Paperless News for Columbia's Blogs and Listservs
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people
PECKHAM AND FRIENDS: Bring Eco to Edu At Grant Elementary
BISHOP FOR BOONE: County Assessor Candidate Plans for Change
QUESTIONS FROM KIDS: To County Commission Candidate Sid Sullivan, Part 2
UNDER FIRE: Former CPS Superintendent on Getting the Super Boot
THE CHANGE GANG: CPS Boarder Ines Segert Blogs on Math
MIKE COOK MEDICAL FUND: Injured by Scumbags, Paper Carrier Needs You!
places
AT CITY HALL: A One-Man Department Fights Crime by Fixing Broken Windows
FED UP WITH CRIME AT: 802 Wilkes Blvd., Brought to You by Fenco Rentals
VILLAGE VOICEOVER: Code Enforcement Confab Planned
things
PAINLESS DENTISTRY: MU Researchers Use Chemistry for Serenity
READERS RITE: On the economy, and social entrepreneurs
THE TRIPARTISAN: Local DemoLibeRep ("demolibberrep") Events
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OPENING THEME SONG: "Is that you, Mrs. Peel?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUQzNIxGLyM&feature=related
PARTING THOUGHTS: My Twin
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PECKHAM AND FRIENDS: Bring Eco to Edu At Grant Elementary
Sometimes, people and circumstances come together at precisely the right time.
A hue and cry over the unsustainable design of a new high school. A fiery tragedy that forced 5th grade teacher John Nies from his Grant Elementary classroom trailer last December. An idealistic grandfather whose company is celebrating its 30th anniversary just as his granddaughter is graduating from John Nies' very same 5th grade class. Another idealist, an engineeer who created a series of art studios out of dull, grey, metal clad warehouses. Plenty of community volunteers and donors.
And a Little Red -- no, make that Green -- Schoolhouse. Unveiled at last night's 5th grade graduation at Grant, architect Nick Peckham's solar-powered "EcoSchoolhouse" will replace a charred classroom trailer while generating its own electricity; capturing and reusing rainwater; and reducing waste from its own June-to-August 2008 construction a full 97%. Peckham -- whose granddaugher Nora graduated from Grant last night -- sees the Little Green Schoolhouse as a 21st century update to the one-room schoolhouses of yesteryear -- and an excellent alternative to generally unpopular classroom trailers.
"The photovoltaic panels not only provide a net-zero electrical use, but will also be seen each day" by students, Peckham notes. So will the classroom's bamboo floors and double-paned, argon-filled windows.
"The community is donating the designs, the labor, and the materials to make this a state of the art classroom," Grant principal Beverly Borduin told parents in a recent letter. Engineer and Orr Street Studios proprietor Mark Timberlake is joining Peckham -- whose firm, Peckham and Wright Architects, is celebrating 30 years in business -- to make the schoolhouse LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified.
"The Eco-Schoolhouse," Peckham writes, "shows what can happen when a community works together toward a common goal."
RELATED:
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2007/12/30/fire-damages-grant-elementary-trailer/
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/mar/20080331news003.asp
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/Jun/20080603News004.asp
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BISHOP FOR BOONE: County Assessor Candidate Plans for Change
Why, people wonder, do county assessors in Missouri seem to have near-lifetime tenures? Our own Tom Schauwecker has been in office for 20 years. Two decades! That's One Bush Senior; Two Bill Clintons; and Two Bush Juniors!
Bottom line: it's hard to find qualified people. How many candidates combine public service with the credentials of an appraiser? Boone County Assessor candidate Barbara Bishop -- Schauwecker's Democratic challenger for the August 4th primary -- says she comes to the job well-prepared.
"There's no requirement that a person be an appraiser to hold the job of assessor," Bishop notes. "But I like to go that three better. There's a real estate appraiser, a licensed real estate appraiser, and a certified real estate appraiser." In other words, a hierarchy. "I'm a certified real estate appraiser."
In Ashland -- our fast-growing neighbor to the south -- Bishop has also held the positions of alderwoman (city councilperson): planning and zoning commissioner; and parks board member. Her reputation -- as an outspoken populist or more affectionately, "feisty redhead" -- stems from her willingness to question the status quo in defense of the little guy (or gal).
The issues she's tackled mirror Columbia on a smaller scale: Should Ashland build more parks before it takes care of basic infrastructure, like sewers and roads? Is "spot zoning" a good idea? How does a city combat blight? How does government balance the needs of businesses that create good jobs with services -- like schools -- that need good funding?
Bishop isn't afraid to tackle the big guys, either. In a recent case involving her family, she questioned the State of Missouri, Medicaid, and Representative Ed Robb.
Caring for her mother after colon cancer surgery, Bishop wanted to know why Medicaid wouldn’t provide a nurse to come to their home; why they were told to go to Walgreens if they wanted to check her mother’s blood pressure; and what happened to money from Missouri’s share of a national settlement with tobacco companies that was supposed to be used for health care (Robb answered that "in recent years the state used that money, one-time funds and bond proceeds to plug ongoing holes in the state budget," according to a Columbia Tribune article).
"Luckily, my mom has us to care for her," Bishop said. "But do you know how many are out there that do not have an advocate?"
For the office of county assessor, Bishop advocates a balance between populism and professionalism. She wants to rethink using Vehicle Identification Numbers (VIN), for instance, to tax cars and trucks.
"My opponent made that decision in a vacuum," she says. "He did it with no input from the people, no input from taxpayers." The result has been a net tax increase for thousands of Boone County residents, Bishop notes, largely because VIN's are blind to considerations like how much a person actually paid for their car. "I might have received a fire sale price on my fully loaded Jeep," Bishop says. "But the VIN only looks at the words 'fully loaded.' It doesn't take into account the fire sale price."
Bishop also wants to jettison the so-called "Certificate of Value," a voluntary concoction that reads suspiciously like the county's mandatory personal property declaration. Arriving like clockwork from the county assessor every time a person buys property, the certificate asks a series of voluntary questions, including the property's price. "I don't like it because I've seen it used to paint a bullseye on the people who fill it out," Bishop says.
Bringing "precision appraising" to the assessor's office would also add an element of fairness that a "one size fits all" approach undermines, Bishop says. Older neighborhoods, for instance, often have a mix of homeowners and investors, especially in areas such as Benton-Stephens and the North Central Village.
Appraising an owner-occupied home two doors from a rental house "requires very different criteria," Bishop says. "It's not fair to judge the value of a retired senior's personal residence the same way I would judge the value of a landlord's rental property."
Finally, Bishop says she wants a transparent, open-door office where all appeals procedures -- both formal and informal -- are well advertised and well-explained.
That transparency sensibility includes changing the makeup of the appellate body that hears property tax appeals -- the Boone County Board of Equalization (BOE)
-- not much more than the County Commission itself.
"In all first class counties not having a charter form of government...there may be a board of equalization consisting of three taxpaying, property-owning citizens," reads Missouri Revised Statutes Section 138.085, Equalization and Review of Tax Assessments as of August 27, 2007.
Rather than three property owning, taxpaying county commissioners, Bishop says she'd rather see John and Jane Q. Public on the BOE, real estate and legal expertise more than welcome. It's not a decision she can make, but it's a position she's decided to take.
"Having the County Commission staff the Board of Equalization is like having the foxes watching the hens," Bishop says. "I'm looking at the future of our county, and I think we can do better. I certainly think we should try."
Barb Bishop on the Web:
http://bishopforboone.blogspot.com/
RELATED:
http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/c100-199/1380000085.htm
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2005/sep/20050930news005.asp
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CAN YOU TALK STRAIGHT TO A FIFTH GRADER: County Commission Candidate Sid Sullivan, Part 2
Many thanks to Jennifer Wingert's Fifth Grade Class at Grant Elementary for providing these questions to local political candidates. And many thanks to the candidates for answering. This week, we hear again from Southern District Commission Candidate Sid Sullivan. His opponent -- Commissioner Karen Miller -- did not return or respond to the survey. Northern District Commissioner Skip Elkin responded, and his answers were posted earlier:
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com/2008/03/can-you-talk-straight-to-fifth-grader.html
QUESTION: How does the city and county decide what streets get salted/plowed during bad weather?
The County has decided to ensure all 800 miles of county roads are cleared starting with the more than 200 miles of paved roads. Priority is given to clearing paved roads because they have the most traffic. The remaining subdivision streets and gravel roads are cleared afterwards according to plan. There are a lot more than 800 miles of roads in Boone County but the highways and state routes are cleared by the state (MoDOT) trucks and city streets are cleared by the various cities including Columbia.
The Maintenance Department of the Boone County Public Works Department has divided the county into 8 geographic snow and salt districts. They have 18 trucks equipped with snow plows and salt dispensers to clear the paved roads and 8 road graders to clear snow (and leave the gravel) from gravel roads. They have forty employees assigned to get this job done. Each district has a set of roads and priorities. In addition, the County has contracts with 10 private companies to clear the snow in the various subdivisions when snow exceeds 2 inches.
In addition to all the plans that are made in advanced, the Maintenance Operation Manager has to plan for the unplanned. He never knows which of the 18 snow plows will break down in the middle of the storm. So, he has to be able to communicate with all his drivers to know when conditions change or the unexpected happens.
The county has a set of plans for clearing the roads. With a limited number of trucks, truck drivers, chemicals and money to pay for all this they have to have different plans for different weather conditions and forecasts. It may seem like a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors but they need a plan and everyone needs to know their job in the “fog of a storm.”
Contact Sid Sullivan at sidsullivan@att.net
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SURVIVING THE END GAME: One Superintendent's Advice
By Russell Mayo, CPS Superintendent
American Association of School Administrators
Remember the bought-out superintendent who left three envelopes in the desk drawer for his successor to open when the first three major crises hit?
The message in the first envelope advised, "Blame it on the last superintendent." He did, and the crisis disappeared. During the next crisis, he opened the second envelope and read, "Call in a consultant." He did, and the crisis evaporated. Midway through his second year, as conflicts grew, he reached for the third envelope. Its advice was, "Prepare three envelopes."
The superintendent's job is that tenuous, sometimes. Increasing influence and involvement by federal agencies, the states, the courts and teacher unions have reduced the superintendent's authority, leaving the position conflict-ridden and ever-changing. It's like a tridimensional game of chess. In the opening and middle game, the job holds promise and challenge. Like the end game, though, the potential for checkmate is real.
My recent end game experience, at the conclusion of my second year as a superintendent, may help others as they inevitably pass this way.
It is essential to be able to recognize when the end game is near. One reliable early indication is a feeling of increased apprehension. Your staff members seem to know more than you about the future. The board seems bent on micromanaging and the executive sessions without the superintendent become more frequent. The clearest of all signs is when the board votes not to extend your contract.
Refine Your Thinking
Four survival moves are critical when contract termination seems near.
* No. 1: Compile a clear and concise summary of conditions when you arrived, accomplishments, plans for future initiatives and the long-term needs and challenges of the school district. Emphasize where money was saved. Listing accomplishments on paper refines your thinking and builds self-confidence. Share credit for the accomplishments with your staff.
* No. 2: Contact superintendent search consultants and relate your situation. The extent of their help will depend on the time of the year, which tends to dictate the availability of vacant positions.
* No. 3: Hire a personal attorney with expertise in school law or labor relations and contracts. Your state affiliate of AASA will be able to refer you to the best. Make certain the attorney will litigate against school boards. Some will not litigate if boards provide most of their income.
* No. 4: Hire a personal public relations adviser to assist with news media coverage and image. It may not be appropriate for the adviser to speak on your behalf, but you need this advice. A local person will know the environment and the politics. On the other hand, he or she may be obligated to the group that wants you out.
Legal Protection
The contract is your only safeguard, your lifeline between jobs. Therefore, a careful review of your proposed employment contract by an attorney who represents your best interests is essential before signing. Consider adding a clause that requires a hearing by an arbitrator before a board can suspend, terminate or take any direct action against the superintendent that will halt income. Establish a timeline for the process so the board and the superintendent have reasonable time to consider the situation.
Don't assume that removing an unwilling superintendent will take the board months or years. Serving at the pleasure of the board means just that. Once the board decides to change superintendents, the timeline may be, condensed dramatically. Due process may be ignored or, at best, fabricated. Above all, the board may feel no obligation to be fair to you in the same sense that you must be fair with an employee.
Reasons for dismissal are seldom clear, except when illegal, immoral or unethical behavior has occurred. If the board membership and philosophy have changed, the board may want a leadership change. Usually the reasons are fuzzy. Reconciling the reasons in your mind will be difficult. Work for a buyout and move on.
Emotions Under Check
A measured response is critical. During the end game, all the emotions that encourage fear and insecurity peak. Focus calmly on all of the responsibilities of the job. High visibility is important. Ignore the desire to crawl into a hole. Rely heavily on the advice of your attorney and a public relations adviser, but never allow the dispute to become personal. A board has the right to choose its superintendent--it's their community, their children and their money. Continue to look outside for other job opportunities. Remain positive when relating to your family, the district staff and the public. Smile and be pleasant, regardless of how you really feel.
Try to avoid a gap in contracts by holding off your resignation until the buyout agreement is signed. The latter will void the original employment contract. If a superintendent resigns before settling the buyout pact, a board that is bad-tempered about this episode may take its time refining the agreement knowing you are without income.
Expect a full-fledged attack from an aggressive board. To avoid or reduce the cost of a buyout, a board may launch a major offensive to fire the superintendent for incompetence (termination for cause). Asking questions will help determine the strength of the written charges: Do the minutes show the board approved the actions being targeted? If not, was the action within the prerogative of the superintendent? If cost was involved, was the money in the budget? Did the board express concern to the superintendent about any of the actions before the current charges were presented? If so, did they caution the superintendent of possible consequences?
The fight-or-flight dilemma peaks if charges are presented. Now the choices are to resign or litigate. Never resign without a settlement. Search consultants agree that the resignation of an innocent superintendent creates suspicion. With litigation, however, consider that time, legal fees and news media coverage will be extensive. Being right will matter little when the verdict is two or three years away. Settlement could occur any time during that period, leaving the superintendent short on cash. Further, the ongoing media attention will reduce job opportunities.
Remember, too, that board members have jobs outside of their district service. Their legal fees are paid by the school district. Yours are nor. The attorney is the best source of advice on the merits of litigation, which in my view should be the least desirable strategy for the superintendent.
A Quiet Departure
The end game lurks as an ever-present threat. You must recognize it and respond appropriately. The goal should be to leave as quietly as possible. If a quiet exit is impossible, a buyout of the contract may be the next best thing.
Firing for the right reason (or no reason) is no disgrace. The board has the right to change superintendents. Once the issue of the superintendent's departure is resolved, move on with the understanding that it can happen to anyone. Perhaps the time will come when the role of superintendent is defined more precisely. Until then, every superintendent is subject to the end game.
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THE CHANGE GANG: CPS Boarder Ines Segert Blogs on Math
"Columbia voters know that Columbia’s tradition of excellence has already been significantly harmed by decisions taken by the district with regards to the math curriculum. Clear declines in test scores coincide with the adoption of "integrated math" in Columbia. For example, in each of the past 6 years, the difference between CPS MAP averages and Missouri averages have significantly decreased. For the data on MAP scores, ACT scores, and other objective performance indicators for CPS students, please see the summary on my website:
http://www.yourcps.org/mathcurrQ1.html
The problem is the actual “integrated math” curriculum. We can’t fix this problem by “coaching” teachers to adhere to a fatally flawed curriculum. We are wasting district money, increasing class size by replacing teacher positions with integrated math coaches, while ignoring the underlying problem."
- Posted by: Ines Segert May 31, 2008 03:39 PM on Class Notes
http://blogs.columbiatribune.com/education/
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MIKE COOK MEDICAL FUND: Injured by Scumbags, Paper Carrier Needs You!
Somebody will undoubtedly jump on me for using the pejorative, Dirty Harry Callahanesque "scumbags," but when you kick a man in his face, breaking his nose,. cheekbone, and eye socket trying to get a paltry few bucks during a robbery where you're armed to the teeth and he's got nothing, you're a scumbag, plain and simple.
To help Post-Dispatch newspaper carrier Mike Cook with his medical bills, which are sure to pile up, please contact Linda McBee at 800-574-8901 or Judy Sapp at Boone County National Bank, trustees for the Mike Cook Medical Fund. You can read more about Mike and the attack he sustained here:
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/may/20080508news006.asp
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2008/may/20080510news008.asp
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AT CITY HALL: A One-Man Department Fights Crime by Fixing Broken Windows
By Mike Martin
For the Columbia Business Times
http://www.columbiabusinesstimes.com
They stopped his life “in its tracks,” two thugs who robbed Columbia newspaper carrier Mike Cook last week with a shotgun, a pistol, and a senseless beating.
"Every time I bend over, my nose starts bleeding," Cook told Columbia Daily Tribune reporter Sara Semelka. Instead of gardening as planned this spring, Cook will meet with surgeons to decide whether or not he needs a metal plate in his broken cheek to hold his damaged eye in place.
”What is happening to our city?” wrote a Tribune blogger. “This is the town where I was born, raised, and educated, and I hope to one day raise a family here. But the alarming number of violent acts plaguing the city has me second-guessing. Why hasn't the police force hired more officers? Why aren't there increased patrols?”
Good questions. Instead of pouring money into new parks, new city offices, and new parking garages, City Hall desperately needs to reprioritize. Adequately funding crime fighters like the police department – and a lesser-known city entity called the Neighborhood Response Team (NRT) – has never been a more critical priority.
Broken Windows
Borrowing help from Columbia’s police, health, and building inspection departments, the NRT works to abate dilapidated buildings that blight the central city. Motivating everything from Columbia's chronic nuisance property laws to the North Central Overlay Ordinance, dilapidation -- according to the so-called "Broken Windows Theory" -- also encourages crime.
"Consider a building with a few broken windows,” wrote the theory’s creators, public policy professors James Q. Wilson and George Kelling. “If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it's unoccupied, perhaps become squatters, light fires,” or steal copper.
Fixing broken windows, keeping up houses, cleaning sidewalks, and erasing graffiti helps prevent crime, the theory holds, an idea New York mayor Rudy Giuliani tested and proved when he and a much larger neighborhood response team transformed the Big Apple. But where Giuliani was committed, our city government is sinking in a quicksand of commitment phobia. It expanded the NRT’s duties last Monday night without also expanding its budget. It presides over two of the central city’s most dilapidated buildings – the Blind Boone home and Heibel-March Store.
It has stood largely idle as a widening cesspool of criminal contempt threatens to swallow our quality of life.
Chronic Offenders
With the heart and persistence of a social worker, NRT director Bill Cantin is a one-man department, overseeing a vast central city territory that includes most of the First Ward and his newly-added domains: Benton-Stephens and East Campus. In a yearly report, Cantin details individual instances of blight. In North Central Columbia alone, it was eighteen pages long in 2007 and involved some 150 properties.
Coordinating three departments and a troubled property owner can make follow-up code enforcement a problematic ordeal. Take the case of the Shoddy Shed on Sixth. Its crumbling concrete walls and caved-in roof posed an immediate hazard to schoolchildren who climbed around it as a shortcut through an open lot. But with the property owner in prison on drug charges, getting the shed demolished – a protective inspection function – took about a year. Getting the debris removed – a health department function – took another six months.
At 807 Washington – a small apartment building owned by the Hinshaw Family Partnership – Cantin’s report noted “several areas with peeling paint that need to be repainted; portions of the exterior siding that are deteriorating and need to be repaired or replaced; and a driveway that is deteriorated and needs to be repaired.”
“4/13/07 – letter mailed” the report continues, referring to an official correspondence sent to building owners about required repairs. But one year later, the only thing that’s changed at 807 Washington is that the paint is now peeling as badly as it is at the Blind Boone home.
Mayoral priority
Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman has made “stepping up the Neighborhood Response Team” one of this top three priorities for the 2008-09 budget year. That’s a good thing. Too many dedicated people – like Bill Cantin and the many central city neighbors who want safe streets and quality housing – work virtually alone.
It’s also mission critical in this community, as another Tribune blogger pointed out after reading about Mike Cook. “I lived in Columbia for 10 years during and after college, but will never move back. Residents need to open their eyes and see how bad it’s become. Drive-by shootings in downtown. Armed robbery and rape. My wife and I live in a similar size college town now that has zero crime. It makes Columbia look like St. Louis.”
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FED UP WITH CRIME AT: 802 Wilkes Blvd. (Dec 07 - May 08)
Columbia police officers were dispatched at 9:56 p.m. after receiving reports of a disturbance in the front yard of 802 Wilkes Blvd. and found the victim with a stab wound in his side.
http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2007/dec/20071228news002.asp
Charles Edwin McCoy, 28, 802 Wilkes Blvd., failure to appear in court, possession of a controlled substance, trafficking
Charles Edwin McCoy, 28, 802 Wilkes Blvd., driving with a suspended license
Charles Edwin McCoy, 27, 802 Wilkes Blvd., assault, armed criminal action
Charles Edwin McCoy, 27, 802 Wilkes Blvd., use or possession of drug paraphernalia, failure to appear in court, possession of marijuana
Terry Allen Simmons, 20, 802 Wilkes Blvd., trafficking, possession of a controlled substance, child endangerment
Terry Allen Simmons, 20, 802 Wilkes Blvd., failure to appear in court
Terry Allen Simmons, 20, 802 Wilkes Blvd., driving while license is revoked
Marcus Montez Smith, 35, 802 Wilkes Blvd., Apt. A, domestic assault, $1,000 bond.
Marcus Montez Smith, 35, 802 Wilkes Blvd., Apt. A, domestic assault, failure to appear in court, probation and parole violation
Marcus Montez Smith, 35, 802 Wilkes Blvd., driving with suspended license, failure to observe traffic controlled devices.
Marquale Walter, 18, 802 Wilkes Blvd., possession of marijuana
Jada Marie Laquitte, 37, 802 Wilkes Blvd., use or possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana
LANDLORD/OWNER:
K WAYNE FENTON
FENCO RENTALS LLC
4736 ROEMER RD
COLUMBIA, MO 65202
(573) 875-7073
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VILLAGE VOICEOVER: Code Enforcement Confab Planned
Facing down the central city's biggest problem -- serious, hazardous code violations that contribute to crime and urban decay -- the North Central Neighborhood
Association in the Village is planning a public code enforcement meeting for 7 pm Tuesday, June 10, 2008 at the Daniel Boone Regional Library, Conference Room A. Guests include city council members Paul Sturtz and Barbara Hoppe; Columbia Board of Realtors director Carol van Gorp; and Neighborhood Response Team (NRT) director Bill Cantin. Largely responsible for central city code enforcement, the NRT is an official 2008 "Mayoral Priority."
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PAINLESS DENTISTRY: MU Researchers Use Chemistry for Serenity
By Mike Martin
For the Columbia Business Times
http://www.columbiabusinesstimes.com
With a $250,000 National Science Foundation grant, University of Missouri-Columbia assistant engineering professors Qingsong Yu and Hao Li want to make getting a great smile something to smile about. Their new technology, a so-called "plasma brush," brings the serenity of low-temperature chemistry to procedures that use the spinning, whirring, grinding, and dreaded dental drill.
The plasma brush also reduces a huge waste that bites into nearly every dental practice: replacing failed fillings. By modifying the surface of the tooth, the brush improves the composite bond.
“Most composites are made of polymers and ceramic,” Li told me. “They last, on average, 5 to 8 years before they shrink and break,” after which bacteria, acids, and enzymes infiltrate and cause more decay. “The plasma brush should greatly improve the bond and eliminate those problems,” he said.
Resembling its low-tech counterpart, the toothbrush, but with a slightly larger handle hooked up to a few gas tanks, the plasma brush uses argon gas to create a flaming “tip” known as a plasma. But this flame isn’t hot. Through the magic of chemistry, it operates at room temperature.
The heat-free flame “saves healthy tissue,” Yu told me. Conventional cavity prep – mechanical drilling and acid etching – often harms surrounding gums and nerves.
Park Avenue reconstructive dentist Daniel Noor, whose Manhattan office employs the latest laser instrumentation – told me that plasma dentistry “makes a lot of sense – no shots, no drills, no pain, no fear. I would certainly use it after FDA approval.”
Calling tooth decay “the most chronic health problem in children,” pediatric dentist Santos Cortez, who chairs the Long Beach (Calif.) Children's Oral Health Task Force, said he, too, supports the concept.
More children miss school for problem teeth than for any other reason and fear of the dentist – aka odontophobia – is a major reason they have problem teeth. The plasma brush, Cortez told me, “would be wonderful for pediatric dentistry. One of the most frightening issues for children is the noise of the drill.”
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READERS RITE: On the economy, and social entrepreneurship
Mike,
I really liked the Flagging Economy article. As you may be aware, I have only recently relocated to Columbia. Do you have any awareness of any local social entrepreneurs? I am interested in creating a collaboration network between businesses interested in making positive social change. Thanks.
-- Bruce Duncan, Tre www.treweb.org, Columbia
Hi,
I purchased a home on Rogers St. in October in the Village and have been renovating it. My fiancee and I are getting married in July and hope to enjoy
ourselves in this neighborhood!
-- B. Sherman, Columbia
Mike,
Good piece on the local economy. Do wonder where the school district is going to get the money to operate a new high school and new elementary school, particularly since they did not have enough money to operate the status quo this year. Add together a slow growing tax base to a stingy public, and it seems to me a big crunch is coming in 2010.
-- Bob Pugh, Columbia
Dear Mike,
Thank you so much for writing, compiling, seeking out information, reporting, etc. in The Columbia Heartbeat. Very timely, informative, sometimes funny, occasionally appalling. I was glad to get the info re: the Otts' award and event.
-- Susan Marshall, Columbia
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THE TRIPARTISAN: Local DemoLibeRep Events
The Boone County Libertarians meet for lunch at noon on the first Thursday of each month in the back room at Angelo's Pizza and Steakhouse, 4107 South Providence Road. For more information, please send an email to chair@boone.lpmo.org or call (573) 777-7908. http://boone.lpmo.org/
The Boone County Women's Democratic Club usually meets every third Monday of the month at 6pm at the Upper Crust Bakery on Greenmeadows road next to Murry's. (Those wishing to order food, may come at 5:30.) Our meetings provide informative discussions with current legislators and other individuals shaping Missouri’s political future, candidates and other individuals addressing issues which impact the citizens of Missouri. For more information on the next meeting and the schedule of topics or speakers, contact Carolee Wood at caroleew@centurytel.net.
Central MO Young Republicans June Meeting Thursday, June 12, in Columbia, 7 PM, at Jazz: A Louisiana Kitchen (1605 Chapel Hill Road, Suite B, corner of Chapel Hill and Forum Blvd.) We will meet in their private dining room. Scheduled speakers: Blaine Luetkemeyer and Danie Moore, candidates for the 9th Congressional District. Please RSVP to zweifelmr@hotmail.com - invite your friends to attend as well. All ages welcome to attend; free and open to the public.
The Boone County Muleskinners meet each Friday at noon in the Stamper Commons Windsor Lounge on the Stephens College campus at College and Broadway (see map below), to hear a speaker on some aspect of government or public affairs. All programs are free and the public is invited. Parking is free at the adjacent lot on Willis. Lunch is available for purchase ($8 adults, $5 students). For more information, please contact Kay Callison by email at aaplinc@centurytel.net, or by phone at 449-7075.
Columbia Pachyderm Club Upcoming Guest Speakers
May 30 - Kevin Crane, 13th Circuit, Circuit Judge, Division 3
June 6 - Kurt Schaefer, 19th State Senate candidate
Meetings are at Jack’s Gourmet Restaurant on the Business Loop in Columbia. Meetings start at 11:45 A.M. and last until 1 P.M. Lunch may be purchased for $5 for salad, $7 for full meal.
Pack Day for the MarineParents.com Care Package Project -- Saturday, June 7 They ship care packages to Marines serving in Iraq and Afghanistan five times a year, all from here in Columbia. The next pack date is June 7 starting at around 8:30 AM and usually goes until a little after noon or 1 PM, depending on how many packages (usually around 1000) are going out and the number of volunteers. They also take volunteers to help sort product on Thursdays and are always looking for donations of either cash (for example, the recent postage increase bumped the price of the APO/FPO flat-rate Priority Mail box by about $1) or items that can be sent to the troops. More information can be found at http://www.carepackageproject.com/
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PARTING THOUGHTS: My Twin
"When I was young, I told everyone I had a twin sister. One day, after we had been to see relatives, my mother told me I was too old to play that game any more.
So I stopped talking about her and after a while she finally went away. But I'm grown up now. I still miss her. I wish she would come back."
-- Brian Andreas, featured at Blue Stem Crafts in the District
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Mike Martin
Blogitor-in-Chief
Member: National Press Club (www.press.org)
The Columbia Heart Beat
http://columbiaheartbeat.blogspot.com
Circulation: Roughly 3,470
ARCHIVE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nccna/messages
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