Kudos to the Post-Dispatch

 

February 26, 2025

 

Before I get to the good part, I have to mention that I’m shocked that there hasn’t been a spate of letters to the Post-Dispatch about the lame crossword puzzle they substituted for the LA Times puzzle a few months back. But maybe they decided to use their limited space for trivial concerns like the election and the subsequent chaos, and just didn’t print letters about the puzzle. Their readers have never taken this sort of thing lying down before.

 

But that’s not really why I’m writing. I’m writing because the Post-Dispatch exposed the situation of the ridiculous grants awarded to non-existent businesses; and they didn’t just write one article; they kept after the story, until the St. Louis Development Corporation rescinded some; and it may rescind more. The paper broke the story last September, and has kept on top of it. And I’m proud of them.

 

The paper has also kept the public au courant with the shenanigans of the St Louis School Board—mostly misspent money by the superintendent and the cronies she hired at exorbitant salaries, among other things. I hand it to them—they have really made a difference there, too. Unfortunately, the board hired one of the cronies, who has a record of not dealing well with teachers in this district or previous ones, to be the new superintendent. Well, at least they tried.

Keep up the good work, Post-Dispatch.

 

DEI? WWJD?

 

February 18, 2025

 

Companies that made a big production out of adopting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion practices are now rolling them back because of the political climate. They’re afraid that adherence to the ideal will make them unpopular and cause them to lose money.

 

Here’s the thing: If they’d been following fair hiring practices all along, they wouldn’t have needed to trumpet their newfound initiatives when it was all the rage. They could have just pointed to their hiring history and called it good. Then they wouldn’t need to backpedal now.

 

Remember that once-popular question WWJD (“What Would Jesus Do?”)? It’s funny that the conservatives who call themselves Christians aren’t asking themselves that when it comes to including everybody in employment opportunities.

 

DEI? What WOULD Jesus do?

 

 

 

A Real Problem

 

February 12, 2025

 

There is talk in the Missouri legislature about eliminating the capital gains tax. Let’s move on from the part where wealthy people and corporations would pay less tax while the state already has a huge budget problem; and let’s not concern ourselves with the fact that separate legislation is being floated that would give the General Assembly the power to tax services that ordinary people use: HVAC work, lawn care, dog grooming…I hope that doesn’t include haircuts. 

 

No, the real losers in the deal will be the Real Estate brokers, who routinely try to talk people into buying more expensive houses when they sell their current ones. “You don’t want to pay that Capital Gains tax,” they say, as if paying the tax is worse than paying a ton of interest over the next 15-30 years on the more expensive home that you don’t need. Now what leverage will they use in order to upsell?

 

I wonder if Missouri realtors will rally to protect their  interests?