Local businesses are supporting federal workers. Dysfunctional elected representatives are still being paid. Think about that for a moment.

Photo credit.

I was the greeter at Pints&union on Thursday night, and it was a wonderful scene given the ridiculous circumstances. Thanks to Joe, our team and the volunteers for rocking it.

Save your Darwinian drivel for another time, and urge Senators Young and Braun, and Representative Hollingworth, to be accountable to their constituents.

And now for local chain newspaper guest columnist Amanda Beam's commentary on this matter, as picked up by CNN.

Congress and the President continue to weave a web of partisanship born out of pride. My husband and federal workers like him have gotten trapped in their sticky mess. They ask people deemed "essential" to execute their duties despite withholding funds but neglect their job of approving a workable budget.

Yet somehow the representatives who fail to pass legislation are still receiving their paycheck. A trip through Alice's looking glass couldn't produce a more mixed up world.

No matter your party loyalties, you must admit this is no way to run a household, much less a government.

Enough is enough. Not resolving this shutdown through courage and compromise is a dereliction of Congress's sworn duty. Generate bipartisan legislation. Bring it to a vote. And, if vetoed by the President, work among yourselves, override the veto and fund our nation.

To conclude, it's great to see an increasing number of local businesses picking up the pace.

Local businesses offer free services for federal workers, by Brooke McAfee (Bill Hanson's Tom May Content Reciprocator)

SOUTHERN INDIANA — As the weeks have passed, Floyds Knobs resident Robin Huntley has had to save her money while furloughed from the U.S. Census Bureau in Jeffersonville.

But a few local restaurants have made it easier for her family, along with many others, by offering free services for federal employees affected by the government shutdown. This week, she received free meals at businesses such as Pints & Union and Cox's Hot Chicken in New Albany.

Huntley said the businesses' support of federal workers defines community, and she plans to support the participating restaurants after the government shutdown is finished.

"Everyone is going through it together," she said. "When a new business opens, we come down and support them, and when they see that some of their clients are not able to come in, they pitch in and help. It really is a community relationship" ...

Amanda Beam's excellent newspaper column is called "Polling position."

The recent poll generated by Liz Watson's campaign was snapped up with lightning speed by the News and Tribune, elevating just another social media tout redolent of the AdamBot's knee-pants DNC tactics primer to the status of genuine news item. I find this regrettable, given that the newspaper hasn't offered the same freebie to surveys subsequently released by Dan Canon's campaign.

Either both these question-asking efforts are sufficiently reputable for newspaper coverage, or neither. I can't determine why one is, and the other isn't, although it is at least gratifying that management allowed Amanda Beam's excellent column to be published.

The past week has been critical for me in making a final decision about how to vote in May. I've leaned Canon from the start; admittedly, there's a final piece of the puzzle to be pressed into place, and I trust it will.

In the interim, merely remember that when the party establishment is the problem, party establishment candidates push no favorable buttons with me. If you have access to the newspaper's articles, I strongly encourage reading the entire column. Meanwhile, here's the middle section of it.

BEAM: Polling position, by Amanda Beam

... Fast forward a few days. I noticed an article on social media that revealed one of the results of the poll I had taken. However, not included was who had commissioned the survey or the questions they asked in the order they had appeared.

Call me crazy — again — but if a campaign paid for a survey I find it difficult to treat the results as valid.

So if you know me and my big mouth, then you would understand I could only do one thing. I spoke up not so eloquently on social media. Citing my own experience with the survey, I questioned who commissioned the poll and, ultimately, its validity.

Sometimes when you ask questions you get great responses. Other times you get insinuations that you are a mindless twit.

I got both ...

There will be a local forum for NAFC school board candidates at the Roadhouse on Thursday, October 13.

And Amanda herself is moderating.

Is a candidate's position on the Hibbard Referendum about to become a litmus test? Inquiring minds want to know. I intend to attend.

As a side note, I wonder if the Roadhouse has heard about that whole craft beer fad thingy yet? I'm not holding my breath.

BEAM: Learn about school board candidates at local forum, by Amanda Beam (News and Tribune)

... Beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, the (Floyd County Democratic Women’s Caucus) will host a panel featuring those running for the board of the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. at the New Albany Roadhouse on Graybrook Lane. The discussion will follow their monthly business meeting which will start 30 minutes prior. The event is open to the public.

Members of the organization have submitted questions, and yours truly will moderate the discussion. Eight of the nine contenders on the ballot have said they will participate.

Each respondent will deliver an introduction, and then have two minutes to address the topic. Please note this is not a debate, but a session designed to inform voters on candidates’ views of issues in education today. After the panel, those participating will be able to mingle with voters and answer any additional questions.

Spa's gone, and Kevin Zurschmiede's tiresome white male smirks proliferate as Amanda Beam returns to the topic of the sex trade.

In Amanda Beam's News and Tribune column on Tuesday, she picked up right where she left off last week -- and where she left off last week was very instructive, indeed.

Meanwhile, KZ apparently thinks the crisis has passed. This belief is mistaken. I recommend that he issue a statement taking ownership of SpaGate, apologize for his insensitivity, vow to be more vigilant in the future, and move on. He stands to lose nothing by masquerading as a human.

Otherwise, I'll be compelled to spend the weeks from now through November 3 reminding him of it. I might just do that anyway.

Beam: Bless the broken road.

When you are a writer, certain stories affect you in unforeseen ways. First and foremost, the goal of a columnist is to change readers’ minds, or at the very least educate the public about certain issues.

Once in a while, though, research into a subject transforms the opinion of the journalist instead. Learning about the realities of human trafficking has caused this kind of change in me.

If you had asked before I embarked down this journey what my views were on prostitution in America, I would have answered that as long as the sex workers weren’t being coerced or trafficked, then I had no interest in what women do in their own lives. That’s the libertarian in me.

Boy, was I wrong. Prostitution makes victims of its workers, many of who had been traumatized to begin with.

Mayoral paperwork filed, Zurschmiede suddenly becomes aware of human trafficking.

ON THE AVENUES: Got spa? Time for CM Zurschmiede to reel in the years.

Amanda Beam's column about human trafficking and the sex trade, and Kevin Zurschmiede's spa denial.

ON THE AVENUES: Got spa? Time for CM Zurschmiede to reel in the years.

ON THE AVENUES: Got spa? Time for CM Zurschmiede to reel in the years.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

This isn't about politics. It's about common human decency. 34 is the average age of death for women who work in the sex trade. The biggest cause of death? Murder. Time to stop looking the other way as a community and do something.
– Amanda Beam

Earlier this week in Amanda Beam’s newspaper column, she provided a clear and concise reminder about the toll of human trafficking in the context of the sex trade.

For years, I’ve heard rumblings about local “spas” and how the female workers are rarely seen entering or exiting the establishment. Rumors circle that the ladies provide sexual favors to their customers for the right price. Polaris, a nationwide organization dedicated to combating human trafficking, notes prostitution can occur in these establishments.

Do we know for certain that the females in these spas are victims of human trafficking? No. But given the ties between the sex trade and this offense, every suspected case must be investigated, which is not an easy task for law enforcement.

Even without the slavery component, the average age of death for those employed in the sex trade is 34 with homicide being their highest cause of death.

Yes, that’s the motif: “For years.”

One of these local spas is prominently located at the corner of Main and Pearl, in a building owned by councilman and mayoral candidate Kevin Zurschmiede. He has owned the building and been the spa’s landlord … yes, you guessed it.

For years.

Upon the publication of Amanda’s column and her subsequent posting on Facebook (later reprised at NAC), some portions of the New Albany body politic were seized with inexplicable Casablanca nostalgia. They were shocked to learn of such untidy matters, just shocked, and then they were angered, too.

After all, hadn’t Zurschmiede declared his candidacy for mayor only last week? Wasn’t the exposure politically motivated?

No.

---

As Tricky Dicky used to say, let’s make one thing perfectly clear.

This story wasn’t written for the very first time in February, 2015. Rather, the issue of whether or not “full service” activities have been offered by Zurschmiede’s spa tenant has been a topic of conversation for years, long predating his decision to seek the city’s highest office.

At NAC, the spa is mentioned as far back as early 2012. It flared at regular intervals, and the impending publication of Amanda’s newspaper column has been the worst kept “secret” in town. Seemingly everyone knows, save for Zurschmiede himself.

Then, as now, this is important primarily for the reasons Amanda so capably explained in her column, with an important corollary: Do reasonably informed adults have any excuse for not being familiar with the existence of human trafficking and sex slavery, whether in Sao Paulo, Shanghai or Silver Hills?

And, is Kevin Zurschmiede reasonably informed?

---

In a letter written last year to the Bored of Works in anticipation of impending complaints against the spa, the landlord Zurschmiede acknowledged an incident in which pornography on the spa’s television was visible from the public sidewalk, duly forwarding the spa’s apologetic explanation: Sorry, but a customer picked up the remote and switched to the explicit sex channel.

You know, the explicit sex channel that all downtown businesses select as part of their cable television packages.

Hey, who hasn’t walked past a café, gas station or accountancy firm and not seen accidental porn?

That clarity thing, again: Yes, we’ve been talking about this for years, and for years we’ve been trying to determine how Zurschmiede might possibly be unaware of the reputation of spas for illegal hijinks – and for years, the pieces simply have refused to fit together.

Now that Amanda has undertaken to pry reluctant eyes a bit further open, it seems shocking to some. Perhaps they should change the channel. As Amanda has noted, it isn’t about politics, but about human decency and doing something – and recognizing the problem is the first step.

Except that while the sex trade truly is a global scourge, Tip O’Neill’s fundamental adage still applies, and all politicking is local. As such, Zurschmiede’s years-long tone deafness about the spa is both breathtaking and relevant.

What, he had no idea? Spare me. A businessman and elected official in his fifties simply could not be that naïve. If he is, it doesn’t bode well when surveying his suitability for office – as a precinct committeeman, much less as mayor.

If he wasn’t being naïve, and actually had an inkling of what spas like this customarily represent … isn’t that far, far worse? New Albany is a daily public relations challenge, and now this.

Yonder stands a successful straight white male mayoral candidate of a certain age, eyes averted from messy human rights concerns, wondering why violence and riots and protests ever happen because, gee, can’t those lazy and felonious people just work harder and try to be like the rest of the successful straight white males of a certain age, even when they’re impoverished, gay, black, female or young?

I forgot one part: Eyes averted … and monthly rent check protruding from suit pocket.

Our topics are human trafficking, sex slavery, prostitution and spa shams, and I haven’t done enough, myself. Amanda’s column chastened me. It’s been happening a lot lately, but I know that sometimes that’s what it takes to grow and improve. By writing her column, Amanda has done more to bring light to a legitimate social problem than Zurschmiede, Jeff Gahan, David White and Roger Baylor, combined -- and those are only the mayoral candidates.

But clearly Zurschmiede is the one who needs to answer for it, and soon. It’s his building, his dubious tenants and his profound mistake in thinking that it didn’t matter.

For years.

Amanda Beam's column about human trafficking and the sex trade, and Kevin Zurschmiede's spa denial.

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Beam on medical marijuana.

Amanda Beam is on a roll lately. Whenever I can make it past the barbed wire and searchlights of Bill Hanson's advertisement-strewn newspaper paywall, I read her column, and it's always excellent.

Like this week's essay. Mention of "medical marijuana" inevitably induces misplaced chortling ... and here is why that's mistaken.

BEAM: Oh the web we weave, by Amanda Beam (N and T)

 ... “Now he’s on all these drugs,” Megan said. “If there is something else out there that might work, I don’t care what the side effects are because we’ve already put him through all this.”

But there is hope. With treatment options running out, studies have shown a strain of marijuana commonly known as Charlotte’s Web may provide some relief.

Named after an 8-year-old Colorado girl with epilepsy, Charlotte’s Web is a marijuana extract that contains high levels of an ingredient called cannabidiol (CBD) while having less of the mind-altering tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Basically, this type of cannabis delivers the useful chemicals from the plant without making patients high.

Those "phantoms of Facebook" have quite the pedigree -- right, Amy?

Amanda Beam proves to be quite the proficient ghostbuster, but first, let's refer to the style guide.

When a word or phrase is not used functionally but is referred to as the word or term itself, it should be italicized or enclosed in quotation marks. (What is meant by neurobotics? The term "critical mass" is more often used metaphorically than literally.)

Okay, great.

Beam makes reference to "Amy Adams," who first rose to prominence as a contributor to the newspaper's on-line comments section prior to it moving to Facebook in the run-up to the Hanson Paywall.

"Amy Adams" didn't think much of me back then, but as the columnist shows, "Amy Adams" was/is a phantom. It brings to mind the immortal words of Gomer Pyle: "Surprise, surprise, surprise."

Amusingly, the fictitious "Amy Adams" also was vociferously defended in the comments section attached to the immortal 2011 Kitchen Fable Tissues post recalled here.

Ah yes; I remember it well.

I know Amy Adams. The only reason she's ever gotten on the Tribune website (she doesn't get on the blogs) is that she noticed one day that all Baylor and a certain bunch of them ever do is get on every time Ed Clere does anything, and then go after him. She thought, sportingly enough, that something good should be on the comments. She said to me, "That guy's doing nothing but good. Yet, if you read the paper online, you'll think that the stuff he's doing is slimy. That's far from the truth."

Seems the gallant defender dude forgot the quotation marks.

Probably because he was she.

The phantoms of Facebook, by Amanda Beam (N and T)

Phantoms exist in our peaceful little town, yet not where you may think. Roaming old haunting grounds like abandoned mansions and creepy graveyards has become so passé for ghouls. Getting with the times, these hipster ghosts have embraced technology in order to communicate with the living ...

 ... All was fine and dandy with dear, sweet Nan until she decided to reply to a post I had written a few days back about an upcoming school board race. The lovely lady disagreed with my opinion, which wasn’t a big deal. But when I asked her about being a teacher and if she had children, her answers didn’t match up with her profile identity. A quick search online revealed that, for all intents and purposes, Ms. Brown didn’t exist ...

... A couple of these accounts posted in other mediums too. Amy Adams enjoyed commenting on the News and Tribune’s website frequently these past few years on all sorts of political topics. Another young gal even said no good columnists wrote for the paper anymore. (Insert evil laugh here).

ON THE AVENUES: Roundabouts make the politicians really ring.

ON THE AVENUES: Roundabouts make the politicians really ring.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Earlier in 2013, New Albany’s planners announced a long-gestating “improvement” project for Mt. Tabor Road.

Residents in the vicinity promptly objected to the plans, noting presciently that proposed measures to reduce traffic congestion would have the real-world effect of putting more cars on the road at faster speeds, compromising safety and reducing their neighborhood’s quality of life.

In short, they’d spotted the likelihood of induced demand, and decided to press the case against it.

The neighborhood activists found an eager ally in 6th district councilman Scott Blair, who lives nearby. He assisted them in the orchestration of a city council appearance, in which elected officials were petitioned for a reconsideration of the improvement project. Specifically, a roundabout proposed for the intersection of Mt. Tabor Road and Klerner Lane came under intense criticism, and not merely owing to the selective logic of the NIMBY. Rather, these were very good points.

If the four-way stop at this intersection functioned so well amid existing traffic that there had been few, if any, accidents reported there in years, why construct a roundabout that would require a larger topographical footprint than the current working arrangement?

And, by extension, wouldn’t the “need” for a roundabout serve as tacit acknowledgement from planners that far from regulating traffic in the neighborhood, the coming “improvements” actually would be increasing it?

There came a magical moment when the words were spoken aloud (paraphrasing): Won’t these changes bring more traffic from people using Mt. Tabor to pass through to somewhere else?

Yep. In a nutshell.

Veteran council watchers agree: Nothing tilts the legislative balance quite like large numbers of citizens crowding the inadequate council chambers. Public forums are one thing, and demonstrating at a regularly scheduled meeting something else entirely. It brings out the fears in their eyes, and the tears in mine.

There is little doubt that CM Blair was being quite savvy, indeed, in the sense of leveraging a positive resolution to his district’s roundabout issue by transforming it into one of those political chits, to be redeemed in the form of a favor returned for previous support … say, for an aquatics center.

Well, this is the way the game is played, isn’t it, and these thoughts came back to me this week when I received a tweet from one of the Mt. Tabor activists.

“Ding dong the roundabout is DEAD! Now hopefully one way streets follow.”

Roger couldn’t agree more, but I was curious: How did he know, seeing as I’d not yet heard the news through normal channels?

“The four of us on the corner received a personal visit from the mayor Sunday evening. Nothing in the paper that I know.”

Roundabouts are not intrinsically evil, but the Mt. Tabor Road residents looked past the surface dollar sheen and got to the heart of the matter: Roadway engineers would be altering conditions to suit the maxim of moving traffic through their neighborhood as “efficiently” as possible, and by doing so, would be reducing their quality of life in an almost mathematical, commensurate ratio.

These activists asserted their right to some degree of neighborhood autonomy, and because their councilman almost surely understood that it was time for a favor to be returned, the point was made, and the mayor visited their homes to concede it. It may be the single most important lesson of the year, and a template I hope is being grasped in Midtown neighborhoods, where the very existence of one-way arterial streets affects quality of life, property values and fundamental prospects for renewal as feet are dragged, Main Street is fluffed, and City Hall’s eyes are averted.

Mt. Tabor residents, I salute you. You clarified some very important points.

Midtown residents, just this: See what we’re trying to say?

Quality of life might be a valid concept, and it might also be a cliché. Quite possibly, it is both. But one recurring feature of life in New Albany is that rational definitions always pale in comparison with organizational skill and raw bile.

And selective hardball on the part of a councilman doesn’t hurt, either. It can be distasteful … but like invasive surgery, sometimes it is necessary. Shall we count favors?

---

Throughout the year, the newspaper’s Amanda Beam has been writing a weekly “Bicentennial column,” which I often enjoyed prior to the Alabama Pop-Up Paywall’s construction.

(Mr. Hanson, tear down this wall)

In her final installment, at least until we commence the People’s Bicentennial celebration in 2017 (the 200th anniversary of the city’s actual incorporation), Amanda looks to the future – and remember, when it comes to future versus past, 1 for 52 is a far better batting average than Bob Caesar can muster.

New Albany residents, business owners and community leaders were asked to answer the question, “where do you see New Albany 100 years from now?” Below are their responses.

Respondents include Ed Clere, Jessica Knable, David Barksdale, Alice Miles and Dan Coffey … and your faithful blog columnist. I was hesitant to offer a reply until I’d conferred with the Green Mouse, who has seen it all.

“In 2113, the tiny number of white-skinned speakers of English left in New Albany will gather together during Cinco de Mayo at the usual spot by the Fork in the Road sculpture, decant their bottles of NABC Quadcentennial Ale, and say: ‘You know, 100 years ago there were one-way streets here. That’s amazing. It’s a wonder they ever figured it out; but after all, even a stopped clock is right twice a century.’”

This is happening tonight: "New Albany: City by the River" film premiere, with good beer.

Local filmmaking, local venue and local beer.

This is what we're talking about: "New Albany: City by the River" premieres on Wednesday, December 18 at The Grand.

Also in the newspaper today, Amanda Beam writes about downtown's upturn, in which I agree with Nick Cortolillo, though for slightly different reasons:

New Albany Bicentennial: New Albany’s renaissance

Amanda Beam's "NEW ALBANY BICENTENNIAL — The history of brewing."

I think it's a fine essay, so go read it ... even if it's somehow too early for a beer.

NEW ALBANY BICENTENNIAL — The history of brewing, by Amanda Beam (N and T)

From revolutionary patriots to drunken frat boys, beer has been the alcoholic beverage of choice for most Americans since before the concept of America even existed.

Like folks today, residents living in New Albany in the early 1800s were no different in their love of cool and frothy ales.

Looking to quench this thirst, breweries sprouted up along the Ohio River to provide locally produced beer to the masses. After more than 170 years and countless attempts to shut down these businesses, some of which were successful, the art of creating beer has returned to New Albany, and with it a history of those who also brewed in the town so long ago.

I am not a vampire.

Good one, Amanda Beam.

She teased me by posting this photo of Michael Kerr on Twitter:

Check out this photo of NA resident and Speaker of the US House Michael Kerr in the 1870s. Could @newalbanian be a vampire?

Given the positioning of Kerr's below-the-chin beard and a vague overall resemblance, it's a plausible guess, except that there are no beard beads, and as Amanda's article for the newspaper attests, Kerr's politics were a bit too far to the right for my taste.

As opposed to a taste for blood ...

North Korea and The Red Chapel.

We watched The Red Chapel in 2011, and I posted the trailer upon the death of Kim Jong-il late the same year. It's tough viewing, and for more than one reason, but provides an excellent accompaniment for essays like Amanda Beam's.

BEAM: Getting to know North Korea, by Amanda Beam (local newspaper columnist)

Take their leader Kim Jong Un, the grandson of the man who came to power in 1948. Sure, we all think we know about the little despotic leader with the chubby baby face and the equally childish attention-seeking behavior. Let’s face it. Jong Un looks more like a comic book villain that runs around with Boris and Natasha after a moose and a squirrel than the man who could start World War III.

But that’s just it. He can start World War III.

Beam: On watering holes, political dialogue and rebel rousing.

I sincerely appreciate the shout-out by the 'Bama Pop Up Coagulator's guest columnist, Amanda Beam. Thanks a bunch, Amanda; I enjoy your writing, although I hope this doesn't mean I'm compelled to carry a flintlock.

BEAM: Mourning a fallen father

Forums most likely to embrace the revolutionary spirit of our forefathers: Clark County Chatter and GAWnews. Say what you want about the hearsay being reported on either website, both provide an accessible medium for local residents to be heard. Are they biased? Yes. Gossipy? Of course. But no more than what has gone down in American politics since colonial times.

Added to this group of rebel rousers should be Roger Baylor. I’m not sure if he would like to be called a revolutionary. Although his ownership of two watering holes and the subsequent political dialogues held there does lend itself to some Revolutionary War comparisons.