The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/299712
The Press-Dispatch Wednesday, April 23, 2014 C-3 The Pike Central Post Prom Committee would like to thank all the local businesses and individuals for your generous donations! We were able to provide students with a safe environment filled with fun, food and activi- ties following prom at no cost to them. Many students took advantage of this opportunity and also left with some wonderful prizes. This is only possible because of thoughtful contributions from people and organizations like you!!! Thank you for investing in the youth of Pike County! the number of deductions and credits, and that makes the code more transparent and understandable to all Americans, can't help but make the system fairer. Few government agencies are more vilified than the Internal Revenue Service. Most of the people who work at the IRS, however, are hard-working professionals tainted by the misdeeds of a few specific officials. Tax re- form can help them. There will always be a need for a tax-collecting agency, but if the job of de- termining taxpayers' tax- able income and whether they paid the proper amount was simplified, the agency wouldn't have to be so big. There also would be fewer errors and less potential for abuse. As businessman Rob- ert Half once said, "People try to live within their in- come so they can afford to pay taxes to a government that can't live within its in- come." It doesn't have to be that way. With the right kind of tax reform, we can help the American people—and give our economy the right kind of stimulus. Ed Feulner is founder of the Heritage Foundation (heri- tage.org). of goodness? How can a na- tion that uses its news me- dia to subtly trash tradition- al families, promote a drug- filled lifestyle and ridicule faith in God claim the man- tle of righteousness? I could go on pointing out how far we have strayed from our Judeo-Christian roots. For some, such a de- parture cannot come soon or dramatically enough. How- ever, I believe the majority of Americans understand that we are different from every- one else, and that difference had a great deal to do with our rapid rise to the pinnacle of world power and wealth. As we depart from our for- mer values of decency, hon- esty, compassion and fair- ness, our status as a blessed nation will also be dimin- ished. Our decline is not neces- sary if we can learn from the mistakes of others and reclaim the values upon which our nation was built. I am not advocating for a na- tional religion, but I do think we should seriously consid- er the words of John Adams, who said, "Our Constitution was made only for a mor- al and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." America can be great, but it requires real courage and conviction to resist the urge to be "cool." None of this means we should impose Judeo-Christian values on those who wish to adopt a different kind of lifestyle, but it does mean we should not allow an alternative life- style to be imposed upon us. Fairness is a two-way street, and so is tolerance. If the majority refuses to fight for its rights, while a vocal minority uses a com- pliant media to try to funda- mentally change America, we will have only ourselves to blame. Ben S. Carson is professor emeritus of neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. H Statistical frauds H Exceptionalism H Less taxing April 15 continued from page 2 continued from page 2 continued from page 2 fact that they are both par- ents make them compara- ble in the labor market? Ac- tually the biggest dispari- ty in incomes is between fa- thers and mothers. Nor is there anything mysterious about this, when you stop and think about it. How surprising is it that women with children do not earn as much as women who do not have children? If you don't think children take up a mother's time, you just haven't raised any children. How surprising is it that men with children earn more than men without chil- dren, just the opposite of the situation with women? Is it surprising that a man who has more mouths to feed is more likely to work longer hours? Or take on harder or more dangerous jobs, in or- der to earn more money? More than 90 percent of the people who are killed on the job are men. There is no point pretending that there are no differences between what women do and what men do in the workplace, or that these differences don't affect income. During my research on male-female differenc- es for my book "Economic Facts and Fallacies," I was amazed to learn that young male doctors earned much higher incomes than young female doctors. But it wasn't so amazing after I discov- ered that young male doc- tors worked over 500 hours more per year than young fe- male doctors. Even when women and men work at jobs that have the same title—whether doctors, lawyers, econo- mists or whatever—people do not get paid for what their job title is, but for what they actually do. Women lawyers who are pregnant, or who have young children, may have good reasons to prefer a 9 to 5 job in a government agen- cy to working 60 hours a week in a high-powered law firm. But there is no point comparing male lawyers as a group with female lawyers as a group, if you don't look any deeper than job titles. Unless, of course, you are not looking for the truth, but for political talking points to excite the gullible. Even when you compare women and men with the "same" education, as mea- sured by college or universi- ty degrees, the women usu- ally specialize in a very dif- ferent mix of subjects, with very different income-earn- ing potential. Although comparing women and men who are in fact comparable is not easy to do, when you look at wom- en and men who are similar on multiple factors, the sex differential in pay shrinks drastically and gets close to the vanishing point. In some categories, women earn more than men with the same range of charac- teristics. If the 77 percent statis- tic was for real, employers would be paying 30 percent more than they had to, every time they hired a man to do a job that a woman could do just as well. Would employ- ers be such fools with their own money? If you think employers don't care about paying 30 percent more than they have to, just go ask your boss for a 30 percent raise! Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institu- tion, Stanford University. ots and ignoramuses of the masses, so says Darrow and science. From the era of the En- lightenment to our own the progressive thinkers in their haste to throw off the shack- les of religion and civiliza- tion, they have become the intolerant, afflicted with the same disease that they diag- nosed their opponents with. Isaiah spoke well of these people when he wrote, "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bit- ter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! " Think about it! H The New Norm continued from page 2 criminal docket pike circuit court In Re: search warrant. Misdemeanor and traffic pike circuit court Joshua R. Tindall charged with count I operating a ve- hicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, a class C misdemean- or and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a class C misdemeanor. Talisa F. William charged with count I operating a ve- hicle while intoxicated, en- dangering a person, a class A misdemeanor; count II operating a vehicle with a schedule I or II controlled substance or its metabolite in the body, a class C mis- demeanor. Allison J. Brewster charged with operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, a class C misdemean- or and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a class C misdemeanor. Chelsea L. Straw charged with possession of marijua- na, a class A misdemeanor and count II possession of paraphernalia. Luke S. Donohoo charged with possession of marijua- na, a class A misdemeanor and count II possession of paraphernalia. Joseph M. Tepe charged with operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol con- tent of 0.08 percent or more, a class C misdemeanor and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a class C misdemeanor. Ronald Lee McCandless charged with operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, a class C misdemean- or and count II operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a class C misdemeanor. civil docket pike circuit court Nathan Riger sues Darrin E. McDonald on complain. Mandi Jefferies sues James T. Jeffries for disso- lution of marriage. Charles D. DeWeese Jr., sues Gina Lee DeWeese for dissolution of marriage. Midland Funding LLC sues Amy Smith on com- plaint. Midland Funding LLC sues John Evans on com- plaint. Midland Funding LLC sues Paul Poselwait on com- plaint. Amber Lynnae Earles sues Greggory Aaron Earles for dissolution of marriage. Georgiana Willis sues Larry R. Willis for dissolu- tion of marriage. infractions pike circuit court Cameron Bonger charged with speeding. Chancy Shiner charged with speeding. Ashley Taylor charged with speeding. Court report Katiedid vs... by Katiedid Langrock Overachieving U.S. Agriculture by Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture When the paramedics were called, I realized that my efforts to relive my college years perhaps had gone too far. I've always been an overachiever in the most ridiculous ways. I'm not re- ferring to obsessively removing milk- weed from the garden for lactose-in- tolerant butterflies. That would re- quire using my superpowered hyper- focusing ability for good. I only switch gears into overachiever drive in ef- forts to be contrary. When my professors would ask for a 10 -page paper proving their set point of view, I would hand in a 20 -page pa- per disproving it. Double the work, double the grade deduction. I may be history's only overachiever who does extra work to fail. Last week, I returned to the class- room, attending the Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop at the University of Dayton. This time at college, I came ready to listen, to learn, to write my assigned papers for the assigned num- ber of pages and to go into overachiev- er overdrive by partying like the Mad Hatter on steroids. Only an hour's drive from where I attended Miami University, I went against the consensus to rest during my free time from the conference and instead used this first trip away from my baby to do double duty: enhance my adult vocation by day, enhance my alcohol tolerance with old college friends by night. After a full day of seminars and workshops, I'd return to my college pal's apartment by 10 p.m., hit the bars until 4 a.m. and wake up at 6 a.m. to do it again. Folks said it was impossi- ble. That I would burn out. Pass out. "Leave the partying for the under- grads. You're a mom now." I've always been an overachiever in the most ridiculous ways. I needed to show the world I could be it all. To justify still owning a pair of hooker boots. To see 4 a.m. because I wanted to watch the sunrise, not because I was woken by a gassy baby. To prove to myself, even if it was just for a few days, that I could still walk that line, that I could be multiple versions of me at once: Profession- al. Mother. Party girl. That I could re- side in the in-between. I nursed beers while wearing old nursing bras. Handed out loose busi- ness cards from a baby wipes travel case. FaceTimed with my son from inside crowded classrooms, crowd- ed bars and the back seat of my car after taking five-minute catnaps. I forced separate parts of my identity to coexist. I wonder whether this is how the idea for "Sharktopus" originated. The last night of the conference, I drove to my old college campus, a final push to prove I was still young, sexy, fun. To prove I still belonged. I should've known it would be a los- ing battle when the marquee for the bar we always danced at on '80s night read, "Tuesday: '90s Night! " I wasn't alone in this venture. Three of my college friends joined me in the overzealous pursuit of momentarily incorporating our younger selves in- to the adults we'd become. At the bar, a group of seniors cele- brated finishing their final assignment before entering the adult world. They asked how old we were and laughed when we told them. "Aren't you a little too ancient to be here? " one of them asked. Rounds of shots, spilled beer, sloppy dancing and a million songs on the jukebox later, we closed down our college town. Take that, 22-year-olds! The procreating profes- sionals are in the hiz- zouse! The next morning, we had our an- swer to that senior's question. Holy hangover, yes, we were too ancient to be there. While my friend puked up the pre- vious night's ambitions, the rest of us explored new buildings that were built over the old ones we had attend- ed. The campus was no longer ours. I was in the university bookstore when my friend called to say paramed- ics were bringing her to the hospital for dehydration. She joked that we had done right by our younger selves. She, too, was an overachiever in the most ridiculous of ways. Before heading to the hospital, I purchased a university decal to place on my car window next to my "baby on board" sign and my work's garage parking permit. Sometimes being it all is not about proving it but about just owning it. Like Katiedid Langrock on Facebook, at http://www.facebook.com/katiedid- humor. Farm Bill supports Specialty Crop Growers Weekly Column: Farm Bill Supports Specialty Crop Growers, Improves AcThe 2014 Farm Bill has already set in motion and accomplished so much for our country. With historic support for specialty crop producers across the country, the bill will touch every one of our lives through one of the most basic of human needs: food. Specialty crops make up the bulk of what we eat—all of our fruits and veg- etables, tree nuts and dried fruits—as well as things like cut flowers and nurs- ery crops. They are half of MyPlate at every meal, and the daily source for most of our vitamins and nutrients. For many in rural America, these crops not only provide nutrition, they are also a primary source of income. For nearly a decade, USDA supported specialty crop growers across the coun- try through the Specialty Crop Block Grant (SCBG) program. These grants enhance the competitiveness of spe- cialty crops, sustain the livelihood of American farmers, and strengthen ru- ral economies. Last year, the program provided $55 million for 700 state-selected projects nationwide that contributed to food safe- ty improvements, increased access to healthy food, and provided new research to help growers increase prof- itability and sustainability. The new farm bill expands support through the SCBG program to more than $ 66 million in grants for special- ty crop growers—a histor- ic high. With projects focusing on everything from food safety to busi- ness planning, the block grants are de- signed to increase the long-term suc- cess of producers and broaden the mar- ket for specialty crops. Many states select projects that dovetail with com- munity needs, such as establishing farm to school programs, providing training in good agricultural handling practic- es (GAP), creating organic and sustain- able production practices, and develop- ing food hubs that will increase oppor- tunities for small-scale growers. In Michigan, a 2009 grant helped the state Department of Agriculture and Resource Development work with partners to increase sales opportunities for specialty crop farmers in Southeast Michigan. They were able to identify and overcome barriers that prevented schools from purchasing products directly from lo- cal farmers, and ended up increasing the sales of ap- ples, cucumbers, peppers, red potatoes, broccoli and several other crops within their state. Another grant in Idaho established a partnership between the state Depart- ment of Agriculture and Boise State University-Tech to provide workshops that helped improve food safety and im- plement sustainable production practic- es for onions, potatoes, apples, cherries, peas and lentils. The project resulted in higher audit scores, increased effi- ciency and sustainability for participat- ing companies, which both improve con- sumer confidence and help producers' bottom lines in the long run. Adam Scales (812) 354-8488 adam.scales@infarmbureau.com