Sunday Sermon

OK, now I can vote Republican

I was unsure what to do about the general election, and I was even toying with the idea of voting for a third party, but this morning Sen. McCain made up my mind for me with the selection of Gov. Palin for GOP veep.



So let me get this straight: The Democratic candidate, Obama, a so-called new face in the crowd, the man who is pledging to bring change to the United States picked up Big Mouth Biden, a Washington fixture and a rich, old, white guy, as his running mate. On the other hand, McCain, the man who Democrats make fun of as a dinosaur, picked a woman, a truly fresh face in politics, as his running mate..

Yes, there are some dumb Ozarkers unfortunately

Not everyone in the Ozarks is smart. The Belleville, Ill., News Democrat reports the following today:

The city of Lake Ozark pleads guilty in federal court to illegally dumping sewage into the popular Lake of the Ozarks.

Mayor Johnnie Franzeskas signed a plea agreement Monday in which the city admitted to repeatedly discharging untreated sewage into the Lake of the Ozarks.

In September 2007, the Missouri Department of National Resources staff observed that a lift station experiencing a bypass caused up to 15,000 gallons of raw sewage to flow into the lake.

The city also agreed to upgrade its wastewater treatment system and report all bypasses.

The city's former public works director, Richard L. Sturgeon, pleaded guilty in late July to failing to report the discharge of raw sewage into the lake.

Lake of the Ozarks is the economic engine for central Missouri. It's the only reason Lake Ozark exists as a community. The city fathers and the city staff literally fouled their own nest.

Supporting Obama or looking for some face time on TV?

Here's a story about a couple of Rolla yahoos calling themselves Rednecks for Obama. I can't figure out if they're really supporting the Illinois senator or if they're just looking for some national television coverage. You decide:

Tony Veissman and his buddy Les Spencer like to hunt and fish. They like their guns, and the self-proclaimed rednecks like Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The two drove to Denver from Rolla, Missouri, to show their support for the Illinois senator. They held their banner "Rednecks for Obama" outside a security checkpoint near the Pepsi Center, where delegates for the Democratic National Convention started gathering today (Monday).

Veissman is a retired Missouri state trooper. He says he doesn't share his fellow rednecks' fear that Obama will try to take away their guns.

Sunday sermon

Obama picks rich, old white guy as his running mate

Democrats are gushing with praise for Sen. Barack Obama's choice of a running mate, a rich, old white guy, Joe Biden.

Biden, 65, is a creature of Washington, a 35-year Senate veteran and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee whose national security credentials will help patch a hole in Obama's relatively thin resume. Polls show that McCain holds a wide lead over Obama on the question of who is better prepared to be commander in chief.

Biden's straighforward style and working-class Catholic roots in Scranton, Pa., were also expected to help Obama appeal to middle- and working-class voters in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania who favored Clinton in the primaries.

Biden was elected to the Senate at the age of 29 in 1972, but personal tragedy struck before he could take office. His wife and their 13-month-old daughter, Naomi, were killed when a tractor-trailer broad-sided her station wagon. Biden took his oath of office for his first term at the hospital bedside of one of his sons

Let me get this straight: He's been a Washington insider for 35 of his 65 years on this planet, wining and dining with the elite. But he's a working class guy? And blue-collar people in Ohio and Pennsylvania are so stupid they'll vote for him because he's just like them?

GateHouse brings in another CNHI publisher

GateHouse Media seems to be cleaning house of its own publishers, at least in the Ozarks, to bring in different perspectives from another corporate chain of papers.

John Tucker, a Community Newspaper Holdings Inc. (CNHI) publisher has been named publisher of the Camdenton Lake Sun Leader and other publications in the Lake Sun group. Here's the Lake Sun Leader's spin:

Tucker is well-versed in all facets of the publishing business.
He assumed the leadership position earlier this month following his appointment by GateHouse Media, the parent company of the Lake Sun family of publications.
Lake Sun Publications includes the area’s only daily newspaper, two weeklies, the WestSide Star and the Focus, Lake Lifestyles magazine, Vacation News, The Edge, Tube Tab, Lake of the Ozarks Boats, Lake of the Ozarks Real Estate, Homes Real Estate and Digital Concepts.
“What interested me about coming to Lake of the Ozarks is that it’s unique, the community is constantly changing and that brings challenges as well as opportunities,” Tucker said. “We have good products and we are growing.”
...“We’re happy to be here and looking forward to becoming members of the community,” Tucker said.

Tucker replaced Jules Molenda. The Rolla Daily News last month named a new publisher, Floyd Jernigan, who also came from CNHI. He replaced Joel Goodridge, longtime publisher with GateHouse and its predecessors Liberty Group and American Publishing Co.

GateHouse, which closed at 60 cents per share Friday, according to Google Finance, is making changes higher up its food chain, too. Rhode Island's Providence Journal reported this today:

GateHouse Media, the financially troubled newspaper company that owns the Herald News of Fall River and the Taunton Daily Gazette in Massachusetts, said yesterday it is replacing its chief financial officer. Mark Thompson has resigned for personal reasons, Gatehouse said, and will be replaced by Mark Maring as interim CFO.

GateHouse (GHS:NYSE) shares closed yesterday at 60 cents, down 2 cents. The company said in a regulatory filing yesterday that it may be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange after its stock fell below $1 and that it had failed to meet a $75-million minimum market capitalization. The company has 45 days to outline compliance plans so it can keep its listing. GateHouse owns 97 newspapers and online publications, mostly in smaller markets.

Maring currently serves as vice president of investor relations and strategic development and will continue to oversee these responsibilities.

“Mark Maring’s experience in the finance and accounting functions as well as his business development background make him the logical choice for interim CFO,” said Michael E. Reed, chief executive officer.

Maring joined GateHouse in March. He previously held financial and accounting positions at Mendon Capital Advisors, Constellation Brands, Arthur Andersen and The Chase Manhattan Bank.

Reed also said, “Mr. Thompson’s resignation was prompted by personal reasons as he has decided to take a new job that will allow him to be closer to his family and move back to his home town.”

Thompson has agreed to stay on with Gatehouse until Sept. 28 and work with Maring.

But wait, there's even more. GateHouse appears to be headed toward delisting by the New York Stock Exchange. The Rochester, N.Y. Democrat and Chronicle, owned by Gannett, reported on its website today the following:

GateHouse may be delisted

Perinton-based GateHouse Media Inc., publisher of 97 daily newspapers and nearly 300 weeklies that include the Post newspapers here, may be delisted by the New York Stock Exchange after its stock fell below $1.

In a regulatory filing Friday, GateHouse said it also failed to meet a $75 million minimum market capitalization.

The company has 45 days to outline compliance plans so it can keep its listing.

Has anyone seen any news about this in the Rolla Daily News, the St. Robert Daily Guide, the St. James Leader-Journal or any of the other Missouri papers owned by GateHouse?

Stewardship of the earth

A local preacher has decided he believes in man-made global warming, and he offers up a few suggestions about how to behave as a Christian and practice good stewardship on the earth.

He has some good ideas, aside from his belief that we are warming up our own nest, and it would certainly be a good idea for everyone to take care of the place a lot better. As Ozarkers we want clean streams and fresh air. We want to keep the public lands free of litter. When we garden or farm, we want to be good stewards of the soil, and I don't believe you can find better conservationists than gardeners and farmers who work their own land.

It's the part about "we need to do something--we must do something--about climate change" that you hear so often nowadays that gives me the creeps. That kind of attitude opens the door to all kinds of mischief from the government. Don't you agree?

An alternative medium

Here's a local website of news and commentary about Rolla that you won't get anywhere else: The No Standing News.

Although I don't like the characterization of Rolla as "the outlaw city of the Ozarks," I enjoy reading this newsletter each month. The editor and his reporters look at issues involving local government with a lot more depth than does the local newspaper, which rarely takes a position contrary to the official positions of the city or county governor or the chamber of commerce.

If you're interested in moving to the Rolla area, I suggest you bookmark and read the archives of the No Standing News, as well as the current issue. Read it critically, just as you should do any newspaper or magazine. You'll find much that you'll never see mentioned in the Rolla Daily News. Read both sources for news. Then you can decide what to believe.

Let's do the sprawl so we can get a TV station

Oh, joy! Oh, joy! We could get more radio stations and maybe even a TV station in Rolla if we'll support the city government in its plans to sprawl Rolla to the west.

Here's the scoop from the Rolla Daily News, posted online Thursday:

Rolla Area Chamber of Commerce members on Wednesday were updated on three development projects that could shape Rolla for generations — the Missouri Route 72 extension, the Rolla West Fifth Interchange and Missouri S&T’s Tech Park.
Elizabeth Bax, executive director of the Rolla Regional Economic Commission (RREC), Steve Hargis, Rolla city engineer, and John Petersen, Rolla city Development Coordinator, each spoke to about 60 members of the Chamber who gathered at Zeno’s Motel & Steak House at 7 a.m. for the Quarterly Breakfast.
With the aid of a PowerPoint presentation, the trio explained the importance of each project to Rolla’s stance in regional economics and growth.
“Rolla West is the key to Rolla’s prosperity,” Bax said, as she began her program. “It is very important if Rolla is to have a regional voice that we continue with this project.”
Bax said the RREC is poised to assist in the growth and attraction of business to Rolla and Phelps County.
“If we grow our population, we will grow our media outlets — more TV and radio stations, and I think we’ll see more government funding,” Bax said ....
Hargis next spoke about the logistics of the developments.
“Rolla West is about 1,000 acres and the Tech Park is about 60 acres,” he said standing in front of a PowerPoint map of the areas. The E-Cubed area on the north side of Interstate 44 is a project the Missouri S&T is promoting in joint projects with the Missouri Highway Patrol that includes the wind turbine and a hydrogen refueling station. E-Cubed represents Education, Energy and Environment, credos for the development located just north of Interstate 44.
“We’d like to see this grow and make Rolla stronger,” Hargis said. “Ninety percent of all the money for our Street Department comes from sales taxes. We grow those numbers and we’ll be able to do more for our streets.”
While Bax provided a vision and Hargis discussed the logistics of getting the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed, it was Petersen who provided Chamber members a map of what Rolla West may be....
"We can see a hospitality district, a big-box store or more, a general retail and even an entertainment district. There are 1.65 square miles here,” Petersen said.
And while plans are grand, it may not happen immediately.
“We don’t expect to see all this happen for 20 to 30 years, but we’re getting there. Ridgeview Drive is one-sixth of the way there. It has to happen first. It’s not like this is the chicken-and-the-egg thing.”

Here's some more good news: We might be able to get federal tax money "earmarked" for the project. The RDN reported:

During a Rolla Optimists meeting later Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Cape Girardeau), who is touring her district during a Congressional recess, said she would be in favor of federally earmarked money for Rolla West.
“This could be federal money,” Emerson told a group of 22 Optimists in the Gasconade Room of the Havener Center.

Rolla puts its tax money to good use

Here in Rolla, the majority of us love national chain stores, and we're doing everything we can to attract them, including spending tax money.
Just a stone's throw from my house, Walgreen's is building a store. To help with the flow of traffic into and out of the parking lot, the city is widening a street to the tune of $1 million.
According to a story in the Rolla Daily News in June:

This first phase of the extension’s construction will involve only the frontage of the Walgreens drug store.
The project will be completed by the City of Rolla’s Public Works Department. Traffic control will be coordinated by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT).
The right of way for the portion of street adjacent to the Walgreen’s property was donated by Walgreens, and MoDOT contributed the design for this first phase of construction.
(Public Works Director Steve) Hargis estimates a total cost of $200,000-to-$250,000 for the first phase, and it includes costs for labor, concrete pavement and curbs. This is in addition to the Walgreens and MoDOT contributions.
The total cost of constructing the extension from U.S. Route 63 to Walker would be approximately $1 million, Hargis said.
Hargis did not know a timetable for the completion of the rest of the extension.
“We’re in the process of working with HNTB Inc. (consulting engineers) of Kansas City, to develop a master plan, go over some financing options and determine how the project might be timed,” Hargis said.

That's $1 million of mostly public tax money to pay for what amounts to an entrance to a privately owned business. In exchange, Rolla will likely lose one or two of its three locally owned pharmacies. The Walgreen's photo department might even put the home-owned photo developer downtown out of business. That's a small price to pay for the convenience of having a 24-hour pharmacy.
Maybe the owners and employees of the pharmacies and the downtown photo job can find jobs at Walgreen's. We don't want them to be jobless. After all, they need an income so they pay taxes in Rolla--taxes that we need to help us attract more business.

Rain two consecutive nights

I dumped half an inch of precip from my rain gauge at 5:30 a.m. today.

I dumped 2 inches at 5:30 a.m. yesterday, but I'm not sure if that was accurate. I watered the new iris bed I planted for my wife and the rain gauge is right next to it. Perhaps some of the spray got into the gauge, so it's possible we didn't get 2 inches of rain. We got a lot of rain, though; I suspect it was nearly 2 inches, and we needed every 10th of it.

We need Sarah Steelman's conservative principles

Voting in the Republican primary Tuesday, I cast only one vote. All the local candidates were unopposed, so I didn't mark their names, and I didn't know enough about the candidates for lieutenant governor to make an informed choice, so I left that one blank, too. For the GOP nomination for governor, I voted for Sarah Steelman, because she seemed to me to be a real Republican.

A friend at work was talking about the election at lunch today and he said that he, too, voted for Steelman. "I've only talked to her once," he said, "but she reminds me of Ronald Reagan."

I agree; Steelman seems to me to be a conservative first and a Republican second. That's what we need in government: a principled conservative.

Instead, the Republican voters gave us Hulshof.

Rolla newspaper columnist seems to endorse Obama

I quite possibly fell asleep and woke up in another dimension, perhaps the Twilight Zone. I say that because the local newspaper has gone goofy for Obama. As noted in a previous entry in this diary, the paper waxed poetic about the preparations for Obama's visit to Rolla last week. I discovered (a week late) that Publisher Emeritus Stephen E. Sowers is backing Obama for president. Sowers headlined his column Thursday (yes, that was a week ago, but I just don't keep up on the local news as I probably should): "It was fantastic having Barack Obama in Rolla."

He went on to write:

I have not attended many political rallies in my near 50 years as a newspaper person, but I never before heard about or experienced anything like what I witnessed in our town on Wednesday.
It was amazing. It was incredible. And it was fantastic for Rolla ... The people I saw at the rally all seemed to have a hopeful look in their eye. They are anxious for a change and they think Obama is the person to bring about serious, necessary changes. They appear to already revere Obama and he is not yet president.
Obama generates major excitement in a crowd. He is articulate, dynamic and he speaks with substance, no matter what some may say, about the important issues facing our country.
If his supporters have elevated him to rock-star or movie-star status, so be it. I like that. I think it is good for the country to have a large segment of the population excited about the changes that Obama promises for 2009 and beyond. And truly believe he can pull it off.
"Change we can believe in." That is the message we hear wherever Obama goes. It is the message resonating throughout the country.
I'm hearing it. And now I'm believing the Obama plan just might work.
I'm believing also that Obama deserves a chance to show us what he can do. The other side has had eight years to lead us, and, frankly, the results are not good.
Best of luck in your venture, Senator Obama!
By the way, senator, having met you, we're already doing better in Rolla.

Is that an endorsement? Sounds like one to me.

Sowers endorsed Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole and George W. Bush. Now he's endorsing Barack Hussein Obama. That's what is really amazing and incredible.

Daily papers cutting Monday publication

Editor & Publisher, the trade journal for the newspaper business, reports today that GateHouse Media, which owns many papers in Missouri, is dropping Monday editions on several newspapers. The article reads in part:

The McPherson (Kan.) Sentinel said Wednesday it is dropping its Monday edition, making the paper the latest GateHouse Media Inc.-owned daily to drop Mondays in cutting costs.

"With skyrocketing newsprint and fuel prices, the writing was on the wall that we were going to have to do something drastic to keep our expenses in line," Publisher Gary Mehl said in a statement. "To cut one publishing day has been one of the most difficult decisions of my 43-year career at The Sentinel.

The Sentinel will not publish next Monday and will become a five-day paper, publishing Tuesdays through Saturdays.

Other GateHouse papers in Kansas are also dropping "at least" one publishing day, Mehl said, including The Augusta Daily Gazette; The Derby Reporter; The El Dorado Times; and the Wellington Daily News.

Two GateHouse papers in Illinois announced in recent weeks they are dropping Monday editions.

If it's happening to papers on either side of the Show-Me State, when will the cuts begin here?

GateHouse Media closed at 69 cents per share today, according to MSN.