Oh yeah, that code-sharing agreement

Gosh, it was so hard to get.

Great Lakes Airlines, are you bankrupt yet?

Hm, just checked their website....apparently not yet. Still providing unreliable service and canceled flights across the American West. The only cities they "serve" that come anywhere near the Great Lakes, though, are Manistee and Ironwood, Michigan, and Rhinelander, Wisconsin.

Criminy, it's only 80 miles from Rhinelander to Ironwood. Who on earth would fly that route?

Scam artists.

Coincidence or Extraterrestrial Evidence?

HRH executive John Grossmeier = Big Love's Selma Green. Eerie.

Good Work

An excellent, sober, detailed, factual analysis of the financial problems in the Quincy Public Schools in today's Whig.

That's what good local journalism looks like.

Free Speech

1. "Major John Spring said if the public is given free rein to speak on a regular basis at council meetings, he feels the city might have to step up its security in case any threatening remarks or actions emerge."

Doggone dangerous citizens. Shouldn't the dreadful Kirkwood, Mo., incident from a couple of years ago have alerted the city to step up its security already? Security at public meetings is very important whether the citizens get to speak or not. The speaking issue is a red herring. If there isn't adequate security at council meetings by now, the city has been shamefully remiss.

2. "Spring also said the city might need to consider incorporating some technology into its live telecasts to allow a short delay before the meeting gets broadcast. This would give city officials a chance to bleep out any inappropriate or slanderous comments."

Surely someone will point out to them that censoring the broadcast of comments at the council meeting arguably puts the city in a worse legal position regarding slanderous comments than not censoring them? Because then you're making content-based decisions.

3. "City Clerk Jenny Hayden said one of her concerns involves giving the public
until noon Monday to sign up. She said this could conflict with the city’s requirement to have its agenda posted at least 48 hours in advance. She said if a speaker wants to talk about something on the agenda, that request needs to be publicized in advance."

Nonsense. Put on the agenda as item #20 or whatever, "Public Comments." There. It's on the agenda.

4. “I think the names are irrelevant,” said Alderman Steve Duesterhaus, D-2. “I don’t care who comes to address the council. It’s the content (that is most mportant). If you don’t know what the content is, you don’t know if it’s appropriate or proper, and you leave it up to the chair to have to decide whether it is or not.”

See #2 above. While it may arguably be legal to discriminate against speakers based on the anticipated content of what they are going to say, it's a public relations disaster, and it goes against the fundamental idea of a democracy, which is that citizens need to have the right to be heard by their elected representatives.

Who gets to decide what's "appropriate" or "proper"? This is one of the most ridiculous pieces of stonewalling that the city government has engaged in.

Creative problem-solving

Problem: You're an East Texas college football coach (A & M - Commerce), and two of your players have been arrested on drug charges. Worse yet, a story about the arrest is on the front page of the college newspaper.

Solution: After practice, have the team go around to the racks and steal every copy of the newspaper. Problem solved!

Icing on the cake: Tell the campus police, "I am proud of my players for doing that. This was the best team building exercise we have ever done."

Bonus quote: The athletic director, having heard that the newspapers had been stolen, immediately suspected the coach of organizing the activity because he "didn't think they were smart enough to do this on their own."

Working My Way Through the Logic

OK, I can see that the downtown parking lots need fixing up.

OK, I can see that having better parking lots would make for a nicer downtown.

But a special taxing district that would last for 23 years? Seems to me that the solution is much larger than the problem. Why not just fix the parking lots?

Hm, maybe it's the fact that creating a TIF would give the city the right to acquire property either through purchase or through eminent domain (page 16)? So that the downtown can be reshaped according to the vision of the city planning department, rather than through the choices of the people who actually own property down there? Or does that sound too paranoid? And why the odd boundaries on the map? Three corners of 8th and Maine are blighted but the fourth corner isn't? And only half of the block on the south side of Maine between 8th and 9th is blighted -- cross the alley and you're in the "unblighted" half?

The downtown is in dire need of rejuvenation, that is for sure. But if I was a property owner in the proposed TIF district, I'd be looking to get out before the city decided I was "unsuitable" and told me to fix up or sell.

Hmm.....let's see......

The school district needs to cut another $2 million.

Well, it's going to cost $750,000 to fix the turf at Flinn Stadium, so they say. So I'm guessing that not doing that is a good starting place.

But if they don't fix the turf....where will the football team play? How about nowhere?

Canceling that program would save tons of money in salaries, travel costs, equipment, maintenance, etc.

To keep a balance going between sports and arts, an equal amount should be cut from the music/theater/drama department.

There. That's a start.