Published: April 07, 2012 Updated: April 07, 2012 - 8:00 AM » Comments | Post a Comment
They’re flying right at the Tri-Cities Regional Airport, using a federal grant-supported project to improve commercial air operations, and to increase business opportunities and commerce near the facility.
Airport Executive Director Patrick Wilson said the $10 million project will improve efficiency and safety by extending a taxiway. The work also requires moving Hamilton Road farther away from the jet traffic, which in itself could be considered safer for those who drive that route. But that road adjustment also gives the airport more room for business development, such as airplane repair and maintenance shops, at the south end of the facility. That could mean new business for our region, and possibly new jobs, which are sorely needed.Protecting passengers, airport employees and those who live and work near the airport must be a priority for airport officials, but compliments are due to their efforts to also consider economic development opportunities in the design of the work.Blueprint good for creating jobs in regionJobs being important to improving our regional economy, the Appalachian Prosperity Project is to be commended for developing a blueprint for developing small businesses. The blueprint should be adopted and followed as much as possible – because small businesses are significant drivers in new job creation.The U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 65 percent of the 15 million jobs created between 1993 and 2009 where the result of small firms. And if we desire to restore the jobs lost during the recent recession, we must focus on this valuable avenue.Believing that Southwest Virginia is fertile ground for “budding and expanding entrepreneurial ventures,” the blueprint’s designers outlined several specific tools to foster that activity. Chief among them is developing a one-stop place or center where budding entrepreneurs can seek help – whether to answer a question about a business license or to learn about loan opportunities for buying new equipment.The blueprint designers acknowledged that there are many existing agencies currently helping those desiring to start new businesses, but which call should be made first often remains a perplexing stumbling block. And that’s a block such a resource center can remove with ease.Tenn. judge’s plight highlights drug woesHe should be ashamed. He should also seek help – and be given every opportunity to find assistance and turn his life around.More importantly, the convictions thrown into question by the fact that a Tennessee judge was high on drugs while sitting on the bench should be reviewed carefully. Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner’s impaired judgment while serving as judge is more than sufficient reason to believe the defendants in the cases he oversaw did not receive a fair trial.That particularly goes for those who came before his court for drug charges.Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association have for years stood their ground that addiction is a disease. Addiction is not a flagrant dismissal of willpower, nor character flaw, nor merely poor choice; it is a disease and it is not a crime.That’s not to say that addicted people don’t commit crimes; they certainly do.So it is appropriate, too, that Baumgartner was charged with and pleaded guilty to a single count of official misconduct.But in a nation that jails more people than any other country in the world, according to our U.S. Justice Department, and a vast majority of them on drug charges, Baumgartner’s misfortune serves as an ironic bell ringer that this country is failing miserably in efforts to correct the social ills associated with addictions.