Speakout 5/18

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

I read about the Sikeston city ordinance and the subject of minimum wage came up. It was printed as $5.75. Who can a person call to find out if a worker who is being paid $5.50 an hour is underpaid?

The actual national minimum wage is currently set at $5.15. The information in the May 11 article was incorrect. We regret the error.

Does anyone know how Sikeston High School chooses the nominees for homecoming or prom king and queen's court? Is there a club or group of teachers or students who pick these? I believe the student body votes, but how do they choose the nominees who are to be voted on?

We called Sally Lape at Sikeston High School with your questions. "For the fall homecoming queen, nominees are chosen by football, boys soccer, girls tennis, girls volleyball and cross country team members. The top five girls are then voted on by entire student body. For winter sports homecoming, the girls are nominated by girls basketball, boys basketball and wrestling teams. The entire student body votes on the queen from the top five nominees. The Growler yearbook staff oversee the nomination process for prom queen. The senior class nominates five boys and five girls who best represent the spirit of Sikeston High School. Then out of the nominations, the top five senior girls and top five senior boys become the Growler king and queen court. The entire student body votes on the king and queen. In past years, the prom king and queen represented the Growler, voted on by the student body but was done by the yearbook staff. They are now called the prom king and queen, however the Growler staff is still in charge because the king, queen and court are featured in the yearbook."

How in the world did the governorship of Missouri ever default to this loser, Bob "don't-blame-me" Holden? His strategy for leadership is cockeyed. When any program is underfunded, Democrat strategy is always spend what you got as fast as you can and then blame the Republicans for being so stingy they didn't properly prepare the budget. Holden, reacted as the most conservative (goofy is more like it) governor in history, sitting on education funds month after month that were available to school districts and forcing school administrators to take drastic action with a disruption of scheduled day-to-day school management to deal with his bizarre re-election plan. Holden now thinks everyone should get on board to help re-elect him as the friend of education. He is actually so far out of step with his own party and accepted protocol on so many issues that he has a good chance (the Lord willing) of not getting his party's nomination. If Democrats prevail in the next election, let's pray it's not with "Booby Bob" Holden.