Friday, May 18, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Man Bitten by Rattlesnake at Walmart

When Mica Craig reached down to brush what he thought was a stick off some mulch in the garden section of a Washington state Walmart, it turned around and sank its fangs into his hand.

The encounter with a rattlesnake sent Craig, age 47, to the hospital, where he said he remained in excruciating pain and may lose feeling in two fingers. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has apologized.

“I reached down to grab the stick to move it out of the way, and the snake stretched out, turned around and got its fangs in my right hand,“ he said. “I slung it off and I did a tap dance on it until it was dead.“

Craig was rushed to the hospital by fellow customer Maria Geffre, who told Reuters she saw him crumple to the ground after crying out that he had been bitten by a snake.

“He had punctures on his hand and there was the dead rattler he’d stomped on,“ Geffre said, describing the snake as at least a foot long with four buttons, or rattles.

Craig, a married father of two, said the mulch was for his marijuana plants, which he is licensed to grow for medical reasons. It was unclear whether the snake came from an adjacent field or arrived at the store along with garden supplies.

Craig said doctors who initially thought the snake had inflicted only a “dry bite” - or one that did not inject venom - treated him with six bags of anti-venom after his right hand swelled to the size of a melon.

A Walmart spokeswoman offered an apology to Craig and said the retailer was looking into how the incident could have happened at the store in Clarkston, in eastern Washington.

“At this point, it appears to be an isolated incident. We are working with a pest management team, which is conducting a sweep of the property to ensure there is no additional rattlesnake activity,“ Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling said.

Travis Taggart, director of the Center for North American Herpetology, said about half of documented rattlesnake bites, which are usually defensive when directed at humans, are “dry” but still cause severe pain.

Friday, May 11, 2012

OddlyEnough™: German Man Has Last Laugh With “New Home” Obituary

A man who announced his change of address in a local newspaper sparked national media attention on Thursday due to the unusual location of his “new home” - six feet under the ground.

Karl Albrecht, who died last month at the age of 88, penned the obituary himself in the style of a moving notice, inviting friends to a “lively” celebration at his new lodgings in a cemetery in Hamburg, northern Germany.

“I have moved house. My new address: Olhsdorf-Ruhewald cemetery, plot Bx 65/28C,“ the announcement in the Hamburger Abendblatt paper said.

“I’ll be pleased to have a lively attendance,“ it read.

Albrecht had left instructions for his family to place the notice in the paper, the national daily Bild reported.

The former insurance salesman had been a joker all his life and loved to laugh, his widow Anastasia told the newspaper.

“At the grave there’ll be schnapps for all the guests. He would have wanted that,“ she said, adding he wanted the women to wear bright floral dresses.

“Nobody should turn up in black. My Karl could never stand gloominess,“ she said.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Texas Prisoner Met Requirements to Be on Democrat Primary Election Ballot

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant says a man serving prison time in Texas was included on the West Virginia Democrat ballot for Tuesday’s Primary Election because he met all of the legal requirements to be there.

By law, Tennant says there are only specific instances when the Secretary of State can deny a potential candidate a spot on the ballot.

Making up that list, “If a person has changed their party affiliation within 60 days, if they’ve filed for more than one office, if they’ve missed the deadline, if they have not correctly filed the prescribed form and if they haven’t given the filing fee,“ she said.

Tennant says Keith Judd, Prisoner #11593-051 at a Federal Correctional Institution in Texas, met those requirements, and even paid the $2,500 filing fee.

He is currently serving prison time for making threats at the University of New Mexico.

“You could dig deeper (than the filing), but I don’t have that authority and this just goes to show that.“  Tennant says, if the Secretary of State could determine candidate eligibility based on qualifications, she says that would put too much power into one office.

She says it’s up to the courts to decide eligibility issues, which they have done for other races in the past.  That did not happen in this case because no one legally challenged Judd’s candidacy.

“We want an agency, the filing officer, the Secretary of State, to apply the law consistently and, whether you like or not, this is what we’ve done,“ Tennant said on Wednesday’s MetroNews Talkline.

Judd picked up 72,544 votes for 41% of the total vote compared with President Barack Obama’s 105,854 total for 59% of the Democrat vote.

“If you look at it on the surface, (President) Barack Obama won the nomination in West Virginia.  More people voted for him to be nominated in West Virginia than did not,“ Tennant said.

In the Republican Presidential race, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney easily won West Virginia with 68% of the vote from those voting Republican ballots.

The Republican numbers broke down as follows:

Mitt Romney 75,402 68%

Rick Santorum 14,611 13%

Ron Paul 12,145 11%

Newt Gingrich 6,910 6%

Charles “Buddy” Roemer 1,523 1%

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Man Walks into Shop, Urinates On $3,000 Dollars’ Worth of Clothes

A Huntington man is facing a long list of charges after police say he walked into a downtown shop and urinated on more than $3,000 dollars’ worth of clothes.

Court documents say it happened Friday at the Chico’s located in Pullman Square.

That’s where Tommy Edward Edmonds Jr., age 25, of Huntington allegedly walked inside the store, and urinated on a total of 38 pairs of jeans - each valued at $80 dollars.

Police say Edmonds had glassy eyes, slurred speech, and smelled of alcohol.

Officers also say when they tried to place handcuffs on him, he pulled away, refused to walk, and then tried to get away from the patrol car.

When he arrived at the police station, he refused to be fingerprinted and would not stop screaming.

Edmonds is charged with destruction of property, public intoxication, obstruction, and disorderly conduct. He remains in jail.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Dentist Pulled Out ALL Boyfriend’s Teeth After He Dumped Her…..

A dentist pulled out all her ex-boyfriend’s teeth after he dumped her for another woman – who has now left him because he is toothless.

Anna Mackowiak, age 34, is facing jail after taking her revenge on 45-year-old Marek Olszewski when he turned up at her surgery with toothache just days after breaking up with her.

She gave him a heavy dose of anaesthetic and plucked his teeth out.

She then wrapped his head and jaw in a bandage to stop him opening his mouth and said there had been complications and he would need to see a specialist.

The dentist, who works in Wroclaw, Poland, said: ‘I tried to be professional and detach myself from my emotions.

‘But when I saw him lying there I just thought, “What a b******“.‘

Mr. Olszewski said: ‘I knew something was wrong because when I woke up I couldn’t feel any teeth and my jaw was strapped up with bandages.

‘She told me my mouth was numb and I wouldn’t be able to feel anything for a while and that the bandage was there to protect the gums, but that I would need to see a specialist.

‘I didn’t have any reason to doubt her, I mean I thought she was a professional.

‘But when I got home I looked in the mirror and couldn’t f****** believe it. The b**** had emptied my mouth.

‘The new girlfriend has now left me saying she can’t be with a man without teeth.

‘And I’m going to have to pay a fortune on getting indents or something.’

Mackowiak is being investigated for medical malpractice and abusing the trust of a patient. She could face three years in jail.

~~  Dailymail – UK  ~~

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Starbucks to Phase Out Coloring from Crushed Beetles

Starbucks Corp said it will stop using a natural, government-approved coloring made from crushed beetles in its strawberry flavoring by late June, bowing to pressure from some vegetarian customers.

Starbucks has been using the extract in its strawberry frappuccinos and smoothies, as well as some deserts like raspberry swirl cake.

“After a thorough, yet fastidious, evaluation, I am pleased to report that we are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible,“ Cliff Burrows, president of Starbucks U.S., wrote.

Instead, the coffeehouse chain said it plans to use lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract.

Burrows said Starbucks “fell short” of customer expectations.

One customer in March began an online petition to pressure Starbucks to stop the practice.

Ground up cochineal beetles is a commonly used Food and Drug Administration-approved food coloring.

Monday, April 16, 2012

OddlyEnough™: More Americans Freezing than Sleeping on Assets

Forget the mattress, a quarter of Americans who keep money in their homes are hiding it in their freezers, according to a new survey.

The Marist poll showed that 27% of Americans preferred to literally freeze their assets, compared to 11% who chose to sleep on their savings.

“One in ten – 10%—buries their dough in the cookie jar while 9% leave their loot in some other household location,“ Marist said in a statement.

19% “sock” their cash away and 17% said there was no good location in the home to safely hide their saving.

But in every region of the country and among both sexes and all age groups the freezer was the top hiding place.

Marist questioned 1,080 adults across the country in the telephone poll.

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Urine-Soaked Eggs A Spring Taste Treat in China City

It’s the end of a school day in the eastern Chinese city of Dongyang, and eager parents collect their children after a hectic day of primary school.

But that’s just the start of busy times for dozens of egg vendors across the city, deep in coastal Zhejiang province, who ready themselves to cook up a unique springtime snack favored by local residents.

Basins and buckets of boys’ urine are collected from primary school toilets. It is the key ingredient in “virgin boy eggs”, a local tradition of soaking and cooking eggs in the urine of young boys, preferably below the age of 10.

There is no good explanation for why it has to be boys’ urine, just that it has been so for centuries.

The scent of these eggs being cooked in pots of urine is unmistakable as people pass the many street vendors in Dongyang who sell it, claiming it has remarkable health properties.

“If you eat this, you will not get heat stroke. These eggs cooked in urine are fragrant,“ said Ge Yaohua, 51, who owns one of the more popular “virgin boy eggs” stalls.

“They are good for your health. Our family has them for every meal. In Dongyang, every family likes eating them.“

It takes nearly an entire day to make these unique eggs, starting off by soaking and then boiling raw eggs in a pot of urine. After that, the shells of the hard-boiled eggs are cracked and they continue to simmer in urine for hours.

Vendors have to keep pouring urine into the pot and controlling the fire to keep the eggs from being overheated and overcooked.

Ge said he has been making the snack, popular due to its fresh and salty taste, for more than 20 years. Each egg goes for 1.50 yuan ($0.24), a little more than twice the price of the regular eggs he also sells.

Many Dongyang residents, young and old, said they believed in the tradition passed on by their ancestors that the eggs decrease body heat, promote better blood circulation and just generally reinvigorate the body.

“By eating these eggs, we will not have any pain in our waists, legs and joints. Also, you will have more energy when you work,“ said Li Yangzhen, 59, who bought 20 eggs from Ge.

The eggs are not bought only at street stalls. Local residents are also known to personally collect boys’ urine from nearby schools to cook the delicacy in their homes.

The popularity of the treat has led the local government to list the “virgin boy eggs” as an intangible cultural heritage.

But not everyone is a fan. Chinese medical experts gave mixed reviews about the health benefits of the practice, with some warning about sanitary issues surrounding the use of urine to cook the eggs.

Some Dongyang residents also said they hated the eggs.

“We have this tradition in Dongyang that these eggs are good for our health and that it would help prevent things like getting a cold,“ said Wang Junxing, 38. “I don’t believe in all this, so I do not eat them.“

~~  Reuters ~~

Thursday, March 29, 2012

G-Comm™: Everybody’s a Target in the American Surveillance State

In the small town of Bluffdale, Utah, not far from bustling Salt Lake City, the federal government is quietly erecting what will be the crown jewel of its surveillance empire. Rising up out of the desert landscape, the Utah Data Center (UDC)—a $2 billion behemoth designed to house a network of computers, satellites, and phone lines that stretches across the world—is intended to serve as the central hub of the National Security Agency’s vast spying infrastructure. Once complete (the UDC is expected to be fully operational by September 2013), the last link in the chain of the electronic concentration camp that surrounds us will be complete, and privacy, as we have known it, will be extinct.

At five times the size of the U.S. Capitol, the UDC will be a clearinghouse and a depository for every imaginable kind of information—whether innocent or not, private or public—including communications, transactions and the like. Anything and everything you’ve ever said or done, from the trivial to the damning—phone calls, Facebook posts, Twitter tweets, Google searches, emails, bookstore and grocery purchases, bank statements, commuter toll records, etc.—will be tracked, collected, catalogued and analyzed by the UDC’s supercomputers and teams of government agents. In this way, by sifting through the detritus of your once-private life, the government will come to its own conclusions about who you are, where you fit in, and how best to deal with you should the need arise.

What little we know about this highly classified spy center—which will be operated by the National Security Agency (NSA)—comes from James Bamford, a former intelligence analyst and an expert on the highly secretive government agency. Bamford’s expose in Wired (March 15, 2012), a must-read for anyone concerned about the loss of our freedoms in a technological age, provides a chilling glimpse into the government’s plans for total control, a.k.a., total information awareness. As Bamford notes, the NSA “has transformed itself into the largest, most covert, and potentially most intrusive intelligence agency ever created. In the process—and for the first time since Watergate and the other scandals of the Nixon administration—the NSA has turned its surveillance apparatus on the US and its citizens.”

Supposedly created by the NSA in order to track foreign threats to America, as well as to shore up cybersecurity and battle hackers, the UDC’s technological capabilities are astounding. As the central depository for all of the information gathered by the NSA’s vast spy centers, the UDC’s supercomputers will be capable of downloading data amounting to the entire contents of the Library of Congress every six hours. However, the data being targeted goes far beyond the scope of terrorist threats. In fact, as Bamford points out, the NSA is interested in nothing less than the “so-called invisible web, also known as the deep web or deepnet—data beyond the reach of the public. This includes password-protected data, US and foreign government communications, and noncommercial file-sharing between trusted peers.”

The loss of privacy resulting from such aggressive surveillance systems highlights very dramatically the growing problem of large public and private institutions in relation to the individual citizen. What we are witnessing, in the so-called name of security and efficiency, is the creation of a new class system comprised of the watched (average Americans such as you and me) and the watchers (government bureaucrats, technicians and private corporations). The growing need for technicians necessitates the bureaucracy. The massive bureaucracies—now computerized—that administer governmental policy are a permanent form of government.  Presidents come and go, but the nonelected bureaucrats remain.

The question looms before us.  Can freedom in the United States continue to flourish and grow in an age when the physical movements, individual purchases, conversations, and meetings of every citizen are constantly under surveillance by private companies and government agencies?

Whether or not the surveillance is undertaken for “innocent” reasons, does not surveillance of all citizens, even the innocent sort, gradually poison the soul of a nation?  Does not surveillance limit personal options—deny freedom of choice—for many individuals?  Does not surveillance increase the powers of those who are in a position to enjoy the fruits of this activity?  Is not control the name of the game?

We are all becoming data collected in government files. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who suffered under the secret police in the Soviet Union, wrote about this process some years ago:

Thus, we come back to the NSA’s spy center. That the NSA, which has shown itself to care little for constitutional limits or privacy, is the driving force behind this spy center is no surprise. The agency, which is three times the size of the CIA, consumes one third of the intelligence budget and has a global spy network, has a long history of spying on Americans—whether or not it has always had the authorization to do so. Take, for instance, the warrantless wiretapping program conducted during the Bush years, which resulted in the NSA monitoring the private communications of millions of Americans—a program that continues unabated today, with help from private telecommunications companies such as AT&T. The program recorded 320 million phone calls a day when it first started. It is estimated that the NSA has intercepted 15 to 20 trillion communications of American citizens since 9/11.

What has proven to be surprising to some is that the Obama White House has proven to be just as bad, if not worse, than the Bush White House when it comes to invading the privacy rights of Americans. As Yale law professor Jack Balkin notes, “We are witnessing the bipartisan normalization and legitimization of a national-surveillance state. [Obama has] systematically adopted policies consistent with the second term of the Bush Administration.” Unfortunately, whereas those on the Left raised a hew and cry over the Bush administration’s constant encroachments on Americans’ privacy rights, it appears that the political leanings of those on the Left have held greater sway than their principles. Consequently, the Obama administration has faced much less criticism for its blatant efforts to reinforce the surveillance state.

Clearly, the age of privacy in America is coming to a close. We have moved into a new paradigm in which surveillance technology which renders everyone a suspect is driving the bureaucratic ship that once was our democratic republic. By the time this UDC spy center is fully operational, no phone call, no email, no Tweet, no web search is safe from the prying eyes and ears of the government. People going about their daily business will no longer be assured that they are not being spied upon by federal agents and other government bureaucrats.

While the responses to the news of the Bluffdale facility have been varied, with some Americans cleaving to the over-used government line “if you have nothing to hide, you have no need to worry,” more and more people are starting to feel like Mike Newell, a Wired reader who had this to say about the UDC:

~~  John Whitehead ~~

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

OddlyEnough™:  Couple Made 5-Year-Old Swallow Pepper

An Elkins couple accused of forcing a 5-year-old boy to swallow more than a tablespoon of pepper is facing felony child abuse and neglect charges.

Police charged 36-year-old Tina Carver with two counts and 40-year-old Larry Neil Carver with one.

The boy began choking earlier this month and went into full respiratory failure.

He was on life support but told child-welfare workers what happened after he had recovered.

Doctors say the pepper was in his stomach and lungs, and he could not have ingested that much on his own.

He also told authorities he had been forced to eat his own feces and suck urine from a diaper because he was hungry and thirsty.

The Carvers were free on bond Tuesday.

Their attorneys predict the couple will be exonerated.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Prison System in West Virginia Tests Access to MP3 Players

At a federal prison in the mountains of southern West Virginia, hundreds of female inmates are taking part in a pilot program to bring the quality of entertainment behind bars into the 21st century.

More than 400 inmates have spent about $70 apiece to buy an MP3 player from the commissary in the Federal Prison Camp at Alderson, then 80 cents to $1.55 per song to customize their play lists from a database offering about 1 million songs.

It is essentially just an update in technology, says U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley.

Federal prisoners have been able to buy radios for decades. If the program works in West Virginia, it will be rolled out to other federal facilities in late spring or early summer.

The maker of the music player says the new technology is also safer because cassette and CD players have motors, and CDs can be broken into sharp pieces. An MP3 player has no moving parts that can be used as weapons.

In all, federal facilities house about 177,000 inmates, many of whom would be allowed to participate in the program unless they are in isolation or otherwise barred from using the in-house computers that store the music library.

Keeping inmates busy helps promote safety, Billingsley said, particularly in overcrowded prisons where stress, conflict and the risk of violence is high.

“In a time of budget constraint, the MP3 program offers a way to occupy inmates—at no cost to the taxpayer,“ she wrote in an email responding to questions about the project.

It also provides better access to music in rural areas with little or no radio reception.

“It is part of a long-term plan to provide audio books and even audio recordings on a variety of topics,“ including education, Billingsley said. “This could reduce recidivism and help those who leave prison to become productive citizens.“

Alderson—once dubbed “Camp Cupcake” by some news organizations—is the same minimum-security prison that housed lifestyle and media mogul Martha Stewart for five months in 2004 and 2005 after she was convicted of lying about a stock sale. It holds about 1,200 women.

Administrators there declined to discuss the program or allow inmates to be interviewed.

Kevin Curry, an inmate at West Virginia’s maximum-security state prison, the Mount Olive Correctional Center, learned how important music is in what he calls “a scary, cold, hard place where you don’t know anyone and you’re not sure who, if anyone, you should know.“

Curry, 43, is four years into a 15- to 35-year term for three convictions for first-degree sexual assault. Today, he has a guitar and a CD player. But for the three years he awaited trial in a regional jail, he had no access to music.

He missed it so desperately that he asked friends and family to mail him song lyrics.

“By reading the lyrics, I could hear the music in my mind. That really helped, but still couldn’t compare to the real thing,“ said Curry, who responded to a list of questions from The Associated Press through his ex-wife, who transcribed his answers during a telephone call.

When Curry got to Mount Olive, the first item he bought from the commissary was a radio/CD player. His selections through a mail-order CD program are limited and don’t include the Christian music he and some fellow prisoners would like, but Curry says he’s grateful for what he gets.

“I listen to it every day,“ he said. “It relaxes me and helps me feel less depressed and helps me deal with being in here.“

Jim Ielapi, deputy commissioner of the state Division of Corrections, said West Virginia is also considering shifting to MP3 players for its state prisons.

Inmates have always had access to music in some form, he said, from cassette players to “boom boxes.“

Currently, they can buy Sony Walkman-style CD players for $16 to $24.

Like any other personal possession, Ielapi says, musical devices have the potential to cause problems between inmates. But the MP3 players are encoded to identify their owners, and Ielapi argues they’re no different from many other items available in commissaries.

Iowa-based Advanced Technologies Group Inc. is supplying the MP3 players at Alderson, and President Atul Gupta said the company is also participating in two of three ongoing pilot programs in state correctional systems. He wouldn’t identify which ones, citing confidentiality agreements.

“The driving force is pretty much consistent across the country: It improves security,“ Gupta said.

Electronics aren’t new to prisons. Some inmates have televisions. At Alderson, the prison store stocks not only batteries, but also scissors, pens, razors, fans, alarm clocks and umbrellas. A Sony radio costs about $44.

Most facilities, whether state or federal, have rules prohibiting inmates from giving each other their possessions—restrictions aimed at ensuring the items aren’t traded for sex, protection or to pay a debt.

“The purchase, use and control of radios have always been carefully monitored. Inmates are subject to disciplinary action for violating those restrictions,“ Billingsley said. “The same is true for MP3 players. The same restrictions, monitoring and disciplining procedures are in place with the MP3 program.“

The bureau’s two-year contract with ATG is for $5.15 million, a figure Billingsley said was based on projected sales. ATG is the only supplier because it uses a secure delivery method for the music, the Trust Fund Limited Inmate Computer System’s closed network.

Billingsley said the program is expected to break even after the initial equipment and license purchases. Eventually, it should turn a profit, and that money will go into the Inmate Trust Fund Account, which pays for inmate activities and the salaries of staff associated with those activities.

The musical selections are censored, though, and federal inmates are denied access to explicit, obscene or racially charged music. Billingsley said the bureau relies on the Recording Industry Association of America rating system in making titles available.

“We also have the ability, should the need arise,“ she said, “to remove any songs that we feel may be disruptive to a correctional environment.“

OddlyEnough™: People Are Stealing Tide Detergent and Using It to Buy Drugs

So say the latest reports about a “crime wave” sweeping the nation. According to multiple news sources, theft of Tide Detergent is soaring across the country, forcing retailers like CVS to consider placing alarms on each bottle as cities establish special task forces to put a halt to the thefts.

The popular detergent has apparently become a kind of currency on the black market. Tide, which sells for about $12 for a 100-oz. bottle and around $18 for 150 oz., reportedly goes for about half that on the streets. Some thieves have resold stolen bottles to stores, and the detergent has supposedly even been showing up in the homes of busted drug dealers.

One law enforcement official in Maryland told The Daily: “We sent in an informant to buy drugs. The dealer said, ‘I don’t have drugs, but I could sell you 15 bottles of Tide.’ … Upstairs in the drug dealer’s bedroom was about 14 bottles of Tide laundry soap. We think [users] are trading it for drugs.”

Another policeman in Oregon said that Tide thieves buy heroin and meth with it.  In one drug raid, more Tide than cocaine was found, and one man reportedly stole $25,000 of the detergent over a 15-month period before he was finally busted.

The detergent is described as “liquid gold” by the authorities who are pursuing the thieves, which has so far proved difficult. “There’s no serial numbers and it’s impossible to track,” a Kentucky police officer told The Daily. “It’s the item to steal.”

And those thieves are brazen. Some simply walk into a supermarket, fill up their carts and then dart toward a getaway vehicle outside. In one incident, a security video showed a man who had made off with a cart full of Tide reselling the detergent hours later.

So far, it appears that it’s just Tide that’s the focus of the thefts and not other brands like All or Wisk, apparently because of Tide’s popularity and recognizable color and logo.

The story of the Tide detergent thieves has been widely reported, but still appears to have been at least partly exaggerated. While anecdotal evidence abounds that this is truly occurring, there are little to no hard statistics backing up the claim of a crime wave.

Fox News quoted a handful of police officers and retailers who disputed that the thefts are widespread. “We are not experiencing a ‘wave’ of Tide thefts,” a CVS/pharmacy public relations director said. He did confirm that the retailer does have security devices on Tide bottles in a few markets but said the thefts are nothing new.

~~  Josh Sanburn – TM ~~

Saturday, March 10, 2012

OddlyEnough™: US Regional Dictionary Gets In Last Word As It Wraps Up Work

The Dictionary of American Regional English has finally reached its final word - “zydeco” - as researchers wrap up almost 50 years of work charting the rich variety of American speech.

The dictionary’s official publication date is March 20 but lexicographers and word fans have been celebrating ever since its fifth and final volume emerged earlier this year.

“It truly is America’s dictionary,“ Ben Zimmer, a language columnist and lexicographer, told a Washington, D.C. news conference on Thursday.

He said when the final printed volume was delivered to its longtime editor, Joan Houston Hall, at a meeting of fellow dialect scholars: “There were audible gasps in the room.“

The Dictionary of American Regional English’s (DARE) 60,000 entries running from “A” to “zydeco,“ a style of Louisiana Cajun music, serve as a comprehensive sample of how American speech changes from region to region.

That space between sidewalk and curb? Depending on what part of the United States it is in, it can be called “parking,“ “devil’s strip,“ “swale,“ “parkway” or “tree lawn.“

Hall, who has headed the DARE project since 2000, said she was convinced fears that American English was becoming homogenized through television and mass media were unfounded.

“I don’t buy it. Yes, language changes at different rates and at different places,“ she said. “But most of the words among our family and friends that are regional we don’t even recognize as regional.“

Although the idea of a dictionary of American dialects had been around since the 1880s, the project did not take shape until 1962, when Frederick Cassidy, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, was appointed editor.

The DARE project was based on interviews carried out in more than 1,000 communities from 1965 to 1970 by University of Wisconsin researchers.

They asked Americans about their ways of talking about kitchen implements, housing, animals, diseases, food, music and more.

For the next several decades, editors sifted the 2.3 million responses and a mass of written materials including newspapers, letters and diaries ranging from the Colonial period to the present.

The dictionary, published in five volumes by Harvard University’s Belknap Press and running to over 5,500 pages, includes words from about 70 languages, ranging from Bantu to Lithuanian to Choctaw. It retails for about $545.

Hall, who took over the project with Cassidy’s death in 2000, said the last volume took longer to complete, about 10 years, because of the wealth of materials that had become available online.

“We felt that there was so much of value we didn’t dare ignore it,“ she said at the news conference at the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the book’s main sponsors.

Dictionary entries include “bealing” for an abscess, “bear claw” and “kolacky” for types of pastries, “calf rope” for surrender in children’s games, “dew poison” for a foot rash, “Lucy Bowles” for diarrhea, “rippet” for a disturbance or fight, and “pogonip” to describe a thick, cold fog.

Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito – 03.09.12

It has been a busy week on Capitol Hill.  On Thursday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the JOBS Act.  With so much gridlock in Washington, West Virginians deserve to know that we can and will work across party lines to pass legislation to help job creators.  I am appreciative of the President’s support of these bills, many of which originated in the Financial Services Committee where I serve.  We must ensure that America continues to be an incubator for start-ups and entrepreneurs.  We need to cultivate a new generation of Americans who dare to be bold and dream big ideas.

For more information about the JOBS Act click H E R E.

I spent Monday in the Eastern Panhandle where I toured STaSIS Engineering’s new headquarters in Summit Point.  STaSIS assembles high quality automotive performance products, specializing in performance-enhancing brake, suspension, driveline and engine products.  Check out my Facebook Page to see pictures of my visit.

I also hosted a briefing on Free File, an innovative partnership between the government and private tax software companies to help West Virginia residents file their tax returns quickly, easily and for free.  To learn more click H E R E.

It is an honor to serve you.
                                                       

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Ron Paul: Economy Squeezed as Debt Accelerates

Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee has pointed out that our per capita government debt is already larger than Greece’s.  Per person, our government owes over $49,000 compared to $38,937 per Greek citizen.  Our debt has just reached 101% of our Gross Domestic Product.  Our creditors see this and have quietly slowed down or stopped their lending to us.  As a result, the Federal Reserve has been outright monetizing debt as a way to patch things together and keep the economy on life support a little longer.  There is rapidly shrinking demand for our debt, and confidence in the dollar is falling.  This phenomenon is hidden only by the fact that confidence in all other fiat currencies is falling faster.

None of this seems to really alarm the administration, obviously, as they have just released a budget that accelerates spending and borrowing.  The reason the debt and deficits plague the economy, according to this administration, is that the American economy is not taxed enough.  Therefore, hidden in the fine print of the budget is a provision that ramps up the corporate dividends tax rate from its current 15% to 39.6%.  In addition, certain deductions and exemptions will be phased out; an additional 3.8% Obamacare investment tax surcharge will be tacked on, bringing the effective dividend tax rate to 44.8% in 2013.  Keep in mind, this is not just a tax on big business, this is a tax on anyone who depends on dividend income to live - retirees will be hit hard by these changes and dividend yielding stock prices will adjust downward rapidly to reflect their decreased value.

Not only this, but the Obama administration is worsening the uniquely American policy of taxing income of US based companies earned overseas.  No other country presumes to tax globally in this manner, so it amounts to a huge penalty for basing a company in the US.  Companies have been able to manage this penalty by deferring taxation until it is repatriated or by paying dividends.  What will happen to US based businesses with strong international ties if these allowances are abolished as the Obama administration proposes?  A massive wave of permanent capital flight will undoubtedly cause the already high levels of unemployment to rise.

Businesses are struggling and failing in this economy.  The government ultimately depends on a healthy business climate to provide jobs and a tax base.  It is penny wise and pound foolish to add to business tax burden in a misguided attempt to close the colossal gap between our government’s revenue and spending. Rather than crippling and absorbing more of our shrinking economy, government needs to be drastically cut - not in 10 years, but immediately.

Those who understand the underpinnings of the dollar and how the Federal Reserve works have known for some time that we are on an unsustainable course, that major chaos is in store if nothing is done quickly to reform things.  Politicians pay lip-service to reforms that never materialize or turn out to be at best small and meaningless, or at worst actively harmful.  It seems more and more inevitable that because the necessary changes would be too inconvenient for the elites to enact now, we will get them later Greek-style, through collapse and chaos.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

OddlyEnough™: Sex-Changing Treatment For Kids > It Is On The Rise

A small but growing number of teens and even younger children who think they were born the wrong sex are getting support from parents and from doctors who give them sex-changing treatments, according to reports in the medical journal Pediatrics.

It is an issue that raises ethical questions, and some experts urge caution in treating children with puberty-blocking drugs and hormones.

An 8-year-old second-grader in Los Angeles is a typical patient. Born a girl, the child announced at 18 months, “I a boy” and has stuck with that belief. The family was shocked but now refers to the child as a boy and is watching for the first signs of puberty to begin treatment, his mother told The Associated Press.

Pediatricians need to know these kids exist and deserve treatment, said Dr. Norman Spack, author of one of three reports published Monday and director of one of the nation’s first gender identity medical clinics, at Children’s Hospital Boston.

“If you open the doors, these are the kids who come. They’re out there. They’re in your practices,“ Spack said in an interview.

Switching gender roles and occasionally pretending to be the opposite sex is common in young children. But these kids are different. They feel certain they were born with the wrong bodies.

Some are labeled with “gender identity disorder,“ a psychiatric diagnosis. But Spack is among doctors who think that’s a misnomer. Emerging research suggests they may have brain differences more similar to the opposite sex.

Spack said by some estimates, 1 in 10,000 children have the condition.

Offering sex-changing treatment to kids younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents’ motives need to be closely examined, said Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee. She was not involved in any of the reports.

Some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just hugely uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or some may be gay and are coerced into treatment by parents more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child, said Moon, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.

It’s harmful “to have an irreversible treatment too early,“ Moon said.

Doctors who provide the treatment say withholding it would be more harmful.

These children sometimes resort to self-mutilation to try to change their anatomy; the other two journal reports note that some face verbal and physical abuse and are prone to stress, depression and suicide attempts. Spack said those problems typically disappear in kids who’ve had treatment and are allowed to live as the opposite sex.

Guidelines from the Endocrine Society endorse transgender hormone treatment but say it should not be given before puberty begins. At that point, the guidelines recommend puberty-blocking drugs until age 16, then lifelong sex-changing hormones with monitoring for potential health risks. Mental health professionals should be involved in the process, the guidelines say. The group’s members are doctors who treat hormonal conditions.

Those guidelines, along with YouTube videos by sex-changing teens and other media attention, have helped raise awareness about treatment and led more families to seek help, Spack said.

His report details a fourfold increase in patients at the Boston hospital. His Gender Management Service clinic, which opened at the hospital in 2007, averages about 19 patients each year, compared with about four per year treated for gender issues at the hospital in the late 1990s.

The report details 97 girls and boys treated between 1998 and 2010; the youngest was 4 years old. Kids that young and their families get psychological counseling and are monitored until the first signs of puberty emerge, usually around age 11 or 12. Then children are given puberty-blocking drugs, in monthly $1,000 injections or implants imbedded in the arm.

In another Pediatrics report, a Texas doctor says he’s also provided sex-changing treatment to an increasing number of children; so has a clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles where the 8-year-old is a patient.

The drugs used by the clinics are approved for delaying puberty in kids who start maturing too soon. The drugs’ effects are reversible, and Spack said they’ve caused no complications in his patients. The idea is to give these children time to mature emotionally and make sure they want to proceed with a permanent sex change. Only 1 of the 97 opted out of permanent treatment, Spack said.

Kids will more easily pass as the opposite gender, and require less drastic treatment later, if drug treatment starts early, Spack said. For example, boys switching to girls will develop breasts and girls transitioning to boys will be flat-chested if puberty is blocked and sex-hormones started soon enough, Spack said.

Sex hormones, especially in high doses when used long-term, can have serious side effects, including blood clots and cancer. Spack said he uses low, safer doses but that patients should be monitored.

Gender-reassignment surgery, which may include removing or creating penises, is only done by a handful of U.S. doctors, on patients at least 18 years old, Spack said. His clinic has worked with local surgeons who’ve done breast removal surgery on girls at age 16, but that surgery can be relatively minor, or avoided, if puberty is halted in time, he said.

The mother of the Los Angeles 8-year-old says he’s eager to begin treatment.

When the child was told he could get shots to block breast development, “he was so excited,“ the mother said.

He also knows he’ll eventually be taking testosterone shots for life but surgery right now is uncertain.

The child attends a public school where classmates don’t know he is biologically a girl. For that reason, his mother requested anonymity.

She said she explained about having a girl’s anatomy but he rejected that, refused to wear dresses, and has insisted on using a boy’s name since preschool.

The mother first thought it was a phase, then that her child might be a lesbian, and sought a therapist’s help to confirm her suspicion. That’s when she first heard the term “gender identity disorder” and learned it’s often not something kids outgrow.

Accepting his identity has been difficult for both parents, the woman said. Private schools refused to enroll him as a boy, and the family’s pediatrician refused to go along with their request to treat him like a boy. They found a physician who would, Dr. Jo Olson, medical director of a transgender clinic at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Olson said the journal reports should help persuade more doctors to offer these kids sex-changing treatment or refer them to specialists who will.

“It would be so nice to move this out of the world of mental health, and into the medical world,“ Olson said.

Monday, February 13, 2012

OddlyEnough™: WV Secretary of State Says, ‘We Don’t Tolerate Election Law Violations’!

Secretary of State Natalie Tennant was a guest on Fox News past weekend to talk about the voter fraud pleas Lincoln County Sheriff Jerry Bowman and Lincoln County Clerk Donald Whitten are scheduled to enter next month.

“We don’t tolerate election law violations no matter who tries to do that,“ Secretary of State Tennant said Sunday morning during a segment involving the Fox News Voter Fraud Unit.

This statement is at odds with the voter fraud in Gilmer County and reminds us of just how committed Tennant is to ferreting out fraud.

The segment opened with a clip from Booth Goodwin, U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District, who said voter fraud will not be tolerated in the Mountain State.  The clip was from the announcement about the pleas last month.

That was when those working in the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Secretary of State’s Office announced the results of a more than yearlong investigation focused on the abuse of the state’s absentee ballot system in Lincoln County prior to the 2010 Primary Election.

Federal investigators say Bowman, Whitten and an unidentified third person, believed to be Lincoln County Commissioner Thomas Ramey Jr., tried to fix the outcomes of local races by illegally manipulating absentee votes.

They allegedly distributed absentee ballots to people who were not eligible to vote absentee and, in some cases, marked their ballots for candidates they supported, including themselves.  In all, more than 600 absentee ballots were cast.

“You see what takes place when you have a cooperative effort to stop it,“ Tennant said of the voter fraud investigation on Fox News.

The plea hearings for Bowman and Whitten are scheduled for March 07, 2012.  As part of those deals, the two will resign from their elected positions and agree never to run for office again.

Thursday, February 09, 2012

OddlyEnough™: October Sky Festival Is Done

Rocket Boy and author Homer Hickam says the October Sky Festival in McDowell County is over after 13 years.

Hickam says the longtime organizers of the festival, which has taken place in Hickam’s hometown of Coalwood, are past retirement age and needed younger area residents to step up and help—but have not gotten that help.

Hickam says he understands why it happens and he’ll miss returning to the festival each year.

Organizers posted the following message on the festival’s website:

The OCTOBER SKY FESTIVAL will not be held in Coalwood this year.  The Cape Coalwood Restoration Association would like to thank Homer Hickam, and Rocket Boys Roy Lee Cooke, Jim Odell Carroll, Billy Rose and all the other people too numerous to mention for helping to make the festival successful for 13 years.  We have enjoyed meeting the astronauts, NASA people, movie stars, teachers and visitors who traveled to Coalwood from all over the world.  We have especially enjoyed all of the young people who came by bus loads, their teachers and parents who have encouraged the students to AIM HIGH!  The homecoming of former residents has been phenomenal and most rewarding!  Thanks for the memories!

Friday, December 30, 2011

OddlyEnough: Verizon Wireless to Charge $2 to Pay Some Bills

Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest cellphone company, says it will start charging $2 for every payment subscribers make over the phone or online with their credit cards.

Capitalism: First they trick you into going paperless and Green, and then charge you more calling it Convenience Fee.

Power of People: People stood up and spoke and Verizon retreated as the result.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

OddlyEnough: Drug Companies Working On New Powerful Medication

Drug companies are working toward releasing a powerful new painkiller.

The pill is said to contain the pure form of the addictive painkiller hydrocodone.

If approved by regulators, it would mark the first time patients could legally buy pure hydrocodone.

Critics worry the new drug will spur more abuse.

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, hydrocodone is the second most abused medicine in United States.

The new drug would fall under stricter drug control rules so patients would have to get a new prescription from their doctor when they need more medication.

Drug companies say the new drugs give doctors another pain management tool for their patients.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

G-LtE™: Journalism or Capitalism?

I have just seen in the Glenville Pathfinder on the back page a whole page of advertisement by McHugh Fuller Law Group located in Charleston, WV about Glenville Care and Rehab, being cited by the government for failing to report and investigate any acts or report of abuse, neglect or mistreatment of residents or to hire only people who have no history of abusing, neglecting or mistreating residents. If you suspect a loved one was neglected or abused at Glenville Care and Rehab, to contact their office.

My question is Mr. Corcoran, it has been stated that you do not publish anything negative about the things happening in Gilmer County. The people who read your paper know that what is printed is mostly in positive form, not negative things happening in our county.

My question, why would you accept and place one whole back page of your newspaper with a PAID FOR ADVERTISEMENT for McHugh Fuller Law Group that is stating the government has cited Glenville Care and Rehab?

Am I wrong in stating this is a negative article against the nursing home?

I have a family member who has been in this same nursing home for several years and I have never seen or heard any abuse or neglect and I am there on a regular basis.

Have you checked and verified that they actually did cite the nursing home for these things or are you assuming because it is a paid ad that you get paid for it anyway, so it doesn’t make any difference?

The strange thing about all this is you will not print anything about the mess our school system is in or any of the other bad things happening in our county, even when there is proof, charges that have been brought, arrests that have been made, or witnesses that have come forward, but you will accept money to place this full paid ad in your paper and it is in Gilmer County.

Can you explain this to me?

~~  Author and Source on File ~~

Friday, December 16, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Vehicle Fires, Explosions on WV Police Lot

Update: 12.20.11

On Monday, December 19, 2011, Troopers assigned to the Rainelle Detachment of the West Virginia State Police arrested Mr. David Clayton White (47 years of age, from Meadow Bridge, West Virginia), Mr. Joshua Emmanuel Redden (26 years of age, from Meadow Bridge, West Virginia), and Mr. Nicholas Michael White (22 years of age, from Danese, West Virginia) for their involvement in burning five vehicles at the Rainelle Detachment on December 15, 2011.

Three of the vehicles were part of an ongoing investigation and two of the vehicles were property of the West Virginia State Police.

Each suspect was charged with one count of Arson in the second degree, eight counts of Arson in the third degree, and one count of conspiracy to commit a felony. Additional arrests may be forthcoming.

“The West Virginia State Police has been conducting a review of our facilities management to include leasing contracts. As a part of that review, security measures and technology improvements are also being assessed. This incident serves as a reminder that improvements to our facilities are imperative. The efficiency and effectiveness of the agency as a whole continues to be a priority. I would like to commend the Troopers involved in this investigation and the State Fire Marshal’s Office for their hard work and determination. Additionally, I would like to thank Sheriff Jim Childers of the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department for his department’s assistance in handling many of the daily calls for service while our Troopers were focusing on solving this particular case.“ – Colonel C. R. “Jay” Smithers

============================

Authorities say no one was injured when five vehicles caught fire and several exploded on a parking lot at the West Virginia State Police barracks in Rainelle.

Rainelle Fire Chief Shawn Wolford says the incident is suspicious due to the number of vehicles involved.

Wolford says firefighters responding to a call around 1:00 AM Thursday, December 15, 2011, found five vehicles on fire, including a State Police cruiser.

Several other vehicles on the lot and the barracks sustained heat damage.

Wolford says he was awakened by one of the explosions

He lives about three-quarters of a mile from the barracks.

The State Police and the state Fire Marshal’s Office are investigating.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Ferrari Graveyard - Video of 14 Supercar Pile-Up in Japan

An outing of luxury sports car enthusiasts in Japan ended in an expensive freeway pileup - smashing a stunning eight Ferraris, a Lamborghini and two Mercedes.

Police say they believe the accident Sunday was touched off when the driver of one of the Ferraris tried to change lanes and hit the median barrier.

He spun across the freeway, and the other cars collided while trying to avoid hitting his car.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Mountaineer Gas Wants Increase

Mountaineer Gas is asking the state Public Service Commission to approve a rate hike to customers.

Mountaineer officials say a 4.9% rate increase is needed to offset the impact of increased cost factors.

The more than 223,000 customers Mountaineer services pay rates based on the cost of natural gas and the base rate, which is the cost to deliver the gas to the customer.

Earlier this month, the PSC approved a 6% reduction in cost of natural gas it charges.

That reduces the average monthly residential gas bill by $3.78.

The request for a base rate increase would not be effective until fall of 2012.

Company officials say it’s the first increase requested by Mountaineer since 2009.

If approved, customers would see an increase of about $3.40 per month starting in September 2012, the company said.

Those bills would still be lower than what customers were paying in 2009 and 2010, according to company numbers.

Company officials say the increase is necessary to provide safe and reliable service to customers.

They say costs to deliver gas service have increased substantially since 2009.

The PSC will likely make a decision in several months.

Saturday, November 05, 2011

OddlyEnough™: New Braxton 911 Center Property Sold by Mistake

Russell Carpenter, 76, of Sutton, thought he was getting a pretty good deal when he purchased a 6.5-acre property for about $3,100 at the Braxton County tax sale.

But, little did the retired construction supervisor realize that the property was in fact owned by the county commission and was the site of the Braxton County 911 Center/EMS and represented an approximately $1.5 million investment by the county.

The property was sold at auction due to an oversight by the sheriff’s office, Braxton County Commission President David Jack Sr. said. The county has owned the property for a little over two years, he said.

The 911 Center and Emergency Medical Service has been operating in the facility since early October, Jack said.

The county purchased the site from Buckhannon-based Newlons International for about $600,000 to turn it into the new 911 Center and EMS building. But the previous owners owed about $3,100 in back taxes on the property.

Commissioners knew the site was placed on the list of properties to be auctioned off for back taxes. They contacted the former owner and asked them to take care of the back taxes to no avail, Jack said.

“This should have been taken care of when the attorneys prepared our deed and closed on the building,“ he said. “But for some reason it wasn’t.“

Jack also said the commissioners believed that the sheriff would remove the property from the sales list, but that was not done either, he said.

“The delinquent tax ticket wasn’t in the commission’s name of course,“ Jack said. “And for some reason it wasn’t taken off the list.“

“It was just an oversight,“ he said. “These things happen.“

State code allows the sheriff to remove property from the auction if a question concerning the taxes arises, Jack said.

The property was sold right around the same time the commission was to hold an open house showcasing the new 911 Center and EMS facility.

The commission contacted the county prosecuting attorney to see what direction they needed to take to make sure their new investment wasn’t turned over to a private citizen.

The prosecuting attorney advised the commissioners that they did not have to pay the back taxes. County agencies are not required to pay taxes and Jack said the commission wasn’t about to “shell out” over $3,000.

The sale has been nullified and Carpenter’s money will be refunded, Jack said.

Carpenter said he has not been contacted by the commission about a refund of his money.

“I’ve never heard about this being done before,“ he said.

Carpenter said he was purchasing the land as an investment. A property owner whose land has been sold at a tax auction has 18 months to pay the back taxes on the site.

In order to keep from losing the property, the owner also has to pay .75 percent interest per month on the back taxes. This money goes to the individual or company that purchased the land at the auction.

Carpenter said he had no idea that the land belonged to the county and was the home of the 911 Center and EMS.

“I had no idea what the property was until after the sale,“ he said. “I was surprised to find out what the land actually was.“

The commission will try to collect the back taxes from the Buckhannon company.

~~  by Paul Fallon – Charleston Daily Mail  ~~

Thursday, October 27, 2011

OddlyEnough: Bresch Promoted at Mylan

Heather Bresch is taking another step up the corporate ladder at generic drug-making giant Mylan Inc. Bresch, the daughter of U.S. Senator Joe Manchin will become the company’s chief executive officer in January.

The Bresch promotion is part of a leadership change at Mylan that includes two other moves.

Bresch, who has been the corporate president, will replace CEO Robert Courty January 01, 2012 when Courty becomes executive chairman of the board. Chief Operating Officer Rajiv Malik will take Bresch’s place as president. All have agreed to new three-year contracts.

The moves come following the recent death of Mylan co-found Mike Puskar, who retired as board chairman in 2009.

Bresch, who began working for Mylan in 1992, made the following statement in a company news release that came out Wednesday:

“I am fortunate to have served at Mylan for the last two decades and am immensely proud of the company Mylan is today. I also have never been more excited about our future. When I started my career at Mylan in 1992, I could not have imagined the opportunities that awaited me within our company and within this exciting, dynamic industry. At that time, Mylan had only 700 employees and approximately $100 million in sales, almost entirely in the U.S. Today, Mylan has a global workforce of more than 18,000 people and is forecasted to generate more than $6 billion in sales this year. I am extremely honored to become Mylan’s next CEO and look forward to continuing to work alongside Robert, the board and all of our talented leaders around the world to maximize the many opportunities that lie ahead for our company.“

Bresch became a household name in West Virginia following a degree scandal at WVU. In October 2007, university administrators awarded an executive MBA degree to Bresch that she didn’t earn.

Several of those administrators lost their jobs in connection with the controversy including President Mike Garrison and Provost Gerald Lang.

A grand jury later ruled “ethical and moral boundaries were violated’ but there was no intentional criminal activity.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Near Miss with Student on Ohio County School Bus

A 10-year-old Ohio County school girl getting off a school bus was nearly struck by a vehicle that ignored the bus warning signals.

“By the grace of God our bus driver was able to lay on the horn to get the girl’s attention to stop so she wouldn’t be hit,” Ohio County schools transportation director Gary Kestner told the Wheeling News-Register.

A video released by the school shows the bus coming to a stop and the child about to cross the road.  She stops as a vehicle speeds by from the other direction, ignoring the bus warning lights.

Kestner says he’s worried that drivers continue to disobey the bus warning lights, putting children at risk.  In this instance, the child was not hurt.

The video has been turned over to the Wheeling Police Department, which is looking for the driver.

OddlyEnough™: Few WV Inmates Got Jobless Benefits

West Virginia has paid out unemployment benefits on behalf of just six prison and jail inmates, not 30 as previously reported, according to an investigation presented to lawmakers that responded to recent findings by legislative auditors.

The follow-up review eliminated 24 of the inmate names flagged by the September report, slashing the amount of potential benefits involved from $150,000 to near $7,000, said WorkForce West Virginia acting Executive Director Russell Fry.

“When this came to my attention, I probably was the same as you, shocked,“ Fry told the House-Senate Legislative Oversight Commission on Workforce Investment for Economic Development. “Zero fraud is tolerated.“

Fry told The Associated Press afterward that his agency, which oversees the unemployment compensation program, is beefing up its anti-fraud efforts in response the audit. Among other changes, the agency is cross-checking its roster of beneficiaries more frequently.

“If it was one (improper beneficiary), I would not accept that,“ Fry told AP.

Fry attributed incorrect Social Security numbers for 18 of the 30 cases found by auditors. One other inmate was listed with a correct Social Security number, but was not in the unemployment program’s system, Fry said.

Five other inmates were on parole and were eligible for benefits. Of the rest, two had already been found to have committed fraud by the agency and had been ordered to refund the improper payments. The agency reached a similar finding for a third inmate from the report on Monday, Fry said.

The program’s anti-fraud unit will investigate the remaining three inmates for potential overpayments, Fry told lawmakers.

The scarcity of inmate fraud cases — auditors had checked the jobless program for around 8,000 inmates — appears in keeping with a recent U.S. Labor Department report that found West Virginia fifth-best among the states for avoiding improper payments last year.

While the national average for improper payments was 11.2%, West Virginia’s rate was 5%, Fry said. The portion of payments issued in error by the state over the past three years was 6.6%, compared to a U.S. rate of 10.4%.

Fry also told lawmakers that he expects the jobless benefits fund to end the year with more than $109 million. The program successfully avoided a stretch of 2011 when it was feared it would become insolvent.

At Governor-elect Earl Ray Tomblin’s request, the Legislature approved an emergency loan for the program if it appeared in danger of going broke. Borrowing proved unnecessary this year. West Virginia had the 19th-healthiest unemployment compensation fund balance among the states when measured against population, according to September figures.

Fry said that fund revenues, from a wage-based tax paid by employers, were 11.3% higher between January 01 and September 30 than they were during the same period of 2010. Benefit payouts, meanwhile, were nearly 21% lower, Fry told lawmakers.

The state’s fund has remained solvent without relying on federal loans, which more than half the other states have taken out in the wake of the Great Recession. Twenty-seven states, including all of West Virginia’s neighbors except Maryland, owed $38.5 billion as of Monday, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

West Virginia provided benefits to 13,173 claimants during the final week of September, the latest for available figures. It reported an 8.1% unemployment rate in August, as adjusted for seasonal hiring trends. That’s a full percentage point lower than the U.S. rate, and fell beneath the rate of 26 other states.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

OddlyEnough™: LSU Fans Attacked After Game

Morgantown police have confirmed a report that four LSU fans were assaulted following the game Saturday night.

Police say the victims were on Route 705 stuck in traffic after the game when someone threw a rock through an open window of their car.

The driver of the car said something to a group of people who then approached and assaulted the driver.

The victim’s wife and two other passengers got out of the car and were also assaulted.

The driver was taken to Mon General Hospital and then onto UPMC in Pittsburgh for surgery.

The others suffered minor injuries.

Friday, September 23, 2011

OddlyEnough: Board of Education Meeting Cancelled without Notice

A Gilmer County Board of Education meeting was scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2011 at 5:30 PM at the Gilmer County Board of Education Office.

However, when we showed up for the meeting all doors were locked without any notices and/or explanations.

Since we had not received the agenda for the meeting, we contacted the Board Office and the Superintendent Blankenship to ask for the agenda as well as verification of the scheduled meeting, Thursday morning.

Unfortunately we did not receive any responses.

The meeting was originally scheduled for Monday, September 26, 2011 in July meeting. However, Mr. Blankenship changed the meeting to Thursday, September 22, 2011 in August meeting.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

OddlyEnough™: ‘Code Red’ Results in Criminal Charges

The Barbour County Prosecutor’s Office and West Virginia State Police say criminal charges will be filed in connection with a training drill in Barbour County.

Barbour County Office of Emergency Management Director Larry Allen is facing seven counts of assault.

Allen allegedly wore a mask into Philippi Elementary School and fired a starters pistol at the staff there.

The incident was part of what was called a “Code Red” training drill being conducted September 02, 2011.

WV State Police say Allen will be formally charged on September 27, 2011. 

Sunday, September 18, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Top WV Gubernatorial Candidates Skip Survey

A nonpartisan government watchdog says West Virginia’s top candidates for governor aren’t showing much political courage.

The group Project Vote Smart routinely asks candidates nationwide to take its Political Courage Test.

The survey seeks their positions on various issues, from abortion and education to taxes and the environment.

Project Vote Smart says it repeatedly offered the test to those running in the October 04, 2011 special election for governor.

It says only independent Marla Ingels and third party candidate Harry Bertram responded.

Republican Bill Maloney’s campaign declined comment Friday.

A spokesman for Governor Earl Ray Tomblin says the Democratic nominee has answered questions from local media about his proposals and beliefs.

Project Vote Smart posts survey responses and other candidate information on its website, votesmart.org.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

OddlyEnough™: KKK Plans Private Rally This Weekend

The Rebel Brigade Knights of the Ku Klux Klan are planning a rally in Harrison County this weekend.

The Rebel Brigade has members in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Imperial Klaliff Chris Barker told WAJR-FM’s Morning Edition Wednesday the group has a growing West Virginia chapter.

Saturday’s rally, which is expected to draw 150 people, will be private and held at an undisclosed located.

Barker is stressing that they will not be holding any public demonstrations yet.

However, he says the West Virginia chapter plans to be more active and future demonstrations are in the works.

~~  WAJR –FM ~~

Sunday, September 11, 2011

G-Comm™: Rockefeller Reflections on 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks

There are moments in history that define who we are as a nation, and who we can be as a people. They are touchstones, forever defining our history in terms of “before” and “after.”

September 11, 2001, was one of those moments.

Every one of us knows exactly where we were when we first heard about the terrorist strikes that day. It is etched upon our memories. Nearly 3,000 people lost their lives in that cowardly attack – first responders, parents, brothers, and sisters. That act of terrorism may have been intended to tear our nation down. Instead, it brought us together.

Out of that devastation came unity—and perseverance. Our nation’s extraordinary response to the 9/11 tragedy highlighted the deep compassion we have as a nation and for one another. We found solace and comfort not only in friends and family, but in strangers. We all understood something at a very deep level. We understood then, perhaps as rarely if ever before, that we are in this together, as Americans.

Within hours of the attacks, flags were everywhere: car windows, T-shirts, front porches. Our grieving country emerged in a post-9/11 world a stronger people and nation. We persevered.

With the 10-year anniversary of 9/11 approaching, we owe it to the victims, the survivors and their families to carry on. We owe it to them to persevere.

One way we can do this is by creating a permanent and positive legacy of reforms that make everyone more safe. The security of our homeland continues to be one of my top priorities in Congress, and we are making great strides for the safety of our fellow Americans.

West Virginians have taken on key roles in public safety through their work at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ (ATF) National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division in Clarksburg, the U.S. Coast Guard’s National Vessel Documentation and Operations Systems Center in the Eastern Panhandle, and at the West Virginia National Guard’s Joint Interagency Training and Education Center at Camp Dawson.

We continue to step forward as leaders in public safety and security with the recent opening of the Global Borders College in Harpers Ferry, which will annually train 5,000 frontline Customs officers on everything from firearms usage to language studies.

The Customs and Border Protection personnel are our front line of defense against threats and this college will create new opportunities for jobs and training. That’s why I worked hard to make sure the college got the funding support needed to build this facility in West Virginia.

Nationally, we’ve taken enormous steps forward in making America a safer, more secure nation. In many ways, it starts with our airports and airplanes. Our passenger and baggage screening a decade ago didn’t work. Today, every passenger and their luggage receive a thorough check before he gets on a plane.

And we continue to improve our screening methods, with state-of-the-art scanning technology and now new software to protect privacy.

Yet despite these strides, we still have unfinished business.

Today, as you read this, I have a bill before the Congress that would finally give first responders the tools they need to communicate in a crisis. People lost their lives on 9/11 because firefighters, police officers and other rescue personnel couldn’t communicate effectively. This is shameful. What’s worse, the 9/11 Commission told us we had to address the problem, and now, 10 years later, we still haven’t.

Whether for a terrorist attack, a mining disaster, or a major weather event, the new communications network created by this bill will keep first responders safe and allow them to keep the public safe. The bill sets aside airwaves for first responders that will be used to build a nationwide, wireless communications network. It’s been endorsed by virtually every public safety group and, what’s more, won’t cost taxpayers a penny.

Looking abroad, we need to focus on completing our mission in Afghanistan. We have made exceptional progress toward eliminating Al Qa’ida over the past several years—including the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year—and now it’s time to bring this war to an end, on our terms.  Our troops have done all that we’ve asked of them in Afghanistan, and we owe it to them to bring home as many as we can. Our men and women in uniform should be honored for the wonderful work they’ve done.

I’ve said for some time that I have both strategic and budgetary concerns about our major military obligations around the world. The indefinite expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of troops is neither necessary nor strategically wise.

On the Senate Intelligence Committee and as former Chairman, I continue my work in Congress to make sure that our families, our homeland and our troops are protected and supported – and that together as one nation we are doing everything we can to prevent a tragedy like 9/11 from ever happening again.

The Bible tells us that tribulation brings about perseverance. Perseverance brings about character. And character brings about hope.

As we look back, honoring those who were lost and thanking those who keep us safe, we do so with perseverance, character and, best of all, hope.

Monday, August 22, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Big Brother Is Watching… No Place to Run-N-Hide!

Monday, August 15, 2011

OddlyEnough™: Ordinance Supports Forming New State West Of the Allegheny Mountains

An ordinance presented to delegates of the Second Wheeling Convention on Saturday, August 13, proposed forming a new state west of the Allegheny Mountains.

The Committee on a Division of the State presented the ordinance supporting formation of the new state out of the part of Virginia north and west of the mountains.

The people’s “social, commercial and political condition ... would be greatly (benefited) and their happiness promoted by such a division,“ the ordinance stated.

Since convening on August 06, the convention had debated the issue, with discussions concerning the time of division, whether the convention was authorized to separate the state or develop a new constitution, and the people’s position.

On August 08, Harrison County Delegate John Carlile spoke at length of possible state boundaries, the abuse of an eastern government despite the region’s natural wealth, and the immediate need for division in case the Union was defeated.

Carlile said western Virginians had “endured the disastrous results that ever must flow from an unnatural connection. Cut the knot now! ... Apply the knife!“ he said.

Delegate Chapman J. Stewart, also of Harrison, said the convention should not be looking only at western Virginia’s interests. “Our object should be to support the general government in putting down this rebellion, and never for one moment hold out a doubt that the government is to succeed,“ he said.

The following days were spent offering substitutes to the ordinance.

Upshur County Delegate Daniel D.T. Farnsworth proposed state boundaries excluding much of what is today southeastern West Virginia but allowed for adjacent counties to join the new state.

William I. Boreman of Tyler said the sentiments of the convention demanded a division but the stance of the people in the proposed boundary was unknown. He also argued that the current convention was not authorized to set boundaries.

A popular vote on division would later be held in western Virginia.

With the consent of the reorganized Virginia state legislature and the U.S. Congress, those areas within the boundary which approved division would form the state of New Virginia.

The popular vote on division would also include ratification of the state constitution.

As political action concerning formation of the new state accelerated, military action had meanwhile slowed in the region.

On August 10, Unionist soldiers disarmed secessionists at St. Mary’s, Pleasants County. Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd took command of the Confederate forces in the Kanawha Valley August 11.

The former Minister to France under James Buchanan, Charles J. Faulkner of Martinsburg was arrested August 12, in Washington for procuring arms for the Confederacy while in France. He would be confined until December, when he was exchanged for a captured U.S. congressman.

Joseph A.J. Lightburn was appointed to colonel of the 4th Virginia Federal Infantry on August 14.

Born in western Pennsylvania, Lightburn and his family had moved to Lewis County in 1840.

Thomas J. Jackson’s friend and neighbor, he later lost his bid for admission to West Point to Jackson.

Lightburn would go on to serve in the Kanawha Valley, the Western Campaign, and in the Shenandoah Valley, ultimately reaching the rank of brigadier general.

For more information, visit www.richmountain.org.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

G-OddlyEnough™: Giant Marilyn Monroe Statue Unveiled in Chicago

A 26-foot-(8-meter-)tall sculpture of Monroe in her famous pose from the film “The Seven Year Itch” has been unveiled on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

In the movie, a draft catches Monroe’s dress as she stands over a subway grate to cool off.

The film scene and photographs taken from it left much more to the imagination than artist Seward Johnson’s sculpture.

Chicago has a history of public art displays, including a herd of fiberglass cows that lined Michigan Avenue some years back.

The plaza where Monroe will be stationed until next spring was the home a few years ago to another Johnson sculpture: the equally iconic, though far less glamorous, grim-faced farmer and his spinster daughter from Grant Wood’s “American Gothic.“