How About a Cheesesteak Law?

There is plenty of blame to go around concerning the state Legislature's special session this year—being called into work by Gov. Jay Nixon.

Harry Truman’s Know-Nothing-and-Do-Nothing Congress had nothing on Missouri's General Assembly this year.

One thing I am certain state representatives and senators accomplished this year was wasting over $250,000 in per diems and travel expenses without showing much in return. Oh yeah…they likely accepted free stuff from lobbyists.  

The blame is easy to spread around for the special session. However, Gov. Nixon gets his share by having his head in the sand and not realizing he didn’t have the votes for passing a bill for tax credits to create a China Air Hub at Lambert.

(See proposed cheesesteak law at the bottom of this.)

TEXTING TEACHERS: The first order of business was to repeal the idiotic bill by Sen. Jane Cunningham (R-Chesterfield) that made it illegal for school teachers to contact students by social media such as Facebook. Jane was fearful social media would allow sexual predators posing as teachers to have too easy access to our youth.

A judge issued a temporary injunction to keep Jane’s law from going into effect.  The bill was repealed before there was a hearing. I am surprised that Jane doesn’t make it illegal for a teacher to call a student on a telephone since that does not create a written record of the exchange between teacher and student.

A new bill was passed requiring school districts come up with a policy about teachers using social media. How about a good old policy of banning teachers from sexual contact or attempting sexual contact with students—and leave it at that?     

It was interesting that Cunningham wanted to protect young people from teachers, but earlier in the session she tried to repeal Missouri child labor laws (and drew national ridicule.) She evidently didn't want Missourians to break the law by hiring teenagers to cut grass, shovel snow or walk your dog if you were out of town for the day.

I pointed out that Jane had lost touch with her constituents in Chesterfield and Town and Country, where it is almost impossible to find a teenager willing to cut grass or shovel snow.               

CHINA HUB: The debate to give tax credits to develop a warehouse and transportation center for Chinese goods being flown into St. Louis is simple. Do you give tax credits to build an infrastructure to move Chinese goods and create jobs…or do you allow the free enterprise system use the old “risk and reward” method.

There is no guarantee that China would be locked into a St. Louis hub if another Midwestern city offered a better deal. Also there is enough empty warehouse space around Lambert that could be used without building more.

I asked someone who helped a U.S. company close down their California manufacturing plant and open several in China. He had just come back from a long trip to China. He said the cost of manufacturing plus shipping and export fees have reached a level in China that he is suggesting that his company consider re-opening the California plant and shut down the Chinese plants.

I was sure it was high-tech items that would be flown into an airport hub and shipped around the United States. My friend corrected me and said while many high-tech items would rate being flown here…I was forgetting a segment of the clothing industry. To keep up with ever-changing fashion trends, a lot of clothes are being shipped by air cargo. While flip-flops and sweat pants are still being shipped by slow container ships, clothing competing on the hot fashion market arrives by air cargo.

My friend thinks it would be great to have a China hub here, but he is undecided if using tax credits is the best way to do it.

IF YOU ARE GONG TO PASS A LAW…HERE’S ONE I’D LIKE TO SEE: I would like to be the first to support a “Philly Cheesesteak Bill.”  If you have ever been to Philadelphia, parts of New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland you should know exactly what a Philly Cheesesteak is. It certainly is not what fast food joints and sub shops advertise as a Philly Cheesesteak around here.

A Philly Cheesesteak is chopped up flank steak along with onions that are cooked on a greasy grill, placed on a hoagie roll and then topped with some hot melted cheese that is similar to Cheese Whiz. That is a Philly Cheesesteak.

If the Missouri legislature only passed one bill in 2012, let it be one that makes it a crime to advertise any sandwich as a Philly Cheesesteak that involves anything that is not chopped up flank steak, onions and hot melts and sells any sandwich called a Philly-anything that has sliced meat and slices of cheese would be guilty of a misdemeanor.