For Butler County boxing fans, as well as people who have only a limited interest in that competition, the prospect of having a heavyweight fight here featuring Butler native Brian Minto is a source of excitement.

Minto, who has compiled an 18-0 record, including 11 knockouts, as a professional fighter, has signed a two-year promotional contract with Duva Boxing of Totowa, N.J., and Duva, one of the great names in boxing, likes for its fighters to have a fight in their hometowns.

November has been mentioned as a possibility for such a fight.

"Those are popular shows and we're looking into putting on a pro card in Butler," said Dino Duva, one of the operators of Duva Boxing.

Butler could gain regional or national sports exposure if the proposed local bout is televised.

It would not be Minto's first televised bout. His important 10-round fight against formidable opponent Vinnie Maddalone on July 23 ended with Minto's 10

th

-round knockout of his opponent.

That fight was a key in bringing about the Duva-Minto contract.

Legendary boxing trainer Lou Duva, who oversees the Duva organization operated by his son, Dino, and daughter, Donna Brooks, said Minto's chance of becoming the heavyweight champion of the world is "a very real possibility."

"The way he (Minto) came back from getting knocked down in the first round, how he could take a punch and keep applying pressure until wearing the other guy down . . . reminded me of Rocky Marciano . . . that's how we want Brian Minto to fight," Lou Duva said.

Whether Minto's local fight is in November or later, the Butler area will be waiting for that event to take place. It will represent a notable and interesting change from the sporting events this area normally hosts, and will bring visitors to the community who otherwise might not have an incentive to come here.

Gov. Ed Rendell deserves praise for proposing that the state pay the entire 25 percent in matching funds needed under federal disaster aid rules as those rules apply to the remnants of Hurricane Ivan. That's a significant departure from the state's policy during widespread winter flooding in 1996, when local municipalities had to fund 3 percentage points of the match.Many communities affected by the most recent flooding would be hard-pressed to produce matching funds for the federal money. Rendell's announcement during the past week should serve as a significant source of relief here in Butler County and elsewhere.The current estimate is that the devastating storm caused more than $264 million damage to state residents, businesses and public property. In addition, at least 12 deaths in the state have been attributed to the storm, which resulted in 54 of the state's 67 counties being declared federal disaster areas.Current estimates are that the federal government will pay $226 million and the state, $38 million, for damage and destruction that the governor said affected more than 20,000 people and more than 2,000 businesses in about 2,000 communities.For many of the communities in question, a requirement to allocate disaster money could have had a devastating budget impact that could have hampered those communities' operations and projects for years."This is a very comprehensive package and it has a significant cost factor," Rendell said.But the state, whose budget fortunes have improved over the last year or two, seems better equipped at this time to assume the entire burden of the match than requiring individual communities to allocate money to the disaster-relief "pot."Rendell has shown excellent judgment in so quickly coming forth with such an important plan. Hopefully, nothing will surface to derail the proposal.

Apparently, President George Bush knows the major corporate tax break bill passed by Congress is not something that benefits average voters. His signature was placed on the bill with no fanfare, no television cameras, no speeches.The quiet signing ceremony for the bill lavishing $136 billion in tax breaks on big business was in stark contrast to the Oct. 4 event in which Bush signed into law some popular middle class tax breaks.This time, the beneficiaries were NASCAR track owners, tobacco farmers slated to get a $10 billion buyout, $44 million to Home Depot in the form of suspension of ceiling fans imported from China, cruise ship operators, oil and gas producers, Hollywood movie producers, General Electric and defense giant Northrop Grumman.Lauded by congressional backers as much-needed support for struggling manufacturers, the bill does include $76.5 million to aid manufacturers, but Congress was persuaded by special interests and campaign supporters to expand the definition of manufacturers to include engineering and architectural firms, oil and gas producers and large farming operations. The definition was stretched further so that national coffee bar chain Starbucks can count its roasting operations as manufacturing, and thus receive additional tax breaks.Though Bush resisted the opportunity to label the bloated legislation No Special Interest Left Behind Bill, the clearly wasteful measure would not have reached the president's desk without substantial support in Congress, from both parties.In typical Washington fashion, the $136 billion potpourri for business interests started life as a simple plan to repeal $5 billion in annual tax break provided to U.S. exporting companies that the Geneva-based World Trade Organization found to be illegal and which triggered retaliatory tariffs imposed on 1,600 U.S. products sold in Europe.Much of this bill was unwarranted enrichment of corporate interests and big campaign-contributors at the expense of average U.S. taxpayers.