You are currently browsing the monthly archive for July 2009.
A while back, Kristin did a great piece on Indian Head Rock. Here’s an update on the story from the AP.
A KENTUCKY PROSECUTOR WANTS TO DISMISS CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST AN OHIO MAN WHO LED EFFORTS TO REMOVE AN 8-TON ROCK FROM THE OHIO RIVER.
HISTORIAN STEVE SHAFFER SPARKED AN INTERSTATE BORDER FIGHT BETWEEN KENTUCKY AND OHIO IN SEPTEMBER, 2007, WHEN HE LED A CREW OF DIVERS TO RAISE THE INDIAN HEAD ROCK. SHAFFER BROUGHT IT TO NEARBY PORTSMOUTH, OHIO.
SHAFFER’S CRIMINAL TRIAL WAS SET TO BEGIN EARLY NEXT MONTH. BUT GREENUP COUNTY COMMONWEALTH’S ATTORNEY CLIFF DUVALL SAYS IN PAPERS FILED FRIDAY THAT SHAFFER’S ROCK MAY NOT BE THE ACTUAL HISTORIC BOULDER IN QUESTION.
DUVALL DID NOT RETURN A CALL SEEKING COMMENT. THE ROCK SHAFFER FOUND BEARS NUMEROUS CARVINGS OF INITIALS, NAMES AND A CRUDE FACE. SHAFFER WAS FACING UP TO FIVE YEARS IN PRISON. A GREENUP COUNTY JUDGE MUST STILL DECIDE ON DUVALL’S MOTION.
The New York Times has a story on swimmers’ respiratory health, which in many cases isn’t as good as you’d think.
Is chlorine to blame? The chemical disinfectant, source of the distinctive, pungent, swimming-pool smell, is lethal in large amounts. But it’s not just chlorine “that is the issue,” says Dr. Louis-Philippe Boulet, a professor of medicine at the Quebec Heart & Lung Institute, and the author of multiple studies of swimmers’ lungs. Instead, problems arise when chlorine mixes with proteins in the water, such as shredded skin or hair, creating chloramines. The more chlorine and the more protein you have in a pool the more chloramines. These toxic byproducts tend to settle just above the water’s surface — where swimmers breathe — and are inhaled deep into the lungs. “There are increasing numbers of studies that suggest that exposure to chloramines may have a major effect on bronchial health,” Boulet says.
The evidence doesn’t seem strong enough to make anyone give up swimming, but maybe instead of driving to Mary T. for indoor pool fun, concerned residents of areas with closed pools will look for an outdoor pool or a splash park, even though sacrifices are involved with both.
We are all about the links today…
The Utne Reader has an interview with the authors of the new book Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal. In the book, “authors Silas House and Jason Howard tell the story of mountaintop removal coal mining through the voices of 12 Appalachians who’ve been directly affected by this devastating practice.”
In the interview, the authors explain why they used the personal perspective format for the book.
Howard: We chose to go with oral histories because we felt that the art of storytelling is something that mountaintop removal is destroying. Mountaintop removal isn’t only destroying the land and water and trees and animal habitat and mountains and things like that; it’s also destroying peoples’ lives and Appalachian traditions and culture. For generations, these mountains have sheltered us and provided us with stories and protection. The storytelling is something that’s been lost today because as those mountains are leaving, our culture is leaving, too. It’s becoming more homogenized. So it’s a political statement in doing that. It’s also a tribute to people’s words.
House: We wanted to allow people to tell their own stories in their own words, without any filters whatsoever—without turning them into sound bites—so that it can all be put into complete context for the reader. There is a real storytelling tradition in this region, and we think that really comes through in these oral histories. It’s just our way of saying, look, this is another thing that could be scraped away forever if we don’t stop this.
Millions of federal stimulus dollars for so-called shovel-ready projects will likely be withheld until spring.
Mayor Jerry Abramson says the city has been facing hurdles in trying to get the final approval for $8 million in sidewalk improvements and $5 million in road improvements.
“Hurdles like getting sign-offs from different departments in the environmental area, the archaeological area; hurdles in getting the federal highway department to see that we’re ready and to give us the go ahead to go forward,” he says.
Abramson says the money will be spent, but further delays could delay the spending until the next construction season, which is after winter. He says other cities are facing similar challenges.
Hey The Edit readers! It’s Laura Ellis with your weekly preview of what’s coming up on State of Affairs.
We’re starting off the week by learning more about Lake Cumberland, one of the largest man-made bodies of water east of the Mississippi. We’ll hear the story of how and why the 63,000-acre lake was created, and what there is to do there today. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Lake Cumberland, but in asking around, it seems like I might be in the minority among Louisvillians.
Two of today’s guests compiled the book you see to the left. It’s full of historical pictures of Lake Cumberland – and some fabulous retro bathing suits! We’ll also have a guest from the Lake Cumberland/Pulaski County Tourism Bureau to let us know what today’s visitors can expect.
On Tuesday we’ll talk about manufacturing in Kentucky and how manufacturers in the Commonwealth can stay competive. The Kentucky Next Generation Manufacturing Study was just released by the Kentucky Manufacturing Assistance Center, and the news wasn’t all good. Some Kentucky manufacturers aren’t making progress toward KMAC’s goals in innovation, sustainable product & process development, and other measures. Small manufacturing plants are especially struggling.
Then we’ll turn our attention to population growth. Specifically, we’ll look at the ways women affect the population. The UN Foundation website says, “Empowering women and girls is essential in the global drive to eliminate poverty, achieve social justice and stabilize the world’s population.” On Wednesday, we’ll find out why and how.
A look at kids & the court system is on Thursday’s docket (sorry, I couldn’t help it!). Kids can find themselves involved in the legal system for a variety of reasons – being the victim of a crime, committing a crime, custody disputes, etc. – and once they’re involved, there are safeguards in place to make sure they are protected and represented. We’ll learn what those measures are, and how well they work.
Then on Friday it’s time again for our weekly State of the News show. We’ll take a closer look at the week’s news, and ask for your questions and comments. Have a great week!
James Surowiecki‘s essay in this week’s New Yorker addresses how state goverments have the potential to wreck or stall economic recovery.
Think about the $787-billion federal stimulus package. It’s built on the idea that during serious economic downturns the government can use spending increases and tax cuts to counteract the effects of consumers who are cutting back on spending and businesses that are cutting back on investment. So fiscal policy at the national level is countercyclical: as the economy shrinks, government expands. At the state level, though, the opposite is happening. Nearly every state government is required to balance its budget. When times are bad, jobs vanish, sales plummet, investment declines, and tax revenues fall precipitously…
It’s kind of like this, with state governments as the minivan:
Surowiecki also gets into how states don’t always play well enough with each other to get things done.
…federalism is getting in the way of the creation of a “smart” American power grid. This would involve turning the current hodgepodge of regional and state grids into a genuinely national grid, which would detect and respond to problems as they happen, giving users more information about and control over their electricity use, and so on. It could also dramatically reduce our dependence on oil. Wind power could eventually produce as much as twenty per cent of the energy that America consumes. The problem is that the places where most of that wind power can be generated tend to be a long way from the places where most of that power would be consumed. A new grid would enable us to get the power to where it’s needed. But since nobody likes power lines running through his property, building the grid would require overriding or placating the states—and the prospects of that aren’t great.
Don’t think it’s true? How long have we been waiting for Kentucky and Indiana to work together and build some bridges?
We know Secretary of Trey Grayson is a fan of ConnectKentucky, but others disagree, saying the company’s purported results are nothing to brag about.
Maybe this will settle things: Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society is preparing to study broadband studies. That is, they will assess literature released by groups (possibly ConnectKentucky and its offspring Connected Nation) that have themselves assessed broadband penetration and access. The results will help guide the FCC’s national broadband plan.
From Harvard:
“A comprehensive assessment of these plans will be enormously helpful given our short timetable,” said Blair Levin, who is coordinating the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. “We don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Knowing what has already been learned will improve our ability to deliver the best possible National Broadband Plan.”
Perhaps the research team will put some science into the arguments against ConnectKY, or maybe the study will quiet the detractors by providing what could be the first bit of outside support for ConnectKY backed by hard evidence. The review will be made public, so we’ll link to it here when it’s released.
Even though WFPL.org is still down (it’ll be back up soon), we can still satisfy your news craving. Feast on The Edit.
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Have a nice weekend.
We reported on what was first said to be the first FDA-approved infusion of adult stem cells into a human heart. Turns out it wasn’t the first procedure.
