Did you know that S.C. is home to the largest old growth bottomland forest left in North America?

The Congaree Swamp National Park protects a primeval forested floodplain intermittently washed by the Congaree and Wateree Rivers. This flooding carries nutrient rich sediment that feeds an amazingly diverse ecosystem, including 75 protected tree species and world record trees. Among the national champions is the country’s tallest Loblolly Pine, standing as high as a 16 story building.

The Congaree Indians who had claimed the floodplain were eradicated by smallpox brought by European settlers. The white man’s subsequent attempt to cultivate the wet land failed, but the towering trees, especially Bald Cypress and Tupelo, continued to thrive and became a focus for logging at the beginning of the 20th century. However, the frequent flooding and difficult access forced the loggers’ departure, leaving most of the forest untouched.

Six decades later when high timber prices tempted private landowners to reconsider felling the virgin forest, a grass roots campaign to save it was launched. Led by Harry Hampton, through his column “Woods & Water” in The State newspaper, and the Sierra Club, this public outcry prompted Congress to designate the Congaree Swamp a national monument in 1976.

In recognition of the site’s unique biodiversity, it was named an International Biosphere Reserve in 1983 and a Globally Important Bird Area in 2001. On Nov. 10, 2003, Congaree Swamp became America’s 57th national park.

Congaree Swamp National Park covers approximately 27,000 acres and is located about 20 miles southeast of Columbia near Gadsden. It offers ranger-led boardwalk hikes, primitive camping, fishing, canoeing and kayaking. The park itself is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. From April 1 to Sept. 30, the Harry Hampton Visitor Center is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. There is no charge for entrance or most tours, but reservations are required for guided canoe trips and the popular evening Owl Prowls.

For more details and photographs go to www.nps.gov/cong/.

Joanna Angle is a 30-year resident of Chester County and a Master Tree Farmer. She has previously directed the Olde English District Tourism Commission, produced and hosted “Palmetto Places” for SCETV and helped establish the Chester campus of York Technical College.

"Austerity All the Way" by Stuart Neiman

Judge Dan Causey recused himself from hearing the case based on his connections to one of the defendants.

Magistrate Deatrice Curtis will preside over the case, but she did not set a new court date as of May 14.

Tomeka Self of Society Hill and Rosanna Dudley of Darlington were arrested April 27 by the Darlington Police Department and are charged with simple assault and battery for allegedly assaulting a 10-year-old special needs child at St. John’s Elementary School in Darlington. Both are out on bond.

Video shows the two women pushing and slapping the child while placing him in a safety harness on the bus.

The individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Simple assault, a misdemeanor, carries a penalty of up to $200 in fines or up to 30 days in jail.

By Lisa Chalian-Rock

Editor, The (Darlington) News & Press

lisa@newsandpressonline.com

“We’re trying to give back to the rural community,” Colclough said. “Nobody’s done anything out there.”

The event will feature a baseball clinic for players ages 8-17. Players must provide their own equipment such as shoes, gloves and hat. The $15 cost includes a t-shirt and featured guest USC Aiken Athletics Director Randy Warrick.

“The community helped me hone my skills, helped me to get drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and to become a (Hall of Fame) player at USC Aiken,” Colclough said. “I want to give back to that little rural community.”

Emphasis of the clinic is to help players to become better. Campers will get a chance to take a brief but in-depth look into hitting, fielding, baserunning, bunting and outfield play.

Camp instructors will include Randy Warrick, Charlie Colclough Jr., Luke Arthur, David Shaw, Warren Frieson, Clifford Authur, Jerry Carter, Wayne Mishoe and Mitchell Davis.

Warrick is in his 25th year as Director of Athletics at the USC Aiken. As baseball coach, he has compiled a 392-146 record, while earning various coaching awards.

Colclough was voted into USC Aiken’s inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2007, had his No. 3 jersey retired in 1982 and earned a 12th round pick of the Cinncinati Reds in 1981.

Arthur, president and CEO of the Lydia Red Sox Organization, was Colclough’s first coach at the age of 8. Arthur won 18 different league championships while losing only four. He also coached minor league players: Charlie Colclough, Brooks Shumate, Tyrone Pengergrass and Pearlie Mack.

Shaw played college level ball for Francis Marion College in Florence and Baptist College in Charleston.  He was the leadoff hitter and a terrific base stealer for Franis Marion.

Frieson was drafted to the Cleveland Indians in 1991 and played on the college level for Brevard Junior College in North Carolina. He also played for the Lydia Red Sox for more than 20 years.

One of Lydia Red Sox fans’ favorites, Authur played and coached the Lydia Red Sox for more than 30 years. He also played for Voorhees College in Denmark, S.C.

Carter, the 1976 Hartsville High Baseball MVP, played for Wingate College in North Carolina. He served as assistant baseball coach at Hartsville High in 1981 and played three years with the American Legion Post 53.

Lake City High School graduate Mishoe played for Francis Marion University from 1973-77 as well as for a year at Clemson University.

Davis, Colclough’s childhood friend, holds most of the Red Sox pitching records as he played for the team for 35 years.

Light refreshments will be served by Glenn Gainey of Tommy’s Self Service.

A special ceremony will follow across the street at the Lydia Recreation Center with a number of special guests and community leaders on hand sponsored by Harry Colclough Jr.

Info: (803) 318-5317 or http://ccjrbaseballclinic.com/.

The (Darlington) News & Press

This free workshop is designed for youth and young adults ages 15-21.

What are you selling for a job? You are the only person who can answer this question as you answer truthfully your self-evaluation as you transition from the education setting into the world of work. The economy is getting stronger, but the line is getting longer and longer with those who are ready to market their skills or those with positive knowledge of their short comings in answering and marketing the question “What are you selling for a job?”

The world of work is ready for youth and young adults who are empowered with the personal skills for creating a challenging work environment. The mission statement for this workshop is for 50 youth and young adults to complete the four-hour workshop with many doors being opened for job experiences.

The workshop is sponsored by the Darlington County Cultural Realism Complex Inc. and many professionals in providing the training for the world of work. This event is free.

Info: (843) 393-9762 or 395-0431.

He flies among us no more. Anthony “Tony” Raymond DiLeo, 88, of Darlington died surrounded by family at his home on May 13.

While his contributions to Darlington are varied and numerous, the World War II U.S. Navy veteran held the community at his heart.

He saw no problem too big to overcome. He never looked upon anything as a problem only an opportunity. He would often say, “‘It can’t be done’ is not in my vocabulary.’”

His singularly dynamic, kindly brand of optimism propelled him through town, working to build the downtown area through a variety of projects including the Liberty Lane Winston Walk of Fame; the renovation of the old fire station to house Our Pat; Christmas decorations and lights around the courthouse; maintenance, sign and paint codes for commercial buildings; the display of American flags on six national holidays; and his assistance in the organization, fundraising or planning of many memorials, anniversary celebrations, streetscaping and downtown development projects.

His leadership in Darlington will be sorely missed.

Born in Chicago, Ill., on Dec. 30, 1923, he was the son of the late Joseph DiLeo and Theresa Manes.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret Ann Wells DiLeo; two sons, Anthony P. DiLeo of Tucker, Ga., and David A. DiLeo of Darlington; a daughter, Susan (Stephen) Gardner of Darlington; grandchildren, Karin, Michael, Devon, Dominick, Joseph, Gabe and Kathy; one great granddaughter, Evi; a brother, Dominick DiLeo of Chicago, Ill.; and a sister, Josephine Veselik of Chicago, Ill.

Tony worked as plant manager at Perfection American for 44 years until his retirement. He worked with the Darlington Downtown Revitalization Association for many years. He also was a member of the Rotary Club since 1974 and served as president for the 1986-87 year.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, at the Kistler-Hardee Chapel in Darlington with Deacon Jack Larkin officiating. Pallbearers will be J. Ronald Ward, David F. Vaughn, Rodney Langley, Dr. Barry Clark and Byard Stone.

Following the service, he will be buried at Grove Hill Cemetery.

The News & Press will take a more comprehensive look back at the life and accomplishments of Mr. DiLeo in an upcoming edition. We are asking readers to contribute their memories and photos of Mr. DiLeo for that feature. Please submit by email to editor@newsandpressonline.com; in person at our office, 117 S. Main St.; or by fax at (843) 393-6811.

By Lisa Chalian-Rock, Editor, The (Darlington) News & Press

lisa@newsandpressonline.com

McConnell

By Glenn F. McConnell – Guest Columnist

As your new Lieutenant Governor, I am our state’s chief advocate for one of the fastest growing senior populations in the nation.  South Carolina’s senior population has seen a 319% increase in the last forty years, and the population 60 years and over is projected to increase by nearly 160% by the year 2030, with over 1.3 million Baby Boomers set to retire in South Carolina.

Even with a growing senior population, the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging only serves about 3% of the state’s aging population, though South Carolina ranks 4^th highest for the number of seniors at risk for hunger.  The Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging had 27,880 clients in Fiscal Year 2010-11 and a waiting list of over 8,522 seniors who needed our services, which simply allow seniors to remain in their homes.  In addition to providing congregate and home-delivered meals, we provide transportation, homemaker services, legal assistance, adult day care services, respite and disease prevention, health promotion and physical fitness, and respite services for caregivers to name just a few.  Our office works with local, independently-funded organizations to supplement the services they provide, thereby eliminating any duplication of services.  Instead, our services compliment the services already provided to a senior.  These services are designed to allow seniors to remain home safely and independently and to reduce the strain on nursing homes and hospitals.

Home and community-based services are the most cost-effective option for caring for our seniors.  To put it in perspective, we spend, on average, $1,000 per client per year on our home and community-based services, while it costs Medicaid nearly $46,000 to house a person in a nursing home, not to mention the high costs of emergency room visits.  As the number of nursing home beds declines annually, the demand for home and community-based services increases since many senior adults prefer to safely “age in place” in their homes.

            Additionally, we provide services such as: Aging and Disability Resource Centers; family caregiver support programs; insurance counseling and referral; the long-term care ombudsman program, which investigates complaints and advocates for residents’ rights in nursing homes, assisted living, and residential care facilities; and our Alzheimer’s Resource Coordination Centers, which is a subject of particular importance to me, as I, like so many others, have experienced its effects firsthand.  As Nancy Reagan said, Alzheimer’s is “the long goodbye,” and I can personally attest to how taxing it is on the victim’s family.

Over 80,000 South Carolinians have Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder.  This is a 19% increase from 2000.  In 2011, South Carolina had over 283,000 caregivers for people with Alzheimer’s disease or a related disorder.  This represents 322,853,918 hours of unpaid caregiving in South Carolina alone.  Our Alzheimer’s Resource Coordination Centers aid these individuals by assisting communities and organizations in addressing the problems of Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders through funding for respite and education programs for individuals with the disease, their families, and caregivers.  Offering caregivers a break from their chores is important to maintaining quality of care and to preserving a quality of life for victims and their families.

At a time when state revenues have diminished, the Office on Aging has consistently met the challenge of providing services to the increasing senior population, and we will continue to advocate for and proudly serve our aging population.  In these times of declining revenues, it is important to work smarter to get bigger results from available dollars.  Our home-based programs make sense.  We can pay less on the front end by comfortably keeping seniors in their homes, or we can pay more on the back end in terms of paying for assisted living, nursing homes, and hospitalization.  One way or another, we, as taxpayers, will pay the costs, but using a little creativity, the Office on Aging’s innovative and efficient programs will lessen the burden on taxpayers over the long-haul.

Governor Haley has proclaimed May as “Older Americans Month,” and this year’s celebrations will recognize the value older adults continue to bring to communities across South Carolina through involvement in social and faith groups, service organizations, and other activities.  The theme for Older Americans Month 2012—Never Too Old to Play!—highlights the important role older adults play in sharing their experience and perceptive.  There will be numerous activities statewide offered by the Area Agencies on Aging and your local Councils on Aging.  To find out how you can support Older Americans Month, contact the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging at 1-800-868-9095.

 Mr. McConnell is South Carolina’s Lieutenant Governor and has been in public service for nearly 32 years.  Reach him at ltgovernor@scstatehouse.gov.

Cathy Elliott

You know those people who are always happy to pontificate at great length on the subject of things they know very little about?

I confess that for more than a decade, I have been one of them.

During my years as the public relations director at Darlington Raceway, it was my job to persuade fans, AKA potential customers, to exchange their hard-earned money for race tickets. I had to come up with a million reasons why they should do this, using buzzwords and catchy phrases like “history and tradition,” “home of NASCAR’s closest finish,” and my personal favorite, “When you go, you get it.”

The only problem with that was that I had never gone. All of my race experiences had been of the privileged variety, with complete access to anywhere I wanted to go and anything I wanted to do. I wanted and needed fans to support Darlington Raceway for a variety of reasons, but I had never really taken the opportunity to support her myself. I had never stepped up and put my money where my mouth and heart were. I was too busy doing my job.

That changed on Mother’s Day weekend.

It started out just business as usual. With my track-issued media credentials, I spent most of Friday morning in the infield, doing a radio show and catching up with old friends in the garage and the media center before heading home to watch qualifying and the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on TV.

But something was nagging at me. After spending most of race day as well as a hefty chunk of the previous couple of weeks talking about Danica Patrick in various stories, interviews and personal conversations, I realized it wasn’t just lip service. Deep down in my heart of hearts I really did want her to make a good showing at the Lady in Black, which of course meant that I needed to go shopping. Roughly half of you will see the logic in this.

So with a willing friend in tow, it was back to the track to buy a hat.

When you are a speedway employee or a media member you tend to have responsibilities at odd times of the day, and waiting in a long line of cars to get where you’re going is seldom an issue. But when you show up shortly before an event is scheduled to start, there is traffic. Lots of it. We moved at a snail’s pace, but we were steadily moving.

Eventually we were welcomed into the vast fan parking area – which was free, by the way – by the most cheerful attendant I have ever encountered at a sporting event. We were directed to an available spot right away, gathered up our gear, and headed for the gates. It was a bit of a trudge, but I counted it as exercise and actually enjoyed the walk. To see Darlington Raceway coming closer with every step was an impressive sight.

Our first stop was souvenir row, where all the team haulers were lined up, doing a brisk business selling jackets, koozies and T-shirts in every color of the rainbow. I found the one I was looking for and exchanged $25 of my hard-earned money for a relatively conservative-looking GoDaddy.com hat, inwardly giving thanks that the parking was free. Then I got three compliments on it in five minutes, officially making it a worthwhile investment.

From there it was off to the display area, where everyone tries to give you free stuff. My big score of the day was a little stuffed Geiko gecko, which I got just by signing up for something, although I’m not sure what it was, along with a free bag to carry him around in. People who didn’t want to participate in the sign-up deal didn’t get a gecko, but they did get one of those cardboard fans-on-a-stick. I couldn’t help but smile as I got a mental image of ministers delivering their Mother’s Day messages in crowded churches all across the Southeast on Sunday morning, being waved at by a lizard.

I ate a hot dog. Then I ate another hot dog, roughly doubling my hot dog consumption for the past five years. They were delicious.

We climbed the steps to our seats – more exercise, which kind of justified the second hot dog, right? – where I beheld the fruits of the souvenir area’s trees. Fans of feuding drivers were sitting shoulder to shoulder, friendly as could be. A lot of the shirts and hats looked brand-new, so I fit right in. (Richard Childress’ grandson Austin Dillon, who drives the No. 3 Chevy in the NNS, is going to be REALLY popular, by the way. Fashion never lies.)

When the engines fire up prior to a NASCAR race, it is a physical sensation as well as an emotional one. The cars really do sparkle under the lights. The race was close and controversial, with a popular winner in Joey Logano and a 12^th-place finish for Danica. The walk back to the parking lot and the drive home passed quickly, as we rehashed the events of the day.

I have enjoyed a long relationship with Darlington Raceway. She literally introduced me to NASCAR. She has taught me how to deal with many different types of people, and has made me many friends. She has inspired me to be more organized, but has also encouraged me to be creative, and to take risks when it matters. She has made it possible for me to have the opportunity to write about all the things I learned and the people I met under her tutelage.

But nearly 20 years after I laid eyes on her for the very first time, Darlington Raceway finally got tired of messing around and heaved me over the last hurdle.

She has made me a fan.

May Vokaty

These days, everyone is jumping on the Meatless Monday bandwagon. Delicious vegetarian recipes are popping up everywhere.  Grocery store delis offer meatless convenience foods like hummus and fresh pita for a quick vegetarian lunch.  Restaurants now offer a meatless entrée where once there was none.

Our world is becoming more vegetarian friendly every day and that is a very good thing. My husband and I have enjoyed Meatless Monday for several years. Warm curried potatoes and orzo stuffed peppers have graced our plates. We love to dip chewy flat bread into white beans with rosemary.  Bright salads and summer vegetables make a delightful supper when temperatures soar.

But there remains one vegetarian meal that eludes us: The Veggie Burger. We’ve tried them all, from tofu laden pre-made patties that only a hardened vegan could love, to mushy black bean burgers. We’ve given them our best shot.

I’ve been searching, in vain, for the perfect veggie burger recipe for years. I’ve had bean patties dissolve in my skillet and tofu burgers jump to their death on the hot coals of my grill. I promised myself that I would conquer the veggie burger problem. Since May is National Burger Month, I invited a vegetarian friend for dinner and started collecting veggie burger recipes.

Much reading and research taught me that homemade veggie burgers are grain based, bean based or all vegetable. I chose one from each category to try. I put together a menu of brown rice burgers, curried chickpea burgers and carrot burgers.

I rounded out the meal with baked steak fries and homemade ketchup.  After all, if you’re going to make your dinner guests test recipes, aren’t homemade ketchup and steak fries in order?

Veggie Burger

One thing that all veggie burgers seem to have in common is fragility. They are very delicate and fall apart easily. You’re better off cooking veggie burgers on a griddle than a grill.  Making veggie burgers “slider” sized instead of regular burger size helps hold them together as well.

Our lovely friend arrived, bearing a chocolate cake (always a good omen) and the testing began.

The less said about the carrot burger, the better. It was a dismal failure.

The chickpea burgers held a great shape; in fact, the mixture was the easiest to form into slider-sized patties. But the flavors were strong and exotic, more like a Middle Eastern falafel than an all American burger; good, but not what I was looking for.

The hands-down winner of the veggie slider contest was the brown rice burger. It was a little harder to form into patties than the chickpea burger; forming the burgers with my ice cream scoop solved that problem. The rice browned nicely and the outside of the burger looked suspiciously like a chicken burger. The interior was moist, but not crumbly. A swipe of Cajun Mayo, lettuce and tomato and the Brown Rice Burger took top honors.

Even if you haven’t been on a veggie burger quest, I hope you’ll give these brown rice burgers a try, you never know, you just might fall in love.

If veggie burgers make you cringe (even delicious ones), never fear. We’ll finish National Burger month with good old-fashioned All-American beef burgers. Delicious burgers guaranteed to please everyone, from sea to shining sea.

Veggie Burger Cooking

Brown Rice Sliders

Yield: 6 slider size burgers

1 ½ cups cooked brown rice, cool enough to handle

1 teaspoon dry Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon non-fat dry milk powder

¼ cup grated zucchini

¼ cut grated onion

¼ teaspoon garlic powder

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon bean flour*

1 Tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese

¼ to 1 cup of dry bread crumbs

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1 Tablespoon olive oil

6 bakery dinner rolls
Mix the first 9 ingredients together in a medium sized mixing bowl.  The mixture will be wet. Add ¼ cup of breadcrumbs and mix. The mixture should be sticky, yet somewhat dry and hold together when pressed into a patty. Keep adding breadcrumbs until the mixture reaches this consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

Heat the olive oil in a non-stick skillet over medium heat.  Form patties from rice mixture, I use a standard sized ice-cream scoop to make perfect slider size burgers. Cook for 2 minutes on each side, or until each side is brown. Serve immediately on rolls.

*Bean flour is a cook’s secret weapon. I used the coffee bean grinder that I reserve for spices to grind dry navy beans into bean flour. A blender would work as well; a food processor is too large and won’t give the fine bean flour texture necessary. The beans should be ground until they are the consistency of coarse wheat flour. It takes a bit of time, but it well worth the effort. Use leftover bean flour to thicken soups and gravies or just add a little “secret” nutrition to every day food.
 

Cajun Mayo

Yield: about 1 cup

1 cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1 garlic clove, put through the garlic press

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper*

Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl; season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before serving. This can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 4 days.

*If you don’t like extra spicy foods, start with less cayenne and work your way up to ¼ teaspoon, tasting as you go. The cayenne heat in the recipe “sneaks up on you” so be careful adding more.

 Ketchup

Yield: 1 ½ cups

1 6-oz. can tomato paste

½ cup white vinegar

½ cup light corn syrup

¼ cup water

1 Tbsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

½ tsp. onion powder

¼ tsp. garlic powder

Dash of Worcestershire Sauce

Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk until smooth.

When mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring often.

Remove pan from heat and cover until cool. This can be refrigerated in an airtight container for 2 weeks, but it probably won’t last that long.

By Kevin Detrick

The Nerve

Clemson University received approval Wednesday to boost the budget for its Lowcountry wind turbine test facility by more than 20 percent.

Without discussion, an additional $21 million was approved for the project by the S.C. Budget and Control Board during a 10-minute BCB meeting, possibly the quickest on record.

That brings the total funding for Clemson’s wind turbine drivetrain testing facility to $119 million. In addition, there will be operating costs of approximately $3 million total for the first three years after the facility is completed next year, Angie Liedinger, Clemson’s director of governmental affairs, told The Nerve.

Of the $119 million figure, only $14.1 million – or 11.8 percent – is listed as coming from non-government sources, records show.

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Clemson a $45 million grant, which was combined with $53 million in matching government and private funds, to build and operate a wind turbine drivetrain testing facility at the school’s Restoration Institute research campus on the former Charleston Navy base in North Charleston.

A drivetrain takes energy generated by a turbine’s blades and increases the rotational speed to drive the electrical generator, much like a car’s transmission. 

The funding approved by the BCB will be used in part to build out a grid simulator at the facility, according to Budget and Control Board information.

Richard Eckstrom, one of the five members of the Budget and Control Board, told The Nerve Wednesday that he likes the project because he sees wind power as a means to diversify the nation’s energy sources.

“The one thing that motivates me to have a favorable interest in this project is that it will eventually ease our reliance on petroleum-based energy,” Eckstrom said. “There are a lot of hare-brained ideas out there, but this is one that appears to be pretty well-thought-out.”

Of the original $98 million earmarked for the project, the $45 million from the federal government was awarded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Overall, the state is pitching in through a variety of means:

• Clemson is putting in $18.4 million through institutional capital project funds;
• The State Ports Authority, $10.2 million in property; The state itself, $7 million in appropriations;
• The Charleston Naval Complex Redevelopment Authority, $6 million in cash; The S.C. Department of Commerce, $3 million; and
• The S.C. Public Railways, a Commerce Department division, $366,511 in services.

In addition, $8 million will come from the Charleston Redevelopment Authority, records show.

The $3.55 million in non-government funding that was included in the increase approved Wednesday will come from “private industry support for the project,” Liedinger said, adding she is hopeful that more money will be raised through private businesses.

Wind power has already consumed significant public money in South Carolina in recent years.

Santee Cooper alone has spent at least $1.6 million studying wind power, with much of that going to the Palmetto Wind Research Project, officials with the utility have said.

The endeavor, a collaborative effort that also involved the S.C. Energy Office and Coastal Carolina University, was launched in 2009 to study the possibilities of generating wind energy off the South Carolina coast.

Also, the S.C. Energy Office has been awarded at least $835,500 since 2004 from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund various initiatives to explore the feasibility of offshore wind energy development in South Carolina, according to the State Energy Office.

The extra funding approved by the Budget and Control Board is needed for the drivetrain test facility “to meet current seismic and wind codes, because of the anticipated complexity of the project,” according to state information.

The facility will be capable of full-scale highly accelerated testing of advanced drivetrain systems for wind turbines in the five-megawatt to 15-megawatt range, according to information from Clemson.

Eckstrom did say that he had a bit of heartburn related to ongoing operating costs for the facility.

“We’ve asked for a little bit more detail on revenue sources,” he said. “The question is, ‘Iis this sustainable long term?’ and at this point we don’t know.”

Wednesday’s vote was 5-0, with no discussion as to whether the private sector should be handling research rather than turning much of the cost over to government.

That’s the argument former Gov. Mark Sanford made in 2010 when the BCB approved $7 million in state money for the facility, with Sanford the lone dissenting vote in a 4-1 count.

Reach Dietrich at (803) 779-5022 ext. 110, or kevin@thenerve.org.

Phil Noble

Suppose every student, and adult, in South Carolina could go to Harvard or MIT, for free. Would that be a revolution?

They can, and it is – sorta.

Recently, Harvard and MIT announced edX, a new non-profit organization that will offer online courses from both schools for free. The first five courses are to be offered this fall.

This radical online education project follows a pilot project that was launched at MIT in March with a single course called ‘Circuits and Electronics’. They had over 120,000 students sign up and 10,000 have made it through the midterm exam. Students who make it all the way through the course will get a certificate of completion and a grade, but no official credit. The edX courses will offer a similar certificate.

And this is only the start. Just this month the University of Michigan, Stanford, Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania announced the formation of a new for-profit online venture funded with $16 million in venture capital to do something very similar.

Online learning courses have been around a while but the point is that the big revolution in online education is here and the big name schools and big money are joining the revolution – which will only rapidly accelerate its expansion, globally.

The real point here is that we are at the beginning of the beginning of the online education and technology revolution, and it affords our state a huge opportunity to make leapfrog progress in education – if we are smart enough to take advantage of it now.

A look back before we look forward. Since the days of the ancient Greeks, the education and teaching process has remained pretty much the same – a single person standing before a small group imparting knowledge. Or at least trying to, as I’m sure there have always been class clowns since the students sat around in togas.

The first real technological advance was books, which began to show up after Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1439. However, initially books were very expensive, and it was only in the 1700s or so that students began having their own books. In South Carolina this didn’t happen until Gov. Jimmy Byrnes provided free school books in the 1950s.

And in terms of ‘show and tell’ methods, the chalkboard was a huge change in that all the students could see the teacher’s writing at the same time. This was followed by the individual student slates so that they could work individually.

Which brings us to the student slate of the 21^st century: the laptop (or iPad or Kindle or other personal learning tools).

So now it all begins to come together – give the kids their own digital tools and they can have access to Harvard courses, or the literally millions of other courses and education programs that are becoming available at lighting speed.

A few years ago, I was fortunate to work with the Palmetto Project and a group of concerned South Carolinians to do just this – begin to provide an educational laptop to every child in the state. The plan was to raise enough money to prove the concept and then hopefully the legislature would provide the funding to cover the whole state.

Over a million dollars in private funding was raised for over 3,000 computers in 15 pilot-project schools across the state. And what were the results? Then-state Superintendent of Education Jim Rex said that ‘…dollar for dollar, this laptop will have a bigger impact in improving education than anything else we can do.”

So what did the Legislature do? Nothing. They refused to provide one penny for more of these laptops. In fact over the last four years the Legislature has cut education funding by almost 25%, more than any other state.

We all know that real revolutions start at the grass roots level and that is what is happening here. Despite the refusal of the Legislature to lead, partners and local school districts are leading the way. All across the state we are seeing more schools where every student is being provided the personal technology tools they need to succeed.

But it’s not happening fast enough.

Don’t forget, the billions of kids in China and others all around the world that our kids must compete with all have access to the same Harvard courses and other online educational resources.

So the next time you see your school board member or legislator, tell them you want to send your kid to Harvard….and it all starts with a laptop or iPad here in South Carolina.

Tell them you want to join the Revolution.

Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the SC New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley. phil@scnewdemocrats.org www.SCNewDemocrats.org

Emerging evidence from international studies is verifying that trees and forests offer invaluable benefits to human physical health. Research results from the University of Illinois provide evidence that trees may also help to reduce social problems.

Investigators found that trees draw people out of their individual homes and foster socialization among neighbors. These relationships then help nurture children and build a strengthened sense of community, contributing to good physical and mental health.

Among the distinct differences found between people living in buildings with trees and those who did not was that those living with trees felt safer in general than people in buildings without trees. This finding surprised police and public safety officials who had predicted that trees would increase fearful feelings. Similarly, those living in places with trees adjusted to their surroundings more easily than residents in treeless homes. Importantly, the study revealed that trees provided settings where domestic violence was less than in treeless places.

In observations of children at play it became obvious that the presence of trees made a significant difference. Children with access to green spaces engaged more in “creative play” than children living in barren spaces and enjoyed greater access to adult attention, both factors important for cognitive and social development.

The Illinois study concluded that planting more trees in urban areas would help alleviate mental fatigue, in turn resulting in fewer calls to police for domestic violence, decreased incidence of child abuse, lessened demand for medical services and a reduced load on social services.

After reviewing these findings and accepting the researchers’ suggestion that “Nature should be at every doorstep,” officials in Chicago responded with a new “greening initiative” which began with planting 20,000 trees.

For more details, Google “The Power of Trees” by Tina Prow.

Joanna Angle is a 30-year resident of Chester County and a Master Tree Farmer. She has previously directed the Olde English District Tourism Commission, produced and hosted “Palmetto Places” for SCETV and helped establish the Chester campus of York Technical College.

May 9, 2012

An S.C. House-passed bill to monumentally strengthen the state’s open-government law faces a precarious road in the Senate.

Most immediately, the Senate is consumed with crafting a legislative response to an S.C. Supreme Court decision. The ruling last week disqualified scores of candidates from the June 12 statewide primary elections.

Beyond that, the Senate is preparing to debate a budget for the 2012-13 fiscal year that starts July 1.

Moreover, the committee chairman who has frontline jurisdiction over the sunshine bill in the Senate says he is concerned about a provision that would eliminate an exemption in the open-government law for legislators.

Those three strikes against the bill, however, do not necessarily mean it’s out.

Despite his reservations about ending the legislative exemption, the committee head, Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin, R-Pickens, says he is working to get a hearing on the bill.

Sponsored by Rep. Bill Taylor, R-Aiken, the measure would close several big loopholes in the S.C. Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is widely regarded as one of the weakest such statutes in the country.

In addition to the legislative exemption, the weaknesses in the Palmetto State’s law allow state and local government entities to subvert the intent of it and instead use it to stonewall or thwart efforts to obtain information by the public, the press and, on occasion, even government officials.

“I have referred that FOIA bill to a subcommittee with a request that they get it up for a hearing as soon as they possibly can, maybe even this week,” Martin told The Nerve on Monday.

Martin said he couldn’t recall off the top of his head which subcommittee, but thought it was a Judiciary panel chaired by Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Charleston.

Campsen said Monday he did not know whether the bill, H. 3235, had been assigned to his subcommittee.

Efforts on Monday and Tuesday to confirm with Senate Judiciary staffers which subcommittee got the bill were unsuccessful.

Apparently, pretty much the entire Senate is swept up in addressing the Supreme Court ruling. Related to a paperwork filing issue, the decision booted some 180 candidates across the state – all of them challengers to incumbents – out of the primaries balloting.

Legislators are working feverishly against a tight clock – the primaries are less than five weeks away – to try to rectify the situation.

“That’s what I’m focusing on,” Campsen said.

As Judiciary Committee chairman, Martin wields a key hand in producing a legislative fix on the Senate side. Martin said Monday the “debacle” was “taking all my time this weekend and today.”

“And it only takes one senator to frustrate our efforts,” he added. “That’s one of the big obstacles that we face.”

It’s also another potential roadblock to the Freedom of Information bill, along with a mere month or so remaining in the legislative session.

If the bill doesn’t pass this year, it would have to be reintroduced and start from scratch in 2013.

“Obviously if it doesn’t I’ll be back next year,” says Taylor, a former TV news anchor, director and reporter.

The key provisions of his bill would:

• Delete an exemption in the Freedom of Information Act that shields from disclosure “memoranda, correspondence and working papers” possessed by legislators “or their immediate staffs”;
• Impose a 30- to 45-day deadline to provide information requested under the law, depending on how old the information is;
• Shorten, from 15 business days to 15 calendar days, the deadline for responding to an FOIA request;
• Prohibit state and local entities from charging fees for staff time spent complying with FOIA requests;
• Allow state and local entities to charge only prevailing commercial rates for copying records; and
• Disallow charging for documents available in digital format.

Currently, the law does not impose a deadline to supply information sought. Instead, it merely says that a public body must respond in writing within 15 business days as to whether it intends to fulfill an FOIA request.

That loophole allows state agencies and school districts and the like to drag their feet on requests, sometimes for months on end, if they don’t want to give up certain information. And as The Nerve has documented, that’s not an uncommon practice.

The Freedom of Information Act as written also gives government officials room to hit requesters with large, punitive research and copying fees, which have the practical effect of stymieing transparency – another not infrequent abuse of the law.

“I’m very open to fixing that,” Martin says of the deadline and fees shortcomings in the law.

But, he says, “I would be misleading if I didn’t say I have some reservations about broadly lifting what’s called the legislative exemption.”

Martin says he will not agree to disclose his correspondence with his constituents. He says it sometimes touches on deeply personal issues such as domestic abuse, and he does not want to see it turn up in a news report or other public format. “I just don’t think that does anybody any good.”

Campsen agrees. “I mean people will share their biggest, deepest problems,” he says.

Yet at the same time, Martin says he admits that such a blanket veil over legislators’ communications and working documents might not be a good policy. “I’m not suggesting to you there’s not something that we can do (on the legislative exemption),” he says.

Reach Eric at (803) 254-4411 or eric@thenerve.org.

Track president doubles impact of donations

Stacey Hollis won a pair of tickets to the 2012 Bojangles’ Southern 500 with pit passes during the Darlington County Humane Society donation drawing on May 1.

Other winners included Kevin Anderson and Blake Arnold, who each won $25 Pet Smart gift cards; Pat Timms, $30 Piggly Wiggly gift card; Joyce Meyer, $20 IGA gift card; Dot Stone, $20 Bi-Lo gift card; Cathy Lane, eight-pound Honey Baked Ham; Martha Wallace, $15 Food Lion gift card; Mary Gainey, apair of $5 Subway gift cards; and Kevin Anderson, $10 Pizza Hut gift card.

All prizes were donated.

Darlington Raceway President Chris Browning drew the names of the winners.

In less than three weeks, the drawing raised $1,267 to go toward the organization’s rescue efforts to find homes for unwanted animals in the county.

Browning also agreed to match the funds raised. “I have a soft spot in my heart for animals,” he said.

The Humane Society sends about 60 dogs and cats up the East Coast every other Saturday. The shelter takes in about 300 animals per month, and only 50 are adopted locally on a good month. The rest would have to be euthanized if not sent to rescue within 30 days of arriving at the shelter.

Info: www.darlingtonhumane.com.

By Lisa Chalian-Rock, The (Darlington) News & Press

Editor

lisa@newsandpressonline.com

When you sit in the grandstands at Darlington Raceway during pre-race ceremonies, have you ever wondered how all of those logos get painted on the wall? They are perfect and look just like the logo you’d see on the Internet or on a t-shirt. Well, believe it or not, nearly every logo at the raceway is not only hand painted, but most of them were painted free hand. That’s right, no templates, just pure measurement orchestrated into a flowing rainbow of art that makes the walls at Darlington Raceway so unique. There’s no other track on the NASCAR schedule where the walls become the storyline before and after the weekend’s events.

In fact, the individual that creates this masterpiece over and over again is a local, someone that you’ll probably pass in the grocery store. For 15 years Jimmy Jolly and his crew have painted the logos and cleaned up after the most evil Darlington Stripes at Darlington Raceway. Residing just outside of the Darlington city limits, Jimmy has always been infatuated with the art of logo painting.

The 55 year old has been painting for an astounding 42 years. He actually owns a business in town that’s called Custom Signs & Graphics. For 22 years, Jimmy worked at Nucor Steel, but even before then, he was painting. Jimmy use to paint little model cars eventually making his way up to top-notch facilities on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule. He’s probably the only person in the world that cringes when a car slams and rides the historic wall at Darlington Raceway.

“

I painted signs before I went to Nucor,” Jimmy Jolly said. “It’s an addiction. You get addicted to it, and you just can’t leave it alone. Once it gets in your blood, it’s over with. That’s why you don’t see too many sign painters quit their job. You got to smell the thinner and feel the brush.”

For six grueling weeks, Jimmy will lie on the high banks of the raceway and paint the logos that bring the facility to life. As he dips his brush into the Dixie cup that’s holding the paint, his heels and hips will begin to bleed due to the track’s infamous rough surface. Sweat will pour down his face, and the sun will bear down on him until the night consumes the raceway. It’s a rough profession, but it’s the passion that brings a smile to his face after every project.

“Dale Jr. said all you got to do is roll your tires around the pits, and you scuff them,” Jimmy said. “This racetrack will scuff you. My hips are raw when I leave here. I’ll have a big ole’ burn on my hip. The hills are probably the roughest part, and these safer barrier walls

have these cracks in them. I’d rather have a smooth wall.”

He does all of this work just to redo it all once more right after the NASCAR Nationwide Series r

ace that’s held on Friday night before the historic Bojangles’ Southern 500 on Saturday night. As soon as the cars hit pit road and the winner of the race finishes his burnouts, Jimmy and the crew will take off into the night and start repainting the logos that were destroyed by drivers who couldn’t tame the old Lady In Black. As the sun breaks t

he horizon over Darlington County on Saturday morning, Jimmy will just be finishing up after the long chaotic night.

“It’s tough,” Jimmy said. “As soon as the race is over, we pull out. The cars haven’t even cooled off. All night long, we are walking up and down these hills. One thing I’ve learned is instead of walking straight up and down these hills, you got to walk it at an angle. Your legs will be a lot better for you when you get off work that morning.”

After a job well done, Jimmy will take a break and watch the Bojangles’ Southern 500 from his seats in turn four. He enjoys going to a race and seeing cars spinout and hit the wall just like most other fans, but one thing that really agitates him is when the winner tears his ground logos up. He says that the driver has the entire track, and ther

e’s no reason to hit every single logo that took six weeks of his life to complete.

Jimmy learned how to do all of this on his own. He had a few heroes, but for the most part it’s just straight talent. Very few templates are used during the entire process. Jimmy said by far his greatest moment was about five years ago when his son was on the track painting the walls with him. There was even a picture of the two in the raceway’s program that year.

“I don’t know if I have talent or not, but it’s just a lot of hard work, learning how to lay it out and doing a lot of measuring,” Jimmy said. “If you don’t have an eye for measurement, and you know you have to measure a foot, or two feet, or three feet, I can kind of look and see it, because I’ve done it so much. That’s the way we do it. We take a picture, and th

ey give it to us. We scale it, and sometimes we will have what they call a pounce pattern.”

So, when you’re at Darlington Raceway this upcoming weekend and see the massive Bojangles’ emblem painted on the asphalt at the exit of turn four, the Darlington Raceway emblem in the turns, or Royal Purple and Coca Cola logos around the entire track, remember, Jimmy did that. There’s a lot of work that goes into making each visit to Darlington Raceway as memorable as possible. It’s not just about the cars that drive in circles. Instead, it’s about the unique individuals that make everything flow on race weekend, everyone from the individual that takes your ticket stub to Jimmy pulling an all-nighter to make the facility look brand new for the next morning.

By Hunter Thomas,The (Darlington) News & Press

Phil Noble

I am a Democrat, and I am proud of it.

However, the S.C. Press Association distributes this column, and neither they nor I want it to be a weekly partisan rant — there’s far too much of that in both our national and state politics already.

That said, this column is about one thing: the corruption of the Republican leadership in the S.C. House of Representatives.

Yes, that’s harsh. And, yes, at least in a sense, it’s partisan. But what they have just done with so-called “sales tax exemption reform” is, in fact, completely corrupt – and it should be labeled as such.

Put simply, the sold out – totally. They looked at the corrupt, rancid, special-interest driven tax system and voted to continue it – and worse, they voted to do so at the expense of our children.

First the facts. Our current state tax code has almost $3 billion in sales tax exemptions,  i.e., special-interest tax breaks. That’s $3 billion a year , every year, in revenues we could use to do all the things we need to do in this state, from responsible tax cuts to vital investments in education and infrastructure..

And while some of these exemptions are at least theoretically defensible, most are simply the result of the “vending-machine” style corruption that’s so common these days in Columbia: a special interest group hires a lobbyist, he or she deposits their money in the incumbent reelection machine, and out pops the legislation at the other end. 

In the case of sales tax exemptions, the system has become so rotten that we actually exempt $2.7 billion a year, while we only collect $2.5 in sales tax. It’s like Swiss cheese, where there is more hole than cheese.

Things have gotten so bad that everyone who looks at this objectively agrees that something must be done. Numerous studies have been commissioned — by the SC Chamber of Commerce, citizen groups, and even the Legislature itself – and they all came to the same conclusion: eliminate some sales-tax exemptions.

In 2010, the Republican leadership appointed a Republican-dominated Tax Realignment Commission (TRAC), and they proposed eliminating close to $1 billion in deductions each year. Many considered this wimpy when compared to the $3 billion in existing deductions, but it was a start.

Then the lobbyists and special interests went to work, massaging legislators and calling in the favors they think they are due based on their campaign contributions. They all had one goal: getting their exemption protected, looking out for themselves.

When the Republican House leadership finally got around to introducing a bill this year, this $1 billion had been reduced to only $220 million – less than a quarter of what the Republicans’ own TRAC recommended

And as bad as this was, it got even worse, much worse.

The lobbyists and their legislator allies kept putting exemptions back in, until the final bill that passed the House last week by a 63-39 vote had less than $11 million in exemption cuts.

A lousy $11 million – that’s only 5% of what was originally proposed by the Republican leadership just a few weeks ago in their already disgustingly weak bill with $220 million in exemption cuts.

$11 million in cuts out of $3 billion in existing exemption – that’s 0.00003%.

Republican Rep. Bill Taylor, who helped draft the original proposal said it was so bad that, “If you [the special interest group] showed up, you got your exemption.“

And at the same time this was going on, the House cut another $665 million from mandatory education funding – this on top of the 25% cut education has already taken in this state over the last four years,, the biggest cut of any of the 50 states.

It was a sleazy sell out by the Republican leadership in the House at the expense of our children.

And that’s not politics. That’s corruption.

Phil Noble is a businessman in Charleston and President of the S.C. New Democrats, an independent reform group started by former Gov. Richard Riley.
phil@scnewdemocrats.org    www.SCNewDemocrats.org

Cathy Elliott

I couldn’t help smiling just a little bit when I saw Darlington Raceway’s advertising campaign for the 2012 Bojangles Southern 500.

Most of the promotional materials featured Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, who traded quite a bit of paint in the closing laps of the race before “stepping outside to settle things man to man,” which in this particular case involved Harvick dashing across pit road after the race, seemingly intent on applying his fist to Busch’s head. Kyle avoided this by simply driving away, knocking Harvick’s abandoned No. 29 Chevy aside in the process.

Darlington Raceway (DR) billed this year’s event as a “rematch,” which made some sense but also took some nerve, as unsportsmanlike conduct on the track is not generally NASCAR’s publicity tool of choice.  Actually, it was pretty impressive that DR got away with it.

Since it is practically impossible for me to distance myself from the infamous Lady in Black after working there for so many years, now that it’s race week I couldn’t help but remember a few of the advertising campaigns I conceived over the years that never saw the light of day.

The first featured a clean-shaven, nattily dressed guy sitting in a grandstand seat, methodically moving his head from left to right and back again.

The voiceover: This is your brain.

In the next shot, the poor guy is looking rather wild-eyed. His hair is standing on end, his J. Crew is askew, he has some 500-mile shadow on his face, and I seem to remember suggesting we add a little drool at the corner of his mouth. Just to be authentic, you know.

The voiceover: This is your brain on Darlington.

Ixnay on that one. I guess looking like you’ve just come out of a day of wind tunnel testing may not have been considered too appealing to potential ticket buyers.

Another idea was the Darlington Cookie Company. This campaign panned over a tray of identically-shaped cookies and slowly named them one by one

The voiceover: Sugar cookie … oatmeal cookie … peanut butter cookie …

You get the idea.

The final shot featured a wacky-looking cookie, bigger on one end than on the other — you might even say it was egg-shaped — with a bite taken out of it and teeth marks still visible.

The voiceover: One tough cookie.

This was back in the day when the 1 1/2-mile tracks — AKA “cookie cutters” — were getting a lot of media attention, not all of it positive. Suffice it to say that the Darlington cookie campaign were judged unpalatable. It isn’t nice to pick on those more uniform.

My final stroke of self-perceived brilliance featured head shots of four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) superstars: Rusty Wallace, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth. A graphic listing their combined total of victories, pole positions, top five finishes and championships ended with the voiceover, “and zero wins at Darlington.”

Then a big hairy hand brandishing a rubber stamp came down on their head shots, branding them LOSERS in big block letters.

Since then, Rusty went on to make the first-ever Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field and ended his career on a high note. Junior has received the Most Popular Drive award a gazillion times in a row. Kenseth has won a NSCS championship, and Stewart has won three.

It was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but the LOSERS campaign was judged as … well, a loser.

When you get right down to it, Darlington Raceway, one of the most famous, beloved and enduring pieces of NASCAR’s history, falls into the category of things that are so cool they almost sell themselves; no additional assistance is required.

But those ingrained habits, and one thing DR often has to deal with, is ageism. So I’m offering the use of advertising campaign number four, free of charge.

Voiceover: Darlington Raceway; She’s younger than Cher.

Catchy, right? I have a really good feeling about this one …

President of the National Newspaper Association

And Publisher of the Swift County (MN) Monitor-News

Now that US Senate has passed a bill, S 1789, to reform the ailing US Postal Service, critics are trying to disable the bill on its way to the House of Representatives.  Business Week recently catalogued unhappy stakeholders, including postal unions, postal management and some Republicans who wrongly think the bill burdens taxpayers.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, whose own bill awaits action in the House, blasted “special interests.” But Business Week says, “Considering how many people are unhappy with the bill, it isn’t clear which special interests Issa is referring to.”

Some see Senate bill as the inevitable product of the sausage machine. But it is neither a budget buster nor processed meat. It is the expression of a better vision of the Postal Service.

If you consider that survival of the service means maintaining the circulatory system for a $1.1 trillion mailing industry – or in other words, making sure cash, greeting cards, packages and newspapers and magazines arrive on time, the Senate bill is good medicine.

Consider some of the alternative fixes.

Issa’s bill would let USPS immediately end Saturday mail, close half the mail processing centers and thousands of post offices, and put a new board of political appointees in charge. The new board would be expected to trim workers’ benefits and maybe wages, and direct the Postmaster General to favor profit over service.

At the other extreme might be Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, who wanted to keep everything open. Labor unions backing him say that USPS will heal as the economy heals. Then there is the White House’s notion: to raise postage rates.

For Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Joe Lieberman, I-CT, neither extreme is suited to long-term survival of USPS.

To many experts, Issa’s approach is likely to frighten away businesses that mail. The Lieberman-Collins bill agrees that USPS needs a more flexible, less costly workforce. It keeps mail flowing through today’s network while cost-cutting is underway.  For example, they would end Saturday mail delivery in two years, but only if USPS has taken other big steps toward financial viability. They would allow the closing of postal plants now, if USPS preserves local mail delivery speed.

Is their bill the product of compromise, or of a different vision?

Consider:

–The Postal Service’s plant-closing plan is based on a desire to amass more mail at automated urban centers, where costly machines sit idle much of the day. To optimize machines, USPS would haul mail much farther. But the hauling would slow the mailstream, particularly in small towns and rural areas that are far from mail plants and create a set of second-class citizens who would get and send mail more slowly than urban dwellers. It would also hamper smaller communities’ quests for economic development.

- Many Americans say they wouldn’t miss Saturday mail. But USPS builds its system around senders, not receivers. Who would be hurt by a 5-day delivery regime? Anyone who depends on timely mail delivery. Shutting down the system two days a week—three when Monday holidays occur—would create delay, according to the Postal Regulatory Commission. Then there are  those who need prescriptions delivered when they are at home; small-town citizens who get the newspaper by mail and businesses needing 6-day cash flows.

- Closing small post offices seems a no-brainer to city dwellers who spot those one-room POs at the roadside on the way to the beach.  Surely not all are needed. But rather than closing them entirely, USPS could have circuit-rider postmasters to open them a few hours a day. That is affordable if worker benefits are brought into line with the private sector. For those communities, a circuit rider could continue their links to the world.

- The Congressional Budget Office says the Senate bill would cost $33.6 billion, adding to the federal deficit. But postage-payers, not taxpayers, carry that burden. Taxpayers face a liability as the funder-of-last resort only if postage revenues dry up – which is more likely to happen if the mail slows to a crawl.

Finally, members of Congress may differ on how they see USPS. Is it a corporation?  Is it a government agency responsible for binding the nation together?

Fact: it is a Government-Sponsored Enterprise or GSE, more like Fannie Mae than like IBM or the Defense Department. It has to use business tools, but carry out a public mission. And it has enormous power in the marketplace. Consider, for example, its new Every Door Direct Mail program, which directly competes with many private businesses. Members of Congress who mistakenly see postal reform as an exercise in deregulating a company may actually unleash a powerful federal agency, while those who look to raising postage so generous worker benefits can continue could pull the plug on the economic engine that keeps jobs alive.

It isn’t compromise that is needed, but a clear-eyed vision based on a full understanding of the needs of all whom the Postal Service serves. Postal management today has an impossible task, expected to accomplish business goals without the cost-controlling tools businesses have, and expected to achieve government ends without federal support. Congress owns this confusion. Only Congress can fix it and it will continue to need to fine-tune its solutions as communications cultures change. No bill passed today will avoid the need for legislation in the future.  Neither “deregulating” it nor hiking rates will get USPS to stability. Nor will abrupt and disruptive approaches to labor costs.

Senators Collins and Lieberman, along with co-sponsors Tom Carper, D-DE, and Scott Brown, R-MA, have devoted endless hours to understanding the challenge and to crafting the next steps toward fixing it. Their approach deserves considerably more respect than it is getting.

People need trees. Literally. While we have intuitively known for years that taking a nature walk is good for our bodies, minds and spirits, researchers are now discovering that the human-tree connection can be critical to our health.

Scientists in Japan have learned that individuals walking in woods experience more positive physiological benefits than subjects who walked in the city. “Forest walkers showed lower concentrations of salivary cortisol, known as the stress hormone; lower blood pressure and heart rate;

reduction of adrenaline and noradrenalin, also stress-related hormones; and an increase in immunity-boosting natural killer (NK) cell activity, and the numbers of NK cells and anti-cancer proteins known to combat cancer.”*

The Japanese researchers concluded that walking in dense woods at a leisurely pace at least once a month could even have the effect of helping prevent cancer generation and progression. Quig Li, Ph.D., a lead professor for several studies, believes that in the future persons diagnosed with high blood pressure or hypertension may be given prescriptions for “forest therapy.”

Currently Japan has more than 30 officially designated centers where patients engage in shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing. They enjoy guided walks on woodland trails and receive free medical examinations under the trees. Doctor Li emphasizes that shinrin-yoku is regarded as preventive, rather than corrective, medicine.

A Canadian study released in February 2012 stated, “Forests and green spaces have been linked to a significant decline in asthma, heart disease, diabetes, stress and certain childhood illnesses, as well as improved rehabilitation and faster hospital recovery rates.”**

As increasing levels of stress, impaired mental health, chronic heart disease and obesity strain public health budgets, policy makers are looking more closely at prevention to curb costs. The relationship between human health and the natural environment, particularly forests, is gaining global attention.

* From “Forest Bathing: The Healing Power of a Walk in the Woods” by Maggie Spilner, 2012.

** Trees Ontario, “A Healthy Dose of Green: A Prescription For A Healthy Population,” 2012.

Joanna Angle is a 30-year resident of Chester County and a Master Tree Farmer. She has previously directed the Olde English District Tourism Commission, produced and hosted “Palmetto Places” for SCETV and helped establish the Chester campus of York Technical College.