Council Backs Amendment 4.



The City Council voted to endorse Missouri Constitutional Amendment No. 4 during the regular Council meeting Tuesday evening. The amendment would allow city owned utilities to enter into joint projects with other municipally owned utilities without coming under Missouri Public Service regulations. The Carthage Water and Electric Plant Board has previously endorsed the amendment.

The resolution states "That the City of Carthage hereby expresses its support and encourages the adoption by the voters of Missouri of Constitutional Amendment Number Four, which will appear on the November 5, 2002 ballot."

According to state "Yes On 4 Committee" the amendment would allow city-owned electric and natural gas utilities to contract with each other to own power plants, transmission facilities or other projects jointly rather than individually and keep joint municipal projects regulated by the participating cities’ local governments rather than by a state agency.

Home ownership of power generation is predicted to help keep rates more stable.

NASCAR to the Max

Sunday’s EA Sports 500 from Talladega, AL featured one of the most bizarre pre-race incidents in recent years. Because of rain on Friday, qualifying was canceled and the starting order determined by car owner points. That put rookie point’s leader Jimmie Johnson on the pole (First) position and Mark Martin on his outside in the second starting position.

During one of the warm up laps, as Martin was weaving his car from side to side to add heat to his tires and increase traction, his steering locked up causing him to crash into Johnson’s car in excess of 60 mph. The contact caused serious damage to Johnson’s car and he lost a lap as the race started to make the necessary repairs. Martin was called into the pits by NASCAR to verify that the mechanical malfunction was operating properly also causing him to lose a lap.

Johnson’s misfortunes were not short lived however as he was relegated to a 37th place finish when his engine exploded later in the race. Martin recovered to finish 30th and hold on to second place in the season points’ standings.

Tony Stewart leap frogged from third to first in the standings by virtue of his second place finish. Only 147 points now separates the top 5.

As expected Dale Earnhardt, Inc. teammates Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Michael Waltrip, and Steve Park proved to be the class of the field all day. Earnhardt, Jr. took the lead on lap 150 of the 188 around the 2.66-mile super speedway and held off all challengers the rest of the way with teammates Park and Waltrip finishing 6th and 8th respectively.

The Talladega win marks the third win in a row at the Track for Earnhardt, Jr. Joplin’s own Jamie McMurray finished 26th in his Winston Cup debut. McMurray will be subbing for the injured Sterling Marlin the rest of the year before becoming Marlin’s teammate next season.

The series now heads to 1.5-mile Lowes Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC. Of the 43 starters, Mark Martin and Jeff Burton are recent winners at the track.

It looks like the "Mud Flats Jubilee" will in fact become a reality. Although the Mornin’ Mail has no financial interest in the project, we see the value of a free venue for local and regional entertainers to gather and perform.

The plan is to open the heated/air conditioned theater on the second and fourth Friday evening of the month and allow those wishin’ to perform to sign up and get on stage. In addition to bein’ able to seat close ta 300 folks in the audience, there is also space for indoor "jammin’" as well as adequate on site parkin’ and a shade tree or two for warmer weather.

There are several of these type of jubilee’s in the area, but this appears to be onea the best. The first night is planned for October 25, we’ll keep ya updated.

This is some fact, but mostly,

Just Jake Talkin’.

by

Metcalf Auto Supply

Click & Clack
TALK CARS

by Tom & Ray Magliozzi

Dear Tom and Ray:

A friend of mine has a 2000 Corvette with the 345-horsepower 5.7-liter engine. Lately, he has been using an octane booster on top of 91-octane premium fuel. He claims that the computer in the Vette can detect the booster and advance the timing to increase horsepower. I say he’s full of hooey. It might work, but it’s difficult to believe that the booster is making a large enough difference that he can feel it in the seat of his pants. What do you say? — Keith.

TOM: Well, Keith, if he’s feeling something in the seat of his pants during hard acceleration, he might need to throttle back on the Metamucil, not the octane booster.

RAY: He might actually be able to feel a bit of difference, but his description of why he does is incorrect. This car has a knock sensor, which tells the computer when there’s pre-ignition, or pinging, in the cylinders. Pinging is caused by premature combustion in the cylinders. And it’s usually due to the engine running too hot or the octane of the fuel being too low.

TOM: Pinging is bad for the engine, so when the knock sensor detects pinging, it retards the timing a bit to get rid of it. That reduces engine power by a small amount.

RAY: Now, most civilized humans would never notice this subtle difference, or care. But some knuckle-scrapers whose whole lives revolve around "0-60 times" might notice a difference — or at least imagine that they do.

TOM: By adding octane booster, your friend is probably preventing pinging during hard acceleration, and therefore is preventing the knock sensor from kicking in and retarding the timing. That means that the engine is operating at full power, even during the period of greatest demand.