… that probably didn't make the headlines it deserved.

According to a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a national study singled out Missouri for its efforts in government management, specifically the state's transportation projects. The Pew Center on the States, "ranked Missouri among the top eight states, awarding a B+ for government management practices. That's up from a B in 2005, when the group last reported.

"The study notes that Missouri road projects consistently ran over budget and behind schedule in the 1990s."

Conversely, our neighbor to the east received a D in the report. No surprise then that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich issued a statement downplaying the report as "politics."

* * *

News you can use …

… to call your elected officials.

John R. Lott, Jr., writing for Fox News had the following under a headline that read; "Global Warming: Is It Really a Crisis?" pointed out that all three of the remaining presidential candidates have promised "massive news regulations that will cost trillions of dollars to combat global warming.

"Ironically, this political unanimity is occurring as global temperatures have been cooling dramatically over the last decade.

"Global temperatures have now largely eliminated most of the one degree Celsius warming that had previously occurred over the last 100 years. Hundreds of climate scientists have warned that there is not significant manmade global warming."

And

The guy that founded the Weather Channel is blasting the network and wants to sue Al Gore to "expose the fraud of global waming."

Jeff Poor of the Business & Media Institute reported on a speech delivered by John Coleman, founder of the Weather Channel, at the International Conference on Climate Change last Monday in New York.

"The Weather Channel had great promise, and that's all gone now because they've made every mistake in the book on what they've done and how they've done it and it's very sad," Coleman said. "It's now for sale and … a new owner of The Weather Channel will be announced… Let's hope the new owners can recapture the vision and stop reporting the traffic, telling us what to think and start giving us useful weather information."

Coleman also told the audience his strategy for exposing what he called "the fraud of global warming." He advocated suing those who sell carbon credits, which would force global warming alarmists to give a more honest account of the policies they propose.

"[I] have a feeling this is the opening," Coleman said. "If the lawyers will take the case -- sue the people who sell carbon credits. That includes Al Gore. That lawsuit would get so much publicity, so much media attention. And as the experts went to the media stand to testify, I feel like that could become the vehicle to finally put some light on the fraud of global warming."

Is Coleman trying to tell us global warming is all about money? Is global warming really just a scam?

Think about that the next time you try to flush one of those "Al Gore toilets" that limit the amount of water allowed into the bowl. Although, I will tell you there is one local gal who fixed that problem with her own toilet by going in an cutting a big hole in the plastic mechanism that restricts the water intake.

I'm sorry, her name cannot be revealed lest the Toilet Bowl Police fly in here and raid her home.

Let's not forget those "Al Gore light bulbs" either. You know the ones. They look like someone started out to make an ice cream cone and skimped on the ice cream. Rumor has it this will be the only type of light bulb available in a few years.

There are a couple of problems with the "Al Gore light bulbs." One, they are expensive. A lot more than the bulbs most of are using now. Someone pointed out that these new bulbs last a lot longer than the old ones. My point is; Who cares? That's just means it's a longer period of time you can't see and that's my second problem with the "Al Gore light bulbs." They save energy because they don't put out enough light. We'll have to have twice as many of these bulbs to get enough light to see. Then, there goes the money savings from the longevity of the bulb.

Personally, I like John Coleman's idea, make Gore put up or shut up.

* * *

From the (virtual) mailbag

Most of us are aware of the accomplishments of David Hine in the swimming pool. As it turns out, little sis, Susannah, may not be far behind.

In Claremont High School's first swim meet of the year Susannah claimed first place in the 100-meter backstroke. She clocked a time of 1:09.75 for those of you who are familiar with such times.

Susannah has informed her mom and dad, (Big) David and Cindy, that she would like to attend the University of California-Berkley. Just in case there were any thoughts of an early retirement.

When I read the email it was just a little hard for me to think about anyone swimming, indoors or out, with 30-degree temperatures here.

We also note that our local Rotary Club enjoyed a very pleasant breakfast meeting on Thursday. And they all came away without having their wallets picked clean by the Sergeant-at-arms who happened to be out that day.

Bud Hunt is the publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.