Month: January 2011

Remembering Challenger, 25 years later

Posted by mpoletti – January 28, 2011

There’s no obvious Northeast Missouri connection to the tragedy that occurred on this day 25 years ago, but anyone who remembers it feels a connection to it. Twenty-five years ago today, the space shuttle Challenger exploded a little more than a minute after its launch.

As Charles Williams of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who at the time worked in information technology at the Johnson Space Center near Houston, tells it, the thrill of the shuttle launch had become routine nearly five years after the space shuttle Columbia launched for the first time. A quarter-century later, it is even more routine — the shuttle launching from Cape Canaveral, Fla., sometimes after multiple abortive attempts, to do this, that or the other, always safely, always returning home with little fanfare.

The shuttle launch is a news item that rarely makes the front page or the lead newscast, always buried on page 4A or airing after the first commercial break. With that 1986 Challenger mission, NASA attempted to drum up a little more positive press by famously adding a regular Joe to the mix — or a regular Jane, as it were — in the person of Christa McAuliffe, a New England schoolteacher and the inaugural participant in NASA’s Teacher in Space program. Otherwise, it appeared another fairly routine mission, another second-billed news item.

And then this happened:

To watch the actual explosion happen, stripped of all its news context, is still jarring today.

There are people in this newsroom who were not alive when Challenger exploded. I am not among them, but not by much. As a child briefly fascinated with space exploration, playing with a toy space shuttle as a little girl and visiting the Kennedy Space Center on my first real vacation, I was aware that something bad had happened to Challenger, but I wasn’t really sure what.

By contrast, I was a college student when the space shuttle Columbia exploded on re-entry in 2003, and I vividly recall watching ABC News out of the corner of my eye, a sick feeling in my stomach, throughout the Saturday morning sorority meeting to which I had been en route when I found out. Yet the words “space shuttle Columbia” don’t automatically connote that disaster, not for me. Challenger is embroidered on the national consciousness as a synonym for tragedy — a tragedy worsened by the painful knowledge that it was preventable.

Twenty-five years and five months after Challenger’s explosion, NASA will send off the space shuttle program’s final mission as Atlantis launches June 28. The International Space Station is nearly complete, the shuttle program on its way to retirement. It is good, then, to reflect on its history — even its darkest moments.

Hannibal Fire Department targets juvenile fire-setters

Posted by mpoletti – January 26, 2011

Tuesday’s meeting of the Hannibal Fire Board sought to address the critical but not always high-profile issue of juvenile fire-setters, the topic of a National Fire Academy seminar Chief Bill Madore attended last year.

Previous chiefs have spent a decade trying to address the problem of kids who set fires, but the Fire Department as a whole hasn’t always done so effectively, Madore said. More often than not, such young offenders have simply been referred to juvenile justice authorities.

That’s something the department is hoping to change this year.

“The Hannibal Fire Department is willing to step up our role and responsibility in curtailing this problem,” Madore said after Tuesday’s meeting, where he presented to the Fire Board on juvenile fire-setters based on what he and firefighter Ryan Sparks learned last year from National Fire Academy training on the subject.

The presentation, which also was attended by representatives from the Hannibal Police Department, Hannibal School District 60 and Hannibal Regional Hospital, focused on education as the backbone of juvenile fire prevention. Participants focused, too, on the nationwide problem and possible local solutions, including clarifying the roles of various parties involved in addressing juvenile fire-setting.

Madore said the meeting was a productive one that will help the Fire Department and its partners address juvenile fire-setting head on.

“We got some positive feedback,” Madore said. “We have a basis for building the program further and bringing other agencies into play.”

Bird’s the word: Now is time to watch for bald eagles

Posted by mpoletti – January 25, 2011

The Muppets' Sam the Eagle is pictured, but is probably not the kind of eagle you'll see hanging out along the Mississippi River.

The Muppets' Sam the Eagle is pictured, but he's probably not whom you'll see hanging out along the Mississippi River.

It’s definitely the season to see birds of prey take wing, especially our national bird. A couple of weeks ago, a pair of bald eagles flying beside Quincy’s Bayview Bridge were in view as I returned from a jaunt to Kahoka. It was the first time I’d ever seen a bald eagle in the wild, let alone two.

This may not be news to most people — even if it was to me — but the river region in Northeast Missouri is one of the best places in the country to watch for bald eagles.

Missouri is one of the nation’s leading state in bald eagle sightings, according to a release from the Missouri Department of Conservation. More than 2,800 bald eagles have been wintering in the Show-Me State since 1992 — not bad for an endangered species. Although the bald eagle’s federal status has been changed from endangered to threatened, it’s still considered endangered in Missouri, mostly for the sake of protecting its nesting areas.

One of those nesting areas, and one of the state’s prime eagle-watching spots, is in Northeast Missouri — Lock and Dam 24 at Clarksville. The MDC sponsors Eagle Days events each year at the Clarksville dam, and this is the weekend for those events, with children’s events and plenty of bird-watching available on the riverfront Saturday and Sunday. The festival features a live eagle program, hands-on exhibits and displays, a video, a bonfire, kids’ activities, and spotting scopes and MDC staff available to aid the area’s amateur ornithologists in watching eagles soar above the river and feed on its fish. It’s going to be a cold weekend, but an interesting opportunity.

However, even if you don’t venture down to Clarksville or get out of your car, it’s not hard to see bald eagles along the river. I saw two of them purely by accident. If you hang around the riverfront and practice patience, you’re likely to see more. And even if you’re used to seeing bald eagles, it never gets any less impressive.

Happy watching!

Gears turning at Huck Finn Shopping Center

Posted by mpoletti – January 20, 2011

A couple of years ago, Hannibal’s Huck Finn Shopping Center was an unfortunate victim of circumstance. (More unfortunate than you know, from a selfish perspective, since it involved two of my favorite clothing stores.) In the span of a few months, two fairly new retailers at Huck Finn Shopping Center, Goody’s and Steve & Barry’s — which also had opened within seven months of each other — went bankrupt at the national level and closed their respective Hannibal outlets in the former Walmart. The spaces have sat untouched since then, their signage still visible on U.S. 61/McMasters Avenue.

So I was pretty excited for the shopping center when I heard that a Sears Hometown Store was coming soon to the former Steve & Barry’s space, the previous Sears store’s owner having given up the franchise to strike out on his own.

When I called shopping center owner Hauck Holdings to confirm that information, however, I gleaned even more potentially exciting information.

Harold Fry, Hauck’s vice president of leasing, tells me that Sears — which has yet to open — probably will occupy relatively little of the Steve & Barry’s space, depending on Sears’ own inclination. Instead, it may split the 41,000-square foot space with a soft goods retailer — that is, one selling textiles and related merchandise — that will occupy the bulk of the space. Fry didn’t identify the retailer but said Hauck is in lease negotiations with that company.

“It’s going to be partly up to (Sears), but we’re in negotiations with them as well,” Fry said. “But we have the right to, and we intend to, build a dividing wall.”

The former Goody’s space next door won’t be left out of the action, Fry added. Hauck is in lease negotiations with three different soft goods companies for that 25,000-square foot space. A pet supply company also is in the mix.

Heard the rumor that an indoor shooting range will occupy Goody’s? Fry would like to put that rumor to rest. “That did not happen and would not happen,” he said.

Fry emphasized that it wasn’t Hannibal’s fault that Goody’s and Steve & Barry’s closed. According to The Herald-Whig’s archives, Goody’s declared bankruptcy in June 2008 and shortly thereafter announced plans to close the Hannibal store it had opened in November 2005. A few months later, the adjacent Steve & Barry’s, newly bought out of bankruptcy itself, announced it would close more than a third of its stores, including its two-year-old Hannibal store (and the St. Louis store where I frequently stimulated the economy). Bankruptcy proceedings moved fast for both chains, and both were a memory as 2009 began. (Goody’s has since reopened several stores, including a Jacksonville, Ill. location, as part of the Stage Stores family, which also includes Stage Stores in Kirksville and Moberly, Mo., and a Peebles in Keokuk, Iowa.)

“We hit a couple of bumps in the road with Goody’s and Steve & Barry’s, but no fault of anybody,” Fry said. Of all the shopping centers Cincinnati-based Hauck owns in six primarily eastern states, “this was the only instance where we were affected side-by-side (by) two different companies from two different parts of the country.”

Although Hannibal is a bit off the beaten path for large chain retailers, Fry is satisfied with its steady traffic and likes its biggest shopping center’s chances of succeeding with the successors to Goody’s and Steve & Barry’s.

“There’s always been constant, continuous interest in that center,” Fry said, adding, “It’s a great town.”

One Hannibal school’s best practices for achievement

Posted by mpoletti – January 20, 2011

In the midst of a short agenda for Wednesday’s Hannibal Board of Education meeting, as district officials discussed progress toward the school’s state-mandated achievement benchmarks, the principal of Veterans Elementary School shared the best practices that have brought her school up to snuff with state standards and made achievement a priority.

Veterans last year met all of its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals — state benchmarks mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and measured in part by the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests for third- through eighth-graders — for the first time since 2006. Some key factors in that progress: a positive attitude and an eye toward results.

Beverly Walker emphasized in her presentation that attitude and action have been key to the school’s achievement. Faculty have studied the book “212: The Extra Degree” and implemented its message of finding a tipping point to act and get results. That’s been borne out in what Walker termed “results-oriented meetings” among faculty and administrators, aimed at quickly finding and effectively solving problems.

At the same time, positivity is key, Walker said. For example, kids struggling with school are called not problem kids, but “success kids.” “We believe that they will be successful,” she said.

Besides addressing achievement, the school targets social development — specifically, the problem of bullying, which Hannibal Middle School also has worked to address — by holding regular class meetings, a phenomenon unique to Veterans that assistant principal W.T. Johnson said has been “implemented as a lifelong intervention.” Teachers set aside intentional time to discuss with their students social skills, anti-bullying techniques and conflict resolution, as illustrated in a video Walker screened of first-grade teacher Denise Hudson discussing bullying with her young pupils.

Walker called Veterans a school full of leaders who are working to ensure the school’s success. Their leadership will become even more crucial next year, as Superintendent Jill Janes announced at the end of Walker’s presentation that the principal will retire at the end of this academic year.

A few tidbits from the Marion County Commission

Posted by mpoletti – January 11, 2011

It’s always fun covering the Marion County Commission’s Monday meeting. The commission and the elected officials visibly get along well, and the mood is usually light as officials deliberate county business at the typically sparsely attended meetings.

The big news Monday was the Marion County Library District’s progress toward seeking voter support for its tax levy, but there were a few other items of note.

• The county’s work to install sidewalks along Mo. 168 in Philadelphia is moving along but slowly. The cold ground and some issues with acquiring right-of-way slowed construction progress since the fall groundbreaking, but Western District Commissioner Randy Spratt — a Philadelphia resident who has championed the project — remained confident that it would move along as the weather warmed up. Meanwhile, the project has a new chairman, John Hummel.

• In one of her final acts as state auditor, Susan Montee (who was defeated in her November run for re-election) audited the Marion County Collector’s office after learning of its short vacancy last year — namely, collector Lee Viorel’s death in office. There were no findings in the office, which is running smoothly now under the control of Mary Ann Viorel, who was appointed to fill her late husband’s office and won her first term in November.

• The marble steps at the 111-year-old Palmyra courthouse will soon sport rubber treads. County Clerk Valerie Dornberger said three people have fallen on the steps in the last year, compelling courthouse staff to look into a solution. “That marble gets slick when people come in with their feet wet,” Dornberger said, prompting Spratt to joke, “They’ve gotten slicker in the last 100 years.”

• The commission re-approved Presiding Commissioner Lyndon Bode’s service on 11 — count ‘em, 11 — boards and committees in Northeast Missouri. Bode, who just began his fifth term as presiding commissioner, chairs the North East Community Action Corporation, Lincoln County Public Housing Authority and Northeast Missouri Resource, Conservation & Development boards. He’s the board secretary for the Highway 36 Transportation Development District. He sits on the boards of the Highway 36/I-72 Corridor Association, Northeast Missouri Workforce Investment Board and Northeast Missouri Senior Service Council for the Northeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging. He’s the Northeast Missouri Commissioners Association legislative representative to the Missouri Association of County Commissioners and an ex officio member of the Marion County Planning and Zoning Commission. He sits on the citizens advisory panels for BASF and Continental Cement. Oh yeah, and he still runs Bode’s Courier Service. And you thought YOU were busy.

• Did you know Marion County will pay up to $500 toward indigent funerals (that is, those where no one can cover the expenses)? I didn’t. I found that out yesterday, when Bode said he’d received a letter from a Hannibal funeral home indicating such a circumstance. The county approved the funding and moved along, but I found it interesting.

    Till next time, commission …

    On way to NEMO, Missouri’s governor has fender bender

    Posted by mpoletti – January 8, 2011

    Well, this couldn’t have been pretty.

    A Friday press release from Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon’s office informed the public that Nixon’s security vehicle had been rear-ended that morning in a three-car crash in Jefferson City. Nixon apparently suffered minor injuries, as he was taken to the Capital Regional Hospital emergency room and was treated and released to continue on his scheduled events.

    Those included a NEMO appearance — a speech at Adair County High School, where he didn’t appear too banged-up. (He also was plenty well enough to issue comments on the resignation of the University of Missouri System president today — a topic dear to both his heart and mine, since the governor and I are both Mizzou alumni.)

    The Missouri State Highway Patrol reports that neither of the other drivers was seriously injured and all three cars were driven from the scene. It’s probably a good thing Nixon was in a Highway Patrol car rather than the monster of an SUV that transported him the one time I’ve covered him (at a November press conference in Clarksville), or else it might have been a different story.

    I don’t believe it snowed in central Missouri like it did in Northeast Missouri and West-Central Illinois Friday, but all the same: “Let’s be careful out there.”

    On city government and city politics

    Posted by mpoletti – January 7, 2011

    I had an interesting conversation with Hannibal City Manager Jeff LaGarce after Tuesday’s City Council meeting. He’s always been terrifically candid with me, on and off the record. While he wasn’t interested in commenting for the paper on the council’s move to ask voters to strengthen his charter-given authority as city manager, he had plenty to say about his reasons why he wasn’t commenting on something that, as a potential ballot issue, is about to become political. And they struck kind of a personal note.

    Background/disclosure: My father sits on the planning commission in Fairview Heights, Ill., the St. Louis suburb where I spent my adolescence. He meandered into the position, in a certain sense, and he’s made it abundantly clear from the start how much more interested he is in nitty-gritty code issues and governance than in the city’s colorful politics.

    So when LaGarce told me Tuesday night that he hates the posturing of politics, not only wasn’t I surprised to hear it from him, I immediately thought of dear old Dad. I told LaGarce as much, simply to underscore.

    He replied with something to the effect of (and I’m paraphrasing here), “Politics is a group of people coming together to govern a city.”

    LaGarce went on to share an interesting story from his days as city manager in Wentzville, Mo. At a meeting of newly elected and sitting city officials, someone stood up, welcomed the group, then asked everyone in the room — it was a gathering of maybe 50 people — to share why they’d gotten interested in politics. That was where she lost him, LaGarce said: “She should have asked why we’d gotten interested in public service.”

    This is a guy who isn’t even a fan of appointing people to city advisory boards. I wouldn’t look for his name on a ballot anytime soon. It was interesting to talk with him about his philosophy on why — and it could just as easily have been my father the reluctant city official talking.

    (By the way, LaGarce originally came up to me because I hobbled into Tuesday’s council meeting on crutches. I broke a small bone in my right foot last week, apparently after aggravating an undiagnosed stress fracture. Thanks to all the officials and sources — and coworkers, for that matter — who have been compassionate good sports, from holding doors for me to sharing their own war stories to simply asking after my health. I’ll be back in fighting shape in no time.)

    The difference between the lightning bug and the lightning

    Posted by mpoletti – January 5, 2011

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    When I heard Alabama publisher NewSouth intends to publish a new edition of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” with, shall we say, a few changes of vocabulary, the very first person I thought of was Northeast Missouri’s preeminent scholar on the beloved novel’s author — Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum executive director Cindy Lovell.

    Twain scholar Alan Gribben will next month publish “Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” under the NewSouth banner in a single volume, as he claims Twain intended. That’s not the sticking point. Far more controversial is his decision to replace all 219 uses of the N-word with “slave,” villainous Injun Joe’s name with “Indian Joe” and the term “half-breed” with “half-blood.” Gribben claims the word changes are designed to make the perennially banned book more accessible to educators and students who otherwise might not study it, but the new book has drawn sharp and widespread outcry as a result, and the publisher now addresses it in a note on its website.

    I gave Dr. Lovell a call, suspecting that if anyone would be peeved about this, it would be her.

    I was wrong. She was furious.

    “We are completely against it, and we don’t plan to sell the book,” Lovell said. It was another 20 minutes before we got off the phone.

    While Lovell believes Gribben’s heart is in the right place, the idea of varnishing the book’s offensive parts to lessen educators’ discomfort defeats the entire purpose of using it for educational purposes, she says.

    “He seems to be wanting to help teachers who are telling him they’re uncomfortable with it,” Lovell said. “Well, that’s what history is. History is uncomfortable.” And art and literature are designed to help us encounter history in all its frequent ugliness, she added.

    Lovell points out that Twain never used the n-word casually — and, for that matter, didn’t use it frequently. It appears a few times in “Tom Sawyer” and in “The Tragedy of Pudd’n Head Wilson,” another treatise against racism. In every case, she says, it’s used to hold up a cracked mirror to the human folly of the belief that one man could own another because of the color of his skin.

    “He was rubbing our noses in our own filth with that,” she said.

    Without the discomfort of the n-word and other harsh references to slavery in “Huckleberry Finn,” Lovell says, it loses its raw power, its perennial educational value and its very identity as Twain’s greatest work. “It’s a nothing story. Mark Twain didn’t write it anymore.”

    For its own part, Lovell and other museum staff try to coach educators through teaching “Huckleberry Finn,” working with them to emphasize its all-important context, encouraging them to review “Tom Sawyer” first as its companion piece.

    More than anything, she says, the museum works to defend Twain’s legacy — and “his legacy is his words, so we’re going to defend his words to the end.”