Marketing & Communications: Today's News
|
Back to Today's news
Today's News for January 29, 2007System NewsState News National News Photo of the Day Behind closed doors - Almost 50 years ago, Paducah workers built a monkey's space capsule Writer: Joe Walker 1/28/2007 Paducah Sun James Champion remembers an evening in the late 1950s when guards walked into the huge Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant machine shop building with red-lettered diagrams marked "Top Secret." It was the height of the Cold War and trusted employees were accustomed to doing closed-door work well beyond the plant's traditional production of enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. There was a hush-hush "white room" where workers stripped precious metals from atomic bomb parts and made bomb triggers out of gold, and another area where nose cones were assembled for the Mercury Redstone missile program. But this was something different. With security personnel standing guard around the corners of a work table, Champion and a handful of welders and metal fabricators read the schematic of a capsule that was to carry a monkey into outer space. The capsule was to be built of lightweight aluminum, just a few feet wide and high, with a cylinder atop it in which the tiny monkey was to be strapped. All metal joints were to be overlapped and the cylinder covered with 100 layers of a tape-like, clear polyester film called Mylar, which was extraordinarily strong, heat-resistant and an excellent insulator for a vessel re-entering the atmosphere. "It was like a cocoon," recalled Champion, 78, of Lone Oak. "We laughed about that monkey and his potty chair." It took six months of steady work to assemble the contraption at night, to avoid attracting attention, after most of the workers had gone home. When the capsule was finished, it was secretly shipped, and the men never breathed a word of the experience until decades later when the federal government finally acknowledged the plant had done secret work. Champion had buried the episode in the back of his mind until he visited the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., while on a band trip in the early 1980s when his daughter was in high school. He did a double-take when he walked into an area showing the early space program. There was the capsule he had helped build, or one just like it, with a replica of the monkey strapped in. There were copper cooling coils around the outside of the capsule and other telltale signs. "There was no doubt in my mind," Champion recalled. "None whatsoever." The exhibit showed a squirrel monkey named Baker, one of two primates lifted into space on May 28, 1959, atop a Jupiter missile launched by the Army Ballistic Missile Agency -- a predecessor of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Baker and a larger rhesus monkey named Able flew about 300 miles high and were recovered unhurt 1,500 miles down range of Cape Canaveral, Fla. Champion visited the museum again in the early 1990s with a church group and made photos of the exhibit. He researched his kids' old World Book Encyclopedia and found a picture of one of the monkeys shot into the stratosphere. But he only spoke of it to his family and a few close friends, including some of the crew who helped build the capsule. Champion figured people would call him a kook if he spoke openly about it. "I've been putting this off for many years," he said last week. "I'm not one of those people who likes much publicity. I'm pretty low key." Champion said he told the story because he's growing older and may not have another chance. He also hopes that someday -- despite the lack of documentation -- the exhibit might wind up at the Challenger Learning Center at West Kentucky Community & Technical College. Center director Mellisa Duncan said Champion visited her previously, asking if anything could be done to secure the display. She explained the center is not affiliated with NASA and therefore has no pull with the agency. "I believe his story because I know the capsules existed, and it was a very secretive program because of the space race," Duncan said. "Why would you make up a story about a monkey in a capsule? But I don't personally have any avenues to prove it's correct." Champion remembers that the late Jim Hughes of Paducah, an accomplished metal worker, was in charge of layout. Hughes' son, Eugene, recalls his dad talking about the project many years later when the secrecy of plant work was unveiled. "I don't know how much of the capsule he made, but I do know he made the chair the monkey sat in," Eugene Hughes said. He said the plant did all kinds of secret work during the Cold War and probably was picked for the capsule project because of its machinery and worker expertise. Hughes recalls his father talking about building other projects, such as a fancy test-lab enclosure so that scientists could reach through a glass enclosure with rubber gloves. Evidence of the clandestine work has arisen in recent years. In spring 2000, Department of Energy investigators found sections of 17 nuclear bomb casings, apparently from the early 1960s, standing in a scrap yard on the north side of the plant. Several other half-round parts of bomb sections were stacked in the yard. Former plant worker Harold Hargan of Mounds, Ill., previously said he and others removed plating from nuclear-weapons parts to recover gold. He described watching the first deactivated nuclear bomb enter the plant on a flatbed truck and watching the last buried near the so-called "drum mountain," which DOE cleaned up later in 2000. Champion said much of the closed-door work came during an otherwise slack period and through the efforts of plant manager Robert Winkle. Fabrication shop workers built a wind tunnel for NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., and nose cones that went to Argonne National Laboratory, he said. "We also built the first prototype nuclear reactor out there before they ever started building nuclear power plants," Champion said. "I think it was about 12 feet in diameter and 20 feet tall. I know it weighed so much they couldn't ship it on trucks. They got a special railcar of some kind to ship it on." Because of the secrecy, Champion said he knows of no documentation for the work he did. He refused to talk to even his wife about it for long time. "It's a story that's never been told," he said. "I think Paducah ought to know about it." Black History Month events on tap Writer: MIKE JAMES 1/29/2007 Ashland Daily Independent ASHLAND -- Ashland Community and Technical College, the Kentucky Highlands Museum & Discovery Center, and the Paramount Arts Center will observe Black History Month with three community programs in February. The programs will include a presentation on the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, a sampling of southern cuisine, and the annual homegrown talent showcase, "A Night at the Apollo." "As a community college, one of our missions is to serve all the people in the community," said Michelle Douglas, ACTC's director of cultural diversity. "Our role is as a lighthouse in the community." Opening night at the Highlands starts at 7 p.m. Feb. 2 and features a presentation on the Kentucky connections of the Tuskegee Airmen by Ronald L. Spriggs, executive director of the Ron Spriggs Exhibit of Tuskegee Airmen Inc. of Nicholasville. Keeping alive the memory of the famed corps of pilots, the first all-black combat unit in the U.S. Army Air Corps, is a lifelong mission, said Spriggs in a telephone interview. "I'm going to continue to tell their story any way I can. It's a passion of mine," he said. The unit is famed both for its aerial prowess and its breakthrough battle with racism in the military. Kentucky connections include Glasgow native Willa Brown, a flight instructor who provided initial training to some of the pilots; Col. Noel Parrish, a Lexington native who was commandant of training, and one of the unit's P-51 Mustang fighters, dubbed "Miss Kentucky State," flown by pilot Roscoe Briggs in the closing weeks of the war when he became the first of the airmen to shoot down one of the new German jet fighters. Also that night the Paul G. Blazer Jazz Band will perform under the direction of Chris Whelan. The night will include a reception hosted by the Boyd County High School Celebration Club. The club is committed to diversity and wants to share that, said sponsor Ann Qualls. "It's part of our mission statement to educate and involve the community," she said. It's also essential education for the students. "They'll go to college and they've got to know there's other cultures out there," she said. For more information call the museum at (606) 329-8888. ACTC's Roberts Drive cafeteria will be the site at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 7 of a celebration of the African-American influence on southern cookery. The presentation will be accompanied with entrees and side dishes at a la carte prices. For more information contact Douglas at 326-2094. The Paramount Arts Center will showcase homegrown talent with "A Night at the Apollo," at 7 p.m. Feb. 23. Modeled after the legendary amateur night at Harlem's Apollo Theatre, the event will showcase area talent in music, singing, poetry, dance, comedy and drama. The Paul G. Blazer High School Human Relations Club sponsored by Lynn Revely and Kevin Stepp will host the program. Admission at the door is $5 for adults and $1 for children. Performers must register by Feb. 19 with the Highlands Museum & Discovery Center. The performance registration fee is $5 per act. Contact the museum for more information on registration. Businesses, individuals honored at chamber awards Writer: MISTY MAYNARD 1/28/2007 Maysville Ledger Independent Several area businesses and individuals were recognized during Saturday night's annual Maysville-Mason County Area Chamber of Commerce awards. Themed, "Takin' Care of Business," the awards honored those who demonstrated exemplary customer service in their respective fields. Held at the Washington Opera House Theater with Sean George and Van Ingram serving as masters of ceremony, the evening was an elegant and entertaining event. "I think it was very successful," said John Carpenter, director of the Chamber of Commerce. "We had a great turnout." About 160 individuals were present at the event to recognize their peers within the business community. It was a big night for several businesses in the area, but no one had quite the night Marjorie Bowie of Bowie Tire Co. Inc. had. The first two awards of the night went to the Aberdeen-based business, including the Outstanding Rookie Business, and Bowie was recognized individually with the award for the automotive category. Bowie said she was surprised and overwhelmed by the recognition, and she intended to hang the plaques she received in her business. Bowie Tire Co. was started by Bowie's husband's family. She and her husband, Mark, ran the business for 22 years. Upon his death in April, 2004, Marjorie Bowie said she continued to run the business. Marjorie Bowie said when it comes to customer service she relies on the age-old mantra that the "customer always comes first." Bowie noted she has a very loyal customer base. "Some of them are third generation," she said. Bowie shared the credit with her employees, a staff of four, not including herself, which she described also as "very loyal." Like Bowie, most of the award-winners recognized their staff and coworkers for the part they play in making the business so successful. That was not the only similarity. Like Bowie, the businesses recognized at the event always made serving their customers the number one priority. Dr. Mark Wallingford of Maysville Internal Medicine won in the category of health care. Wallingford said he found the recognition "very rewarding." Wallingford, a Maysville native, has been practicing medicine in the area for 20 years. Wallingford said he enjoys his job because he enjoys working with people. "Whoever I'm dealing with at the moment is the most important," Wallingford said. "Everything else comes after that." Carpenter said the event is a way members of the Chamber of Commerce can recognize their peers within the chamber, and the nominations and awards are representative of how the individual or business is viewed in the community. Other winners of the evening include: Contractor: Matt Hesler, Hardymon Lumber Delivery/Transportation: John Hutchings, R&H Distributing Entertainment: Ingrid Hornback, Maysville Country Club Educator: (Tie) Augusta Julian, Maysville Community and Technical College and Debra Cotterill, Mason County Cooperative Extension Service Food ServicevDavid Case, D&D Catering Funeral ServicevBob Brothers, Knox & Brothers Funeral Home Outstanding Non-profit: Hospice of Hope Industrial Worker: Bob Grutza, Ranger Steel Legal/financial: Leslie Ann Walton, Bank of Maysville Personal Care: Patti Carpenter, Lasting Impressions Salon & Spa Printing/Marketing: Danny Weddle, WFTM Public Service: Duff Giffen, Maysville-Mason County Tourism Real Estate: Debi Beiland, Limestone Properties Inc. Retail: Bill Shugars Jr., Shugars Supply Co. Outstanding Business: Pasquale's Editorial: Goal Sunday -- 01/27/07 - Program can help students get essential college financial aid 1/26/2007 Ashland Daily Independent College Goal Sunday is an annual event that has been taking place at colleges and in schools and community centers in Kentucky and across the nation for a number of years, but with the cost of attending college rising at a much faster pace than the rate of inflation, Sunday's event at 20 locations in 19 Kentucky cities may be the most important one yet. After all, the cost of attending college has reached the point where even young people from middle class families may think college is unaffordable. As for those from families with meager means, going to college may seem like the impossible dream. The purpose of the event that begins at 2 p.m. Sunday is to point the way to make college affordable for even those of modest means. Among the 20 locations in Kentucky are the Teleconference Room of the Learning Assistance Center on the College Drive Campus of Ashland Community and Technical College, the Crager Room on the third floor at the Adron Doran University Center at Morehead State University, and the Student Service Building at Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonsburg. At the event, financial aid professionals will provide free information and assistance in completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). The form is required for all students applying for federal aid and is also used by most colleges and universities nationwide to determine eligibility for state and local aid. Since FAFSA requires students who are adults not living with their parents to include their most recent completed income tax form and students with their parents to include their parents' completed income tax form, it is doubtful that many -- if any -- will be able to complete the FAFSA application Sunday since few have filed their taxes for 2006. However, those attending Sunday's sessions can receive help in filling out the remainder of the application. "Filling out the FAFSA is the crucial first step in applying for any type of college aid," said Martha Persinger, director of financial aid at Ashland Community and Technical College. "The federal application can help students qualify for thousands of dollars for college and is the ticket to a college education." Financial aid available to students includes grants and scholarships which do not have to be repaid, work study programs in which students are employed on campus, and student loans, which must be repaid after college. Since it now costs between $10,000 and $20,000 a year to attend college and live on campus even at a state university, most students need some sort of financial aid. Fortunately, there are many sources of such assistance. If you are a high school senior planning to attend college in the fall or an adult thinking about going to college, taking part in College Goal Sunday could be well worth the time. While financial aid counselors are available to meet with individual students during regular office hours, this is the one occasion when all those who can answer questions about financial aid are available in one location. And if your are unable to make Sunday's event, Ohio University Southern in Ironton and Shawnee State in Portsmouth will observe College Goal Sunday at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 11. Sponsored in Kentucky by the Kentucky Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, College Goal Sunday is a good event for those seeking a way to pay for their college education. Editorial: Ransdell bolsters WKU campus push 1/28/2007 Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer A clearer picture of the Western Kentucky University-Owensboro project emerged last week when WKU President Gary Ransdell came to town, which should generate even more excitement about the much greater role Western should soon be playing in this community. But as much as we welcome clarity, Ransdell's words here on Wednesday held even more. He made it abundantly clear that Western has bought in totally to the bold plan advanced late last year by Judge-Executive Reid Haire and Daviess Fiscal Court. From what we can see, Ransdell and Western are prepared to go to bat for the plan whenever and wherever need be. Fiscal Court is buying 29 acres across from Owensboro Community & Technical College for a Western campus. The court also has committed to borrowing $6 million to pay for a building on the property, which will be leased to WKU and carry its name. The other building on the land will be a classroom building shared by Western and OCTC and owned by the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. The money to build it will come from the state, money that is expected to be approved by the General Assembly this spring for the second phase of the Advanced Technology Center at OCTC. But instead of building a classroom addition onto the back of the ATC as originally planned, the money is now slated to be used for a classroom building on the 29-acre plot. Ransdell sees the project moving ahead smoothly and quickly. That's amazing, really, considering that two months ago, the idea of a stand-alone Western campus in Daviess County seemed out of reach. The plan to build a Western Kentucky University campus announced by Haire on Dec. 7 was stunning in its scope, vision and level of financial commitment by the county, but completely necessary if this county is to stay abreast of other large counties in Kentucky. Today, Daviess County is below the state average and seventh among the eight largest counties in the number of people attending higher education institutions of all kinds. The real indication of a crisis is contained in recent U.S. Census Bureau figures. Six years ago, Daviess County had 10,168 people over age 25 with bachelor's degrees or higher. In 2005, the number was down to 8,940 -- a drop of 12 percent. In Warren and Hardin counties, where Western operates campuses, the number of people with bachelor's degrees rose steadily between 2000 and 2005. Warren County went from 13,846 people with bachelor's degrees to 19,510 -- a gain of 5,664. In Hardin County, which has a Western center in Elizabethtown, the gain was 3,624 degrees. This is proof positive of Western's ability to affect higher education attainment levels. Ransdell had high praise for the community. "This project will unfold, and it will dramatically increase our capacity to expand," he said. "... I am very much impressed with the way this community has been coming together to determine its own destiny, especially where higher education is concerned." Ransdell and WKU deserve accolades as well. He told us last year that Western was willing to do what the community asked. Now he's backing up that pledge. On a related note, new Murray State University President Randy Dunn visited here last week and spoke of MSU's interest in having a greater role in Owensboro and Daviess County, being careful to respect Western's primary role. Murray has a small-business development program here that may be expandable, or the school could offer programs or courses that Western doesn't offer. In either case, this community should be open to a larger Murray presence here if it contributes to the goal of raising higher education attainment for everyone. Editorial: UK tuition crunch - New scholarships will help but aren't enough 1/29/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader It's a sign of the hard realities of public higher education that in the same week, the University of Kentucky raised tuition by 9 percent and announced scholarship programs aimed at making college affordable. UK is not alone in facing the challenges that arise from reduced public funding and a shift of scholarship dollars away from need-based toward merit-based programs. Those national trends have resulted in subsidies for middle-class families as public schools bid for the best students while higher education becomes less and less affordable for kids from poor families. UK also works under an expensive but underfunded legislative mandate to join the ranks of Top 20 public research universities by 2020. Like the University of Louisville, which earlier this month rolled out a plan to guarantee low-income students a college education without taking on debt, UK struggles with these demands in one of the poorest states in the union. Among the scholarships announced is one aimed at students transferring from the exploding Kentucky Technical and Community College System. The community college system was developed with the idea of letting students stay close to home and save money for a couple of years before transferring to a four-year university. The idea makes sense, but it has failed in practice. Despite scholarship programs at other public universities to encourage transfers, very few students have moved on to UK or other schools, and many of those who have didn't graduate. UK's scholarships will allow high-performing students to attend UK without having to pay all of the much higher tuition. In three other scholarship programs, UK ties aid to completing upper-level math and science classes in high school. One of these sets aside money for students who are are eligible for federal Pell Grants, given to students from families at or below 150 percent of the poverty line. UK presented these programs as part of long-range re-evaluation of student aid. As part of that ongoing effort, UK must rigorously monitor these programs to see whether they are accomplishing what's intended and, if not, why. UK must also, with the support of the legislature and the statewide business community, build an endowment exclusively for academic scholarships. Without one, as is now the case, every dollar given to a student is one that isn't spent on faculty salaries, better lab equipment, campus safety or hundreds of other things. Some part of every tuition increase is essentially taxing one group of students to help another. We are placing enough burdens on future generations without forcing them to pay the freight to pull Kentucky out of poverty. Financial aid specialists help students navigate federal form Writer: CARRIE KIRSCHNER 1/29/2007 Ashland Daily Independent ASHLAND -- Students and parents of college-bound seniors gathered at Ashland Community and Technical College Sunday for the annual College Goal Sunday. The information session, one of 19 across Kentucky, centered on the FAFSA -- Free Application for Federal Student Aid -- which is required for consideration of financial aid from all colleges and universities in the nation. It is also used by most colleges and universities to determine eligibility for state and local aid. Many financial aid programs are available to help fund college costs. Financial aid includes grants, scholarships, work study and student loans. Grants and scholarships do not have to be repaid. Work study is employment on campus and you work for a pay check. Loans are monies that do have to be repaid. The most widely known form of college financial aid is the Federal Pell Grant Program, which provides every eligible student with funds. Most state and local programs have a set amount of money to use each year, and when that money is gone, no more awards can be made. For students planning on attending a Kentucky school, the priority aid deadline is March 15. Priority deadlines for West Virginia schools is March 1 and Ohio schools is Oct. 1 for the 2007-2008 school year. Students qualify for financial aid based on their family's income. Students do not necessarily have to be fulltime to be eligible to receive grants and for some students, Pell Grants are available even if they are taking only one class. Students who qualify for Pell Grants could also be eligible to receive aid from one of the two new federal grant programs. An Academic Competitiveness Grant (ACG) is for fulltime first- and second-year students that are pell grant recipients and completed a rigorous secondary school program. Students that may qualify are notified by the Department of Education after their FAFSA is completed and will be required to provide additional documentation. The award for first-year students is $750, while second-year students receive $1,300. Pell grant recipients in their third or fourth year may be eligible for the new National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent Grant (SMART). It is awarded to fulltime students with a GPA of at least 3.0 who are pursuing a degree in a math, science or computer field. Awards for eligible students is $4,000 annually. According to Chris Cummings, the ACTC financial aid specialist and loan coordinator, students need to complete a FAFSA each year because the government changes its calculation tables for aid annually. It is also very important that students meet priority deadlines, she said. Cummings also encouraged students to investigate private scholarships offered by community organizations and employers. She added it is also important for students to get to know the financial aid counselors at their prospective schools and to take advantage of college visits. Another helpful tip, offered for graduating high school seniors is to fill out the 2006-2007 FAFSA as well. Students may find they can receive aid for the coming summer semester. Home-schoolers gain socialization, specialized teaching through enrichment Writer: SARAH BERKSHIRE 1/29/2007 Elizabethtown News-Enterprise ELIZABETHTOWN -- Home-school families have found benefits to learning and teaching under their own roofs, but lessons are not restricted to the home. Home-schoolers commonly attend enrichment classes and take field trips, learning about unique subjects, meeting the expectations of someone other than their parents and having a chance to socialize. Many members of the FAITH (Families Acquiring Instruction Through Home schooling) support group take part in regular enrichment classes, where more than 100 kids turn First Christian Church in Elizabethtown into a school. Members of the group learn the basics such as math, history, English and science at home, but the enrichment program gives them a chance to dig deeper in some areas and to pick up what are called electives in public schools. In the program, simply called enrichment by some, high-school students meet weekly for three classes n advanced biology, literary analysis and Financial Peace (a video class featuring the program's founder, Dave Ramsey). From nursery school to eighth grade, kids meet twice per month for classes ranging from creative writing and geography to art and physical education. The program gives students the opportunity to learn from others' expertise, which is what high-school senior Conner Hassman appreciates most, he said. "A doctor actually teaches me biology," he said. Typically, parents teach the classes, said Marilyn Coale, who coordinates the enrichment program up to the eighth grade. Parent Michelle Piscatello, for example, is an electrical engineer but has a passion for art and wanted to pass it on to children, she said. She teaches a class called "Exploring God's creation through art." In a recent session, middle-school students molded frogs from clay to learn about shape and proportion. In another case, a police officer and father of home-schooled children teaches a D.A.R.E. class. At the high-school level, parent Cindy Vaughn organizes the classes and teaches literary analysis. Enrichment, she said, enables students to receive the instruction they need and also lightens the load for parents. In Vaughn's class, students read classic literature and apply concepts to it. They must complete weekly essays, which are meant to get the teens past writing book reports and develop critical thinking skills, she said. In addition to learning academic subjects, enrichment provides a setting for socialization. Spending an afternoon with friends is the best part of enrichment, high-school student Alyssa Adams said. Socialization often is the first thing people question when they meet a home-school mother, Coale said. But programs like enrichment meet those needs. Plus, many home-schooled children are involved in non-academic activities through organizations such as churches and 4-H Club. "As long as you look, you can find opportunities for sports and extracurricular activities," Hassman said. For example, he plays on a home schooling basketball team, which competes against Christian school teams across the state, he said. Another support group, Heartland Christian Home Educators, has offered boys' basketball and girls' volleyball programs to its members for five years, said athletic director Paul Brantingham. The basketball team plays in the Kentucky Christian School Athletic Association, a league of about 30 teams. Seven of them are home-school teams, he said. The home educators group also offers classes outside the home. All outside-the-home activities, Brantingham said, depend on what parents are willing to teach or organize. One HCHE parent, for example, teaches a computer class for home-schoolers at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College on Saturday mornings. Still, no matter what the activities, control lies with the family. Parents must believe a specific activity will give them their desired results, Brantingham said. "It's always back to the home," he said. Large crowds meet with Whitfield - His town hall meetings continue today in Paducah, Eddyville and Marion. 1/27/2007 Paducah Sun U.S. Rep. Ed Whitfield said his town hall meetings across the western part of his district over the last two days have drawn surprisingly large crowds. About 200 people attended his meeting in Murray, 130 in Hopkinsville, 75 in Cadiz and 45 in Mayfield. Today, he'll hold similar meetings in Paducah, Eddyville and Marion. "That's 11 meetings in three days," he said. "There have really been a lot of young people," he said. His Paducah meeting will be from 10 to 11 a.m. at Crounse Hall on the campus of West Kentucky Community & Technical College. In the coming weeks, he will hold about a dozen more meetings in the eastern part of the district. The purpose of the meetings is not to debate issues, but to hear the views and concerns of his constituents, he said. The biggest topic is the war in Iraq, but he said there also was discussion on health care, Social Security, Medicare, veterans programs and economic development. While he said a lot of concern has been expressed about the war in Iraq, a majority of those who have spoken express support for the president's strategy for winning the war. Somerset Community College is one of Best Places to Work in Kentucky, again 1/28/2007 Somerset Commonwealth-Journal For the second time in three years Somerset Community College has been named one of the Best Places to Work in Kentucky. SCC was named to the list of best places to work in the "large-size employer category," that is employers with more than 250 employees. "This is the best news I can think of," said Dr. Jo Marshall, the President and CEO of SCC. "Receiving recognition as one of Kentucky's best places to work takes teamwork by everyone in the SCC family. I'm very proud of our employees." An awards ceremony will be held at the Lexington Convention Center on Tuesday, April 24. At that time, the order in which the top 25 employers finished in the competition will be announced. The "Top 25 Best Places to Work in Kentucky" competition is sponsored by the Kentucky Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) state council, in conjunction with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and Humana, Inc. The program is a multi-year initiative to motivate companies in the Commonwealth to focus, measure, and move their workplace environments towards excellence. Jeffrey B. Bringardner, the President of Humana, Inc., Kentucky Market, said in his letter notifying the college of the award said, "Congratulations! This achievement confirms that you are indeed an employer of choice." To be selected as one of the "Top 25 Best Places to Work in Kentucky," SCC participated in a survey of 250 employees and completed an "Infrastructure and Practice Inventory." The 250 SCC employees were chosen at random and filled out the survey confidentially. A team of SCC employees, lead by SCC Dirctor of Human Resources Jill Meece, completed the infrastructure and practice inventory. The award is based on an assessment of the company's employee policies and procedures and the results of the internal employee survey. The survey feedback that all participating companies receive enables them to develop plans and implement steps necessary to create a better workplace and continue to improve the performance of their business. Past award-winning companies include such well-known, Kentucky employers as Humana, Yum Brands, and United Parcel Service. According to the human resources association, the goal of the Best Places to Work in Kentucky competition is to raise the bar among the state's employers and create excellence and employee satisfaction in the workplace that will attract talented people for years to come. The organization said that the initiative is integral for Kentucky to compete in both national and global arenas. Somerset Community College is a comprehensive two-year institution of higher education. SCC has campuses in Somerset and London, centers in Clinton, McCreary, Casey and Russell Counties. The website is www.somerset.kctcs.edu. Call for admission and registration information toll free at 1-877-629-9722. KCTCS serves the Commonwealth through 16 community and technical college districts that form a seamless system of 62 campuses open or under construction. KCTCS colleges change lives by providing accessible and affordable education and training through academic and technical associate degrees; diploma and certificate programs in occupational fields; pre-baccalaureate education; adult, continuing and developmental education; customized training for business and industry; and distance learning. For more information, visit www.kctcs.edu. There is lots of help for people who want to get their GED and get into College - Find out more at the Adult Education Fair in Russell County on Feb. 6 1/28/2007 Somerset Commonwealth-Journal Today, there is no reason that anyone who wants to get their GED (General Education Diploma) can't do it. Today, there are programs which can pay people studying for their GED while they study. Today, there are programs that pay for anyone to take the GED test. Today, there are programs that provide free tutoring for anyone who wants a GED. Just ask Chasida Bell, who in 1993 dropped out of school in the Eleventh Grade in order to raise her new baby. Today, thanks to programs like BEAM and LYNC, Bell has earned her GED and is now a student at Somerset Community College. "I'm a single mother with four children and I did it," Bell said. Bell was assisted by Carol Severns, a member of Project BEAM, and Irene Larason of LYNC. Both women are stationed in the Russell County Adult Career Center, located in the old Russell Springs Elementary School on Steve Wariner Drive in Russell Springs. However, there is an office near most people because both programs have other offices scattered around South Central Kentucky. You can also go to the Adult Education office in your county. "They are having this Adult Education Fair here at the Russell County Adult Career Center on Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.," Bell said. "If you even think you might be interested, this would be the perfect time to come and meet these folks. They sure helped me." Bell recalled a few of the things Severns did to help her get her GED. "Carol tutored me and helped me study. She scheduled the GED test for me. Project BEAM paid for the test, and they paid me a little bit, maybe about $2.50 an hour just to come in and study." Today, as a Somerset Community College student Bell's goal is to get into social work or psychology. "I have to get my degree, so I can earn enough money to send my kids to college," she said. "I want to set a good example for them and they encourage me, too." Bell is also grateful to Larason, who works with Project LYNC and teaches part-time for SCC. "Most of the people we help had a lot of personal problems when they were in school. They had difficult home situations. Education wasn't important in their families. Then, they got behind the other students and finally gave up," Larason explained. "So, for many of the people we help, it isn't just a matter of reviewing things they learned in high school. They never learned it in the first place. Some of them have never written a homework assignment. Some don't know what a noun is. But, you know what, that's OK. We are here to help them learn whatever it is they need to know to get their GED," Larason continued. Lori Loy is a new student at Project BEAM and LYNC. She dropped out of school in 1994 and now has two young children. She is working and studying to get her GED. "I planned to inherit my family's auction business, Russell County Auction, so I didn't think I needed my high school diploma, but the business burned to the ground and I had to start again," Loy said. Loy's goal today is to finish her GED, enter Somerset Community College, earn a degree and become a registered nurse. She has been working at Westlake Regional Hospital for the past four years. Both Loy and Bell admit that they did not realize all the help that was available to them as they seek to get more education and a better job. "I say, what have you got to lose? Come to the Adult Education Fair on Feb. 6. Meet some of the people and find out what they can do for you," was the advice Loy gave to anyone in her situation. Project BEAM is designed, for the most part, to help people who do or have done farm work, according to Severns. "It's for anyone who has done at least 75 days of farm work in the past year," she explained. "That could be cutting wood to sell, checking on cattle, cutting tobacco or even working at Cagle's." Project LYNC, on the other hand, works with youth between the ages of 16 and 21 or senior citizens 55 or older. "Most of the people we help don't have jobs when they come to us. We are a 'Jobs First' program," Larason explained. "But we also help people get the education they need. Many of the people we help go on to college." All four women agree that the support system provided by BEAM, LYNC and other people in the same situation is one of the most important aspects of the program. "Our typical student didn't go any higher than the Eighth Grade," Larason said. "If they don't get a lot of support, it's very hard to succeed. We give them lots of support." Severns added that Project BEAM is especially interested in helping "Mexicanos" and Latinos. "We try to give them all the help we can," she said. "Sometimes they don't get treated fairly." Area youth engage in a bit of Legomania Competition builds tech skills, teamwork Writer: DOUG WATERS 1/29/2007 Bowling Green Daily News Building for a knowledge-based economy, about 250 children gathered Saturday at Western Kentucky University's E.A. Diddle Arena for the Kentucky FIRST Lego League's state robotics competition. The event, in its second year at Western, challenged nearly 30 teams of five to 10 children, ages 9-14, to research and build robots to perform various tasks. Teamwork, research and technical aspects are rated to select the winners. FIRST - For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology - is an international nonprofit based in Manchester, N.H., which has organized Lego competitions since 1998. A nanotechnology theme was chosen this year to give kids a taste of traditional sciences at the molecular level, according to Elisha Duffy, the program coordinator. "Our purpose is to inspire (children) to get excited about science and technology. The robot is just the vehicle to get them to do that," Duffy said. Children are encouraged to meet scientists and make robotics presentations in their communities. The group aspires to make "STEM" fields - science, technology, engineering and mathematics - relevant and fun, she said. "This is just as exciting, if not more exciting, than any sports game," Duffy added. Examples of nanotechnology (an applied science field pertaining to the control of small-scale devices) are clothing that repels spills, creation of more efficient carbonated-beverage containers, and blood-vessel roaming devices, said Blaine Ferrell, one of the judges. Ferrell, dean of Western's Ogden College of Science and Engineering, said some of the presentations were very creative, adding that all the teams worked very hard. "Really gifted students sometimes get bored," he said. Thus, competitions and advanced high school programs - such as Western's Academy of Mathematics and Science, which opens its doors to students in the fall - are essential to clogging the "brain drain" of bright students from Kentucky, Ferrell said. The United States is short of workers to fuel the knowledge-based workforce of the future, he said. "Other countries are catching up. We've got to create that workforce for us right now," Ferrell said. "This is the way - to start them young," added Karla Andrew, the local Lego-event coordinator. The event also included a campus scavenger hunt and a junior competition for kid ages 6-9. "I learned that robotics is cool," 8-year-old Parker Krakowiak said. Parker, a member of "The Nano Boys," a team of four second-graders from Franklin, Tenn., said their robot was modeled after a gecko they saw pictured in a magazine. The gecko robot - featuring a tongue that unfolds - was assembled in parts, with Parker making the tail and another Nano Boy designing the body. "We've watched the older boys," said Matthew Taylor, a 7-year-old Nano Boy. Parker's mom, Laura Krakowiak, said the competition represents the first attempt at teamwork for the Nano Boys, who met at the Krakowiak's house regularly to prepare. "My son is a Lego maniac," she said, predicting Parker could be on an engineering track. The winners of Western's competition are invited to FIRST's Lego League World Festival in Atlanta on April 12-14 and also to the Open European Championship in Norway in May, according to Duffy. The world's children spend five billion hours a year playing with the interlocking plastic pieces, according to the company. -- For more information about the FIRST Lego League, visit www.firstlegoleague.org and www.kyfll.org. Author picks Central KY. town to survive 'Apocalypse 2012' 1/29/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader This is not a new theory, but there is a new book out that backs the premise with all kinds of sleep-killing stuff like that we're a million years overdue for a good mass extinction. And that the Earth's magnetic field is developing a crack. And that the Yellowstone supervolcano is about to catapult those tiny 10 percent of us who survive it into nuclear winter. A planet holds its collective breath. But wait, the author thinks there might be one place on Earth that can just survive the whole shebang intact. Berea. Let the real estate land rush begin. Let the good times roll. Let us laugh at the Mayans. Now let's see what this man's got by way of explanation. Lawrence Joseph, author of Apocalypse 2012: A Scientific Investigation Into Civilization's End, says that Jerusalem, Angkor Wat, the Vatican and Mecca might be natural choices but, no, "of all the sacred sites in the world, none embodies the sacred Mayan values of service to humanity and Mother Earth like the town of Berea, Kentucky." Joseph goes on for a page about the origin of the town's name (Acts 17:10-14), about the fabulousness of Berea College and its Ecovillage and about the whole region's remarkable seismic and volcanic stability. Then he urges us all to pray and prepare and not panic. The reaction to all this in Berea has been, well, not panic. And not exactly glee either. Unless you're a Realtor. Promised Land, Ky. Landwise, we're talking about 7.8 square miles. Temperaturewise, on average, it's 56.8 deg. F. Rainfallwise, it gets about 48.8 inches a year. "Things are looking up," says Phil Malicote, office manager and Realtor at Don Foster Prudential Real Estate, who is thinking of adding some extra staff to serve the expected realty-starved throng. David Rowlett, executive director of the Berea Chamber of Commerce, thinks that folks in Florida are already in on the secret, judging from the number of queries he's getting from the hurricane-prone state and helping to make the area "one of the fastest growing in the state." He adds that all are welcome, even the kooks. "We've got our share of those already." The non-glee faction, on the other hand, isn't exactly oozing enthusiasm for the prospect. Nuclear winter? Not that easy escaping that, says Richard Olson, director of sustainable and environmental studies at Berea College and on the city's Planning and Zoning Committee. Not even if you've got composting toilets in a fraction of your housing and heirloom beans on your vines. As for sustainability, Olson says the town and the college are as tied to the electrical grid as anybody, with only three households in town on the net-meter system. That means that three households are "producing enough energy daily to run a blender." He says the college is trying to decrease its energy usage from 2000 by 45 percent in the next eight years. The progress is uphill. "We are as fragile as any middle-income community in America," Olson says. "We're less sustainable every year with more productive land going into development," he says, adding that "every additional home and car owner in town makes us even less sustainable, sucking in materials and energy and putting out waste." The idea that Apocalypse 2012 puts forth of a special link between Berea and the Mayans (their longitudinal location and spiritual values) made Olson suggest that, while he's not amused by general planet abuse, he will most certainly entertain the notion of purchasing a Mayan Force Field for the city if one is offered. Olson says that the threats to human civilization that are visible this minute -- the overpopulation, the warming climate, the social system breakdown, the warfare, the economic collapse of countries whose trade deficits could bankrupt them -- are real and severe and we don't have to go looking for errant spewing solar plasma to strike us down. Still, he's thinks the planet will be here in 100 million years. Not so humanity, mind you, but the planet. And its biosphere should be back to being lovely by then. Why Berea? This all sort of raises the question, why Berea? Seems Apocalypse 2012 author Lawrence Joseph came to Berea in the early '90s after having met a trustee of Berea College at a party given by the Society of Kentucky Women (who apparently have emigrated happily to Manhattan). Anyway, the party was "both stately and julepy" and invitations flew around and one thing led to another and he found himself in "this impressive little place" while writing a book on how uncommon common sense is. The book, Common Sense: Why It's No Longer Common, was Joseph's first, followed shortly by tomes on the Gaia movement, John Lennon and the 1980s lifestyle. He is currently the chairman of the board of Aerspace Consulting Corp., a New Mexico-based plasma physics company. He now lives in Beverly Hills. A self-defined "Ivy League Northeastern liberal," Joseph couldn't figure out how this school in this little town was teaching all the stuff he should have learned at Brown but didn't get. And so he was enchanted and, ultimately, the experience set him on a path to his research into the future of the planet and to the modest proposal that "things will not necessarily all go blank in 2012 but that the world will change dramatically and tumultously'' such that nothing will be as we know it. Those of us who follow University of Kentucky basketball fear that every year. Still, the topic is not new. Neither is the prediction. While he was not immediately available for comment, Mark Twain was known to have addressed the whole region's ability to outperform the planet on Doomsday. He had just spent a year in Cincinnati. "'When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati," he said, "because it's always 20 years behind the times." The news is not good: We're all toast in five years and 11 months if the great timekeeping Mayans had their stars right. The ancient tribe was so sure, it named the date (psssst, it's Dec. 21, 2012) when they just stopped their calendars and said, in effect, the world as we know it would end. Column: A wider, better Forum - Opportunities grow online and in print Writer: David Hawpe 1/28/2007 Louisville Courier-Journal Today the Forum takes on a new look. Tomorrow it gets a new weekly feature, the Community Challenge. It's all part of our effort, using both the traditional print on paper and the emerging opportunity of the Internet, to make you a more important part of the civic conversation that we've always tried to promote. You've seen such a conversation unfold over the past two weeks, in print and on the newspaper's Web site: a heated debate, which continues in today's Community Forum pages, over putting a Brooklawn Child & Family Services group home in a neighborhood off Newburg Road. We've redesigned the editorial and Forum pages, refashioning them as a place for community dialogue, in which your role is more important, your voice more prominent. Today's Forum content is a good example of what we want to do in the future -- soliciting stories, memories, photos, films and comment from readers, then displaying them on our Web site, and using some of the material in the printed newspaper itself. This week's special subject is, of course, the 1937 Flood, the anniversary of which is being celebrated with publication of a new book on this seminal event in the city's history, by photographer and author Rick Bell, and a citywide celebration at 2 p.m. this afternoon at Louisville Gardens. You may already have noticed these changes: We've created an on-line Readers' Forum, more than doubling the number of your letters we can share. We've also created packages of letters, both in the paper and on line, devoted to topics, and we've illustrated them. We've created On-line Forum, for pieces that are submitted by readers, institutional leaders and community groups that might not otherwise be used in print. They appear alongside syndicated national columnists that we offer on line, including Ellen Goodman of The Boston Globe; George Will, David S. Broder and E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post; DeWayne Wickham of Gannett News Service and Kathleen Parker of the Washington Post Writers Group. We also post selected commentary from The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. We've recruited 16 citizen bloggers. They're past members of our Forum Fellows reader advisory group, and they comment on a different topic every week. Some of you are responding on line to what they have to say in their weekly "Point Taken" blog. Now we'll be sharing some of what you have to say, in print. We've recruited 17 young folks, too, and made them citizen bloggers. We call their weekly commentary the "Hot Spot," and you have the chance to speak your mind to them as well. Tomorrow we publish the first in a series of Community Challenges. We've turned the Monday editorial space over to you, for the purpose of challenging your friends and neighbors to solve problems and seize opportunities -- be they big (like promoting a group to lobby for an "amenities tax" to support libraries and arts groups) or small (like figuring out a better traffic solution at Third Street and Eastern Parkway). Readers will be able to post suggestions on line. In that same Web space, and in print, we'll report back on any good solutions that are submitted. We intend to take the editorial board meeting out to you, by holding it from time to time in such places as a college auditorium, a church hall or a community center. Later this year, we'll start an ambitious conversation about the relationship between Louisville, the state's largest city, and the rest of Kentucky. We'll be asking whether that relationship works. (We don't think it does.) If not, why not? Does it matter? (To us it obviously does. Half of Louisville's state tax revenue is siphoned off in the state capital, to help less prosperous parts of Kentucky, while Jefferson County schools and roads, among other things, are shortchanged.) Public editor Pam Platt will start to "Eat and Talk." Once a month she'll issue an invitation to any of you who want to show up for lunch at an appointed place, somewhere in town, and discuss whatever's on your mind. I hope she'll let me go with her from time to time. The first session is set for Tuesday at Panera Bread in Mall St. Matthews, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Once a month, Pam also will conduct an on-line question and answer session with someone in charge of something here at the newspaper, or, as we now think of it, your local information center. She begins on Tuesday with Bennie Ivory, our executive editor. I'm going to make myself available, too, once a month, to preside over an on-line forum on a topic of special interest, much as I did during the President's State of the Union speech. We'll prime the discussion with a couple of pieces in the newspaper, and on line, about the issue. We'll start this month with the relentlessly rising cost of college tuition. We know that's of immediate concern to many of you out there. I'm starting a blog, too, joining my colleagues Betty Winston Bayé, who already has her own, and Jill Johnson Keeney, who will be looking out for Louisville's interests and blogging from Frankfort, during this spring's session of the General Assembly. Keith Runyon, who doubles as Forum and book editor, has been up and running with his books blog since last summer. We've also created a daily gallery featuring the work of syndicated political cartoonists Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle, Signe Wilkinson of the Philadelphia Daily News, Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Anne Telnaes of the Cartoonists & Writers Syndicate/ NY Times Syndicate, and John Cole of the Scranton Times-Tribune, as well as locals like Dan Fitzgerald and Scott Gillespie and the best of the late Hugh Haynie, from time to time. We hope you will be submitting cartoons of your own to this part of our Courier-Journal Web site. All of this should give Forum not only a new look but also a new outlook. David Hawpe's columns appear Sundays and Wednesdays, usually on the editorial page. His e-mail address is dhawpe@courier-journal.com. Column: Gen X: fully free and full of hope Writer: William Bryan Hubbard 1/28/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader Just as every generation is comprised of individuals whose diversity of character defies description, so does each generation form a unique collective identity based on lifetimes of shared experiences. Each generation weaves its tapestry into the fabric of this nation's sacred history and leaves its own epitaph, which shall last so long as this republic stands. Each generation bears the solemn responsibility of creating a more perfect Union so that it may forever be the cradle of human freedom. America knows our parents and grandparents. It will soon know us. The casual observer would never conclude that we are veterans of one of the deadliest wars that can ever be waged: the war for one's very soul. We are the next generation. We are X. We are the grandchildren of that greatest of generations which defeated the deprivations of economic collapse and the most malignant despots perhaps ever produced in the entire history of humankind. We have come to understand that our lives have been shaped by a degree of material wealth that must be obscene to those who spent years struggling to keep fed. We wonder whether we could survive such circumstances, let alone appreciate them as pathways to greater wisdom. Our grandparents faithfully answered the wounded cry of a nation that needed their determined strength to rescue humanity from its darkest hour. They spilled their blood in the greatest conflict ever waged for freedom against tyranny and valiantly faced death so that others might live. To our grandparents' generation, we owe our very lives. We were the first to bring tidings of mortality to our baby-boomer parents. These self-proclaimed martyrs for the ancient pursuits of human equality, dignity and justice have, indeed, been instructive. To our parents' credit, they lent their youthful exuberance to a civil rights movement that relied upon them to change a sinful nation's soul. Our mothers and fathers were the first to be persuaded by the vision of an indivisible human soul whose beauty inhabits the hearts of all people, no matter their color. Theirs also is the generation whose ultimate emancipation proclamation became a trinity of greed, divorce and the death of God. Theirs is a generation whose greatest pursuit is self and self's sake and all else and others be damned. To our parents' generation, we owe our strength. Ours has been an ironic journey of contrast. Few of us have known true want. Our collective body has not been scarred by the ravages of war as we have lived most of our lives within the splendor of relative peace. Physical hunger and desperate sacrifice are strangers to us. Those of us whose families survived an era of unlimited self-pursuit and self-indulgence bore witness to the grievous wounds inflicted on the hearts of innocents whose homes were torn asunder during the tenderest years. Those of us who never served in the Latch Key Brigade likely volunteered as keepers for someone who did. Those of us who managed to cope with the loss of mother, father, home and life as we knew it cared for someone who couldn't. Those of us subjected to constant transport between parental adversaries learned to seek communities of peace wherever they could be found. How those communities looked or sounded was immaterial so long as there was love. Those of us who were objectified as weapons in the hands of those who sought to emotionally extort or financially bludgeon their love-turned-hate sought to heal themselves by making a steadfast commitment to defend everyone's right to basic dignity. All of us are determined to be free from the tyrannies of small hearts. As we make our own way through history, we will love our neighbors. Skin color, accents, religious traditions and gender orientations are irrelevant as we each answer the question about doing unto others. We just don't care who you love, so long as you love -- selflessly and without pretense. We believe that spirituality in one's heart and home can never be replaced, let alone replicated, by proclamations from the pews. Until our last breath, we will be free. We are X and we will bring glory to hope. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- W. Bryan Hubbard is a Lexington lawyer. E-mail him at wbryanhubbard@insightbb.com. EDITORIAL: Get full story on economic development - Cabinet's selective look at report is misleading 1/28/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader At racetracks, people talk a lot more about their winners than the tickets they threw away. At parties, amateur investors are more likely to tell you about the stock that doubled than the one that tanked. So it's not surprising that state officials want to present an unrealistically pretty picture of Kentucky's return on economic incentive dollars invested. And that's just what they did when they got a 70-plus page report from economists who had examined Kentucky's economic incentive programs. The Cabinet for Economic Development's news release told us, for example, that Kentucky's incentives are very similar to those in other states and that tax incentives and training programs are associated with employment and earnings growth. These things are true. They just don't tell us much. Certainly not enough. They don't tell us, for example, that loans used as incentives appear to decrease jobs and earnings. Or that every dollar given up in tax incentives translates to about $2.40 in earnings growth after a year, while a dollar invested in job training yields $22.86. Five years out, the numbers jump to $6.01 and $90.79. They don't tell us that the researchers concluded they really don't have enough information -- and may never have -- to tell whether offering incentives influences whether businesses locate here. And they don't tell us that the researchers weren't charged with calculating the net gain: how incentives benefited a community after you deduct costs associated with new jobs or businesses, such as demands on roads, police protection, schools and environmental costs. That's the problem with getting just part of a story. You don't know whether your friend is a competent handicapper or if the guy at the party knows anything about investing. And you don't know whether public money is being spent well or that what we're doing is really helping Kentucky climb out of persistent poverty. That's why legislators and others charged with rethinking how Kentucky does economic development should set aside a few hours to read and understand the whole report. They will learn a lot, including what we don't know yet. The researchers looked at a host of tax incentives as a group, but they noted that it would take more research to find which of them worked best, or what the impact of newer incentives has been. A huge question is whether these programs, even if they were all wonderfully effective, could do more than nudge the Kentucky economy forward. "One of the most apparent and probably important findings of our study is the very small magnitude of these programs," the researchers wrote. In 2004, tax incentives, by far the largest of the group, amounted to less than one-tenth of 1 percent of state earnings. Those incentives, the report calculates, account for 0.09 percent of the total number of jobs in Kentucky. Consider that along with the report released last fall by the Kentucky Science and Technology Corp., which found that, if Kentucky continues on the same slow path of economic improvement it has been on since 1984, it'll be 2160 before the average Kentuckian's income equals the average American's. The cabinet deserves credit for commissioning the report. It's an important first step. But no one will benefit if, like the $2 bettor or the market dabbler, Kentucky's decision-makers look only at the plus side of the ledger and pretend that things are rosier than they are. Editorial: Math and science gap 1/27/2007 Louisville Courier-Journal Here's a challenge that was articulated in the state Senate education committee this week: What should Kentucky schools be doing to prepare students for a world that doesn't exist today? How should teachers be teaching so students are ready to embrace and even create technologies that aren't imaginable yet? Those are major questions being asked nationally as well, because the global economy is very competitive. At the present, American students aren't keeping up. In fact, as the importance of technology has risen, the number of kids interested in math and science has declined. While other nations have advanced their math and science instruction, the U.S. has not. That's why, when the Kentucky General Assembly reconvenes in February, one of the Senate's priorities will be to pass two bills meant to move the commonwealth forward in these critical areas. Senate Bill 1 would provide financial incentives for schools to offer advanced placement courses in physics, chemistry and calculus. It also would provide financial rewards for teachers and students who succeed in those classes. SB 2 aims to improve the quality of math and science teachers by offering salary supplements to folks who do particularly well on certain qualifying tests. The purpose is to draw them away from other jobs where math and science skills are prized and into teaching instead. Even if these bills pass, they certainly won't be the salvation of Kentucky. But they should result in more students taking AP math and science classes. That's important, but there's a broader need: to improve math and science instruction from first grade on. That would increase the number of students qualified to take high-level courses in the first place. The Jefferson County schools have been pursuing that goal since 2005, with the help of a four-year, $25 million grant from the General Electric Foundation. That effort centers on rewriting the math and science curricula for all students in all grades, and overhauling teacher training and instructional methods. Last fall, the new science curriculum and materials appeared in classrooms, and within two years dramatic changes in math education will appear. The Jefferson County/GE effort is aimed at making 70 percent of all students proficient in math and science. If it works, it should be emulated all over the state. Certainly, it and the Senate proposals would complement each other. It will take both narrow, targeted actions and broad cultural ones to get Kentucky students ready to compete with their peers all over the world. It's critical that lawmakers and educators move quickly to improve math and science education. After all, there is a direct correlation between a person's level of educational attainment and his or her economic prospects. Likewise, there will be a correlation between the investments Kentucky makes in math and science education and its ability to compete in a knowledge-based world. In some ways, Kentucky's abundance of natural resources makes it a land of opportunity. For example, Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, points out that meeting the energy needs of the future will include developing new ways to use and process coal. A great opportunity will be lost if Kentucky doesn't develop a workforce capable of doing that work. Film with local ties wins twice at Sundance Writer: Peter Byck 1/29/2007 Louisville Courier-Journal "Grace Is Gone," a movie co-produced by Hart-Lunsford Pictures of Louisville, won both the Audience Award and the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award on Saturday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The awards capped off a whirlwind Sundance for Louisville producers Ed Hart and Bruce Lunsford. Together with production partners Plum Pictures of New York City, they had two feature films in the festival, "Grace Is Gone" and "Dedication." They sold them both: "Grace Is Gone" to the Weinstein Co. and "Dedication" to the Weinstein Co. partnered with First Look International. ("Dedication" was not entered in a competitive category.) "Grace Is Gone," the story of a father's inability to tell his two daughters that their soldier mother has died in Iraq that stars John Cusack, was Goshen, Ind., native James C. Strouse's second produced screenplay and his directorial debut. "This is unbelievable," an excited Lunsford said when he heard the news. "This has been an experience of a lifetime. I couldn't be more thrilled for Jim Strouse. He's such a humble, hard-working guy." The Audience Award bodes well for "Grace Is Gone," suggesting that its popular festival reception will be repeated when it's released in theaters. The last time a director-writer's film won both the audience and screenplay awards was in 2003, when Thomas McCarthy's "The Station Agent" took those prizes. In 1997, the Audience Award went to "Hurricane Streets," which was produced by Plum Pictures' Galt Niederhoffer, Strouse's wife, along with Louisvillian Gill Holland. Killing waters of 1937 recalled Writer: SARAH LYNCH 1/29/2007 Ashland Daily Independent ASHLAND -- The disastrous flood of 1937 covered 195 counties in 12 states. At least 137 people died, 544 were injured and thousands of animals perished. The flood, which crested on Jan. 31 at 19 feet above flood stage, left a million people homeless and jobless and caused $500 million in property losses. It was a dismal time and only worsened by the Great Depression, which was also creating its own devastating effects. Though it seemed things couldn't get worse, some Tri-State residents can recall some positive memories. In a time of need, flood victims pulled together to share supplies, floor space and a little comfort. One former Ohio resident said the flood wasn't bad at all -- it was just another adventure. John P. Barker, of Ashland, was just 7 years old when the flood occurred. He lived in Ironton at the time with his family on South Third Street, not too far from Ice Creek, he said. "The water kept getting higher and higher," he said, "and every day I would ride my bicycle down to the water to see how much higher it had gotten." With every drop of rain his father grew weary of the water and eventually decided to send his family to higher ground. His father stayed at the house. "Dad didn't know whether or not it was going to get into the house," Barker said. "But he said we needed to get out. A rowboat took us up U.S. 52 to the bridge that went over into Ashland." When the boat reached the bridge, Barker said he and his family walked across and got into another boat that took them to his sister's house. "We spent a couple of weeks there with my sister until the water receded." The family's home in Ironton was untouched by the flood, but completely surround by the water. Barker said he was just too young to detect any feelings of sadness from adults he knew were affected by the flood. "I was just a kid interested in having fun," he said. "As far as I was concerned, it was just another adventure." The adventure was a little more dangerous for James Davis of Ashland, who was 10 years old at the time. "The water was coming in so fast, my parents, me and my sisters had to get up on the roof of the house," Davis said. "I was a little scared, I guess. But mostly because one of my sisters had the mumps and I was afraid we wouldn't be able to get her to a doctor." Davis said the family stayed on the roof for about an hour before a rowboat came to get them. "A boat came and rescued us and few of our neighbors. It wasn't a very long time that we were stuck on the roof, but for a little boy, it seemed like days," he said laughingly. Paul Williamson lived in Catlettsburg when the 18 inches of rain fell over a 16-day period. In 1937, he was a sophomore in high school and lived with his grandmother. "It was an experience," Williamson said. "Water got up to the roof of our house. It would have floated, I think, if it went any higher. I saw one house floating down the river with a man on top of it. It was a pitiful situation." Williamson and his grandmother fled to his mother and stepfather's home on higher ground. "There were three families staying there. That's about 16 people," he said. "The floors were beds." After the water went down, Williamson said, everything was covered in mud. "That's one reason it took so long to get things back into shape was because of all that mud," he said. The 86-year-old said the flood was devastating, but the spirit of the people affected was strong. "Everyone pitched in and helped each other. We all shared food and did what we could to make it until things got back to normal, which took about a month at least. "The Red Cross helped us. They fed us and gave everyone linoleum rugs and wallpaper because everything was just soaked." One good thing came out of the flood experience, Williamson said -- the flood wall. "It sure does make you rest easier knowing something like that flood isn't likely to happen again. I'm thankful for that." Knowledge is key in beating cervical cancer Writer: Sylvia L. Lovely 1/29/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader My mother was pretty much invisible in life. She was very shy and insecure about her lack of education and an Eastern Kentucky upbringing darkened by poverty. Like so many Depression-era women, she would sit with her purse held close to her in her lap, as if to make sure no one could grab what precious little money she had. My mother died six days shy of Christmas 2001 of cervical cancer. And if there is a message she would send to women through me, it is this: What killed her doesn't have to kill you. What once was a leading cause of death for women is now almost 100 percent preventable. Early detection through Pap tests is vitally important. And so is a new vaccine, whose discovery and creation was aided by University of Louisville researchers and that was approved by the Federal Drug Administration only last summer. Here in Kentucky, we especially need to trumpet the need to heed these two developments. It is bad enough that our state has the 12th highest incidence of cervical cancer in the United States; it is worse that we have the second-highest death rate. The death rate is so high largely because of late diagnosis, when the disease is harder to defeat. My mother's death was the result of a late diagnosis. She was 74 when she died and angry to the end about it because all of her family lived into their 90s. She suffered horribly, aging at least 30 years in six months. It is too late for my mother, of course, but it is not too late for women, young and old, to hear her story and heed its lessons. Kentucky is one of 10 states that have started massive education programs to promote early screening and use of the vaccine to prevent cervical cancer. I was thrilled when Lt. Gov. Steve Pence announced the campaign. He is involved in the National Lieutenant Governors Association's push to have the participating states distribute 82,000 packets to educate women on what is now an almost totally preventable disease. Just before my mother became bedridden, I took her to see a palliative care doctor, whose goal was not to find a cure that wasn't available but to make her comfortable and ease her pain in her final days. My mother would refuse a wheelchair, shuffling down the hall to the examining room despite the pain it caused her. She struggled to get on the examining table. That's when the young doctor bent over her and said: "You'll have to tell me what you like to do, Mrs. Leach, so I can adjust your medications." Her reply was soft, but resolute. "I like to do little things," she said. And that is life. Taking pleasure in those little things that bring big moments and enduring memories -- like slipping a dollar from her purse to one of my boys or petting a cat (and wearing an oversize shirt with cat figures all over it) or just maintaining her devotion to her family. They say grief doesn't necessarily change you; it just makes you more of what you are. For me, my profession has always been about community: about strengthening it while seeing the connections we all share with each other. I came to believe even more that all of us have the power to come together and make a significant difference -- particularly for people like my mother. Life's difficult road did not empower her for a leadership role, but it is within our power to develop the kind of community leadership that looks after people like her. Those little things can add up to bold actions and positive change. All we need do is resolve to make it happen. My mother held out hope until the end, but the disease had been invisible too long before its deadly grip was detected. That no longer needs to be the case. We know now what causes cervical cancer and how to detect it in time. I like to think that rendering the disease visible by helping others learn how to defeat it would please my mother. She would have loved knowing that curing a disease that has plagued so many women is within our grasp. Not such a little thing, after all. Local Folks - Harlan natives choose home for careers, families Writer: DEANNA LEE-SHERMAN 1/29/2007 Harlan Daily Enterprise Home is where the heart is. That's especially true for two medical professionals who chose to keep their roots planted in Harlan County. For Kristie Smith, she had planned to return home sometime after college. She just didn't think it would be so soon. After graduating from Eastern Kentucky University, she thought seriously about moving to Knoxville or her husband's native Florida. "The Lord had different plans. It seemed like everything just fell into place," said Smith, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who specializes in family medicine at the Harlan Medical Center of Mountain Comprehensive Health Corporation (MCHC). The Evarts High School graduate made her move back home last July and began her position at the Harlan Medical Center in September after earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in nursing. She had lived in Knoxville for a short time between her studies, but home was more appealing when it came time to consider life after college. The majority of her family, including her parents, still reside here. "It's pretty exciting. It's quite nice to be able to see them on a regular basis," said Smith, who resides in Baxter with her husband, Justin. The couple are expecting their first child this June. "I think people, in general, who were raised here have a tendency to stay," said Smith, who still visits the Evarts church she grew up in and relishes seeing new customers who are old faces. Perhaps it's the security of the mountains or the often slow-paced environment of a small town that draw many natives back home. Maybe it's just that "peaceful feeling" that some get when they think of home, Smith said. Or it could be the great outdoors of eastern Kentucky, said Smith's co-worker, Dr. Adam Lewis, who joined the Harlan Medical Center staff just two months before Smith came on board. When he's not at home with his family, he can usually be found out fishing or hunting, depending on the weather, or four-wheeling in the mountains. A graduate of Harlan High School, Lewis didn't waste time returning home after college, either. His home was already purchased upon graduating from East Tennessee State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology, as well as a doctorate in family medicine. Like Smith, Lewis said he knew he would likely return home one day. "I didn't know for sure, but I thought in the back of my mind that I would," Lewis said. Lewis, who lives in Coldiron with his wife, Kimberly, and their two children, said he is proud of Harlan County's rich history, family-oriented environment and emphasis on education. A father of 2-year-old twins, Katie and Sam, Lewis reflects back on his own education at Harlan High School, where he was fortunate to receive "a great education in the sciences." He said he was also fortunate to have a childhood in the mountains. "I can still remember a lot of summers at Martins Fork Lake and fishing in the Poor Fork River ... catching crawdads," Lewis said. When it comes to starting his medical career at home, near the lakes and rivers that hold many of his earliest memories, there is no doubt that Harlan was the right choice, said Lewis. If he and Smith had chosen to work nearby in Johnson City or Knoxville, they may have been two more faces among a sea of doctors and nurses. "I feel like I can make more of a difference here, because doctors are needed so much here," Lewis said. "If I do get any remarks about coming back, it's just appreciation for coming back." Making Peace her career - Former E'town resident serves as Peace Corps deputy chief of staff Writer: Erica Walsh 1/29/2007 Elizabethtown News-Enterprise WASHINGTON -- The Peace Corps was a perfect fit for former Elizabethtown resident A. Courtney Santonicola. Working for the organization allows the international affairs graduate to help people help themselves, she said, along with promoting human dignity and furthering world peace. After four years with the organization, Santonicola can further the cause as a senior leader. Santonicola, daughter of Elizabethtown residents Jim and Deborah Weise, recently was named deputy chief of staff and operations for the Peace Corps. She also has been the organization's chief compliance officer and held various other titles. "Courtney is a proven leader among the senior staff and has already made valuable contributions to the Peace Corps," Peace Corps Director Ron Tschetter said in a written statement. "She brings great talent and strategic skills to this new role." Before joining the Peace Corps, Santonicola worked for U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis and served as legislative director for a South Carolina congressman. She also has been a state department employee in public outreach and diplomacy for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. In her new role, Santonicola oversees areas such as recruitment, volunteer programs and training. Currently, more than 7,000 Peace Corps volunteers serve in 73 countries around the world. There are 61 Kentuckians participating in volunteer missions. Becoming a Peace Corps volunteer is a noble mission, Santonicola said. "The work of Peace Corps volunteers is some of the most spectacularly exciting and also difficult jobs in the world," she said. While Santonicola has not served as a Peace Corps volunteer, she has traveled to countries such as Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ukraine and Romania with the group. The mission of the Peace Corps revolved around the idea of peace and friendship, she said. Americans who become involved are helping improve the world and improve themselves. "It's a high calling and a high honor to serve the country and the world in this way," she said. Report sees 'brain gain,' not a drain - More college graduates stay in state since 2000 Writer: Art Jester 1/27/2007 Lexington Herald-Leader A myth is dead: There is no "brain drain" in Kentucky. In fact, Kentucky has made a "brain gain," according to a new report from the state Council on Postsecondary Education. A 2006 council study showed that 86 percent of students who earned degrees or credentials from Kentucky's public universities and community colleges in the previous five years were still living in the state. That was up from 73 percent in a similar council study in 2000. In raw numbers, the gain was an even more impressive 36 percent, from 15,267 in the 2000 study to 20,814 in the 2006 report. Some of the increase was caused by the growth in the number of programs offering degrees and credentials. The picture was even better for students from Kentucky. The report said that 95 percent of in-state graduates remained in Kentucky five years after graduation. "I'm not sure there ever was a 'brain drain,'" said Charles McGrew, the council's chief numbers-cruncher. His observation was echoed resoundingly by the state's authority on census data, Ron Crouch, the director of the Kentucky State Data Center at the University of Louisville. "I've been saying for a long time Kentucky does not have a 'brain drain,'" Crouch said by phone near Santa Rosa, Calif., where he spoke to California's government and high-tech leaders about national census trends. Crouch said he thinks the notion of a "brain drain" arose because some have misinterpreted census figures for 25-to-34-year-olds that show the post-World War II "baby boom" dropping off to a "baby bust." The mistake was thinking that the decline was caused by people who left Kentucky, when in fact it was a decrease in births, he said. "Most people who left Kentucky left a long time ago," when jobs were plentiful up north, he said. The postsecondary council's new report was released yesterday and will be a featured agenda item when the postsecondary council meets Monday in Frankfort. There was elation and caution from McGrew, the council's director of information and research, and his boss, Tom Layzell, the council's president. "This reinforces that we are doing a lot of the right things in Kentucky," Layzell said. "We're getting people in college, getting them through, and obviously, there are jobs here for many of them." But Layzell added, "I don't want people to overstate it or understate it. This shouldn't be confused with our need to increase the number of graduates." Kentucky is seeking to double its number of bachelor's-degree-holders from 400,000 to 800,000 by 2020, as called for in the higher education reforms of 1997. "This is a very positive trend, but we can't rest on our laurels," Layzell said. He described the 2006 and 2000 studies as "two snapshots" -- each covering the previous five years -- from which the council determined there had been important gains. Other key findings: * 49 percent of international students stay in Kentucky after graduation. * Out-of-state students who stay in Kentucky after graduation increased by more than half, from 24 percent in the 2000 study to 37 percent in the 2006 report. * Students who earn doctorates and stay in Kentucky almost doubled, from 27 percent in the 2000 report to 52 percent in the 2006 study. Crouch said he is finishing a study of all 50 states to be released in February that will "give a detailed analysis of who has left and come into Kentucky." It will "paint a very different picture" than a "brain drain," he said. Now, Crouch said, the Southeast is becoming the "new economic engine of America," and Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina are the states most likely to benefit. Florida and Georgia have become oversaturated with in-migration, he said. "The Northeast is in major decline, and the Southwest is the new Appalachia, because it's poorly educated, poorly skilled, not prepared for the 21st century," he said. "Ninety percent of the loss in Kentucky from 1995 to 2000 was college graduates who went south." U of L, Muslims to renew alliance - Grant to cover visits to, from 3 countries Writer: Peter Smith 1/28/2007 Louisville Courier-Journal The University of Louisville has won a second grant from the U.S. State Department to build bridges with Muslim countries. The $535,000 grant will cover two visits of Muslim leaders from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, beginning this spring. It also will pay for two groups of Americans to visit those countries. But this time it's more than a simple exchange program like the one U of L conducted in 2004 and 2005 with a $510,000 grant. This project will try to deepen those relationships and develop some lasting programs, said organizer Riffat Hassan, a humanities professor at U of L who teaches about religion. In the exchanges a few years ago, Muslims visited sites around Louisville, then traveled to other U.S. cities to learn more about American life and how Islam is practiced in a democracy. This time the trips will be planned with an eye toward creating institutions and programs that can continue beyond the trip, Hassan said. Some of the people who will be involved in the upcoming exchanges came over on the first trips, she said. "I had to fight for that, because generally what the State Department wants is to bring new people every time," said Hassan, a Muslim and a native of Pakistan. "But I argued that's a waste of effort. ... There were some people (on the first trips) who were really excellent. If they are included, we can take it to a higher level." Hassan said many institutions in Louisville, including the Muhammad Ali Center, wrote letters of recommendation for the program. "This grant has got a lot of community support," Hassan said. "That's one reason we got it the second time." Hassan said she chose India, Pakistan and Bangladesh because they contain three of the four largest Muslims populations in the world -- about 400 million in all. Pakistan has been a "frontline state" in the American war on terrorism, she said, while all three countries face such threats to stability as religious and political extremism, severe poverty and massive illiteracy. The grant program was launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The State Department's aim is to engage influential religious figures and community leaders from Muslim countries in dialogues to teach participants about the practice of Islam in the United States and the world. It is also meant to explore the compatibility of religious practice and democratic values. U of L has received two of the five grants the State Department has given nationwide for a program aimed at developing ties with the Muslim world, said Tom Johnston, senior exchange specialist. "Among the 17 proposals that were submitted in this competition from institutions around the United States, (U of L's) was the most highly ranked," he said. Alabama Board Adopts Rules to Prevent Nepotism in Scandal-Plagued Community-College System Writer: ELYSE ASHBURN 1/29/2007 The Chronicle of Higher Education The Alabama Board of Education adopted an anti-nepotism policy last week that significantly restricts the hiring of relatives of top officials in the state's system of two-year colleges. The new policy is as stringent as those in most states, according to Alabama officials, though it stops short of banning the practice. The board's action followed a scandal that involved allegations of corruption, outright fraud, and nepotism by college leaders. The scandal overtook a former system chancellor, Roy W. Johnson, who was dismissed last July. Mr. Johnson came under fire when news reports revealed that his wife, two children, and their spouses had received more than $300,000 in wages and contract payments from the college system (The Chronicle, July 13, 2006). A federal grand jury is reviewing issues of spending and hiring in the state's two-year college system. Thomas E. Corts, the system's interim chancellor, said on Friday that he was pleased the system now had a firm policy on hiring relatives. "But personally, in light of all the turmoil the system has gone through, I would have liked to see something a little stronger," he said. The new policy prohibits Board of Education members and the chancellor from influencing the hiring of relatives or the awarding of contracts to relatives for work within the system. It also states that a relative of a board member, the chancellor, or a vice chancellor cannot be hired for a top management position in the system, including chancellor or college president. If a relative of those top officials applies for a lesser position, a screening panel of disinterested parties must be set up to recommend applicants for the post. In addition, all applicants for positions at the state's community colleges or for contract work at the colleges must disclose if they are related to someone employed within the system. Relatives of top college officials can be awarded contracts only after rigorous review by a panel of three disinterested board members. Several board members had favored stricter rules, including Stephanie W. Bell, who proposed a ban on the hiring of any relatives of board members, the chancellor, vice chancellors, or college presidents. Ms. Bell's amendment was defeated in a 5-2 vote, with Ms. Bell and another board member, Betty Peters, voting in favor. Ms. Bell said in an interview on Friday that while she did not think the policy went far enough, she was pleased with the new reporting requirements. "Sometimes when you let in that sunshine, when people have to put their connections on a document, they will think twice about what they're doing," she said. Other board members did not return calls for comment. The policy is as strict as those at Alabama's four-year institutions and is comparable to those at other two-year systems, said Joe T. Adams, a research coordinator for the nonprofit Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, which helped craft the regulations. The research council looked closely at policies in 10 Southern states, including Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. U.S. Accreditation Official Out of a Job Writer: Doug Lederman 1/29/2007 Inside Higher Education The Education Department's top staff official on accreditation has abruptly left his job, at a time when the department's political leaders are engaged in an aggressive campaign to ramp up the government's oversight of accrediting agencies. Exactly what led to the transfer of John W. Barth, director of accreditation and state liaison, to a position in the Federal Student Aid Ombudsman's office remains hazy. The department's official stance, through a spokeswoman, was only this terse statement: "John Barth has accepted a new position at FSA." Another department official framed Barth's decision as routine and his choice, but the available evidence overwhelmingly suggests otherwise. Barth himself did not respond to repeated requests for comment, nor did Education Department senior officials. Co-workers of Barth's said that the change had come abruptly, and college officials who work closely with the department on accreditation issues learned of his job shift only after Barth had left -- some of them after being informed by a reporter. Most significantly, Barth's shift comes in the wake of some publicly visible conflict over the department's approach to accreditation. In the wake of the report of the Secretary of Education's Commission on the Future of Higher Education, the department's top officials have pushed aggressively on a range of fronts to carry out its recommendations, particularly those that would require colleges to better measure and report how much their students learn. Department officials have focused significant attention on accreditation as a wedge for doing that, because changes in accrediting standards -- some of which department leaders believe can be accomplished without the need for new laws or rules (and therefore without the approval of Congress) -- have the potential to directly influence hundreds or thousands of colleges. One of the department's strategies became clear late last year, in the build-up to a semiannual meeting in December of its National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, a panel of higher education and public officials that reviews and regulates accrediting agencies. In the months before each meeting, the Education Department's staff prepares a report on each accrediting group up for review, and the advisory panel uses those reports as the starting point for its own deliberations about whether to renew the group's authority to operate. As the top career staff person (which in Washington parlance means not a political appointee) on accreditation issues, Barth oversaw those staff reviews. In the days before the November meeting, three accrediting agencies discovered that their staff reports had been rewritten to add new issues or significantly change the findings against them, all in ways that left them in hot water. In two cases, involving the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and the American Academy of Liberal Education, the agencies were confronted with heightened requirements about how they measure student learning; in the other, the American Bar Association's accrediting arm was told that it faced punishment if it did not alter a standard it used to ensure racial and ethnic diversity among law school student bodies. In all three cases, the changes in the staff reports reportedly came from the upper echelons of the Education Department, where officials are politically appointed. And at the December meeting of the advisory committee, when college officials and some members of the advisory panel balked at the changes recommended in the rewritten staff reports, Barth and his subordinates tacitly acknowledged that the decisions had resulted from the changing political winds in Washington. Since initially approving the AALE's actions on its assessment of student achievement earlier in the year, Steven Porcelli, whose work Barth oversaw in the accreditation office, said that "the national discussions" have focused on measurable outcomes of student learning, shifting even the department's own perspective on what counts as sufficient and what does not, he said. In the American Bar Association's case, officials of the accrediting group cited the fact that the staff report had been rewritten near the end of the process as what they described as a clear sign of political interference by top officials within the department. The accreditation advisory committee rebuked department officials at the December meeting by voting to strike the critical language about the diversity standard from the final report. It is impossible to say for sure that Barth lost his job because he was perceived as not pushing hard enough for the changes the department's political leaders want to make. But that is clearly how his situation is being viewed by higher education officials who follow accreditation, who generally characterize Barth as an official who is intelligent and tough-minded, but fair. The suddenness of his departure -- and the fact that it came about so quietly -- is widely seen as evidence that the department's political leaders are moving as aggressively as they can, through any and all avenues available to them, to bring about the changes they want in accreditation, and in higher education generally. "Any administration has the legal authority to move a senior civil servant from one job to another," said Terry W. Hartle, senior vice president for government and public affairs at the American Council on Education. "What causes concern in this case is the fear that someone who was tough but fair will be replaced with someone who is tough and unfair." Hartle added: "The simultaneity of this change coupled with the initiation of negotiated rulemaking before Congress has acted on reauthorization suggests that the department is very anxious to impose a new agenda on accrediting agencies." Toyota Motor Company in Georgetown donates bumpers to SCC 1/28/2007 Somerset Commonwealth-Journal  The Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Kentucky, Inc. facility located in Georgetown, Kentucky, has donated 30 Avalon model bumpers to the Somerset Community College Auto Body Program at the SCC Laurel Campus. The bumpers will be used in teaching the latest auto body repair techniques to students in the SCC program. Shown here unloading the bumpers are Jimmy Smith (left), the SCC Auto Body Instructor on the Laurel Campus, and Roger Stanton (right) of the SCC Maintenance and Operations staff. Photo of the Day Gallery |