Teachers need incentives to go to work every day

The Kanawha County School Board voted 4-1 to continue the incentive pay for teachers to show up for work every day. You don’t know how much I hate agreeing with Pete Thaw.

Obviously, if there’s been a sudden drop in illness among teachers, it shows that they were abusing their sick leave privileges in the past. You are only supposed to take off sick for legitimate illness or appointments. I wonder if students have noticed their teachers showing up for work more often?

I wonder how Joe Manchin would feel about this policy for state employees?

Dick Cheney is a dick

But we knew that before he made the stupid joke about West Virginia on video.

Nick Rahall gets quote of the day:

“We may owe the vice president a debt of gratitude for yet another great West Virginia slogan: ‘Dick Cheney is not from here.’”

A disrespected visionary?

Interesting items to take away from Phil Kabler’s report on the Fred Armstrong firing:

1. Randall Reid-Smith has a low threshold of pain when it comes to “disrespect.” Lack of self-esteem?

2. Kay Goodwin is not RRS’s boss. She didn’t have anything to do with hiring him, and was not involved (she says) in firing Armstrong. His backing comes from Manchin’s Chief of Staff. What the hell does she do over there all day? Apparently the Governor’s office didn’t even consult her before appointing RRS, which also shows that they were waiting for their opportunity to get rid of Troy Body and give the job to Reid-Smith.

3. RRS was given assurance he could “form his own leadership team when he was hired to carry forward his vision.” Apparently that included appointing a Museum Director with no prior experience in museums. One wonders if they are going to find an Archives Director of equal qualifications.

4. RRS claims to be a visionary, but the idea about the cafe came from consultants. Then again, no idea that RRS has come up with on his own since his tenure as Culture Czar has been a good one.

Joe Manchin and the Museum

After pounding his nail, Governor Joe tells WV Public Radio “I’m committed to getting this completed. I really have been. And I’ve been very vocal about it.”

Apparently, he’s a recent convert, since he told Acting Commissioner Troy Body that he wasn’t going to sink any more money into that “million dollar hole in the ground.”

A professional liar tells the truth

Professional Liar Bil Lepp managed to slip a Heather Bresch reference into his story at the Vandalia Gathering Friday night.

To briefly set it up: Bil, in California, encounters a mountain lion, and in order to save himself, preaches and then Baptizes the lion. (Bil is also a minister) Out of nowhere a California Natural Resources officer appears, and when she pulls out her wallet and flashes her badge, the plastic accordion card holder rolls down, revealing her National Herbal Tea Drinkers card, her membership in a couple of other granola groups, and her EMBA card from WVU.

The audience howled for a full minute.

Joe Manchin pounds a nail

Well, perhaps in answer to the museum in limbo, The Culture Palace announced today that the Gov is going to pound the ceremonial first nail in the museum next week. One wonders what he’s pounding a nail into, since if the museum is going to be built with wood, what is the other $16.5 million of renovation money going for? A “world class museum” is not built out of wood.

Charleston user fee and cameras

There’s a good letter to the editor pointing out that

London has the most surveillance of any city in the world, but London Chief Inspector Mick Neville is quoted as calling the system “a fiasco.”

Danny Jones needs to learn from Inspector Neville. This would be a total waste of the user fee.

The Museum Limbo

Phil Kabler writes that the State Museum project is in limbo because the contract for the specialty fabricator still hasn’t been awarded. Three bids were submitted, but one was tossed, no reason revealed yet. Phil seems to think that they are taking too long to reveal the bid award, even though the dollar amounts of the bids have been published. Perhaps there’s a technical issue? After all, the low bid isn’t necessarily the best bid.

But for once, it’s unfair to say the museum is in limbo, it appears work is going great guns on framing up the space. Culture and History’s website has some pictures and drawings of the museum progress, although the pages appear unfinished and not up-to-date; maybe it’s the website that’s in limbo?

In any case, it’s no longer a $6 million hole in the ground, as Joe Manchin so politely put it several years (and commissioners) ago.

The Governor speaks

STATEMENT FROM THE GOVERNOR REGARDING CONTINUING DISCUSSION OF WVU E-MBA DEGREE REPORT

Joe Manchin continues spin control with phrases like:

“this controversy all started because our daughter sincerely believed that she had her degree, because of a meeting that everyone admits took place with the program’s director in 1998, and when she contacted the university last year, she was simply asking them to find the records that she believed would confirm that. Had they told her that after looking through their records they didn’t have the proper documentation on file, we honestly believe that while she may not have liked that answer, she would have accepted it and moved on with her life.”

and

“Gayle and I are both angry, in particular, at the fabrication of grades that took place, because it unfairly damages our daughter’s reputation as much as it does the University’s.”

and

“the WVU Board of Governors members are not under my control and remain free, as they always have been, to make their own individual and collective decisions on this or any other situation.”

Sure they’re free to decide, but they all know the Governor and know which way the wind blows. As for Heather, I’m pretty sure her calls to the University didn’t sound like she was happy they couldn’t back up her “graduation.”

Tickets to a campaign?

Hillary has appeared twice in the Charleston area in the last few days, and Bill has appeared a couple of times, and they’ve both appeared in several other places around that state, and the events were always wide open.

Obama comes to Charleston one time, appears in a larger venue (the Civic Center) than the others, and they require tickets for admission.

What’s up with that?