This week, let’s focus on a national subject. I was at a Parade Of Homes house yesterday evening and the builder was discussing the construction of the home with a group of elderly women who came in to peruse the house. Somehow the discussion came to the builder using Mexican bricklayers, and the elderly woman got incredibly upset because he supported illegal immigration by using them as labor.

It’s Evansville has a bit younger audience, so let’s hear your opinion. How do you feel about illegal immigration?

Use this open thread to discuss the subject.

With all of the news in the past week about Andrew Speaker, the Atlanta attorney who was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB) and then flew to Greece to be married, we thought we’d share a bit of Evansville’s history and how it relates to this story. In case you don’t know, tuberculosis is an infectious disease that affects the lungs and nervous system. It can be transferred via cough, sneeze, spit, kiss or even speaking, which is why it was highly unintelligent of Mr. Speaker to take a trans-continental flight while infected.

During the early 1900s it was an epidemic, but today is treatable using antibiotics in many cases. There is a strand of TB known as drug resistant tuberculosis that can withstand the main antibiotics used to treat TB, isoniazid and rifampin. Since 2000, there have only been 17 cases of extreme drug-resistant TB, which Speaker is infected with.

So where does Evansville fit in?

Continue reading Boehne Camp: Evansville’s Abandoned Tuberculosis Hospital…

We probably don’t need to tell you that gas is incredibly expensive right now. Prices around town are all above $3 and have hit as high as $3.30. Just yesterday I pumped $3.55 into my tank for premium. Ouch! Why is gas so expensive? If you ever took a basic economics course, you learned about supply and demand. There’s a limited supply of gasoline and high demand for it during the summer travel season. Because of this, stations are able to raise their price to meet the demand.

With Memorial Day weekend approaching, the gas prices don’t seem to be curbing driving and travel too much. While some people around town have taken to the METS bus instead of driving, the majority don’t seem to be bothered enough to change. For example, AAA expects there to be more travelers on the road this year than last year for the holiday. Rather than driving less or not taking those weekend trips, we’re cutting other luxuries out of our lives. 40% of consumers are taking fewer shopping trips to accommodate for the increased gasoline prices.

Does the price of gas bother you? Are you changing any of your habits because of it? Tell us in the comments.

photo courtesy of x-eyedblonde

It’s that time of year where aside from sniffing and sneezing from all the pollen, you are required to see at the local farmers planting their fields with the corn and soybeans. You may notice that there’s a bit more corn being planted this year though. In fact, its a national trend, according to the Louisville Courier Journal.

US Farmers are planting the most corn since World World II thanks to demand for ethanol-based fuel. US farmers are expected to plat 90.5 million acres of corn this year, which is a 15% increase over last year. Indiana will of course be a part of this boom planting 13% more corn this year. As any economist will tell you, when demand is high, so is the price. Farmers will certainly reap the benefits. Usually during harvest season the price of corn starts to drop as there is far more corn available than needed by the buyers. This year, with prices staying relatively steady, farmers should be able to pad their wallets a little easier than in previous years.

Ethanol, if you don’t know, is all the rage because it is mixed with gasoline to reduce the consumption of fuel and, thus reduce air pollution. Per unit volume, Ethanol burns 30% less energy than gasoline. You’re most likely going to be hearing a lot about the fuel additive in the coming months because of the upcoming Iowa Caucus, the early indicator of who is getting nominated as their party’s presidential candidate. Iowa, as you can imagine, is the largest producer of corn, so candidates will be talking about this important topic up to the January 14th caucus.

Ethanol production is not without controversy. Many have said that Ethanol doesn’t really save the consumer any money compared to gasoline because of the cost of producing ethanol. Additionally, the energy savings cancel each other out when you take into account how much energy is spent on producing the ethanol versus the amount of energy used by the product.

photo courtesy of i am jae