August 06, 2015

Deja vu

The most recent ruling class hissy fit over the president's Clean Power Plan is pretty much like the last several, only more so. Ken Ward summed up the reactions pretty well at Coal Tattoo. It's all sad and complicated, but I keep coming back to the thought that catastrophic climate change is likely to make all our other problems look pretty small.

Speaking of hissy fits, despite the one by legislative leaders over prevailing wage, Workforce WV is still trying to conduct a survey of employers to come up with new wage rates.

August 04, 2015

In case you were wondering...

...West Virginia's leaders have been on a major ruling class hissy fit over the Obama administration's proposed Clean Power Plan. Gee, nobody saw that coming.

IT'S NOT ALL BAD. On the other hand, two friends of mine who recently started a program to bring yoga to West Virginia's prison population got some nice coverage in the Gazette today. One of them was a guardian angel of mine on a triathlon I barely managed to finish. I now owe her a karmic debt.

MORE GOOD NEWS. WV continues to make huge strides in child nutrition. The Harrison County school board recently decided to dramatically expand its participation in a federal program that provides free breakfast and lunch to all students in schools with high poverty rates. They piloted the program at three schools last year.

Even better, one heretofore holdout county, Wetzel, recently decided to provide free meals to all kids county wide. On the cosmic scale, this might not seem like a big deal, but it's a huge one for the kids who no longer have to deal with stigma and the parents who no longer have to worry about another bill.

A big thank you to the adults in those counties who stood up for kids!