Odds and ends, 3/30/07

Anyone want to read about another Hollywood type who lives high on the hog while urging the rest of us to sacrifice to prevent global warming? Me neither, but here it is anyway.

$$$

The New York Times says farmers are about to plant the largest amount of corn since 1944. Fine with me. I get so disappointed driving through eastern Lawrence County, Ohio, sometimes. I see fields that once were in corn or hay, and now they're subdivisions. People escape the city by recreating the city in the country. You get a quarter-acre lot, and once you put your McMansion on it, you have maybe 10 feet of grass between the house and the property line.

My sister owned a pony. When our father died while she was in sixth grade, she had to sell it. A person who lived along Ohio 7 near Fairland East Elementary bought it, and for years after we would look toward his barn when we rode or drove past to see if Bill was still there. For a few years, he was. The barn and small pasture are still there, I think.

Some people see sprawl and think of it as development. I think of it as good farmland gone bad.

$$$

I try to stay away from the cable news shoutfest shows. They're not as bad as the cable sports shoutfest shows, where all you need is an opinion to go with a few facts. But they're bad.

Last night, I heard Bill O'Reilly tease about a segment saying efforts by people to encourage people who watch "American Idol" to vote for a particular contestant may be doing something illegal. So I watched to see what the illegality was. After 90 seconds, I thought it was the worst thing on TV all night, including those promos suggesting Donald Trump might get his head shaved soon pending the outcome of a wrestling match.

I was embarrassed for O'Reilly. I mean, did he authorize this segment, or did someone tell him he had to do it? Or did he want to do it?

$$$

That's enough. I'll see you all again Sunday or Monday. The weather is too good to stay indoors and work. I'm going home and playing with my kids.

CSX review

There was an AP article on our business page the other day that federal railroad officials found more than 3,500 problems with CSX Corp. railroad properties in 23 states. The study was done following a series of accidents involving the company's trains.

To quote the AP:

The Federal Railroad Administration's inspection, conducted over four days in January after a derailment on Jan 16 in East Rochester, N.Y., recommended that CSX be fined for 199 violations, including failure to replace defective rails, failure to make repairs and improper handling of hazardous materials.

Joseph Boardman, administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a prepared statement that CSX ''is still not doing enough to make safety a top priority.''

The agency's inspectors, he said, ''identified problems in every area of the company's safety performance, including track, hazardous materials and on-track equipment.''

... CSX, in a prepared statement, said it would ''continue to work closely and promptly'' with federal railroad officials to solve the issues identified. The company said its safety record has been improving with an overall 24 percent reduction in train accidents last year.

Last week, Michael Ward, CSX's chief executive, told analysts that the railroad operator won't cut down on spending, especially on projects related to safety, to improve cash flow.

''That's something we won't even consider,'' Ward told analysts at the JP Morgan Aviation & Transportation Conference in New York.

Naturally, I called the FRA to get a list of problems in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky. A spokesman for the agency said the state-specific list is not ready yet. And, in an e-mail, he issued a bit of a disclaimer regarding the situation.

“Please note that the 199 violations recommended for civil penalties are presently being reviewed by the FRA regional offices and headquarters staff for technical and legal sufficiency before being transmitted to CSX — in other words, they are not yet official violations in the technical, legal sense,” he wrote.

The reason this interests me is because back about eight years ago, I was involved in coverage of something similar around here. As some may recall, the CSX track along the Ohio River from Huntington to Parkersburg had several derailments. In checking our archives, I found a reference to six derailments between Huntington and Point Pleasant in a 14-month span, and there were other derailments beyond Point Pleasant.

Eventually, CSX invested $20 million or more in replacing several miles of track. Some of the rail along the river weighed only 112 to 115 pounds per yard. It was replaced with 136-pound-per-yard rail.

If there have been any problems on the Ohio River track since the new rail was installed, they must have been minor ones, because I can’t remember them.

Odds and ends, 3/29/07

Here's the way to reward people who have made you a household name: Fire them all and bring in someone cheaper. Or offer to re-hire them for less money.

###

While surfing the Net for stuff to write about, I see sportswriters are beginning to make their predictions for the upcoming baseball season.

I don't care.

I don't care about the predictions, because really, I can guess as well as a sportswriter can.

And I don't care that much about the upcoming baseball season. The only rooting I'll do is for the Reds to finish higher than Pittsburgh. Since the 1994 strike, I have spent not one dime on anything baseball related other than for my daughter to play one season of T ball and two seasons of softball.

Moving over to football, if you want to see someone who has the whole world in his hands cry that he doesn't have enough, then see if you can feel sorry for the family that owns the Cincinnati Bengals.

###

I don't know the guy who wrote this piece in the New York Times about Congress' approach to global warming, but I'm going to have to read more of his stuff.

His thesis is that there are three approaches to dealing with global warming: acknowledging the costs; letting the market work; and keeping the solution simple. At the end, he says ther is a bigger problem than getting America to do something about global warming, and that's getting China and India to do likewise.

As usual, I don't agree with everything the writer says, but he writes an interesting piece that goes beyond telling the rest of us to drive hybrid cars and to use fluorescent light bulbs.

###

One more thing about how Bob Withers' retirement marks the end of an era in The Herald-Dispatch newsroom. He was the last newsroom person hired in the 1960s to leave. We have several who were hired in the 1970s (myself included) and several who were hired in the 1990s and 2000s. But we have no one who started work here in the 1980s. All those people, who would be in their 40s now, have moved on. It may have been a corporate strategy at the time to hire only people who would leave soon, or it may be a coincidence. But the 60s and 80s are no longer represented in this newsroom.

Also, Bob was the last newsroom person who was hired before Gannett bought The Herald-Dispatch in 1972 (I think).

Just an observation.

Nick Rahall and coal to jet fuel

First, the text of a news release that arrived today from Nick Rahall's office:

WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-WV, and other Members of Congress in support of coal-to-liquid technology joined representatives from industry and labor today on Capitol Hill to unveil the National Coal to Liquids (CTL) Coalition, formed to help increase America's national security by decreasing its dependence on foreign oil through development of coal-derived transportation fuels.

"The formation of this Coalition marks the start of an exciting new era for coal and its role in our national security," Rahall said. "It marks a renewed effort to wean our nation off of foreign oil - to help sever the bonds of unstable foreign regimes, and reduce the risk of being drawn into future wars over oil."

At 93 percent of total government consumption, the Defense Department is the U.S. government's largest user of fuels, according to the Defense Energy Support Center. Of all four branches, the Air Force consumes the most, at 52 percent, or 2.5 billion gallons annually. Rahall was recently a featured speaker at the inaugural U.S. Air Force Energy Forum, following which he announced that he will participate in a conference this summer in southern West Virginia to boost the development of state-of-the-art coal-to-liquids (CTL) production plants with the newly formed national CTL coalition and the U.S. Defense Department, in particular the U.S. Air Force.

"The Air Force has recognized that coal can be one of the strongest weapons in its arsenal for avoiding wars of the future. Wind turbines, solar power, biofuels - none of them hold the potential for ensuring the continued strength of America's military like coal," Rahall said.

"Clearly, coal really is America's most promising fuel of the future - and the more we invest in it, the greater an energy asset this natural resource will prove to be," Rahall continued. "The newly-formed CTL Coalition is one example of how we can give this important issue the attention it deserves."

***

Okay, I like the idea of making liquid fuel from coal, especially for military purposes. The one thing that comes to my mind is that if there were any money in it, private enterprise would have been all over it by now. Maybe it's too capital-intensive for such a speculative venture. I don't know.

Or maybe it's one of those things where the major companies will wait for someone else to take the risk and develop the technology so they can come in later with their deep pockets and buy up the best patents and processes.

But we do need to pursue the idea as far as we will take it, not abandon it at the first hint of distress, the way the H-Coal plant was.

Odds and ends, 3/28/07

Yeah, so all those people in Venezuela hate us, just like their president. From USA Today:

Amid an oil-fueled boom, scores of well-known U.S. corporations are notching impressive sales in Venezuela. This nation of 26 million people is entering the fourth year of a robust economic expansion and, despite sour relations with the United States, consumers are gobbling up American cars, appliances, fast food and shampoo.

On the other hand, Venezuela has been on a weapon-buying binge.

***
Stupid, stupid...

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A moment on the video-sharing Web site YouTube landed an eastern Kentucky teen in jail.

Charles Jeremy Brown, 18, was charged with 27 counts of menacing, eight counts of criminal mischief and one count of criminal littering after investigators say they saw him on the Web site busting church windows, vandalizing grocery stores and menacing workers at a drive-through restaurant.

Pike County Chief Deputy Sheriff Melvin Sayers said other arrests are possible because at least one juvenile was identified in the 46 videos posted on the Web site. ...

Here's a piece of advice for anyone out there: Whenever you see a camera, assume you will be in a picture or on tape, and assume someone you don't want seeing the picture will see it. When you are anywhere near a person from the media, always assume a camera or a tape recorder is rolling.

I saw the video of this kid on the morning news. Someone please tell me how smashing a gallon jug of orange juice on a supermarket floor is entertaining. I know young males are incredibly foolish, but . . .

***

So Saturn has not one but two hexagons circling its north pole. If you want to see the hexagon spin as Saturn rotates, go here.

***

Greenland is losing ice faster than it's gaining ice, NASA says.

"Greenland and Antarctica - Earth's two biggest icehouses - are important indicators of climate change and a high priority for research, as highlighted by the newly inaugurated International Polar Year," the news release says.

As I have said before, I can believe the earth is warming, but I want to see more science of the why. And we have to face the political and social questions that come with the "why" in addition to the science questions.

***

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A Circuit Court judge has cleared the way for Monongalia County schools to dock the pay of some 70 teachers and staff members who apparently took part in a sickout earlier this month.

After a 45-minute hearing, Judge Robert Stone refused Wednesday to issue an injunction that would have stopped the district from withholding one day’s pay. Superintendent Frank Devono said after the hearing that the money will be taken from this week’s paychecks.

About 300 employees failed to report to work March 6, many in silent objection to a planned pay raise of 2 percent. Teachers eventually won a 3.5 percent raise from state legislators.

Sounds about right.

***

Bye-bye, Bob

Bob Withers, longtime reporter, copyeditor and rail fanatic, retires today. He's been at the paper 38 1/2 years, or about 10 years longer than I have.

We had our going-away party for Bob yesterday. He's already cleaned out his desk. All that's left for him to take home are the cushions on his chair.

Bob is one of those guys who has a special expertise that we will miss. He was in the National Guard for a while, making him the only veteran on our reporting staff. He knows a lot about trains and religion and other things that mean a lot to our readers.

I look around the newsroom today and I see a lot of young faces. We have some people with areas of expertise. To choose one, Dave Lavender knows a lot about music. But too many people don't have the life experience to connect with our readers. That's one funny thing about this business. Most of our readers are older than the median age of our area while most of the people who put out the paper are younger. It's not as bad as on local TV news, but it still bugs me.

There's no reason to have a newsroom full of old folks. But the policies of this company and others push experienced people out of the way. The late Molly Ivins once mentioned a former colleague who left daily journalism for a p.r. job at a college simply because it paid the money that most newsroom jobs don't.

We still have experience. I've covered stories on just about every beat at the paper, and I can tell you the quickest way to get from Salt Rock to Argillite and from there to Pedro. I remember many of the big stories of the past 30 years.

Sportswriter Dave Walsh was a member of the Young Thundering Herd. Sports editor Rick McCann has been at the HD almost as long as me. Lawrence County reporter Dave Malloy should celebrate (?) his 34th anniversary at the HD soon, if memory serves.

But I miss talking to old timers like Fran Allred and Dave McGuire and Jim Casto and Harry Fisher and Lee Bernard and Frank Altizer and Jack Burnett and Tim Massey and others. And there were Lavonda and Brenda and Patty, who kept me up to date on what was really going on around here. And I remember some good if strange conversations with Dave Peyton.

Sometimes being in the newsroom is like walking through the small town where I grew up. I remember the old faces, the old basketball court, even my father's cows, but none are around today. Even some of the kids I grew up with and who were maybe two or three years older than me are long gone. I see too many familiar names on headstones in the cemeteries where my parents are buried.

I do enjoy working with some of our talented youngsters. Not to slight anyone, but I have a lot of conversations with Bryan Chambers and Curtis Johnson about stories they're working on, and when I hear about something going on in the schools I try to pass it along to Rachel Gensler.

The hard part is knowing where to draw the line between offering advice and tips the kids want to hear and being the old guy with all the old, boring stories.

Anyway, happy retirement, Bob Withers. If you ever get around to reading the card we all signed, you might notice I had my comment translated into Klingon. It plays Bob's twin loves of Star Trek and food. It says, "Qapla' batlh je. Naq duq yuj da'pol?" In English, that comes out to "Success and honor. Where's the chocolate?"

America's best colleges and universities

Sometime this year, US News & World Report will come out with its annual list of best colleges and universities in the nation. It's interesting to look at how the magazine rates these institutions of higher education, but really, it's all drivel.

Because asking,"What is the best college in the United States?" leaves off two very important words: "For who?"

I have three children. One could be a good lawyer, because it's hard for me to win an argument with her. One is an artist type. And one can't help but do math in his head 24/7. The best college for one would be a terrible mismatch for the other two.

I've been talking a lot with the older two about higher education. My daughter has her eyes on Ohio State, but I've been telling her about dorm life and walking around a large campus. One is thinking about Ohio U. in that great town of Athens. The academic progams might work for him, but the culture would be a huge shock to his system. Or they could head to Marshall for the first year or two of a five- or six-year program.

Or one of them could try the Ohio campus at Ironton, although that might not be the best place for them. It might be, though. Branch campuses cater to students with different needs than what they will have, but you never know. It might do them good to be in with older students in search of career changes.

Back to the USN&WR rankings: Drivel. What do alumni contributions have to do with taking an 18-year-old mind and training it in specialized knowledge and advanced skills in critical thinking? What does the average ACT or SAT score of applicants have to do with how well professors teach material?

Someone told me once that rankings tell me more about the person doing the ranking than what is being ranked. I think he or she was right about that. That's why I have a hard time getting worked up about stories ranking this or that.

Roads crumbling

I had to do some driving this weekend -- more than I cared to think about -- and I noticed a lot of roads that needed to be repaved. The quick explanation is to say that it's spring, meaning it's pothole season. If it is pothole season, I hope they increase the bag limit this year, because I found several I want to harvest.

I encountered holes on state roads in West Virginia and Ohio, and I found them on smaller country roads.

This rite of spring makes me wonder about the future of road maintenance. Does anyone else get the feeling that the amount of bad roadway is about to overwhelm our resources to fix it? I'm not talking about the city of Huntington. I'm talking about roads that are maintained by the state.

Odds and ends 3/25/07

It truly is spring. Today, one of my sons found a tick on him.

~~~

I was traveling today. On the way back from Point Pleasant, heading down Route 2, I saw two ATV riders in Glenwood riding along the berm. Here in Cabell County, I saw another one in the Cox Landing area. At least they were off the paved road. The guy in Cox Landing had what looked to be his wife riding behind him and his daughter on the front of the ATV -- three people on one machine.

After today's editorial, I'm probably going silent on ATVs for a while until I notice something unusual.

~~~

I haven't posted much lately because I haven't had much to say that would be of interest. But I'm warming up again, so tune in again tomorrow and keep that card and letter coming.

Litter of spring

Spring is here, meaning the vines and weeds will soon grow next to our country roads and cover much of the litter that fills our ditches.

My teenage daughter was standing along the road near our house the other day when somebody drove by and tossed a plastic foam cup out the window. Why do some people think the rest of us want to pick up their trash?

Speaking of which, is it just me, or are there more long-neck beer bottles along our roads lately?

Back in 1990, my wife and I took a two-day driving tour of southern Ontario. In those two days, which included getting out of the car and walking for a while, we found one -- I repeat -- one piece of litter. It was a fast-food napkin.

Back to the present: People will stop along a road and empty an ashtray. Or drop off a car seat. Or a sofa. Really.

Last summer, one person found a secluded spot within a mile of my house and left two or more German shepherd-size dead dogs to rot. The buzzards may have enjoyed the feast, but no one else did.

Again, why do people do this?

Odds and ends, 3/20/07

For a long time, I have thought the idea of an "average" global temperature to be meaningless. It might tell you how much heat the earth contains, but it tells you nothing else. It's the distribution of heat that's important. So now I have my theory validated by a researcher in Denmark, who says the idea of a global average temperature isn't worth much.

O-O-O

If I read the astronomical tables correctly, winter ends at 8:07 p.m. tonight, at about the time Randy is saying, "Yo, Dawg," Paula is babbling incoherently or Simon is telling someone what a fool they just made of themselves.

It doesn't matter. Spring, my favorite season, is almost here.

Spring is the time when I could have gotten a great photo, but I didn't have a camera. It was in the 1980s. I was driving on a back road in Gallia County, Ohio, one evening when I saw an old man on a small tractor plowing ground for his garden. Walking behind his tractor were chickens picking seeds or grubs or something out of the freshly turned soil. Man, I wish I had that photo.

O-O-O

Oh no! Professional wrestlers might have used steroids! Who would have ever suspected?

I remember watching rasslin' on TV with my nephews in the 1980s. I usually rooted for the bad guys. Give me back the Iron Sheik, the Road Warriors, Abdullah the Butcher, the Great Kabuki, Ivan Koloff, Greg Valentine. Where have the middle-aged fat guys with the hairy backs gone? Everyone today is a steroid-pumped bodybuilder with no body hair at all. At least, I think. I haven't bothered to watch in so long, I have no idea who's rasslin' anymore.

Road Warriors Hawk is dead. So is Miss Elizabeth. And Wahoo McDaniel.

Huntington the majority no more

One thing that was hard to find in the 2000 Census numbers was a fact about the city of Huntington that I had suspected but hadn't really checked on.

I had to do something internally, so I thought I would share the information here. The following list tells what percentage of Cabell County residents lived in the city of Huntington at the time of each census.

1940 ... 78%
1950 ... 75%
1960 ... 72%
1970 ... 64%
1980 ... 55%
1990 ... 52%
2000 ... 49%

I have told people for a long time that the big problem with Huntington is that it does not provide people with enough reason to live there. That is the key to its long-term prosperity -- convincing people they can have a better quality of life in Huntington than outside it. Improved roads, greater affluence, more access to personal transportation, "city water," public sewer service (in some places) and a lower crime rate give people more reasons to live outside town.

What's the reason to live inside town? Fire protection and having EMS closer by, and quicker response from police. Being able to walk to work or school. Other than that, I'm stuck.

For a growing number of people, living in town has fewer benefits compared to living out of town. That's why the city's share of the county's population has shrunk.

I'm willing to listen any thoughts.

Shep

There have been several letters to the editor lately about chained dogs. Most describe the practice as cruel. I can see their point, but there can be reasons to chain dogs for their own safety or for people's safety. That's all I'm going to say on the topic.

Except that my father never liked dogs. I inherited his dislike for the animals. That dislike intesified as I rode my bike on paved and gravel roads, many times chased by big dogs. One in particular that scared me was a big one that growled as he chased me.

I never met a dog I really liked until I bought the house I live in now and in the process inherited a neighborhood dog. It was a German shepherd named, of all things, Shep. Shep hung around because he could take care of the two small kids I had at the time. One day, my son, not even two years old, slipped off and started walking down the driveway toward the road. Shep saw my son and got in front of him. Shep wouldn't let my son get one step closer to the road until we found my son and got him back in the house.

By the time we met, Shep was already an old dog. He would hang around my house for a while and disappear for a few days. He was gone a couple of weeks, and I thought he had died. But he came back.

Later, one of my neighbors from down the road came by and said Shep was his dog. Maybe so, Shep loved being around my family.

Shep died years ago. He was the best dog who ever adopted me.

Cabell school takeover?

Is it a threat? Was it a shot across the bow? Was it for real? Was it idle chat?

I don't know. This was near the end of an AP story that moved Tuesday. The context dealt with state takeover of county school systems:

Counties that should be wary of future problems include Fayette County, which is "on the bubble," and was given conditional accreditation at a recent meeting, and Cabell County, where there have been numerous complaints about hiring practices.

"I¹ve received about a letter a day since (Karen Oldham) came before the board at the February meeting," Seal said.

Oldham, a former principal at Cabell Midland High School, told the state board of alleged unfair hiring practices and discriminatory behavior within the school system."

More on the late regional airport idea

The proposed regional airport was supposed to attract air-related business and industry to the area between Huntington and Charleston. For a while, the airport was called a "transpark" until someone asked if there might be questions over whether that word was trademarked.

So how do transparks elsewhere do? Apparently, they're about as popular with business site locators as KineticPark has been:

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — An industrial park in southern Kentucky touted as a destination for high-tech and automobile industries has struggled to attract tenants since officials broke ground in 2003.

Early plans for the Kentucky Trimodal Transpark said it would one day include a new airport and span more than 4,000 acres just north of Bowling Green, creating more than 7,000 jobs for the region.

But just one business tenant has moved in after more than three years and $31 million in investments from state and local governments. Transpark officials say companies have been scared off by a slew of lawsuits brought by residents and environmentalists who challenged its plans.

10 Most Hated Companies

Everyone has to have a Top 10 countdown. But I don't. Maybe I need some help for my list.

What are the 10 most hated companies in the USA? The hate can be justified, or it can be blind prejudice. I don't care why a company is hated. I just want to know that it is hated.

My list would start with these:

1. Halliburton
2. ExxonMobil
3. Wal-Mart
4. McDonald's
5. Fox News

Any nominations for the other five spots?

Ends and odds, 3/15/07

Attorney General Darrell McGraw...

Still handing out the state's money as if it were his own personal checking account.

~~~

For the global warming fans, AEP is supposed to announce today that it will go ahead with its carbon dioxide sequestration project in Mason County, W.Va.

Here is AEP's own news release on the subject.

~~~

One other thing about global warming that bothers me. Thanks to the Al Gore movie, global warming has taken center stage in discussions about the environment. I've already mentioned that I get really irritated when I hear reporters and TV anchors blame every weather anomoly to global warming.

But in the hype over GW, other things are not talked about. Take mercury. Coal-fired power plants put a lot of mercury into the environment, but did you know a lot of mercury floats from China and lands in the United States? But it's not talked about much.

China's coal-fired power generation -- and India's -- gets lost in the talk. We talk about what we can do, as though changing the light bulbs in my house will cool the earth. But we don't talk nearly enough about what other nations are doing to us environmentally. Exempting them from Kyoto showed how pointless that agreement was.

~~~

Ends and odds, 3/13/07

Al Gore: Prophet or alarmist? Here's a reasonably balanced evaluation from the New York Times, considering that the Times generally buys into Gore's theories.

+++

I wondered how long it would take before someone sued YouTube over copyright issues. Now I know.

+++

I've never trusted financial analysts who tell me to live in a cardboard box and eat baloney sandwiches while giving them 90 percent of my income so I will have enough to retire on. Now I know that other people doubt the advice of a well-known financial guru.

+++

During the table games debate in the Legislature, I wondered why we never heard anything from Tri-State Racetrack & Gaming Center about plans for casino gambling at Cross Lanes. After the bill passed, the racetrack's owners announced plans for a 200-room hotel, 100,000 square feet of gambling space, a billiards room and a spa.

I have to wonder if the hotel is a loss-leader for the track. Without a hotel, the gambling license would be prohibitively expensive.

I also have to wonder what the market area for a casino at Cross Lanes would be. It would have to draw a different demographic than what the slots bring in. Who would play these table games?

+++

Yes! The governor says he will have the state police collect pertinent data on ATV deaths. (Thanks, Chris Stirewalt).

We can talk all we want about ATV safety, but until we have some real data collected by law enforcement agencies, we can't address the real problems out there.

. . .

Teacher pay, teacher strike

First, this from this morning's AP wire.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Estimating that their salaries will jump by at least 11 percent during his term, Gov. Joe Manchin has offered upset teachers a wider view of the pay issue to dissuade them from walking off their jobs or otherwise protesting.

Figures released by the governor’s office include a 3.5 percent raise approved by the Legislature during its regular session and multiyear boosts to the teachers’ salary schedule that began in 2005. By 2009, some teachers’ salaries will have increased by 36.6 percent.

The West Virginia Education Association expects members to stage a one-day walkout Wednesday, while the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia is voting on whether to strike later this year.

“I’m asking them, ’Please, don’t punish the children,”’ Manchin said Monday. “I’m saying, ’Talk to me. Look at the figures.”’

Who other than teachers themselves think any kind of a mid-week walkout is a good idea? What sort of message does this send to parents and taxpayers, especially if Manchin's numbers are accurate? What alternate universe do teachers union leaders live in?

If I'm a teacher and I've got the flu, I'd show up for work tomorrow even if the principal has to send me home.

West Virginia ranks anywhere from 47th to 50th among the states in median household income, depending on how the number are figures and taking into account sampling errors. I'm sorry if teachers likewise rank 47th to 50th.

I have met many teachers who earn much more than they are paid. I have met many who should be picking up litter along the roads as community service in exchange for what little they have done in the classroom.

In a nation of 300 million people, someone is smart enough to devise a merit system that rewards good teachers and gets the bad ones out of the classroom.

Tri-State Airport numbers

This is from a news release that came in this afternoon. I'm trying to get more information, and I will update this as I do, if I do.

PASSENGER BOARDINGS CONTINUE TO INCREASE AT HTS

Huntington, WV---- Year-to-date passenger boardings are up 67% at Huntington Tri-State Airport (HTS) accordng to recently released Airport statistics. Approximately 3500 more passengers departed HTS in January and February of 2007, compared to the first two months of 2006.

“These numbers clearly reflect that the travelers in the tri-state region are taking advantage of the new lower fares being offered by our carriers,” said Airport Director Larry Salyers, “as well as the direct access to Central Florida, provided by Allegiant Air.”

February’s total passenger boardings increased 71% over February 2006. Delta Connection’s boardings increased by 65% over February 2006, and boardings on US Airways Express increased by 6%. The airport’s newest carrier, Allegiant Air, contributed significantly to the increased traffic by adding an additional 1268 passengers during the month, representing 30% of the total passengers departing from Tri-State Airport.

In addition, Allegiant posted a 94% load factor in February, indicating that on average, 94% of all available seats on each flight were full.

“Travelers have responded very positively to the Allegiant service to Orlando,” said Salyers. “Many of them are driving two and three hours just to take advantage of the low fares and direct service to Central Florida.”

Allegiant’s weekly departures grew from two flights to three flights on February 22. The spring schedule will continue through April 19. The third weekly flight is scheduled to return in June to accommodate summer travelers.

Ends and odds, 3/12/07

What does a city do when the corporate bigwig who heads your civic redevelopment efforts decides to move the corporate headquarters thousands of miles away? Ask the people in Detroit.

[]

I'm not much on the actual sport of sports. I prefer following the political and business ends of the topic. So I looked at the NCAA tournament brackets this morning, and if I counted right, all of one C-USA team and all of one MAC team made the 65-team field. Yep, Marshall sure moved up when it spent millions to jump from the MAC to C-USA. Funny, I no longer get letters saying Marshall should be in the Big East.

[]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Three former Ohio governors — John Gilligan, Richard Celeste and Bob Taft — said limiting state lawmakers to eight years in office has made it tougher to pass meaningful legislation.

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with the governors here. I can see the case for term limits, but eight years for legislators is too short. Maybe 15 or 20, but more than eight. Legislatures need some stability, but they don't need people who see their offices as a birthright.

[]

The big daylight savings time thing came and went. The only problem I had was wondering why the morning 10:30 meeting was starting an hour early. It wasn't until after I got out and saw some clocks on the wall said 11 a.m. and some said 10 a.m. that I realized my desktop machine's clock was still on standard time. All is well now. So much for the end of the world, March 2007 version.

But, a new global warming study is coming out next month, and we can re-live Armageddon all over again.

Ends and odds, 3/9/07

I can't let this one pass. The Legislature on Thursday approved a bill earmarking up to $4.3 million a year for the intermodal facility at Prichard. That's the place where container shipments can be transferred from rail to truck or vice versa. The part I like is that disbursement of the state funds depends on a favorable outcome of a feasiblity study to be conducted on behalf of the West Virginia Public Port Authority.

The port authority, remember, is the body that kept paying consultants to say the regional airport would be feasible long after those same consultants kept shrinking the project to give it no advantage over existing airports with the possible exception of location.

So, what do you think this feasibility report, which could come out in August, will say?

<-O->

I was at home the other night thinking about various things, and I remembered how Toyota Motor Manufacturing West Virginia has a zero-landfill policy. It sends nothing to landfills. In preparing for that, it even sent a person to Tennessee to look at the place where it was sending its burnt-out fluorescent light bulbs. Toyota wanted to make sure the mercury from the lights was being recaptured and not escaping into the environment.

Then I thought, oh, no, what about. . .

So a little while ago, I found this from the Des Moines Register of March 7. Think about this the next time someone gives you tips on preventing global warming and saving Planet Earth. . .

Switch to more efficient light bulbs, but beware

The Environmental Protection Agency is encouraging Americans to replace incandescent light bulbs with more energy-efficient ones. The most recognizable of these are the swirly-shaped, compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) with an Energy Star label. According to the EPA, if every American home changed out five light bulbs with the more energy-efficient type, the country would save about $6.5 billion per year in energy costs and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions from more than 8 million cars.

Making the switch seems like a good move for the environment.

But there’s a catch.

The bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a toxin dangerous to the environment and especially dangerous to children. That means when the bulbs burn out, they shouldn’t be tossed in the landfill.

“Hold on to the CFL as you do paint cans and batteries, and bring to the next hazardous waste collection day in your area,” Enesta Jones of the EPA wrote in an e-mail. The EPA suggested visiting www.lamprecycle.org to find local recycling options.

I had made the switch because I was so tired of changing the incandescent bulbs. Now what to I do?

<-O->

Hey, men. To stay healthy, slim and alert in your old age, eat chocolate now.

<-O->

I'll be writing some next week about science education in this area. Until then, take a look at what Bill Gates says about the topic nationally.

Ends and odds, 3/8/07

(I apologize for what happened to this when it hit the Web. Something took out spacing between words. I think I have it fixed now. If it's not fixed on your machine, please let me know and I will try to fix it at the earliest possible opportunity.)

Some finalists for the Pulitzer Prize have been leaked, and for some reason my name is not on the list. Again. Am I that bad? Or is it that I'm too cheap to pay entry fees? Maybe next year when the jury reads an editorial I absolutely have to write based on the next item.

O-O-O

Accordingto People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Al Gore is not really an environmentalist, because he eats meat. PETA says going to a vegetarian or a vegan diet would do more to curb global warming than just about anything else we can do. Okay, I have a question. If I give up beef and turkey and chicken and the little fish I eat and replace it with lots of broccoli and pinto beans, where's the net gain?

(If that paragraph doesn't win me my Pulitzer, I'll have to give up).

O-O-O

It just doesn't pay to report the news sometimes. We haven't written much about gasoline prices lately, and they've moderated. This morning, The Herald-Dispatch had a Page1 item about how gasoline prices should start rising soon, and what do I see on my way back into the office from lunch at home? I see prices went up today from about $2.469 to $2.649. As near as I can figure it, someone needed the cash, and it was easy to just switch a couple of figures.

O-O-O

Two guys in Ashland are paying a heavy price for breaking into a house and tying up the occupant.

O-O-O

Maybe there is something good about working in a smaller news market. According to this story, newpapers of under 50,000 circulation (that's us) are holding their markets better than the big guys.The big papers pay higher salaries, but in today's world, national and international news has become a commodity that people can get almost anywhere. But for local-local news, they rely on the hometown, small-town paper.

Table games 3/7/07

As expected, the West Virginia Legislature has spoken, and as expected, 82 percent of West Virginia will be shut out of deciding whether to take the next step in making this state more dependent on the gambling business.

Why does West Virginia state government want to rely on a source of income as unstable as gambling? To hear the racetrack owners talk, West Virginia racetrack casinos can prosper only as long as neighboring states don’t have the same number of offerings that West Virginia does.
West Virginia beat Pennsylvania to slots, but Pennsylvania is catching up. Now West Virginia could be about to have table games. What will West Virginia do when Pennsylvania catches up there, too?

Will this arms race never end?

Add to that the fact that one of the biggest proponents of table games in West Virginia — MRT Gaming, which owns Mountaineer Racetrack & Gaming Resort in Chester — also owns a slots casino in Pennsylvania, and you get the feeling West Virginia is being used as leverage by a company that wants to have large-scale table games gambling in Pennsylvania.

This whole thing smells bad. Legislators and local officials in the four racetrack counties may covet the money they expect from gambling, but for the state as a whole this bill is a bad deal.

The state’s experience with the previous plan to reduce, restrict and regulate video poker machines resulted in video poker parlors in every community. If a lawsuit against the state’s restrictions on advertising by video poker parlors opens the door to advertising by them, it’s hard telling what some neighborhoods will look like.

In the -- what? -- six years since video poker was approved, the state has became addicted to it. Profits from video poker are used to pay for PROMISE scholarships and to pay off bonds for economic development projects such as Pullman Square in Huntington and Appalachain Power Park in Charleston. That money can’t be cut off now.

I just can't buy the "intellectual property" argument that I've written about before. From here, it sounds like the only way to approve table games is a constitutional amendment voted on by all of West Virginia.

If that's what the people want, fine. If not, fine. It's their decision. But the way the Legislature is doing it is just plain wrong.

So what else is new?

State government payroll per capita in 2006

Remember when state Auditor Glen Gainer posted the salaries of state workers on the Web?

The Census Bureau has released data of state payrolls for 2006. I took the total payroll and divided each state's payroll by its population to see how much we pay here per capita for our state work force. With a small, not-so-affluent population and not much of a home business base, you can expect it to be high. And it was higher than average. Try these numbers:

US Average: $56.01 of March 2006 state government payroll per resident.

West Virginia: $62.35.

Ohio: $45.35.

Kentucky: $64.37.

Florida (lowest per capita): $36.32.

Hawaii (highest per capita): $161.24.

As I said before, there are reasons West Virginia is higher than the national average, including several I did not mention here.

Senate approves table games.

The state senate just approved the table games bill. I'll probably opine at length on this in the paper on Thursday. I still can't accept the fact that in West Virginia, poker is the intellectual property of the state.

It now goes to a conference committee to iron out some differences. From reading what they are, the differences appear to be minor.

But that may be a legal fiction that West Virginia lawmakers are fond of, like private clubs and nonintoxicating beer.

Democrats generally for, except for Bob Plymale and Evan Jenkins, who voted against. Republicans generally against. A few Republicans voted against, with the closest to here being Facemyer of Jackson County.

The AP notes that three Senate committee chairmen broke ranks with the Democratic Party to vote against the bill: Plymale (Education), Roman Prezioso (Health and Human Resources) and Helmick (Finance). John Unger of Berkeley County also voted against.

Presidential politics, 3/6/07

I'm not the first person people turn to for insight on the political scene, but I do have one observation that I have share and ask about.

Is it just me, or are Al Gore and Newt Gingrich sitting back and letting people beat up on each other before they themselves enter the race at the last minute?

That's why I'm tuning a lot of it out right now. I have better things in my life than worrying about whether Hillary or Obama is saying the right things right now or obsessing over Giuliani's views on abortion and gun control. I'll listen more closely later, but I have other things to worry about right now.

Ends and odds, 3/5/07

The Ohio Department of Transportation says it will place a traffic signal on the new bypass around Proctorville at the spot where drivers have been saying for months that one is needed. Now, after a few accidents, ODOT agrees. If someone in power had just driven that road a few months ago before it opened, they could have seen a signal would be needed.

+++

We're not the only place where people wonder about the differential -- or lack of same -- in gasoline prices.

+++

I never could stand hot peppers. Now some research says they could help you avoid fat.

+++

And if you ever wanted a more-or-less animated version of the Periodic Table...

+++

Overweight girls tend to enter puberty earlier and tend to have more of the problems associated with that than other girls, according to new research. Check it out here.

A quote from the article: “Earlier onset of puberty in girls has been associated with a number of adverse outcomes, including psychiatric disorders and deficits in psychosocial functioning, earlier initiation of alcohol use, sexual intercourse and teenage pregnancy and increased rates of adult obesity and reproductive cancers,” the study said.

I'll admit I've wondered about this for a long time. This is one more thing to consider in the ongoing discussion of childhood obesity.

ABCs preK

Parents can't just drop their untutored kids off at school on the first day of kindergarten and expect teachers to do everything. Programs exist in West Virginia to give kids the tools they need before they start kindergarten.

Apparently, the same thing holds true in Ohio.

A couple of years ago, a preschool teacher told me that they get a lot of people coming in around March wanting to enroll their kids in an academic preschool. Why? Because kindergarten teachers now expect kids to know their alphabet and how to count and that sort of thing. Some parents figure that's what the schools will do, and they are surprised with what they hear when they register their kids for kindergarten.

Each of my kids knew the alphabet before they turned 2. It's not that hard to teach. In my youngest's case, we had a chart of all 26 letters on the dining room wall. As someone would walk by, they would point at a letter and say what it was. He took it as a game, and he learned his letters really fast. But the other two did, too, without the game.

Kids can learn that early. And they will, if parents will take the time to teach them.

Regional airport documents RIP

On my desk is a pile of binders and other printed material all going back to the days when the regional airport between Huntington and Charleston was a hot topic. It was passed on to me as various people retired. Now I'm about to retire all those expensive studies to the trash can.

I covered the regional airport proposal from I think 1989 to whenever it was that it died its slow and forgotten death. I covered it even after it became obvious that the airport was never being built. But the studies continued anyway, as did the lobbying and griping.

So sometime this week -- probably on Thursday, I will bid farewell to a foot-tall stack of papers and move on to the next housecleaning project of long-forgotten ideas that may have been good once.

Ends and odds, 3/4/07

I see New Orleans wants billions and billions from Uncle Sam from Katrina. I don't know about you, but when it comes to New Orleans, I have Katrina fatigue. Maybe the residents of the city should sue their mayor and their governor for pitiful response to the storm before and after it happened. Oh, that's right, they re-elected Nagin. That's why I have Katrina fatigue.

So much for last night's lunar eclipse. I looked out my window right before sunset, and all I saw was a sky full of thick clouds. Maybe next time.

Speaking of which, I saw my first live wild fox the other day. It's hard to believe I've lived in the country so long, but it took me so long to see a fox in the wild. Maybe foxes are like possums. You're more likely to see them dead on the road than you are to see one live running around.

Gifted students 3/3/07

There was an article in The Herald-Dispatch on Monday about programs for talented and gifted students in Cabell County. I was mildly surprised by the lack of resources for TAG programs, but I was stunned by the fact that schools expect parents to have their children tested for giftedness. I would think schools would want to identify gifted students, but there might be a reluctance because of a lack of programs for them.

On a personal level, I have one elementary school child that I'm particularly proud of. I'll have him tested and see what happens.

No matter whether my child is accepted for TAG or not, I would appreciate hearing from other parents on their experiences with the TAG programs in their children's or grandchildren's schools. Either reply to this blog or e-mail me at jimross@herald-dispatch.com.

I plan to pursue the idea of TAG programs and TAG education. Your input would help.

Having said that, let me add that I am continually surprised by what our kids are learning in school today. What my first-grader brings home is far above what I did in first grade many, many years ago. My ninth-grader, too, surprises me. Last weekend she asked if we had a copy of "The Odyssey" in the house so she could read it. One of her classes is reading it, and she wanted to do some reading on her own. I had to tell her we don't have "The Odyssey," but we have the DVD of a movie based on it: "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" which happens to be my second-favorite comedy movie of all time.

Back to my first-grader. Last month, he asked if he could use my desktop computer at home. I said, sure. I figured he wanted to play a game. The kid typed in -- typed -- a paragraph about Xrays. When I was in first grade, we never had anything to type, and we sure weren't studying anything about Xrays.

Lately he's taken to doing arithmetic in his head, like "What's 52 plus 19?" Not even the brightest first-grade kids at my school tried that. Of course, that may say more about me and my friends than it does about my own kids and their school.

Kids must be able to learn far more than what my parents' generation thought they could. It makes me wonder what the brightest could learn if we had the resources to devote to them.

Having said that, I'm disappointed my older kids barely know what you mean when you ask if they have ever diagrammed a sentence or if their music teacher ever had them transpose something from C to E. We were expected to do both by the time I left ninth grade. And I read a lot of stuff from people who can barely spell or punctuate. Something is improving, and something is getting worse.

McGraw in town to hand out money

From an update at www.herald-dispatch.com this morning:

HUNTINGTON — Attorney General Darrell McGraw will visit Huntington this morning to present a check for the Cabell County Day Report Center.

The Cabell County Commission formed the day report center in 2005. It was created in an attempt to decrease the county’s regional jail bill.

The center keeps nonviolent offenders out of jail, but requires them to report to the center daily. It introduces them to community service projects and a classroom-type setting where counseling, rehabilitation and other opportunities are offered.

McGraw will conduct the check passing ceremony at 10 a.m. today in the County Commission’s Chambers. The funds will come from the state’s OxyContin settlement.

That's nice, but he's still using a multimillion dollar lawsuit settlement as his own personal Budget Digest to hand out as he wishes for maximum personal benefit. The settlement money should have gone to the programs on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed.

I hear we have a reporter going to the ceremony.

A signature (and more)

There are some things I would like to put in the paper but I just can't because of the precedent it would set.

Some people write letters to the editor in an official capacity, and they sign them that way, like
Gunter P. Morrison
Executive director
West Virginia Turnip Liberation League
Ona

But there's a guy over in Lawrence County, Ohio, who doesn't like the way he gets his property taxes in the mail. He signed his letter

Dale Holschuh
Retired storekeeper and unreconstructed rabblerouser
Scottown, Ohio

I would love to run that signature, but I can't because it would open the doors to too many wacky signatures.

So Mr. Holschuh, here's to your unreconstructed rabblerouserness.

O-O-O

I was editing a column, and the writer used the word "iceburg." That couldn't be right, so I looked it up.

The "berg" in the proper spelling of "iceberg" means "mountain." We all know that "burg" means town.

So last month, Huntington was an "iceburg."

It's late. I really need to go home soon.