Month: November 2009

Observations from Wednesday’s Quincy School Board meeting

Posted by dadam – November 18, 2009

6:56 p.m. — There are a handful of empty seats. A mixture of public and school personnel. All board members are present except Jeff Mays.

6:58 p.m. — Mays just arrived.

6:59 p.m. — Bud Niekamp calls meeting to order.

7:02 p.m. — Niekamp wants to deliver letter to secretary on motion pertaining to his resignation. Bill Daniels told him he could just deliver it, but a vote is taken anyway.

7:03 p.m. — Niekamp’s letter is submitted. He says he is not resigning as a board member or president. Read by Phyllis Stewart.

7:04 p.m. — Board member Steve Krause is the first speaker. He asks for civility and patience.

7:05 p.m. — Jeff Kerkhoff is first speaker before the board.

7:06 p.m. — Kerkhoff says asking question that board seems to be dysfunctional. He had passed out copies of a recent story stamped “Radical? Patriot? Or Diversion?”

7:08 p.m. — Kerkhoff is reading a story that dealt with Niekamp’s response to the hiring of Curt Lovelace’s wife. He wonders if the reaction would have been different if it had been Niekamp’s wife.

7:08 p.m. — Niekamp cuts off Kerkhoff, a supporter, after 3 minutes.

7:11 p.m. — No other speakers. With Niekamp’s decision not to resign, item for dealing with resignation and reappointment skipped.

7:12 p.m. — The treasurer’s report and minutes passed by 6-1 vote. Niekamp sole no vote.

7:13 p.m. — Superintendent Lonny Lemon now giving his report. Mentions Ellington School cup-stacking efforts and success of Quincy High School volleyball team at Class 4A state tournament last weekend.

7:17 p.m. — Most of the seats in Baldwin School Round Room now filled. A few people standing. Standing committee reports next, followed by reports by representatives of board.

7:21 p.m. — Lemon mentions $5.1 million deficit, caused in part by state failing to pay $3.1 million. Hopes district does not have to conduct reduction in staff.

7:23 p.m. — Bob Adrian, Niekamp’s attorney in the quo warranto lawsuit, is in the crowd taking notes.

7:28 p.m. — Curt Lovelace, in describing the last two Building Committee meetings that covered four hours: “We didn’t move an inch as a committee.” A problem with new members on this committee and others is why a vote will be taken to dissolve all four standing board committees.

7:35 p.m. — Discussion of life-safety projects. Board to determine if architects should do work to prepare documents to submit projects to state. Bill Daniels said board is at least three steps away from deciding to spend money. QPS qualified for $8.1 million in bonds through federal stimulus money.

7:39 p.m. — Niekamp said he has been “busy this week,” so Lemon is giving Policy Committee report. Niekamp is chairman of that committee.

7:46 p.m. — Bill Daniels, chairman of Finance Committee, said district is far from being in good shape, but the deficit looks worse than it is. He said the district could not count $3.8 million in tort funds as an asset. More than $1.1 million in state payments have not been made. Those two figures comprise the bulk of the $5.1 million deficit.

7:55 p.m. — Daniels reports self-insurance fund has run a $3.6 million surplus since changes were made in the 2003-04 contract. But he cautioned that $3 million of that came in first three years of five-year cycle. The surplus was less than $50,000 last year with no increase in those covered.

8:01 p.m. — Board votes 6-1 on$30 million tax levy that features projected  lower tax rate. Niekamp votes no.

8:02 p.m. — Board votes 6-1 to dissolve committees with no comment.

8:03 p.m. — Board votes 6-1 to curtail duties of president with no comment.

8:05 p.m. — Robert Shabel calls move despicable and backstabbing. Niekamp asked him to calm down. Shabel, who unsuccessfully ran for a board seat several times, praised Niekamp.

8:10 p.m. — Steve Tenhouse thanked School Board for action and hopes school district can move on. Drew largest round of applause.

8:12 p.m. — Jim Sibbing, new member of Building Committee, believes there has been a “gross misunderstanding.” He believes board should show more fiscal constraints with life-safety projects.

8:15 p.m. — Sibbing says this is not a good time to saddle taxpayers with more debt. He believes some projects don’t legally qualify as life-safety projects.

8:17 p.m. — Sibbing says someone in the district “should be watching the store.”

8:20 p.m. — Board now preparing to go into executive session. Niekamp thanks audience for being civil and that none of the fireworks that dominated his first Board meeting as president in July occurred tonight.

Missouri court says no to drunken gun possession

Posted by dcrim – November 18, 2009

The Missouri Supreme Court has upheld a state law that makes it illegal to possess or discharge a gun while intoxicated. Not trying to pick a fight with responsible gun owners, but doesn’t common sense dictate that it’s a bad idea to be walking around with a gun when you’re both loaded?

Presidential candidate guessing game for 2012 has already begun

Posted by dcrim – November 17, 2009

Proving that it’s never too early to start speculating about the next presidential election, which is still three years away, Tom Bevan and Mike Memoli of RealClearPolitics take a stab at identifying some of the potential dark horse candidates for the GOP nomination in 2012. At least one name may surprise you. Click here for the full story.

The story of a former Quincy priest gains more national attention

Posted by dcrim – November 16, 2009

catholic-priest-son-891The story of the Rev. Henry Willenborg, a priest who spent a decade at Our Lady of Angels Seminary in Quincy, and the son he had with a woman who came here 26 years ago to a Roman Catholic retreat to try to mend a trouble marriage aired last week on CNN. Their son, Nathan Halbach, now 22, is dying of cancer.

See the report here.

The story first gained national attention with a front page New York Times article last month. CNN reporter Gary Tuchman was in Quincy filming part of the report, with footage of St. Peter Catholic Church. The woman, Pat Bond, who now lives in a St. Louis suburb, lived in a house at 25th and Maine. Nathan’s baptism, shown at right, took place in St. Peter Catholic Church. Willenborg has been suspended from a parish in Wisconsin.

Live, from New York, it’s Sarah Palin’s new book

Posted by dcrim – November 13, 2009

ALeqM5jpu_iv627Epc7Sdao1KXBTesOgmwIn a real shocker, Sarah Palin reportedly points out in her about-to-be-released memoir, “Going Rogue,” that everything that went wrong for the Republican ticket in the 2008 presidential campaign was somebody else’s fault.

Only in American can a nobody become a somebody for six weeks — not to mention a somebody who gave comedians more material than they needed — and turn it into a $1.25 million book deal, a three-week publicity tour (albeit in no major cities and with considerable access restrictions), and national television interviews with Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters.

At 413 pages, that means she writes about 70 pages worth of stuff for every week between the national convention and the Election Day loss. Wonder how long the book would have been if, say, she actually had done something besides helping Tina Fey become a national sensation?

Writing for The Nation, Richard Kim and Betsy Reed believe Palin “is the best thing that ever happened to the Democratic Party. Electorally, she is the GOP gift that keeps on giving.”

Kim and Reed go on to write: “Her nonsensical statements may inadvertently provide comic relief, but it’s no laughing matter when serious debate is distorted by the wild misinformation she feeds to her increasingly paranoid base.”

Matthew Continetti, the associate editor of The Weekly Standard and the author of “The Persecution of Sarah Palin,” which is out this week, writes for the Wall Street Journal that Palin is embarking upon an image remake.

Continetti writes that Palin has two problems. “The first is that she’s become one of the most polarizing figures in the country. The second is that voters continue to worry about her qualifications for the presidency, a concern that her abrupt resignation from office (as Alaska governor, midway through her first term) last July intensified.”

Continetti points out that Palin’s unfavorable rating hovers around 50 percent and that 63 percent of all voters said they wouldn’t seriously consider supporting her for the presidency. But he concludes that her problems are solvable and that she has ample opportunity to convince voters she has a clue.

Not to mention being a lot richer while doing it.

Here’s a birthday salute to No. 45

Posted by dcrim – November 9, 2009

bob_gibson-756670

Happy 74th birthday to Bob Gibson, the greatest pitcher in St. Louis Cardinals history. Oh, and when people start talking about Andy Pettite being the winningest pitcher in postseason history, keep in mind Gibby started nine World Series games, pitched complete games in eight of them (including a 10-inning stint, giving him 81 innings in all) and won seven in a row. He also had two World Series home runs, one of only two major league pitchers to accomplish that feat.

pg2_u_gibson_200

Don’t blame the Yankees for playing by the rules; blame baseball

Posted by dcrim – November 5, 2009

a-rodPundits and fans are going to spend the next few months pontificating about how the New York Yankees “bought” the 2009 world championship, but their indignation will be misdirected.

True, the Yankees have baseball’s largest payroll at $216 million, or about seven times that of the Florida Marlins. It’s even twice as much as the St. Louis Cardinals, a smaller market team that usually spends money on its players and is successful on the field and at the box office.

It’s true that the Yankees pay exorbitant salaries and have the wherewithal to court the game’s best players, but they also charge exorbitant prices for seats and other amenities as new Yankee Stadium, and are flush with cash thanks to a mega television deal. However, the problem isn’t the Yankees. Or the Red Sox. Or the Angels. Or any other big-market team that spends freely under the rules in which the game now operates.

The problem is with baseball, which has allowed the disparity between the haves and the have-nots to be the widest in all of professional sports. Until baseball seriously addresses the widening payroll gap among its teams, there will continue to be franchises — and their fans — who begin each season knowing there will be no shot at a World Series.

No hope makes for a long spring, summer and fall for our national pastime. And for a long winter of Yankee bashing.

Signature monument to communism, Cold War fell 20 years ago

Posted by dcrim – November 2, 2009

Next Monday marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Click here and here for a history of the wall that divided Berlin for nearly three decades at the height of the Cold War. Click here for a photo essay compiled by Time magazine for the 10th anniversary of the wall’s fall in 1999.