I thought he had died years ago...

... and that he was older.

CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) — Evel Knievel, the hard-living motorcycle daredevil whose exploits made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel death was confirmed by his 21-year-old granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs. He had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

School buses and math class

I don't know why, but this is one of my Top 25 all-time favorite pictures that I have taken. It's of my youngest son when we found some school buses parked on a school lot in Mason County this past spring. He had not been so close to a bus bearing the IC Corp. brand before. Maybe it's his body language as he takes in this unfamiliar bus line.

(See that Bus 911? A few feet away was Bus 2001. Weird, huh?).

We have a basic rule when we look at buses. No touching. We don't want to do anything that could be interpreted as causing damage. So we look but don't touch.

I was going to write something about the city of Huntington, the proposed occupation tax and other such, but I've been fussing with opinion pages all day. And I need a diversion here before the weekend.


While talking with Adam a few days ago, he wanted me to know that he doesn't like math. That couldn't be right, I thought, considering some of the conversations we have had. The more we talked, the more it became apparent that he likes math. He just doesn't like math class. I tried to explain how math class teaches the tools you need to truly enjoy math itself.

The point of that conversation shows that we as adults can separate the enjoyment of doing something from the drudgery of learning how to do it. I'm not so sure kids can do that, and that may be why so many kids have problems with school.

Silver Bridge, part 2

My memories of the Silver Bridge itself are sparse. The few times I crossed it or passed it, I never really paid attention to the structure. About all I remember are a grocery store called Tiny's Foodland at the Ohio end and the traffic signal on the Point Pleasant end. My mind must have something messed up, because I want to recall that the green light was on top and the red light on bottom. That must have been a dream that I confused with reality.

I do remember seeing the bridge in the water on the afternoon of Dec. 17 when we took a family drive past the bridge.

I have to admit bridges did interest me when I was younger. At one time I had an interest in being a bridge designer when I grew up. For whatever reason, that desire ebbed in my teen years. But I still made sure that on the rare occasions I made it up or down the river, I took note of the design of the various bridges I saw.

I was surprised that the old Maysville bridge was a suspension bridge. And in 1986, I was absolutely shocked to see the Ohio River bridge at St. Marys, W.Va. It was a duplicate of the Silver Memorial Bridge, except that it was painted a color closer to white. When I drove across it, I noticed it had a sidewalk, which the Silver Memorial Bridge does not.

(Bridges in this area with sidewalks: Pomeroy-Mason, Robert C. Byrd, Ben Williamson, Ironton-Russell. Without: Silver Memorial, East Huntington, Simeon Willis. Not sure: West 17th Street, Ben Williamson. I think the Ben Williamson does and the 17th Street doesn't, but I'm ashamed to admit I'm not sure.).

I liked many of the old bridges, but the 6th Street Bridge always bothered me. Too much rust. And if you looked way up high at the top of the towers, you saw what looked like eyebars. Those were the pieces on the Silver Bridge that popped apart and led to the collapse.

In 1985, I think it was, I was working on a story about commercial fishing on the Ohio River. A fellow who ran a pay fishing lake out back of Chesapeake, Ohio, took me on a trip to check his hoop nets. We went under the 6th Street Bridge and I looked up. I regretted it. It was a month before I could cross that bridge with the slightest degree of confidence. Rust and corrosion everywhere.

(One more installment to come).

NFL Network vs cable TV systems

According to the sports pages, a lot of football fans are upset that they won't get to see the Dallas-Green Bay game tonight because their cable system does not carry the NFL Network, which has the game.

Super-rich cable TV systems and the super-rich NFL are staring each other down over money issues and such, and neither side has blinked.

Well, I have satellite TV. I would rather have cable so I could get high-speed Internet access, but the geniuses of yesteryear decided that certain areas of the county didn't need cable. Anyway, I have the NFL Network in my package, so I can watch the game tonight.

But I won't. It interests me not. I need to do some laundry, anyway. And somewhere, a football fan is crying.

Oh, I get the Big Ten Network, too. One of my coworkers had to cancel her cable service and switch to satellite TV so her husband could watch the Ohio State games on Big Ten. But I don't care for the Purdue-Michigan State volleyball match, so I'll pass on that, too.

Good idea... Now how do we do it?

This came in a news release today from the National Wildlife Federation:

The House Energy Bill that passed in August requires that by the year 2020, 15 percent of electricity be generated using renewable energy sources. The question on the table is will the House and Senate conference report a bill that includes both of these meaningful provisions to move the nation toward a clean, renewable energy future?

Meanwhile, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is scheduled to mark up the bipartisan America’s Climate Security Act of 2007 , co-sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and John Warner (R-VA).

This is a strong bill that deals with the root cause of global warming – greenhouse gas emissions. It has the support of a wide cross-section of America, from liberal to conservative and has the best chance of passage of any bill yet. The bill requires large emitters such as power plants and oil refineries to collectively cut their greenhouse gas emissions every year, starting in 2012, at a pace scientists say is needed to avoid catastrophic climate changes. It sets the pace for reductions at about 2 percent per year, cutting emissions from these sources to 15% below current levels by the year 2020, and 70% below current levels by 2050. The ripple effect of this vote will carry well beyond America’s boundaries as the international community assembles in Bali, Indonesia to discuss the framework that will follow the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire in 2012. Moving this climate legislation out of committee and to the full Senate for a vote will demonstrate to the world community that America is serious about global warming.

I don't care all that much about demonstrating to the world community that America is serious about global warming. What I want to know is, where is all this renewable energy going to come from? Are there hydroelectric dams yet to be built? How long will it take to build enough factories to convert cellulose to ethanol? What if Ted Kennedy doesn't want a wind farm being built within view of his front porch? (Oh).

In other words, how long will it take to develop the technology and infrastructure to accomplish this? That's really what I want to hear. I'm all for renewable energy. I'm all for cutting pollution, because pollution is bad. But do it for the right reasons, people. Setting unattainable goals won't help anything.

If anything, the efforts to cut back global warming have been hampered by alarmists who overstate everything and by people who want to use global warming to seize power to control our lives while they go about theirs unaffected.

Someone answer these questions, please. And don't tell me I'm in ExxonMobil's pocket. I'm still waiting for that check. Megacorporations are jumping on the anti global warming bandwagon because there's money to be made in forcing new technologies on people (Think GE and its subsidiary NBC).

And has anyone been following how this conference in Bali is going to lead to more greenhouse gas emissions because of all the private jets that are boing halfway around the world to a remote location so rich and powerful people can tell us how carbon dioxide is destroying the planet (another ridiculous phrase, but we can save that for another time).

Oprah, Madonna, Britney and Jim

Oprah says she will campaign for Obama in Iowa. A lot of news reports fixate on whether that will do any good. Some have to mention Oprah is such a big name in her field that she gets by with just her first name. You know, like Madonna or Britney.

Having an unusual name helps. No matter how big I get in journalism, I seriously doubt that my career will come down to my being recognized by my first name only: Jim.

(sigh)

It's not that the primary is that big of news in West Virginia anyway. We common folks will have no say until November 08. By then, New Hampshire, Iowa and Nevada will be forgotten. In a close race, we could matter.

To tell the truth, I really don't like covering presidential campaigns. Everything is so arranged and packaged, you're seeing a show. I think Bush sat down individually with local reporters in 2000, but that's about it. Whenever they come through, it's parachute in and get out as fast as they can. And daily life is interrupted by the Secret Service making everything is safe for the big guy.

If you have to cover a presidential visit or a candidate's visit, let the other reporter cover the big guy so you can talk to the crowd, the demonstrators and whoever else shows up for the fun. That's where you get the real news.

Of housing markets and my own domicile

One of the things about living is West Virginia is that we escape the boom-and-bust cycle of much of the national economy. One of our reporters is supposed to have a story tomorrow about how the local housing market has not tracked the national market in recent years. We didn't have the huge runup in prices fueled in part by speculators, so we haven't had the same bust.

We'll have a column by Diane Mufson explaining that many people bought houses but didn't have the money to maintain them. I know what she's talking about. At my house, which is less than 20 years old, everything seems to be going wrong all at once. I don't know where to start. I did repair the roof myself, and that ought to hold for another year or two, but it will need to be replaced. I want to replace the shingle roof with a metal roof. I need new flooring, and my heating system could use some work. And I want to add a half bath. And re-arrange some plumbing. As I told someone at a hardware store, at least five state laws prevent me from wielding a hammer, for the good of the public.

I can't remember the exact quote, but I think Jim McClelland, executive director of the Greater Huntington Park and Recreation District, told me once that after 10 years, you need to put about 30 percent of the original cost back into a new structure to bring it back to the original condition.

I see that not only in houses but in a variety of public buildings, too. But there are better photo ops for cutting the ribbon on a new building than on replacing the carpet and heating system in an older one, right?

So tonight I'll give my house another look-over as I send the kids off to bed and wonder what I should tackle second. I know what the first task should be: getting rid of years of clutter that I have accumulated through my life. That should help my mental health for a few weeks.

Silver Bridge, part 1

We're coming up on the 40th anniversary of the Silver Bridge collapse.

It's hard to believe, but the old bridge has been down longer than it was up.

There will be a lot of reflection and a lot of talk of modern bridge safety. I'll probably write a piece about what that meant to a 13-year-old kid and what it meant in the years after.

When I was at "the Ohio university," I had to write a paper for my History of American Journalism class. I wrote one using publications of the time on the bridge collapse.

(Here is how it probably will begin)...

As a child, I always figured Huntington's old 6th Street Bridge would someday fall into the Ohio River. But on Dec. 15, 1967, that changed.

I was at home on the Friday evening, a 13-year-old kid glad that the school week was over and looking forward to the Christmas break. I was watching some sort of rerun on Channel 8 when the news flash came across that the Silver Bridge between Point Pleasant, W.Va., and Gallipolis, Ohio, had fallen into the river. I ran to my parents' grocery store with the news.

I remember little of what happened after that, although I did watch every minute of TV news that night. What stood out in my mind was NBC's Chet Huntley referring to "Galli-POE-liss," but that was not so bad.

The next day found me watching television again. There were interviews with people in hospital beds and reports from the scene. I had been across the bridge a few times, but not nearly as many as I had been across the 6th Street Bridge. But as a person who grew up along the Ohio, any such event having to do with a bridge occupied my thoughts.

The afternoon was clear and sunny. I sat in our corn crib, examining the ears of feed corn and trying my best to remember what word WSAZ-TV's Bos Johnson had used to describe what happened. "Collapse," it was.

The following day, a Sunday, we took a family drive up that way. We drove past on the Ohio side. The bridge was gone. We could see the roadway going from one pier straight down into the river. No one said much of anything as we drove past.

Days passed. I read the Huntington, Gallipolis, Ohio, and Athens, Ohio, newspapers to read everything I could about the recovery operations. As all things do, this one eventually passed from the front pages.

(More to come.)

Odds and ends 11/26/07

My world is turned upside down. The GOP is the party of the rich and the Democratic Party is the party of the little guy. The working man. According to the left-leaning Huffington Post, big-shot CEOs are donating more to Dems this cycle than to Repubs. Is my entire worldview (to borrow a word from a frequent poster on our user forums) wrong, or is the money going with the probable winner?

###

I have a sister-in-law who fears she may experience torn loyalties in a couple of weeks. She was born and raised in West Virginia. She moved to Columbus, enrolled at THE Ohio State University and graduated from THEre. Now, if Missouri loses the Big 12 title game to Oklahoma and WVU beats Pitt, it's possible the Buckeyes and the Mountaineers would meet in the BCS title game. Stranger things have happened. So if that happens, she does not know who she would root for, or against.

###

Ever wonder where manhole covers come from? Sometimes it's not pretty.

A lot are made in India in a factory that has practically no safety standards. Imagine barefoot men carrying ladles of molten metal.

More here.

###

Artists absent in war on drugs

At an editorial board meeting a few weeks ago, we were having one of our frequent discussions about the drug problem. I said something that either went over everyone's head or else was so stupid no one wanted to hurt my feelings by calling me on it.

You decide.

I said we can have all the intervention programs and police raids and newspaper articles we want, but we really need the help of the artistic community. People who are likely to turn to drugs are more responsive to what they hear in music and what works of fiction they see on their TV screen than they are to a bunch of middle-aged journalists chatting away.

When Hollywood joins the anti-drug fight in earnest, there will be progress, because Hollywood has the ear of potential junkies. I don't. The newspaper I work for doesn't.

But the arts community is a major consumer and promoter of illegal drugs. They're hip and funny. Pretending to be drunk or high is funny. Being an alcoholic or a junkie isn't. Hollywood gets Lindsay Lohan. We get Moneyton.

I got to thinking about that more today when I read one of many pieces about how Hollywood praises itself to standing up to the Republican Party, but it remains silent in dealing with the growing force of radical Islam, Islamofascists or whatever you call people who kill others in the name of their god.

Hollywood could do a lot of good, but it poses for the public and praises itself for posing.

Please, am I right, or am I being a fool again?

Odds and ends, 11/23/07

Someone anonymously sent me a photocopy of an opinion piece in the Evansville Courier & Press from Nov. 19. The article had to do with Indiana ranking near the bottom of a list of states ranked by their "greenness," meaning environmental protection.

From the article: "Who would have thought of Indiana as being one of the worst states in the entire U.S. in matters of pollution and health, ranking just above poverty-stricken West Virginia? But, again, we have been there for a very long time."

I don't know how the person who mailed this to me wanted me to react. I hope it wasn't with anger, because all I can say about this comment is, "Truth hurts, don't it?"

###

Today is the day after Thanksgiving. There is little traffic on 5th Avenue. I have not been over to Pullman Square to see if there's any busy-ness there. My wife went out to the mall today to pick up something she had ordered that came in Tuesday. She said she saw the sea of steel and fiberglass in the parking lot and decided to wait until next week.

Here in the news business, expect things to slow down on the local front. At this time of year, people tend to kick back and take things easy. Folks are burning off vacation time. They're postponing major decisions until the first of the year. There's no need to rush to get things done, because the people you need to consult with probably aren't around when you need them.

On top of that, winter arrived today. We had snow out where I live. But it's still fall, too, because there are still leaves on some trees. I noticed that the red leaves peaked in October and the yellow ones peaked last week. I knew the summer drought would be good for fall colors. But I also knew gasoline would be selling to $3.50 to $4 a gallon today, and we know how that prediction turned out.

So let the mellowing begin. We could use some. After Jan. 1, things will start happening again, and fast.

Too fast, probably, even in this town.

Thanks

What with Thanksgiving being tomorrow, it's time for me to thank all seven of you who read this blog. I enjoy writing it, and I enjoy reading your comments. I hope the next 12 months are as fun as the past 12 have been.

And even thanks to Old Number 7, who was right to disagree with me when I said gasoline would be $3.50 a gallon by now. The last I checked, it was still $3.099 here in Huntington. It's nice being wrong sometimes.

Odds and ends, 11/19/07

There are times when I want to drop one of our syndicated columnists so I can replace him or her with Walter Williams. Here is something from a recent Williams column:

The fact that there are so many American earners who have little or no financial stake in our country poses a serious political problem.

The Tax Foundation estimates that 41 percent of whites, 56 percent of blacks, 59 percent of American Indian and Aleut Eskimo and 40 percent Asian and Pacific Islanders had no 2004 federal income tax liability. The study concluded, "When all of the dependents of these income-producing households are counted, there are roughly 122 million Americans — 44 percent of the U.S. population — who are outside of the federal income tax system." These people represent a natural constituency for big-spending politicians. In other words, if you have little or no financial stake in America, what do you care about the cost of massive federal spending programs?

This should be talked about as Huntington tries to get legislative approval for an occupation tax. Many of the people affected by such a tax would have no vote on it -- except for the Legislature, which ultimately would allow or disallow such a tax. And many of the people who would be eligible to vote for the City Council would not have to pay the tax.

Yet people who live outside the city but work in it should not be off the hook for paying for city services. I live outside the city, but I'm willing to pay my fair share of the costs of running a police department and a fire department, and I should pay my fair share for street repairs.

More on this later as I have time to think about it, but as usual, all thoughtful comments are welcome.

###

According to BusinessWeek magazine, some University of Wisconsin alumni are doing something different. They don't want the business school to be named after someone, so they're raising money to make sure that doesn't happen:

In an unusual twist in the business school naming game—generally, a wealthy donor gives a multimillion-dollar gift to get his name on the school—the school formally known as Wisconsin School of Business has received an $85 million group donation from alumni that will allow the school to keep its current name for the next 20 years.

So how much would it take to get a donor's name off some buildings? Or a politician's?

###



Are you one of those people who enjoy looking at the supermarket tabloid covers and peek inside when an article promises photos of glamorous superstars without their makeup and studio lighting? So am I.

If you wonder what Nicole Kidman looks like in real life, check out the photo at this link.

Here's another view:

Years ago, I understand the now-defunct magazine Spy got ahold of what it cost to retouch a photo of Michelle Pfeiffer to make it presentable for use on a magazine cover. It took a lot of money to make Michelle Pfeiffer look like Michelle Pfeiffer. The older I get, the less I understand the Hollywood definition of beauty.

Last week, my teenage son and I watched the move "The Dirty Dozen" on tv. I wanted him to see how Hollywood made war movies in the 1960s. One thing I noticed was that few of the actors would probably get a screen test today. Can you imagine Charles Bronson having to compete in the Hollywood looks department against, say, Ben Affleck? Or Telly Savalas?

Rounded third, headed for home

Joe Nuxhall is dead.

When the Reds were winning, he was a delight to listen to. When the Reds were losing, he was still a delight. The broadcasts haven't been the same since others have tried taking Joe's place alongside Marty.

Another joy gone.

Dogs and drivers

I was talking with my wife today, and she wants a shirt with the saying, "I want to be the person my dog thinks I am."

With that in mind, I said I want to be the person that other drivers on our road think that I am:

Able to swerve in any direction at any time.

Instantaneous reaction time.

Able to pass through solid objects.

Able to read minds and flawlessly anticipate actions of others.

Full of total forgiveness.

It's a tall order, but I'm trying.

Global climate control

One thing has bothered me for a long time about all this talk of global warming and how we've got to do something about it.

Okay, a couple of things.

First, I have to wonder what baseline global warming folks use as the ideal temperature distribution model for the earth.

And more important, if they want to impose that baseline for all time, they will have to reverse the warming trend and induce some global cooling. Then they will have to figure out how to stop the cooling and moderate any natural fluctuations in temperature and precipitation.

Given the decentralized nature of the emission of greenhouse gases and how the international community (whatever that is) cannot stop China from creating a new environmental disaster every year, how could all this be accomplished? Will we turn climate control over to the United Nations? Will the blue helmets invade the Big Sandy Power Plant at Louisa, Ky., if the UN determines it is pumping out too much carbon dioxide?

And what if these glorious calculations are wrong? If we are creating hell on earth through global warming, could we accidentally induce a new ice age?

Global warming is another of those topics that's easy to talk about and give advice to other people on how they can stop it, but it's one that I fear far, far too few people have thought all the way through. Except those who see it as a means by which they can assert control over others.

Off again

I'll be out of the office next week. I'll pop in and out of here to moderate comments and maybe add an item or two if the mood strikes, but for the most part, posting will be light.

See you in earnest on the 19th.

Tobacco taxes

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says West Virginia should quadruple spending on programs aimed at reducing smoking and smokeless tobacco use.

In a new report, the CDC recommends that West Virginia spend $27.8 million on anti-smoking efforts, up from $6.6 million last year. ...

House Health and Human Resources Chairman Don Perdue agrees that the state should spend more on anti-smoking programs. The Wayne County Democrat says he would favor raising tobacco taxes, but only if the money was spent to reduce tobacco consumption.

I love that last clause: "... but only if the money was spent to reduce tobacco consumption."

Sin taxes and gambling are so attractive because they target the -- how else to put it -- undesirable activities that so many of us engage in. But rather than using those revenue streams to combat the original problem and eventually put them out of business, politicians instead use them for other purposes and come to rely on them.

What would West Virginia government do if we made a significant dent in tobacco and alcohol use? (Before anyone says anything, I'm not condemning alcohol itself, but who wouldn't say that society as a whole consumes too much of it? Likewise, I don't what level of gambling is good and what is bad. But who says we need more, other than the people who make money from it?).

10 underreported stories

We think we cover a lot of local stories here at The Herald-Dispatch, but there are many that we have not written much about. I could probably do a long post on each of these, but let's not. I won't be here next week -- I need to spend some more money at hardware stores; and if I have hardwood flooring installed in my living room, I have to decide if it will be light or dark -- so let's not start anything long-term yet.

Here are my nominations for 10 most underreported stories in the Tri-State. Some may have more of a regional or even national angle, but they affect us all.

Notice I have only six. I need your help to come up with the other four. No one likes Top 6 lists or Top 29 lists, so it has to be 10.

In no particular order except in which I thought of them:

1. Decline in the traditional, mainline churches and rise of nondenominational megachurches. A city of 50,000 people cannot support as many houses of worship as a city of 86,000. And when many of those 50,000 are flocking to the newer churches that offer a sense of community, the older churches are hurting for members and the financial means to keep themselves going.

2. The changing nature of public schools. What we see in schools today is not what we saw 30 or 20 years ago. This trend has been accelerated by No Child Left Behind (or more accurately, the forces that led to it) and, in part, by USA Today and ESPN.

3. When it comes to retirement, you're on your own. Unless you work for government. We're moving toward John Edwards' two Americas, all right, but this time in employee benefits. Sooner or later, people who work in the private sector will rebel at the pay and benefits that people in the public sector receive. People who work in the public sector are unable to see this coming. When they do see it, they will take it personally.

4. We're killing ourselves, but too many of us simply don't know any better. How many of us here in Appalachia have the knowledge to plan and cook a balanced diet, to exercise regularly and to maintain good hygiene? If we knew how to do all that, do we have the time and space to do it?

5. (This one will hurt some people's pride) The Tri-State isn't as important as it used to be. Corporate headquarters of major companies (Ashland Inc., Ashland Coal) are gone. Most of the major banks (Key Centurion, One Valley) have been taken over by out-of-state interests. We have little here that other places don't have. And little that we're doing is making a difference.

6. A person coming out of high school, trade school, community college or college needs a different knowledge base than one coming out 30 years ago. By the time my kids are 18, they had better be familiar with 401(k) plans and portable health insurance.

As noted above, I'm taking nominations for the remaining four.

Odds and ends 11/8/07

Let's have a little fun here, assuming I read the numbers right.

Last quarter for which results were announced:

Exxon Mobil: $102.4 billion in revenues, and $9.4 billion in profits. That means for every dollar in revenue, 9.2 cents is profit.

Gannett (former owner of The Herald-Dispatch): $1.9 billion in revenues and $366 million in profits. If my math is correct, for every dollar in revenues, Gannett records 19.3 cents in profit.

Now, what does that say about the two companies? Yet we keep hearing about how great the oil business is and how lousy the newspaper business is.

###


FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gov.-elect Steve Beshear said Wednesday that his lopsided victory was a clear signal that Kentuckians want to decide the fate of casino gambling. ...

Beshear supports amending Kentucky’s constitution to allow a limited number of casinos at racetracks and at off-track sites along the state’s borders. He estimates the extra gambling would generate about $500 million in additional state tax revenue each year for such priorities as health care and education. ...

Be careful what you ask for, guv. Please study the arms race West Virginia has entered before you decide whether it's worth it.

But by linking casino gambling to health care an education, it's probably a sure thing now.

###

Something that was in the news a while back but you don't hear about now:

A year or so ago, the University of Wisconsin was going after high schools that copied the W on its football helmets. Even if the Ws were not identical to the Wisconsin W, the university's lawyers issued cease-and-desist letters. Some high schools caved.

When a high school in Wyoming County, W.Va., received one of those letters, Wyoming County native and West Virginia Attorney Darrel McGraw said he would defend the school in court. So far, I've not heard of any legal action.

I've also not heard of Wayne High School or Wahama High School receiving a cease-and-desist letter, even if they use a W similar to Wisconsin's.

###

WALTON HILLS, Ohio (AP) — A man who named a street for his wife in a subdivision that he developed thanked voters for resisting homeowners who wanted to rename the street because it sounded low-class. ...

A majority of streets in this Cleveland suburb carry the names of developers and families who paved the way, and Brenda Lee Drive builds on that tradition. ...

Eleven of 12 property owners in the subdivision persuaded the Village Council to drop the name earlier this year in favor of Whitetail Run, which reflects the many deer that wander the area, council members said.

Brenda Lee Drive conjures up images of a trailer park, said Pat Hrabak, who lives in the subdivision, where houses are valued at more than $300,000.

“We’re tired of being laughed at,” Hrabak said. ...

I don't know if the snooty Clevelanders connect the name Brenda Lee with country music or with dual-named Appalachians. It's always fun to be looked down upon, isn't it?

###

Odds and ends, 11/7/07

The latest issue of U. S. News & World Report arrived in the mail Monday. I saw the cover and asked my eight-year-old what kind of bus was on it. He took one second to decide it was a Blue Bird. It was pretty easy because of the stripe along the top that Blue Birds have. When I put him on his bus (a Blue Bird) this morning, I took note of the rub rails, the covers over the flashing warning lights, the angle of the rear and the placement of the various lights, and yes, it does look like a Blue Bird on the cover.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. We are a family of bus nerds.

###

An item in this week's issue of USN&WR:

Stores of the Future May Be a Bit Quirky

In 10 years, you might meet a friend for coffee at a local grocery store that also sells clothes and electronic equipment. The store will be designed to suit your lifestyle, including entertainment and social networking needs.

Call me crazy, but that sounds like a lot of the country stores in the part of Ohio that I grew up in during the 1960s. I keep telling people that time is not linear. Time is circular. What has been before and gone will come again.

But do they listen to me? Nooooo. They need a high-priced consultant who thinks he's looking into the future when really all he has to do is look a decade or two into the past.

FWIW, my advice is mostly free.

###

Every now and then, we receive a letter to the editor talking about how you should pull over and stop for a funeral processing coming the other way. People in the processsions believe it's a sign of respect for the dead.

But given some of these roads around here and the people who drive on them, I might be rear-ended or worse if I were to do that.

Help me out here. Should I pull over for a funeral procession?

The Fabulous Moolah is dead . . .

. . . at age 84. Oh, how it hearkens back a time when professional wrestling was dominated by the guys with superhuge bellies covered in fur. But those days are gone.

###

Other than that, maybe it's the weather or something, but my desire to opine has been low this week. I am outraged about one thing, and it's a matter between one of my children and his/her school. I guess all my outrage is going in that one direction, and I can't get sufficiently angry or excited about anything to post.

I'll try to get excited about something tomorrow.

Don't be so literal

Perils of live TV:

This morning on one of the network news shows, an anchor used the phrase "literally from every corner of the globe."

It's like back in the 1980s when a local TV guy now with CNN said a person "literally will walk through that door."

Be careful when using the word "literally."

Kopp: Recruitment

More from Marshall President Stephen Kopp’s meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board:

I had been doing some fact checking in recent weeks, and what I found surprised me. Marshall was losing market share to West Virginia University. In getting numbers from the Higher Education Policy Commission, which among other things functions as a statistical warehouse for the state’s institutions of higher learning, I found these trends:

-- From 2001 to 2006, even though Marshall’s total enrollment was up slightly, its share of total enrollment of state-supported schools had gone down from 24 percent to 21 percent, while WVU’s was up 40 percent to 42 percent.

-- In that same period, Marshall’s in-state enrollment was down (13,467 to 11,165) while WVU’s was up (14,117 to 15,224).

-- Among recent high schools graduates (those who graduated in spring and were enrolled in college that fall), Marshall’s numbers were down (1,446 to 1,063) while WVU’s were up (1,684 to 2,163).

Numbers for fall 2007 won’t be available for a couple more weeks.

And I learned the number of PROMISE scholars enrolled at Marshall went down from 2004 to 2007 (1,740 to 1,624) while the number at WVU was up (3,494 to 4,184).

How to explain this? One is that West Virginia high schools are graduating fewer students, and the ones in Marshall’s historically strong market area are down even more than the state average.

Kopp’s opinion? Marshall’s efforts to attract students was not good.

“The recruiting program we had was perhaps the worst I had ever seen.”

Marshall’s efforts had been focused on talking to high school seniors in a narrow geographic area. But that’s too late and too small, Kopp said. Marshall’s recruiting efforts are now going statewide and regionally. And they’re starting to work, as Marshall this year has 140 more freshmen than it did last year.

The recruitment effort is targeting high school students as early as their freshman year, before most have decided where they would prefer to go to school.

Kopp himself has visited high schools in the recruitment effort. He says he tell students to consider not just Marshall, but the entire idea of higher education. And not just to start college, but to complete it.

Once the students enroll at Marshall, the work begins to keep them. Right now about 47 percent of people who start Marshall as freshmen are around for their sophomore year, Kopp said. The school’s goal is 60 percent. That’s far below the 92 percent that Ohio State claims, but Marshall has a disadvantage. More than half of Marshall students are first-generation college students. That is, they are the first in their families to attend college. That puts them at a disadvantage in making it through to their second year, Kopp said.

The Sunday editorial will deal with this topic some more.

Kopp: No law school ... and HEPC plotting?

More from Marshall President Stephen Kopp’s meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board:

You know how a lot of Marshall partisans say it makes no sense for a university named after a chief justice of the United States to not have a law school? Well, forget it for now.

Marshall has shelved any plans to start up a law school, Kopp said.

But there are other programs in the works.

This came up when Kopp began talking about an effort within the Higher Education Policy Commission to reassert control over Marshall. For several years, Marshall has had almost total independence from the HEPC, thanks to an act of the Legislature that established separate governing boards for Marshall and WVU.

Without naming names or going into details, Kopp said there are indications the HEPC wants some of that control back.

Since the 1970s, Marshall had proposed 11 new degree programs that were either denied or delayed by the higher education governing authorities, Kopp said. One of those programs that was rejected was a pharmacy school, Kopp said.

Now, with automony, Marshall has a much freer hand to determine what programs it will or won’t offer, he said.

Kopp would not say whether a pharmacy school is or is not being considered.

What he would say is that those being considered are undergoing thorough business analyses.

Kopp said he wants to see such a plan before any program is considered, and that plan must assume that no money will be coming from the Legislature for it. Marshall must have the resources for the program, there must be a student demand for it and there must be a societal need, he said.

In other words, any new programs must be able to pay their own way.

Kopp: S.T.E.M. academy

More from Marshall President Stephen Kopp’s meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board:

Kopp wants the Marshall campus to have a STEM academy. That’s a place where high school students gifted in science, technology, engineering and mathematics could take college classes.

Several states, such as Kentucky, Illinois and North Carolina, have STEM academies. If West Virginia has any, it’s a well-kept secret.

To start his academy, all Kopp needs is space and money.

Kopp said the model school at Kellogg Elementary in Huntington’s Westmoreland neighborhood is the forerunner of what a STEM academy at Marshall could be.

“It could help the entire state in terms of helping students prepare at the highest level,” Kopp said.

As usual, there are questions. The Legislature needs to support the idea, but Marshall has some planning to do before it can approach the Legislature. It must decide whether the academy would be supported by public funds, private funds or both.

It could rob local high schools of some of their brightest students, and it could affect the funding public schools receive from the state based on their attendance.

There will be more on this on The Herald-Dispatch editorial page on Monday.

Odds and ends, 11/2/07

Most of you probably heard two related news items this week.

First, that Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the man who flew the Enola Gay and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, died. To his dying day, he was unrepentant for having done that. And he did not want a tombstone, because he did not want to provide protestors a place to gather.

Second, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that the Japanese government must pay medical benefits of Koreans who were in Hiroshima that day. The Koreans were there as forced laborers.

I have visited Hiroshima. I walked past the usual protest signs branding Americans as war criminals for dropping the bomb. I also know Japanese nationals can be uncomfortable when you mention Pearl Harbor. I have asked two. One said he did not know how to talk to Americans about Pearl Harbor. The other said she had visited Pearl Harbor.

Inside the Peace Museum, you will see the stone steps with a permanent shadow cast on it. The shadow was where a person was sitting, waiting for the bank to open, when the bomb went off. You will see a tricycle mangled by the bomb. You will see photos of the injuries of people who survived the blast. And you will see a model of Hiroshima before the bomb and Hiroshima after the bomb.

And you can see copies of messages sent by Hiroshima's mayors to various national leaders following nuclear weapons tests.

If you want to a different experience, go to the Air Force museum in Dayton. When I was there a few years ago, the exhibit focuses on the Allied military lives saved by the quick end brought by the A-bomb's use.

There are various theories that bombing Hiroshima had political reasons, too. The Soviet Union had just entered the war against Japan, and President Truman wanted to secure Japan before the USSR could invade from the north and take Hokaido and perhaps part of the main island of Honshu.

To me, the real tragedy of Hiroshima was that Nagasaki had to be bombed, too, before Japan surrendered.

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I did something unusual the other night. I actually watched more than five minutes of "The O'Reilly Factor." I was only watching because Dennis Kucinich was on to talk with O'Reilly about the Democratic debate the night before. One thing that O'Reilly said made me really said. He said he likes Kucinich.

That saddened me because I like Kucinich, too. Not because of his politics. I disagree with a lot of what Kucinich stands for. But I like Kucinich because he at least seems to be genuine and not a prepackaged product.

Kucinich was in Huntington late in the 2004 primary season. By then, John Kerry had the nomination sewed up. I have no idea why Kucinich was running then or now unless there was a degree of ego involved. But Kucinich visited a couple of places here -- the Java Joint and Ebenezer Medical Outreach. I could talk to him as much as I wanted. No handlers, nobody to keep me in a roped-off area. Just the candidate walking around, talking with people.

I wonder if that's how things work in Iowa and New Hampshire. I wish it could work more often. When John Edwards was here in the summer of 2004, there was absolutely no media availability. I can understand some of that. From his point of view, he didn't want all his work to be ruined by being misquoted in some dinky newspaper in a dinky town he wouldn't think of visiting if he weren't running for office. But it still burns me.

As far as I know, what you see with Kucinich is what you get. You can dislike him for his ideas, but at least they seem to be his ideas.

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This is where I want to go sometime on vacation:





Too bad it's on Mars.


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Okay, I've stayed away from the bash-the-ACLU, praise-the-ACLU arguments people get into. But I couldn't let this one go by.

This is from an AP story about the textbook controversy in Kanawha County:

“Parents may have a fundamental right to send their child to a public school, but they don’t have a fundamental right to direct the way public schools teach their child,” said Terri Baur, interim director of the state ACLU chapter. “Think about the implications of this. Are they going to pull a math textbook because a parent doesn’t like the way multiplication is being taught?”

When the smart people tell me I have no business wanting my wishes known on how my child is educated, oh how I want vouchers. I want back some of the money I'm spending on property taxes so I can use it to have my child educated properly.

I've given my opinion before on the particular fight in Kanawha County. But attitudes like the one above is why so many parents pull their kids from public schools.

As far as math instruction, I am very disappointed with at least one high school geometry text I have seen. It is so far dumbed down from the one I used in the 1970s, you wonder if they're teaching the same subject.

$3.199 a gallon

That's what I saw at one of the area's largest convenience store chains today, but it's not the record. Those of you with long memories might recall that gasoline was selling for $3.449 a gallonin these parts on May 22 of this year. Should you be interested, record prices locally:

8/3/06: $3.159
5/3/07: $3.199
5/15/07: $3.299
5/22/07: $3.449

Remember back on Aug. 5, 2005, when we were shocked that the pump price reached an all-time high of $2.459. Oh, how we want those days back.

My theory is that the price is headed for $3.50 or more, but retailers know they can't raise the pump price 50 cents overnight, so we're in for several weeks of incremental increases. That assumes the price of crude oil remains at or near $90 a barrel between now and then.

I seem to remember reading that gasoline has been underpriced for several weeks, so even if crude goes down, I doubt that retail prices will fall very fast.

These are merely my guesses. I got out of the prophecy business years ago.

Kopp: The football team

More from Marshall President Stephen Kopp’s meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board:

As the meeting was about to end, Kopp wanted to talk about something that no one had asked about. He said he was pleased with attendance at football games this year. Attendance has averaged about 29,000, not counting the WVU game, he said. A good turnout makes a difference to the young football players and the staff, he said.

So I had to ask if coach Mark Snyder will be back next year.

“Yes, he will,” Kopp said.

Kopp said Snyder is bringing in players of high character and high caliber. “He recruited these guys. He deserves the opportunity to win with these guys.”

Kopp said it seemed players were being arrested at the rate of one a week when he came to Marshall, but now arrests are unusual.

“I am willing to be patient when I see the progress that is being made.”

So I asked about the assistants and coordinators, if they will return with Snyder next season. All Kopp would say on the record was, “I’ll address that at the end of the season.”

(More on the Kopp interview late tomorrow afternoon).

Kopp: New dorms

During his meeting with The Herald-Dispatch editorial board on Wednesday, the subject of the new dorms being built at Marshall came up, specifically the fact they are of wood frame construction.

Kopp said the new buildings exceed building code requirements, and they are built better than 95 percent of the buildings in Huntington. All residential areas will have sprinklers, and walls will be able to withstand one to two hours of fire, he said.
He also noted the buildings will have brick exteriors, not plastic.

“This is the way companies are building residence halls today,” Kopp said.
“If my children were young enough to go to college, those are the residence halls I would want them to live in.” he said.

The wood frames will allow flexibility for the buildings in the future, Kopp said. The Twin Towers were built in the 1960s or 1970s, and they have very little flexibility. They are showing their age, and students do not want to live in them because they do not fit the way students want to live nowadays, Kopp said.

Kopp then turned the question around. Should Huntington require all multi-tenant residential buildings to have sprinklers, he asked. The Emmons buildings were of concrete and steel construction, but they did not have sprinklers, he said.