News opinion 2008-04-23 Andanh.com

Auction is a great thing for our city Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:34:58 -0500
Having a city auction to sell items such as paintball guns, DVD players, bicycles, cameras and other items is a good way to get rid of surplus property and also a chance for people to get good, quality merchandise for a reasonable price. On Saturday, the city will have its annual city surplus property auction at the City Works Parking Garage at 611 Raven St. Also for sale at the auction will be various items from city departments such as desk chairs, desks, computers, calculators, TVs and printers. There is also more than 100 knives that were mostly taken from Warren County Regional Jail inmates. Several trucks will be also be sold, along with lawn-care and exercise equipment. State law requires the city to sell its surplus property or let another public agency use it, rather than discard any items of value. This is a great opportunity for citizens to come out and get that bargain they’re looking for. Another benefit is that proceeds from items bought by non-city agencies such as the planning commission will go back to these agencies. Everything else will go into the city’s general fund. One item in abundant supply at the auction is bicycles. There will be 155 bikes for sale, most of them were seized or recovered by police and the owners couldn’t be found. Proceeds from bicycle sales goes to CrimeStoppers. This leads us to a really good point regarding more people registering their bicycles. The Bowling Green Police Department has recently created an online registry designed to help reunite hundreds of bicycle owners with their property. Each year, hundreds of unclaimed bicycles sit in city storage until the city has an auction and the item is sold for lack of a serial number. With this new Web site, www.bgky.org/police/bike_registry.php, more people could recover items stolen from them. This auction is a great thing for our city.

Execute the guilty Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:34:11 -0500
The Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that the death penalty by lethal injection in Kentucky, which uses a cocktail of three drugs, is not a violation of the Constitution’s prohibition against “cruel and unusual punishment.” Other states, which had placed their lethal injection methods on hold pending a court ruling, are now expected to proceed. No news report I saw appreciated the irony of the 7-2 vote, the same margin by which the court decided in 1973 that unborn babies could be killed in any manner, with or without drugs to dull their pain. As death penalty opponents on and off the court lament the execution of convicted murderers who are getting their just desserts, some definitions might be helpful. The two phrases associated with this procedure are “death penalty” and “capital punishment.” The word penalty is defined by Dictionary.com as “a punishment imposed or incurred for a violation of law or rule.” Another definition includes the word “consequence.” Punishment is defined as “a penalty inflicted for an offense.” It is this last one that gets to the heart of the conflict in a culture that takes as its foundational principle, “It can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” Fewer of us recall a time when a standard for distinguishing right from wrong and evil from good enjoyed wide acceptance. Now bad behavior enjoys nonstop TV coverage and evil is what the other political party does. The idea that a death penalty might be deserved seems foreign. In self-defense, most see nothing wrong with taking a life if another person is about to take theirs. It is only if the killer succeeds that some strange notion kicks in that the killer’s life suddenly inherits value and comes under constitutional protection. Conversely, the unborn child, according to the same court, only has a right to live if the woman carrying it gives it that right. Should she decide not to give birth, any method, including drug cocktails, is allowed. It mocks life when anti-death penalty people advocate for the guilty, while caring nothing for the unborn. Justice John Paul Stevens, who voted with the majority that restored capital punishment in 1976, announced in his dissenting opinion in the Kentucky case his reliance on his “own experience” in reaching his decision to now oppose the procedure in all instances. This sums up the tension between those who believe in what the Constitution says and those who believe in their own feelings as to what it should say. This is why elections matter and this year’s election matters more than any in recent years. Here’s another gem from the written opinions of the justices. Justice Samuel Alito referred to the ethics rules of the medical profession, which, he said, bar them from taking part in executions. This was one of the issues in the Kentucky case where it was argued that nonprofessionals might not administer the drugs properly and thus might inflict excruciating pain. Two things about this: first, “medical ethics” have not prevented a good number of doctors from performing abortions and a few from engaging in “assisted suicide” at the other end of life; second, I like what Chief Justice Roberts said in his majority opinion: “Some risk of pain is inherent in any method of execution - no matter how humane - if only from the prospect of error in following the required procedure. It is clear, then, that the Constitution does not demand the avoidance of all risk of pain in carrying out executions.” As the court leans more conservative, it is beginning to take into consideration the pain inflicted by murderers on victims and the lifelong emotional pain on victims’ families. DNA is aiding in reducing the likelihood that those wrongly convicted will be executed. Death penalty opponents are correct when they note that not all capital cases enjoy even minimally competent counsel. That needs to be corrected, but the court majority is right in the Kentucky case. As states begin again to execute the guilty, perhaps the concept of “just desserts” is making a comeback, even in our feel-good culture.

On Broadway Tue, 22 Apr 2008 00:02:00 EST
The Louisville Metro Police Department's decision in 2006 to close Broadway to most traffic over Kentucky Derby weekend was very controversial.

Student credit crunch Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:54:00 EST
Even in a good year, when the economy is humming along, the bureaucratic work involved in funding student loans is not simple.

Davis bicentennial Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:58:00 EST
If the letter writer did not understand the meaning of all the Confederate battle flags being displayed in Benton during Tater Day, why didn't he ask some of those displaying the flag?

Beshear said to be neutral in Senate race Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
Nominating Kentucky's trustworthy senatorial candidate Greg Fischer, "the Real Democrat," on May 20 is essential for the health of our state and our country.

Kentucky case: a matter of life and death Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:59:00 EST
The Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that the death penalty by lethal injection in Kentucky, which uses a cocktail of three drugs, is not a violation of the Constitution's prohibition against "cruel and unusual punishment."

Race is a divisive issue in Indiana's primary Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:01:00 EST
Joe Volpi, a 39-year-old factory worker in Lafayette, and Tom Lewis, a 62-year-old lawyer in Gary, both say race had nothing to do with their support for Sen. Barack Obama.

Don't fence them in: small towns, big dreams Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:02:00 EST
Stereotypes often contain at least a grain of truth. So it is with Sen. Barack Obama's remarks about "bitter" residents of small-town America who "cling" to their faith in God and the Second Amendment, who fear free trade, and who distrust those unlike themselves.

Kentucky fails without smart, bipartisan leadership Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:03:00 EST
Kentucky is at a crossroads. I cannot remember a time in my adult life when Kentucky more desperately needs smart, thoughtful, progressive, bipartisan leadership. I also cannot remember a time when I have been more thoroughly disappointed in what our state government failed to accomplish in the recently completed session.

Stress Test Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:48:00 EST

U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis has made national news Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:08:00 EST
U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis has made national news in with a remark he made recently at a Republican fundraising event. He was quoted as saying of Sen. Barack Obama: "That boy's finger does not need to be on the button…"

Election letters Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:55 EDT

The deadline for letters concerning the May 20 primary election is 5 p.m. May 13. Submissions are limited to 150 words. We do not accept letters from candidates, their campaign staffers or family members. Form letters will be rejected.

Support bill requiring fair pay for women Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
This is National Equal Pay Day. According to the National Committee on Pay Equity, the day is observed on a designated Tuesday in the month of April because a woman must work this far into the year on average to earn as much as a man earned the previous year. (Tuesday is the day on which women's wages catch up to men's from the previous week).

Eliminating wage discrimination should be a top priority for Kentucky employers. Kentucky women's earnings don't even measure up to the national average. In fact, we rank 44th in median annual earnings for women.

Hats off to state Rep. Mary Lou Marzian for again filing a bill to address the wage disparity in Kentucky. Unfortunately it was never called for a committee vote in the Senate this year.

Although it is well known that women earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn and that African-American women and Latinas earn even less (68 cents and 57 cents, respectively), it is not well understood that pay equity is more than equal pay. It's also about comparable worth.

Historically some jobs and sectors -- such as nursing, child care and secretarial -- are female-typed. Over the years many employers titled and filled positions according to gender, before considering experience and education. For example, if a company needed a secretary, only women were expected to apply. If a company needed an account executive, women need not apply. In other words, certain jobs paid less because they would be filled by women.

Limit legislators' ethical conflicts Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
Rep. John Will Stacy, D-West Liberty, told Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves that "any legislator, if he's an automobile dealer or if he works for some kind of public agency, like a university, you know, he's obviously going to try to help that entity. I mean, that's his job as a legislator."

Well, no, not really.

But you'd never know it from the Kentucky General Assembly.

One in five legislators have sponsored measures that would directly benefit their outside businesses, investments, employers or industries, according to a Herald-Leader analysis.

The legislature could shore up public confidence and improve its own tarnished image by enacting restrictions on members carrying legislation that benefits their own industries or employers. Same goes for awarding committee chairmanships to lawmakers with such conflicts of interest.

Vote Smart survey Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:06 EDT
If one wonders how a lawmaker would put self-interest over public good, look first at the general unwillingness of political candidates to tell voters what they believe.

Only five of 28 candidates for Kentucky's congressional seats were willing to answer questions in a national, non-partisan survey. That's 18 percent.

Of the total 195 candidates for the General Assembly, only 28 took the time to respond. That's a return rate of 14 percent.

Kentucky candidates continue to be among the lowest responders of any state to the Political Courage Test, designed by journalists, political scientists and representatives of major and third parties.

The test has been distributed for more than a decade by Project Vote Smart, a research group whose founders include Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Newt Gingrich, Barry Goldwater, John McCain and Geraldine Ferraro.

War minutes Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:15 EDT

Chinese Dir