While marijuana remains illegal federally, there has been a sea change culturally and at the state level. Twenty-four states have legalized recreational marijuana use, while 38 allow medical uses. And views have changed. As recently as 2006, just 32% supported marijuana legalization. These days, it’s closer to 90%, according to Pew Research.
Pot and your job
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Legal weed complicates an already complicated landscape for anyone trying to hire safety-minded employees, some employers told me.
Zero-tolerance: “An employer can still have a zero-tolerance policy for drug use,” said John Morris, executive director of the Homebuilders Association of Dayton.“They’re not required to accommodate an employee’s use of marijuana. They can still have drug-testing policies. They can still have zero tolerance.”
Complications: But the number of people willing or able to pass a drug test may fall. Either banning off-the-clock use or allowing it can come at a price, employers and trade groups say. Limiting it could reduce job applicants in a tight labor market. But allowing pot use can impact insurance costs and create challenges in making sure employees aren’t high at work.
The B-52 and Collins Aerospace in Troy — a longlasting partnership
The mighty B-52 bomber — first flown in 1952 — has been good to Collins Aerospace in Troy. And vice versa.
Goodrich Corp. — doing business as Collins Aerospace, Landing Systems, in Troy — has been awarded a maximum $34,653,480 contract modification exercising the second and third option periods of a base contract for B-52 aircraft wheels and brakes, the Department of Defense said last week.
A partnership: The B-52 and this company have a history. In 2021, the Air Force selected Collins to design and develop a new wheel and carbon brake for the B-52, retrofitting a fleet of 77 aircraft.
Collins was to design the new wheel and carbon brake for the B-52H using a proprietary carbon heat sink material. The company said the redesigned system will let the Stratofortress perform more landings per overhaul.
The Air Force’s soon-to-be highest-ranking enlisted member is a familiar face
Credit: (U.S. Air Force photo by Jaima F
Credit: (U.S. Air Force photo by Jaima F
Chief Master Sergeant David A. Flosi today is the command chief master sergeant at Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC) headquarters at Wright-Patterson. He has been selected to be the next chief master sergeant of the Air Force.
Honored: “We are serving at a time of great consequence where success hinges on our ability to optimize this team toward the changing character of war,” he said in an Air Force statement Monday.
Beavercreek Walmart shooter: How someone can be pink-slipped — twice — and buy a gun
Credit: JIM NOELKER
Credit: JIM NOELKER
The man who shot four people at a Beavercreek Walmart on Nov. 20 purchased his weapon just two days before the shooting, raising questions of how he was able to purchase the gun if he had been “pink-slipped” twice last year for suicidal ideation.
Mental health issues: Benjamin Charles Jones, 20, of Dayton, shot four adults at about 8:35 p.m. before turning the gun on himself, dying by suicide. The gun Jones used — a Hi-Point .45 caliber carbine with one 9-round magazine — was purchased on Nov. 18 from a store in the Dayton area, according to law enforcement.
Risk: A pink slip is what law enforcement and other agencies call an application for emergency admission, usually when individuals’ mental or behavioral health represents a risk to themselves or others.
Smart socks? Why didn’t someone think of this sooner?
Patrick Baker, co-founder of Palarum LLC, has thought about socks more than you or me, probably.
Wearable tech: Baker has developed a technology that can help healthcare facilities reduce injuries and costs related to patient falls, Warren County reporter Ed Richter found.
Baker told Lebanon City Council earlier this week that an average of one million falls in hospitals each year, which are costly to hospitals and patients.
Streamable data: Baker, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who has also served as a chief nursing officer and helped to open UC Health’s West Chester Hospital, said his company’s socks are woven with a conductive yarn that can stream patient information to nurses.
Quick hits
Falling gas prices. Long may they fall.
Lumpia Queen and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base: They belong together.
Concerns about traffic: Near a Springboro subdivision.
Special bottles: A look at a few local bottle shops that can help get you what you are looking for this holiday season.
Tell us your horror stories: Your horrible holiday travel stories, that is.
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