Thursday, February 26, 2009

Advocate Goes Part Time

An open letter to Advocate readers

Feb. 26, 2009

Dear Readers:

This is not the letter I hoped to be posting four months after starting the Advocate, but if an online news service is going to yell 'transparency' at every turn, it had better be willing to play by it's own rules.

Put plainly, as a business venture, the Advocate is failing.

Our business model has four indexes to track growth and predict success of the venture: Readership, community involvement, classified use and, of course, paid advertising. I am sad to report that we are faltering badly on three of those.

While readership numbers have climbed steadily since it's inception, now topping 3000 total page hits, and over 300 readers a week, the sparse use of the 'Classifieds' section, and almost no interest in paid advertising has failed to instill lender confidence, thus denying us access to funding needed to expand the staff, or to go to print with a weekly paper.

These are failures that I blame on my own lack of salesmanship and failure to factor in funding for advertising, believing that word-of-mouth and easy internet linking would be sufficient to get the word out.

Community involvement has to be graded as mediocre. Institutions such as the local colleges, government offices and law enforcement, realizing that every information outlet has value, have been willing contributors.

But surprisingly, organizations like ISD boards, economic development agencies and even chambers of commerce have been less than cooperative, many failing even to return messages or respond to letters of introduction.

In short, the shoe-string budget we were operating on is gone, and the need to pay personal bills now has to override both desire to publish and belief in the need for a service like this for Upshur County.

The site will stay open, but article postings won't be daily events.

In closing, I would like to thank everyone who is providing information and news releases, and the readers who return daily looking for timely and topical news of interest to Upshur County and the surrounding area.

Sincerely,

DeWayne Spell

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Balloon Payments?


"Please bear in mind that the Federal Reserve is only one arrow in the quiver that can be deployed to restore the nation's economic vitality. The power to stimulate activity through taxing and spending the American people's money lies with the Congress of the United States.

"All eyes have been on the stimulus package recently passed by the House and Senate and signed by President Obama. This was no easy task, and it was accomplished with unusual alacrity. Only time will tell if the stimulus will give our economic engine an activating short-term jolt without encumbering or disincentivizing the entrepreneurial dynamic that has made for the long-term economic miracle that is America.

"Next, our political leaders must agree to the funding, if any, of the Treasury's proposals for the resolution of the banking crisis so as to make the system more stable and viable—a resolution, as Thomas Friedman reminds us in Sunday's New York Times, that needs to be done in a manner that encourages winners rather than 'bailing out losers.'

"And, on top of all that, they must begin, now, to dig us out of the very deep hole they themselves have dug in incurring unfunded liabilities of retirement and health care obligations—programs that are already on the books but have not yet been paid for—that Pete Peterson's foundation calculates at $56 trillion and we at the Dallas Fed believe total over $99 trillion.

"If you do the numbers, you will find that some 85 percent of those unfunded liabilities is due to Medicare; a budgetary Heimlich maneuver is urgently needed to keep Medicare from choking off our economic prosperity." -- Richard W. Fisher, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Feb. 23, 2009

Italics ours.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Texas Sovereignty Resolution

Empower Texan's writer comments on state representatives telling Washington what should be obvious

By:HumbleTravis
Empower Texan's Website


Texas has become the latest state to introduce a resolution regarding the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution. House Concurrent Resolution 50 simply recognizes that the individual states can claim sovereignty on all matters that are not specifically granted to the federal government. It is not a "secessionist" resolution, as has been falsely reported elsewhere.

It is a shame that it took the stimulus package for something like this to be introduced, but there have been moments when our legislature stood up for Texas in recent years. In 2007, the state House and Senate both passed legislation that would've investigated whether or not Texas law was being negatively affected by international entities and arrangements including NAFTA and the United Nations. That bill was vetoed by Rick Perry. The sovereignty resolution acknowledges that "a number of proposals from previous administrations and some now pending from the present administration and from congress may further violate the Constitution."

Read More...

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Healthcare Benefits for Community College Faculty & Staff Should be a Priority for 81st Legislature

President of Brazosport College says Texas is shirking it's duty by failing to fund community college employee health care insurance

Dr. Millicent Valek

Every year more than one million students pass through the doors of Texas community colleges in search of their dreams. Some students embark on a journey toward earning a bachelors degree, while others seek to acquire the workforce skills needed to help grow the state’s economy. As the fastest growing sector of higher education the future of Texas relies greatly on the success of community colleges.

Today, in the midst of nationwide economic troubles, the role of community colleges has never been more significant. According to State Comptroller Susan Combs an increase of 10,000 students in community college enrollments would add 13,000 jobs to the Texas economy within one year. Our institutions are well positioned to provide solutions for the workforce and economic growth needs of the state.

Texas community colleges have been doing their part to bring these educational opportunities to Texans. Over the past seven years, community college enrollments have risen by more than 31%, adding nearly 140,000 new students (the equivalent of nearly three Universities of Texas at Austin or five Texas Tech Universities). Despite this enormous growth in our enrollments, community colleges have worked hard to keep student costs low. Over the past ten years community college students have seen on average only a 2.6% annual increase in tuition & fees statewide.

Community Colleges have operated with the understanding that a partnership exists between local colleges and the state. Under this compact, the state promised local communities it would fund the instructional costs for community colleges if local residents would tax themselves to build and maintain necessary the physical facilities. In this partnership, the state historically funded community college employee health care insurance based on an employee’s job function – teaching and serving our students. With this partnership the state’s 50 community college districts have flourished.

However, the state’s historical commitment to this agreement has been shrinking. Over the years – good economic times and bad – the community college state formula has continued to be largely underfunded. Because of this, community colleges have been forced to use student tuition and local tax dollars to fill the growing state funding gap. Some contend that now the state should only pay part of the health insurance costs of our faulty and staff.

Read More...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Open Schools

A 'thumbs up' for transparency in school district spending

By:Michael Sullivan

How does your school district spend your money? Betcha you can't find out... That's why taxpayers should be contacting their lawmakers in support of legislation filed State Rep. Mark Strama (D-Austin), H.B. 1314, and State Rep. Brandon Creighton (R-Conroe), H.B. 1307. Of the two, Creighton's HB 1307 is more comprehensive. Both would shine much-needed sunlight on Texas' public education spending.

Strama was the lead author on last Session's HB 3430 to provide extensive statewide fiscal transparency. Strama's bill would simply require school districts to post their financial statements quarterly.

Creighton, one of our Taxpayer Champions from the last Session, would go much further and do a lot more for the cause of transparency. His legislation would require districts to post their expenditures -- checks written and credit card transactions -- within one month.

Taxpayers should demand both. We get handed the bill, it's time for us to be allowed to examine the receipt.

Reprinted by permission from the Empower Texans website.

Michael Quinn Sullivan is President & CEO of Empower Texans, a 501c4 non-profit organization promoting free markets in an effort to empower Texans. Empower Texans' premier project is Texans for Fiscal Responsibility. The organization also manages the Empower Texans PAC, which is directly engaged in the electoral process in Texas.

Attack On Free Speech Exposed

Where the new Hate Crime legislation is going




I've been meaning to research and write a piece on the blatant left-wing attack on Christianity and free speech that is underway, but a woman named Janet Porter beat me to it, and did a better job than I could have.

In a piece called Here's 'change': End of free speech, Ms. Porter raises the red flag of indignation as a warning to the punishments we might all soon face for having an opinion.

An excerpt:

Two bills are already in the House Judiciary Committee: H.R.256 and H.R.262. We've been lead to believe it's about crime, but there are already laws against crime. This thing is about speech. Don't believe me? Rep. (and former judge) Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, pointed out in the House Judiciary Committee the bill "is going to put pastors in prison." Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, Section 2 (a) reads:

(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is punishable as a principal. – 18 USC Sec. 2

That means if you "counsel someone," or write a book, or read from the Bible (such as what Obama says is an "obscure" passage in the first chapter of Romans), you could be found guilty of "inducing" someone to commit a crime.

The Homosexual Triangle Foundation's executive director, Jeff Montgomery, told the Saginaw News back in April 2005: "Vocal anti-gay activists should be held accountable as accessories to these crimes because, many times, it is their rhetoric that led the perpetrators to believe their crimes are OK."
There it is. If your beliefs don't echo the left's, they are rhetoric, leading perpetrators to commit crimes.

I regret I don't have reprint permission from Ms. Porter, but you can read the whole article at
http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=89142.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Wasteful Spending Dressed in "Stimulus" Clothing

Senator John Cornyn on the recently passed stimulus bill

Texas Times
Feb 10, 2009
By:Sen. John Cornyn


For months, Americans across the country have been grappling with the results of our nation's economic downturn: layoffs, foreclosures, salary cuts, and the tough family budgeting decisions that go hand in hand with a recession. While Texas has fared better than most states—largely due to our pro-business economic policies and the can-do spirit inherent to the Texas culture —we are not immune.

According to Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Tom Paulken, "Our state's economy has been fairly resilient during these months of economic uncertainty, but the national economic storm has reached Texas." In January, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs predicted a loss of 111,000 Texas jobs and announced a 10.5 percent drop in tax revenue in this fiscal year. In North Texas, the jobless rate has climbed to 5.6 percent—a significant ascent from one year ago, when the rate was 4.1 percent. The jobless rate for the entire state recently hit 6 percent—nearly two percentage points higher than a year ago.

Read More...

Friday, February 13, 2009

Honoring Our Nation’s Presidents

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison on President's Day

Capitol Comment
Feb. 13, 2009
By: Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison


Throughout Texas this coming Monday, children will enjoy a day off from school. Although the federal government honors “Washington’s Birthday” each year on the third Monday of February, Texas goes one step further by concurrently observing “Presidents’ Day,” a state holiday that celebrates all of our past Presidents.

Our forty-four presidents have included men who have been a carpenter (James Garfield), a cloth maker (Millard Fillmore), a star athlete (Gerald Ford), a launderer (Herbert Hoover), a mail room clerk (Harry Truman), a shoeshine boy (Lyndon Johnson), an insurance salesman (Warren Harding), a toymaker (Calvin Coolidge), an actor (Ronald Reagan) and a school principal (Chester Arthur). Ten presidents were farmers before reaching the White House; seven were diplomats; and twenty-six were lawyers. Their diverse perspectives strengthened the quality of our nation’s leadership and inspired foreign nations to embrace democracy.

Read More...

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