March 18, 2005
 
THUMBS XVII: Say 'No' to Phoning and Driving; Jay Vows Support for Essential Air Service; More Time, Money Wasted Probing Baseball Steroids
 
by David M. Kinchen
Editor, Bluefield News Network
 
Hinton (BNN) — This is the seventeenth installment of an occasional series expressing approval or disapproval of recent news events, commentaries, etc. Thumbs Up for approval; Thumbs Down for disapproval. I welcome contributions, which will be credited in the item. The contributions can come from within the BNN family or from our readers – I welcome them all. Contact me at davidkinchen@hotmail.com or send the contributions/suggestions to stories@huntingtonnews.net.

Dan Foster D-Kanawha	Jesse Guills R-Greenbrier	John Yoder R-Jefferson

A 1997 article published in the New England Journal of Medicine linked the use of cell phones in motor vehicles to a quadrupled risk of collision. Cell phone subscribership in the United States has grown dramatically in recent years, from 72 million people in 1998 to more than 157 million in 2005. - Statistics by the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA)

THUMBS UP – To the three West Virginia State Senators – Jesse Guills, R-Greenbrier, John Yoder, R-Jefferson and Dan Foster, D-Kanawha – who have introduced a bill that would ban the use of hand-held cellular phones while driving. I would go a step beyond and ban all driver phone use while the vehicle is in motion. There are more than enough distractions – including gigantic coal trucks – cluttering up the West Virginia driving mix these days to make such a ban necessary. If you have to make a call, pull over and concentrate on phoning; don't endanger my life or those of others. Phoning while driving is currently banned in D.C., New York and New Jersey and is banned in many cities around the country. Internationally, it's banned in Britain, Germany, Italy (thank God, considering how fast they drive), Israel (thank Jehovah: I'm told by people in the know that driving there is a blood sport), and most other countries. Even hands-free gadgets don't make the practice safer. Driving needs all the attention you can muster; this is no time for multitasking. And while you're at it, don't fiddle with the CD player or radio or tape deck. Don't use the electric shaver or apply makeup or drink coffee or soda. The life you save may be mine!
 
THUMBS UP – To U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, for vowing to fight the Bush Administration's planned gutting of the relatively low-cost Essential Air Service program that makes it profitable for feeder airlines to serve smaller airports like Lewisburg, Bluefield, Beckley and Martinsburg, to name a few in the Mountain State. The Bush Administration, which is quickly forgetting that West Virginia helped get W four more years in "La Casa Blanca," is proposing to slash the EAS program from $102 million in the last budget to $52 million in the proposed one. This is chump change in the scheme of things, but the cuts would mean that Raleigh County Memorial Airport would have to come up with more than $250,000 in matching funds to get its share of $2 million in federal EAS funds, according to Airport Manager Tom Cochran. The same goes for Lewisburg's wonderful Greenbrier Valley Airport, which has paired with Raleigh County to market the two airports as a single entity. With the Bushies proposing to kill Amtrak, this latest measure will leave us with nothing but car travel – and the prospect of $2.50 a gallon gasoline by May or June or even sooner. I know, I know: gasoline costs much more in Europe, but at least they have great train service. They also have intercity buses, something else we're quickly losing in many areas. A spokesman for Jay told me it's too early to worry, that the EAS program won't be disabled. Easy for him to say, with three major airports encircling D.C.!

THUMBS DOWN – To U.S. House of Representatives for wasting time and our hard-earned money investigating steroid use in baseball. With all the problems of a massive trade deficit, outrageous budget deficits, a crumbling infrastructure, miserable education at all levels, rapidly disappearing jobs, felonious CEOs with platinum parachutes, a half-dozen credit card solicitations daily per household, sky-high energy costs and a host of other REAL PROBLEMS, our solons are investigating something that should be in the hands of organized baseball, not the government sector. If it even needs investigation. It's the American way to gain an unfair advantage; why fight it? Look at those NASCAR crew chiefs, illegally lowering their so-called stock cars (there hasn't been a REAL stock car in NASCAR since Richard Petty was a pup. While we're at it, let's abolish all congressional investigations, hopefully retroactively, so we can cleanse our nation of the shame of such bodies as the House Un-American Activities Committee. I care diddly-squat about Jason Giambi, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Bud Selig and the rest of those undeserving millionaires and what they tell the House Government Reform Committee.
 
 Related: 
– National Conference of State Legislatures - Cell Phones and Highway Safety: 2003 State Legislative Update
 
Thumbs Archives:
10/16/04 — Part I
11/10/04 — Part II
11/26/04 — Part III
12/15/04 — Part IV
12/24/04 — Part V
12/31/04 — Part VI
01/08/05 — Part VII
01/14/05 — Part VIII
01/21/05 — Part IX
02/04/05 — Part X
02/11/05 — Part XI
02/18/05 — Part XII
02/25/05 — Part XIII
02/28/05 — Part XIV
03/06/05 — Part XV
03/10/05 — Part XVI
03/18/05 — Part XVII
03/26/05 — Part XVIII
03/30/05 — Part XIX
04/09/05 — Part XX