This is the Detroit that the city would like for you to see. A city with a soaring, modern skyline



But while that picture does portray a beautiful downtown (and it has its moments when it is gorgeous) what is below is also a very accurate assessment of what Detroit has to offer.




Worst Places
America's Most Miserable Cities
Kurt Badenhausen 01.30.08, 6:00 AM ET

In Pictures: America's Most Miserable Cities

Imagine living in a city with the country's highest rate for violent crime and the second-highest unemployment rate. As an added kicker you need more Superfund dollars allocated to your city to clean up contaminated toxic waste sites than just about any other metro.

Unfortunately, this nightmare is a reality for the residents of Detroit. The Motor City grabs the top spot on Forbes' inaugural list of America's Most Miserable Cities.
In Pictures: America's Most Miserable Cities

Misery is defined as a state of great unhappiness and emotional distress. The economic indicator most often used to measure misery is the Misery Index. The index, created by economist Arthur Okun, adds the unemployment rate to the inflation rate. It has been in the narrow 7-to-9 range for most of the past decade, but was over 20 during the late 1970s.

There also exists a Misery Score, which is the sum of corporate, personal, employer and sales taxes in different countries. France took the top spot (or perhaps bottom is more appropriate) with a score of 166.8, thanks to a top rate of 51% on personal incomes and 45% for employer Social Security.

But aren't there other things that cause Americans misery? Of course. So we decided to expand on the Misery Index and the Misery Score to create our very own Forbes Misery Measure. We're sticking with unemployment and personal tax rates, but we are adding four more factors that can make people miserable: commute times, weather, crime and that toxic waste dump in your backyard.

We looked at only the 150 largest metropolitan areas, which meant a minimum population of 371,000. We ranked the cities on the six criteria above and added their ranks together to establish what we call the Misery Measure. The data used in the rankings came from Portland, Ore., researcher Bert Sperling, who last year published the second edition of Cities Ranked & Rated along with Peter Sander. Economic research firm Economy.com, which is owned by Moody's, also supplied some data.

Detroit in the top spot, with its sister city Flint ranked third, is probably not a great shock. "If Detroit were a baseball team, we'd say they are mired in a slump," says Sperling. Both Detroit and Flint have suffered tremendously from the auto industry downturn. Flint's plight was immortalized in the Michael Moore movie Roger & Me, which chronicles Moore's attempts to meet with then General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) Chief Executive Roger Smith.

Crime and unemployment are closely linked, according to Sperling. Our three most miserable places bear that out (Stockton, Calif., ranks second). All three are among the eight worst cities in terms of both unemployment and violent crime.

The United States' two biggest cities both induce a ton of misery. New York was the fourth most miserable city by our count, while Los Angeles clocked in at sixth. The Big Apple has the longest commute times (36.2 minutes) and the highest tax rates (10.5%) in the country. As the financial capital of the world and home to write-down kings Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) and Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ), New York appears poised for more misery in 2008.

The people of La-La Land have some of the best weather in the U.S. (it's ranked seventh) but scored poorly when it came to commute times, Superfund sites and taxes. And we did not even factor in air quality, where Los Angeles is the worst in the nation by far, according to Sperling.

The biggest surprise on our list is Charlotte, N.C., which is ranked ninth. Charlotte has undergone tremendous economic growth the past decade, while the population has soared 32%. But the current picture isn't as bright. Employment growth has not kept up with population growth, meaning unemployment rates are up more than 50% compared with 10 years ago. Charlotte scored in the bottom half of all six categories we examined. It scored the worst on violent crime, ranking 140th.

So take heart, Detroit, you are not alone. After all, misery loves company.

Just Thought I'd Remind Everyone

Show Us Our Money!

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)--No one has formally proposed a merger involving Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA), but flight attendants on Tuesday said if there is one, they want a raise.

The conditions laid out by the flight attendants follows similar expectations set down by pilots last week.

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said it could support a merger if it includes job protections, stock or other equity in the combined airline "no less favorable than that granted to any other employee group, including management," and "substantial improvements in compensation and work rules" over the current contract.

The union also called on Northwest management to update them on the status of a potential merger.

Northwest, which emerged from bankruptcy on May 31, has declined to comment on the merger talk. In a hot line message for employees on Saturday, Chief Executive Doug Steenland said, "It's because of you and the airline that we created through our restructuring that everybody is so interested in us."

Reports last week said Northwest Airlines has entered into formal merger discussions with Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) and will look for another partner if Delta tries to merge with UAL Corp.'s (UAUA) United Airlines instead.

Baton Rouge

I got a chance to go to someplace new last week which is becoming rarer as I'm at nwa longer. Just like other careers, eventually things start to become repetitive so I look forward to a chance to get out and see a new city. I got about 19 hours in Baton Rouge and got out and took some pictures and researched the area a bit while I was there.

We took to calling the city "Red Stick" as we were contemplating the effects of an "English Only" language law and the frightening prospects of a Mike Huckabee presidency. "Red Stick" is the English translation of "Baton Rouge" and that would be the new name of the city if English were to be forced upon us.

I wasn't overly impressed with the area although part of it was that there is still extensive damage from the Hurricane(s). There was construction everywhere I looked although there weren't PEOPLE. If you look at these pictures you'll see very few others in them. This really wasn't planned it just happened. It is particularly telling in the pictures that I took further from the Capitol as I'm standing in the middle of the road taking these shots NOT stopping traffic, there simply wasn't any traffic to stop. Now, it is true that it was MLK day and most of the state offices and banks and the like were closed but even in Charleston which has a reputation of rolling up the streets on holidays I wouldn't be able to stand in the middle of Kanawha Blvd. and snap pictures without dodging SOME traffic.

Below you will find three articles. One is on the USS Kidd which is located on the banks of the Mississippi River, one is on Huey Long who is a definitive political figure in the State of Louisiana and one is just a list of fun Baton Rouge facts. Also, there are several pictures that I took with most of them captioned. The pictures include photos of the USS Kidd, the Capitol of Louisiana and some pictures of an exhibit of pictures entitled "The Faces of Katrina" that was on display at the Visitors Center near the Capitol building. Many of the pictures are very moving and touching and I thought that I'd bring them to my blog. Hope you enjoy and feel free to leave me some comments on my blog! I like the feedback and it is nice to know that people are reading.


From the USSKidd website, www.usskidd.com


The USS KIDD (DD-661) is a Fletcher-class destroyer, the six hundred sixty-first destroyer built by the United States Navy. In the traditional system of naming destroyers after Naval heroes, she was named after Rear Admiral Isaac Campbell Kidd, Sr. who was killed aboard his flagship, USS ARIZONA (BB-39) during the surprise attack by the Japanese on the American fleet anchored at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.


USS KIDD (DD-661) Ship's Seal

Built at Federal Shipbuilding & Dry-dock Company of Kearny, New Jersey, KIDD was one of four destroyers [USS BULLARD (DD-660), USS THORN (DD-647), and USS TURNER (DD-648)] launched on February 28, 1943 in a record-breaking fourteen minutes. Mrs. Inez Kidd, widow of RADM Kidd, served as the ship's sponsor, christening her and presenting her crew with a handsome wardroom guest book in which she wrote: "May the destiny of the USS KIDD be glorious! May her victories be triumphant and conclusive!"


From www.uss.gov

Huey Long was Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930. A nominal Democrat, Huey Long was a radical populist, of a sort we are unfamiliar with in our day. As Governor, he sponsored many reforms that endeared him to the rural poor. An ardent enemy of corporate interests, he championed the "little man" against the rich and privileged. A farm boy from the piney woods of North Louisiana, he was colorful, charismatic, controversial, and always just skating on the edge. He gave himself the nickname "Kingfish" because, he said, "I'm a small fish here in Washington. But I'm the Kingfish to the folks down in Louisiana."

Huey Long was the determined enemy of Wall Street, bankers and big business and he was also a determined enemy of the Roosevelt administration because he saw it as too beholden to these powerful forces.

Huey Long did not suffer from excessive modesty. A high-school dropout who taught himself law and got a law degree in only one year of study, Long was confident he would become President of the United States in 1936. So confident was he that he wrote a book entitled My First Days in the White House in which he named his cabinet (including President Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy and President Hoover as Secretary of Commerce) and in which he conducted long imaginary conversations with FDR and Hoover designed to humiliate them and show their subservience to the boy from the piney woods of Louisiana.

The Kingfish wanted the government to confiscate the wealth of the nation's rich and privileged. He called his program Share Our Wealth. It called upon the federal government to guarantee every family in the nation an annual income of $5,000, so they could have the necessities of life, including a home, a job, a radio and an automobile. He also proposed limiting private fortunes to $50 million, legacies to $5 million, and annual incomes to $1 million. Everyone over age 60 would receive an old-age pension. His slogan was "Every Man A King."





10 Interesting Facts About Baton Rouge

1 Baton Rouge was first named in 1699 by the French explorer Iberville as he traveled up the Mississippi River. He reported seeing a "tall red pole", or "baton rouge" in French, supposedly marking the boundary between two Indian tribes.

The exact location of the pole has been debated for years, some believing it was the junction of Bayou Manchac and the river while others think it may have been at Scott’s Bluff on what is now Southern University’s campus.

2 East Baton Rouge and the City of Baton Rouge merged as governmental entities in 1949 and became one of the first “consolidated” governments in the country.

3 Baton Rouge is the state capital of Louisiana. It became the capital in 1846, after lawmakers first tried moving from New Orleans to Donaldsonville in 1830, but lawmakers quickly moved back to New Orleans. The 1854 Constitution required the capitol to be no closer than 60 miles from New Orleans, so lawmakers picked Baton Rouge.

4 There are two state capitol buildings in Baton Rouge: The Old State Capitol was built in 1850 but was burned during the Civil War and rebuilt in the 1880s. It is located at 100 North Blvd. Mark Twain called it a “sham castle.” The new State Capitol, a 34-story building featuring marble and bronze with a observation deck on the 27th floor, was opened in 1932. It is on State Capitol Drive.

5 In 1979, the city of Baton Rouge’s Fire Department was the first in the nation to receive a Class 1 rating from the Property Insurance Association. It has maintained that rating, which has also become more common. The Fire Department’s roots began as a 94-person bucket brigade in 1825.

6 In 1810, the city had a population of 1,463 people. East of Seventh Street, there were few residences. Nearly 200 years later, the 2000 Census counted 227,818 people living in the city of Baton Rouge and 412,852 people living in the parish of East Baton Rouge.

7 Most people feel modern-day Baton Rouge really began to grow when Standard Oil (now ExxonMobil) arrived in 1909. Its refinery north of town would prove to be a major influence in the growth of the city and lured other petrochemical facilities to begin the core of the area’s Petrochemical Corridor along the Mississippi.

8 Seagoing vessels can travel up the Mississippi River as far as the U.S. 190 Bridge. That’s about 234 miles above Head of Passes, where the river splits into several channels and distributaries. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge, whose jurisdiction includes public and private facilities in East and West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Ascension parishes, is the ninth largest in the nation in terms of tonnage.

9 The average annual temperature in East Baton Rouge Parish is 70 degrees. In January, the average temperature is 70, in July 80 degrees. Annual average rainfall is 77.64 inches — a little more than 6 feet. It’s also pretty flat — the average elevation is 19 feet; two spots in the northern part of the parish are between 140 feet and 145 feet. The parish covers 455.7 square miles between the Mississippi and Amite Rivers on the west and east and generally Bayou Manchac on the south and the East Feliciana-East Baton Rouge parish line to the north.

10 Baton Rouge is home to three public colleges: Louisiana State University, Southern University and Baton Rouge Community College.

Changes

Big changes are afoot! Last week I drove from Charleston to Minneapolis with a carload of personal belongings and a coworker. A big shout out to ThomasMatthew for riding along with me, the ride was much more tolerable because of his shotgunning along with me. It was actually a relatively easy ride across the eastern part of the midwest and I saw some neat places that I would like to explore further.
The reason for the move is my decision to take a base transfer to Minneapolis beginning February 1 and the desire to live where I work. I know that to all ya'll NOT in the aviation world that seems like one of the stranger statements to make. You might say "People don't live where they work?" and I respond with "Not in this industry!". Anyway, I have a new living situation in Minneapolis that I'm excited about. I am living in a house with a nice mix of people. The owner, Doug, is a school teacher. Sonny is a student and comes complete with an Italian Greyhound named Nelly and Heather is a traveling nurse. The house is a beautifully maintained three level house in near the center of the city which will allow me a great opportunity to take advantage of all that Minneapolis has to offer.
There is an open invitation for all of my friends to join me sometime this summer in the city and let me show you around! I hope to see everyone soon!

Omaha!

I spent New Years Eve in Omaha and got some decent pictures. Take a look and enjoy!

Mountaineer Fans, This is For You!

Take five minutes and watch this video. It is extremely moving with a perfect choice of music to go with it! It certainly is a great night to be a Mountaineer wherever you may be!