thenorphletpaperboy: EARTH MONTH

thenorphletpaperboy: EARTH MONTH:                                     Earth Month The 50 th anniversary of Earth Day and Arbor Day are in April, which gives us two...

EARTH MONTH

                                Earth Month

The 50^th anniversary of Earth Day and Arbor Day are in April, which gives us two very special days to focus on our environment. But first, before we talk about Earth Day, let’s look at a hands-on practical way to celebrate…by doing an Earth Day project.

Have you ever considered whether your yard has a positive or negative effect on the environment? Today, all across America we are moving back toward a greener country, but in our yard’s landscaping, we are ignoring the basic essentials to make that space compatible with our natural surroundings. When we remove honeysuckle and blackberry vines that look unkempt and snaky, we remove the animals that depend on the berries for food and the birds and small mammals that hide in the brambles. 

Worldwide, our songbird population is plummeting, and we are seeing plant and animal extinction at a rate only surpassed by the great dinosaur extinction. There are many reasons for this alarming decline in species, but one of the prime causes is loss of habitat due to urban development. We must reverse this trend, and I believe we can by some simple habitat management, and by agreeing to share our yard with wildlife. If you will share some of your yard, by restoring the natural habitat it once had, you can help solve the problem.

Here are a few ideas that will let you convert a small piece of your sterile, green yard into an attractive, wildlife compatible yard. 

The most critical part of your yard is the backyard. Think of the back 20 feet as your habitat contribution.  This area will give birds and small animals shelter and food as they enter your yard.  Just consider the habitat benefits if your 20 foot wildlife corridor were connected to your neighbor’s backyard to form a 40 foot corridor, which connected to your adjacent neighbor’s yard. That should be our goal: to give small mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects access to food and safety. However, you must give Mother Nature a hand.  First, you should plant a grove of nut or berry producing trees along the very back edge of the lot.  Then edge the grove with berry bushes of varying heights and species.  Mow and weed this area very lightly.  In fact, your goal should be to allow this area to slowly return to its natural state. 

Next, along the sides of your lot, continue with more hedgerow type plants, along with berry bushes.  In the adjacent open areas, allow native grasses and wildflowers to reclaim a portion of the area.  In order to achieve the proper balance, you must plant the wildflowers and native grasses.  Finally, in a back corner of your yard, create a small pond.  When you build your pond, set it in a natural drainage area, possibly one that would receive runoff from your roof.  When building your pond, don't be concerned about the size.  A 6 foot by 10 foot pond is adequate.  The pond depth should be around 3 feet in its deepest part and feather out to 2 inches to 6 inches in depth on one end.  I recommend a thin layer of cement to slow seepage. After construction, add 4 inches of dirt and rocks to cover the concrete. Your construction should allow a natural drainage spill point to carry excess water into the wooded back portion of your lot.  Stock your pond with minnows (for mosquito control) and Mother Natural will do the rest.

Finally, leave a mowed strip along your front sidewalk to keep your neighbors happy.

Your new yard now has the three criterion that makes for small wildlife habitat: woodland, wetland, and grassland. Wouldn’t that be a great way to celebrate Earth Day?

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 Now let’s talk about Earth Day. 

On April 22^nd we will celebrate the 50^th Anniversary of Earth Day. Fifty years ago an estimated twenty-two million Americans turned out to show their determination to save our planet. The air, water, and land pollution present in 1970s was so horrible that the Earth Day marches kicked off a wave of reform, which produced huge, positive strides to reverse the pollution of our planet. When we compare our environment today with the 1970s, we can easily see how much pollution was reduced. This massive outpouring of people created an awareness of how we needed trougher regulations, and how each individual could help to reduce the pollution of the planet.

During the 60s and 70s New York City had smoggy days that resemble what major cities in China and India have today. The water in New York City’s East River was so polluted that it created a lifeless pool of stagnant water, which actually smelled, and in Chicago a river caught on fire. Our leaders, who crafted the laws that resulted from that first Earth Day March, received a wakeup call from the vast numbers who marched. Congress passed the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, and our air and water has improved dramatically since then.

Yes, those who marched in the streets to support the first Earth Day made a huge difference. However, as much as we have gained over those 50 years, a great deal of it will be lost if we don’t demand our existing regulations be enforced and more stringent ones passed. Today is not the time to sit back and say, “Job well done.” We have just began to correct the environmental disasters that were created over the past 100 years. If we will once again attack the attitudes that created the degraded environment of the 70s, we can build on what was started fifty years ago.

 Although we have come a long way from the polluted 70s, we haven’t finished the job.  Today we are faced with new challenges such as Global Warming and the continuing extinction of thousands of species. We should celebrate our success with the realization that, while many of the problems of the past are history, others have reared their ugly heads, and if we don’t confront them, our children and grandchildren will live in a degraded world. The challenge is to once again support Earth Day, and make our voices heard.

This 50^th Year Anniversary of Earth Day is a perfect time to renew our goal, which is, very simply, to restore our damaged planet. We must gear up to bring a worldwide message that the Earth is in danger, and we want to be a part of the people who are determined to save it. Yes, we can make a difference just as those millions who marched that first Earth Day did, and we can use our influence to encourage others to be involved. We can’t march this year, but let’s make our voices heard again. I would like to see us flood this paper with Earth Day Letters to the Editor. I’ll ask the editor in charge of that section to print every letter on Earth Day. Wouldn’t it be great if Earth Day letters took up a whole page of the paper?

Send your Letters www.arkansasonline.com/contact/voices-form/ and join the “letter march” to show you care.

thenorphletpaperboy: RESTORE HOPE

thenorphletpaperboy: RESTORE HOPE:       Restore Hope, a Success Story Restore Hope is an organization that is tackling two serious problems in our state –incarceratio...

RESTORE HOPE

      Restore Hope, a Success Story

Restore Hope is an organization that is tackling two serious problems in our state –incarceration and foster care. To do so, they are focusing on reducing the repeat incarceration rate in our state’s prisons and the resulting placement of children into foster care. This organization is helping communities organize a collaborative intervention of government agencies, nonprofits, and local businesses. The coalition directly addresses the problems justice-involved families face upon being released from prison, having a child welfare case opened, or even being unable to pay a misdemeanor traffic ticket. In the past the men and women in these situations were unable to do simple things such as get a Driver’s License or reliable transportation to keep steady employment.

Paul Chapman, executive director of Restore Hope Arkansas, said his organization was started by Gov. Asa Hutchinson after he took office in 2015. The Restore Hope website states the purpose was to bridge a gap between government services and communities struggling to reduce the incarceration rate, facilitate a successful re-entry from incarceration to freedom, and reduce how many children are entering Arkansas' foster care system. Chapman’s overview of the program gives an outline of how Restore Hope works: "What we believe and what the research shows is that the types of problems that we all gathered here today to discuss are so complex, that not one organization, governmental or non-governmental, can actually make the kinds of changes that we all hope to make that, because we all operate in silos to our authorities, whatever they may be like without really any mechanisms to partner together, we have this execution gap," Chapman said at the Feb. 11 meeting in Crawford County. Restore Hope tackles these situations in a hand-on approach to solve the problems faced by newly released prisoners.

One of the primary reasons of prison population growth is the high number of repeat offenders, who for a variety of reasons return to prison. The Restore Hope program is targeted to provide assistance to released prisoners to keep them from being sent back to prison for breaking probation or committing other crimes. Many of the crimes or reasons for breaking probation are because these men and women don’t have access to the resources we have available. Restore Hope works to help them acquire what these individual need in order to live a meaningful life outside of prison.

After extensive planning, Restore Hope developed programs to train the recently released prisoners a trade and help them get a job. However, a closer look at the needs of these men and women revealed that a big factor after getting training and hired was having a driver’s license. By not having a car to drive to work was such a contributing factor, that just solving it made a huge difference in the lives of these men and women ability to live a normal productive life. Restore Hope volunteers work directly with these men and women to overcome problems such as these.

One of the initial goals of Restore Hope started with a 100 Families Initiative that is to preserve or reunite families. The various programs help families move "from crisis to career" using existing community resources, according to a page on the website for Restore Hope Arkansas. This is accomplished by engaging community partners, training agencies on a collaborative case management system, and recruiting case managers to respond when a family is in crisis. Restore Hope provides the coordination and infrastructure in which the community carries out the work of the initiative.

Executive Director Chapmen comments, "As we were putting people in jail and in prison for infractions, a lot of them were for parole and probation technical violations. So, it wasn't for a new crime or new convictions. It was the inability to meet the demands of the supervision that the individuals were already on."

That was the challenge that was met head-on by the 100 Family Program.

Two people who have benefited from the services provided by the 100 Families Initiative are Fort Smith residents Amanda Myer and her husband, Patrick, who joined the program last July. Beforehand, their two children had been taken by the state Department of Human Services after the couple were arrested and failed drug tests. Amanda Myer said after she and Patrick got out of jail the next day, a department caseworker put her in touch with Ms. Phillips, and the Restore Hope hands-on approach began.

"We started the DHS requirements [through the initiative], such as ... parenting classes and a psych evaluation, and drug and alcohol therapy," Myer said. "But we just kind of felt like we needed some more support from the community." At the time, Myer said Patrick was in school while she was working part time. Having just one source of income caused the pair to fall behind on some of their bills. However, Phillips helped them apply for rental assistance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and get utility help.

"We kept meeting with her, and we would go to her even if we just needed somebody to talk to, which happened a lot," Myer said. "When we started getting home visits, we needed a crib for our 2-year-old because before she had always just slept with us and that was one of the requirements that DHS had, so she had someone from the Care Portal that works with 100 Families bring us a crib that day to our house. They delivered it to us and everything."

Myer said their children returned in a trial home placement in September, and they regained custody Dec. 12. She and Patrick also got married on Aug. 23, two days before their first unsupervised visit with their children. In addition, Patrick completed his education and found work as a refrigeration technician. She believes that, without Restore Hope’s 100 Families Program, their situation could have turned out differently.

 "It's hard to go through this process on your own, so having that support is really helpful," Myer said. "And it's something that I'd really like to see other areas of Arkansas and the country take on because ... there's a lot of judgment automatically when you have a DHS case open, and to get that kind of support and have people that want to help you and want to fix it and don't just say, 'Well, you got your kids taken,' I think that's really crucial in improving everybody.”

By utilizing all three of the Restore Hope proven solutions, there has been an unprecedented success in Sebastian County. In two years, the number of children in foster care has decreased by 32%, the inmate population by 19%. These efforts are impacting an entire community.

In 2019 Restore Hope had direct contact with over 3,000 lives. That number represents a huge commitment by Restore Hope caseworkers and volunteers who have devoted untold hours to be a helping hand…when no one else was there to help.

            Restore Hope is living up to its name.

thenorphletpaperboy: Gasoline Prices at $5.00

thenorphletpaperboy: Gasoline Prices at $5.00:          Rollercoaster Gasoline Prices             Are you ready for some $1.50 per gallon gasoline? Sounds pretty good, huh? Well, i...

Gasoline Prices at $5.00

         Rollercoaster Gasoline Prices

            Are you ready for some $1.50 per gallon gasoline? Sounds pretty good, huh? Well, in my opinion, it’s heading down the pike. Yep, filling up a 20 gallon tank is going to cost you around $30. But there’s a hook, and the hook is $5.00 a gallon gasoline is also a virtual certainty. That would move your SUV to $100 for a fill-up: now here’s why; earlier this month the Saudis and Russians announced they were splitting up their little honeymoon, where they co-operated to cut oil production in order to prop up prices to around $50 to $60 a barrel. That sent shock waves through the already depressed coronavirus oil market, and the price of a barrel of oil dropped from nearly $50 per barrel all the way down to $30 per barrel. (It’s in the $20s as I write this.) The President has announced the Feds will start buying oil to put in the Strategic Oil Reserve, but that about like putting the Smackover Fire Department in charge of putting out the California wildfires. The outlook is beyond grim. 

            According to a press release by the Saudis, as of April 1^st, they are going to ramp up their 9,000,000 barrels of oil a day to somewhere around 13,000,000 during the year. The Russian, not to be outdone, announced they were also opening the taps for an unannounced major hike in oil production, and the Persian Gulf States, allies of the Saudis, said they are along long with the Saudis to boost production. As part of the same announcement the Saudis said they were cutting the price of current deliveries $4 to $6 per bbl. If you do the math, that puts somewhere around 8,000,000 bbls a day of new oil on an already depressed global market during 2020. That’s why oil dropped nearly $20 per barrel, and I’m very sorry to say, that’s not even close to the bottom of the price slide.

            Why are the Saudis and Russians trying to drive the price down?  Well, if you read their comments, it’s because they want to kill the high cost producers who are taking advantage of their price stabilization. Of course, the target is the American Shale Oil Drillers, who have put several million barrels of new oil on the market making the United States the leading oil producer in the world. However, that oil come with a high price tag, and I won’t go into why, but believe me the drilling of a 10,000 foot well, half of which is horizontal, shooting holes in 30 to 50 places in the pipe, and then blasting these holes with a sandy, water mixture that forces a couple of million pounds of sand into the ground is damn expensive. To justify spending 10 to 15 million dollars a well, the price of oil must be $40 to $50 at a minimum.

The American Oil Industry has developed a brilliant method of getting oil out of rocks that before were considered non-productive, and that technology has put several million extra barrels per day on the world market. The Saudis and Russians feel like they have been propping up the price of oil while the United States increases production and takes up more of their share of the world market. Very simply put, they are committed to put a stop to that.

            Consider this: if just the threat of increasing production dropped the price of oil $20 per barrel, what will happen if the Saudis and Russian actually put an extra 8,000,000 barrels of oil on the world market? Both countries have already committed they are willing to reduce their price in order to keep their market share, so the price of oil will tumble. When you drop below $30 per barrel that puts most of the shale wells uneconomical, and a further drop to $15 per barrel, which is possible, essentially put all high cost oil wells uneconomical. That is the Saudis and Russian goal, and to keep prices low until the American Oil Industry is in shambles.

            Of course, they are targeting the American Oil Shale producers, but in the crossfire are several thousand small oil and gas operators who don’t produce one drop of shale oil, but they are operating what are known as stripper wells, which produce sometimes as low as 3 to 5 barrels a day. These wells are only economical is the price of oil is high because many of them with high labor costs and the disposal of sometimes several hundred barrels of saltwater along with the oil, must have a high price for oil or their wells won’t be economical. Those producers are in every state in the country that produces oil, and an extremely low price for oil will severely impact them. Thousands of small operators will go out of business, and some of them will be in Arkansas.

            This is the outlook, assuming the Saudis and Russians don’t kiss and makeup. The small to medium size oil companies that are heavily invested in drilling for shale oil, and are dependent upon extensive bank financing, will go bankrupt. The banks that are heavy into financing these companies will take huge losses. The companies with strong balance sheets will pull back from drilling and several thousand drilling rigs will be stacked. Several hundred thousand oil workers will lose their jobs.

            The United States oil production will began a decline this year that will ultimately be as much as three to five million barrels a day. That is the Saudis and Russians goal. However, the real question is how long will they hold down the prices by overproducing? I have a gut feeling, since they tried this once back in the 1980s, and they did cut production but it went right back up quickly, that this time they will try to finish the job and the oil industry in the United State will suffer not just a few months, but maybe as long as two years.

            Well, that’s the $1.50 gas time. Now, if we look to the future, we know exactly what will happen, but not the timing. When the Saudis and Russians see the drop in oil production from the United States is sufficient to resume their proration, and our infrastructure is sufficiently damaged, they will agree to curb production and the price of oil will steadily climb. How much? The Russians need $40 to $50 per barrel for their country’s budget and the Saudis need at least $80 per barrel, so prices will climb back to above that level. However, in the past, a Saudi oil minister stated he thought $100 per barrel was a fair price for oil. Will the Russians and Saudis stop at $100 per barrel? What do you think?  

            The bottom line is simple: cheap gasoline seems like a good deal, but the long term costs to get that $1.50 gasoline for a year or so, will greatly overshadow the short term benefits.

Well, I’m sitting here with the coronavirus sweeping the country, oil prices whistling down, and the stock market dropping like a rock, wondering, “Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket?”

thenorphletpaperboy: Confessions of a Pokerholic

thenorphletpaperboy: Confessions of a Pokerholic:          Confessions of a Pokerholic Yes, I’ll admit it. Playing poker is something I truly enjoyed doing, but I don’t play anymore....