Outrage is understandable. But it is appallingly misdirected. Here in the Mahoning Valley where we know the value of being in a union, the outrage should not be that our public employees have a job with a pension and good benefits. Our outrage should be at the private companies that have cut their employee's pension and benefits in a race to the bottom. I have been in business for over 40 years, I have never 'bought' the idea that companies could not afford to pay good wages and benefits. My business has always done so and never missed making a profit.
Certainly in a day and age when corporate profits are at an all time high, you have to wonder why they aren't paying good wages and benefits. In Germany, the companies favor their employee unions, have union Board members and pay some of the best wages and benefits in the world.
Outrage? Where is the outrage when Walmart actually advises their new employees on how to get food stamps and other tax-payer provided benefits instead of paying them a living wage and benefits? It has been calculated that doing so would change their bottom line by 1%. Yet they continue to have each of us pay to subsidize their profits. This from one of the most profitable PRIVATE companies in the world, owned by a small number of family members who 'can't afford' to profit 1% less!
Bertram is just a tool of the corporate culture that tries to divide workers, public and private, so we don't look at how they are screwing all of us.
They absolutely refuse to 'compromise on principle' to HELP out the country.
They routinely blast the stimulus as having not worked.
They have said repeatedly in their advertisements that the stimulus money was wasted.
They continually say that the stimulus didn't create any jobs.
And of course there is Romney shrilly screaming that "Government doesn't create jobs"!
Yet, they ALL applied for money from the stimulus, even though on 'principle' they were against it.
Even though there have been numerous non-partisan studies and reports that the stimulus did work (According to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Financial Times and Forbes), they continue to tell the lie that it didn't even as projects in their districts succeed from stimulus money.
And they wrote in their letters of support that their reasons for asking was that they needed the jobs in their districts, jobs they deny were created as people were put to work! The nonsense that they are able to be both against it while fighting for its fruits for their own district shows that principles for the Teapublican Party is another word for saying "what gets us elected".
You people have got to be kidding me! Over the past two years, during this country's worst depression since the 1930's our valley's leaders, both business and political have done a great job! Our Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan, Tom Humphries of the Chamber, all three Democratic Mayors in Girard, Youngstown and Warren are responsible for well over $3 BILLION dollars in construction projects alone! We had the COUNTRY'S largest manufacturing construction project in 2011. You complain no matter what is done and never give anyone credit. Todd Franko is way off base, and the rest of you are nuts!
So Trumbull CSB is found to have gone all the way back to October of 2010 and filled out forms that should have been done each and every time of visitation? Isn't that essentially tampering with the evidence in this case? How long will they be able to get away with continuing the victimization of children? There needs to be criminal investigations of the staff at CSB, not just the parents who raped their own child in CSB's offices unsupervised!
What a crock it is to say "The private sector doesn't have it so neither should the public sector"! We have allowed the oligarchs to divide us for years, using race, economics and greed. Instead of us working against each other to take away a good standard of living for one group or another, we should be working together to get these benefits back into the private sector. No one wins when you are racing to the bottom!
Our constitution actually prohibits any religious test for public office. Isn't it interesting that those conservatives who speak the loudest about following the constitution are the very first to question candidates on their religious beliefs? Apparently the ideas and words of our founding fathers are not to be followed unless they help you attack liberals.
No Stan, YOU are wrong. This is NOT the same as the studies you are referring to. This is not a fish farm in a pond. This is an indoor controlled environment. Very different than what you are trying to compare this to. Fish do not produce e coli or any other coliform bacteria, they are not mammals. Their poop does not contain these bacteria. It would have to be introduced. That is done on fish farms that are outside by animals that poop in the water, or near enough for rain runoff to contaminate the pond. Or by the food that a farmer is giving the fish. A modern aquaponic system does not ever discharge any of the water in the system. There is no need to do so. The biological process is complete. Stand, go find a biologist that is talking about aquaponics, in a controlled environment and you will learn that there are no issues such as those you are raising.
Stan is just wrong. For some reason he seems to think that aquaponics results in wastewater. It does not. In fact, aquaponics is a method which deals effectively with the problems caused by growing fish and plants separately. There is nothing more to say to stan that will convince him, he is just refusing to listen to facts. He keeps comparing apples to oranges. For the rest of you, google the word aquaponics and learn for yourselves how great this is. There are no cases of humans getting sick over aquaponically produced fish or vegetables, in fact quite the opposite in that the products from such systems are found to be bigger, taste better and much more fresh, thereby encouraging the eating of food that is good for you. Just ignore everything Stan has to say until he decides to examine the truth or just goes away.
Stan you are simply wrong. This is not sanitary wastewater, nor is it the same as a septic tank. Whoever said that is wrong. Fish pee and poop into the water. This is not the same as mammal waste. As an example, there is no chance of e coli contamination, that is not a fish bacteria. The actual process goes like this, fish waste is primarily ammonia, the biological process turns that into nitrites, then into nitrates. The plants feed on the nitrates removing them from the water. This whole process is ancient and is done all around the world without human health problems.
In fact, separately the water from hydroponics and the water from aquaculture is a huge environmental problem, but when you put these two types together, the fish effluent is cleaned by the plants and the plants don't need anything added to the water and so do not have an effluent that is bad for the environment.
Clearly Watkins is protecting his client, the Children's Services Board. He won't look at the idea that a Judge's orders were disregarded (contempt of court?) or that because of this negligence (at least) or criminality on the part of CSB, a child was molested in their very own offices, with them providing the time and place for this unspeakable horror to occur. It's time for Trumbull County to clean up the poor record of both CSB and the Prosecutor's office. It would seem the only protection children have any more is having a good attorney!
Public pensions a travesty
Outrage is understandable. But it is appallingly misdirected. Here in the Mahoning Valley where we know the value of being in a union, the outrage should not be that our public employees have a job with a pension and good benefits. Our outrage should be at the private companies that have cut their employee's pension and benefits in a race to the bottom. I have been in business for over 40 years, I have never 'bought' the idea that companies could not afford to pay good wages and benefits. My business has always done so and never missed making a profit.
Certainly in a day and age when corporate profits are at an all time high, you have to wonder why they aren't paying good wages and benefits. In Germany, the companies favor their employee unions, have union Board members and pay some of the best wages and benefits in the world.
Outrage? Where is the outrage when Walmart actually advises their new employees on how to get food stamps and other tax-payer provided benefits instead of paying them a living wage and benefits? It has been calculated that doing so would change their bottom line by 1%. Yet they continue to have each of us pay to subsidize their profits. This from one of the most profitable PRIVATE companies in the world, owned by a small number of family members who 'can't afford' to profit 1% less!
Bertram is just a tool of the corporate culture that tries to divide workers, public and private, so we don't look at how they are screwing all of us.
January 31, 2013 at 7:18 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Republican hypocrisy exposed
What hypocrites Teapublicans are!
They absolutely refuse to 'compromise on principle' to HELP out the country.
They routinely blast the stimulus as having not worked.
They have said repeatedly in their advertisements that the stimulus money was wasted.
They continually say that the stimulus didn't create any jobs.
And of course there is Romney shrilly screaming that "Government doesn't create jobs"!
Yet, they ALL applied for money from the stimulus, even though on 'principle' they were against it.
Even though there have been numerous non-partisan studies and reports that the stimulus did work (According to The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Financial Times and Forbes), they continue to tell the lie that it didn't even as projects in their districts succeed from stimulus money.
And they wrote in their letters of support that their reasons for asking was that they needed the jobs in their districts, jobs they deny were created as people were put to work!
The nonsense that they are able to be both against it while fighting for its fruits for their own district shows that principles for the Teapublican Party is another word for saying "what gets us elected".
October 21, 2012 at 10:47 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Dear Ms. Rimedio Righetti: We have economic development
You people have got to be kidding me! Over the past two years, during this country's worst depression since the 1930's our valley's leaders, both business and political have done a great job! Our Democratic Congressman Tim Ryan, Tom Humphries of the Chamber, all three Democratic Mayors in Girard, Youngstown and Warren are responsible for well over $3 BILLION dollars in construction projects alone! We had the COUNTRY'S largest manufacturing construction project in 2011. You complain no matter what is done and never give anyone credit. Todd Franko is way off base, and the rest of you are nuts!
March 26, 2012 at 4:55 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Attorney asks state to take over CSB agency
So Trumbull CSB is found to have gone all the way back to October of 2010 and filled out forms that should have been done each and every time of visitation? Isn't that essentially tampering with the evidence in this case? How long will they be able to get away with continuing the victimization of children? There needs to be criminal investigations of the staff at CSB, not just the parents who raped their own child in CSB's offices unsupervised!
November 22, 2011 at 8:34 a.m. permalink suggest removal
‘An important part of the context for our negotiations’
What a crock it is to say "The private sector doesn't have it so neither should the public sector"!
We have allowed the oligarchs to divide us for years, using race, economics and greed.
Instead of us working against each other to take away a good standard of living for one group or another, we should be working together to get these benefits back into the private sector. No one wins when you are racing to the bottom!
November 4, 2011 at 2 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Religious views do matter
Our constitution actually prohibits any religious test for public office. Isn't it interesting that those conservatives who speak the loudest about following the constitution are the very first to question candidates on their religious beliefs? Apparently the ideas and words of our founding fathers are not to be followed unless they help you attack liberals.
October 25, 2011 at 12:07 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Group plans to build South Side fish farm
No Stan, YOU are wrong. This is NOT the same as the studies you are referring to. This is not a fish farm in a pond. This is an indoor controlled environment. Very different than what you are trying to compare this to. Fish do not produce e coli or any other coliform bacteria, they are not mammals. Their poop does not contain these bacteria. It would have to be introduced. That is done on fish farms that are outside by animals that poop in the water, or near enough for rain runoff to contaminate the pond. Or by the food that a farmer is giving the fish.
A modern aquaponic system does not ever discharge any of the water in the system. There is no need to do so. The biological process is complete.
Stand, go find a biologist that is talking about aquaponics, in a controlled environment and you will learn that there are no issues such as those you are raising.
October 25, 2011 at 11:23 a.m. permalink suggest removal
Group plans to build South Side fish farm
Stan is just wrong. For some reason he seems to think that aquaponics results in wastewater. It does not. In fact, aquaponics is a method which deals effectively with the problems caused by growing fish and plants separately. There is nothing more to say to stan that will convince him, he is just refusing to listen to facts. He keeps comparing apples to oranges.
For the rest of you, google the word aquaponics and learn for yourselves how great this is. There are no cases of humans getting sick over aquaponically produced fish or vegetables, in fact quite the opposite in that the products from such systems are found to be bigger, taste better and much more fresh, thereby encouraging the eating of food that is good for you.
Just ignore everything Stan has to say until he decides to examine the truth or just goes away.
October 24, 2011 at 8:51 p.m. permalink suggest removal
Group plans to build South Side fish farm
Stan you are simply wrong. This is not sanitary wastewater, nor is it the same as a septic tank. Whoever said that is wrong.
Fish pee and poop into the water. This is not the same as mammal waste. As an example, there is no chance of e coli contamination, that is not a fish bacteria. The actual process goes like this, fish waste is primarily ammonia, the biological process turns that into nitrites, then into nitrates. The plants feed on the nitrates removing them from the water. This whole process is ancient and is done all around the world without human health problems.
In fact, separately the water from hydroponics and the water from aquaculture is a huge environmental problem, but when you put these two types together, the fish effluent is cleaned by the plants and the plants don't need anything added to the water and so do not have an effluent that is bad for the environment.
Again, THIS IS NOT SANITARY WASTEWATER!
October 24, 2011 at 12:53 p.m. permalink suggest removal
No special prosecutor needed in child rape case at CSB, Prosecutor Watkins says
Clearly Watkins is protecting his client, the Children's Services Board. He won't look at the idea that a Judge's orders were disregarded (contempt of court?) or that because of this negligence (at least) or criminality on the part of CSB, a child was molested in their very own offices, with them providing the time and place for this unspeakable horror to occur. It's time for Trumbull County to clean up the poor record of both CSB and the Prosecutor's office.
It would seem the only protection children have any more is having a good attorney!
October 20, 2011 at 6:14 a.m. permalink suggest removal