Sunday, March 2, 1914. Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina Island

 Avalon Bay, Santa Catalina Island

There's not an App for that. WYDOT

Dear Wyoming Department of  Transportation, you need an App.

There's nearly an App for everything, but not for Wyoming road conditions.  I know I can sign up for email alerts and the like, but an App is what I really want, and what you really need.

With an App, I could worry just the necessary amount, without  having to turn the email on, on my phone, and hear the "ding, ding, ding" stream of emails as every road in the state turned cruddy, save perhaps for the few I care about.

Come on WYDOT, give us an App.

Putting the Bond Issue in Prospective. Comparative costs.

Here's another Natrona County School District graphic that helps put the bond in prospective.

 

As this graphic nicely demonstrates, other Wyoming school districts have also had bond issues in recent years, and the proposed Natrona County one is the most conservative really.   Other districts, including Carbon and Albany Counties, are funding much more of their recent construction via bonds.  And in our case, the overall amount is naturally higher, as we have four schools, as opposed to just one.  Albany County's bond, as we can see, nearly rivals ours in amount, with a  much smaller population base and a single school.

The Wyoming Lawyer February 2014: Technology and the pace of practice

Just below, I have an item on Jack Speight's recent article in the The Wyoming Lawyer.  In that, I only addressed his comments on the dress code of the 1960s, which was no doubt much like the dress code for the entire history of the Wyoming State Bar at that time, but not so much now.  He also had a very interesting comment on technology and the pace of practice, which was:

One of the main differences between now and last century in problem solving is the pace of law practice. We have gone from manual typewriters, carbon paper, onionskin, Dictaphones and ditto machines, to the electronic revolution and the related social media platforms and unlimited websites. We are in the realm now of instant communication, instant crisis, and instant problem solving compared to the good ol’ days of reflection and analysis. Gone are the days of the black rotary phone on the edge of the desk and the IBM electric typewriters. Now we have handhelds of various sizes, shapes, and functions and apps from Smartphones to iPads to tablets. Regardless of how we communicate and represent our clients, our role as problem solvers has not changed in providing service to the clients obtaining satisfactory results and handling their problems successfully.

This is very much the case, and I'm frankly not too certain that the practice of law hasn't suffered as a result.

What the author notes about instant communications is very true.  I was an early adopter of computer technology and use it a great deal. Perhaps I shouldn't applaud myself on that, however, as the computer had just arrived when I started practicing law, with the internet arriving on the scene almost at the same time.  I'd been taught to use the new technology of Westlaw at law school, although we did did not concentrate on its use for research. When I was first practicing law, almost no firm had a Westlaw account and we went to the county law library in order to use their Westlaw terminal. We were always very careful about using it, and typically sought permission from a client to use it when we did, as it we were charged by the minute to use it.  Now, every lawyer everywhere has Westlaw access and younger attorneys can't imagine a world in which it isn't the first thing that a person turns to when researching the law.

I was slower to adopt smartphones, and I've only had one so far.   I went to a smartphone so that I could check my email anywhere, but like most busy lawyers, I even use text messaging in practice, albeit carefully. 

The revolution in technology certainly has changed this aspect of the practice of law.  It must have been the case that in earlier eras lawyers had more time to ponder, if you will, any one legal topic.  Chances are high that they call carried more of a variety of legal topics as well, so the list of things they pondered was probably fairly large.  But the need to respond within hours, or even minutes, was no doubt relatively rare.

Casper Star Tribune Editorial board: OK the school district bond

The Casper Star Tribune has changed its position (reluctantly, given the pools) and is now supporting the bond.
While I wish the Tribune would more fully endorse the pool, they finally see the wisdom of the bond and are arguing for it.  The paper is very much endorsing the CAP enhancements, and essentially indicates that prior to the recent hearings it didn't fully understand the bond proposals.  Indeed, it's indicating that its changed its position now that the proposal has been fully explained.  It deserves credit for being willing to continue to analyze and to change its opinion, something that takes some degree of courage, but something which deserves respect.

I have to say, I appreciate the Tribune's current editor, even when I disagree with him, much more than the former one.  He seems much more careful and thoughtful in his approach to things, and the overall quality of the newspaper has improved.

The Bond Issue: The actual cost

This graphic, generated by the Natrona County School District, nicely shows the actual cost to Natrona County property owners for improving the safety and relevancy of their schools.  $100,000 is highlighted, although I don't know if that's the median value of a county house or not, real estate values have been rising here. But as the Tribune points out, even for the owner of a $300,000 home the actual cost is only about $65.00 per year, an amount a person with a home of that value would no doubt spend on a night out here, easily.  Going to dinner, for a family of four in Casper, no matter where you go, is nearly always going to result in a bill over $80,00.  So the costs for the bond are are quite minimal, particularly given the longevity and nature of the improvements.

For those just entering school, no doubt the scientific and technical additions at CAP will result in their graduating with better options in life, making the bond cost on an annual basis worth it in and of itself.  So too with the swimming pools, with the 1923 pool at NCHS, coming down this summer, being a prime example, given that the investment there lasted for nearly a century.

Wyoming Lawyer February 2014: Standards of Dress.

 Fairly typical office attire for me, shirt and tie.

The  Wyoming Lawyer February 2014 issue just came out, and in it there's an interesting article by Cheyenne lawyer Jack Speight.  Speight's article relates to the topic of this blog in more than one way, as he discusses his practice dating back to the 1960s.  I'll probably come back to another topic discussed in his very short article, but what struck me (and apparently him, even in recollection) was this item:

With fond remembrance of the mid- 1960s,Cheyenne attorneys had a helpful little booklet consisting of about 30 pages in a 5 ½” x 8 ½” format with the relatively shocking title “Minimum Fee Schedule.” In addition to the obvious, the last page of this helpful little booklet spelled out a proper dress code for working in the office on Saturday mornings.Only on Saturday, ties were not required but a sports jacket or suit coat was still mandated. Naturally, the good ol’ boys who created the “Minimum Fee Schedule” and dress code did not give any direction on appropriate office attire for women, even though in the mid-1960s Cheyenne enjoyed the services of two outstanding women attorneys, Brooke Wunnicke and Ellen Crowley

This item is interesting for a variety of reasons (I wish somebody would publish a booklet of minimum fee schedules now). The reason I note it here is due to the dress code.

When I was in law school I remember learning in some class, probably trial practice, that dress in court was addressed by a rule, which it was.  Shortly after I graduated a new rule on courtroom decorum came in, which was less specific, in part, because the drafter of the rules were having a hard time handling the topic of female dress.  It isn't that female dress was inappropriate, its just hard to describe.  When I first started practicing we were told, however, what the rules were, and that there was a "warm weather" exception that allowed lawyers to dispense, in courtroom hearings, with jackets.

In the office, there were no longer any formal rules for lawyers, but there were informal ones that were reluctantly dying.  In our office, and older staffer informally enforced rules and what a person could and could not wear. Generally, if we weren't going to court, we could wear khakis and polo shirts.  I often, even then, wore jeans but not blue jeans.

Over time, this has really changed.  I can't say that there are any more real rules anymore, in any office, in so far as I can tell.  Many lawyers still wear ties every day, or most days, but many do not. Some routinely wear jeans in about every office.  It's been quite a change.  In the courtroom the rules haven't really changed, of course, and there's even one judge who made it known that he doesn't appreciate khaki trousers in the courthouse.

The change clearly started coming in during the 1970s.  I didn't have any experience with law offices at that time, but I do remember that doctors and dentist always wore ties.  Dentists still seem to even now, but doctors often do not.  

I can't say if this change is good or bad, but I do know that people expect members of various professions to have a certain look, even depicting them that way in popular media when it no longer reflects reality.  Generals in the military are always depicted wearing their dress uniforms, policemen are always depicted in blue.  Lawyers are depicted in suit and tie. While I violate this convention frequently myself, there's something to meeting these expectations.

The Bond Issue: The Mike Sedar Swimming Pool

The City of Casper's elected board, the City Council, has just voted to postpone rebuilding the decommissioned Mike Sedar Swimming Pool.

The old pool, which was ripped out either last summer or the summer before, was one of the principal pools in the town.  It was a 25  yard pool, and as amazing as it may seem to some, it was used for AAU swimming competitions when I was a kid.  Meter pools were rare at the time, and the pool had starting platforms at that time allowing it to be used in that fashion.  Principally built as a recreational pool (when most recreational pools were of a conventional construction) it also had a side area for a high dive, which was taken out some time ago based upon some concept of the appropriate depth for that, which it didn't meet.

Now it isn't there at all and now the city is pushing back its plan to rebuild the pool, which was going to be rebuilt in a much more elaborate, recreational pool, fashion.  The city noted that costs were going to be higher than what it anticipated but it also noted that it wanted to wait and see how the school district bond issue progressed.  In other words, they recognize the need for a pool, but may hold back to see if the school district, whose needs exceed the city's, achieves success in the bond issue thereby giving the city a little breathing room.

This is a distressing development.  In an era in which the news media here and all the government entities are telling us that the populations of the county is projected to rise, we seem reluctant to replace and repair (which is all we're really doing) those facilities that earlier generations of Casperites built, with smaller resources.  Right now we''re taking out one high school pool entirely and hopefully will be able to replace it.  Two others are in distress and need to be addressed.  A city pool has been removed and there's some question as to whether it will be replaced.  The old outdoor pool at Kelly Walsh was removed some time ago, and it was a city pool, and it was never replaced.  A party took a serious run at trying to grossly restrict or take out a local rifle range this past year. 

I'm not saying that a city needs to have everything, but in order to be a nice place to live it needs some facilities. And when the ones we have start to disappear and there's questions as to whether they'll be replaced, that's a long term problem.

BBC News - How Land Girls helped feed Britain to victory in WW1

BBC News - How Land Girls helped feed Britain to victory in WW1

Friday, February 27, 1914. The River of Doubt.

Mexican strongman Victoriano Huerta promised an investigation into the death of Clemente Vergara while, at the same time, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan announced that the Texas Rangers would not be allowed to cross into Mexico to arrest the suspect Mexican soldiers.

Theodore Roosevelt's and Brazilian explorer Cândido Rondon's expedition team reached Caceres, Brazil, to begin exploration of the Rio da Dúvida, an event from which Roosevelt's health would never recover by the time it was done.

The Vanderbilt Cup race was held.

Locally, the news was asbestos, but not the way it hits the news currently.

Wednesday February 26, 1914. Suggesting crossing the border.

Governor of Texas Oscar Branch Colquitt suggested in a telegram to Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan that Texas Rangers could cross into Mexico and retrieve the body of murdered Texas Rancher Clemente Vergara.  The Federal Government informed Colquitt that would be an act of war and refused his request.

The HMHS Britannic was launched in Belfast.

Closer to home, the news was all local.

I wonder what about the Poodle Dog Cafe made it a "Resort for Gentlemen".  That's usually code for something now, but I suspect that isn't what was meant.

The Natrona County School Board votes "yes" on the bond issue

The School Board voted to submit the bond issue, discussed below, to the voters for an election to be held on May 6.  I'll post the text of the issue when I have a chance, but here's a "huzzah" to the Board!

Numbers and history. How an inaccurate understadning of history leads to the innaccurate headline that the U.S. Army is being cut to pre World War Two levels

It's being reported today that the Department of Defense is preparing to reduce the size of the Army to between 440,000 to 450,000 active duty soldiers.  This is being reported as cutting the size of the Army back to "pre World War Two levels", which is inaccurate.  This, in turn, shows how not really understanding history, leads to some erroneous assumptions.

The cuts create the smallest size for the Army since 1940, but that fails to take into account that 1940 saw the introduction of the conscription in anticipation of World War Two and the Federalization of the National Guard. The size of the Army in 1939 was about 200,000 active duty soldiers, with there being an additional 200,000 National Guardsmen.  When Congress allowed for the mobilization of the Guard in 1940, it also brought in Conscription.  That may mean that there was very briefly a period, in 1940, when the U.S. Army had about 400,000 men in it, but that would have been very brief.

The current size of the Army National Guard is 358,000 men, which is an enormously smaller number than there were at the Guard's post World War Two Cold War height.  However, the size of the Army Reserve adds another 250,000 men.  In 1939, the Reserve was very, very small, essentially being made up of officers only, with a few supporting enlisted men. There really weren't any organized Reserve unis, outside of medical ones.

So, if fully mobilzed, for purpose of the comparison, the size of the Army in all is branches today would still be over 1,000,000 men. 

In considering these numbers, we also have to keep in mind that the Army of 1939 (and 1940) included Army Air Corps, the predecessor of the U.S. Air Force, which presently has 334,000 active service members, and 178,000 reservists of all types.  Therefore, to make the comparison fully accurate the branch that existed prior to World War Two, on the active side, would be compared to a present number of over 1,500,000 active duty personnel.

Still, it is quite a drop in numbers.

But it's not accurate to compare it to the pre World War Two Army.

USDA Blog » Digging into a Farm’s History Helps Teach About Soil

USDA Blog » Digging into a Farm’s History Helps Teach About Soil

The Moving Picture: European (Italian?) Cavalry

Natrona County School District Bond Vote

Tonight, February 24, 2014, the Natrona County School District will hold the second of its public meetings to take comments on the proposed bond issue, which will go to the voters, if passed, later this spring.

As Natrona County residents know, our single school district serves a population of at least 80,000 people and covers 5.376 square miles.  To put that in a bit of prospective, the state of Rhode Island covers an expanse of 1,214 square miles.  Vermont coveres 9,620 square miles.  So, the county is about four times the size of the state of Rhode Island and about 60% of the size of the state of Vermont.

That means the single school district serves children that come to its schools from a huge expanse.  The number of rural schools is not as large as it once was, in keeping with the reality that modern school requires modern infrastructure, and for the final stage of public schooling, high school, that is particularly true.

The district has four high schools, Natrona County High School, Kelly Walsh High School, Roosevelt and Midwest.  NCHS and KWHS are by the far the largest of the schools. Roosevelt is an alternative school, set up for kids who seek the benefits of its programs, and Midwest is a small community on the edge of the county.  Many Natrona County residents probably don't even realize that Midwest has a high school.  As can be seen, the concentration of high schools is naturally in Casper, simply because Natrona County, in spite of its vast expanse, really only has six towns within it, a couple of which are no longer really full towns.  Actual towns are the greater Casper area (Casper, Bar Nunn, Mills, Evanston), Midwest, Edgerton and Alocva.  Towns that once existed, and are sort of still there, include Powder River and Arminto.  The overwhelming majority of students attend NCHS or KWHS, which have huge student populations.

KWHS and NCHS are undergoing reconstruction.  Built in the 1920s, it is simply time for NCHS.  It's a beautiful school, but its facilities are dated.  This is also true for KWHS which is not nearly as old, but like a lot of buildings built in later areas seems to have borne the test of time less well. 

In Wyoming, school construction is basically funded by the state.  Education is legally a "fundamental right" in Wyoming, and all of the state's children have the right to the same basic education.  This has come to mean, both philosophically and legally, that the state's mineral resources, as reflected in income to the state, are distributed by the state, so that counties with low mineral production are not deprived of the ability to teach their children to the same standards that those with high incomes are.

This is not universal, however, as the state at some point determined that it would not pay for "enhancements".  Naturally, the state was concerned about being asked to pay for high dollar athletic facilities and the like.

But what is, and ins not, an enhancement has turned out to be a tricky deal.

In the proposed bond issue, Natrona  County School District No. 1 may be asking for funds that are not, in a real sense, "enhancements".  They are necessities.  The first of these is upgrades to existing schools for school security, something that cannot be ignored now that we have the ability to do it.  We blogged about that in an recent entry here.

Directly related to safety is funding for three swimming pools, one at NCHS, one at KWHS, and one at Midwest High School.  In a district that covers a territory as vast as that covered by some Eastern states, the need for this should be self evident.  These schools will be lifesavers for some, and will benefit all.  We have also blogged about that in this entry and in this one.

Finally, but not least in significance, we here in this area continually are told that our mineral extraction economy produces good jobs for local residents, particularly those who grow up here.  At the same time, those of us who have lived here for all or the balance of our lives know that quite often Wyoming's biggest single expert is our young people, whom, in lean times (and we have a lot of those) grow up, graduate from high school, and then leave in search of work, never to return.  We also know that the oil and gas industry is expressing a need for skilled employees, which in many instances they end up bringing in from out of state. And, additionally, if we're serious about educating our youth for the 21st Century, we have to admit that shops built in the mid 20th Century, aren't going to effectively serve that need. The Bond would fund construction of a Science and Technology center where students who wished to pursue these talents could.  We have blogged about that here.

The bond deserves to pass. The School Bard deserves credit for taking this on.  The people of Natrona County should come out to support them.