By making his biggest investment to date in a traditional American industry, Warren Buffett unequivocally expressed his faith in the future of the U.S. economy.
While Kentuckians watched from the sidelines while voters in Ohio, Virginia, New Jersey and other states went to the polls to vote Tuesday, Kentucky’s once-every-four-years break from constant campaigns ended just hours after the votes had been counted in other states.
Invariably, every election produces some results that are, to say the least, a bit surprising. Here is one from Tuesday’s vote in neighboring Ohio:
Did you sleep well last night? Apparently, many Kentuckians would answer that question with a resounding, “No!” according to the first government study to monitor state-by-state differences in sleeplessness.
Since it was initiated in January of 2008, Project Graduation — a collaborative effort between the Council on Postsecondary Education and the state’s universities — has encouraged 203 former students to return to college and earn their four-year degrees.
The recent rash of school closings because of the flu has led to legislative proposals to change the way Kentucky calculates the amount of state funds local districts receive. It is an idea that has generated much discussion among legislators for at least 20 years — but no action. Will it be any different in 2010? Don’t bet on it.
Although architects have just started drawing plans for the new Boyd County High School and the building will not be ready for occupancy until at least the 2013-2014 school year, it is clear than school officials already have put much thought into the building and there is much about which to get excited.
Help is needed to understand reform
GOP opposes a public option
Private services can reduce abuse
Elected county officials who have expressed shock and dismay over a scathing audit of the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) may soon be joined by elected city officials throughout the state. That’s because the office of Kentucky Auditor Crit Luallen also is auditing the expenditures of the Kentucky League of Cities and that audit is expected to be released before the end of the year.
Kentucky Auditor Crit Luallen has released her office’s audit of the Kentucky Association of Counties (KACo) for the period from July 1, 2006, through June 30, 2009, and its findings should enrage county officials throughout the state and taxpayers who have helped support the wasteful spending of the organization that portends to be the voice of the state’s 120 counties in Frankfort.
For the record, Sunday is the longest day of the year — 25 hours. We gain that extra hour as we “fall back” from daylight saving time to standard time.
Ashland attorney Ernest M. Pitt Jr. is an excellent choice as the new Area 4 director for the Kentucky Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. Pitt knows first hand the essential role National Guard and Reserve units play in today’s military and how the support of civilian employers is critical for both the National Guard and the Reserve to maintain the manpower they need to do their increasingly important jobs.
Think of Gov. Steve Beshear’s appointment of state Sen. Dan Kelly as circuit court judge for Green, Marion, Taylor and Washington counties as the start of Round 2 of the governor’s effort to regain control of the Kentucky Senate for the Democratic Party. Just how successful the governor will be in this round will depend on whether a Democrat or a Republican wins the Senate seat vacated by Kelly in a special election set for Dec. 8 in the four counties.
Tiny goblins, witches, ghosts and other not-so-scary creatures will be roaming the streets throughout Ashland, Boyd County and most other area communities tonight as young children celebrate Halloween by going trick-or-treating.
As we prepare for this annual event, we offer a few words of caution:
While we are not certain just how far $2 million will go toward improving dental care in Kentucky, but as former newspaper publisher Al Smith, retired host of “Comment on Kentucky” and former chairman of the Appalachian Regional Commission, said: At least “it’s a start” and “a promise kept.”
Tuesday night’s forum at the Boyd County Fairgrounds conducted by the Kentucky Department of Charitable Gaming was premature. It was called to get public comments to proposed reforms that will affect local gaming operations, but it is difficult to comment on changes that are still a work in progress.
The turbulent six-year tenure of Jeff May as superintendent of the Lawrence County School System has ended. Let us hope his departure will put an end to the constant controversy that has hampered progress in the district since May’s arrival in Lawrence County in 2003 and that the finger-pointing, accusations and angry words will be replaced by a renewed commitment by all parties to quality education. The children of Lawrence County deserve nothing less.
Baby boomers surely can identify with the efforts of Lexington teacher Roger Guffey to improve the penmanship of his high school students. After all, most of us in our sixth decade — or older — went to elementary school at a time when we received grades for penmanship and some of us were praised for our beautiful cursive writing skills.
Boyd County’s removal from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s non-attainment list for 24-hour fine particulate matter standards does not mean that the quality of this community’s air has improved to the point that it no longer discourages economic development, but it certainly is a step in the right direction. More importantly, it is a clear indication that the quality of our air is improving, and that’s good news for the health of all of us who have to breathe that air.
A bipartisan resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives would give both the elected representatives and the American people time to read the final version of a bill before it is voted on by the entire House. It would eliminate the mad rush to enact bills that House members have not even had time to read and would actively seek public input on the bill’s final version before it is too late.
The revamped Jimmy Carter Library and Museum reopened Oct. 1 — the former president’s 85th birthday — with more space being devoted to Carter’s time after his presidency than any other presidential library. That’s as it should be. Jimmy Carter has had more accomplishments as a former president than he had as president.
The number of illegal tire dumps in Kentucky is increasing rapidly, local solid waste management officials say, and without more money for the Kentucky Waste Tire Fund established to clean up the dumps and assure the safe disposal of old tires, the problem is likely to get much worse.
Like the baseball player elected to the Hall of Fame after his retirement, Betty Kearns of Ashland has received her most prestigious career award four years after she retired from the Ashland office of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Even more impressive, Kearns, 72, is the first “worker bee” (her term) to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the AFT. She retired as an investigative analyst for the AFT at the end of 2005.
Most people realize that American students lag far behind the rest of the world when it comes to learning a second language, but far less has been written about how our poor language skills are creating economic disadvantages for U.S. businesses and are raising national security concerns.
A new report from the state Justice and Public Safety Cabinet says prescriptions for controlled substances are up in all but two of Kentucky’s 120 counties.
Let’s be realistic: If anything, the odds of Kentucky’s regional mental health programs securing $75 million in new state funding in the two-year budget that will be enacted by the 2010 General Assembly are probably worse than they were two years ago when the Kentucky Association of Regional Mental Health Programs first made the request.
If voters in the Greenup County precinct of Bellefonte approve the legal sale of alcoholic beverages at the Bellefonte Country Club in a special Dec. 1 referendum, it likely will have a positive impact on the members-only golf club, but regardless of the outcome of that vote, the impact on the rest of the community will be minimal.
Although located many miles downstream from Ashland, the failure of a gate at the Markland Locks and Dam on the Ohio River near Gallatin is certain to have a negative economic impact on this community and region.
The annual fall fire season has officially begun in Kentucky with the arrival of October. Fortunately, because of the plentiful rain we have had in recent days, the threat of forest and brush fires currently is extremely low. That doesn’t mean conditions won’t change with a few days of dry weather.
Officials at Keeneland in Lexington are blaming the national economy on the sharpest drop in sales ever recorded at the September Yearling Sale. We hope that’s the only reason for the decline, and it’s not also because buyers are losing confidence in the quality of racehorses bought and sold in Kentucky.
Total student enrollment at Kentucky’s private and state supported colleges and universities reached an all time high this fall, and the number one reason for the increase is unmistakable: The 16 community and technical colleges.
Board of regents members of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System have decided the negatives of eliminating tenure outweigh the positives. Thus, the KCTCS board Friday voted unanimously to rescind a decision made in the spring to eliminate tenure for faculty hired on or after July 1.
Thumbs up to Lea Ann Gollihue for being named an Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition in Adoption Institute. While she is one of 190 local angels to be recognized, we can’t imagine anyone more deserving than Gollihue of national recognition for work on adoption and foster care issues.
Learning more about the Colonels
Help get Glen Beck off of Fox News
Indigenous people snubbed by U.S
If it’s not made in U.S., don’t buy it
Republican leaders of the Ohio Senate are taking a page from their colleagues in the Kentucky Senate. They are trying to shift responsibility for making the spending cuts needed to erase a projected $933 million deficit in Ohio’s budget for the current fiscal year to the state’s Democrat governor, Ted Strickland.
Kings Island has apologized for an offensive Halloween display of skeletons dressed up as dead celebrities, including Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett. Frankly, we are surprised — and disappointed — that the family-oriented theme park 24 miles north of Cincinnati ever thought such a display was anything but tasteless.
State Rep. Fitz Steele, a Hazard Democrat, is hoping to convince legislators in 2010 that Kentucky should join a growing number of states that have enacted laws creating sales tax holidays. However, while creating a temporary tax break for consumers, studies of sales tax holidays in other states have found them to have only a minimal impact on retail sales while actually increasing the burden on retail businesses by forcing them to temporarily adjust cash registers to not add the sales tax on exempted items
Have two decades of steady progress in student learning in Kentucky’s public schools come to a sudden halt or, worse yet, moved into reverse? Not yet, but there is cause for concern.
If after reading the above editorial, you may think Kentucky must rank near the bottom in just about every negative area. Well, here’s a bit of good news: Despite its high level of poverty, Kentucky ranks above the national average in the percentage of children with health insurance. According to the latest figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, 93 percent of Kentucky children have health insurance, compared with 90 percent for the United States overall.
The Corporation for Enterprise Development — a privately funded nonprofit entity — has given Kentucky a D for efforts to help families secure financial security. Lest one think the rating too harsh, consider the following statistics cited by the CFED:
In one of his many words of wisdom, the late baseball great Satchell Paige advised, “Don’t look back — someone may be gaining on you.”
While Boyd County Fiscal Court has resumed its $5,000 annual contribution to Tri-State Airport and Boyd Judge-Executive William “Bud” Stevens has appointed Economic and Community Development Director Nickie Smith to replace the late Morris Griffiths as the county’s representative on the airport’s board of directors, one suspects the contribution would have been discontinued and the board seat would have remained unfilled if Tri-State Airport Director Jerry Brienza had not brought the county’s snubbing of the airport to light.
A ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court Monday should send a clear message to legislators in neighboring Kentucky: Abandon the idea of placing video slot machines at race tracks in the state without the approval of voters in a statewide referendum. The odds of the courts turning thumbs down to expanded gambling without the approval of voters are just too great.
Thumbs up to Ashland’s Hager Elementary School for being named a 2009 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, one of only six Blue Ribbon school in Kentucky and 314 nationwide.
While all seven horse racing tracks in Ohio have filed applications with the Ohio Lottery Commission to operate video slot machines, only two of those tracks — both in northern Ohio — met the deadline for initial $13 million payments for gaming licenses. Insiders say the still uncertain future of expanded gambling in the Buckeye State have made it difficult for tracks to line up investors for the slot machines the Ohio Lottery hopes to have operating at the seven tracks by May.
While the confirmed cases of swine flu have yet to reach epidemic proportions in Kentucky (and we hope it doesn’t), the disease has led to the cancellation of at least one high school football game in the state.
An ailing economy coupled with stricter control of the United States’ border with Mexico have led to increase in the amount marijuana being grown in Kentucky.
If anyone would have told officials at the Ohio Department of Transportation in the late 1990s that the second decade of the century would be half over before a new bridge between Ironton and Russell was completed, they likely would not have believed it. After all, at that time, most of the right of way for the new bridge linking Second Street in Ironton with U.S. 23 in Russell had been purchased, the design of the span was nearing completion and the state of Ohio had budgeted $85 million for the project. All systems were go and all that was needed was to advertise for bids on the project, award a contract and begin construction.
Fiscal court right about tax request
Now that a four-year effort by Boyd County government to assume ownership of a private road in Lakinview Heights subdivision appears to be drawing to a close, county officials are considering imposing regulations to assure the situation is not repeated in the future.
A bill co-sponsored by U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, R-4th District, would increase the ability of nonprofit organizations like River Cities Harvest to provide food to the hungry. It would expand the number of businesses eligible to claim tax deductions for the food they donate to charities and provide a new tax break for ranchers and farmers who donate produce to feed the hungry.
One in four college students — 25 percent — believes higher education is not worth the price of attendance, a new Zogby-Scoop44 interactive poll shows. But a closer look at that survey shows that whether one believes college is worth the investment depends largely on how well they do in school.
The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission has restored funding for the Tennessee walking horse breed — but with an important stipulation that could provide an incentive to reduce the widespread cheating that has given walking horse competitions a black eye in recent years.
As if state government did not already have enough economic headaches comes the not-too-surprising news that the state’s fund that pays unemployment benefits is gushing red ink.
There is an excellent reason why the issue of federal regulation of coal ash storage ponds is important to Kentucky: With 44 coal ash ponds within its borders, Kentucky stands second only to Indiana with 53 storage ponds in the number of ponds, according to a new survey by the Environmental Protection Agency. Even more troubling is the same EPA survey found spotty inspections of coal-ash ponds in Kentucky and most other states.
The United Way of Northeast Kentucky has set an ambitious but realistic $750,000 goal for the 2009 campaign in Boyd, Greenup, Carter, Lawrence and Elliott counties.
The small community gardens growing on a leveled hilltop in the Debord Terrace apartment complex would never win any awards. Late in the growing season, the plants are just beginning to produce food for the gardeners. Even with ideal weather this autumn, the yield from the gardens will be far from robust.
More important than the prestigious award State Rep. Tanya Pullin received from the National Federation of Independent Businesses is the law she guided through the Kentucky General Assembly that earned her that award.
House Bill 3 has the potential of creating hundreds of new jobs in small Kentucky communities that have little chance of attracting a major employer that immediately would create hundreds of jobs. Instead, House Bill 3 will create jobs two, three or four at a time by helping small businesses grow.
Many adults who address the Ashland Board of City Commissioners and other public bodies could learn a lot from a group of seventh-graders at George M. Verity Middle School. Instead of simply expressing their views with little or nothing to support them, the students from Verity’s seventh-grade Discovery Team addressed the city’s governing body armed with facts to support their opinions.
The executive committee of the Kentucky Association of Counties Friday took an important and an absolutely necessary step toward restoring the organization’s credibility by requesting and receiving the resignation of Executive Director Bob Arnold.
A large, four-acre vegetable garden and between 75 and 100 fruit trees are proving to be an excellent educational tool for inmates at the Federal Correctional Institution in Summit and a new source of fresh produce for more than a dozen non-profit agencies that help feed the hungry.
Enrollment increased for the fall semester at Ashland Community and Technical College and throughout the statewide community and technical college system despite a sagging economy. Or maybe it is because of a weak economy.
With many workers in this area and throughout the state seeing their jobs disappear, many are opting to enroll in technical programs in hopes of learning skills that will qualify them for new careers. Others who still are employed but are worried about their futures are learning new skills by enrolling in classes part-time — just in case. ACTC officials confirm that most of the enrollment increase this fall is in technical and distance learning programs, indicating that older students are turning to the college to upgrade their skills.
Olive Hill has come up with an excellent way to celebrate the Labor Day weekend that will take advantage of the growing interest in adventure tourism and highlight the greatly improved opportunities for horseback riding in western Carter County. While the first-ever Traveling Horse Rendezvous will be Sept. 4 through Sept. 7, we would not be the least bit surprised if becomes an annual event that annually attracts increasing numbers of horses and their riders.
Boyd Old -Timers breakfast is Oct. 3
1979 South Point class to gather
The Ashland Department of Parks and Recreation is employing a tried and true method of raising funds to make further improvements to Central Park: Selling commemorative bricks. To date, more than $20,000 has been raised to support Central Park by selling bricks and through donations.
The best and brightest of Kentucky high school students are doing better academically, a clear indication that the state’s high schools are doing a better job of preparing their best students for the academic rigors of college.
Vincent J. Fumo is not the first person to complain upon learning that he was being transferred to Ashland. Back in the days when Ashland Inc. called this community home, employees transferred to corporate headquarters from larger cities were so distressed by the thought of living in this community that they would openly gripe that they were doing “3-to-5 years in Ashland,” as if living here were some sort of punishment.
When the massive $787 billion economic stimulus bill became the first major piece of legislation enacted under the new presidency of Barack Obama, it cleared Congress without much help from the Republican minority. Not a single GOP House member voted for the bill and it received only three votes from GOP senators, including one from a then-Republican senator who has since become a Democrat.
Numerous environmental groups, area residents and others oppose mountaintop removal mining and would like nothing better than to see it abolished or, at the very least, greatly curtailed and more stringently regulated. There are right ways and wrong ways to accomplish those objectives and we are currently seeing both of them employed.
First, the right way: Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to overturn a February ruling by the Richmond, Va.-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals that overturned U.S. District Judge Chuck Chambers’ 2007 ruling that required the U.S Army Corps of Engineers to conduct more extensive environmental reviews before issuing permits allowing mining companies to bury stream beds with excess rock and dirt.
For all of his other faults —and he, like most of us, had many — U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was an excellent legislator who left his mark on nearly every single major piece of legislation enacted during his 47 years in the U.S. Senate.
Because of its negative tone, many voters in the 18th District expressed relief that the campaign to replace Sen. Charlie Borders was a brief one. However, for voters in Carter and Lewis counties, the break from political campaigns will be brief, and the strain on the budgets of those two counties will increase.
State Rep. Robin Webb of Grayson has won Tuesday’s special election for the 18th District seat in the Kentucky Senate, but this race was so close that we would not be surprised if we see an instant replay in 2010.
The number of violations of regulations for the humane treatment of Tennessee Walking Horses has tripled compared to last year, but industry supporters say it is because of better inspections
If nothing else, one would hope that the nation’s lending institutions have learned the right lessons from mistakes that helped plunge the nation’s economy into the deepest recession in decades and will avoid making them in the future.
But a disturbing report by the Associated Press indicates that at least some financial institutions are repeating those mistakes by doing virtually the same thing under a different name.
When allegations were made of sexual abuse at the privately-owned Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright, the Kentucky Department of Corrections responded by beginning negotiations to extend its contract with Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the women’s prison. We supported that decision, saying it was wiser to take steps to correct the problems at Otter Creek instead of closing a prison critically needed to house the growing number of female prisoners.
Universal health care not affordable
Manchin restores hope for nation
Health care must change in nation
Gary Duncan gave excellent care
Boyd class plans 20-year reunion
At 51 mpg, the Toyota Prius hybrid now is the most fuel-efficient car on the road, and it’s the chief reason why the Prius, along with other hybrids, have become so popular. But the kind of mileage now delivered by the Prius and other hybrids will be minuscule compared to the fuel efficiency being promised by the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf.
Kentucky high schools continue to do a mediocre job of preparing students for college. In fact, according to the results from last spring’s American College Test released last week, more than eight out of 10 of 2009 high school graduates were deemed inefficient in at least one of the four subject areas tested by the ACT: Reading, math, English and science.
Whether area voters realize it on not, the current race for the 18th District State Senate has given them a taste of what political campaigns are like in most European nations. We like it.
Voters in Greenup, Carter, Lewis, Mason, Robertson and Bracken counties will go to the polls tomorrow to decide the winner of the 18th District State Senate seat vacated when Sen. Charlie Borders resigned to take a seat on the Public Service Commission. While lasting less than a month, this campaign has attracted such political heavyweights as Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis, and the two leading candidates have raised enough money to run almost non-stop political ads in the district. One would almost have to have been living in a cave for the last month to not know that this special election is taking place.
It was was the sort of stupid prank that throughtless young people have been pulling for generations, usually with little or no consequences. But this time the prank sparked a forest fire that charred about 70 acres and will cost the main perpetrator $27,500.
Eighty-nine years after passage of the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote, more women than ever are serving in elective offices in Kentucky. However, the state continues to lag behind the rest of the nation in the number of women elected to office.
Our local news pages have published two stories in recent days about Meals on Wheels programs needing more volunteers.
A program that will allow people charged with hundreds of nonviolent crimes to avoid jail time will be tested in a handful of Kentucky counties, but if it works as hoped, it has the potential to save the state more than $150 million a year.
That kind of savings was predicted by Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Will T. Scott Monday after the state’s highest court approved a pilot program that will allow those charged with more than 700 mostly misdemeanor charges to immediately post bail and go home without spending any time in jail
In the best of circumstances, Ohio’s plan to allow slot machines at the state’s seven racetracks was certain to be unpopular with religious organizations. But when the proposed rules for the slot machines would allow them to operate 24 hours a day, even the Ohio Council of Churches — one of the state’s more liberal church groups — cried foul. The council promised to fight rules that would allow slot machines to operate all the time and would allow 18-yea-olds to play.
Former Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton who has maintained a low profile since leaving office near the end of 2003 has been named the new president at Pikeville College.
Call it Homecoming II — or a way for residents of this community to demonstrate that their support for the sacrifice members of the 201st Engineer Battalion, in defense of freedom during a nearly year long tour of duty in Afghanistan, was not just a one-time event.
Fortunately, good judgment has prevailed and a minor league baseball team has scrapped a promotion it had planned for the day former U.S. Rep. James Traficant is to be released from prison. We realize that teams are willing to try just about anything to attract fans as the season draws to a close, but the Mahoning Valley Scrappers in Youngstown, Ohio, went too far when it announced Sept. 2 would be “Traficant Release Night.
Annual events are always promising to be “bigger and better than ever,” but when it comes to the Boyd County Fair, that is not just idle boasting. The fair really has been getting “bigger and better” in recent years, and we suspect that positive trend will continue with this year’s fair, which opens Tuesday and continues through Saturday at the fairgrounds off U.S. 60 in rural Boyd County.
The collapse of coal ash and gypsum impoundments at two TVA power plants has led the nation’s largest public utility to convert to a safer way of storing waste from coal-fired power plants. Our hope is that TVA’s pro-active move will encourage other power companies to eliminate storage ponds for both coal ash and gypsum.
To say that the new work farm in Greenup County has been successful in reducing the cost of operating the Greenup County Detention Center would be an understatement. In fact, the farm has been so successful that other county jails are considering similar programs.
In the last 30 years, Kentucky has lost literally thousands of apparel jobs that used to provide good, dependable employment in small towns throughout the state, including Olive Hill, Louisa and even Boyd County (Remember Corbin?)
At first glance, David Adkisson, president of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, would seem to be an odd advocate for reducing Kentucky’s prison population.
Kids do no always use the best judgment and pay close enough attention, particularly when walking or riding with a group of children. They can quickly dart into traffic from between parked vehicles or ride their bikes into oncoming traffic. Motorists should be prepared to stop quickly.
After a brief lull, Kentucky communities again are approving ordinances restricting smoking in public. That’s a clear indication that the move to limit public smoking in a state where tobacco was once king is far from over,
It’s no secret that large contributors to political campaigns expect something in return for their generosity. Nevertheless, it is unseemly and downright foolish for a contributor to openly boast that its political gifts have netted two key federal appointments — and that more can be expected.
There are lessons for all county governments in the June theft of $415,989 from a Bullitt County payroll account, and State Auditor Crit Luallen wants to be sure that local governments across the state learn those lessons and take the proper steps to assure that they don’t become a victim of a similar electronic theft.
Attorney General Jack Conway is suffering from what surely is the most dreaded disease of all politicians on the campaign trail: Foot-in-mouth.
The Kentucky Department of Corrections could have used recent allegations of sexual abuse at the privately owned and operated Otter Creek Correctional Center in Wheelwright as a reason to not renew its contract with Corrections Corp. of America to house female inmates at the prison.
