Mornin' Mail

The Mornin' Mail is published every weekday except major holidays
Friday, July 24, 2009 Volume XVIII, Number 25

Did Ya Know?... The Carthage Shrine Club is having their 21st Annual Tractor & Pickup Pull on Friday, July 24th and Saturday, July 25th, starting at 7 PM. For more information, contact David Jones at 417-358-8816.

Did Ya Know?... Today through Sunday, July 26th, there will be a British Car Show around the Historic Downtown Carthage Square.

Did Ya Know?... Sunday, July 26th, is the last day you can help the Carthage Humane Society win a $20,000 grant by voting in The Animal Rescue Site $100,000 Shelter Challenge. Visit www.theanimalresucesite.com to cast your vote.

Did Ya Know?... Jam Session Saturday, doors open @ 4:00 p.m., music starts @ 5:00 p.m. All acoustic instruments welcome! Salem Country Church, Red Oak II, Carthage MO., 417-237-0885.

today's laugh

Must help the wife

Smith goes to see his supervisor in the front office. "Boss," he says, "we’re doing some heavy house-cleaning at home tomorrow, and my wife needs me to help with the attic and the garage, moving and hauling stuff."

"We’re short-handed, Smith" the boss replies. "I can’t give you the day off."

"Thanks, boss," says Smith "I knew I could count on you!"

1908
INTERESTING MELANGE.
A Chronological Record of Events as they have Transpired in the City and County since our last Issue.

Location of City Electric Light Plant.

The location of the plant is generally accepted as a good one. Nothing materially different as to the location of lights has been decided upon from what was previously published.

Mr. Ford stated that he would finish his preliminary estimates and specifications within six or eight days. The final specifications will be ready for advertisement for bids in about one month.

Mr. Ford advised closing the building contract in about three weeks after bids were advertised for. As to when the building can be completed depends altogether on the weather. If the weather continues warm throughout the winter it will very much facilitate its completion, but should it turn cold enough to freeze the wet mortar, with which the brick and stone are laid, everything would have to be suspended while such weather lasted.

Today's Feature

School Starts August 20.

The Carthage R-9 School district has set Thursday, August 20 as the official first day of school. All elementary schools and the high school will host an open house in the evening on August 18. Carthage Middle School open house will be on August 17. The Carthage Technical Center open house will be on October 29. Families will have the opportunity at this time to visit the rooms and meet the teachers. Food Service cashiers will be available at all schools at this time to answer questions and take deposits for breakfast/lunch accounts.

To promote support from area residents give the school by attending various school activities, the district offers complimentary Gold Passes to persons age 60 or over who are residents of the R-9 School District. The pass is effective for life and authorizes free admittance to all home athletic events and other district-hosted activities, with the exception of district and state tournaments.

To obtain a Gold Pass, contact the District Administrative Office at 710 Lyon Street (359-7000). Proof of age should be available upon request.

Bill Gates Offers Stimulus Advice.

by Christopher Flavelle, ProPublica www.propublica.com

Today’s roundup of stimulus coverage:

Bill Gates waded into the stimulus debate Tuesday, calling for states to be more ambitious in the way they spend stimulus money earmarked for public education. Speaking to the National Conference of State Legislatures in Philadelphia, Gates urged states to increase online learning, better assess both pupils and teachers, and create more schools modeled on charter schools, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports. "Our schools need to get better, or our economic positioning relative to others will get worse," said Gates.

In Watsonville, Calif., the Pajaro Valley Unified School District demonstrates how hard it may be for states to answer Gates’ call to revolutionize education. The school district’s trustees met to discuss how to spend $1.6 million in stimulus money, The Mercury News reports. In the meantime, the trustees need to decide how to cut $7.5 million from the district’s budget for the coming year, on top of a $14 million cut in March.

The Missoulian‘s Steve Miller reports on stimulus gripes in Missoula, Mont., where a $600,000 construction project to build a roundabout has left local businesses complaining about lost revenue. The businesses say the construction project has made it harder for customers to reach their stores. "We’re losing better than $1,000 a day on business," said the owner of Grizzly Grocery, while the owner of Cynthia’s Fine Flowers said she’s getting "hammered" with the loss of parking for her customers.

ProPublica Reporting Network member Rhi Bowman caught this story in the The Charlotte Observer, which reports that Mecklenburg County, the state’s largest, has received $246 per person in federal stimulus dollars, compared to $328 per person statewide. Charlotte’s mayor, Pat McCrory, criticized the way stimulus money is being spent, telling the Observer that the money should have been spent on "Eisenhower- and Roosevelt-type projects for the next generation."

The White House defended the stimulus bill Tuesday night, the Detroit Free Press reports. Jared Bernstein, economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, told reporters that "an economy in free fall seems to be behind us," while Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the stimulus was only meant to "cushion the blow" of the recession. The Free Press notes that the administration is sticking to its prediction that the stimulus will save or create 3 million jobs.

Should AIG Be Keeping Terms of Deals Secret?

by Sharona Coutts, ProPublica www.propublica.com

Last week we reported that while AIG has sold — or agreed to sell — a dozen subsidiaries as part of its efforts to repay the $85 billion it still owes taxpayers, the company is keeping the financial terms of nearly half those sales secret.

On Friday afternoon, AIG announced that it had completed the sale of two subsidiaries in Mexico. Though the sale is now final, in a press release the company repeated its mantra: "Terms of the transaction were not disclosed."

Treasury officials told us last week that they are "actively monitoring" AIG’s sales, but they would keep AIG’s confidence about how much the company was getting for the pieces of its former empire, at least "until binding sales are announced." Treasury officials did not return our e-mail or a call asking whether they would release that information now that the sales are final.

Why does this matter? As financial risk analyst Sylvain Raynes told us last week, the secrecy raises questions as to whether AIG is getting a good deal for the taxpayer, which owns nearly 80 percent of the company and is owed $85 billion in loans. "There’s nothing wrong with private transactions between consenting adults," said Raynes, founder of R&R Consulting, a firm that analyzes market risk. "But when the government is involved, everything changes."

But Paul Hickey, of Bespoke Investment Group, says companies frequently decide not to disclose financial terms. "Companies sometimes withhold that information whether it’s a small deal or they just choose not to," he said.

Requiring that AIG comply with higher standards of transparency than other companies could also damage the firm’s chances of getting the best prices, Hickey said.

"If I’m an investment firm and I do show interest in an asset, do I necessarily want the public knowing what I paid for it? Especially with AIG, given that anyone who makes a profit, Congress gets all up in arms about it. It could open them up to too much criticism," he said. "But you can also see how people would say, oh they’re not publicizing the terms of the deal because they’re not getting enough money from them."

AIG delivered the news through its new "senior vice president-divestiture," Alain Karaoglan. As we pointed out a couple weeks back, Karaoglan was once one of AIG’s most ardent critics. As a Deutsche Bank analyst in 2005, he co-authored a scathing 31-page report that pointed out large disparities in how AIG reported earnings, dissected the way AIG valued its companies, and argued that the whole business was overvalued.

Karaoglan again declined to speak with us about that report, or about the Mexico sales he just announced.

Just Jake Talkin'
Mornin',

Played a little ball out in the yard with one a the grandkids over the weekend.

"My grammy is almost as old as you," I was informed. I suppose most four year old’s make comparisons of different sets of grandparents, I have learned to not take any of their observations too personal.

"Yea," he continued, "she’s really old."

Now I don’t exactly know how old that makes myself, and I didn’t force the issue.

I’d have ta guess that in time the kid will come to appreciate "mature" individuals and more carefully craft his insights, or keep ‘em to himself.

I remember my grandparents sayin’ they wished they had the energy us kids had. I’m still learnin’ to appreciate the wisdom of those "old folks."

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’

Weekly Columns

artCentral

ART NOTES from Hyde House

by Sally Armstrong, Director of artCentral

We near the end of the current exhibition by Joplin photographer Bill Perry along with work by Rebecca Perry and Aston Stovern. This is the last weekend for this show, so do not miss coming by Friday or Saturday if you had been intending to view the work. Monday we begin the annual children’s artCamp for kids aged 8- 14, and I am pleased to say we have 35 students signed up thus far for the classes offered. This camp has been the longest continual summer art opportunity for kids in our area, having run for quite a number of years. It has grown significantly in the past four years, and the classes have changed to many of the current interests such as Manga art, cartooning, batik, bead weaving, and additional ceramics. A class begins at 10:00 each morning, and completes at 3:00 each afternoon. Some days we offer two separate classes, which are held by two different teachers in separate areas of our buildings. Many would be surprised to know that we have two upstairs classrooms in our main gallery/house in addition to the full classroom outside in the second floor of the Pottery House building. Additionally, we can use the lower level for pottery classes, and many times have had open air classes on cooler days as well. Some of the classes this year include creating baskets from rope and fiber scraps, Manga drawing which is the art of Japanese cartooning, paper sculpture and paper pulp painting, painting a graffiti t-shirt, pottery candle holders and Picasso face pots, clay pot candle making, bead weaving on a loom, a fiesta day of crafts that include piñatas, sombrero design and sugar-skull necklaces, comic book design, and tempra batik painting. We are filling up, and class sizes are limited so if a child is still interested, return your registration card soon! Cards and information fliers can be found at the Library, the Chamber of Commerce office, Sassy Spoon, Cherry’s Framing, and here on our own front porch at 1110 E. 13th in Carthage. Scholarships are available to kids who qualify, so let us hear from you as classes begin soon!

Journey Along the Wellness Path

by Leesa I. Robinson, N.H.P.

There is hope for women in hormone health! Many women are looking for alternatives to hysterectomies and synthetic drugs to try to deal with hormone imbalances. The great news is there are so many more options today due, in large part, to many women requesting something more. The time has arrived that we no longer want to just mask the symptoms but, as women, we want true health and hormone balance.

As we look deeper into the needs of the women seeking whole health, we see that they are more than just parts and pieces. To find balance we must look at the physical, emotional, chemical and the spiritual aspects of each woman.

We are desiring and requiring a health system that encompasses the whole. Rather than sickness care we are asking for wellness care. A cooperative program including a healthy nervous system, guidance in reasonable exercise, personalized nutrition, strengthened relationships, natural supplementation and increased self-knowledge is "worth a pound of cure".

Instead of masking the pain of imbalance, we can now reach intelligently for answers to the cause. When we help a woman become healthy, we help an entire family and perhaps beyond when we stop to consider how many lives one woman touches daily.

Women need healing; they can’t just simply be repaired! We are tapping into the powerful, intelligent design of the human biology and learning what we can do and how we can live to bring about health. Walking along the Wellness Path makes sense. Join me.