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Supreme Court Upholds Vaccine Liability Protection

Feb 23rd, 2011
by Dan.
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Reuters reports that the Supreme Court has upheld the federal law protecting vaccine makers from lawsuits that arise from damage caused by vaccines.

Adventures in Autism blogger Ginger Taylor says, “The world has just changed.” The Reuters article says that the Court protected vaccine manufacturers. These statements are not entirely correct.

The Supreme Court protected the government. At issue was the necessity for a law to mean what it says. We can’t have laws that, for example, promise that we can drive 65 mph on major highways but allow the highway patrol to pull us over for doing 55.

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Gov.-Elect Kasich: Cut Taxes and Spending, Stop the Train

Nov 5th, 2010
by Dan.
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National Taxpayers Union reports:

In Ohio, Governor-elect John Kasich said that he would deliver on a promise to cut the state’s income tax in his first budget and announced plans to stop a new passenger train project. His statements are welcome news for Ohio, which has the 18th highest state and local tax burden in the nation and the third worst business tax climate in the country according to the Tax Foundation.

Make it happen. Please. The 3C rail system would have received continued government subsidies and run an average speed of 41 mph between Cleveland and Columbus, according to its own proponents at the Engineers Foundation of Ohio conference in September.

Reducing costs and making Ohio more business-friendly.  These are promises worth keeping.

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EFO 2010 Conference, Day Two

Sep 17th, 2010
by Dan.
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Leading off the second and final day of the Engineers Foundation of Ohio Continuing Professional Development conference was two hours of a preview of the “3C” Passenger Rail Plan, which would connect Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland, Dayton, and other cities with high-speed passenger rail.

Stu Nicholson, public information office for the Ohio Rail Development Commission, gave what was essentially a sales case for the 3C project, even though the law authorizing the route had been passed and $400 million in federal stimulus money had been approved for the project. He made the following points:

  • The plan would benefit Ohio’s freight rail partners and improve Ohio’s position as a logistics and distribution leader.
  • “Jobs. Jobs. Jobs.” 255 construction jobs and over 8,000 indirect and spin-off jobs.
  • Safer railroad crossings
  • Economic potential at the eight station stops
  • Urban core revitalization
  • As gas prices rise, people want transportation choice.

There was a case study involving the Amtrak Downeaster, which currently runs from Boston up to Portland, Maine, and is being extended up to Brunswick. Commuters like not having to live in high-tax Massachusetts in order to work in Boston.

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EFO 2010 Conference, Day One

Sep 16th, 2010
by Dan.
2 comments

Each year the Engineers Foundation of Ohio holds a Continuing Professional Development Conference in the fall. These are one of two opportunities in a year when an Ohio engineer can earn all of his mandated 15 continuing education hours in one event. The conference is two days long, and today was the first day.

The morning was three hours of my industry, petroleum engineering.

Peter MacKenzie, a certified petroleum geologist and president of MacKenzie Land & Exploration, Ltd., talked about oil and gas exploration in Ohio for the first hour.  As my experience is mainly in Oklahoma and Texas, I found this quite informative.

Some notes:

  • Natural gas is a cheaper source of energy per BTU than oil. Wood is slightly more expensive than oil, and alternate sources of energy such as wind and solar can be up to 4x as expensive.
  • Conservation helps us reduce our dependence on oil, but world demand increases at twice the rate of our conservation.
  • China and India are still increasing.
  • Oil supply is plateauing, but doesn’t look to “peak” as some theorists are proposing.
  • Disruptive breakthroughs in energy storage and transmission are needed to make alternative energy sources viable.
  • Our petroleum infrastructure needs serious upgrading. We are using WWII-era oil conduits to move natural gas.
  • Our homes on average are 29% more energy efficient than in 1980.

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Ohio Votes on ObamaCare

Mar 22nd, 2010
by Dan.
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For the record, I don’t blame Rep. Stupak for voting with his party. Scorpions sting frogs, end of story. Repeal is going to take two years at least, unless the Senate and House suddenly become veto-proof Republican in November. Not one Republican in the House voted for it.

Coming soon to Ohio ballots. The demand for pain pills is about to go up.

The roll call:

Austria, Steve, Ohio, 7th – R – No
Boccieri, John A., Ohio, 16th – D – Yes
Boehner, John A., Ohio, 8th – R – No
Driehaus, Steve, Ohio, 1st – D – Yes
Fudge, Marcia L., Ohio, 11th – D – Yes
Jordan, Jim, Ohio, 4th – R – No
Kaptur, Marcy, Ohio, 9th – D – Yes (how she justified it)
Kucinich, Dennis J., Ohio, 10th – D – Yes
LaTourette, Steven C., Ohio, 14th – R – No
Latta, Robert E., Ohio, 5th – R – No
Kilroy, Mary Jo, Ohio, 15th –  D – Yes
Ryan, Tim, Ohio, 17th – D – Yes
Schmidt, Jean, Ohio, 2nd – R – No
Space, Zachary T., Ohio, 18th – D – No (Thank you, 18th, for ringing his phone!)
Sutton, Betty, Ohio, 13th – D – Yes
Tiberi, Pat, Ohio, 12th – R – No (Thank you, my congressman :) )
Turner, Michael, Ohio, 3rd – R – No
Wilson, Charles A., Ohio, 6th – D – Yes

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Engineering Conference

Nov 16th, 2009
by Dan.
2 comments

I spent two days at an engineering conference presented last week by the Engineers Foundation of Ohio to earn required continuing education hours for my PE license. While none of the topics themselves left me completely disinterested, some of the classes were better executed than others.

A partner and an associate of a law firm that handles labor and employment law gave four presentations during the first day. Three of the presentations had little content that I had not been exposed to: Federal Labor Standards Act, Workers Compensation, and Litigation Avoidance. The third out of the four, Social Networking for Engineering Business, gave some of the legal issues about using Facebook and other social networking sites to prescreen interviewers. All four presentations served to open a window into the aggressiveness of the partner, which I suppose can be a good advertisement.

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