http://www.dailyindependent.com en-us Copyright CNHI All Rights Reserved. 5 Fri, 09 May 2008 18:00:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130180217.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130180217.html Marco Allen Chapman wants to die. He’s likely to get his wish, passing inmates who have been on death row for much longer, on his way to receiving a lethal injection. Fri, 09 May 2008 17:57:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130175943.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130175943.html The tuition increase for the state’s community and technical colleges, approved Friday by the Council on Postsecondary Education, is less than half of what the two-year commuter colleges requested. Michael McCall, president of the system that includes Ashland Community and Technical College, says that’s a bad thing, but students attending the schools — and their parents — likely will think its a good thing. Fri, 09 May 2008 15:14:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130151758.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130151758.html A sensible air safety bill that has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives has been grounded in the Senate. However, the reason for the bill’s apparent demise has nothing to do with air safety. Instead, the bill was thwarted by other unrelated provisions added to it. Fri, 09 May 2008 15:11:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130151313.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130151313.html Having a truly Tri-State bus system serving Ashland, Ironton, Huntington and points in between has been tried before without much success. However, with gasoline prices soaring to nearly $4 per gallon, the timing may be right for the launching of bus routes serving all three states. After all, with each increase in the price at the pump, taking the bus becomes a more appealing option. Fri, 09 May 2008 14:07:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130140924.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_130140924.html When former Gov. Ernie Fletcher began his term in 2003, his new secretary of commerce — Ashland native Jim Host, the well-known and highly successful founder of Host Communications — vowed to make the state parks system self-sufficient, if not profitable. Through more efficient management, more aggressive marketing and higher prices, Host was convinced he could reverse the years — no, make that decades — of losses for the park system long billed as “the nation’s finest.”So was he successful? Not at all. Thu, 08 May 2008 15:42:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_129154411.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_129154411.html Looking for a quick and easy way to help feed the hungry? Just leave a few cans or boxes of non-perishable food by the mailbox Saturday morning. Before the end of the day, postal workers will help see that that food is in the hands of local agencies that help feed the hungry. In what has become a tradition on the Saturday before Mother’s Day, area members of the National Association of Letter Carriers again will be participating in the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive. Thu, 08 May 2008 15:33:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_129153927.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_129153927.html The Ashland Alliance and others involved in economic development in this community should send news of the latest contract between Kentucky Electric Steel and members of Local 7504 of the United Steelworkers of America to companies they are attempting to recruit. It should dispel any remaining perceptions that this is a tough labor town. Wed, 07 May 2008 17:41:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_128174355.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_128174355.html Members of the Boyd County Fiscal Court had no legal obligation to repair two roads in the Lakinview Heights Subdivision and could even be accused of setting a bad precedent by doing so. But the three commissioners and Boyd County Judge-Executive William “Bud” Stevens are making the minimal repairs to Tristen Way and Taylor Lane for the right reasons. Sometimes even a bad precedent is the right thing to do. Tue, 06 May 2008 16:36:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_127163755.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_127163755.html Craig Allen Thomas of Ashland won something of a victory before the 9th District U.S. Court of Appeals Monday, but it probably was not the one he wanted. Instead of overturning Thomas’ conviction for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine, the appeals court sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa for resentencing. Thomas still is likely to spend many years behind bars, but he may get his 250-month sentence reduced. Tue, 06 May 2008 16:33:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_127163448.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_127163448.html The gas-tax holiday proposed by first John McCain and then Hillary Clinton is a gimmick that may be good politics, but is bad economics. No wonder its chances of being approved by Congress range between slim and none. Mon, 05 May 2008 16:59:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_126165852.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_126165852.html Mildred Loving never sought, nor received, widespread recognition for her role in breaking down racial barriers, but her death Friday at the age of 68 serves as a positive reminder of just how far this nation has come in just 41 years. Mon, 05 May 2008 16:52:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_126165457.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_126165457.html As a teacher at Ashland Community College for more than four decades, Opal Conley touched the lives of hundreds of college students, helping to learn and even enjoy science classes that many students loathe. Mrs. Conley, 86, died Friday. Fri, 02 May 2008 14:10:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123141219.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123141219.html Here’s a bit of good news for the health of the youngest among us: 77 percent of new mothers in the United States now are breast feeding, at least initially. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta says that’s the highest rate in at least 20 years and bodes well for the health of the infants Fri, 02 May 2008 14:07:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123140914.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123140914.html Russell Mayor Bill Hopkins admits that the city’s new recycling program is “exactly” like the one Ashland started last October. And why not? Ashland’s program has been so successful that it is an idea worth copying, not only in Russell but in other area communities. Fri, 02 May 2008 13:46:00 +0000 http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123134845.html http://www.dailyindependent.com/editorials/local_story_123134845.html The 2008 Kentucky General Assembly will likely always be remembered as much for what it failed to do as for what it accomplished, but at least a few positive steps forward were taken during a session that some long-time observers have called the worst in the state’s history.