Mayor Wolfe v Huntington City Employees

A struggling economy, crumbling roads, police and fire pensions, high crime rates and a decline in the population are all issues that Huntington Mayor Kim Wolfe has dealt with since he was elected mayor in 2008. It is not the fact that Mayor Wolfe has dealt with these issues, because these are all things that can and do happen across the country, it is how he has handled them.
In the first year as mayor, Wolfe got the police and fire pensions under control and beefed up the police department to deal with crime. Before the mayor took office, Huntington’s police department consisted of 94 officers since then the mayor added seven officers and six police vehicles thanks to the $1 increase in the user fee and seven new officers were also hired by grant funding.
The mayor also got the ball rolling on infrastructure, the 4th avenue corridor project, which starts at the corner of 4th ave. and Hal Greer blvd., was put into place as a way for Marshall University students to feel safer as they traveled downtown. More students going downtown means more money being spent in local businesses. If the newly paved roads and lighting weren’t enough, the mayor added police bike patrols that circulate from Marshall’s Old Main building, passed the Cabell County Courthouse on 4th ave. and all throughout the streets surrounding Pullman Square.
As a new fiscal year draws near, there are a whole new bag of issues the mayor has to face. The proposed budget for the 2011 fiscal year was $40.2 million, an estimated $867,000 or 5 percent cut from what was originally proposed. The Huntington City Council approved the budget on March 22 and this 5 percent cut means that some 20 city employees would be furloughed and 10 different departments would see cuts to their budget.
The Mayor told the Herald-Dispatch on March 22, “I know what I'm going to recommend, but I'll lay it all out at the appropriate time," Wolfe said after the budget meeting. "Obviously, we're looking at additional revenues."
A month later, that appropriate time came. The mayor purposed a 1 percent occupational tax on employees that work in the city. If this tax gets passed it would eliminate the current $3 user fee. Huntington city employees give approximately $156 a year to the city with the user fee. If the 1 percent occupation tax is approved it would mean that 1 percent of a city employee’s total income would go to the city, unless that person makes under $10,000, as stated in the 5-year home rule pilot project that began in 2008 and will end in 2013.
“Let’s take my salary for example,” Wolfe said. “I make $70,000 a year and I pay about $156 to the user fee. I would have to pay $700 if the occupation tax was approved. Divide that $544 up every week its about $10, I spend that much on lunch everyday.”
An example of the 1 percent occupation tax based on salaries at different income levels is listed at the end of this article.
At the finance department meeting on Thursday, which was the second finance meeting to discuss the occupation tax, the public was allowed to speak its mind and give its point of view on the 1 percent occupation tax.
The stage was set, Huntington down $867,000, trying to find a new source of income, a mayor trying to dig Huntington out of a hole, and 60 people of the public furious over being taxed even more.
The meeting started off slow, a few opening remarks from the mayor welcoming everyone and thanking the finance department for the opportunity to speak and receive feedback from the community concerning this occupational tax. The mayor did make one mistake during his opening remarks. He brought religion into the conversation.
“God doesn’t charge a user fee for people who don’t want to pay a user fee. He gets a percent of it which is fair in his eyes,” Wolfe said. “And you receive the blessings for that.”
The meeting went on with the mayor talking about his salary and how he will also have to pay into this 1 percent occupation tax. In an exclusive interview with the mayor on Monday April 19, the mayor gave his opinion on the occupational tax.
“Of the options that we had in the home rule this was the best option,” Wolfe said. “We didn’t want to do nothing, which was an option. I’m also not a big fan of the user fee and another option would have been to increase that.”
Back to the finance meeting, the time now 6 p.m., the public steps up to speak its peace after and hour of questioning between council members and the mayor’s office.
Maurice Lockridge, financial accounting professor and assistant chair of the faculty senate at Marshall University, was one of the members of the public to speak against the occupation tax. Lockridge said the Marshall University faculty senate was against this tax as well.
“I am a noncitizen, nonvoting victim of your proposal,” Lockridge said. “Maybe you didn’t think that my paycheck as a Marshall University employee is not cut by Marshall University, it is cut by the West Virginia State Auditors Office. If I was a municipality I would think twice about imposing requirements on the state auditors office, just a little hint.”
Lockridge said if the tax was approved he would take his business elsewhere and used Barboursville as an example.
“I make an effort to come down to Huntington instead of going to Barboursville because Barboursville doesn’t need my money,” Lockridge said. “You do.”
The majority of 60 people who attended this meeting lived outside the city limits. Many of them argued that they use a very short amount of city roads to get into work then they leave. They argued that the people that live in the city and do not work there don’t have to pay it, but they are the ones who see the difference and most of all the public did not want to bail out Huntington, especially after finding out they spend over $100,000 in cell phone bills.
Tom O’Conner is another city employee who spoke against this tax. He is one of the few attendees who live in the city limits.
“My concern is Huntington is becoming a vacuum,” O’Conner said. “We already see too many businesses leave Huntington for Barboursville. If we want to keep Huntington alive then we cannot tax them away.”
It is tough to say what direction this 1 percent occupation tax will lead, because it is a pilot program it would only be around until 2013 unless it is successful. Many of Huntington’s offices agree to take the chance because the opportunity is there to try a new approach. The public believes that trying this new approach will lead to a sharp decline in the economy and the possible death of Huntington.
The third finance department meeting was held on Monday and it was passed with only two votes against it. Now it is the city council’s turn. So far there have been no amendments to the proposal but there are projected amendments to decrease the taxation of other taxes like the business and occupational tax. The fate of the city lies in the hands of the city council. The mayor and the people have spoken. What’s next is all up to them.













Table 1

Impact of Proposed 1 Percent Occupation Tax on selected salaries.


Gross Earnings Occupational Tax Amount at 1% Weekly Contribution
Employee A $11,617.00 $116 $2.23
Employee B $23,234.00 $232 $4.46
Employee C $34,851.00 $348 $6.69
Employee D $46,468.00 $464 $8.92
Employee E $58,085.00 $580 $11.15
Employee F $69,702.00 $697 $13.40
Employee G $81,319.00 $813 $15.63
Employee H $92,936.00 $929 $17.87
Employee I $104,553.00 $1,045 $20.10

Office of Administration and Finance, Huntington W.Va.

Cheating!

There are as lot of people that I know that download songs illegally. People have even asked me what types of downloading software to use to download these songs for free and I have told them which ones work best. This is one issue that is becoming a major problem in American society and it is nearly impossible to stop. Some of the people I am acquainted with have even downloaded movies and video games for free. These downloads can cost up to $750 per song according to Marshall University’s website.
I helped a neighbor of mine get access to a program called Lime Wire, where people can download anything from movies to songs and even television shows. This program was relatively safe, but I am pretty sure my neighbor got a virus from using the program, that’s why I’m a Mac person, but I digress.
One way to perform an investigative report, if I am the government trying to find out who is doing it, is to find out the Internet Protocol (IP) address if the users who are performing excessive downloading. An IP address is issued by a person’s router and is a code that can be tracked. This code could lead me to find out what they are downloading and how they can be tracked.
Another way to find out is to check with the provider, to see how much downloading has been done by that particular person of interest and see the trend amongst the public to see if there are any variances. Providers can keep track of how much downloading is been going on, because customers are given a set amount of bandwidth that they are allowed to use and if they surpass is, they can be charged an extra fee for it.
Another way to find out, unfortunately it’s less likely to work, would be to go door to door and ask people if they are downloading songs. Surprisingly people have come into where I work and have told me that they have downloaded illegally and do not care because “everyone is doing it”.
Another way to expose the people who are downloading is to contact the software companies. It is a good way to get information about who downloads and how much. Unfortunately it is becoming a lot harder to track people because there are IP address blockers that block IP addresses from being tracked.

Recession has little effect on Big Bro's Big Sis

The non-profit organization Big Brothers Big Sister of the Tri-State has seen little change in volunteers and contributions over the past three years despite the effects the recession had on Americans.
The recession has done little damage to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State because the bulk of their funding consists of the grants and contributions they have receive from the government and other organizations. Their volunteer numbers have also remained steady because of the help they receive from Marshall University students and the local community.
Sam Thacker of Huntington has been involved with the Big Brothers Big Sisters for three years and has given her time to change the lives of local teens. “I love being a Big Sister,” Thacker said. “It’s really a great program for the kids because it gives them someone to look up to.”
The most recent tax return filed by the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State was from 2008, and these numbers show that the organization received $143,722 in grants and contributions, which was up from $2,298 in 2007 when the organization received $141,424.
Patricia Price, executive director of the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State, said the organization is lucky to have seen no real change over the past few years because of the recession, but 2010 could change that.
“Fortunately, due to some grant funding the past two years, our agency has not been greatly affected by the recession,” Price said. “We have seen a slight decline in fundraising proceeds and corporate sponsorships but nothing substantial as of yet, of course this could change in 2010.”
Some of the major contributors to the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State in 2008 include the JP Morgan Chase Foundation, which gave $32,000 to the organization, the Big Brothers of South Central W.Va., which gave $8,500 to the organization and the Henry L. Doherty Charitable Foundation, which gave $8,300 to the organization.
The total revenue of the organization in 2008 was $259,336 this is a difference of $2,534 from 2007 in which the organization reported $261,870 in revenue. The 2009 tax return has not yet been filed, but Price said there was no significant change in the amount of funding. There was no comment on the change in total revenue.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State depends on the helpful hands of volunteers. According to the tax return from 2008, the organization reported 200 volunteers over the course of the year. RaShawna Smalley, case manager for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State said the organization has seen a jump in the number of volunteers so far in 2010 with some help from Marshall University.
“This year has been one of my biggest years in terms of volunteers,” Smalley said. “I get a lot of volunteers from the service learning project at Marshall University. Professor Kimberly Detardo-Bora, who teaches a juvenile justice class at Marshall, requires her students to volunteer 12 hours at some kind of facility for kids.”
“We tend to stay pretty consistent with the number of people through the years,” Lee McCloud, case manager for the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State said. “Our numbers are close. In 2009 we had about 187 people volunteer, but this does not include the amount of people who help out in our Christmas tree sale, because we have over 500 people who attend these events.”
The Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State has survived the recession because of the help they receive through Marshall University and the local community. The grant and contribution numbers show people that the local communities are willing to donate their money and time to help children stay in school and keep them away from drugs.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State has been helping the Huntington area community for 36 years, providing opportunities for underprivileged children to grow and have a mentor to look up to. Even with the effects of the recession hitting home, the Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Tri-State has seen little to no change in funding and an increase to the number of volunteers.








Big Brothers Big Sisters Contributions, Grants and Total Revenue 2006-2008

Year Grants and Contribution Change Total Revenue
2006 $175,059 N A $282,389
2007 $141,424 -$33,635 $261,870
2008 $143,722 +2,298 $259,336

Source: 2007, 2008 Federal 990 Tax Return Document.

Huntington City Budget

Huntington City Council unanimously approved an $867,861 budget reduction from mayor Kim Wolfe’s proposed budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year (beginning in July 1, 2010) that will lead to a cut in fire and police department budgets and 20-day furloughs for selected city employees.
At the budget meeting on March 22 City Council members decided on a budget of $40,289,914 for FY 2011. This budget is an $84,550 decrease from the estimated FY 2010 budget, however it is a $747,175 increase from the mayor’s initial budget proposed on February 2, which totaled $39,542,739. This revision came shortly after the mayor’s 10 percent cut across the board for the overall budget.
The Police Department received the biggest reduction, in terms of dollar amount, on the City Councils revised budget. The original police budget the mayor submitted to City Council before the cuts was $10,741,819. The revised budget is $11,069,488, which is a $327,669 increase from what the mayor proposed but a $198,971 reduction from what the police department requested.
The Fire Department’s proposed budget from the mayor for the 2011 fiscal was $10,121,153 and the budget that City Council approved was $10,429,956. The fire initially requested $10,549,956 but had it reduced by $120,000. In dollar amount was the second largest department to receive reductions.
In the budget meeting I attended on March 20 the City Council was in agreement with the fact that if at all possible, little or no changes would be made to police and fire departments. The police and fire departments receive an estimated $10 million dollars each in the city budget each year. The closest amount to them, Insurance Programs with about $8 million. All of the other departments receive $2 million or less. So the budget places most of its interest in the police and fire departments, Mayor Wolfe also agrees that more money should be given to these departments
The Floodwall proposed budget for 2011 fiscal year was $648,677 and the City Council approved a budget of $534,187. The budget that the department requested was $636,532 but it was reduced by $102,345. The Engineering Department proposed budget was $922,601 and the City Council approved budget was $874,574. The budget requested by the department was $901,561 but it was reduced by $35,987.
“You can’t make everyone happy with it comes to where the money goes,” Mayor Wolfe said. “What the interesting thing they (city council) were funding back into the budget, but when you got down into the other departments besides fire and police, the change was drastic. The money has to come from somewhere, it’s kind of like cutting a pie.”
In the mayor’s State of the City Address, he spoke of the possibility of 20-day furloughs instead of massive layoffs to save the city money in the upcoming budget.
“The proposed 20-day furloughs would generate approximately $1.1 million in saving to the overall budget,” Mayor Wolfe said. “ These furloughs would be spread out over the fiscal year and would be under the advisement of the respective manager.”
On a side note the office that I followed for the budget story was the Mayor’s Office. At the March 13 meeting, the Mayor’s Office requested a $5,000 increase to their budget from last year to fund trainings. The budget for the Mayor’s Office was $353,565 and an approximate $5,000 increase to this budget would make the Mayor’s Office budget and estimated $358,565 Brandi Jacobs-Jones, Director of Administration and Finance for the city of Huntington, spoke about the need for this increase to help with the training of the city’s administration.
“The rationality behind the increase is when we get into tough economic times, we tend to cut training,” Jones said. “When times are tight, you need your people on their “A” game even more. We are looking to partnering with Unlimited Futures Inc. to train our department heads as well as supervisors.”
With this increase to the mayor’s budget, the city of Huntington would benefit from a training that would help the managers and supervisors of the departments manage their staff more effectively and efficiently. There was no record on the Levy Estimate that I received that indicated the mayor’s budget in any way. Until this information has been obtained, the mayor’s budget is unknown.





Department Proposed Budget by Mayor City Council Approved Budget
Reduction Budget Requested by Department

Police $10,741,819 $11,069,488 $198,871 $11,268,359

Fire $10,121,153 $10,429,956 $120,000 $10,549,956

Floodwall $648,677 $534,187 $102,345 $636,532

Engineering $922,601 $874,574 $35,987 $910,561


Source: Huntington Levy Estimate and Huntington Annual Budget Estimate 2010

A visit with the mayor

The mayor still has a lot of things going on in Huntington. I was able to visit him over spring break at his open house. There are still major projects going on within the city as the Old main corridor project is wrapping up. We talked about the issues concerning this project and also a few remarks about his budget. Which didn't change much from the city council budget meeting. I plan on meeting him one more time before I begin to write my paper to discuss the issues with the old main corridor project, and the state of affairs within the city.

The Bondwoman's Narrative... A remarkable story!

Before I go into brief detail of the novel The Bondwoman’s Narrative, I would like to present a short summary of the piece so a better understanding is met.
The Bondwoman’s Narrative is a novel that tells the story of a female black slave who was born in Virginia, but is sold to a plantation owner in North Carolina. The slaves name is Hannah Crafts, a mulatto slave born in Virginia, but torn away from her family and sold to become a slave forever. Her new plantation owner is identified in the book as Mistress, not as master because it seems that Hannah and the plantation owner have a friendship amongst each other. After a short while working on the plantation with the Mistress the story is thrust into action after Mr. Trappe, the main antagonist from the novel, exploits the Mistress when he finds out that she is really a black women passing as white. Hannah and the Mistress flee from the plantation and head into the forest where they find a shack to settle into. Unfortunately this shack was the scene of a terrible murder as weapons and clothing are covered in blood. Hannah’s mistress begins to lose sanity and the stress of everything going on gets to her.
After a few months of living in the shack the two are found by some hunters who escort them to prison. While in prison they are met by Mrs. Wright, a senile woman who is was charged with helping a slave girl escape. While in prison for quite some time, the Mistress’s insanity worsens, but eventually the two are moved into house. At first the two have no idea who the owner is, but it turns out to be Mr. Trappe. Shortly after hearing this news, the Mistress suffers a brain aneurysm because of all the stress and dies.
Hannah is returned to owner she had before, however they’re also dead, so she is now working for Mrs. Wheeler, a self-centered woman. Conflict is apparent because the two, especially after a makeup incident that caused Mrs. Wheeler’s face to become black. Mrs. Wheeler accuses Hannah of talking about the “blackface” incident with others. Mrs. Wheeler orders Hannah to be raped in the fields by the one of the head slaves as her punishment. Fortunately Hannah hears the news of her punishment and plans an escape. While heading north, she is aided by a Ms. Hetty. Ms. Hetty helps her with her travels and also teaches her how to read and write. The story concludes with the Hannah going north where she finally meets her mother again.
This novel has all the characteristics of a good heart warming story. The novel has all the parts a good story should have including, a main character, Hannah. There is an antagonist, Mr. Trappe, who goes after the mistress and Hannah. There are support characters, the mistress, and Ms. Hetty, who help the main character advance the story. There are also difficulties that come along that make the story sort of entertaining.
One of the more interesting parts of this novel is the portrayal of the black slaves by the narrator Hannah. The slaves, the blacks, are referred to by the narrator as people first and black second. The narrator is black and she views the blacks as people. It is a different perspective then some of the other slave books out there.
The novel shows the life of this slave as being somewhat mysterious. The main character Hannah seemed to hide her story. She lived a life of secrecy if you will. She doesn’t tell many people of her travels and where she came from. I also find it strange that some of the names were changed or cannot be proved to have actually existed. Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is the head of Afro-American studies at Harvard, believes that the character Hannah did exist during the slave period in the 1008s, but her name was not Hannah. Gates was able to validate the writings because he studied the handwriting of the works, the punctuation and the type of ink that was used. At one point Gates thought he had actually found the real Hannah Craft, but it the records of her past did not match the story from these notes.
This novel is credible in some ways, and not in others. It is hard to believe every part of this story, and it is hard to document the story because of all of the name changes to save people. On a scholarly level it is hard to say if all of the parts in this story existed, however it is a remarkable find as far as history is concerned. This piece of history is told through a different perspective. It is told by a woman, a slave woman, who was torn form her family and survived slavery from the south. It is a story of one woman’s strength through a set of difficulties and the fact that she was able to overcome made her story even better. I will say that the story wasn’t the most action packed or entertaining book I’ve read, but the history that it brings to the table is very hard to duplicate. It could possible be the first novel written by a black female slave in history, which is a huge discovery.
In my opinion the novel was good. It gave people a new perspective on the life of a slave, and more importantly the life of a female black slave. It was in an interesting story to say the least, but it is hard to tell whether or not all of what happened really did happen. The Mistress dying of a brain aneurysm because of so much stress seems kind of sketchy. It was probably hard to document such things because the medical advancements in that time were not as they are today. Mr. Trappe probably killed the Mistress after trying to escape or attacking him. I have a tough time believing she died of too much stress, although it could happen, I doubt it was the cause. There are other weird sets of events that make the novel hard to believe, but it doesn’t take away the fact that what Hannah went through during her life was remarkable.

The Bondwoman's Narrative: A Novel

By Hannah Crafts

Edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.


A Book Review

338 pages

$12.78

Introduction by Gates; Annotation, Appendix A, Appendix B
ISBN: 0-446-53008-5

Future State of Huntington

While listening to Mayor Kim Wolfe at the State of the City Address on Saturday Feb. 13, 2010 in Huntington it seems that although the city has accomplished a lot under the current mayor, there is still work to be done.

In the beginning the mayor talked about overcoming economic times, but more importantly he talked about how the city had overcome some of the obstacles during the recession. With the $1 increase in User Fee and federal funding, Huntington has been able to hire seven additional police officers. The mayor said that the User Fee has also paved more than $800,000 worth of streets and purchased equipment for Street and Traffic Engineering divisions.

Later in the speech the mayor said that Huntington received national attention when Jamie Oliver's television show was filmed in town. The mayor said that the kitchen that Oliver has donated to the area has greatly impacted the community’s health. The mayor also wanted to rid the title of "The fattest city in America" from Huntington.

The speech also included the proposed budget. Interestingly enough the proposed budget was approximately $5 million less than the budget from the 2009 fiscal year. The budget for the 2010 fiscal years has $2 million worth of grants taken away from it.

The second biggest cut in the budget came from police. There is more than likely a grant in place to make up the over $800,000 cut that the police will take considering the city hired seven new police officers.

Above all, the mayor seems to be directing Huntington towards the right direction. That direction is infrastructure. So far the mayor has cleaned up many of the roads in the area. He is also working on the Old main corridor and downtown corridor projects. With the budget constantly changing, it will be interesting to see what new challenges the mayor will face and how he will overcome them.

All about the Budget

The 2010 fiscal year means less for Huntington and its’ surrounding businesses. Huntington mayor Kim Wolfe proposed a budget of $39,542,739 for 2010-2011 fiscal year.

The major contributors to this budget come from five different places. The Business and Occupation tax is projected to bring in the most amount at $15,500,000 approximately 39.6 percent of the 2010 proposed budget.

The next highest contributor to the budget is Municipal Service Fees at $6,150,000 about 15.8 percent of the budget.

Property Tax Current comes in third at $4,437,420, 11.3 percent and City Service Fees comes in fourth at $4,428,000, 11.3 percent.

Last but not least the Utility Tax is proposed at $2,200,000 approximately 5.6 percent.

In comparison to the 2009 fiscal year budget, the 2010 budget is approximately $4 million less. Wolfe addressed the issue of the economy and the future of Huntington’s budget if economic struggles should continue in his State of the City Address.

“Unfortunately, as the economic challenges that were broadcast on a national level hit home, we have been forced to reduce that budget for this current year to approximately $40 million,” Wolfe said. “Should the revenues continue to look as they have this current year, we may be forced to see an approximate 10-percent reduction in the revenues that are proposed this year, approximately $5 million.”

The budget for 2008-2009 fiscal year ended at $40,041,199 and the 2009-2010 budget is estimated at to end at $40,374,464 through June 30, 2010. The city made approximately $200,000 more between the two budgets and could possibly see a change like this next year.

Money Money Money

Nick J. Rahall II enters the 2010 election with a major advantage in campaign funds and fundraising as he has raised over fifteen times the amount of money in his campaign than his competitors combined in the 3rd District of West Virginia.

Rahall raised over fifteen times the amount of money than his competitors with a total of $383,242 according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Forty one percent of that money came from Itemized Individual contributions and over half came from Other Committee contributions such as Engineers Political Education Committee and the Ocean Champions Political Action Committee. Rahall spent $349,656 on his campaign and ended the year with $1,392,501 cash on hand.

The closest competitor to Rahall was Republican Conrad Lucas. Lucas was able to raise $16,555 in campaign funding which was. He spent $4,032 on his campaign and ended the year with $12,523 cash on hand. Rahall raised over twenty times the amount of campaign funding than Lucas.

After Lucas the next closest competitor in terms of fundraising is Republican Lee Allen Bias. Bias raised $16,417 in his campaign in 2009. He spent $5,331 on his campaign and ended the year with $11,085 cash on hand. One major set back to Bias’s campaign is that he ended the year $11,343 in debt, so he ended up spending $258 more than what he ended the year with. Rahall raised over twenty times more money than Bias did in 2009.

The final two competitors in the third district of West Virginia running against Rahall are Republicans Gary Gearheart and Elliot Edward Maynard. Both candidates did not raise any money for their campaigns in 2009, but are still listed in the FEC as competitors.

Looking at the numbers, Rahall raised $383,242 on his campaign and all of his other competitors raised a total of $32,972. That’s over fifteen times the amount Rahall raised. Rahall had a total of $1,392,501 cash on hand and the total amount his competitors is a mere $24,328 giving Rahall approximately $1,368,893 more than his competitors combined at the end of 2009. In the 2008 Senate race Rahall raised $592,271 and his only competitor Gary Gearheart raised no funds in his campaign. What does this funding mean for his election?

“It makes a lot of difference in what he can buy,” Marshall University Political Science Professor George Davis said, “He can put yard signs in every yard in West Virginia with that kind of money. Where it really makes a difference is lets say your someone who is running against Rahall and you go to me as a contributor and I know that Rahall has all this money and you don’t. You got $5,000 in the bank. Even as someone who might contribute to you, the reaction is going to be wait a minute you don’t have a shot.”

Money makes all the difference in an election. The movie Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore is similar to what Rahall’s competitors are facing in the upcoming election. In the movie grassroots candidate Jeff Smith is running for the open seat in U.S. Congress in St. Louis. The main nominee in this election is Democrat Russ Carnahan. Carnahan was not an incumbent like Rahall, however his parents were well known figures in politics giving the Carnahan name an edge. The Rahall name is also well known in the 3rd District. Smith had to begin his campaign from the ground up and that meant going door to door in the streets of St. Louis trying to gain support. Rahall’s competitors will have to do the same if they wish to receive any support in West Virginia’s 3rd District because of the influences that Rahall has in this area.

Rahall is Chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources. With this status Rahall has been able to bring money to West Virginia to preserve some of its natural resources. The southern coalfields make up a huge chunk of West Virginia’s 3rd District and Rahall has done a lot of work for mine safety in these areas. After the Saco mine accident in 2006, Rahall was able to bring in approximately $4,000,000 to West Virginia coal companies for mine safety.

It is a busy time of year for candidates in the election period. Even more so for the candidates who are looking to get re-elected. Rahall has to juggle serving in U.S. Congress, checking with his constituents and this year trying to establish a campaign race to keep his time in office alive. Reaching Rahall was a challenge. Emails and phone calls later no one was able to contact me on the current stats of Rahall’s campaign. The Huntington and Beckley offices said that someone in a different office had to answer any questions about campaigning. No one in these offices could comment on his campaign. No word yet on how much funding Rahall has received since Dec. 1, 2009, but whenever the office that deals with campaigning has time to respond, these numbers will be released.

State of the City

As I was listening to Mayor Kim Wolfe at the State of the City Address in Huntington it occurred to me that although the city has accomplished a lot under the current mayor, there is still work to be done.

In the beginning the mayor talked about overcoming economic times, but more importantly he talked about how the city had overcome some of the obstacles during the recession. With the $1 dollar increase in User Fee and federal funding, Huntington has been able to hire 7 additional police officers. The mayor said the the User Fee has also paved more than $800,000 worth of streets and purchased equipment for Street and Traffic Engineering divisions.

Later in the speech the mayor said that Huntington received national attention when Jamie Oliver's television show was filmed in town. The mayor said that the kitchen that Oliver has donated to the area has greatly impacted the communities health. The mayor also wanted to rid the title of "The fattest city in America" from Huntington.

The speech also included the proposed budget. Interestingly enough the proposed budget was approximately $5 million less than the budget from the 2009 fiscal year. The budget for the 2010 fiscal years has $2 million dollars worth of grants taken away from it. The second biggest cut in the budget came from police. I presume that there is a grant in place to make up the over $800,000 cut that the police will take considering the city hired seven new police officers.

Above all, I believe the mayor is directing Huntington in the right direction. That direction is infrastructure. So far the mayor has cleaned up many of the roads in the area. He is also working on the Old main corridor and downtown corridor projects. With the budget constantly changing, I will be anxious to see what new challenges the mayor will face and how he will overcome them.

Women and Minorities... What Women Want... Respect

Reading this book provides viewers with insights on the idea that it is now a women’s world. I do not agree that it is a women’s world today, but who knows what the future will hold. The book has many different points of view that lead readers to believe that the accomplishments are greater than men and that women are leading the ways of the world. This is true in some cases but not all. Women have come a long way from tending to children and taking care of the house and they should be recognized for their achievements in politics, sciences and in various businesses.
Women have established themselves as equals to men, this report agrees, but I do not believe it is yet a women’s world. The fact that a black male was able to become president first leads me to believe that it is not a women’s world. I feel that the future may also bring a female to the reins of president. Sarah Palin seems set on making sure a women gets into office in 2012, however, only time will tell whether or not our nation is ready for a female president.
Not only is it hard for a woman to get elected into an office, but imagine being a woman of race. A good example to provide that women have come a long way would be Judge Sonia Sotomayor. She had to overcome speculations about her when she was running for the Supreme Court.
After reading the beginnings of this book it made me think about what women want. They may want to run the country as well as the world but I think more importantly they want the same respect as men in office. They want to be known for their accomplishments and not having their work be tossed to the side just because they are women.

Mayor v Me

At the end of January I was able to attend a open forum with the mayor at a diner on Hal Greer Blvd. It was a good chance for me to sit down with the mayor for a one on one conversation regarding the issues facing the city of Huntington. We talked about what the big plans were for the future of the city and how that now the pension problems are slowing fading away, the mayor can switch his attention to the issues of the city.
Huntington roads, as most of us know, are filed with pot holes. This is a problem that the mayor has address to me and he knows something has to be done about it, weather pending. The roads are just one major issue, there is also the Old Main corridor project underway. The idea behind this project was to get Marshall students to go downtown and visit the area businesses and restaurants. The project will help with security and safety of the streets. There will be lights installed and patrols working long hours on the project.
There are many issues that face Huntington coming up in the near future. The State of the City Address is coming up and with that will come the budget of Huntington. When this is issued the local citizen will have an idea of where their money is going.

Proposal

To: Editor Burnis Morris
From: Solomon FIzer

Subject: Local bars and clubs serve people under age patrons.

Scope: We will conduct research on people that go to bars and clubs that serve drinks to patrons less than 21 years of age. We will research the records of bars and clubs that have received fines from the liquor commissioner for serving under aged patrons.

Need: People need to know that their children may be served alcohol illegally if they enter a club. We will research possible cases of drunk driving accidents where under aged adults were involved.

Methods: We want to bring this story together by mentioning the laws for alcohol consumption. Afterwards we will move onto facts about how many under age people are arrested for drinking. Then we would move onto local fines that liquor commissioners have placed on bars and clubs in the past 2 years. We will then tie it all together with interviews with local police, clubs employees, and under aged people.

Sources: This story will be drawn together by fines from liquor commissioners and interviews from under aged people who enter clubs. We also will have interviews from club employee’s and if possible management. We would also like to interview parents of children who tend to go to clubs in a constant basis. We would also like to interview local law enforcement and the mayor.

Presentation: This will be a single investigative story that would lay down all the facts and information that we have. We would also like to have a comments section that would give locals a chance to respond.

Follow-up: A good follow up story would be what clubs, bars, and police are doing to crack down on under aged drinking. We will see if anything has been put into place so under aged drinking can be prevented.

The Truth Unfolds

While searching the Internet for investigative articles I found one that really caught my interest. The article was a report on the torture and killings of Afghan civilians under President Barak Obama. The story is investigative because there are questions concerning the killings of Afghan civilians.
The article does not have any interviews from Obama or any one in his administration, but it had interviews with members of the military. The article has interviews from people who have been captured by the military and sent to prisons where they were tortured. Other interviews were from family members who have missing siblings.
The only documents in the articles were court cases and statistics of the prison population.
This article would reach out to human rights activists, the military and their families. It will also affect the people in the Middle East.
The article was released on Feb. 1, 2010 but has yet to reach some of the bigger media outlets. The title of the article is somewhat over dramatic but the author does back it up in the story. This article was a project idea and research for this story was supported by the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

Mayor's Money Issues

When diagnosing the city of Huntington, we need to look at the statistics. The city has a population of 49,185 and an area of 15.9 square miles, according to city-data.com. Looking at the budget one can see that Huntington’s total revenue was approximately $38,919,497 in the 2009 fiscal year and is projected $41,064,610 in 2010. The total expenditures for the city are approximately $38,919,497 in 2009 and a projected $42,135,417 for 2010.

The city makes the most money from Business and Occupation taxes, approximately $16,927,272 in the 2009 fiscal year and a projected $17,395,121 for 2010. It also makes money from Municipal Services, approximately $5,800,000 in the 2009 fiscal year and a projected $5,900,000 in 2010. The city spends the most money in services. Police costs in 2009 were approximately $10,899,225 in the 2009 fiscal year and a projected $11,580,414 in 2010. The next highest expenditure is the Fire costs, which were $9,965,444 in the 2009 fiscal year and a projected $10,271,811 for 2010.

The most current article on the Huntington budget that I found was the article by Bryan Chambers entitled “Wolfe tackles big problems in first year.” This article reports on the actions by Mayor Kim Wolfe in his first year in office. According to the article, Wolfe has been getting things done in the city such as fixing roads and cleaning streets. Wolfe spent $800,000 on 25 paving projects and purchased $111,000 in new traffic and street equipment, funny considering streetlights along Hal Greer continue to break down and roads still have pot holes.

The article talked about the how Wolfe worked with Gov. Joe Manchin and the State Legislature to fix the pension problems facing the city. Before Wolfe took office, Huntington already had a budget of $42 million, $9 million of that was going towards pension contributions and was projected to reach $23 million in 2023. Wolfe came up with a plan that did not rely on state funding, Manchin placed a special session agenda later in the year and the Legislature passed the municipal pension according to the article. The plan that was proposed allowed businesses to close existing retirement plans to new hires and refinancing those plans over a 40-year period to pay off their unfunded liabilities.

Obama being Obama

President Barak Obama's State of the Union Address answered a lot questions about the future of our nation, as expected. Obama said that he wanted to cut down the deficit that the U.S. still faces. He said that he was not giving up on health care despite the recent change in the Senate seats. He pushed the topic and left it an open forum. He said that if anyone, Democrat or Republican, had better plans for a health care bill, to let him. He did not want them to turn down the idea because his administration is so close to passing a bill that he believes will help Americans to afford health care.

Another issue that Obama addressed was the need for better infrastructure and energy efficiency. He mentioned what cities are doing with the "Recovery Act" money to help economic growth. He said he wanted to create jobs that move goods, services and information within our nation. He also said that clean energy and infrastructure jobs were necessary to help the economy and the environment. Obama said that he wanted to provide tax cuts to companies that stay within the U.S. and wanted to heavily tax those companies who do work outside of the U.S. He said that banks needed to invest in small businesses. Obama wanted to spend the bailout money that big banks were paying back on investments with smaller banks that would invest in small businesses. In the world of innovation. He wanted the U.S. to work on exporting more goods than importing.

Obama brought up the war and education. He was prone on getting the troops home rather than keeping them overseas to fight. He said he wanted all of our troops home by 2011 and that when they arrived that would be taken care of by the government. Obama said that he wanted to invest in our community and technical colleges so more Americans would have the chance to attend college. He said that it was not only the government's responsibility to help colleges but he wanted colleges to operate more efficiently. He said he wanted to provide tax cuts to those who are attending college and those who have children attending college.

The Kopper

Marshall University President Stephen J. Kopp addressed the faculty and staff of the university about the future plans of Marshall after Governor Joe Manchin asked universities to put a freeze on tuition for one year. Kopp said that Marshall did not need to survive; it needed to thrive in the deep recession. Following this statement, Kopp explained the actions that Marshall has taken to make its' operations run more
efficiently.

Throughout the article Kopp mentions the money saved on the Green Fee. He even mentions the money saved with the program, a total of $600,000. Kopp also mention the energy usage that the University has adjusted. He talks about how the monitoring program has lead Marshall to shrink its’ electricity consumption by 2 million kilowatts.

It seems to me that even though Marshall will be losing money because of the tuition freeze, it seems Kopp isn’t too worried because of the money we are currently saving with the efficiency improvements Marshall has already made. The money saved from these upgrades will help soften the blow that the University will take if it chooses to freeze tuition rates. Kopp also said that Marshall would need to continue to make changes that will help Marshall save more money in the future.

Obama State of the Union Prediction

President Barack Obama has a lot of questions to answer at his first State of the Union Address on Wednesday. There are issues that Obama has addressed in past speeches that I believe will be brought up again because they have yet to be fixed.

The president faces a struggling economy and an unemployment rate that ended at 9.7 percent in Dec. 2009, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Since taking office in Jan. 2009 the unemployment rate has gone up 1.2 percentage points. President Obama may talk about the need for more jobs because of the growing unemployment rate. In his Inaugural speech, President Obama said work that needed to be done to make sure citizens in the U.S. had jobs.

“The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act – not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth,” Obama said in his Inaugural speech on Jan. 20, 2009. Obama may utter these same words in his State of the Union Address and discuss actions that are taking pace to make sure new jobs will be created and foundations for growth in business will be laid down.

Because of the recent attacks on the U.S. and the current struggles against terrorists, next issue the president will discuss is terrorism. He will discuss troop levels and the course of action in Afghanistan and discuss the continued withdrawal from Iraq. Obama may discuss issues about the military refocus from Iraq to Afghanistan.

The attempted terrorist attack on Dec. 25, 2009 may be used in his speech to back up the need for more troops and funding to fight against those who have attacked the U.S.

Another issue that Obama will address is health care. He said in his speech on health care that our current system has many flaws. He used two examples to get the point across. The first was of a woman in Texas who was about to get a double mastectomy but she had her insurance cancelled because she forgot to declare a case of acne. By the time she had her insurance reinstated, her cancer had doubled in size. It’s instances like this that need to be fixed and Obama will make it clear that these situations are unacceptable and that a new health care system is the only way to fix it.

With new senator-elect Scott Brown winning the Massachusetts Senate race, the once Democratic held seat now belongs to a Republican. This change could cause a major set back on whether a health care reform would be passed because the republicans now have 41 senate seats and the democrats have 59 when 60 votes are needed to defeat a filibuster. President Obama will stress to the people how much health care reform is needed and use some examples from his health care speech to back up his point.

These issues need to be acknowledged for the benefit of the U.S. and the welfare of the people because they are issues that will effect them. Obama may not talk about these issues right from the start because of the devastation in Haiti, but he may mention them throughout the rest of the State of the Union Address. Obama may also reflect on former presidents who have faced difficulties with the economy like he is now. I believe President William J. Clinton is the easiest person to relate Obama to. Clinton faced hard economic times and prevailed.

The State of the Union address will take place on Wednesday and one can only hope that the Obama administration knows what the problems are and are ready to face them.

MLK, Hope Is On The Way

Martin Luther King Jr. Day has a place in the hearts and minds of minorities across the United States, as well as those whose lives have been affected around the world. Over the years our mass media stations have been keen on providing stories of what people are doing to help others on this special holiday. It seems as though this holiday is one giant day of community service to help those in need, just as Dr. King helped thousands of struggling minorities some 45 years ago. There is a similar theme of this years’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day and that theme is hope.

Just as Dr. King gave hope to the African American families living in tough times in the south, today we as citizens of the United States of America give hope to a nation facing a natural disaster.

Instead of news stories of people who are helping others in the United States on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the media was locked on the tragedies facing Haiti after the massive earthquake nearly destroyed the entire island. In the past news stations have reported on rallies, parades or even events held in honor of Dr. King, but that was not the state of this years holiday.

Headlines on Martin Luther King Jr. Day consisted of the brave men and women in Haiti are helping with the recovery of the nation. I would imagine that Dr. King would be smiling if he could see where are nation has come since he passed. It would bring him joy if he could see the way our nation has given a helping hand to others that so desperate need it.

There were three media outlets that I looked at on this holiday so that I could compare and contrast the differences between these media outlets and media that Dr. King was on back in the 1960s.

The first look was the USA Today Web site. The only article on the Web site about Dr. King was a piece about what different people were doing that day to help others. Different states were holding events that people could attend to help out others in need. The article did not speak of anything that Dr. King had accomplished in his lifetime.

The other media outlet that I focused on was NBC Nightly News. This program, like all the other media outlets, was focused on Haiti. There was a 12 second piece on activities happening that had any tie with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That segment was on President Obama’s volunteered time at the soup kitchen.

When looking at the history of media coverage for Martin Luther King Jr. in my time, the press has given the man praise and respect for his accomplishments. Last year stories flooded the newspapers and television news stations on what the man had done, but it wasn’t always that way. In his early years it seemed as though the media was split on its opinions of Dr. King. The south in particular did not give Dr. King that much press, and what press they did give him was negative. In the northeastern part of the nation newspapers were giving Dr. King a good reputation for his works on the battle for equal rights.

Looking back at this years Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I still believe that he would be proud. To see where our nation has come since he has past and the fact that we are putting aside our current economic and health care issues to focus on a nation in desperate need of help would make him proud. I believe that Dr. King would rather have people helping others than to stop and remember him. I a way we are remembering him, by helping others.

State of the Union Comparisons

President Barack Obama will present his first State of the Union Address in a few short weeks. President Obama will have a lot of questions to answer. Many of these same questions are some that past presidents had to answer.

There are three former presidents that I believe President Obama’s speech will compare to.

The first president that would compare would be President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In the 1939 State of the Union Address, President Roosevelt spoke about the early beginnings of World War II. A war that he saw coming and a war that he knew he had to be a part of. With the U.S. on the ropes, Roosevelt had to balance the act of preparing a nation for war and keeping a nation economically sound and resourceful.

Roosevelt’s speech will have some similarities with what I think Obama will talk about including balancing a possible war on terror along with the growing economic problem. The speech had 3,912 words and lasted approximately one hour, but there was one message that has some relevance to what President Obama will talk about.

“Above all, we have made the American people conscious of their interrelationship and their interdependence. They sense a common destiny and a common need of each other. Differences of occupation, geography, race and religion no longer obscure the nation's fundamental unity in thought and in action,” Roosevelt said.

President Roosevelt uttered these words shortly after talking about financial, economical, and energy problems facing the nation. President Obama should be asking the people to help each other during this time just as Roosevelt did.

The next president is John F. Kennedy.

President Kennedy’s speech was approximately one hour as well and consisted on 5,284 words. President Kennedy’s speech talks about the peril facing our nation as well as the fall of the economy. This speech still talks about the nation recovering from the great depression. The great depression was one of the worst times in American economical history, however today’s economic status is testing that statement. Kennedy was working on an idea that would help the nation build and become better internationally and economically.

“The present state of our economy is disturbing. We take office in the wake of seven months of recession, three and one-half years of slack, seven years of diminished economic growth, and nine years of falling farm income,” Kennedy said in the 1961 State of the Union Address.

Our economy is facing a lot of these same situations after we spent so much money on war and not so much money on the economy.

Finally, President William “Bill” Clinton.

President Clinton dealt with many of hardships that president Obama will have to deal with in the next few years. Although Obama’s situation is more severe there are similarities in the storyline. Bill Clinton talks of a nation that has to work together to survive the economic crisis at hand. His speech was 3,771 words long and lasted approximately 45 minutes.

“It has been too long — at least three decades — since a President has challenged Americans to join him on our great national journey, not merely to consume the bounty of today but to invest for a much greater one tomorrow,” Clinton said. This statement is very powerful. President Obama needs to rely on the nation to help out with the growing economic crisis. I believe that he will also ask for the help of the community to fund the modern day War on Terror.

President Obama will also talk about some of the same issues that he has already touched on for example, the issue on Health Care, which he talked about in his Health Care speech on September 9, 2009.

The two other speeches that he will relate to will be his Inaugural speech on January 20, 2009 and his Election Victory speech on November 4, 2008. These speeches talked about the economy and the modern day War on Terror.

West Virginia v Higher Education

With the recent State of the State address behind them, it is now time for the governor and his surrounding cast to focus on the problems facing our beloved state. The three E’s — if you will Energy, Economy, Education, as a WOWK TV commentator pointed out-- was the easiest way to summarize what Governor Joe Manchin said in Wednesday night’s address. In education he mentioned on multiple occasions about getting students into schools, but said little on the topic of graduation rates that are ever decreasing by the year. There are also holes in the PROMISE Scholarship. We must find a way to keep PROMISE Scholarship recipients working in state.
Manchin talked about the urgency to expand college opportunities. The speech seemed to lack a set standard for students to follow to ensure that they graduate. There are standards for students to keep the PROMISE scholarship, but no standard to make sure our students are graduating. If we are going to spend millions on getting people into school, it only makes sense that we should also spend money on making sure our students can graduate. We are just throwing money away at this point.
In higher education there are still a few questions that have yet to be answered by the governor. What is West Virginia going to do to make sure its college students graduate? What are we going to do to get our PROMISE Scholarship money back? How will the state raise its graduation rate? Some say West Virginia’s graduation rate is similar to the national rate, but I was under the impression that the governor wants our state to be a leader.
The PROMISE Scholarship as most know was put into place to help West Virginia high school students have a chance in higher education by paying for schooling as long as they maintain a relatively high grade point average throughout their college years. I think we need to implement some type of standard that needs to be met for students who want to graduate.
There are some economical issues with our beloved PROMISE Scholarship. I will say that paying for students higher education is good and all but having the students leave right out of the gate is no way for us to gain any economical benefit from our investments. Manchin said that it was the responsibility of students who received the PROMISE Scholarship to stay in the state for a few years and work. The state loses money any time PROMISE Scholarship student leaves the state to work.
Manchin also talked in the 2008 State of the State about an idea that would seemingly make the PROMISE Scholarship a contract that if students left the state after graduation, that money spent on them was to be paid back to the state, however the 2008 plan fell through.
I look at the PROMISE Scholarship as an investment plan that our state uses to make sure high school students who do well on standardized testing get a full ride in college. The state is investing so much money for students to be able to get into college, but there is no set regulation to make sure students graduate. There also needs to be something set in place so that students who get the PROMISE Scholarship can get a job in state.
The problem is not so much the students leaving after graduation, it is the issue of them struggling to achieve graduation. Students who do not receive the promise are not monitored for their schooling at all. If students are getting money for school they should be held to a standard. The standard does not need to be as high as the PROMISE but there should be one in place so that students can be monitored on their progress and we can make sure students are doing what they should be doing to stay in school.
When it comes down to it the governor and his staff, along with the rest of the state legislature need to find a way to make sure our students are graduating. There also needs to be a plan that, in some way, students are paying back the money that was given to them by helping the state economy. I believe that the state and the universities need to find a common ground and set a standard for their students so that new graduation rates can be achieved.