Time for Doug Gray to Get off the Fence and Take a Stand!

WBOY-TV reporter, Gabe Gutierrez talked to the missing Board of Education member, Doug Gray, yesterday. His absence for a critical meeting ensured a tie vote in favor of the status quo about the portrait in BHS. Here is what he writes,

12 News spoke with him Thursday and asked him how he would have voted.

"Either way, it doesn't matter now," Gray said, adding that he preferred not to comment further.

He prefers, "Not to comment further?" !!! "It doesn't matter now"???

Presumably some people voted Doug Gray into office as a member of the Board of Education because they trusted his judgment or business acumen or his leadership or for some other qualities. He wasn't elected to office by promising to keep his opinions to himself.

A van doesn't have to fall on you to let you know that Leadership is needed by members of the Board. Doug, Where Do You Stand??

Sally, Wilson. You need to re-introduce the motion to remove the picture and let Doug Gray participate.

True, Jim Reaser and Bennett just about crawled under the desk when you made the motion and they both were too chicken to make any comment to defend their votes, like little boys caught doing something wrong; they let the moment pass, kind of mumbling that they had no comment. Pontius Pilot would have been proud of their hand-washing away the constitution and give in to the crowd.

Don't let Gray off the hook. Force him to take a stand.

Sample Legal Fees

$1 million was given to the ACLU by the Dover, Pa., School Board in the "Dover Design Theory Case" when the ACLU claimed that teaching "intelligent design" alongside Darwinian Theory violated the Establishment Clause. Another involved a Ten Commandments monument that was ordered removed from Alabama's state judicial building in 2003. The ACLU and sister organizations received $500,000 in attorney fees.

'Ah....We ain't got no Jesus here.'

Charleston Gazette reports that BHS school administrators actually, over the years appearently, have hid the portrait from investigators.

What great role models these Educators are!!! Can't we find a way to give them more money?

HOME WORK ASSIGNMENT: DEBATE AND DISCUSS THE FOLLOWING
Just because you are Stupid about the Bill of Rights doesn't mean that you Love Jesus More!

OR

The certainty of my Religious beliefs requires that a Public School officially validates my beliefs while trumping the beliefs of those who think differently

Keep answers to 700 words max.

West Virginia School District Sued Over Religious Display

Civil Liberties Groups Say Portrait Of Jesus Outside Principal's Office Is An Unconstitutional Government Endorsement Of Religion

All this because of lack of leadership, poor B of Ed management, and ego. The picture is not even owned by the Board of Education . It is not owned by the principal. But no one in the central office, including the superintendent has the leadership to quell the insubordinate arrogance of the principal who refuses to obey the law. What an embarrassment!

Why should High School students obey the law or school policy when their principal is allowed to pick and chose what rules he will follow?

What is the written county policy that spells out what objects of religious veneration a principal may place in school hallways?

Many non-Bridgeportians support the continuation of the picture in the public school. Why are they not demanding that all other principals make an equally arbitrary decision to hang portraits of the Virgin Mary, or John Smith, or prophecies from the Watch Tower, or the Book of Order, or the Book of Common prayer? Mike Queen said that we should take this to the Supreme Court. Get all of the schools to walk on the First Amendment and Mike's dreams will come true sooner. Spare no expense. Get the Board of Education to sponsor a special levy to support this.

Culture of Corruption
Mollohan got $179 million in government contracts for West Virginia companies that in turn gave $225,000 to his family charity. This amounted to nearly half the charity’s revenue.

Folger Coffee's Buzz on the Internet
Ok, someone somewhere is going to like this. Just not me if you dare jingle this in my ear to wake me up. "Wake up, wake up you sleepy head, you can sleep when you're dead." Well it is the cheerful sureal approach that might get my nerves in a tangle. See it here. Don't wait for the big screen.

Mollohan restates filings and reveals he borrowed 35K from Laura Kuhns

Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.), under federal investigation for blending his commercial investments with his duties as a congressional appropriator, acknowledged yesterday that he misstated more than a dozen transactions on his financial disclosure forms.

The 12-term lawmaker said he recently discovered "a limited number of inadvertent errors" in his public reports from 1999 through 2004. He said he has amended those forms "to correct any inaccurate impressions about my finances." He also released a chronology to explain how his assets grew from no more than $565,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004, primarily through heavily leveraged real estate transactions.

Congress Gives Itself 7th Straight Pay Raise WASHINGTON -- Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA. Last year, the Senate voted 92-6 to deny the raise but quietly surrendered the position in House-Senate talks.

Man fights DNR over dead deer
A Parkersburg man who thought he was helping a needy family by donating deer meat harvested from road kill now faces charges of illegal possession of wildlife.

In W.Va., a new air of optimism Coal industry's comeback, tourism, construction spark resurgence in jobs By Jamie Smith Hopkins from the Baltimore-Sun Coal, which built McDowell County, nearly destroyed it. As technology mechanized the work, jobs were cut. As mineral prices fell, jobs were cut. As easily worked seams disappeared, jobs were cut. Companies left, and the people did too. McDowell County, once one of the largest coal producers in the nation, lost three-quarters of its population in the past 50 years. Now, in this poorest corner of the poorest state in the nation, something remarkable is happening: Jobs are coming back. Much More ...

17 beers a day keep prostate cancer away

Theoretically, anyway, especially when taken with pizza with tomato sauce

PORTLAND, Ore. - For many men, a finding by Oregon researchers sounds too good to be true: An ingredient in beer seems to help prevent prostate cancer, at least in lab experiments.The trouble is you'd theoretically have to drink about 17 beers a day for any potential benefit. And no one's advising that.

Most Grant Money is Spent State officials told legislators Monday that they still believe most of the recipients of more than $200 million in economic development grants will come up with definitive plans for completing those projects by June 30.

“Our anticipation is everybody with free money on the table will step up and make these projects happen, or at least make commitments to make these projects happen,” said Brian Helmick, deputy secretary of commerce.

In 2003, the Economic Development Grant Committee approved nearly $225 million of grants for 47 development projects statewide. To date, 34 of those projects have yet to be completed — some have yet to begin construction — leaving $85 million of grants unspent. ...MORE

Report: Congressional Pet Projects May Be Keeping NASA On Ground Tue, 13 Jun '06 Ah, Pork... Money earmarked to be used by NASA to send scientific probes to distant planets and return astronauts to the moon, may be used instead for projects closer to home that have little to nothing to do with exploring space. In short, it's called pork... as in "pork barrel projects" that politicians have authorized for their districts, and that NASA will be footing the bill for. USA Today reports that list includes construction or renovation of dozens of museums, planetariums and science labs for colleges... a website and laboratory for the Gulf of Maine Aquarium in Portland... and construction of the headquarters building for a West Virginia non-profit research group created by congressman Alan Mollohan, who is currently the subject of a congressional ethics probe. Since 2001, Congress has directed NASA to spend more than $3 billion on special projects -- most of them sought by individual lawmakers, for the benefit of their home districts. ....MORE

If you haven't been to Valley Falls in a while ...it still looks like this. Below is a common watersnake (Nerodia s. Sipedon) frequently confused with a Water Moccasin (or worse by certain Bridgeport fundalmentalists)

C'Burg's Ex-Telegram Editorial, "School board ought to do the Math"

The thrust of the editorial is that the the Board made an instantaneous decision to increase the PEIA medical supplement $50 beyond the $100 plus-up under consideration in the agenda and that is a lot of money and the education of our children could be in jeopardy. The editorial endorses Jim Reaser's comment, "Over a period of time, that's a lot of money."

Ok, let's help out here and do some math. The school board budget is about $90,000,000 per year? An increase county wide for 1400 employees times $50 per employee equals $74,000 per year. What is the percentage increase cost for this added $50? 74,000 divided by 90,000,000 = .0008% increase in the yearly budget for this benefit.

Does our paper have different math? How about Tim Langer helping Jim Reaser think through some of the other math problems that will be caused by a lengthy law suit over a portrait (that is neither owned by the school system nor the principal) hanging in BHS? Why would that cost not equally affect "students or their education...because of Tuesday's night decision." And while we're at it, this whole portrait thing comes down to a discussion of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. One might think that a newspaper would have strong feelings about the meaning of that specific amendment and use their pages to educate the community on its many facets. For the newspaper to remain silent in its editorial pages on the portrait controversy is to promote ignorance. Perhaps their motto is, "Ignorance is our most important Customer."

Vandalia Clarksburg Parking Lot

Miss Clarksburg said...

Gundovald, I wish you'd find out about the PARKING LOTS that Vandalia bought at South 2nd and Washington Avenue. They've been referred to in the paper as both the "City Lots" and the "County Lots". Vandalia Redevelopment pays the taxes. If they were bought w/ taxpayer money, where are the revenue's going? They probably pull down about 5 grand per month. Their property taxes are about 8K per annum. What's the deal here?

6/08/2006 10:34:02 AM

Gundovald said...

Yes, Vandalia owns the steel parking structure on Washington and South 2nd. I believe that the County owns the lot on the opposite corner where the county vehicles park. That is the area that the County commission offered to the Italian Heritage Festival Committee as an alternative Main Stage area when there was still some question as to the construction schedule and availability for the front of the courthouse. Vandalia keeps whatever money they make from that parking garage. It has been postulated that V. bought the garage as a bargaining chip to use as trade, barter, or as a way to better negotiate (blackmail?) with either the city or county for other possible development properties. Rumor has it that even within the last year, but prior to the recent Mollohan troubles, V. attempted to use that property as a leverage to get the city to yield certain advantages to V. The city refused to play. As for any confusion about the Clarksburg newspaper variously refering to different parking areas as being City, or County .... well, we're still talking about the C'Burg paper right? ... and your question is for me to explain their confusion?

6/09/2006 11:02:59 AM