KU vs K-State

With all the snow, its a good day to stay in and watch basketball. Tonight - 6 p.m. on ESPN - KU and K-State play. Both are highly ranked, which makes the rivalry even more interesting.

Here are game notes from KU

Here are game notes from K-State

I could post this type info regularly if people are interested. Just let me know of the level of interest.

Snow related services

Need something like snow shoveled?
or help of any kind?
Want to do some snow shoveling?
post anything like that here with contact info.

Friday

New cop notes are posted.
Ark City, Winfield, South Haven schools are closed today, as well as Cowley College.
Be careful out there.
Here is a link to Kansas road conditions.
http://511.ksdot.org/KanRoadPublic_VE/Default.aspx

Boards back on city agenda

City commissioners grappled with how to let good people keep serving on city boards, and at the same time, get new people involved, at their worksession Thursday.

At issues is the building and trades board. According to city rules a person has to step down for two years after serving three terms. This board has been having trouble getting people and would like to reduce that to a one-year period of not being on the board.

This board is harder than some to fill because of  how it is defined. It must have, for example, master plumbers, journeyman plumbers and so forth. There are only a few of those in town, so it makes it hard to get positions filled.

Other people feel that there should be no term limits since some people are very good at what they do, and they enjoy it a lot.

What the city is likely to do at their regular meeting next Tuesday, is reduce the waiting period to one year. People do have to be reappointed, and if no one can be found, they want to give the mayor the option of reappointing a person who may have served several consecutive positions.

Commissioner Dotty Smith likes the idea of limits because she wants to get more people involved in the business of the city.

Commissioner Patrick McDonald said the commission has to approve them each time anyway, so they could easily change members when terms expire, so there would not have to be a written limit.

The problem with the building and trades board is that they are beginning a process of reviewing city codes, which will take a good bit of time, and they need people familiar with the codes.

Building, planning and codes director Matt Rowland  said they have had trouble getting a quorum at times.

Commissioners are likely to vote on the matter next Tuesday, and the consensus seemed to be letting people keep serving on a board if no one new was available. But they do want to still have some sort of term limit if there are other qualified people wanting to serve.

You may read the whole story on the web site by clicking here

weather related closing

Here is an email that was forwarded to me from Shawn at KSOK, from the AC Public Library.

Due to the weather, the Arkansas City Public Library will close early tonight at 6:00 p.m.  For Friday, January 29, we are considering closing for the full day if the accumulation is over 3 inches.  If we decide to close, I will email or call you in the morning as soon as I know. 

We were to have a Gardening Lecture tonight, which has been postponed. 

 

School consolidation

Good morning.
I went to the South Haven - Caldwell joint school board meeting last night. They are considering consolidating districts.
Its a fairly complex and time consuming process, and they are taking it slow and involving their respective communities. I have a story about it on the web site. www.arkcityrevived.com
Cop notes should be posted soon, and I am caught up with Winfield and county cops as well.
Looks like the snow may actually come.

The speech

Ill admit,  I didn't bother listening to the President's speech. I heard one once. That was enough.
I did glance over the text though. Seemed like politics as usual to me, and the Republican response was as well.
Nothing changed my cynical attitude toward national politics.


Here is a link to the text of the speech.

One thing the AP does that I like is a think called a fact check. They basically check up on some of his claims.
Here is a link to that story.

Let the debate begin.

Winter storm coming?

Beautiful day out today, but it isn't likely to last.
The National Weather Service is calling for a winter storm. We are under a storm watch, which is not as bad as a storm warning. That means we may not get it.
But it should turn cold quickly tomorrow. Snow is to start tomorrow afternoon, and they say we could get six inches here near the Oklahoma border. Oklahoma  City is supposed to get around 10 inches.
Here is a link to the local forecast
http://www.weather.com/weather/alerts/localalerts/67005?phenomena=WS&significance=A&areaid=KSZ093&office=KICT&etn=0001

Wednesday, interesting article

Cop notes are posted for Ark City. I have them for Winfield and the county, but have not had time to post them. I hope to get them up this afternoon.
I saw an interesting article about how voters on Oregon have passed a tax increase on corporations and the wealthy.
Here is the article

The old thing about taxing corporations or the very wealthy is one of the key points between liberals and conservatives. I think it is another example of how left and right do not have the answers. They both take an all or nothing approach, which obviously doesnt work.
The old republican argument is that if you reduce taxes on corporations, they will invest more and that will grow the economy. The democrat argument is more of a share the wealth approach, and that corporations should pay their fair share.
You can look at Kansas. A few years ago the legislature approved a sales tax exemption on business machinery, which costs local governments a lot of money. The city of Arkansas City lost $750,000 as a result of that last year.
I dont see the economy growing in Kansas as a result.
But again, just taxing them to death, is not good either because they will go out of business eventually.
There needs to be a balance between the two.

State of Obama

The president will give his State of the Union message Wednesday night.
It is on all the networks.
Two questions. Will this interfere with college basketball broadcasts?  and will Joe Wilson be anywhere in sight?
You remember Wilson's outburst the last time the President addressed a joint session of congress. I doubt he will say anything again.
It just underscores what I have been saying about politics in general. The battle between left and right, liberal or conservative, is the problem.
I think it is because neither side has any solid answers and the continual battle is a distraction to keep us from seeing this fact. They both want you to be on one side or the other and that is the battle. Both sides are more interested in having control than they are in actually finding solutions.
Health care is a prime example. It has gone nowhere, and what will likely be passed will be something fairly meaningless. That was a lot of energy and money wasted on nothing more than a shouting match. No one even said anything surprising.
What if they had tried to actually find solutions?
Neither side has it right. Both sides interpret reality based on their ideology.
The dems wanted health care reform, of course the pubs opposed it.
We need more parties.
We need more choices.
If we had other parties, it would force them to work together in spite of their differences.
Im just afraid tomorrow night will just be more meaningless politics as usual. Obama will give his rosy picture, the pubs will bash it, the dems will counter bash, and the pubs will counter the counter base ad nauseum.
That is why I hope it doesn't interfere with any basketball games.
Here is a link to an AP story leading up to the speech.