Small cars

There's a lot of talk about requiring automakers to build cars that are more fuel-efficient. Part is energy conservation and part is anti-global warming.

When I hear that talk, I think back to all the small cars Detroit built in the 1970s as the market wanted smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. They were -- I don't know if I should use the word, but it rhymes with "trap."

A few months ago, my family was on U.S. 60 when I saw a late 1970s Porsche 924 sitting in a retail store parking lot. The Porsche had a "For Sale" sign on it, so I had to stop. As I looked at it, I got to thinking about that small 1976 Ford I once owned. The sheet metal was thin. There were no crash crumple zones engineered into the frame. No airbag. No antilock brakes. I wouldn't want one of my kids driving one of those things. But I was young and idealistic and cheap, so I did. At one time I wanted a Porsche 924, but no more.

If there is to be tradeoff between user safety and fuel efficiency, I'll go with safety every time. I get the feeling Detroit and Tokyo think there are a lot of people out here like me. That's why SUVs and CUVs and minivans still sell, although maybe not in the same numbers as before. If I go back to a small car, it will be because I'm usually alone in it and I'm driving on roads safe for small cars.

And if a small car is as affordable as a larger one.

Global warming will play a very, very small role when I go car shopping again.

Toyota, 2/28/07

The Washington Post looks at Toyota's decision to build an SUV assembly plant in Mississippi. The theme is that Toyota has picked up two more U.S. senators in its bid to head of protectionist legislation.

Back in 1996, before Toyota announced it would build its plant in Putnam County, I was visited by Atsushi Honda, the Japanese reporter who broke the story. I drove him over to Buffalo, because he wanted to see where the plant would be built. While there, we talked about various things. He said he thought one reason Toyota put the plant in West Virginia was to get more political influence. At the time, it had plants or was building plants in California, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana. Since then, Toyota has added Texas, Alabama and now Mississippi to that list. That comes to eight states and 16 senators.

You can't blame Toyota. As the Post article says, a plant in Tupelo is worth more than a lobbyist in D.C. when Toyota needs something from a senator.

Look at other Japanese automakers, too. Honda is in Alabama and Ohio. Hyundai is in Georgia. Nissan is in Tennessee and Mississippi. That's at least three more states and six more senators.

For what it's worth, Mr. Honda died a few years back of heart disease. He wasn't that old.

Homelessness and panhandling (2 different things)

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development has released the results of a study on the homeless population in the USA.

The following is from a HUD news release:

Based on a geographically representative sampling of 80 communities, HUD found 704,000 persons used emergency shelters or transitional housing between February and April of 2005. The daily average of sheltered homeless persons during this period is 334,744. HUD's three-month sample of HMIS data found the following characteristics of the sheltered homeless population:

Gender - 65 percent of the adult population are men

Age - The largest segment, 41 percent, are 31-to-50 years old

Household Type - 66 percent are individuals - 34 percent are persons in families with children

Race - 59 percent are minority

Geographic - 75 percent are in central cities - 25 percent are in suburban and rural areas (see page 44)

Veteran Status - 19 percent of the adult homeless population are veterans

I have no particular comment on the study. I will let others dissect the methodology, and I will let others say whether the national demographics fit the profile of the homeless person in Huntington.

But I will comment on one thing: Some people may think of homeless people as doing most of the panhandling in Huntington, but I'm not so sure about that. Yes, some homeless people probably do hit folks up for money, but I have heard too many panhandlers tell the same tale of woe or distress. And too many panhandlers are just too neat. And I have heard of the cars that drop panhandlers off to make their routes.

I may be toying with fate, but it's been a while since a panhandler here in the downtown asked me for money.

Prichard intermodal facility

So here I was, ready to write an editorial to run later this week on a plan to fund construction of the rail-to-truck and vice versa intermodal facility at Prichard. To get some more information, I check the Legislature's Web site, and I say, "Uh-oh."

There are two fiscal note summaries. One was written by the state Division of Highways and one by the state Tax Department. The DoH says the plan to use rail locomotive fuel taxes to fund construction of the Prichard facility would cost the state road fund about $7 million a year. The Tax Department questions the constitutionality of the bill.

I talked with state Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, a little while ago. He says the State Road Fund will come out okay. The Legislature is allocating more money to the Road Fund and taking the Courtesy Patrol off its hands by transferring it to the tourism department, Plymale said. "They'll have more money in Highways than they did before," Plymale said.

Plymale also said he thinks the Tax Department's concern about the consitutionality of the bill (SB 569) is not an insurmountable problem.

Plymale is right when he calls the intermodal facility one of the biggest economic development projects in this area in some time. Perhaps if the House Finance Committee and the full House of Delegates approves the bill, the facility can be built.

Mothers could keep babies with them in prison

Here's an AP story that I really don't know what to think about.

West Virginia wants to become the sixth state to allow women prison inmates to have their babies with them for up to 18 months. Okay, I can see how this can be good for the prisoner. But what about the baby? Everything in this article talks about how good it is for the mother. It seems to me the baby would be cut off from family and anything like a normal life for the first 18 months of its life. It would barely know its grandparents, uncles, aunts, siblings or anyone other than the people coming in and out of prison.

I would like someone to explain how this would be good for the baby -- not the mother, not the state -- before I could endorse something like this. I would like to endorse the idea, but for the sake of the baby, I just can't right now.

Someone tell me where I'm wrong.

UDPATE: I just got off the phone with Jim Rubenstein, commissioner of the state Department of Corrections. He said the state prison system has two pregnant inmates now. The number varies and is unpredictable.

The women who would be eligible for the program are those who would not be a danger to their babies and who could be eligible for parole before the 18 months are up. At the Lakin women's prison, they would be on prison grounds, but they would also be in a house away from the general prison population. They would receive parenting classes, and family members could visit them and the babies separately from visitation for the general prison population.

It's his opinion that it could be better for the baby to bond with its mother by living with her for several months.

Ends and odds, 2/27/07

Toyota says it will build a new assembly plant in Mississippi to build its Highlander SUV.

The first Highlander I saw was in Japan. I prefer its brand name there: the Kluger V.

<-0->

As far as automakers go, I know of plants in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas and South Carolina. And Georgia. As far as I know, Florida, Arkansas and Louisiana have been left out of the growth of the auto industry in the South. I wonder why.

Some states may not have auto manufacturing, but they do make heavy vehicles. I know of school bus assembly operations in North Carolina, Georgia and Arkansas, for example. That still leaves Louisiana and Florida that I have to ask about sometime.

<-0->

Good news, even though I'm behind the curve on this one: Volkswagen is bringing back one of my favorite car models of all time -- the Scirocco. I had an '82 model until someone rear-ended me and totaled it (I was stopped for a highway flagger; they didn't see me; I got hit at 30 mph or faster; the impact drove the rear bumper into the rear wheels and crumpled everything in between). Then I bought an '84 model that I drove for 139,000 miles. I sold it to a sister, who put another 60K or so on it. It might still be behind her barn. I'll have to ask her.

Anyway, if Ford can bring back the Mustang, VW ought to bring back the Scirocco. I shuddered at first when I saw the MSRP of $28K. Then I realized how few cars you see on the lot nowadays with stickers below that price. Hot cars, anyway. Not that I can afford a Scirocco or a Mustang. But I want one.

<-0->

UPDATE 1: And now for something completely different, via The Associated Press:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker is demanding answers about the creation of the universe from the state education commissioner.

State Sen. Raymond Finney sponsored a resolution to ask Education Commissioner Lana Seivers whether the universe “has been created or has merely happened by random, unplanned, and purposeless occurrences.”

Finney, a Republican, said he wants the department to say there’s no scientific proof for the theory of evolution and to let schools teach creationism or intelligent design.

Can we drop it? Please?

Ends and odds, 2/26/07

Does a landfill in McDowell County need to double the amount of garbage it accepts every year? It would be a boon to local government, because of increased taxes it would bring.

Back in the 1980s, folks in McDowell County were willing to take in nuclear waste if it resulte din jobs. Yes, it was technically known as the Monitored Retrieval and Storage facility, or something like that. It would be a place to collect nuclear waste until it could be sent to its final resting place out west.

Are parts of West Virginia so bad off that they don't mind being known as the dumping groundof the East? I suppose if Cabell County were as bad off as McDowell County -- 60-some percent population loss in 50 years -- I might have a different opinion, but . . .

o-o-o

Speaking of which, the table games debate in the Legislature might be on more local people's radar screens had the dog track been built near Milton, as originally proposed. Remember when the developers originally wanted the track in Cabell County, but a vote kept it out?

Local opinion of table games might have been different. Or maybe not. We had a vote a while back on gambling at the Frederick and it went down in flames.

This is from The Herald-Dispatch's year-in-review story for 2002:

One proposal this year to help Huntington dig out of its financial hole was casino gambling. Huntington attorney and businessman John Hankins proposed to build a casino within a 650-room resort hotel consisting of the Frederick Building, 940 4th Ave., and other nearby properties owned by Hankins.

In August, The Cabell County Commission placed the issue as a referendum on November's general election ballot. In the months leading up to the election, opposition to casino gambling mounted. In the Nov. 5 general election, the casino referendum was defeated by a 63-to-37 percent margin.

But we didn't have as many gambling-dependent jobs in the county as we would have had if the dog track had been built in Milton.

o-o-o

The Oscars -- excuse me, the Academy Awards -- were last night. Not that I really care. Knowing who won what is about as important to me as knowing who won an Emmy, a Grammy, a Tony or the American League Rookie of the Year. I just don't care.

0-0-0

So the Discovery channel says some archaeologists may have found the bones of Jesus. I've been hearing this every 10 years since the early 1970s. It's like when I was over in Israel 20-some years ago. Another American I met said he was walking along one street and every vendor there offered to sell him a piece of the cross.

o-o-o

Wow. Angelina Jolie has been invited to join the Council on Foreign Relations. Now if she can only get on the Trilateral Commission and maybe become a Rothschild, Bilderburger or a Rockefeller, she can take over the world.

As recently as the 1990s, I knew people consumed with this stuff. And back in the 1970s, I'm pretty sure, there was a book store in Parkersburg that featured these conspiracy theory books. I remember one in a window, "Henry Kissinger, Soviet Agent."

Gasoline is too cheap for national security

OK, so Joe Manchin says we must develop alternate sources of energy so we can stop importing so much oil. No problem there. He mentions corn. Eh, a bit of a problem, considering the energy in-energy out ration when it comes to converting corn to ethanol, not to mention what that would do to food prices.

Down in the story, on the jump page in the print version, is this paragraph:

Gov. Brian Schweitzer, D-Mont., said Congress and the Bush administration should consider setting a minimum price for domestic fuels to provide market stability. Schweitzer said financial institutions and Wall Street investors would be reluctant to provide capital needed to expand production of U.S. fuels if foreign competitors are able to drive down market prices to undercut U.S. producers.

In other words, oil is too cheap now. It's too cheap for energy producers to consider anything other than crude oil for making liquid fuel.

Last summer, gasoline hit $3 a gallon. Then you heard all this talk about alternate fuels, and the retail price of gasoline dropped.

With all due respect to Gov. Schweitzer, I wouldn't want to be the governor or the Congressman who tells the American people that we need -- somehow -- to increase the retail price of gasoline to $4 or $5 a gallon so we can develop alternate fuels in the name of national security. I would love to hear the barbershop conversation the day after that trial balloon floats.

One dull day

Man, it has been one dull day in Huntington. But when news types are bored, the rest of us can rest easy, right?

I just want to go home and get away from Britney Spears and all those letters to the editor about Anna Nicole Smith and the cervical cancer vaccine and dogs on chains and global warming.

Right now I'll settle for some Cabell warming. I was getting tired of that freezing weather we've had lately. But some of the roads I drive on feel like they're about to fall apart. I was on 8th Street Road (McCoy Road) the other day, and I thought I had a flat tire. It was only the waviness in the road, I think. I hope.

A coworker who drives up the Ohio side says there is a part of Route 7 in Lawrence County that's getting pretty bad with potholes.

Okay, none of this is as weighty as the stuff I normally write about, but I'm about ready to go home.

By the way, I watched the Huntington High game on ESPN2 last night. That wasn't a high school game. That was a college game. I checked some standings today, and Huntington appears to be the top-ranked public high school in the nation. If it stays that way through the end of the season, they deserve a sign on Highlander Way marking that achievement.

Meanwhile, two of my coworkers are working on a story about talented and gifted programs. I have no idea what it's going to say, but it should run in the next few days.

See you all Monday.

More on language of table games bill

Here is what the table games bill itself says.

The bill says the Legislature has determined that it can "own, control, operate and regulate West Virginia lottery table games ."

Try this section of the law:
§29-22C-9. State ownership of table games. All table games authorized by this article shall be West Virginia lottery games owned by the state of West Virginia. A racetrack table games license granted to a pari-mutuel racetrack by the Commission pursuant to this article shall include the transfer by the Commission to the racetrack limited license rights in and to the Commission's intellectual property ownership of the West Virginia lottery games which includes granting licensees limited lawful authority relating to the conduct of lottery table games for consideration, within the terms and conditions established pursuant to this article and any rules promulgated thereunder.

A lot of lawyers are going to make some money when this thing goes to court. I still think it requires a constitutional amendment. But at this time, the opinions of people like me don't count. The opinions of the 34 members of the state Senate do.

To see the full text of the table games bill, go here.

Ends and odds, 2/21/07

To be updated throughout the day, I hope:

Folks who want the Legislature to loosen the leash it has placed on cities' ability to raise taxes and spend money in accordance with local conditions might see some help soon. I have this theory that all problems are local unless they are problems in Kanawha County. Then they are crises that cry out for legislative action. It seems Charleston officials say they're having money problems. So look for a special session of the Legislature in the next three or four years to deal with this.

Talking to your kids about what they'll study in college. You might want to check out 10 degrees that didn't exist 10 years ago.

Two more items on the cervical cancer vaccine. First, some questionable timing in the Texas governor's order that all girls in that state be vaccinated. Second, there are questions of whether vaccinating sixth-grade girls will protect them their entire lives.

UPDATE 1

The West Virginia Division of Highways appears to be of the opinion that cable median barriers are not needed west of the 17th Street W. exit, also known as Exit 6. Well, there was a crossover accident there this week that could have been deadly. I mean, I don't want to be driving on I-64 and see a bucket truck cross the median and head toward me.

Robert D'Alessandri, who heads the WVU Health Sciences Center, was supposed to visit me today to talk about things going on up there. But he called a couple of days ago to cancel. After reading an article on the MetroNews site, I can understand why. (I'm having trouble finding some articles on the site; maybe they disappear after a while; I just don't know). It seems he spent a lot of time in Charleston this week preserving the Health Science Center's take on the pop tax. The center gets $14 million a year from the tax, or about a quarter of its budget. There will be more talk in the next 12 months about this tax.

Steve Jobs of Apple and Michael Dell of Dell have polar opposite views on the need for teacher unions. Check it out here.

Poker is WV's intellectual property

Yesterday I talked with Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, on why he voted for the table games bill last week. This morning I had a few minutes on the phone with Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell, who voted against the bill. I asked her about the part in the state constitution that says the lottery will be regulated, controlled, owned and operated by the state. I said I could understand how table games would fall under the first two verbs, but not the second.

Sobonya said the way it was explained to the delegates, table games will considered the intellectual property of the state, and the racetrack casinos will be the state's agents in operating them. I said I didn't quite understand that. I don't remember what she said after that.

This will really be something for lawyers to argue before the state Supreme Court.

Poker, blackjack, routlette, craps... intellectual property. Who'd a thunk it?

Merck suspends lobbying for vaccination

This moved on the AP financial wire yesterday afternoon:


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Merck & Co. is immediately suspending its lobbying campaign to persuade state legislatures to mandate that adolescent girls get the company’s new vaccine against cervical cancer as a requirement for school attendance, the company said late Tuesday.

The drugmaker had been criticized by parents and doctors’ groups for quietly funding the campaign via a third party to require 11- and 12-year-old girls get the three-dose vaccine in order to attend school.

Some had objected because the vaccine protects against a sexually transmitted disease, human papilloma virus, which causes cervical cancer. Vaccines mandated for school attendance usually are for diseases easily spread through casual contact.

Oddly, I could find no reference to this on the Merck Web site. You can read more here and here if you wish.

What did Merck think would happen when word got out that it was mounting an aggressive lobbying campaign to require vaccinations in all 50 states? Maybe the folks really thought they had a good product that needed to be forced on people, but did they not understand the backlash that would develop? This is of those ideas that looks so good on the surface but so bad when you start looking into it.

For one more link, try this one from Bernadine Healy. According to her bio, she is past Director of the National Institutes of Health, where she started the Women's Health Initiative. She is currently a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

Jim Morgan's vote on table games

After a few days of telephone tag, I made contact with Delegate Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, today. I wanted to talk with him about his vote last week on the table games legislation. Before last year’s election, I remember Morgan saying he did not want four local option elections on table games. He said he wanted a statewide vote.

A little while ago, Morgan said he would still prefer a statewide vote, but those are not allowed in West Virginia unless they are constitutional amendments. Getting an amendment on the ballot would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature, he said, adding he figured that would not happen. Morgan said he wanted people at least in the four racetrack counties to be able to vote on whether to have table games, so he voted for the table games bill.

So I asked Morgan about parts of the legislation that the House approved. The 1980s constitutional amendment allowing the lottery authorizes lotteries that are regulated, controlled, owned and operated by the state. I said I understand how the state would regulate and control table games, but it would not own or operate them. Morgan said he heard a lot of talk explaining the legal justification for table games. He figures the state Supreme Court of Appeals will have to sort it out.

I have to agree with him on that one. If the Senate approves the House table games bill and if Gov. Joe Manchin signs it, it’s undoubtedly headed for the Supreme Court.

Looking past that, assuming the Supreme Court gets a case, hears it and decides in favor of table games, I wonder how many of the four counties will actually have table games. From news reports, I figure Hancock and Ohio counties are locks. I hear there is some opposition in Jefferson County for various reasons.

Kanawha County is the one I wonder about. The table games bill as approved by the House of Delegates places some pretty stiff licensing fees on the casinos, and the fee doubles for racetracks that don’t have a 150-room hotel on premises. As far as I know, Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center at Cross Lanes doesn’t have such a hotel on site. I also haven’t heard a lot from that track’s owner about table games. I have to wonder if table games would be viable at Cross Lanes as the bill is written. I'm trying to get an answer on that one. When I do, I'll let you know.

Civilian contractor casualties in Iraq

Lost in the debate over American casualties in Iraq is the fact that civilian contractors are killed there, too. Yes, these folks volunteer to work in a war zone, and they know the risks. But they're still being injuried and they're still dying.

According to the Web site Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, 388 civilian contract employees have died in Iraq. I downloaded the list and ran it through Access to draw some conclusions. The data needs to be cleaned up and standardized a bit to allow for thorough analysis, but from what I can tell, at least 156 American civilian contract employees have been kileld in Iraq. Most were killed by IEDs or by roadside bombs or when their convoys were attacked.

At least a dozen and possibly more were executed by beheading, while others were executed by gunshot. That's from all 388, not just Americans.

Economic costs of global warming (UPDATED)

Here is something you don't often hear about in the global warming debate. Someone is talking about putting a dollars-and-cents estimate on the cost of fighting emissions of greenhouse gases vs. the cost of not doing anything. Whatever your thoughts on global warming, it's something we need to talk about. But it will take some time for the people who are politically, economically or emotionally invested in the debate to do that.

The dollars-and-cents of global warming is now a welcomed topic among economists and governments. One can thank Sir Nicholas Stern for that. Last October, his report put a price tag on what must be done. Since then, others have chewed over his numbers.

As head of Britain's Government Economic Service, Dr. Stern led a team that estimated a cost to the task of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by a necessary 80 percent (to settle at about twice their preindustrial concentrations) by 2100: The world's economic growth rate would be shaved about 1 percentage point a year if all the necessary regulations, taxes, and carbon-trading schemes were in place.

Stern's team also calculated the cost of not taking action. If the world conducted business as usual, the effects of warming could cut GDP growth rates by at least 5 percent and as much as 20 percent a year indefinitely. The trade-off seemed clear: Taking action is less expensive than neglect.

To see the full editorial whence this came, click here. Sometime today, I'll try to track down the original report.

UPDATE: Via the BBC,
Summary
Full presentation

UPDATE 2: American Electric Power joins other companies in talking about climate change.

Here is background on the Global Roundtable on Climate Change.

And here is what the American Association for the Advancement of Science says.

I know that's a lot of links, but ...

Ends and odds, 2/19/07

Here's some sort of almost kinda maybe good news about the West Virginia economy. According to the most recent edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, West Virginia ranked 38th among the 50 states in growth of its gross state product from 2004-05. Ohio was near the bottom. Only Michigan, Alaska and Katrina-ravaged Louisiana kept Ohio out of the bottom spot. No wonder Bob Taft and the Republicans were wiped out in last year's elections. And wouldn't this make a great rallying cry for the Ohio State-Michigan football game: Our state's economy stinks, but yours stinks worse.

>:(

I don't know if I believe the results of this scientific study.

SAN FRANCISCO — When it comes to scientific literacy, Americans aren’t nearly as evolved as they may think. In fact, only about 40 percent of American adults accept the basic idea of evolution, a figure much lower than any European country.

... persons with strong pro-life beliefs were significantly more likely to reject evolution than those with pro-choice views.

Okay, the second one I can accept, but not the first.

But then, a person can be pro-life from a totally nonreligious point of view. But that does not fit prevailing biases.

<:) Another news release from Michigan State shows that producing ethanol can release more greenhouse gas than burning gasoline. Producers have to be careful that doesn't happen, researchers say.

:o

And some lawyers have precious little sense of humor, it seems, despite all the lawyer jokes out there.

$1 coins... and the Montana quarter

So the U.S. Mint is coming out with a new $1 coin. The Sacajawea coin was a bust. The Susan B. Anthony silver dollar was about the size of a quarter, and was often confused for one.

When I was in Japan a few years ago, I quickly learned that Japanese currency does not have a paper bill for their equivalent of our one-dollar or five-dollar bills. You had to use coins. Much to my surprise, it didn't bother me a bit.

So if the USA got rid of the dollar bill and even the $5 bill, I could probably adapt fairly quickly.

... And while we're on the topic, am I the only person who wonders why Montana is the first state to put the skull of a dead animal on its quarter?

HPV vaccinations

For space reasons, I had to cut a paragraph out of this morning's editorial on the proposed mandatory vaccinations for all sixth-grade girls against cervical cancer. I put that paragraph and some more material out here for comment.

West Virginia has 1.8 million people. The population of the United State is about 300 million. Thus, West Virginia has about six-tenths of 1 percent of the nation’s population. Multiply that by the 4,800 predicted deaths from cervical cancer, and you get about 29 cervical cancer deaths expected in West Virginia this year. Multiply that by 1.5 because our rate is 50 percent higher than the national average, and you still have 44 expected deaths, rounding upward. Then figure that the vaccine is effective in only 70 percent of those expected cases, and the vaccine would save 31 lives in West Virginia this year.

Not meaning to minimize those 31 lives, but that is fewer than the number who died in ATV-related accidents in the state last year.

To vaccinate all sixth-grade girls in West Virginia would cost about $3.7 million. Again, not minimizing the lives that would be saved, but we’re talking about spending $3.7 million a year to save 31 lives, or about $119,000 per life. I hate it when people try to assign monetary values to life, but would the $3.7 million be better spent elsewhere?

And until the connection between the vaccine’s maker (Merck) and the group lobbying for mandatory vaccination is cleared up, can people trust this push for mandatory vaccinations?

Table game vote in House of Delegates

Here are how the eight people representing this area in the House of Delegates voted on the table games bill today.

I don't have my notes handy, but I'm pretty sure one of the people who voted for the bill said at a candidates' forum last fall that he would not support a bill that did not have a statewide vote as opposed to county options. I plan to ask him about that.

For: Jim Morgan, Don Perdue, Rick Thompson.
Against: Kevin Craig, Carol Miller, Doug Reynolds, Kelli Sobonya, Dale Stephens.

From our neighboring counties:
Putnam: Martin and Paxton, Y; Andes and Schoen, N
Lincoln: Eldridge, Y
Mingo: White and Kominar, Y
Logan: Ellis and Hrutkay, Y
Mason: No representation in the House of Delegates thanks to multidelegate districts and gerrymandering to protect incumbents.

In case you're wondering about party votes, Democrats voted for table games 52-19 with 1 absent. The Republican vote was 3 for, 24 against and 1 absent.

Votes from counties with racetrack casinos:
Hancock: 2-0
Jefferson: 2-1
Kanawha: 7-3, with 1 absent.
Ohio: 2-0

The topic that won't go away

Later today, I will edit a letter to the editor for publication. You will never guess the topic.

The pink bridge. The topic that just won't die.

I don't know when the letter will be published, but it's nice to know there are some things I can count on to keep the cards and letters coming.

Jay and fire safety

I got a news release this afternoon from Jay Rockefeller's office. It's reprinted below.

It's good to see the senator taking some action in the wake of the fire at the Emmons Jr. apartment building. I don't know if something like this would have prevented the Emmons fire or would have made it easier to fight. That's for the experts to decide.

But this sounds like it's worth a shot. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.


Washington, DC – In the wake of a tragic fire last month in Huntington that claimed the lives of nine people at the Emmons Jr. apartment building, Senator Jay Rockefeller has reintroduced legislation first offered in 2005 that would make it easier to upgrade fire sprinkler systems in older buildings.

“Sprinkler systems and alarms are not amenities, they are absolute necessities,” Rockefeller said. “Knowing that older apartment buildings, college residence halls and commercial structures have adequate fire safety systems brings peace of mind to those who live and work within their walls.”

Toward this end, Senators Rockefeller and Gordon Smith (R-OR) reintroduced the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act. Under current law, property owners who install sprinkler systems in older buildings are allowed to deduct the costs over a period of 27.5 or 39 years, depending on the structure. The Rockefeller bill would allow businesses to recoup those costs within 5 years.

“This is a win-win for public safety and business,” Rockefeller said. “Not only do businesses get the tax benefits associated with increased depreciation of capital expenses, but fire departments throughout West Virginia get a fighting chance to prevent the loss of life and property.”

Fire departments respond to a fire every 18 seconds. Every 60 seconds a fire breaks out in a commercial structure; and, every 80 seconds in a residential structure. According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2005 fire departments responded to 1.6 million fires nationwide. In that same year, 3,675 people were killed and 17,925 people injured by fires in the United States. It’s estimated that property losses due to fire are well over $80 billion dollars.

“The devastating fire in Huntington underscored just how crucial it is to have the most fundamental safety precautions in place. It was a profound loss to the community and our entire state,” said Rockefeller. “In the event of a fire, sprinklers are crucial, especially for our older adults and younger children. It is my hope that Congress does its part by passing this bill, so that people are better protected in the future.”

Senator Rockefeller first cosponsored this legislation in 2005. The proposal has been endorsed by firefighters, the insurance industry, and general contractors.

WV income and outgo

It's nice for West Virginians to believe that our state economy lags behind other states because our tax system goes so easy on the consumer and hits business really hard. But that might not be true. Or, if true, not as true as some people think.

Here's how I know that.

Last week, West Virginia state Auditor Glen B. Gainer III placed a document on the Internet. It listed every state employee and the amount that person received in wages or salary in 2006. Some folks probably don't like the idea of their pay being put out there for the world to see.

On Gainer's Web site, I found another interesting document. It's called the 2006 State Dollar Report. It has a lot of information about the state's revenues and expenditures last year.

Here are the top sources of money for the state general revenue fund in fiscal year 2006:

Personal income tax: $1,297,720,394
Consumer sales tax: $1,012,450,612
Corporate income tax: $347,569,611
Severance tax: $314,726,682

I didn't think the personal income tax and consumer sales tax would be that much higher than the corporate income tax and the severance tax, but there it is. And I didn't think the severance tax would bring in almost as much money as the corporate income tax.

Consumers helped out the state budget in other ways. West Virginians paid more than $107 million in cigarette taxes.

If you compare 2006 to four years earlier, you see the corporate taxes growing at a faster rate than the personal and consumer taxes:

Consumer sales tax, 14.3% increase.
Personal income tax, 25.4% increase.
Corporate income tax, 298.1% increase.
Severance tax, 89% increase.

Over in the highway tax fund, consumers and businesses paid nearly $321 million in gasoline and motor carrier taxes.

Now, on to the expense side.

West Virginia spent about $1.1 billion on its colleges and universities in FY 06, not counting about $32.6 million to the WVU medical school. It spent about $948.5 million on highway construction and maintenance.

And as you might know the largest vendors paid by the state are highway construction companies. West Virginia Paving of Dunbar received $76.4 million, while Walsh Construction of Chicago got slightly less than $59.6 million.

The largest local vendor was Turman Construction Co. of Barboursville, which was paid $8.47 million. It was 40th on the vendor list. At Number 41 was Worldwide Equipment Inc. of Huntington, at about $8.3 million.

You can see the entire PDF document here. Warning: It's 3.86 megabytes.

City Council vs. Mayor Felinton

This afternoon, the Huntington City Council will have a special meeting to receive the fiscal year 2007-08 budget from Mayor David Felinton. After the meeting, Felinton walks or drives or rides over to the Big Sandy Superstore Arena to give his State of the City speech.

Some folks on council may resent the mayor going to a different venue to give his speech. That could be why they called this special meeting, just so they could upstage him in front of the cable TV cameras.

If so, it's another silly City Hall power game.

There's nothing wrong with the mayor giving the speech in the venue of his choosing. The important thing is for the councilmembers to receive their copies of the budge Felinton is proposing.

The fun part is listening to Felinton say whether he wants to see any fee increases or new fees. Or if he proposes cutting back certain departments.

That's the important part, not the pageantry.

If I'm wrong, please correct me.

More thoughts on climate change

I posted this earlier this morning on The Herald-Dispatch user forums. You can see it here.

But here it is anyway. I can't get enough of reading the science of global warming. In the past two months, I've learned more about it than I knew before, both the science and the politics.

I don't know if the earth is getting warmer or colder.

If it is getting warmer, is the additional heat distributed evenly or in ways that do or don't matter?

If it is getting warmer, how much is natural and how much is man-made?

If it is getting warmer, is that good or bad?

If it is getting warmer, and if that is bad, what do we do about it?

Does it really matter if I use fluorescent light bulbs and drive a car that gets 5 more miles per gallon if China and India keep bringing all those new coal-fired power plants on line?

Going to a more carbon-neutral lifestyle could cause serious shock waves in the American economy. Are we willing to unilaterally disarm when China and India aren't? Can we tell China and India they should not attain our standard of living because their carbon emissions might be making the earth warmer?

Global warming has two components: scientific and political. Too many people are making the scientific part political, and they ignore the political realities.

I've been reading as much of the science of global warming as I can understand. I tend to think a lot of it is from natural causes, but I'm not ruling out human influence. I'm a skeptic, but I'm not a doubter.

And I really resent it when some folks say "The debate is over." The debate has just begun.

Better than Valentine's Day

I am sooooooo glad my wife does not go in for Valentine's Day foolishness. Even if she did, she would likely forget about it because of something else in her life that happened on Feb. 14: the birth of her first son.

She and her first son have always shared a bond, the way boys and their mothers tend to do around here. I remember sitting in a dorm room at college. There were maybe five of us there -- four Ohioans and a guy from Long Island. The New York guy made a joke about the mother of the other guy. The other guy just glared at the New Yorker. The New Yorker didn't understand what was wrong. I explained to him that in Ohio, you don't make a joke about a guy's mother. That is strictly off limits.

Anyway, my son Joe turned 13 this morning. He didn't want to turn 13. He said he had so much fun as a kid, he didn't want to be a teenager. Join the club, kid.

The photo below shows Joe sitting on a big rock along the Ohio River. I think it's the same rock his great-grandfather was photographed sitting on about 80 or 100 years ago.

Well, duh! 2/14/07

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A push to increase the number of college graduates in Kentucky to the national average may have been jeopardized by skyrocketing tuition, auditors concluded in a report released Wednesday.

State Auditor Crit Luallen said the findings suggest that Kentucky may not be able to meet the goal set by lawmakers when they passed higher education reforms 10 years ago. They wanted Kentucky to reach the national average by 2020.

The review by auditors from Luallen’s office found that the total number of Kentuckians enrolled as full-time college students has grown by only 10 percent since 1998, and has actually fallen by 900 since 2003. To turn that trend around, auditors recommend reducing tuition for instate students and increasing financial aid to needy Kentucky students.

Auditors said tuition has increased from an average $2,424 a year at the state’s public universities to $5,522, roughly 128 percent over the past eight years.

O-O-O

School bus drivers and cell phones

Do we really have to tell people things like this? Shouldn't someone with a license to drive a bus have figured this out by now?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The school bus industry has a message for bus drivers: Put down your cell phones.The American School Bus Council plans to issue guidelines Tuesday calling for a ban on drivers using cell phones when the bus is moving or when students are getting on or off.

... The federal panel made that recommendation after blaming a driver’s chat on a cell phone for a 2004 crash in Alexandria, Va. that injured 11 students.

Turnpike

This moved on the West Virginia AP wire this afternoon:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The West Virginia Turnpike should hike its tolls by $1.70 for heavy trucks and 50 cents for other vehicles by mid-2008, and then by similar levels again within five years, a consulting firm hired by Gov. Joe Manchin has recommended.

The turnpike’s parent agency should also quit the economic development and tourism business, sell off those projects it has, and cut or end funding to its Tamarack arts and crafts showplace, Monday’s detailed report from the Public Resources Advisory Group said.

“One option could include transferring Tamarack to an entity with particularized expertise in the arts, craft and culture arena,” the report said.

But the PRAG study advises against dismantling the tolls or switching the turnpike to the state Division of Highways. Several lawmakers have proposed as much this session.The report instead recommends that the Legislature restore the bond-selling powers of the parent Parkways, Economic Development and Tourism Authority. The study also said Manchin and lawmakers should consider selling the right to run the turnpike to the private sector, and study adding tolls to other state roads and bridges.

I've not read the full report. If you want to read all 98 pages, which I hope to do tomorrow, go here. It's 6 o'clock and I want to go home to my family, if you know what I mean.

Offhand, I find myself agreeing with much of what's in the report as summarized by the AP, although I would like to see the justification for continuing to have tolls on the road. It may have to do with the turnpike authority's bond debt, but that's just a guess at this point.

The state most definitely should consider selling the Turnpike, although at my most basic level, I'm very wary of this, given West Virginia state government's past involvement with businesses. I can't cite every example, but my overall impression is that when the state negotiates with private enterprise, the state usually comes in second.

Movies

The movie "We Are Marshall" is nearing the end of its theatrical run. It's showing on fewer and fewer screens in this, the eighth week of its release, according to my coworker Justin McElroy.

I'll admit I haven't seen it yet. I'm waiting for the DVD version. I just can't afford to see many movies in theaters anymore. I don't know if I'll see Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third until they move over to the bargain theater at the Cinema.

Maybe I'm getting older, but most movies nowadays are just not that good. They're star vehicles. They tell stories I don't care about.

Maybe it's like one of my nephews. When he was just out of his teen years, I asked him what he thought about a movie he had just seen. "Wasn't no good," he said. "No killin' in it." I think he is the kind of moviegoer Hollywood wants. A few years later, he preferred "Blade II" over "Ice Age."

Humor columnist Dave Barry says if you want to make a movie guys will watch, just forget the story and put this title on it: "Naked People in Car Chases."

A TV sitcom from the 1990s showed a teenage boy about to suffer through this movie with his date: "I Just Want to Talk."

If it says "Pixar" on it, I'll probably go. The older I get, the more I like a good animated movie 0r a good "kids" picture.

Ends and odds, 2/12/07

NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices plunged by more than $2 Monday, dropping below $58 a barrel on rising U.S. temperatures and news that OPEC is expecting a crude surplus in the spring but has no plans to cut more production.

So how come Marathon-supplied stations jumped their gasoline prices up to $2.449 today? I didn't see if anyone else followed suit. My guess is that the price will settle somewhere below that before Thursday morning.

(-O-)

I had to write out a check a little while ago. When I put the date -- Feb. 12 -- on it, something seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. When I got back to the office, I read something that reminded me what today is. Happy birthday, Abe Lincoln.

(-O-)

Here's a report on the number of children used as soldiers and warriors in some parts of the world. I don't know what to say.

(-O-)

Here's a paragraph from Bryan Chambers' story from this past Saturday on how some cities in West Virginia are facing big problems with their pension funds. Huntington -- naturally -- leads the way and is in the worst shape.

Huntington, for example, spent about $1.3 million, or 6 percent of its budget, on police and fire pensions in 1993. This year, the city will spend $7.2 million, or 19 percent of its budget, on those pensions. The city's annual contribution is scheduled to increase every year until 2018 when it reaches $16.1 million.

Assuming the city's revenue stream remains relatively flat -- it would take a big surge in B&O taxes, municipal fees or user fes to assume otherwise -- that additional $8.9 million will have to come from someplace. It would have to be services that don't have their own dedicated revenue streams, or that share the general fund revenue stream with other departments. I'm talking police, fire and streets here.

If I had the answer to this question, I'd state it right now, but I don't.

(-O-)

According to the National Weather Web site for Huntington, the temperature is 34 degrees outside as of 1:51 p.m. today. Today is the first day since Feb.1 that the temperature has been above freezing.

I have a small wooded spot between my house and the road. This is the time of year I like to clear back some brush and vines, along with a few trees that try to take over my front yard. I've not done anything like that this year.

Speaking of which, my daughter is going to be pretty mad at me when the weather warms up. I need to prune the apple tree in my back yard so the white tail deer have plenty to eat this summer. John Marra says we should use the tomcat principle. That is, you should prune the branches back enough so you can throw a tom cat through the tree and it won't be able to grab anything. My daughter happens to have a tom cat, so . . .

The end (for now)

Ends and odds, 2/9/07

If you go to msn.com, there's a news story that asks, "What drew us to Anna Nicole?" Nothing drew me to Anna Nicole. I always thought she was one of these empty celebrities who existed to fill the pages of celebrity magazines. I'm sorry she died, mainly because of the little girl she left behind. I wish she had gone into seclusion long ago.

From Anna Nicole to downsizing state government...

Illinois is thinking about selling its state lottery. Really. Now West Virginia State Senator Vic Sprouse says West Virginia should take a big chunk of money from the racetracks, let them have their casino table games and get out of the gambling regulation business. And we should sell our state lottery, too. It's something to think about.

From there, back to the weather...

Tuesday's low of -2 came close to the record low for Huntington of -4 recorded in 1917.

And to a summertime and autumn question...

An article in the Point Pleasant Register on Jan. 27 noted that passenger riverboats have scheduled 21 dockings there this year.

That includes nine visits from the RiverBarge Explorer, eight visits from the American Queen and four visits from the Mississippi Queen. In fact, there are a few weeks this summer when boats will be docking every other day.

What would it take for Huntington to get some of that business? Maybe something for these passengers to see and do. Maybe a clean riverfront park where the passengers wouldn't mind spending some time on shore. Maybe the ability to walk off the boat and walk around town for a little while.

I've never understood why Huntington allows Harris Riverfront Park to be totally cut off from the rest of downtown by foot. Have you ever tried to cross Veterans Memorial Boulevard? There's no light to stop traffic. And you have to cross four or five lanes to get from one side of the boulevard to the other. We have that big taxpayer-financed parking garage at Pullman Square, and no way to walk from it to the park safely.

Now that I've fallen off that soapbox again, I'll rest for a little while.

Calendar is mixed up

We had March in January. Now we're having January in February. So what do we get in March?

Do we get February? Or do we head straight into April? Maybe May in March, and March in May?

It ought to be an interesting spring.

May has been my favorite month for years, and that was before my first child was born on Mother's Day 1992. I was always told that newborns were ugly little things, but when I saw my daughter for the first time, I thought she was incredibly beautiful. And I still do.

Traffic patterns

At Wednesday's editorial board meeting, I took this idea from Guyandotte resident and fellow staffer Bob Withers.

Since the 5th Avenue bridge over the Guyandotte River was closed last month, traffic has one less way of getting to Route 2 north. Now, Bob says, there is a lot more traffic on 31st Street between 5th and 3rd avenues. Bob would like to see one lane of northbound or eastbound traffic on 3rd Avenue between 29th and 31st streets.

I kind of liked that idea, as I go up Route 2 fairly often. The other board members, however, didn't like it for what would happen during morning rush hour.

xxxxxx

On a related topic, I had to go out to the mall area yesterday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. As I got on I-64 at Exit 11 (Route 10), I realized my mistake. If I had driven the speed limit, I would have been run over, even in the righthand lane.

On the way back, I took my usual route: Merritts Creek connector to Route 2 and Route 2 ahead on in to downtown Huntington. Whenever I head to the mall nowadays, I tend to go up Route 2 rather than out I-64 or U.S. 60. I like the traffic better on Route 2.

Don't get me wrong. Part of Route 2 bothers me, like the part where the road is several feet above the railroad track and the road is not very wide. But overall, I prefer that way now.

Ends and odds, 2/8/07

Toyota management says they need to control costs better. Manufacturing wages will be based on what's competitive locally, not what's competitive in the industry. Toyota has been making cars in the USA for more than 20 years. I dare say it's starting to have some legacy costs to deal with. You know, pensions and retiree health benefits and that sort of thing.

One of our reporters is working on a story about whether young girls should receive the HPV vaccine. I'm waiting until I read that story before writing an editorial. The Cincinnati Enquirer has already given its opinion.

My favorite lead paragraph on a news story goes, "Every six hours, a person in Huntington is robbed." I want to say, that person had better get out of town or hire an armed guard.

On that same note, we used to run the headline, "Woman critical after wreck" fairly often. I wanted to add, "She wasn't too complimentary before the wreck, either."

And we once had a reporter who started police blotter stories, "A Huntington man had his apartment broken into Monday night." The editor would say, "Why would he do that?"

A French court is hearing a case against a magazine that published some Mohammed cartoons. The magazine may have violated French laws forbidding injury caused by religious slander. Even if we have to share it with the lowest of low-lifes, I am glad the USA has the First Amendment.

WV's low college-going rate

I'm having trouble pasting stuff. Let's just say this computer is having user problems.

There was some talk at today's editorial board meeting about West Virginia's low college-going rate among high school graduates. Here is some information that would explain a lot of that. If you don't want to follow the link, here is the pertinent information, from Page 9 of the 16-page report that is a PDF file:

West Virginia families in the 40% of the population with the lowest incomes earn on average $15,862 each year. If a student from such a family were to attend a public four-year college in-state, their net cost to attend college (tuition, room and board minus financial aid received) would equal 45 percent of that family's income.

I would really like to know how many families experience sticker shock when they're planning how much it will cost to send their kids to college. I get that feeling once a year when I walk through the Marshall book store and look at textbook prices.

Marshall's enrollment is down a bit this year. You can attribute some of that to cuts in Promise scholarship money, concerns about crime in Huntington or increased academic standards making it harder for some students to get in. But I wonder -- in a state like West Virginia -- how much the ever-increasing cost of going to college plays into this.

If anyone can point me to someone who can talk to me about this, please do so.

Ends and odds, 2/7/07

One of my favorite writers on the topic of global warming/climate change is Robert J. Samuelson. His latest thoughts on the subject are here.

Marathon Oil Corp. has completed its second biodiesel storage and distribution project and the first one in Kentucky. It's in Louisville.

Talk about marketing strategies. The Ku Klux Klan has figured out that it can increase membership by focusing on the immigration issue.

Thoughts on modern journalism

Old Number 7 and I exchanged some comments on the present and future of the newspaper business. I wanted to expand on it, so I figured I would start a new topic rather than keep up the conversation in the comments section of another topic.

One thing that troubles me about journalism in markets the size of Huntington is the nature of the people doing the journalism. I'm not criticizing the journalists. I'm concerned about the demographics of the newsroom. The Herald-Dispatch has about a dozen reporters, not counting sportswriters. How many of them are over age 40? Two, and one of them is retiring in about six weeks. Because of various trends in this business, the older hands don't stay at street level into middle age, at least not in markets this size.

The reporter who is retiring spent four years in the National Guard. To my knowledge, when he leaves, we will have no writer with military service. It makes me wonder what other gaps we have in life experiences.

I don't know how it works on the metro level, but here in community journalism, many of our writers and desk editors come from working-class backgrounds, and we have family in blue-collar jobs. Many come from white-collar backgrounds, so we have a mix there.

In my opinion, newsrooms need diversity of all sorts, but especially diversity of life experiences.

Second point: When I started here almost 30 years ago, I didn't have a cell phone bill, a satellite TV bill or an Internet service bill. Throw your newspaper subscription in the mix, and consumers have more choices of what to spend their disposable income on. The way people communicate has changed. How many young people do you know who have a cell phone but not a land line? That's a reason for being heavily involved in the Internet. And it's a reason for going local local and providing content you can't get anywhere else.

Thoughts, anyone?

Ends and odds, 2/6/07

As if it wasn't bad enough thieves are stealing copper, now they're going after your catalytic converter. Interesting point in this story. Scrap value $100. Price to have a new one installed to replace the stolen one, $2,100. (CORRECTION: AP quoted someone as saying replacing catalytic converter and repairing damage caused by thieves was $2,100. My bad.).

Ford's new boss says it was a mistake to ditch the Taurus. Now he plans to bring it back. But Taurus was dying for years before Ford got rid of the nameplate. If it's the same name on a boring car, what's the point?

Folks opposing table game gambling in West Virginia rallied today. Will it work?

Again, the Legislature is talking about taking tolls off the West Virginia Turnpike permanently. Me, I'm waiting to see what's in this report that Gov. Joe Manchin's consultants are preparing. But eliminating the tolls sounds like a good idea here.

Some headlines make you say, "Well, duh." Like this one.

Again, from the Cincinnati Enquirer:
The Bengals will draft 18th, and team president Mike Brown told The Enquirer late last month that the Bengals might pass on players with character issues this year in spite of their on-field skills. Six of the 16 players drafted by the Bengals in 2005 and 2006 have been arrested since joining the team.

No need to apply there for a job

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The parent company of The Columbus Dispatch has offered voluntary buyouts for up to 25 newsroom employees to reduce costs as advertising revenues slip, the newspaper said Tuesday.

The Dispatch Printing Co. expects the buyouts to be complete by May.

The Dispatch, which has a daily circulation of about 235,000 and about 350,000 on Sunday, has 236 editorial employees.

Other newspapers, including The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, have taken similar steps as the industry struggles with declining ad revenue and decreasing circulation as readers turn to television and the Internet for news.

What would I tell a youngster interested in a career in newspapers? I'd say go for it, but keep your options open and get as much education as you can. You'll need it in your next job.

Good question re seat belts on school buses

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Putting seat belts on school buses is one thing. Guaranteeing they make kids safer is another.

A task force considering whether to recommend a law mandating seat belts for Alabama school buses got an idea Monday of how hard it is to improve safety inside the big, yellow buses that carry about 375,000 schoolchildren statewide each day.

How do you make a shoulder restraint that fits both a 40-pound kindergartner and a 300-pound linebacker?

Good question. I'm not in favor of seat belts on school buses for many reasons. This is one I hadn't pondered before. Now I have to.

For the record, I have three kids who ride the bus. Other things that can be done with the bus and on the bus would make them safer in an accident than using seat belts.

If I'm wrong, someone tell me.

Cabell school foolishness

Often, we here at The Herald-Dispatch have called for more accountability in the public school system. The ongoing feud (I want to call it a middle school hissy fit, but the boss won't let me say that, so I won't) between a Huntington High teacher and a Cabell Midland High administrator is one example of that.

This situation has eaten up far too much time and money. I hate to think of what could have been bought with all the money the school system has spent on this spat.

The accountability we want to see for teachers would apply to situations like this, too. If only Superintendent Bill Smith could call these two aside for 30 minutes and tell them to work out their differences. If they couldn't, they would be asked for their resignations. That's how it works here in the private sector. People have been fired from this place for less.

Laws that are supposed to protect government employees instead are used to eat up scarce resources.

So now the administrator is on leave with pay for 30 days. If memory serves correctly, the school board is still paying the former superintendent for not working, too.

And my kids bring home stuff for fundraisers. They're expected to sell chocolates when this kind of foolishness is going on.

That's one reason I don't let my kids sell that stuff.

Correction: Roach received a $150,000 buyout of his contract, which would have run through June 30, 2006, not June 30, 2007. My bad.

Greenhouse gases, Part 1

The first volume in the long-awaited, gigantic scientific study of global warming and climate change came out last week. I'm still digesting the highlights, so I reserve judgment on a lot of it.

One thing cannot be denied, however: Nothing's going to change anytime soon. Does anyone realistically expect Americans and others in t