Senate OKs legislative pay hike
by The Associated Press
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While leaders of teachers unions waited at the Capitol for word about a possible 3.5 percent raise for their members, the Senate voted to hike lawmakers' annual pay by 33 percent, to $20,000.

The raise bill came Thursday morning from the Senate Finance Committee, which followed some of the advice of The Citizens Legislative Compensation Commission, according to Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas.

The commission recommended increasing both annual salaries and various per-day and expense payments for the 100  delegates and 34 senators, who now receive a base pay of $15,000.

If passed, the proposal would raise legislators' salaries to $20,000. The commission originally recommended to boost pay to $25,000 by 2009, which would have made West Virginia the highest-paid part-time legislature of its kind in the country.

Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin said the pay for the part-time Legislature goes toward the expenses members incur making constituent visits and traveling their districts. The bill provides for paying $5,000 a month during January, February and March and then $625 a month in April through November. It also includes mileage reimbursements for lawmakers.

"You have to compensate people,'' Tomblin said. "This isn't the 60-day-a-year job it might have been 20 years ago.''

That likely won't sit well with teachers and other public employees who have been pushing hard this session for raises, union representatives said.

"I can't imagine it not rubbing people the wrong way,'' said West Virginia Education Association President Chuck DeLauder, who was waiting outside the House of Delegates for a vote on the bill giving teachers a raise.

Senators said they expect some criticism.

"Is there ever a good time for legislators to give themselves a pay raise?'' asked Tomblin, D-Logan.

The measure now goes to the House of Delegates.

The West Virginia Legislature last voted to raise its pay in 1994, when it had been $6,500. The legislation sparked a public outcry and an unsuccessful legal challenge.

As a separate branch of government, the Legislature is the only body that can set its pay.

"It would be nice to put it in the hands of somebody else,'' said Sen. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson, who voted for the bill. "But we have to act on it.''

Matt Turner, a spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin, said Manchin is waiting to see what the House of Delegates does with the bill before making a decision.

Meanwhile, Delegate Ron Thompson, D-Raleigh, said in a statement Thursday he doesn't plan to take any pay for the current session. Thompson has missed virtually the entire session and was briefly removed from office before being reinstated.

"I cannot fathom anybody, especially specific House members, ever thinking I was going to accept full pay for not being there,'' he said. "How in the world could I do that in good conscience?''

Thompson said he plans to attend some of the few remaining House floor sessions, and then work with the House clerk's office to settle on an appropriate amount of pay for the remainder of 2007. Thompson was not present at House floor sessions Thursday morning or afternoon.

Thompson has said he is suffering from clinical depression. He has missed virtually every legislative function since the close of the 2006 session, although he did take the oath of office at the Capitol this month.

MPAA Wants New Rating For 'Hard R'

Posted Mar 10th 2007 5:04PM by Ryan Stewart
Filed under: Critical Thought & Trends, Celebrities and Controversy, Newsstand

According to an article in today's Variety, MPAA chairman Dan Glickman is trying to find a new rating that will group together the movies that currently tip the dirtier scale of the R-rating -- the 'hard R' films that contain copious amounts of nudity, the f-word every three seconds, or gruesome torture-horror imagery, for instance. The move is apparently being motivated by outraged parents who can't believe what is allowed under today's R-rating and demand there be something new between PG-13 and R to let parents know whether they are allowing their teenage children to see a 'soft R' or a 'hard R.' The article reminds us that this debate has been had over and over throughout the years, and that X-rated films like Midnight Cowboy even won Academy Awards before the rating was 'overtaken' by the adult film industry.

The MPAA is also under pressure from the studios to get rid of the NC-17 rating, because its association with heavy sexual content has made it almost worthless -- Blockbuster refuses to carry any DVDs rated NC-17, for example. Many daily newspapers also refuse ads for NC-17 films, even though unrated films with similar content can sometimes skirt by, the article notes. Cinematical recently interviewed Kirby Dick, director of This Film Is Not Yet Rated, about the pros and cons of the current ratings system, if you want to know more.

Police Arrest 7-Year-Old on Dirt Bike
Friday, March 16, 2007

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BALTIMORE — Police arrested a 7-year-old boy, handcuffed him and took his mug shot and fingerprints on a charge of riding a motorized dirt bike on a sidewalk.

At the station, Gerard Mungo Jr. was handcuffed to a bench and interrogated before being released to his parents.

"They scared me," Gerard told The Baltimore Examiner before breaking down in tears.

The arrest came after an officer saw Gerard riding his dirt bike on the sidewalk in east Baltimore on Tuesday, police spokesman Matt Jablow said.

The boy's mother, Kikisa Dinkins, said he was sitting on the bike with the motor off on the sidewalk when an officer grabbed him by the collar and pulled him off.

"I told them to let go of my baby," Dinkins said. "Since when do you pull a 7-year-old child by his neck and drag him?"

Dinkins said she called for a police supervisor to intervene, but the confrontation continued to escalate after the supervisor arrived.

"They started yelling at him, 'Do you know what you did wrong, son?'" Dinkins said. "He was so scared he ran upstairs."

Police arrested Gerard and confiscated the bike.

The incident brought new heat on a department already under fire for what critics call unnecessary arrests.

Police commissioner Leonard Hamm said in a statement that although the city has an ongoing concern about the nuisance of dirt bikes, the arrest "was not consistent with my philosophy of trying to solve problems in the neighborhoods."

Mayor Sheila Dixon said she planned to look into the case. "As a mother and as a parent, I am bothered by it," she said.

Dinkins said the incident scarred her son. "This has changed his life," she said. "He'll never be the same."