Online story: "The number of deadly road accidents related to marijuana more than doubled in Washington after it became one of the first states to legalize the drug for recreational use, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. * In 2014, the percentage of drivers involved in deadly accidents who had recently used marijuana spiked to 17—up from eight percent a year earlier, the Washington-D.C. based organization said." -- Hmmm.. there goes the "harmless recreational drug" argument...

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I'm curious.. why would anyone say :I would like to see a woman elected president"? Seriously, I have no problem with a woman being elected president, but not because she is a woman.. because she can "sell" me she's the best candidate for the job..

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From the "real ZERO-bama "Legacy" department: "A $25 million U.S.-funded project to help Guatemala combat global warming is being slammed as another taxpayer-backed boondoggle after a new audit highlighted a series of problems -- including numerous inaccuracies in the group's work and a failure to produce a required long-term plan. * The grant for the Climate, Nature and Communities in Guatemala Program was awarded to the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance in February 2013 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) * he Rainforest Alliance reported it had created 30,149 part-time and permanent jobs “generated through new sustainable, productive activities undertaken by program-assisted community-based organizations and SMEs.” However, the audit found 23,936 of those “jobs” may have lasted no more than a day" -- And you were wondering how ZERO-bama could top "Solyndra"....

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Wow...looking at the rankings for the golf competition for the Olympics is scary... only four Americans are in the Top 60.. Spieth, Watson, Fowler, and Dustin Johnson.

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That Whittlesey Road widening project is even older than I surmised.. I should have known by looking at all the 100s of "safety orange" barrels that have standing guard at the pitfalls... most of them have been out so long they have become salmon in color.

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Now Harvard has decided that if a student joins an off campus single gender organization, said student shall not hold a leadership position in any on campus organization...including sport teams. Liberalism has reached a new low .. well, maybe in liberals' eye, a NEW HIGH because they can now control individual rights to explore new interests.

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It's pretty pathetic of Graham and Bush to announce they aren't supporting Trump because in their minds, Trump has a character issues. HUH? Both these men signed a pledge to support the GOP nominee just as Trump did, but now they don't want to honor their pledge.. Talk about lack of character...

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Trump is catching flack for saying he expects the GOP to raise funds for the balance of the campaign. Trump's smart. He self funded to show voters he wasn't "owned", and now the GOP should help promote the overall election. Let's face it..Trump's smart enough to know that he doesn't need to spend his own money anymore..that business acumen is what like and voters expect from him.

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A Hillary spinmeister says the voters will prefer a steady and consistent candidate like Hillary in the White House.. you know, if she wasn't such a steady and consistent liar, I could find reason in that statement...but..Hillary takes the dark side too deep for voter comfort. Besides, when even Democrats see her compared side-by-side with Trump, Trump will be the one that they see as steady and consistent.. at being a success.

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Gimmee a break..more missing e-mails involving the associates of Clinton? Wanna bet they miraculously show up at the worst possible time for Hillary?

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Our MCSD Superintendent Lewis said he welcomed higher standards on tests. Hmmm..you know, the rest of us would welcome higher test scores!

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Got tickled yesterday.. got an e-mail from Check Williams.. the L-E's "Senior Editor for Content". Chuck requested I remove him from my daily e-mail "Breakfast Club" list.. Of course I immediately complied as inclusion is on an individual "request basis" only. After years of being on it, I could only surmise his wife found out ... maybe he laughed when I retorted that the L-E's endorsements for the school board involved "warmed over" candidates... and Cathy is one of them.

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I tell you what.. perhaps the L-E should incorporate a new endorsement policy.. when a]n employee or spouse of an employee is running for a political office, perhaps the L-E should refrain from endorsing that race.. just post a good synopsis of all the competing candidates and let the voters decide.

 

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L-E story: " (Superintendent) Lewis and the (Muscogee County School) district’s chief financial officer, Theresa Thornton, said the promised 3 percent raise for teachers from the state didn’t materialize in Muscogee County. The district instead received 1.14 percent (amounting to $1,711,165), “so we’re making some additional enhancements from our general reserve to give our employees those additional pay increases,” Lewis said. *  To accomplish that goal while keeping the property tax millage rate at 23.37 for the 20th straight year, the administration plans to use $7,619,053 of its fund balance. That would reduce the fund balance from the projected fiscal FY 2016 figure of $51,993,572 (equal to 55.8 days of operations) to $44,374,519 (equal to 45.7 days of operations)." -- "reduce the fund balance to ...55.8 days of operations"? Wait a minute,, this is exactly why we need to clean house of "warmed over members"! The SPLOST operates (and in opinion, wrongfully) by selling bonds against future revenues, and lowering the fund balance jeopardizes the interest rate ratings. That means payback will take more money out of the classrooms in the future. Remember, depending on your district, vote for Joann Brown. Vanessa Johnson, Shelia Williams (definitely not to be confused with Cathy Williams!), and Pete Taylor!

 

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Looking at the capsule budget figures distributed by the MCSD, I have to correct one figure I have often used.. the percentage of revenues used to salaries and benefits is not the 84% I have been using.. this year it's 86.1% and next year it is growing to 86.9% of revenues!  Compare this to our other government service organization,, the City.. at about 56%.. Do you realize that in 1990, the MCSD budget was $54,000,000.00, and the state didn't fund $9,000,000.00 in salaries and benefits of MCSD employees that the state declared as "Unnecessary".... and now the MCSD has 20% more employees than in 1990 for the same amount of students..

 

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One other interesting aspect of the MCSD figures is the way they figure the "fund balance" days..the System's figure only considers the days in 9 months or so (283),, while we are paying for school expenses for 365 days a year.. in reality, our current fund balance is really only $142,500 a day versus the smoke and mirror's figure of $185,000.00.. next year's reduction will bring the real figure down to $121,600.00 per day..

 

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From above story: "To accomplish that goal while keeping the property tax millage rate at 23.37 for the 20th straight year" -- Like our City, the MCSD has one of the highest millage rates in the state.. country even.. In fact 5 of those millage points were tacked onto the normal state limit of 20  mils because the Columbus Museum was placed under the auspices of the MCSD. What that means is that a minimum of 20% of the MCSD's property tax revenue should be going to the Museum *that would be in excess of $20,000,000.00 annually, but that does not happen.. The school budget throws in a few million periodically to make the appearance that it maintains the Museum, but,, the Museum is basically self-sustaining by donations from private parties and foundations. Another thing.. only the 23.37 millage rate figure is i=unchan=ged for the past 20 years.. more revenue is generated by that rate as property values rise and new construction is realized. "They" are not clinching their belts.

 

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L-E "soundoff": "What have Gov. Deal and the Georgia Legislature got against Columbus? Oh, I get it. They just want to keep the money." -- One can only get amazed at the stupidity of local State Rep Richard S***t* as he tries to place the blame on withheld state funds on the back of Sen. Josh McKoon.. S***t* says that McKoon is the reason that money has been held back from distribution to CSU and the National Infantry Museum.. the last time I looked, Sen. Josh McKoon's district has but a few precincts in Muscogee County, and ALL of Rep. S***t*'s district is in Muscogee County.. Guess S***t* has been trying to divert attention away for his lackadaisical representation of Columbus treasures. Put the blame on the right source.

 

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L-E's "Thought for Today": “Life is 10 percent what you make it, and 90 percent how you take it.” Irving Berlin, American songwriter (born this date in 1888, died 1989)." -- Another bit of wisdom that the Democratic Party has "aborted.. Now it's part of the Democrat's political platform .. only a couple of words have been changed..." Keep 10 percent what you make it, and we'll take 90 percent of your efforts.”

 

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You know.. the Democratic Party theme song must have been written by "Blood, Sweat, & Tears." -- They take your blood and sweat, and leave you in tears.

 

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L-E headline: "Abuser gets life without parole in girlfriend’s murder" -- Good grief.. and we get a lifetime of legal fees and incarceration costs! Bring back the death penalty for all felony crimes committed while using an illegally possessed gun.

 

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L-E story: "   Two Columbus Councilors, acting as members of the Budget Review Committee, tentatively trimmed almost $75,000 from the budget of the Columbus Aquatic Center’s budget Tuesday." -- Good grief.. how will that stop the bleeding.. if  hours aren't cut back to what is covered by user fees, then all the hours.. not just $75,000.00 dollars of them, will be inefficient and more costly in the future..