Odds and ends, 7/31/07

Here's something to think about: Crude oil prices are rising, but the retail price of gasoline is declining. What gives?

There are two factors that influence retail prices that news articles seldom mention.

One, when the retail price gets high, people start talking about ethanol and biodiesel. The more they talk, the more the pump price falls.

The second is a bit of wisdom relayed to me by an oil company spokesperson a few years ago. She said her company charges whatever the local market will pay.

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We've gotten several letters recently on whether the Harry Potter series will delude children into abandoning Christianity for witchcraft. As soon as we get five or six verified and keyboarded, we will run them as a group so people can compare the arguments side by side.

Two of my kids have read the entire Harry Potter series, and so far not one has pointed a stick at me and yelled, "Crucio." I will admit that my daughter has a bit of a problem (my point of view, not hers) with respect toward her elders, but it's something I've noticed in a couple of generations of kids. But she's never tried to hex me.

Not to my face, at least.

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Now, this from the AP:

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Convicted vote buyer and former Lincoln County Assessor Jerry Weaver will not receive state retirement benefits.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jim Stucky said Weaver’s guilty plea to his role in a vote-buying conspiracy proves he rendered “less than honorable service,” therefore he is not entitled to retirement benefits.

“Public pensions, unlike private-sector pensions, are premised in part upon faithful service of the public trust; therefore, a breach of that trust leads to a forfeiture of a public pension,” the judge wrote in his July 23 ruling.

Weaver, who retired in January 2006 just days after he pleaded guilty, had argued the crime he committed was not directly linked to his job as assessor.

Stucky said Weaver will be reimbursed for the contributions he made to the Public Employees Retirement System for 27 years plus interest, but minus payments already received. …

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ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia voters will be required to show a photo ID at the polls for a special election in September, Secretary of State Karen Handel said Tuesday.

But a lawyer challenging the law in federal court said he will ask a judge to block it yet again. ...

What’s wrong with having to show ID before voting? I need ID to cash a check or use a credit card. I need ID to hold a job. Why not to vote?

One objection is that poor people can't afford cars, so they don't have driver's licenses. I can understand that. I had the same problem. I didn't get my license until I was past 21 1/2. Can't states provide free photo ID for low-income people and still require ID to vote?

Ironton Iron

(This entry is longer than usual. Please bear with me.).

The last time I was in Ironton, Ohio, I made it a point to drive past the former Ironton Iron plant. Or what’s left of it.

The old plant made iron castings that were used in the rail and heavy equipment industries. It was once owned by Dayton Malleable, then it came under ownership of a company known as Amcast. In 1984, Amcast said it would close the plant, and verily there was weeping and gnashing of teeth in Ironton.

Then a city of about 17,000 people, Ironton could not afford to lose about 600 union jobs. So government officials and private folks and others got money together and hired a consultant to see if the plant could be run as an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP. Wouldn’t you know, the consultant said that was a great idea.

So the community got together and raised a lot of money through grants and loans. As part of that, the workers would have to buy at least $2,000 worth of stock in the new company, to be known as Ironton Iron. Some of them borrowed against their pensions to make that investment. Other people could buy stock at $200 a share, but because of a law that I didn’t understand and still don’t, stock could be sold to Ohio residents only.

Before the plant could open, the consultant said he would head the company but only if he were paid an exorbitant salary and received exorbitant benefits. That’s not how he described it, but that’s how the community interpreted it. So they bid him good-bye and found some local people to run the factory.

As the plant was about to open, I called someone familiar with the iron industry and asked if success were likely. He said it was not.

The plant operated for a while, but it couldn’t make money. So its shareholders agreed to allow the company to be acquired by another iron company known as Intermet. The employee-stockholders would get their $2,000 back once the Ironton plant turned a profit. But it never died.

Some workers thought Intermet worked the books so that the plant never could show a profit, but they had no real proof.

In early 2000, Intermet surrendered to the inevitable. The plant closed, and the employee-stockholders were out of luck. Their individual investments of $2,000 were gone.

Later that year, Intermet leveled the plant. The foundry that dominated most of a mile of South 3rd Street was gone.

As with most old plant sites, problems with environmental contamination prevented the site from being redeveloped for other uses. But now the state of Ohio could be about to turn loose $15 million to remove contamination from the site or contain it so it does not pollute anything else.

Once that’s done, the site can be redeveloped.

For the good of Ironton and the Tri-State, here’s hoping that is exactly what happens. It makes more sense to use old sites than it does to contaminate a fresh greenfield site.

Ironton needs that good news. It really does.

My toad is missing

Last week, after one of our daily thunderstorms, I was outside on the sidewalk at the front of my house and I noticed someone missing. The toad that had been a regular visitor every summer for several years wasn't there. It usually was seen the night after an afternoon rain. But it's not been there this year.

Come to think of it, a lot of things seem different this summer in my small part of the world. We have fewer bats, fewer mosquitos and fewer lightning bugs.

But we have more rabbits. And fewer buzzards. And young deer are everywhere. This should be a great year for deer hunters.

A few weeks ago, there were a lot of dead raccoons on the back roads that I normally drive, but not so many now.

But what I want to know is, where is my toad, and where are the buzzards?

School bond elections

First, this piece from the AP, followed by a couple of comments.

FAIRMONT, W.Va. (AP) — Persuading West Virginia voters to approve a school bond is easier said than done.

Since 1971, the state’s 55 counties have presented 208 bonds for voter approval. The voters, though, have assented to only about 36 percent of them, according to the state Department of Education’s School Finance Office.

That low percentage even includes a 1982 amendment to the state Constitution that allowed bonds to be approved by more than 50 percent of voters, instead of 60 percent, which had been the law.

“It’s not easy to get a bond passed, or it would happen all the time,” said James Phares, superintendent of Marion County schools.

Many counties try to float smaller bonds by getting grants and other assistance from the state School Building Authority.That agency has paid out more than $1.1 billion in school construction funds since 1989, according to Executive Director Mark Manchin. Local funds for school construction amounted to roughly $500 million in that time.

But with rising construction costs and a growing list of schools that need renovation or rebuilding, local funds are going to have to make up a larger part of the picture, Manchin said.

The SBA doesn’t have a set funding formula for counties seeking to finance construction, Manchin said.

“We look at the total bond call, what they’re trying to do, the local effort and the health and safety of the students” in determining funding, he said.

Here in Cabell County, we seem to have had success in the two most recent bond proposals. In the most recent one, the school board played it right. The bond resulted in little increase in taxes, and it had something for almost every area of the county. The big omission was what to do with Enslow Middle School, which is approaching its 100th anniversary.

Taking a week off

I was wanting to schedule a week's vacation, and this week's storms provided the opportunity. So it looks like I'll spend next week at home trying to get things fixed. I'll check in here from time to time to moderate comments and maybe post something new if my muse demands it. Otherwise, I'll see you all July 30.

Is anyone's job safe?

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) _ The Fresno Bee will send some advertising production work to India, cutting seven of 31 jobs in its advertising design department, according to the newspaper.

Express KCS, which has offices in San Jose, London and near New Delhi, India's capital, will take over the work. Most of the newspaper's advertising services will not be affected, Ken Hatfield, the newspaper's vice president of communications and public affairs said Tuesday. Hatfield said the job cuts will begin in September.

Hatfield said customers will continue to work with sales, marketing and design employees in Fresno.

The Bee is the only McClatchy newspaper using Express KCS's services.

What next? Will letters to the editor sent by e-mail be forwarded to India for verification and processing? Will I sit in my office and send the day's articles to India, where a copyeditor there will put them on the page and write the headlines?

Should I go ahead and move to India myself?

But let's not be getting on India's bad side just yet.

Where I want to be right now, but instead I'm stuck in this office

Celebrity lookalike

The Herald-Dispatch is asking people to send photos of themselves if they think they look like celebrities.

Me, I tend to think I look like this famous actor who appeared in the top-grossing movie of 1993:

Space for pre-K

Every month, I get a magazine from a group known as the National Institute for Early Education Research. The issue that came today has an article on Page 3 that asks an interesting question. Here is the title and drop head: "Pre-K's Big Question: Where Will We Put the Kids? As state-funded pre-k grows, finding enough space is one challenge. Having the right space in the right place is another."

Let's look at Cabell County, where in a few years free pre-K will be offered to everyone.

Last year, Cabell County schools had 1,076 kids enrolled in kindergarten but only 193 in pre-K. There were another 210 enrolled in early childhood classes. Don't ask me what the difference is. I will try to find that out before school starts back.

Anyway, of the 20 elementary schools in the county last year, 8 offered EC only, 4 offered pre-K only, 6 offered both and 2 (Martha and Meadows) had neither. How that will change as the state deadline for pre-K draws near and with Cammack and Miller consolidating, I have no idea. But if nothing else, it looks like the elementaries will have to find space for a lot of new kids in the coming years.

Poverty tour 2007

An AP story in The Herald-Dispatch today talked about John Edwards' tour of poverty-stricken Appalachian Kentucky. The story said residents of that area see politicians come and go. Some are amused by the attention.

... Indeed, poverty tours are nothing new around these hills. President Clinton, the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy and Martin Luther King III, son of the famed civil rights leader, have all trekked through central Appalachia on poverty tours _ though many remember Robert Kennedy's as the most genuine and meaningful.

Lyndon Johnson declared his war on poverty here in 1964.

Edwards' tour began Sunday night in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward, still reeling from Hurricane Katrina. He traveled to sites in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and plans stops in Virginia on Wednesday before wrapping up with a visit to Whitesburg and a speech in Prestonsburg, Ky. _ where Kennedy ended his poverty tour at the Floyd County Courthouse.

Still, Edwards has lost some of his credibility in this predominantly Democratic region. They don't forget $400 haircuts around here.

"A haircut's a haircut. You can get the same one for $10," said James Rudd, a 28-year-old Whitesburg resident who's spent the past 10 years mining coal. "If he's so big on poverty, then why don't he give the other $390 to some homeless person?" ...

I covered a small part of Bill Clinton's visit to central Kentucky in 1999 as part of his multistate poverty tour. Maybe someday these guys will find other places to visit. I would gladly offer a guided tour of parts of southern Ohio or even here in Huntington if they want to see a different neighborhood. Someone needs to tell them that not all poverty in Appalachia is related to coal. But that's where the stereotypes are. Stereotypes look good on tv, and stereotypes sell.

Pakistan and the Middle East

So things keep happening in Pakistan, making you wonder what's really going on there.

As I sit around the family dinner table, I see three children who might find Pakistan on a map, but who likely have no idea what's really going on over there. Even that country now has to deal with suicide bombers.

Someday, will one of those three kids be drafted into the military to take care of trouble in that part of the world?

It reminds me of an old story. An old man dies and finds himself at the pearly gates. St. Peter looks at him and says, "Welcome, brother. You have lived a good life. For that, we will answer any question you wish to ask."

The old man's question is simple: "Will there be peace in the Middle East?"

St. Peter pauses for a moment and says, "For the answer to that question, you must ask God himself." So St. Peter escorts the old man to the throne of God, and the old man asks, "God, will there ever be peace in the Middle East?"

God thinks for a few seconds and says, "Yes, my son, the Middle East will know peace, but not in my lifetime."

Before anyone writes to say Pakistan is not in the Middle East, you know what I'm talking about.

More on presidential fundraising (updated)

If you want more details on presidential fundraising -- including lists of contributions by state and by ZIP Code to various candidates in the second quarter of 2007, go here.

Again, Dennis Kucinich comes up empty from the Huntington area. I still have a soft spot for the guy because he's the longest of long shots (after Ron Paul), but he still came to Huntington three years ago without handlers and a lot of the celebrity nonsense that comes with the "frontrunner" and "serious" candidates.

Also coming up empty from the Huntington ZIPS were Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

John Edwards received $1,000 from the 25701 ZIP Code. John McCain received $1,000 from 25701, $1,000 from 25704 and $1,950 from 25705.

Ron Paul, whose support seems strong in his base but ignored everywhere else, raised $2,000 from 25705.

UPDATE:

I pulled a lot of numbers off the FEC site and ran them through Excel and Access. In case anyone is wondering, donors in New York gave the most in the second quarter, followed by California, Florida, Texas, Illinois and the District of Columbia. At the bottom of the list was North Dakota. West Virginia ranked 47th out of the 50 states and DC.

As far as per capita contributions went, DC was by far the highest with $10.27. Connecticut was next at $1.16, followed by New York at 97 cents. At the bottom of the per capita rankings were Kentucky and West Virginia at 6 cents each, Montana at 5 cents and North Dakota at 3 cents. Other than our small population base, it's easy to see why candidates tend to skip us during primary season.

Afternoon newspapers... why not?

A couple of weeks ago, I had a conversation with Pat Frantz, the publisher of The Herald-Dispatch, in which we kicked around the question of why more daily newspapers don't publish in the afternoon rather than in the morning.

The easy answer is that readers want their newspaper delivered in the morning. My own reading habits go against that. I may be biased because most of what goes in the newspaper I know about the day before. At home, though, I normally don't read the paper of the morning in the summer. I do the rest of the year, because I get it out of the tube when I walk with my youngest to his bus stop. Even then, I save part of the paper to read when I get home in the evening. I rush through it in the morning and savor it at night.

Having said that, The Cincinnati Post made this announcement today:

The Cincinnati Post and The Kentucky Post -- afternoon daily newspapers serving Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky for more than a century -- will cease publication on Dec. 31, 2007, the newspaper's owners announced today.

The last edition of the newspapers, owned by Cincinnati-based E.W. Scripps Co., will be published on that Monday, New Year's Eve.

The decision by Scripps to cease publication comes three years after the company was notified by the Gannett Co., owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, that the 30-year contractual agreement under which the Enquirer handles business operations for The Post would not be renewed when it expired at the end of this year. Under that agreement, advertising and subscription sales, production and distribution were handled for The Post newspapers by the Enquirer, but the news operations and the editorial pages were separate and competed with each other.

Despite my own reading habits, afternoon newspapers are fading. Not many of them shut down nowadays because so few are left, especially in larger cities.

I hate to see newspapers die. I would even if I didn't work for one. I grew up reading them, and on the rare occasions I travel far from home, I like to buy the local paper and look through it. Back in 1990, while taking a leisurely drive through southern Ontario, I had to buy a weekly whose lead story was something like 5,000 chickens at area farm killed in heat wave.

You don't get that on the radio. And when you see it on the Internet, it's more than likely been picked up from a local paper.

And that's it. No kicker ending with a witty, incisive comment.

Odds and ends, 7/16/07

This is one of my favorite pictures ever. I took it last year on the last day of summer vacation. It shows my older son, Joey, skipping a rock on the Ohio River.

When I was his age, every year on the last day of summer vacation, I would go down to the Ohio River at the mouth of the creek that ran through my father's farm. I would spend up to half an hour looking at the flat rocks and picking the best to skip. Between throws, I would remember the summer that was coming to an end: Taking in hay, picking apples, going to the fair, waiting for the bookmobile visit every Tuesday morning, hoeing the garden, walking on the river bank and who knows what else that I can no longer remember.

Last year, Joey and I went to that same spot on the last day of summer vacation. Like his dad, he prefers to spend summer days outdoors. We skipped rocks and walked along the river bank. I showed him a large boulder on which his great-grandfather may have had his picture taken a century ago.

We're going back this year. We might take his seven-year-old brother along. Adam would probably like that.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a great time on one of the walking trails at Beech Fork State Park. We climbed the hill to the overlook. We looked at the various plants along the trail and talked about how some leaves have parallel veins and some have branching veins. We talked about this and that and other things about the forest. As we talked, I wonder how my soon-to-be eighth grader could know so much about science and social studies yet struggle with those subjects in the restricted, confined atmosphere of a middle school classroom.

I told my sons that I found it odd that so much science discussion in the classroom and so many science channels on TV focus on the faraway, but so little has to do with the grasses and trees around them.

In a week or two, we will visit my newest Top 10 spot along the Ohio River. We'll walk a quarter mile to a half mile on the river bank to see what's there. If we get any good photos, we'll share them.

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Money magazine has come out with its list of 100 best places to live in the US. A few places in Ohio made the list. I didn't recognize any names from Kentucky, and certainly none from West Virginia.

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Want to see who West Virginians are supporting for president with their money? Check out an interactive feature at the New York Times Web site. I was surprised at who the leader was.

Oh, it was John Edwards. To save you the time and hassle, here are the contributions from people living in ZIP Codes 25000 through 25999, in the order they are listed on the site:

Clinton, $32,070

Obama, $10,767

Romney, $10,950

Giuliani, $22,100

McCain, $6,000

Edwards, $77,704

Richardson, $2,250

Dodd, $0

Biden, $2,300

Brownback, $14,333

Paul, $1,061

Hunter, $500

Huckabee, $0

Kucinich, $0

Thompson, $0

Gilmore, $0

If my math is right, that breaks down to $125,391 to Democrats (Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Dodd, Biden and Kucinich) and $54,944 to the Republicans. John Edwards alone outdid the GOP.

Gasoline consumption in WV on decline?

So before I get out of here for the weekend, I decide to look up one more database. Some guys like to watch sports. I like to play with numbers.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the consumption of gasoline in West Virginia appears to be on a downward trend. Take a look at this chart to see what I mean. It looks like July sales peaked in 1997, rebounded in 1999 and have trended downward ever since.

We all have ideas, but I really don't think prices are among them. At least, not among the chief reasons.

You can get to the basic page for pulling info here, if you want to look at other states.

Odds and ends, 7/13/07

A reporter wanted to mention in a story today that something bad may have happened because today is Friday the 13th. I told him that someone actually went through all 14 possible calendars that we could have in any given year and figured out that the 13th is more likely to fall on Friday than any other day. His enthusiasm waned.

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Okay, tell me what I'm missing here:

Authorities plan to deport illegal immigrants

LOGAN, W.Va. (AP) — Authorities plan to deport seven suspected illegal immigrants caught working on a hospital construction project, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The workers were taken into custody Tuesday at Logan Regional Medical Center, state and federal authorities said. Now they are awaiting deportation, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs said.

The men were working for a contractor hired to perform minor renovation work, according to the hospital.

The contractor, Nashville, Tenn.-based Batten & Shaw Inc., said a drywall firm hired for the job was responsible for verifying the men were working legally.

In turn, the subcontractor, Nashville-based Rocklyn-Thomas, said it thought the men were working legally.

“This all got started because people up there didn’t want Mexicans in the area,” Rocklyn-Thomas owner Rocky Sizemore said. “If not for immigrant workers, there would be no construction in this country.” ...

Deport seven "suspected" illegal immigrants? I want illegal immigrants out of the US for the most part, but I didn't know they deported people they suspect of being here illegally. They can give them welfare, a free public education, health benefits and financial aid for college, but they can be deported on suspicion of being here illegally?

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There is a minister of a church in or near Huntington, I am told, who has been approached about running for local political office next year. Whether it’s mayor, city council or school board, there are people who think this person -- who they respect for his service to his congregation -- would do well as a public servant in elected office.

I'm not sure he should run. I've never met the guy, but I'm not sure a political race would be right for him. Not because of separation of church and state, and not because of the divisiveness, prejudice and bigotry that could surface in such a campaign.

My reason: This minister might not have the skill set to be a successful politician.

Running a church is different than running a city.

Even running different kinds of churches require different skills. I assume a minister in a hierarchical organization needs a different skill set than the leader of what might be termed more of an independent or even freelance church organization.

Such a person might work well on a collective body such as a school board. But I don’t know about a stand-alone administrative job such as mayor or county commissioner. (There are three commissioners, but they often function as three mayor-type people building coalitions to get their work done).

All this got me thinking about the skills we need in our elected officials. I myself might have some great ideas for Huntington, but do I know how to manage a $40 million budget, and should people trust me to assemble the best team of advisers that can be found? I'm not sure they should, and I don't think the mayor's office or a similar position is the place for on-the-job training.

This is something to think about as next year’s primary election draws closer. In many cases, people feel they must vote against a candidate rather than for the other one.

So what will I be looking for next year? I really don’t know yet. I have ideas, but nothing certain.

I do know that I don’t want to hear school board candidates talk about how they’re for the teachers. I want school board members who are for the children.

But children don’t vote. Teachers do.

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You have to give it to Gov. Joe Manchin. The guy can smell a check and a news camera 50 miles away.

Tuesday morning, as editors discussed what would be in the newspaper on Wednesday and Thursday, someone said the governor would be in town on Wednesday (July 11) to hand out the checks for proceeds from the "We Are Marshall" premiere. I asked, "What did the governor have to do with it, and why is he handing out the money?" No one had an answer. And the story in Thursday’s paper didn’t answer my question, either.

But the folks at Marshall are politically savvy enough to allow the governor and a state senator to get in the photo and, in effect, take part of the credit for the success of the movie premiere.

Okay, you can talk about how the governor and the senator came up with some taxpayer money to restore the Keith-Albee, where the premiere was held. But that doesn’t mean they collected the money and paid the expenses before distributing the cash, does it?

With an election next year, there will be more checks passed and more news cameras to pose in front of.

Day off 4 Lady Bird

Lady Bird Johnson, widow of former President Lyndon Johnson, died this week at her home in Texas. She was 94.

Although she left the White House more than 38 years ago — before most people living in the Tri-State today were alive — Lady Bird Johnson left her mark through her efforts to beautify federally funded roads throughout the United States.

She got the billboards and the junkyards removed. She got wildflowers planted along the interstate highway system.

Maybe we could honor her memory today or any day in the coming week by thinking twice before throwing that cigarette butt, that soft drink bottle or that fast food wrapper out our car windows.

It happens every day. Can’t we take a day off from our efforts to litter every road and ditch in the Tri-State?

Academics vs athletics at Marshall

First, the introductory paragraphs of a news released issued by Marshall University today:

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Proceeds from the Dec. 12, 2006 premiere of “We Are Marshall” in Huntington were distributed today in presentations at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center, Inc., in downtown Huntington.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin III, Marshall University President Stephen J. Kopp, former Marshall University Foundation Inc. interim Chief Executive Officer John Kinzer and Curtis McCall, president and CEO of Marquee Cinemas, presented checks totaling $431,500.

The $400,000 in proceeds from the premiere event at the Keith-Albee were split evenly between the Keith-Albee and Marshall scholarships. The Keith-Albee received $200,000, and Marshall received $100,000 for academic scholarships and $100,000 for athletic scholarships.

My first thought was one of disgust. Money for scholarships being split 50-50 between academics and athletics. But then I realized I was looking at it all wrong. Academics have finally reached parity with athletics at Marshall. All right!

You see, I remember back in the 1980s when The Herald-Dispatch had a special section of some sort about Marshall's 150th anniversary. At least half of it dealt with athletics. That's mostly what Marshall had to talk about back then. I remember when I started working here and people found out I had graduated from Ohio U., about half the Marshall graduates wanted to talk about sports, sports and more sports between the two schools. They liked talking about Marshall victories. I had to resort to lines like, "Okay, but our engineering Ph.D. students will take on yours in basketball any day." And they were quiet after that.

But 50-50 between academics and athletics. Balance has been reached at last.

Harry Potter and who knows what else

So the new Harry Potter movie is coming out this week, and the final installment in the book series (or so we're told) comes out next week.

People are talking about what they think will happen. Me, I already know. Harry Potter has so many parallels with Star Wars that we should expect someone to reveal that Hermione is really Harry's twin sister. In his final duel with Voledmort, Harry is about to die until a wounded Snape picks up the Dark Lord and tosses him off the cliff. Snape dies in Harry's arms.

If that doesn't work, we could always try one of the two alternate story lines I've written. The first is "Harry Potter and the Talking Heads." After vanquishing Voldemort, Harry moves to New York, gets a job hosting an afternoon talk show on MSNBC and is never seen again. Nah, too believable.

Maybe, "J.K. Rowling and the Search for Second Lightning." An author in the UK finishes her series of novels and sets about in search of characters and a storyline that could make her another few billion. Will she do it? Who knows?

Odds and ends, 7/10/07

Marshall 5 million, WVU 4 million:

From two news releases from the office of Sen. Robert C. Byrd:

Byrd added $5 million to the Fiscal Year 2008 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill for ongoing crime-fighting efforts at the Marshall Forensic Science DNA Laboratory and the expansion of the Marshall Forensic Science Education and Training Center. These initiatives also assist the West Virginia State Police with DNA testing of convicted felons and conduct training courses for future forensic scientists and law enforcement officials.

and

Byrd added $4 million to the Fiscal Year 2008 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill for WVU’s forensic science initiative. The legislation has been approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee and will next come before the full Senate for action.

In case anyone's keeping score.

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If you want to get out of jury duty, it might not be a good idea to tell the judge you're a racist, homophobic liar. Details here.

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Kentucky has raised the speed limit on its rural interstates to 70 mph, something other states did years ago. Given the lack of enforcement on I-64 between Catlettsburg and Lexington, I'd say all Kentucky did was legalize the speed limit that most people wanted rather than the one lawmakers had approved.

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Waiting for the animal rights people to be up in arms . . .

NITRO, W.Va. (AP) — About 100 Canada geese at Nitro’s Ridenour Lake were rounded up and suffocated in boxes partly because children were afraid of them.

It cost the city $3,600 to get rid of the birds, which were noisy and dirty, said Mayor Rusty Casto.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture removed the geese from the lake late last month after area residents complained they posed a health hazard. Casto says that in addition to the risk of diseases being spread by the birds, children were frightened of them.

Casto said placing the geese in boxes and depriving them of oxygen is a common method for exterminating them.

While not everyone may be happy with the city’s decision to kill the birds, Casto said more residents are glad the nuisance was eliminated.

The first time I saw a Canada goose up close, I thought it was a beautiful bird. But I only saw one or two or three that time. Later I saw them by the dozens. And I saw what they left behind.

Nasty creatures. It's too bad they can't live alongside people, but they tend to thrive near us, so these conflicts are inevitable.

Al Gore and coal

When I read the AP story on the Al Gore climate change concert, I saw something where Gore urged against the use of coal. Nice, but impractical for the short term, I thought. Apparently the United Mine Workers of America, of all people, agrees with me.

For those interested, here are the seven points of the pledge that Gore wants people to sign:

I PLEDGE:

1. To demand that my country join an international treaty within the next 2 years that cuts global warming pollution by 90% in developed countries and by more than half worldwide in time for the next generation to inherit a healthy earth;

2. To take personal action to help solve the climate crisis by reducing my own CO2 pollution as much as I can and offsetting the rest to become “carbon neutral;”

3. To fight for a moratorium on the construction of any new generating facility that burns coal without the capacity to safely trap and store the CO2;

4. To work for a dramatic increase in the energy efficiency of my home, workplace, school, place of worship, and means of transportation;

5. To fight for laws and policies that expand the use of renewable energy sources and reduce dependence on oil and coal;

6. To plant new trees and to join with others in preserving and protecting forests; and,

7. To buy from businesses and support leaders who share my commitment to solving the climate crisis and building a sustainable, just, and prosperous world for the 21st century.

It's interesting, isn't it, that two of the seven points mention coal directly.

Now don't go thinking I'm a wannabe member of "Friends of Coal," but something seems amiss here.

I agree we need to conserve and to plant more trees and all that. But you have to look at the entire picture and come up with a workable plan. A good part of Gore's seven-point pledge is a rehash of the Kyoto treaty, and we all know how that went.

Dirty, but cheap

While looking for some information on the Energy Information Administration site, I came across some numbers that show why we have a love affair with coal. At least, people who have a love affair with cheap electricity do.

In February 2007, it cost about $1.75 in fuel costs to generate 1 million Btu from coal. For petroleum liquids, it was $8.11, and from natural gas, $7.87.

However, from 2008 through 2010, more new power generation that is planned to come on line is from natural gas instead of coal. But that's heavily loaded in the near future. As you get farther out from 2007, more new capacity is planned for coal than for natural gas.

That's the what. I need to do some more checking to verify why. I assume it has to do with natural gas prices. Here's why I say that: In 2004, the average cost to generate 1 million Btu from coal was $1.351. For natural gas, it was $5.961. In 1994, the cost from coal was $1.355, or virtually the same as 2004. But for natural gas in '94, it was $2.23, meaning the price per million Btu from natural gas was about 2.67 times higher in '04 than in '94.

On another part of the EIA site, I was surprised to see that a clean-coal technology called IGCC with carbon sequestration is almost as expensive to build as a nuclear power plant.

Anyway, I plan to weave all of this together for a piece in the paper. Or more than one piece. It depends on how much the boss likes it.

Odds and ends, 7/9/07

One of the big underreported stories of our time is consumer debt. A New York Times article on the rising number of mortgage foreclosures in Atlanta indicates that some parts of the country have a big problem in the making. Inflated property values probably aren't that much of a problem in the Tri-State, but if national banks sneeze, we catch cold (to borrow an old saying).

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What do you do with a guy like this, assuming he's guilty?

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — A repeat drunken driver was in jail Monday, charged in connection with a head-on collision that killed five people, including three children, and injured seven others on Interstate 68 east of Morgantown.

Brian John Stone, 32, of Gans, Pa., was jailed on five counts of driving under the influence causing death and one count of third or subsequent offense DUI, a spokeswoman for Monongalia County Magistrate Court said Monday. His bond was set at $1.35 million.Seven other people were taken to local hospitals after the 10:20 p.m. Sunday three-car accident near the Pierpont Road exit, sheriff’s deputies said.

Chief Deputy Al Kisner said Stone’s eastbound 2007 Ford F-150 rear-ended a 2001 Ford Taurus, knocking it across the median, where it collided head on with a westbound 2005 Chevy Trailblazer. The posted speed limit is 70 mph, he said.

The names of both the injured and the dead were being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Kisner said one adult and two children inside the Trailblazer died. Four others were hospitalized.

One adult and one child inside the Taurus died; two others were hospitalized.

Three of the injured were listed in critical condition Monday afternoon, Kisner said. He was uncertain about the conditions of the other four.Stone “was the only one who was totally uninjured,” he said.

Kisner said police found Stone outside his truck in the woods after the accident.

“Nobody said he was trying to hide,” he said.Stone, who was being held at the North Central Regional Jail in Doddridge County, faces a July 18 hearing in magistrate court on the six felony charges.

The Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported Monday that Stone was awaiting trial for DUI in Fayette County, Pa., where he maintains a mailing address, following a March arrest. Smith lived for about three years in Allegheny County, Pa.

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Big news from Tehran: Cartoonists around the world can submit their work to a contest in Iran that takes place every two years. The entry deadline is Oct. 22.

That's all I know. The e-mail from the group that advised me from this does not have any more information in English, Spanish or Portugese.

I seriously doubt any of the cartoonists whose work appear in The Herald-Dispatch will enter.

UPDATE: The link has been fixed. Following are details of this exciting contest:

Cartoonists around the world can submit their work to a contest in Iran that takes place every two years. Entry deadline: October 22.

The themes for the 8th Tehran International Cartoon Biennial are “money” and “bad luck.” The contest will only accept original artwork on those themes. They should be black and white or color and without any kind of frame. Works should accompany a short biography and photo of the author, plus the entry form with full name, address, phone number and the e-mail of the participant.

The grand prize is worth US$8,000. First prize is US$2,000, second is $1,500, and third is $1,000. All prizes also include trophies and honorable mention.

For more information, including entry details, contact info@irancartoon.com or visit http://www.irancartoon.com/contests/Entry8.htm.

-- 30 --

Odds and ends, 7/6/07

From Science Daily:

A new study published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine shows that 10 percent of youth who become hooked on cigarettes are addicted within two days of first inhaling from a cigarette, and 25 percent are addicted within a month. The study found that adolescents who smoke even just a few cigarettes per month suffer withdrawal symptoms when deprived of nicotine, a startling finding that is contrary to long-held beliefs that only people with established smoking habits of at least five cigarettes per day experience such symptoms.

Wow.

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Another reason I'm glad I can't afford an iPhone.

I prefer Macs over PCs. But I prefer a simple cell phone with as few features as necessary. My mind will likely change in a few years, but for now, give me simple devices that work simply.

###

My youngest is a big fan of school buses. Today I went to the Cincinnati Enquirer Web site and saw coverage of the sentencing of the bus driver responsible for an accident that severely injured several kids. After watching the video of what the inside of the bus looked like during the accident, maybe it's time to talk about additional padding on the interiors. Or maybe not. I just don't know. I would have to see the inside of a bus before I make up my mind.

Tuition

When I was at Ohio University in the mid-1970s, things were a lot less expensive.

My tuition bill for my senior year was $795.

Now this is from an AP story about tuition and dorm costs at Ohio's largest state-supported universities:

At Ohio University in Athens, room and board is increasing 6 percent to $8,426, or $485 from last year. Last year, room and board increased by 4 percent. Tuition this fall will remain $8,907.

So tuition nowadays is 11.2 times what it was in the 1975-76 school year. Wow.

I hope the kids there get what they pay for.

And I'm glad my two oldest now plan to go to Marshall for the first couple of years before transferring out. They'll stay if Marshall can compete for their last two years. It sure will be interesting to see how that competition comes out.

For what it's worth, Ohio State is less expensive than Ohio, while Miami and Bowling Green are more. Again, from the AP:

Ohio State University
Tuition: $8,667 (still needs approval)
Room and board: $7,236 (4.7 percent increase from a year ago), affects the 10,000 students who live on campus, plus others who have meal plans.

Bowling Green State University
Tuition: $9,065
Room and board: $6,878 (3 percent increase from a year ago)

Miami University
Tuition: $11,443 (the most an in-state freshman will pay at Miami)
Room and board: $8,600 (5.6 percent increase from a year ago)

Kent State University
Tuition: $8,430
Room and board: $7,200 (4.7 percent increase from a year ago)

Coal vs. other in Florida

So the governor of Florida says he thinks his state should look to sources of electricity other than coal.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The future of coal as fuel for generating electricity in Florida is “not looking good,” Gov. Charlie Crist said Tuesday after the second setback in a month for utilities seeking to build new coal-fired plants.

A group that was planning to build a new coal plant in Taylor County, just southeast of Tallahassee, said Tuesday it was suspending its efforts to get a permit in the face of “growing concerns about greenhouse gas emissions.”

The decision, hailed by Crist as good for Florida, comes about a month after the state’s Public Service Commission rejected another coal power plant that Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric company, had wanted to build near the Everglades.

Crist said Florida is moving away from coal as a power source because burning it produces carbon dioxide emissions that are blamed for causing global warming. Crist spoke at a news conference in which he was promoting his meeting later this month in Miami with national leaders on dealing with global warming.

“We’re obviously moving in a different direction and I think we need to continue to explore solar, wind, nuclear, other alternatives that are clean emission,” Crist said. “Continuing to rely on foreign oil and coal, I don’t think, is in the best interest of our state.”

Electric and coal industry officials have tried to make the case in recent years that burning the fuel is a much cleaner enterprise than it was a few decades ago. It is much cheaper and its prices less volatile than natural gas, which allows utilities to sell electricity at lower rates. Building a coal plant is also cheaper than building nuclear plants. ...

Last month, the Public Service Commission rejected an FPL proposal to build what would have been the nation’s largest new coal-burning power plant in Glades County — although commissioners ruled on economic grounds not direct concerns about climate change. The potential cost of regulations on carbon emissions, however, was a factor in the decision.

Coal industry officials say the technology must be considered part of the mix because of economics. A recent report from the industry-backed Americans for Balanced Energy Choices pointed out that most American families pay 20 percent of their after-tax income on energy — and that coal is the only fuel that has maintained a stable price over the last decade.

“Our elected officials need to be very careful as they start crafting potential climate change legislation that they don’t inadvertently seriously hurt the Americans most susceptible to increased energy costs because of overly ambitious programs,” group executive director Joe Lucas said in a recent analysis of energy costs.

Okay, coal is bad. So what's better? What can meet Florida's energy needs in the foreseeable future? Natural gas, maybe, but the price can be volatile. Nuclear is out. Solar is out. And I have no idea how much it would cost Florida to import hydropower from the TVA, assuming it even could.

If you think West Virginia is in league with the devil regarding coal, what about states that don't have their own sources of energy but are growing nonetheless. Aren't they in the same boat?

Conservation will carry you only so far if you expect to maintain the same standard of living, right? It's either cut back or burn coal. Not good options, but we have to face this reality sometime.

Live Earth ... who cares?

From www.liveearth.org:

Live Earth will use the global reach of music to engage people on a mass scale to combat our climate crisis.

Okay, we have a lot of people flying around in jets and driving in limos to perform at concerts so they can lecture us on how we need to use less energy. After the concert, they get back in their Cadillac Escalades or whatever and return to their mansions. In one week, they will probably burn more energy than I do in a year, and for no good reason. And I'm the one getting lectured about my energy use.

I admit there are times when I wish I could return to a lifestyle similar to what I had in the 1960s. We grew a lot of our plant food. We foraged in my father's hollows for berries. There's nothing like picking an apple or a pear straight off the tree in the back yard. Or a homegrown tomato.

I drew some limits. I couldn't bring myself to eat a pawpaw or a gooseberry.

But the family farm passed out of the family's hands long ago. We can't get along without a microwave, a dishwasher or a color TV. Or can we?

Can my kids compete without having Internet at home? Would they die of boredom without a DVD player or their video games?

Maybe it's time to find out. But we do it on my terms. I don't need a bunch of self-indulgent, self-important celebrities ordering me around while they waste more energy than I use.

10 greatest local needs

Here's a question for readers:

Let's say we compile a list of the 10 greatest needs our local legislators should address. What should be on that list?

I would like to invite a couple of local legislators to an editorial board meeting soon. As part of that, I would like to have a list of 10 things we could talk about.

So, what should be on that list?

Reply here or to news@herald-dispatch.com.

Your ideas should be specific, but not too specific. Rather than "better roads," say "widen Route 10" or "improve Route 2." Rather than "more funding for schools," say what that funding is needed for, such as classroom supplies.

Nuclear power revival?

E - The Environmental Magazine has issued a news release about its latest issue. One story is about whether nuclear power is an economically viable alternative to fossil fuels in the debate about global warming. If you want to read the entire article, go here.

Below are some points in the news release that popped up in my e-mail a few minutes ago:

But in most cases, these environmentalists see nuclear as only a temporary fix, a holding action until a renewable-based energy economy can be put in place. According to NASA’s Dr. James Hansen, who in recent years sounded alarms about global warming to the chagrin of both his employer and the Bush Administration, “there is tremendous potential in energy efficiency and renewable energies, including solar power, wind energy, bio-fuels and geothermal.”

Nonetheless, the nuclear industry, aided by a very supportive Bush Administration, is moving ahead with its attempt to revive commercial nuclear power, but it’s unlikely to happen quickly. Although 30 new nuclear power plant licenses are pending, the first of these probably won't be on line until 2015 or 2016.

Will these proposed plants (some employing new and supposedly safer designs) actually be built? And given our global warming challenges, should they be built? It may be that the funding issue alone will derail the nuclear push: A Standard and Poor’s report last year priced nuclear at $1,500 per kilowatt -- twice the cost of a new coal plant. And cost overruns, it said, “are highly probable.” The base price for a plant is $3 billion today. Most of the proposed new nuclear stations are in the Southeast, and (partly to minimize local antagonism) most are on the site of existing units.

A much-quoted MIT report, released in 2003, says that nuclear power “is not now cost competitive with coal and natural gas,” but it concludes that nukes “could be one option for reducing carbon emissions.” However, the industry’s “stagnation and decline” makes that unlikely, the report concludes.

But to get the public to accept a major expansion of nuclear power, the industry will have to convince Americans terrified by the specter of Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and intentional terrorism-related sabotage.

As for me, I'm not nearly as frightened of nuclear power as I was a few years ago, and I don't like all the gases and mercury that coal-fired plants put in the air. Even assuming there is no such thing as human-induced climate change through fossil fuels, it doesn't make sense to put so much bad stuff in the air.

But if nuclear costs twice as much as coal, what are we to do? Can you imagine a politician saying we can solve global warming, but only if you drive the next-generation Ford Pinto, pay twice as much for electricity and hang your laundry outside, and by the way, we're not asking rich folks to give up their private jets?

Ain't gonna happen.

How to have your opinion not heard

Under my desk here at The Herald-Dispatch is a box of letters to the editor that will not be printed in The Herald-Dispatch. Every day, it seems, a new letter goes in that box.

We want to publish as many reader letters as we can, but some letters just can’t be printed.

Rather than explain how to get your letter in the paper, I thought I'd talk here about how to not get your letter published in Voice of the People:

> Do not include your address or phone number. We need to verify authorship of letters, and sometimes we must talk to writers about problems with their letters. If we can’t contact you, we won’t run your letter.

> Write a letter that is at least 1,000 words long. We have several spots for letters on the Voices page. Most letters are in the range of 20 to 250 words. Shorter letters are more likely to be published than longer ones. If you have a good letter that’s about 300 words long, we’ll put it on the left-hand side of the page. If you have a particularly good piece that’s 450 to 550 words, that qualifies as a guest column. But please call me first before you submit a guest column. There are certain criteria they must meet.

Oh, and please don't say your piece is so good that 1,000 words is barely enough. In that case, you might want to find another publication to publish your piece. We hardly ever have that much room in the space we are given.

> Don’t sign your name. We don’t run anonymous letters. These go straight to the “toss” box.

> Address personalities rather than issues. You can criticize the governor, the mayor or an editor for a decision he made, but don’t say he’s ugly or he dresses funny.

> Use illegible handwriting. If we look at your letter and it looks like you wrote “In gong tooth horse,” it’s probably going into the “toss” box.

> if u email it dont use punctuation and dont use capital letters this makes it too hard for us to read the more we have to work with it the more likely we are to make a mistake handling it you know what if youre too lazy to use punctuation and capital letters then we dont want to deal with it either

> OR YOU CAN TYPE IN ALL CAPS. SHOUT AT US SOME, WHY DON'T YOU? DO YOU KNOW WHAT WE HAVE TO GO THROUGH TO PUT STUFF IN PROPER CASE, ALL BECAUSE YOU'RE TOO LAZY TO USE THE SHIFT KEY?

> Send it in the day before the event you’re writing about. The editorial page is one of the first pages we put together every day. On normal days, it’s ready by noon for the following day. If your letter gets here Tuesday afternoon and you want to tell people about something happening Wednesday morning, you’re probably out of luck, at least as far as the editorial page is concerned. Other pages, we can accommodate. Editorial page, out of luck. We do the Friday and Saturday pages on Thursday, and we do the Sunday and Monday pages on Friday. If your letter needs to run one of those days, it’s important it gets here a few days ahead of time.

> Copy and paste something from the Internet. Sometimes these get past us, but sometimes they don’t. We want letters that are the original work of the writer. If we think it’s a copy-and-paste job, it’s probably going in the “toss” box.

That’s about it. We want letters to the editor. It's one of the most-read parts of the paper. In this day of Internet forums and such, the number of letters has dropped. That's why we've relaxed some of our rigid rules.

Shameless plug ends now.