RUST COMMENTARY: ST. LOUIS AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS NEEDED TO KEEP CITY IN COMPETITION

I flew to Indianapolis (is that a politically correct name? INDIAN-apolis? -- with a minor league team called ... horrors ... the Indians) for a newspaper board meeting last Friday and Saturday. The one-hour, 21-minute self-piloted flight took me into the international airport.

In the last two years, MILLIONS of dollars have been spent upgrading the downtown into one of the most attractive midsize cities in the United States.

The major convention center and facilities make Indianapolis one of St. Louis's biggest convention competitors.

The Baltimore Colts football team moved there, and the Houston team has plans to move to Nashville, Tenn. Both have great airports. St. Louis needs to complete the plans and construct the improvements at Lambert Field or find itself without TWA and/or another major airline for a hub.

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Speaking of aviation ... one of the great summer events in the United States is the Fourth of July celebration on the St. Louis riverfront with three air shows daily ... this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Scott Air Force Base had a major open house this month which featured (along with air shows) a look at the NEW Mid-Continent public airport which will open this fall alongside and connected to Scott airbase. When opened ... some unusual possibilities will be presented for airline traffic diversion from St. Louis's Lambert field.

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FRANCINE SEIER (owner of Francine's Flower and Garden Shop) is spending a week at Disney World providing floral arrangement assistance and learning some behind-the-scenes tricks.

Husband A.J. (Al) Seier has been offered an unusual Central American aviation experience which we hope to be able to write about in the future.

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The CAPE CIVIC CENTER seems to be increasing its activities and support with the renewed funding by the United Way and some fund raisers over last weekend at the homes of John and Evelyn Boardman, Al Phillips and Charles and Adele Kupchella. This and the alternative school housed in the same building are IMPORTANT.

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GOVERNOR CARNAHAN left the Cape vocational-technical school funding in the appropriation bill last week (split in half from his original recommendation) and used the other half to help Sikeston (under the SEMO University umbrella) to start up a new technical facility.

I have no quarrel with that ... but the $2 million line-item veto of the SEMO TECHNOLOGY building (which was not in the governor's original budget) was justified because of the possible $31 million shortfall from the federal government due to the timing on the administration welfare program start up.

It's not clear, but it appears the state government scheduled a January startup but waited until June, which created a miscommunication problem that the feds say could cost us $31 million. Little information on this to date ... but generally bad news must be obtained by effort as few politicians want to be the bearer of same.

All in all ... PRESIDENT DALE NITZSCHKE seemed to be pleased with the overall increase in Southeast Missouri State University funding over last year.

With the budget bills out of the way, the governor has only noncontroversial issues such as the partial-birth abortion bill requiring his veto or signature.

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Common Sense for the CENSUS

Now is the time to overhaul the census before the count for 2000 begins. The process can be made postcard-simple.

A critical reason Americans are loath to fill out census questionnaires is that they are unjustifiably lengthy and intrusive, with pages of personal and occupation-oriented questions. The Constitution requires only a count of how many of us there are and where we live. It does not require the feds to collect reams of data for social scientists and corporate marketers. It's appalling that we must provide all this information under penalty of law. The private sector has the wherewithal and know-how to get its own marketing data. Talk about corporate welfare! A postcard approach would save billions of dollars and lots of aggravation

Another simplifying reform: Do away with racial and ethnic classifications. We are all Americans. Most of us come from diverse ethnic backgrounds and are intermingling more and more. Tiger Woods is the most notable public example, with a mix of Thai, Chinese, African-American, American Indian and Caucasian blood.

Quota-obsessed bureaucrats will howl at this acknowledgement of how truly diverse the American melting pot is. So what? We have traditionally judged people as individuals, not as members of groups. This whole pigeonholing rigmarole is silly and destructive.

One change should not be made: Sampling, a computerized method that adjusts population counts for the fact that not every individual is counted. This is an open invitation to political pushing and pulling and, ultimately, corruption. Population counts determine congressional seats and billions of dollars of federal aid. The Constitution requires an actual enumeration -- no guesswork or sampling -- of Americans every 10 years. A more aggressive approach to counting, such as Milwaukee and Indianapolis employed in 1990, will do away with most of the undercount.

Apocalypse -- NOT NOW

"Facts, Not Fear" by Michael Sanera and Jane S. Shaw (Regnery Publishing Inc., $14.95). Environmental education is now part of most school curricula. Alas, some textbooks give, in some instances, an overly pessimistic view of what problems confront us. Sometimes, this balanced book suggests, the purpose is to justify more government regulation and control over our lives. Science takes a back seat to politics. This guide is a straightforward, fact-filled, kid-friendly, scientifically based antidote to unbalanced presentations. It tells us where there are problems and challenges but courageously avoids scaremongering. Any house with school-age children should have this book.

Numerous subjects are succinctly covered; numerous myths are credibly demolished. Are we running out of trees? We have more trees today in America than we did in 1920. Global warming? Hot air. Temperatures have gone up on average one degree Fahrenheit in the last century, but most of that increase came before greenhouse gases were put into the atmosphere. "Apocalyptic claims such as a 25-foot rise in sea levels are no longer taken seriously by anyone except, perhaps, textbook writers." In fact, there was a significant decline in temperatures between 1938 and 1970. The book quotes one scientist-now predicting sever global warming-who 20 years ago was warning of the possibility of a new Ice Age.

Will automobiles choke us with pollution? This much maligned miracle actually saved cities from being buried under horse manure. Old cars are the problem -- less than 10 percent of our autos cause more than 50 percent of the pollution.

Dirty air? It is significantly cleaner than it was 20 years ago. Levels of lead are down over 90 percent. Is the ozone disappearing? Again, no. "Our children are rarely, if ever, told that this thinning of the ozone layer over Antarctica is temporary-a short period of time each year-or that it probably reflects conditions unique to the South Pole."

Will the earth's growing population lead to famine and pestilence? Food production is outpacing population growth, and longevity is increasing impressively. Elephant extinction? Bureaucratic bungling and misbegotten government policies have produced a disaster in Kenya, but thankfully pachyderms are thriving elsewhere in Africa. -- Steve Forbes in FORBES magazine

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China "Brackets" the Canal

Peter Leitner, a senior strategic trade expert at the Department of Defense, testified before the Joint Economic Committee that China has "bracketed" the Panama Canal with bases at both entrances. China is also moving into other strategic waterways, like the Indian Ocean, Leitner said. Leitner has written a new book in which he outlines the threats to America's national security posed by the decontrol of exports of U.S. technology. "I have seen the blatant manipulation of honest technical and engineering analyses that warned of the dangers to U.S. national security posed by the proliferation of advanced dual-use technologies." "Dual use" refers to computer electronics and other high-tech systems which have legitimate civilian as well as offensive military capability. Leitner says that under the Clinton administration, the curbs put on U.S. exports of high-tech equipment have been effectively eliminated. One example is laser technology. Because restrictions have been dropped, a $50,000 laser can now be used by any potential U.S. adversary to blind American pilots and neutralize a $20 million warplane. -- Washington Update

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Kudos: Marvin Wormington has been honored by the Jackson Rotary for bringing in more new members in one year than anybody else ever has in the history of the club. Not only that, he has brought in more new members this year than any other Rotary Club member from St. Louis to the Bootheel. In gratitude, the club has anted up $1,000 to make a contribution to the Rotary International Foundation so he can be named a Paul Harris Fellow. And the club will be sending him on a weekend vacation in St. Louis. Marvin is now on the Rotary board.

At the annual Chamber of Commerce dinner, Jeff Moore saluted Marvin for his work in bringing retailers to Jackson. (He chairs a special chamber committee to do this.)

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We have entered an Orwellian era in which entitlement replaces responsibility, coercion is described as compassion, compulsory redistribution for diversity and suicide is prescribed as death with dignity. If you tell people that you want to raise their taxes, transfer their wealth, county them by skin color or let doctors kill patients, most will object. Statists know this, and therefore are obliged to obfuscate. -- Forbes magazine

~Gary Rust is president of Rust Communications, which owns the Southeast Missourian and other newspapers.