinate fear" of communism. Now some folks at Brandeis University say Carter is having a Soviet-style news conference. It seems he will talk about his new book, but he doesn't want to engage anyone in a back-and-forth about it.

Likewise, Al Gore is ducking people who say "An Inconvenient Truth" overstates the possible hazards of climate change.

These two incidents aren't all that unusual. People in public life, including corporate America, want to control their message. It would be good, however, if Carter and Gore could go into hostile territory on the record once in a while.

While we're sort of on the subject of climate change, take a look at this. It seems some climate scientists are afraid that their colleagues are going overboard hyping the danger of global warming.

I probably bugged my wife to death over the weekend. I've read the journalism about climate change, and I've read the hype. I really want to dig into the science. Every so often I would ask a question like, if 30 years ago we were supposed to be entering another Little Ice Age, I wonder if the big volcanic eruptions had anything to do with anything. That will take a lot of slow research.

One thing I have learned is that talking about global warming is like talking about religion or politics. People don't spend so much time talking to you as they do talking at you.

One more word on HS basketball game

Before the election, I was talking about people running for the Legislature, and I mentioned Greg Howard's name. The other person said she did not like Howard, and she explained why. No, I said. You're confusing him with Vic Sprouse.

Anyway, an acquaintance pointed me to Sprouse's blog a few weeks ago. A recent entry in the blog had a little comment about the Huntington-South Charleston basketball game of a while back.

Sprouse's comment:

And, saying his athletic programs didn’t need any money rang hollow considering I see Budget Digest requests from South Charleston High every year for, well, you name it. It’s hard to say you don’t need any money and then come to the Legislature every year asking for money to upgrade your athletics program.

I guess where I sided with Bill was after awhile everyone seemed to be piling on and it is, after all, just a basketball game.

His blog is here.

Toyota quality

So what has happened to Toyota quality? Seriously. Ever since the company greatly expanded operations in the United States, it has had a series of recalls. But I would say Toyota still has a better quality reputation than the American manufacturers. How long will that last if the recalls keep coming?

Performance Report for Ohio Colleges and Universities

The Ohio Board of Regents released its seventh annual Performance Report for Ohio’s Colleges and Universities. Courtesy of The Associated Press, here are some of the findings:

— The average tuition rate for a four-year public university in Ohio is $8,553 — 47 percent higher than the national average of $5,836.

— Higher costs are a problem at Ohio’s two-year public institutions, where the average tuition for the 2006-07 academic year stood at $3,505 compared with $2,272 in the U.S.

— Full-time enrollment at state universities and community colleges jumped 12 percent from 306,256 in 1998 to 351,634 in 2005.

— About 104,500 people received a degree from a public or private college in Ohio in 2005. Just over half were bachelor’s degrees. Ohio ranks below national levels when it comes to higher educational attainment. About 30 percent of Ohio adults have an associate degree or higher, compared with 34 percent in the U.S.

The thing that got me was the price of college. Then I got to thinking about visiting a middle school in Nagoya, Japan, in December 2000. School officials told me public education is free in Japan through 9th grade. If you want to go further, you pay. Some kids drop out, but many find that a 9th grade education doesn't pay much. Some companies have their own high schools to teach their future factory workers what they need to work in those companies' factories.

When I think what it would cost to send my kids to 10th grade here in Cabell County, I'm glad I don't have that worry.

Getting back to the performance report, it's a gold mine of data for folks who want to see what's going on at various campuses in terms of research, state funding, student progress, etc. For example, I found that Ohio University-Southern in Ironton has a student body that tilts heavily female and over age 24, and that most students there are the first-generation college students in their families.

Random thoughts on a chilly Thursday morning

This will be updated throughout the day.

Think Katrina was bad? Folks in New Orleans say the surge in crime, particularly murder, is worse.

Apple has record profits, thanks to the iPod. I don't know much about the iPod, but overall, I prefer a Mac to a Windows-based PC. I do miss the right mouse button and the scroll wheel on the Mac mouse, but overall, I prefer the Mac.

West Virginia legislators want to give themselves a raise, but they have to consider the political fallout, according to the AP. What fallout? Who's going to vote against someone based on the fact that someone decided to raid the public trough again? Actually, the legislators probably could use a raise, but I wouldn't want to be the person voting myself a raise while telling teachers, state troopers and other folks that they don't get one or they don't get the same 67 percent raise spread over two or three years.

How many people in this area are rooting for the Patriots to win it all again simply because of Number 80, Troy Brown? I know of at least one household.

Update 1: Let it rest, please. A Georgia mother wants to keep Harry Potter off the school library shelves because it promotes witchcraft. Putting aside the obvious question, I will say that I have read all six books in the series, and they make the wizarding world the last place I would want to live. Anyway, I prefer the Artemis Fowl series and its approach to fairies and magic. And I prefer the way Artemis Fowl has grown to the way Harry Potter has grown.

Update 2, as morning gives way to afternoon: A Weather Channel person wants the American Meterological Society -- the outfit that gives all those seals of approval to local tv weathercasters -- to kick out anyone who does not follow the company line on global warming. See here and here. I thought science was about pursuit of facts, not silencing those who disagree. And I thought the largest contributions to knowledge came from people who look at things differently and come to different conclusions. I guess I was wrong.

Update 3: Remember about a year ago when state health officials in Massachusetts said cigarettes have more nicotene than they used to? Well, Harvard researchers just confirmed it.

School colors

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to let go.

That was what I thought when I saw this story about how some parents and others want the new Southwest Middle School in Huntington to have an eagle mascot and use the colors black and gold. Some parents wanted to revive the name Pony Express and the colors blue and red.

I won't go into the details. The story does that.

I don't have a dog in this fight. I'm in the Beverly Hills district.

But with a lot of things, including schools, the hardest thing is letting go.

Oh, Britney

One of these days, I'll be smart enough to avoid any news item with the word "Spears" in the headline. But these two items, both from MSNBC.com, were irresistable.

First: The NFL has rejected Britney Spears' request to be in a Super Bowl commercial to tout the NFL Network, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. "She's too much of a train wreck. Besides, we already have Paris Hilton," the Daily News cited its source as saying.

Second: Where is Jayden James Federline? Four months after Britney Spears and Kevin Federline’s second son was born, celeb watchers are wondering why no pics of the tyke have been released. “It’s the question we’ve all been asking,” one paparazzo who asked not to be named told The Scoop. “There was some really dark footage that was supposed to be of him, but it was horrible and it doesn’t really count. Now people are speculating that [Spears] is keeping him from the public because she’s hoping to sell exclusive pictures of him, and now, because no one has seen him, the price has gone up.”

I can't stand celebrity news, but something keeps bringing me to any juicy item regarding Britney. Can someone please help me?

It's "global" warming, folks

So the nation's demand for electricity continues to grow.

When I was a kid, my parents' house didn't use much electricity. It had a vacuum-tube black-and-white TV, but no computer, microwave, phone answering machine or dishwasher.

The easiest sources for generating more electricity are natural gas and coal. The price of natural gas is going up. So that leaves coal.

But what happens when a Texas utility tries to build more coal-fired power plants?

And what happens when folks try to prevent more coal-fired plants by going to the banks?

Maybe it's time to build more nuclear plants. No, it's past time.

In doing so, we could develop technology that could help the world. If people think coal-fired power plants and gasoline-powered vehicles are bad in America, they should look at what's happening in China and India.

If you want to attack "greenhouse gases," you have to attack them globally. Focusing on the big, bad plants in Texas while ignoring what's going on overseas just won't cut it.

Gasoline price trends

For those who wonder why gasoline prices go up so fast and down so slow, try this answer.

Meanwhile, crude oil prices are likely to stay where they are for a while, if I read this right.

And for an update on ethanol, E85 and other such, try this story from the Des Moines Register.

Unclaimed lottery winnings

According to an AP article in this morning's paper, Ohioans never bothered to redeem $17 million worth of instant lottery tickets last year.

If they don't want the money, I'll take it. Mail it to

Jim Ross
The Herald-Dispatch
P.O. Box 2017
Huntington, W.Va. 25720

If it helps, I'll split it three ways with tanstaafl and kelsie.

All I really need is enough to pay off my mortgage, my car, my other debts and my kids' looming college tuition. The other folks can have the rest.

College tuition

From The Courier-Journal of Louisville:

LEXINGTON - The University of Kentucky has proposed raising tuition by 9 percent next year, increasing the amount that incoming freshmen will pay each semester by $293, to $3,548. The total annual costs for tuition, housing, dining and mandatory fees would climb by $835, to $12,835, for 2007-08. The university noted that if its board of trustees approves the proposal, it will be the smallest - and first single-digit increase - in four years. A vote is set for Jan. 23.

I guess that last part is supposed to make people feel good. Rather than increases of 10 percent or more, let's just go 9 percent. Assume tuition was $1,000 per year four years ago. Then add 10 percent, 10 percent, 10 percent and 9 percent. Once it's compounded, you're talking $1,450.79.

I have a daughter in ninth grade. She's not talking about UK, but how is she supposed to afford higher education when it apparently does not exercise the same cost controls on itself that my employer exercises on her and her family?

Gasoline tax

Question: Why shouldn't West Virginia's cities be allowed to levy a penny-per-gallon tax on gasoline and diesel fuel? It would generate some money for patching potholes or even paving whole streets. (Yes, it does happen. We have photogaphs to prove it.).

If gasoline were a quarter a gallon, then adding 1 cent might put city convenience stores at a competitive disadvantage. But it's been over $2 a gallon for a long time, so an extra penny won't make that much difference.

For exceptional students. . .

Here's something West Virginia would do well to consider. This is from The Daily Independent in Ashland. For the full story, click here. But these few words are the part that struck me:

The state’s first Academy of Mathematics and Science is taking applications.The academy, which is funded by state legislature, will be the 14th nationwide residential school with a focus on math and science for 120 advanced high school students. ... Kentucky ranks 47th in the number of scientists and engineers. ... The academy will be based at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. WKU is also home of the Center for Gifted Studies for middle and high school students. The program is a residential early admissions college for 60 high school juniors and 60 high school seniors who have demonstrated interest in pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The goal is to enable exceptional young scientists and mathematicians to learn in an environment which offers advanced educational opportunities. After two years, academy students will have their high school diploma as well as any where between 60 to 70 college credit hours. “There are students across the state with needs that cannot be met by traditional educational,” Alderdice said. “These students have outstripped their curriculum and schools don’t know what to do with them.”

I envy the kids who will be accepted into this program. I don't know that I was mature enough as a high school junior to have participated in such a program, but it would have been nice to be able to try, assuming I was qualified (probably not, but we all have our fantasies).

Kentucky recognizes that its best high school math and science students have no business being in high school. Franklin County, Ohio, is doing something similar by starting a new high school for advanced math and science kids. We could do something in this region, drawing on the resources at Marshall. If only we recognized academic talent the way we do athletic talent.

Lousy basketball vs. great chess... Who gets $$$?

Here's a story from The Columbus Dispatch as picked up by the AP wire.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A scrappy bunch of teenage chess whizzes are taking down some of the country’s best players in national competitions, all without financial backing from their school. The chess club at Columbus Alternative High School gets by on grants and other donations, plus an irreverent team spirit typified by a school adviser who is more interested in golf. ... The teenagers dominated the 2006 National K-12 Championship in December, a competition held in Florida that was sponsored by the U.S. Chess Federation.The school’s 10th-grade team members were crowned national champs, the 11th-grade team placed fourth and the seniors took third place. Only two other high schools — one from Evanston, Ind., and another from Miami — placed three or more teams in the top 15. The competition is fierce, and it’s rare for one school to do so well at several grade levels, said Jerry Nash, who oversees school competitions for the federation. ... The club has about 15 members. ... In a budget move last year, Columbus Public Schools stopped funding chess clubs and paying for coaches. ... The players at Columbus Alternative, a magnet school offering college preparatory classes and no league sports, are gearing up for their next big national competition, in April in Kansas City, Mo. ...

Okay, I admit, I was a chess player in high school and college. I was nowhere near what you would call an athlete, although I held my own at the neighborhood basketball court. But you have to wonder why Columbus high schools put bad basketball teams on the court this year and tell national-caliber chess players to go fend for themselves.

No, you don't have to wonder.

If anyone out there cares, 1 P-K4
If 1 ... P-K4 or 1 ... P-QB4; then 2 N-KB3
If 1 ... P-K3, then 2 P-Q4

Still too many deer

A brief in this morning's paper says hunters killed more than 136,200 deer in West Virginia last year. That might explain why I haven't see that many deer along the back roads I frequently drive since the gun hunting season ended. But when I was driving down Route 2 from Point Pleasant on Sunday, I saw at least a half dozen dead deer on or along the road. In at least two places, I saw two dead deer side by side.

We still have too many deer in this state. That's why I've gotten all of one apple from the apple tree in my back yard in the past three years, and it's probably why I haven't gotten any peaches from my peach tree. If you have any garden, plants or trees you don't want eaten by deer, you have to put up a big, expensive fence.

Will the folks in state government ever get the idea that people other than hunters should have a say in controlling the deer herd? Probably not.

But then, I was just as pessimistic 25 years ago about ever working in a smoke-free environment in West Virginia.

Martha bridge -- historic or just old?

This died down a year or so ago, and I probably shouldn''t bring it up, but I can't resist.

I was out and about in rural Cabell County working on something for the Sunday editorial page when I saw the old bridge at Martha. The 123-year-old bridge -- once responsible for carrying traffic over the Guyandotte River in Martha -- was closed in 2004 when a new bridge opened.

Some folks want to save the bridge, saying it is historic. The Division of Highways was going to tear it down, then changed its mind. But nothing has been done with the bridge in the meantime, and it continues to rust away.

I didn't get a good sense of the word "historic" until October 1984, when I walked the streets of Jerusalem for the first time. And Bethlehem, Nazareth and Banias. And Amman, Jordan, too. Here in America, something that's 100 years old is considered historic. Over there, it's just getting broken in.

I have no real thoughts on the old Martha bridge as long as no one gets hurt on it while it just sits there. Of course, I hope that never happens. But you never know.

I'm just glad my kids never rode a school bus across it.

Give us gambling, we build another hotel

The folks who want to bring local option table games to West Virginia have thrown another temptation into the pot.

"CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Charles Town Races & Slots is set to begin construction this spring on a four-story hotel that could be the beginning of a $200 million expansion effort if West Virginia lawmakers approve table games legislation this year. ...

"If lawmakers adopt legislation that allows the state’s four tracks to offer table games, (John Finamore, senior vice president of regional operations for Pennsylvania-based track owner Penn National Gaming Inc.) said a second hotel, featuring 500 rooms, two more gaming-areas, additional parking, food areas, entertainment lounges and a conference center could be built on the property."

How are the folks who oppose the expansion of gambling supposed to compete with something like that?

Upstate Appalachia

Eliot Spitzer, the new governor of New York, wants to do something about the region known as Upstate New York. That area has been hit hard in recent decades by manufacturing job losses. Young folks in search of careers are moving out. Sounds familiar, don’t it?

U.S. News and World Report’s take on it is here.

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle recently reported on Spitzer’s latest proposals here.

Or try this one from the Albany Times-Union.

Sad to say, some folks in Upstate New York took offense when Spitzer likened them to Appalachia.

Jerks.

Anyway, maybe we can work together somehow. Upstate New York and many parts of Appalachia appear to have the same problem: The people who decide where new jobs go apparently don't like either place. Maybe we have a common solution.

As long as folks in Appalachia don't get offended when someone says we remind them of Upstate New York.

East End bridge photo

I was driving through Guyandotte yesterday in a steady drizzle. I remembered from a visit a week ago that there was a good place on the river bank to get a decent photo of the East End bridge when the sky is gray. All I had with me was a point-and-shoot camera and a video camera that also shoots digital stills. This was the best I got. The really good spot I couldn't get to because the riverbank was nothing but mud. This was the best I could get in the grass.

I'll go back in a few weeks when the weather is better.

Tamarack and the turnpike authority

Okay, I've set foot in Tamarack maybe twice in my life. Neither time was an exceptionally memorable event. I'm not heavy into arts and crafts stuff, but I am into wanting my money's worth each time I pay that $1.25 toll on the West Virginia Turnpike.

On Monday, legislative auditors released their findings of the nonhighway activities of the Parkways, Economic Development and Tourism Authority. Here are some of their comments for the benefit of people who wonder what they get in exchange for their $1.25 tolls.

"When all of the operating expenses associated with the Tamarack system are considered, the revenue raised by Tamarack is insufficient to cover all of its operating expenses and its bond payment. The revenue shortfall is well over $2 million annually. Tamarack has not been financially self-sufficient since its inception in 1996. ... The growth in the revenue deficiency of the past three years is primarily the result of the expansion of Tamarack to include the Conference Center, which opened in 2003. The Conference Center revenues are also insufficient to cover the added costs of staff and bond payments. The revenue deficiencies do not include
depreciation of the Tamarack facility. Current depreciation is close to $1 million a year. After 10 years of operation, the facility will likely require major repairs.

"The Parkways Authority is under pressure to raise toll prices. This pressure would be lessen to some extent if it were not for the financial burden of the Tamarack system. If the Parkways Authority cannot make changes to make Tamarack a profitable endeavor, consideration should be given to using the Tamarack facility for alternative purposes."

Another section of the report deals with other turnpike authority investments and donations. The people who wrote the audit said that when it comes to the investments and donations, the turnpike authority operates on the fringes of its legal authority. Or, in the polite language of the audit, "The Parkways Authority should discontinue investing in projects
that do not fall within the enabling legislation."

I use the turnpike maybe two or three times a year. Considering the curves and the grades, I don't get my money's worth from the tolls I pay. And when I'm up that way, Tamarack is not on my list of places to visit. But the next time I'm near Beckley, I'll have to visit Tamarack again to see whether it's worth the tolls I pay.

More on W.Va..'s population loss

As a followup to Sunday's editorial to population loss in West Virginia since 1950. . .

If you want to see another take on the same topic, click here.

Who knows all about ATV accidents? No one.

"CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — State legislators may consider requiring owners of all-terrain vehicles to obtain permits and adding more safety requirements for children as a way to curb the state’s record death toll."

Before we go enacting new laws on ATV safety, can we first try to get a handle on what the real problem is? There is no organized tracking of ATV accidents and fatalities anywhere within local, state or federal government. All we have is incomplete information compiled by news organizations. ATV accidents, particularly fatal ones and ones with injuries requiring hospitalization, should be tracked with the same precision as auto accidents.

Then we can enact appropriate legislation to address the real problems on ATV safety. For all we know, new laws will aim at the wrong target and make things worse, as the present law did in 2004.

Funny, that they don't talk about this

Please forgive this obsession with table games in the West Virginia Legislature. It's something I have a hard time getting out of my head lately.

Remember when there was talk of riverboat gambling along the Ohio River, but that would not be good? Apparently if table games are limited to the Northern Panhandle, the Eastern Panhandle and Kanawha County, that's okay. But letting the rest of the state in on the action, that's not right. And, admittedly, times have changed since riverboat gambling was a hot topic in the 1990s. Slots and "limited video lottery" probably had a lot to do with that.

Anyway, two of the four racetrack casinos that want poker, roulette, etc. (games of both skill and chance) are in the Northern Panhandle. Naturally, they see Pennsylvania as a big threat. They would see Ohio as a big threat, too, were it not for the fact that Buckeye State voters gave a big thumbs down to casino gambling back in November.

Northern Panhandle tracks obviously don't see Indiana as a threat to their business.

For what it's worth, here is part of a story from The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., on Jan. 2:

"More than a decade after the first casinos opened in Indiana, the state's gambling industry is expanding its markets and preparing for possible competition from other states, including Kentucky.

"Four of the five casinos along the Ohio River and two of the five on Lake Michigan have invested or are planning to spend a total of $1.2 billion on upgrades, expansions or new boats. ...

" "It's always better to have the newer, fancier product in town," said Robert A. LaFleur, gaming, lodging and leisure industry analyst for Susquehanna International Group, a Pennsylvania-based investment firm. "And there's a ton of capital to invest in casinos. Gaming is a very profitable industry." "

And so the gambling arms race goes on.

Table games could make the slop in the public trough that much sweeter for the politicians and others who feed from it. Just as interesting as whether West Virginia will have table games is who will get the money those games would bring to the state.

And how long it will be before we have to take the next step in our evolution from West Virginia to East Nevada.

Moved, not gone

The closing of the Owens-Illinois glass bottle factory in Huntington in late 1993 was indeed a shock. Everyone knew it was coming, but the announcement came sooner than the community expected.

At the time of the announcement, one Herald-Dispatch reporter was on vacation. When he returned, he offered this observation, which got no traction in a newsroom intent of viewing this as a calamity of unparalleled proportions: Those jobs haven’t left the area; they’ve just moved.

That reporter, who later became the editorial page editor, knew that the plant closed because of market shifts. The only product the Owens-Illinois plant could make was glass bottles. There were various kinds of bottles, but the plant could make glass and glass only. By 1993, the move to plastic was almost complete.

About 30 miles up the road from Huntington in the Mason County, W.Va., town of Apple Grove is the plant now owned by M&G. It makes tiny plastic pellets that other companies use to make microwave food trays and, of all things, containers for beverages and other consumer products.

So if you draw a big enough circle around Huntington, you see that in the long-range scheme of things, those hundreds of jobs at Owens-Illinois didn’t leave. They just moved. Not as many people work at M&G as worked at Owens-Illinois in its heyday, but that’s the story of all manufacturing.

Or we can try to remember the old coke plants at Ironton and at New Boston, Ohio. They employed hundreds of people, but they were nasty, dirty places. The pollution they put into the air rivaled any put out by any other factory in the region.

Jump from 1977 to 2007. Those two old coke plants are gone, but Sunoco has a new coke plant in the Scioto County community of Haverhill, Ohio. The new plant is much cleaner than the old ones. It has fewer workers, but again, that’s the story of manufacturing nowadays — the same output with fewer people.

In this comparison lies the real challenge for our area. We have to be able to compete with other regions to keep our jobs. Old factories will close. New factories will be built. We need to retain those jobs. The new factory may be 30 miles away, and it may be a different company, but we have to retain those factories.

We can still build rail cars in this area, as ACF once did. Someone, somewhere is building them.

The question for us is, how do we become competitive in that market again?

Saddam's execution

A lot of people have vented on this topic. Now it's my turn.

I didn't want to see Saddam Hussein hang. He was more valuable as a powerless man kept in a cell, like Rudolf Hess must have been in Spandau until he died in 1987. And in general I am against capital punishment.

But I shed no tears to learn he was gone. No regrets. For some reason, I didn't really care.

And I still don't. I have other things to get worked up about. So that's all I have to say about that.

On books

Time for a break, while I ponder the great things to opine on for the weekend papers.

My seventh-grader is reading again. I can’t remember the name of the book, but it’s a novel about a boy who becomes a friend of wolves, and it’s written from the wolves’ point of view. So I was thinking about some of my favorite books of recent years and past years. This is not my list of all-time favorites, and it’s not a comprehensive list. It’s a list of the books that come to mind while I think about these things.

“Raptor Red,” by Robert Bakker. Takes a look at the year in the life of a Utahraptor, known to fans of the “Jurassic Park” movie series as a velociraptor. The velociraptors of the movies were not the same as the velociraptors of real life. The movie velociraptors are a lot like the Utahraptor.

“Coming of Age in the Milky Way,” by Timothy Ferris. A wonderful, readable history of science, astronomy, cosmology, physics and biology.

Ohio River navigation charts. I’ve been a map freak since I was in grade school. My favorite maps are anything to do with the Ohio River. My archives at home include depth charts of the part of the river between the Belleville and Willow Island locks and dams. Really. The navigation charts for the full river show the names of islands, major tributaries and such.

“Relativity,” by Albert Einstein. I bought this at a Half Price Books store in Columbus. I made it through the first two pages. If I were to go back to it, I might be able to understand it better because of the next two books. But for now, two pages will do.

“The Mechanical Universe” and “Beyond the Mechanical Universe.” These are textbooks for an introductory physics class at CalTech. As long as they’re not dealing with the mathematical part of physics, they are interesting to browse. If you can find copies of the 52-part series of half-hour television shows that go with the books, physics will come alive, even for people with math phobia.

“The Twilight Zone Companion” and “Nitpickers Guide to Classic Trek.” Two books you have to have beside you when you watch episodes of these classic television series. The Twilight Zone book discusses how each episode was written and produced. The Star Trek book points out the silly mistakes and plot holes of classic Trek.

“Men, Mountains and Rivers.” A history of the Huntington District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers up through the late 1970s. Not as dry as it sounds, but you really have to like rivers, dams and lakes to be interested in the subject.

The “Artemis Fowl” series. I started on this one a couple of months ago, and I have not yet read the most recent book. I got tired of waiting for the next “Harry Potter” book, and this series is better.

There is no "worst book" on my list, but a few years ago I had to read a book for an assignment. I tried. I really did, but when I would read three pages I would have to lie down and take a nap. Later I met the author, and he autographed it for me. I didn't tell him about the tranquilizing effect of his (or his ghost writer's) prose.

Tougher to get into an Ohio university

In about 10 years, students who didn't take enough college preparatory classes in high school won't be able to get into a state-supported college of university in Ohio unless they spend some time at a two-year college first. That's what happens when a state spends $30 million teaching people what they should have learned in high school.

Gov. Bob Taft signed into law on Wednesday new standards for Ohio high schools. They take effect with the kids who are in fifth grade now. When I was a country kid growing up, I had always heard college would be so tough. When I got there, I wondered how so many idiots were admitted. I didn't realize then that with the end of the draft, colleges were hurting for students and would take anyone. But that's why so many people I knew as freshment and sophomores weren't on campus when I got to my senior year.

Here in West Virginia, there was a case a few years ago when a high school valedictorian had to take some remedial classes when he got to college (I think it was Marshall) because his high school had not adequately prepared him for higher education.

There will be more on this in my Friday editorial, assuming the boss approves it.

I'm glad to see standards tightening. As I've said before, many times I have envied my kids for the educational opportunities they have.

Global warming, Europe and Denver

I was perusing a Web news site from home last night and saw a link saying global warming is responsible for the fact some ski resorts in Europe had no snow over the holidays. I did not click on the link, but earlier in the day that same site had a link to a story that 12 people had died in the past day or so because of the blizzard in Denver and the Great Plains.

I guess global warming is responsible for one but not the other.

In case no one out there has figured it out, many journalists would fail miserably as scientists or mathematicians. No snow in Europe? Global warming? Correlation, therefore cause-and-effect.

My statistics instructor at Ohio University explained the fallacy of that line of thought. Every fall when the students return to Athens, leaves fall off trees. Every spring when they leave town, the leaves return. Therefore the presence of university students is harmful to trees.

I have no doubt the earth is either warming or cooling. Consider your own body temperature. We were taught in school that our body temperature is 98.6 degrees. But does that mean my temperature is the same when I'm asleep as when I'm taking a long walk? I doubt it. So why should I expect the earth's temperature to remain constant over time?

And what about that 98.6 number? It was measured when the average American was about 20 pounds lighter than he or she is today. What does the increase in average body weight do to our "average" temperature?

I get so frustrated when journalists pass off easy cause-and-effect stuff when a little look below the surface shows they are parroting something they have heard or something an interest group wants them to believe.

Just call me a global warming skeptic. There is too much about the earth's climate to learn before someone like me can state for a fact that global warming is a myth or is the worst calamity facing mankind in 10,000 years.

And, no, I haven't seen "An Inconvenient Truth." If I see it on the shelf of the Cabell County Public Library, I might borrow it, but I'm not buying it or renting it.

Alcohol

I've never understood the connection between alcohol and a good time. Never have. Part of that may have come from my youth, watching my older siblings and their friends drinking and "having a good time," alhough I cannot recall anything really good ever coming from their drinking. When I was older and away at college, I saw my friends getting wasted, blasted and out and out drunk from the weekend drinking binges. How getting drunk is a good time is beyond me. Really, I never saw any good that came from drinking.

Before anyone speaks up about the failure of Prohibition, I'm not talking about that. I'm not advocating it. I'm just saying drinking is not for me. I have yet to see any good that comes of it, and too much pain. I've tasted alcohol in limited circumstances, and I didn't like it anyway.

So as I sat in front of my TV yesterday and watched the Cincinnati Bengals' season end on a fitting note -- a loss in a game they could have won had they showed up to play -- I wondered what would have happened in 2006 if their off-field problems -- many if not most caused by irresposible drinking -- had not happened. The blame for the team's collapse this year collapse this year can be spread around to many people, but the off-the-field arrests and resulting suspensions didn't help any.

P.S. While writing this, I've been talking with my middle child, who turns 13 next month, about drinking. I'm not telling him to never drink alcohol. But we have talked about the pain it can cause. We both know that in it's his decision. But I have every hope that when he grows up, he will make the right one. I don't want him ending up like a college acquaintance whose goal was get drunk as many times in one week as she could.