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.
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.
OddlyEnough™: Texas Prisoner Met Requirements to Be on Democrat Primary Election Ballot
OBAMA LOST OVER 40% OF WEST VIRGINIA PRIMARY VOTE TO FEDERAL INMATE NO. 11593-051
With 72,459 Votes Keith Judd, Federal Inmate No. 11593-051, Won 40.6% in West Virginia’s Democrat Primary.
“The Inmate, Keith Judd, Is Serving Time At The Beaumont Federal Correctional Institution In Texas For Making Threats At The University Of New Mexico In 1999.”
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.
That is too funny!! I had no idea who the opponent of Obama was, and I didnt care..As long as Obama did not get my vote.
Looking at how many others voted the same way says a lot. I look forward to Obama being voted out.
By annon. on 05.09.2012
This is what happens when a group mentality is voted. It’s follow the leader just like a herd of stampeding buffalo follow each other over a cliff. Great, now we’ll be a national joke, something like, how many West Virginia counties does it take to put a felon in the White House. If good Democrats keep supporting the Republican agenda being forwarded by our leaders the Ryan budget will be on its way to reality. Forget the adult programs for one second, what will WV do when that budget cuts over 280,000 school breakfast and lunches? What will we feed the children, broken promises?
By I Voted Obama on 05.09.2012
I’ll tell you…I’ll feed my own kids. When I decided to have children, I made the commitment to care for them. I don’t want to depend on the government for everything. If you think about it, Obama’s is a crook too. But he has done worse things than make threats.
And he has made the whole country a joke in the eyes of the world. I would’ve voted for your dog before I would vote for Obama!
By Rose on 05.10.2012
Rose,
I agree with you with one exception:
The whole country (America) has been a joke in the eyes of the world since 2000.
Something happened then and has not changed since.
We the American need to stop listening to all the news about terrorist treats issued by the government.
They have used this issue since year 2000 to take advantage of patriotic Americans for sympathy.
We the people have the power to change it if we have the will.
In reality America creates more terrorist acts around the world on daily basis than one can imagine.
Imagine what would happen if one of these countries get close to U.S., a big deal!! Right? But it is OK for U.S. to be around all the other countries against their will.
Our government needs to pay more attention to America and Americans than the rest of the world.
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.
OddlyEnough™: Dentist Pulled Out ALL Boyfriend’s Teeth After He Dumped Her…..
Dentist Pulled Out ALL Boyfriend’s Teeth After He Dumped Her
(And New Girlfriend Leaves Him Because Of His Empty Mouth)
Anna Mackowiak heavily sedated Marek Olszewski before plucking out his gnashers
‘I tried to be professional, but when I saw him, I thought, “What a b******“.‘
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.
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.
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.“
G-Comm™: Everybody’s a Target in the American Surveillance State
“Everybody’s a target; everybody with communication is a target.”
—A senior intelligence official previously involved with the Utah Data Center
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:
As every man goes through life he fills in a number of forms for the record, each containing a number of questions….There are thus hundreds of little threads radiating from every man, millions of threads in all. If these threads were suddenly to become visible, the whole sky would look like a spider’s web, and if they materialized like rubber bands, buses and trams and even people would lose the ability to move and the wind would be unable to carry torn-up newspapers or autumn leaves along the streets of the city.
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:
Not very long ago….. I actually believed that I would be willing to sacrifice a bit of freedom for security. I believed that a guard or cop at the entrance to my community, checking I.D. would be better than car loads of gang members roaming through creating havoc. I once laughed at those who mistrusted the government and prepared for survival, should things go sideways. I supported efforts by our so called “leaders” to monitor society, in search for the ever present evil. Not long ago….. I slept.
I just finished building my fourth M-4. I just finished loading my 3rd case of 5.56. Today my Saiga 12 arrives. My wife has canned enough food to feed a city. I have taken great steps at a great cost to ensure that I am fully self reliant under any circumstance. I am awake.
Anyone who really believes that the simple act of discussing this on the internet, has not steered electronic ears in your direction…. is sound asleep and I understand that. Someone eluded to it and I repeat this truth. In 1935 Germany… many citizens felt uneasy and sensed that doom was on the way. More laughed such talk off and continued to find reasons to smile and enjoy the day. We all know the end of that story.
The new I Pad was released!!!!! Snooky had a meltdown! My Mac Pro is awesome!!! These trinkets that keep us giggling and focused on nothing…. this addiction to instant gratification…..... this will be our downfall.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
OddlyEnough™: Big Brother Is Watching… No Place to Run-N-Hide!
Face Recognition in a Crowd.
This is the crowd before the riot in Vancouver !
After you click the link below put your cursor anywhere in the crowd and double-click a couple of times and then use the scroll button in the center of your mouse.
You can zero in on one single face! The clarity is unbelievable!
This is the photo taken by Port Moody photographer Ronnie Miranda that appeared in Tri-City News on 24-June
This is actually scary! You can see - perfectly - the faces of every single individual
- and there were thousands!
Privacy?
Just think what the police and the military have at their disposal!
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.
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.“
Mr. Ashley:
To answer some of your questions you have posted about anonymous comments.
1) YES I am a true taxpayer. I own property and more than 1 vehicle. As to why not sign my name. I’m smarter than that. You don’t have to have know who I am for me to make a point.
2) As far as the ones who complain probably are not voters anyway. Oh yes, I vote. I have not missed a election, county or national to voice my choice since I started voting at the age of 21. I’ve seen a few by the way. I do agree with one thing, if a individual does not excerise their rights to vote, they have no reason to complain about the results.
3) I respect all people until they prove to me they do not deserve respect because of the criminal or corrupt things they do to others. Then, my respect is GONE for those individuals. I don’t even know you other than thru your comments so I’m sure not one who owes you or anyone else in the county money.
4) And in response to your PS!! P(please)s(see) my PS, I and all the others who do not post our names because of fear and retaliation, not only for our self but for our families, neighbors and homes, business and I’m sure you get the picture. We do have many unsolved crimes in our area as you well know, and I do not want to add anymore because of what I have written on GFP. You stated you have already been warned three times about what you write, how many does it take? No….. they can’t eat you but THEY sure can destroy all you have including your family. It is not the thing of being gutless, it is the thing of being smarter than that. Putting your name on your comments does not show guts, it is a lack of common sense, which endangers not only you but your family. Mr. Ashley you can still have that FREEDOM OF SPEECH but anonymously. This is my choice, please respect that as I respect yours. It is simply a preference we each have and that is the American Way and I sincerely thank the Gilmer Free Press for giving me the chance to say what I feel or think but still be anonymous. We can not do that in the weekly paper as they want only positive things to be printed. True reporters print the good, bad and the ugly. Not alot of positive going on in the “Ville” anymore. Again, thanks GFP.
Coopers Rock State Forest is a beautiful place of picnic. It is also good for camping. I visited this forest with my friends last year. Although it’s a bit scary at night time but you can camp there without any fear.
By Camps And Conference Centers Dallas on 05.18.2012
This link (http://bit.ly/JXQiqG) provides a lot of education on WV Critical Access Hospitals such as Minnie Hamilton- their origin and funding sources. Unfortunately, even our health care is predicated on the income gap and those much hated “entitlement” programs. I am unsure as to why pay back of past reimbursements would be required and intend to research but suggest we all need to take the time, look at the maps and documentation provided and understand how the critical needs for all of us have been met over the years.
I just feel you should contribute to the cause. You see where the world is today. When i speak of property owner i am meaning people that work hard and pay taxes struggle to feed their families. I am not talking about the people that are rich and cheat the system. Well your on track your most
likely a democrat. That’s alright this country will look like a gay PLANET OF THE APES in few years. THANKS lol
The message should be much more important than the messenger but still people just don’t read or take the responsibility of independent thinking. It seems more important to know who said it, to be on the “right” side. I don’t like bullies. I don’t care for people telling others what they should and should not say or how to say it. That’s my right, my opinion. Don’t have any problem signing my name to this but for now I’ll just use…
Sorry not supporting either one, if your a true tax payer you would most likely signed your name. The facts are the facts you may not like it. I have found out most people that b**ch don’t vote. Or will not respect the people who do. Or you might not like me. You maybe one of the people that owes money to me or another local business in Gilmer CO. You did not think i KNEW who you were, the next time you decide to make a typographical error i Will print your name. And i will promise when i do it will be rite on the money.
PS THESE PEOPLE THAT COMMENT AND DON’T SIGN THEIR NAME SHOULD BE be ashamed. Gut-Less wonders if you have something to say and don’t have the nuts to back it up well you must be a very very large out house.
Glen,
only selective law enforcement can take away rights of the people in keeping with WV Code and the US Constitution. I live in hope that no one running for Sheriff, Magistrate or Prosecutor will effect that type of an agenda.
Mr. Ashley I think your thinking on some things is pretty petty. The comment of not owning property and being a commissioner, or wanting to be a commissioner and not owning property. So what??
How would owning property change anything?
Does owning property make you honest?
Does owning property make you have more concern for your fellow man?
Does owning property make you get the priorities of the county in order?
Does owning property make you better than a non-property owner?
Does owning property help you make better decisions as to what is best for the county as a whole?
Does owning property mean you are richer than those who don’t?
Mr. Ashley there are several people in this county who have a whole lot of property, a whole lot of money, alot of top dog higher up-friends, a whole lot of influence with each other, a whole lot of the attitude it’s all for
me or nothing, a whole lot of control and we all see where Gilmer County is and the condition it is in. They lack a whole lot of common sense, compassion for their fellow man, caring for someone else other than the
chosen few and they are ruining and running Gilmer County. So you see the idea of being a property owner means nothing and does not mean it would better this county. The above mentioned in this paragraph, they are the ones we need to worry about.
Norma the code of state and county is for the ELITE people like the chicken backstabbers that this county has put up with for years. Every sheriff that runs for office will tell you I WILL CLEAN THE DRUGS UP IN THIS COUNTY. Well they don’t because of losing or getting elected and some body set them up. I have been warned already 3 times about what i have written. I DON’T get to excited they can’t eat me LOL. I am GOING to run for sheriff, BUT I WONT BE VERY POPULAR IN 6 TO 8 MONTHS BECAUSE THE DRUGS WILL BE STOPPED IN TOWN AND THE SCHOOLS WILL STOP. Or i will die trying this will clean our court house schools AND remove 70% of the ELITE. I have listened for 20 years.
PS I KNOW WHERE TO START.
yes Larry, sorry I mean Glen, may as well give the county away, give the schools away and sell our land because that’s the big picture. We might as well not fight any battle we can’t win. Might as well let strangers handle all our business except private business. Heard it all. Why complain now about things that didn’t seem to matter? Day late and a dollar short don’t ya think?
Do we need another commissioner in this county that does not own property here. They pay property tax on ONE vehicle one has been paid by our tax dollars for years the other ONE pays taxes on ONE vehicle. If that is what this county wants it doesn’t surprise me. I am not taking up for Chapman either. Just i think people should at least own property here pay tax on it if there going to manage our money. These TWO don’t UNLESS Mrs JAMES give APIECE a way. We might as well just hire a out of county firm to manage the county it might be cheaper and we don’t have to pay benefits
GA,
Your commission candidate and the assessor have said that the Feit tax situation is legal each and every time the question was brought up over past several years. Why is it a problem now? If I thought somebody was getting an illegal personal property tax break I’d be calling the courthouse and the tax dept in Charleston instead of making the same old accusations with no foundation in the law to support a political agenda.
I am not voting for him till you go across that creek and he pays taxes on all the cement mixers and cranes, equipment and other stuff that he owns. Some people pay their taxes in this county. You don’t believe it? go look. Then wait till you hear why. You try it see if you can get by with it. Another leach
To anonymous again:
We still do have a choice for county commissioner. Darren Feit is running on the Republican ticket. Darren is very good at researching things and I think he would be a good commissioner. He actually might did too deep sometimes.
Larry is not the only choice. Keep that in mind.
Glen,
I feel that if we all became fans of simple honesty and transparency we would be a whole lot better off today. Too bad you could not attend Coalition meetings prior to the take over. I’m sure you would have made a positive contribution.
Nothing is final but the future blueprint for school consolidation is set if not changed before the next round of SBA funding. Right now, several of us are waiting for Mr. Heinlein’s answer to our questions as promised. Mine specifically addressed regulations concerning Troy and Sand Fork student transfer requests as the Super had told media the answer was an automatic no.I would like to see that in the Code.
Somebody on here is a Ramsey fan. He always tells how great he is. His buddy and him need to darn them tights and cape get out there and help on are school problem this could be a colorful duo. ENOUGH FOR THE HUMOR THERE HAS TO BE A AWAY, WE PAY THE TAXES AND WE HAVE NO SAY, I SERVED MY COUNTRY SO DID OTHERS, SO WE WOULD HAVE SAY OVER THIS COMMUNIST SH*T. THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING WE CAN DO. I WOULD HELP IF I THOUGHT I KNEW WHAT I NEED TO DO. THE BOARD GOT PAID TO BICKER AMONG THEM SELF AND DID NOT AGREE ON NOTHING FOR YEARS. WHY DO WE HAVE A PAID BOE THAT HAS NO SAY IN OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM. THEN SOME OF THE ELITE SEEN THERE CHANCE. WE HAVE GIVE LEWIS EVERY THING. YOU KNOW A MAN PLUM AGAINST SOMETHING AND CHANGE HIS STRIPES TO GET ELECTED WOULD VOTE FOR OBAMA THIS ELECTION. MY STRIPES DON’T CHANGE FOR NOBODY AND I DON’T CARE IF THEY LIKE ME OR NOT.
The really embarassing thing about the WV primary elections is that the voter has NO chance to voice his/her choice other than to vote for someone on the ballot. We need to have write in capability in the primary election. Someone once told me we didn’t have that choice because “the wrong people” might get elected. Well, the “wrong people” get elected quite often because there isn’t anyone else to vote for! And who is qualified to decide who the “wrong people” are!!
I read the article of WHY this morning written by Patrick Morrisey. Sounds like he is a very intelligent man that is a candidate for Republican Attorney General and I will be giving him a Democrat vote. If the ones we
now have in office won’t/can’t/don’t do what is best for WV get them out.
If SOS or the Attorney General had pursued the matter instead of declaring they couldn’t do anything about it, a local candidate running to fill a vacancy for Magistrate that lied about having a creditable GED and/or High School Diploma would not have been on the ballot and made a laughing stock out of Gilmer county once again. Some say, look for the positive things happening in Gilmer County. My positive is we kept Magistrate Carol Wolfe in office for another term and kept the now sheriff out of filling one of those empty magistrate seats. What a shame we don’t have a honest Prosecuting Attorney in Gilmer Co. What a shame people were not smart enough to keep out a former commissioner. Look out Gilmer…...he’s back.
I would imagine that the Attorney General offers legal opinions to the secretary of state when asked to do so. Mr. McGraw was elected attorney general, not secretary of state. If the lack of specificity in the election code has been of such concern to you, why have you not discussed the matter with your state representatives? Perhaps you spend too much time inside the beltway of Washington, DC representing large corporations. Or are you merely on a witch hunt while trying to feather your own nest. Don’t blame Darrell McGraw for all that is wrong with the world.
The Gilmer County service is great! There Medical Communication Division has something trouble though the director on the department called meeting for solve the problem.ecommerce software
We now have three reports about the WV Department of Education.
All three agree that their are major structural, educational, and financial issues within.
Governor Tomblin and the Legislature are aware of these major problems.
How can we conclude then, with any confidence, they have a clue as what they are doing with this two county school experiment ?
Read the WV Dept of Agriculture,s Market Bulletin…..this months issue.
Retiring Gus Douglas talks about pink slime and how good it is.
Hey Gus! Do you and your family eat that chit ? ?
I have read todays Clarksburg paper, front page “Officials set to begin planning new inter-county elementary.
1> The state’s first inter-county school funded by the state School Building Authority (SBA) through a grant just shy of 10 million.
2> Official site is exactly on the Lewis-Gilmer County line near Linn. Q… So who was the lucky owner/seller? Or is it a secret too?
3> Blankenship COULD NOT COMMENT on how much the 20 ares of land cost the two county school systems but said it was evenly divided.
Q… Wasn’t it for $335,000 Mr Blankenship? $167,500.00 each?
4> Blankenship is pleased it is in both Gilmer and Lewis Counties and hoping the county line splits the building too, so we can say it’s actually in both counties.
Q… So Lewis will have control of the decisions and operation right? We pay, they control?
5> Blankenship says that HE, Dr. Joe Mace Lewis Co. Super. and others within the school system will be visiting other new facilities to get ides for the school.
Q…Why would they have to visit other facilities? Maybe they could/should ask the taxpayers what they think since it is us footing the bill.
6> Things going to happen fast when school is out Blankenship said.
Q… You mean fast as in fast like the state takeover?
7> However, when this was all funded, one project was left out of the mix. The plans to build and consolidate Glenville Elementary, Sand Fork and Normantown. But Blankenship says it will be sumitted again next year. Blankenship said then we will have all in Pre-K through 6th grades in all new facilities. That is our ultimate goal he said. So Gilmer County next year it will be approved, the site on top by the old Auction barn site will be the next property purchased. The price may be a little higher then because they know they can. The article says it would not have been politically correct to fund the same county for two projects.
Q… POLITICALLY CORRECT REALLY?
Congratulations to all the “elites” from this “ONCE” PROUD GILMER COUNTY CITIZEN for buying your way once again to stardom. I am not proud of any of you. Money, greed, politics, control and stupidity is a combination I am glad I do not have. My deepest sympathy to you all. My question why did you do this to the people of Gilmer County who have worked hard all their life, took pride in their county, their schools, their neighbors, their friends and you do this to us all. We deserve better than this, and our kids going to school here deserve better.
How many read today’s Clarksburg paper to learn about the Gilmer/Lewis K-12 school site? Why has Mr.Blankenship failed to inform citizens about the development including how much was paid for the land and who owned it? the State is treating us similar to a country under marshal law. We have no local say, there is a news block in the County by the State, and we aren’t told about the plan to bus Sand Fork children to the joint county school. It is a sad state of affairs in a nation founded on democratic principles. Our state and higher level politicians have abandoned Gilmer County.
This posting exemplifies why we must take a careful look at what must be done in Gilmer County to establish an excellent school system. The one size fits all concept involving a consolidated K-12 school has not been proven to be valid for the County. What can we do to get an independent, professional school system planing group to do a study for us? If the answer of qualified professionals is consolidation, we could live with that if there is full transparency and involvement of citizens in the decision-making.
Kennedy and Chapman had already decided the Visions meeting would be cancelled because they do not want to bring back the 911 center. They tell people one thing but we all know what they do and what they say they will do is TWO DIFFERENT THINGS. The decision was made when Mr. Ramsey was not at the meeting because they knew he would not agree to cancelling if he was there. It was done behind his back and he was not aware what they were doing. Sound familiar? Well Gilmer county citizens this is the way it will be because you who voted for Chapman to serve as one of your commissioners made the wrong choice. So now you will have two commissioners instead of three because Mr. Ramsey will not have a vote. We all lose because it will be what is good and profitable for the elite not what is good for the county. The other two will out rule him every time. Gilmer County you messed up big time. The “elites” will continue to rule this county because both K and C are bought and paid for. Welcome to crooked county. Hopefully we will get lucky and a Independent will run in the Nov. election and beat Chapman, as this is our only hope Gilmer County.
Kennedy didn’t feel like it and canceled the meeting while Ramsey was out of town. He did not contact him at all to check with him. I recon he canceled the meeting because he did not want anyone asking him about his position on the school system and start blasting them like he did Ramezan when he asked. By the way since Democrat is taking up for Kennedy now for approving their outrages charges (near $19000 for printing sample ballots) mentioned why the meeting was cancelled and the truth behind it?
There are many benefits to breast feeding. Mother and child form a tight bond when they spend that close time together. It is sad to see a little baby with a bottle propped up to its mouth. I loved nursing my children. I would kiss their little hands and they would reach up and play with my hair. I lost my baby weight really fast and my kids are both healthy and happy to this day. Some women are “too embarrassed.“ I always wonder when I hear a women say that how many nasty pics she has on facebook, but she is too embarrassed to give the best nourishment possible to her child. There are many resources for breastfeeding moms, the best local place to get info is the WIC office. Consider it if you are a mom-to-be.
I have gone to all my sons track meets .You mention the name Natalie Tennant She has a niece that participates in track. She has showed at some events. This is how i figured who the family members are. I have listened to several of there conversations at shot putt and discus. I had no choice they like to be seen heard. There was tent set up at the discus field. There were 2or 3 spectators under it they had to be moved for her family’s team they do not share well with others. After HEARING a few words we heard said. No one in Gilmer County should ever be embarrassed of our kind. Maybe she just did not want to share the information about the presidential candidate in prison. When we take our tent to events i am not going to act so ig*#*rant i will just share my tent with any body that needs to get out of the sun or rain. Most of us in Gilmer County set ours up at games and do it to share with are neighbors, friends and anybody that needs it.
You are sooooo correct.
Tennent has been full of crap from day one.
She is acting like she is the only one understand the constitution.
The Felon knew which state has an idiot for secretary of state and chose it to register.
Is she saying ALL THE OTHER STATES violated the constitution?
Because of her action once again W. Va. Has made an a** out of herself standing up like a sore thumb and it is nobody else’s fault but ours.
We need to be able to write in candidates in the primary election. That way, no matter who files, we would have a real choice. The idea that you can only vote for people who paid $2500 to be put on the ballot is as bad as having felons run for office, isn’t it?
In order for a November election to be fair, the voters need to be able to choose candidates in the primary election. If no one files, the voters should still be able to make suggestions!
This isn’t Natalie Tennant’s problem: it is OUR problem!
I love meatloaf. Have you ever baked this meatloaf in the oven. I don’t have a slow cooker but would like to try to make this meatloaf. Thanks for the recipe.
For Sheriff metz, McDonalds is hiring, I think the Dollar Store. with your credentials now if you got them you can be qualified for something. Maybe Foodland where your wife used to work. People of the county we need to find him a job.
Rose,
I agree with you with one exception:
The whole country (America) has been a joke in the eyes of the world since 2000.
Something happened then and has not changed since.
We the American need to stop listening to all the news about terrorist treats issued by the government.
They have used this issue since year 2000 to take advantage of patriotic Americans for sympathy.
We the people have the power to change it if we have the will.
In reality America creates more terrorist acts around the world on daily basis than one can imagine.
Imagine what would happen if one of these countries get close to U.S., a big deal!! Right? But it is OK for U.S. to be around all the other countries against their will.
Our government needs to pay more attention to America and Americans than the rest of the world.
The President of Democratic Executive Committee (S. P.) needs to be stripped of all command decisions and influence and should take full responsibility for allowing Metz to run for election after falsifying the documents needed to by the Secretary of State. Tennant is a complete idiot that should not even be holding office. Her experience as a baby sitter for I** M***IS, I am sure would have gotten her plenty of jobs.
What the democratic executive committee pulled off KNOWINGLY by allowing Metz to run is a criminal matter, and should be handled as a criminal matter. No more excuses, and the fact that Metz was taking the GED test just in the last couple weeks speaks volumes about the guilt factor that includes top Glenville names.
ALL SHOULD BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE - METZ HAS COVERED UP LAND FRAUD AND OTHER CRIMES as the SHERIFF of GILMER COUNTY and it’s why people call us CROOKED COUNTY.
I’ll tell you…I’ll feed my own kids. When I decided to have children, I made the commitment to care for them. I don’t want to depend on the government for everything. If you think about it, Obama’s is a crook too. But he has done worse things than make threats.
And he has made the whole country a joke in the eyes of the world. I would’ve voted for your dog before I would vote for Obama!
I am a die heart democrat and very disappointed with the position our democratic executive committee keeps taking. They are never for the best candidates. Instead for those they can control.
Their agenda is the same old crap over and over. If they have not learned by now from the loss of Metz with all his lies and accusation, we need to teach them a lesson. Switch party or in general election vote for republicans or independents. We need to change the system and have a good chance of it in November.
To make fun of us shows your ignorance not ours.We didnt put him in there to start with. And to talk so bad about us and our county shows coward-us on your part.You can say a lot when you don’t have the guts to sign your name. You’re most likely excited you can get married now.You going to sign your license or remain anonymous. Obama supports you and you support him.We got some closet boys around here to even one or two in office.But we didn’t know the truth about them until they voted in.You people put pheromones off to each other that’s how you no one another.We in Gilmer County just don’t smell your crap .And don’t have to take it. And you might want to remain anonymous. The river may start clogging up.
To JR Smith,
Bravo again to you.
We are dealing with bunch of hypocrites here. The one who had their head stuck in the sand and observed everything with their A** in the air during Bush/Cheney era. The ones who have nothing to do but watch FOX NEWS all the time and their rhetoric . The ones who are racist and blindly blame everything on Obama. The ones who claim pro-life but do not stop at finding ways to create unjustified wars to kill people. Their man took over the country with the highest surplus ever and left it in disaster with the highest deficit. I guess that is what conservative means. Someone once said “Rome took a long time to build but it was destroyed overnight”. Isn’t it the case here? U.S.A. destroyed in 8 years and they expect it fixed in 3? Especially when they are not helping to rebuild it and pull the opposite direction?
It is thundering right now and I bet they are blaming Obama!!
How is the 690 winning votes for KEITH JUDD/D federal inmate any different than the 1150 votes for Gerry Hough who is GUILTY of actually PAYING state witnesses to lie on the stand. Hough’s guilt was proven by court documents and the WV State Police said he was protected by a three year statute of limitation. Now, Ohio police said that three year statute was for a misdemeanor, and that Hough is actually guilty of a FELONY crime of subornation of perjury.
I propose that we pursue criminal charges against those public officials that continue to cover up crimes, like Hough, and Metz who used a FAKE DIPLOMA to qualify for an election METZ WAS NOT QUALIFIED LEGALLY TO RUN IN. Criminal charges should be pursued against President and all members of the democratic executive committee who knowingly allowed this wrongdoing.
Obama was handed the keys to an 8 yr old run down country. GW Jr if you can recall. The one who wanted to find the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION in Iraq (where are those at again?), the one who started the bailouts with the financial institutions, the one that we paid the highest per gallon of gas than we ever have, the leader of THE BUSH TAX CUTS. You know that Republican guy. Obama is 3 yrs into an 8 yr problem. He did get Osama though. Something GW couldn’t do.
You talk of his support for gay marriage. Well GW the guy who was “said Christian” had 8yrs and control of the House for the first 4 and he didn’t change that. Maybe Romney will though and put polygamy (multiple wives) in its place since he is Mormon and did contribute 4 million in tithes to the mormon church.
Obama is the most criticzed, scrutinized, and publicized pres in history. Don’t forget he is trying to get people to work and he did forge for taxes on the wealthy but the republicans didn’t like that idea.
To Mr. JR Smith and Not by me:
Just to make it clear when I start this comment, I am not racist. The color of one’s skin or their religion is not my concern. As far as calling WV ignorant for voting for a convicted felon I don’t remember anything such as that coming out in to the public eye to make any one aware of it. The people in this state just figured that individual COULD NOT do any worse than the one who is sitting in the Presidents seat now. If you recall, WV did not put Obama in the seat he sits in now because based on qualifications, Hillary Clinton was better suited for that than Obama. But the rest of the U.S. seemed to think that Obama would do a better job. Well, needless to say, the rest were wrong and WV got it right and were smarter than the other states for we all know Obama has put this nation in worse shape than it has ever been. Shame on our states for not having any stipulations concerning if a person was serving time in jail or federal prisons whether he could file for a position serving citizens of the U.S. Maybe this is where they need to change the rules and qualifications so that this cannot happen again. It is poor judgment on the State of WV to place this man on the ballot without releasing the jail information on him to the people of WV. Even had I known, the box beside Obama would have been left blank. So I think the blame lays on them also. But, maybe this convict would have or could have done a better job than the one who sits there now and he would not take the frequent expensive vacations and go golfing as much. The taxpayers would only be paying to feed one instead of 5 and he wouldn’t throw expensive dinners and entertainment. Could save some money there. Just a thought. It probably doesn’t make Obama feel to hot knowing that a convicted felon serving time in a Federal Correction Institution got 41% of the votes. Obama only got 26% of the vote in WV in the last election. WV is trying to tell the rest of the US that we need to change and we are smart enough to try to do that. Now who do you think WV will support in the General election. Romney when are you coming to WV? I am a registered Democrat who will be voting Republican in Nov. It’s not the party name I vote for; it is the man who will stand up for what he is put in office for, who will cut spending and taxes, and not think that all who do not want to work they should qualify for free handouts or everything bailouts and us the taxpayers foot the bill. I pay my own bills, let them do the same.
I know we as Americans have lost a lot of rights,but as far as I know.. We still have the right to vote for who we darn please..No one has the right to tell us who we can and can not vote for..
I guess you Obama lovers will be thrilled to see he just publicly endorsed same sex marriage..
This is what happens when a group mentality is voted. It’s follow the leader just like a herd of stampeding buffalo follow each other over a cliff. Great, now we’ll be a national joke, something like, how many West Virginia counties does it take to put a felon in the White House. If good Democrats keep supporting the Republican agenda being forwarded by our leaders the Ryan budget will be on its way to reality. Forget the adult programs for one second, what will WV do when that budget cuts over 280,000 school breakfast and lunches? What will we feed the children, broken promises?
To those of you who are ignorant of the real issue: It does not matter whether it is Obama, George Bush, or Romney, you should not vote for a convict even if you hate your president. What are you going to do if the convict becomes your president? Bi*ch again or celebrate?
You hate Obama? Just do not vote for him. If he is bad do you think you are making the matter better? What a lesson for our young children … Nothing but abhorrence,…
To Not Me,
You are right! I didn’t have a clue who I was voting for when I voted for Keith Judd. When I found out today, I breathed a sigh of relief, because I realized that I had picked the better candidate. I applaud the 40% of the voters in the state who got this one right.
Burnt Weiney
P.S.
Actually, I think if you check, Judd won in 8 counties.
Some of these people can’t even READ!! Not their fault, look at how they grew up. Give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, TEACH him to fish and he’ll eat for the rest of his life.
How can someone who is a convicted felon run for president anyway? Was our secretary of state the only idiot who fell for it? I guess that is no different that our sheriff metz running for magistrate with fake high school diploma!!!
You are so correct sir or madam.
If they don’t like somebody they should not vote for that person rather than voting for someone else whom they even don’t know. This is another proof why our political system, our state, and county are so screwed up. People blindly vote for anyone and never think about the consequence of their action.
Voting for a convicted felon is awful. I bet you, most people did not know him which is exactly your point.
We always get pi**ed off because people from other states make fun of WV. You can blame this one only on West Virginians.
You know, a simple fact is that some people just don’t really know HOW to vote or how to figure out who they’re voting for. Just a thought and from what people have told me after voting day, but maybe a training course could be held at the Senior Center free of charge before the next election?
Obviously some of the voters didn’t take the time to look at the sample ballots and check out the candidates before they voted. Many think they vote for the best candidate. But do they really? Do they spend the time to figure out which candidate will do a good job if elected?
Based on some of the history of elections in Gilmer County and who was elected, I’d say many of the voters do not. They rely on word of mouth or how their family has always voted to make their choices. Then they complain when nothing happens or gets done.
The problem with the WV primary ballot is there are NO PLACES for write ins! If Democrats could have voted for someone other than Keith Judd, then maybe they would have. 41% of the Democrats voted AGAINST Obama. This is a primary election. They know who they will vote for in November.
You are correct.
WV had to show its hillbilly side.
Even if you do not like Obama you shouldn’t vote for a convicted felon! You just don’t vote.
Only 3 counties in WV voted more for a convicted felon than the president. Unfortunately one of them is Gilmer County. I guess we have to show the rest of the world how ignorant we are.
I think mickey can move on he got his education now. Well the big dogs didn’t save him they left him hanging. Well Larry is back he will trim some wings on the hill LOL. Gerwig did well i think people voted against the big money. Most of the big dollar people got shut out congratulation Gilmer County very proud of the people.
Looking at the results I find a real disturbing problem. How ignorant or maybe in some cases racist are people in this state. Keith Judd, Democrat running against Obama, received quite a bit of votes in these counties and the state. For those of you who don’t know he is a FEDERAL INMATE locked up in TEXAS. WV was the only state where his name was on the ballet. We wonder why are state gets this reputation. If you don’t agree with Obama on policies that’s fine vote Romney (Mormon) in November. If you don’t like Obama because of color, then DON’T VOTE, that is ignorance. In this case though, looks like a sure sign of racism, because anybody who would of reviewed the other candidate would of not voted for him or just not voted at all given his INMATE status.
With strong leftist, liberal, democratic leadership, I believe Gilmer Co. will someday rival the likes of Webster Co. in statewide importance and population.
I would like to send a sincere thank you to every one that supported my vision of an independent, fiscally solid and united Gilmer County. I want you to know that no matter what, my wish is always for a better tomorrow. Thank you for sharing your time and your concerns.
Each and every one that left the comforts of home, went out in inclement weather and fulfilled their civic duty as a voter of our great democracy has my utmost respect and appreciation.
To Mr. Ashley:
If this is true that Mr. Ramsey was against the 911 center at some point and time do you think maybe it could have been because he was like the rest of us in this county and was not given any correct or proper information concerning the 911 center?
Do you think that maybe after he was elected County Commissioner that he done some checking of his own or that maybe some of the people who knew what was going on approached him and he did some investigative work in reference to bringing back the 911 center? Do you think that maybe he could have changed his mind after finding out more information? Do you think that he would have attended all the 911 meetings with Lewis County and even went to several different counties to see how they operated if he truly did not want to get it back and employ our county people here? Do you think that Larry Chapman is telling people the truth when he says he wants it back or was he just trying to get votes? Do you think that if Chapman wins tonight that Kennedy and Chapman will work with Ramsey to do what is best for the people of Gilmer County?
I don’t think it is a case of changing stripes Mr. Ashley, I think it is a case of finding out about alot of corrupt, improper and illegal things that have went on and he is the only one who wants to change this and benefit the people and not himself. Give credit where credit is due. To put Chapman back into the County Commission would be just as big of a mistake as putting Metz in as Magistrate. Gilmer County citizens and taxpayers deserve better than that. Ramsey is more like the honest old time commissioners that we used to have many years ago that fought for what is right for all, not the select few. Thank you Mr. Ramsey for caring for us, for your actions and words speak loud and clear.
Breaking News: We are losing another chief tax deputy in Gilmer County. She is leaving.
Could someone tell me how many chief tax deputies mickey metz has had? If he is in charge of taxes they why he is always so behind and why do we have so many problems?
Metz cannot be a leader. Has not been as a sheriff and therefore he cannot be a good judge.
To all citizens in Gilmer County. If you vote Larry Chapman back in as a commissioner you can kiss any improvements/changes/honesty or concern for us goodbye. The only thing he is concerned with is power and lining his own pockets with our money and agreeing with what ever Mr. Morris says to do for GSC. He corrupted the Commission the other time, and if he gets back in it will only be worse because he knows he can and has the elites to back him. We have other choices in voting today, and we better make the right choice and keep Chapman out. Kennedy and Chapman are two of a kind. There is a old saying that “birds of the same feather, flock together”. If Chapman gets in, you can be assured NO 911 CENTER IN GILMER COUNTY. He said he doesn’t think there is anyone in Gilmer County smart enough to run it. But…he tells the voters he is all for getting the 911 center back. Lies, that is to get your vote. Let’s show him how SMART Gilmer County is. If we don’t, Kennedy and Chapman will be a 2 to 1 vote in any county commission decision because neither one wants Ramsey in there because they know he is for the people. But he will have no say if Chapman wins this election today. Gilmer County do what is RIGHT!! KEEP HIM OUT!!! And keep in mind also that Kennedy is a employee of TWO ElITE companies in Gilmer Co so how do you think he would vote? Maybe, he could talk his boss into donating free the empty building beside NAPA for the 911 Center. I think that would be a great idea and a solution since Chapman and Kennedy says it might cost to much to build a new place.
VOTE by WRITE IN for an advocate for the human, civil and legal rights every Gilmer County Citizen.
Vote Dan Bingman for Sheriff
Vote Bubba for Prosecutor
NO TO METZ and NO TO HOUGH do note issue one single vote for those that let us down and then would not listen to our complaints. Do not put a check mark next to the name Metz or Hough on the democratic ballot ...WRITE IN Dan Bingman for Sheriff and WRITE IN BUBBA for prosecutor!
I hope to see more Independent voters in the future.I believe this is away to retake our county back. It will be a slow process but i think its worth it. You can ask for any ticket that’s a plus this way your vote goes where you want it and what party.
Mr. Ashley, when Darrell Ramsey ran for county commissioner he stated that he supported bringing 911 back to Gilmer County. Apparently not all Democrats, as you stated, were against bringing 911 back.
Since his election he has worked constantly to reach that goal. Mr. Ramsey should be commended for his efforts.
I agree with Hoppy. Voting gives me a little thrill too. Being a woman, I feel I should embrace that right since it was a hard fought battle. The elections in Gilmer County are pretty important this time. The BOE race as well as magistrate and commission races will hopefully change Gilmer County for the better. That’s what I prayed for when I cast my votes. I encourage other Gilmer Countians to go and let your voices be heard.
Commissioner Ramsey has been attending all of the meetings for 911 and EMS plus the commission in Lewis and Gilmer County. He has his names ready for the study committee to prep up and put the question of money before the people for a new building here. Where are Hess and Kennedy’s suggestions? Nowhere and they’ve been asked by Ramsey. Is Kennedy cooking at the Pioneer more important that a meeting for the public scheduled over a month ago that he said he was clear to attend? The meeting wasn’t all day. This has to be done before we can even begin to move forward. I for one am tired of the years of promises with no action.
When i ran for county commission all the democrats there were against it including Ramsey. All at once they changed their tune. I thought we needed it in our county for jobs. But they all said it would cost the county money. I did my own research and can add and subtract. Now there all in a row like corn. Makes you wonder. IT sure does me it should have never left.