Yesterday the Charleston Gazette published an editorial about the problem of skyrocketing college costs – an unusual topic for a West Virginia newspaper given that Governor Manchin held all in-state public higher education institution tuition rates flat this past year.

The long-term higher education trend, however, is highly unfavorable with tuition rates increasing far more quickly than inflation, including health care inflation.  A recent report by the Goldwater Institute says administrative bloat, which has increased significantly over the years, is a large part of the problem nationally.  The report says the number of college administrators per 100 students increased by 39 percent between 1973 and 2007.  While the analysis can be criticized for lumping some quasi-administrative jobs in the mix, the Goldwater Institute is on to something.

I have been inundated with telephone calls and emails from people concerned about me as a result of the disappearance of numerous recent posts from this blog.  At some point in the distant future, I will provide a detailed explanation of recent events, but that will not occur before legal processes have run their course.

While it should be clear that I have grave reservations about several technology actions on the September fast track, I am pretty sure the policy and process issues are going to be trumped by the criminal investigation and two civil lawsuits against government and higher education officials rumored to be in the works.

Meanwhile, my “deafening silence” concerning technology will continue.

I have very mixed emotions about the Circuit Court decision throwing out Lincoln County’s Circuit Clerk election results.  Why?

First and foremost, my parents were two of those absentee voters.  Dad and Mom, who are in their late 80s and 70s, find it difficult to go anywhere, much less to the polls on Election Day.  So when Jerry Bowman and Donald Whitten came to visit, they were very happy to take the men up on their offer to assist them in casting absentee ballots.  Unfortunately, their votes (which generally cancel mine out) were called into question because others did not have valid reasons to cast absentee ballots.

So many people acquitted themselves so poorly in this latest Lincoln County voting scandal that it’s hard to identify the worst offender.  Thomas Ramey, Jerry Bowman, and Donald Whitten ran around getting all kinds of people to cast absentee ballots in clear violation of the law.  On election night, Donald Whitten appears to have delayed the release of election results to disguise what had happened.  On the other side, Commissioner Charles Vance accused Ramey, Bowman, and Whitten of voting dead people, which ended up not being true.  Prosecuting Attorney Jackie Stevens then declared Charles Vance’s charges false and gave the election a clean bill of health.  In the end, Jerry Bowman appears to have settled the case in part to avoid testifying under oath and otherwise helping federal prosecutors make a case against him.

Four of these men will continue to serve as elected officials.  How many scandals will it take before Lincoln County throws out the political factions and elects a slate of candidates who are not corrupt?  Today, I am glad I live in Putnam County.