Feb. 24, 2010 — Federal Aviation Administration

Reauthorization Act

Editor:

It seems like the word "bailout" is the new catch phrase in Washington, D.C. Between the banking, housing and automobile industry it would almost seem like there is no one left to bailout. But you would be wrong. Now Congress is considering a legislative package that would bailout UPS.  

Last year the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2009. While the bill deals mostly with safety reforms there is a hidden provision which has far-reaching impacts. This provision would bailout UPS while strictly targeting their competitor, FedEx Express. 

The legislation would regulate FedEx Express, which is the world’s largest airline, under the National Labor Relations Act which primarily applies to trucking companies such a s UPS. FedEx Express is currently regulated under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) like all other airlines, railroads and express shipping companies. You might be asking, why does this make a difference? UPS is a trucking company making 80 percent of its deliveries via ground service while FedEx Express make delivers the same percentage via air. It only seems natural that FedEx Express should continue to be regulated like all other airlines under the RLA. 

If this change goes into affect it will mean unreliable delivery service for many businesses throughout the United States, which rely on the dependable overnight service of FedEx Express, and increases in shipping costs. I think we have seen enough bailouts from Congress. It is time for our lawmakers to stop protecting companies like UPS, which is one of the largest campaign contributors to U.S. elected officials, and protect consumers. 

Sincerely,

Bryn Turner

Murray, KY



Remembering a winter vacation

Editor,

Everyone is complaining about all the snow that we have been  having.

Well, they should have been around in 1950-51. My home then was on Smith’s Run at Globe. It snowed so much,(I can't remember what month it was) that the snow came up to the bottom of our dining room window and that window was 6 feet off the ground!         

Two neighbors working at the Brickyard with my father and grandfather, had walked down to our place. My father had a 1949 Ford. He was going to drive all of them to work. One of the men asked, "Do you reckon that you can see to get us down the road?” My father told him, "If we can make it to the highway (U.S. 60) it will be cleared off some and we can make it to work.” I remember that the snow was so deep that it came all the way up to his headlights and then some.

We were out of school for over two weeks. After a while we would slayride from the top of the hill behind the barn, down the hill, across the bottom into the frozen creek. We had a wonderful winter vacation from school.  

Deanna D. Dunaway,

Olive Hill, Ky





Mountaintop Removal



How high the mountains once they were

Ancient Monarchs throned up there

Against a sky of royal blue

Wild things did live and eagles flew

Comes now the sound of money hounds

Their shovels break apart the ground

The mountain top is taken down

To busted rock and worthless sand

The signature of greedy man

Streams themselves can not escape

They disappear for profit sake

A dollar here a dollar there

Soon spent and gone into thin air

What once was there is there no more

And we are left forever poor.



Submitted by Earl H. Stewart,

Grayson





Know the laws on logging

Editor:

Please friends don’t let what happened to me happen to you. I had logging done in Carter County without a written contract with a master logger.

I trusted a man’s handshake and his word. It was a huge mistake. If best management practices have not been used to help reduce water pollution, you the landowner, will be responsible for any pollution with streams, and there will be erosion too.

Logging jobs have been inspected since July 2000, as required by the Kentucky Forest Conversation Act. This law states that commercial logging operations must have a Kentucky master logger on site and in charge, and that appropriate best management practices be used to help reduce water pollution.

The Kentucky Division of Forestry’s rangers are responsible for inspecting logging operations in their counties. A ranger can clarify which best management practices need to be used on the site.

If the ranger locates a job that has been closed out, an inspection will still be completed. If a water quality problem is found, information on the site will be turned over to the Kentucky Division of Water.

They will inspect the job, looking for water quality and floodplain problems, and if they are found, the landowner can be cited.

Citations could be given when mud is entering the streams, the stream is dammed, and tops or other debris cause blockage, or where tops get into the stream.

By a master logger it was strongly suggested that he leave my site “natural.” This would leave me totally responsible for pollution and floodplain problems.

If you need to contact your ranger, call the Kentucky Division of Forestry district office that handles your county.

Please know the law, and don’t let this happen to you.

J. Bledsoe

Columbus, Indiana



Community College transfer legislation

key to state’s future

Editor,

There is a continuous struggle faced by many Kentucky Community and Technical College students. These students take lower-division level transfer classes taught by highly qualified faculty who have an expertise in teaching and learning, only to discover later that that the degree requirements have changed at the other institution.

Determining which community college classes will transfer to a four-year university shouldn’t be so difficult for students. There is a revolutionary transfer bill (House Bill 160) being considered right now in the Kentucky legislature that would fix many of the problems students are experiencing.

Recently, a West Kentucky Community and Technical College (WKCTC) student was ready to transfer his community college credits to a state university, but he ran into roadblocks. Despite his years of work at WKCTC and advising by both institutions, many of the classes he had been told would transfer to a four-year university didn’t count toward the engineering degree he’d set his heart on achieving.

This young man, one of three sons of Gayna Felts, a busy mom and radiography student at WKCTC, was incredibly disappointed that some of his hard work – not to mention money – had gone toward coursework that wouldn’t help him reach his ultimate goal of an engineering degree. He ended up attending his chosen four-year institution, but was embarrassed to be in classes with freshmen students when he had already worked so hard to get an associate’s degree. He was terribly discouraged from his disheartening experience.

Gayna plans to use this hard-learned lesson to help her younger sons avoid similar issues when they begin college. But many of KCTCS’ students lack the family support to get such help. Often, students at KCTCS are the first in their families to attend college, and they have no one to guide them through the unnecessarily complicated maze of higher education.

HB160 will help provide students with a clear-cut understanding of which courses will apply toward a four-year degree. In its current form, the bill creates a more clearly defined path to a bachelor’s degree for those students who plan to transfer, and consistency among core courses that students need in order to succeed. HB160 also includes stipulations for maintaining the agreement once passed into law, requiring advance notice to KCTCS and the Council on Postsecondary Education when course changes are proposed that would have an adverse effect on transfer.

Community and technical colleges are an excellent value for students, particularly during these difficult economic times, because they provide an affordable and convenient pathway for students to pursue a baccalaureate degree. Additionally, research shows that KCTCS transfer students do better than students who start at four-year institutions. At KCTCS, our students represent more than half of the undergraduate students in all of Kentucky’s public postsecondary institutions combined. And more and more are deciding to begin their higher education journey at one of our 16 colleges. In fact, spring enrollment is up a record 18 percent across the system. It is obvious we are providing Kentucky what it needs right now and it is critical we help these students continue along the path to success with a four-year degree.

Kentucky’s future economic health depends upon higher education because some form of postsecondary credential is needed for the high wage, high demand jobs that are critical for our state to not only survive, but thrive in today’s global marketplace. Kentucky has set an ambitious goal to double the number of baccalaureate degrees by 2020 to attract the businesses and industries that will put our state on a trajectory path towards economic prosperity. However, if our state is going to reach this goal, it must significantly increase the number of transfer students from KCTCS to four-year institutions.

Please join me and the more than 8,000 citizens who have signed the Kentuckians for Community and Technical Colleges petition in asking the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly to support HB160. It is a smart investment in our students, our workers and our state’s economy. Our state’s economic future depends on it.

Sincerely,

Michael B. McCall, president

Kentucky Community and Technical College System