Catholic Church Shocked by Jesus Ad

Make a mental note that our Superintendent of Schools said that the picture of Jesus in Bridgeport High School was not meant to be religious. He said that it was meant to be "secular". I could not figure out why anyone would ever want a "secular Jesus". Here is one example.

VILNIUS - The Lithuanian Catholic Church has expressed surprise and anger over the casual use of religious symbols in advertisements. Bishops of the church were especially alarmed by an image of Jesus with a DJ’s headpiece in a Kalnapilis-Tauras Group brewery advertisement, currently running in the press and on television. Kaunas archbishop Sigitas Tamkevicius, who leads the Lithuanian Conference of Bishops, addressed brewers: “Most believers are hurt and indignant over the use of the image of the Savior in beer ads.” Kalnapilis-Tauras Group CEO Valdas Tekorius told the Baltic News Service that the image of Jesus was used as part of Lithuania’s ethnic culture rather than as a religious symbol. The company has no plans of withdrawing the ad.

Interestingly, no one is claiming ownership of the picture of Jesus hanging in the corridor of BHS. Not the school board or the principal or anyone else. If it is owned by no one, than anyone might claim it, just as one might make claim to a newspaper blowing down the street. If someone removed it could they be charged with a crime? Who's loss would it be? Here's one more - since this is being defined as a "secular" picture than anyone may deface it without being considered sacrilegious? I'm not suggesting that anyone do anything to it. I just think we ought to examine the boundaries that our local leaders are presenting to us by not saying what the picture is; it is a RELIGIOUS Painting and is not there as part of our culture or for anyother "secular" purpose.

Some Things I meant to tell you!

Some Odds and Ends!
Hubby's naked revenge

A husband took revenge on his unfaithful ex-wife by selling 200 sexy photos of her on eBay.

The man offered the CD snaps of blonde Linsey, 24, at £4.99 each, reports the Mirror.

Within 24 hours all the pictures had been bought.

The seller, from Wales, wrote on the internet site: "She was playing away with my so-called best friend and now it's payback time."

A spokesman for eBay said: "We saw no reason to take the listing off."
Man forced to marry four wives in six months

A Saudi man is in hospital after his divorced parents forced him to marry four times within six months.

The battle began when the father insisted the boy should marry a girl from his side of the family.

The mother retaliated by ordering him to wed a girl from her side, reports Arab News quoting Al-Watan daily.

But the father wasn't happy with the balance of power and insisted on a third wife from his side, to show who was boss.

The mother, not to be outdone, then demanded that her son include another wife from her side of the family.

The son has now been admitted to a hospital for psychological treatment. He is refusing to see his parents or his wives.
Man chained up in kennel

A 75-year-old Polish man was chained up by his wife in a dog kennel because she was fed up with him coming home drunk.

Zdzislawa Bukarowicza was chained up by his wife Helena and fed on dog food and water because she was sick of him spending all their money on vodka.

He survived almost three weeks living on an old blanket in the dog kennel and being fed from the dog bowl despite temperatures of minus 20 degrees at his home in Scinawa.

He was eventually freed when friends, who had not seen him at their local for several days, called the police.
Boozing hubbies face wives' slippers

Men caught boozing by their wives in an Indian village now face being slapped across the face by their wives' slippers.

A committee of women at Japalli, in Andhra Pradesh, introduced the punishment in a bid to 'curb the menace of liquor', reports the Press Trust of India.

Any married man discovered drinking will be hauled up before village elders and slapped five times with his wife's leather slipper in front of local residents.

They will also be fined the equivalent of £64. The fines will be handed over to the offenders' wives to spend as they see fit.

The women decided on the touch new measures after their attempts to close local liquor stores ended in failure.
Woman stabbed husband for refusing sex

An Argentinian woman has been arrested for stabbing her husband because he did not have sex with her.

The 52-year-old, from Buenos Aires, stabbed her husband in the back but he was not seriously injured.

She told police she had spent the day trying to get him into bed but he had ignored all of her hints.

The woman told La Cuarta: "I wore a G-string and high heels in the house but he did not notice, I could not stand this.

"I got really mad and I stabbed him."

The husband went to the police station to lodge a complant before going to hospital where he was treated for minor injuries.

A police spokesperson said: "She did not think she did anything wrong, she kept saying that he was her husband and that he had to fulfil his obligations and that because he didn't she had the right to punish him."
Man prefers jail to wife's nagging

A man sentenced to nine months house arrest begged a judge to jail him instead because he couldn't stand his wife's nagging.

Algerian Ahmed Salhi, 24, was sentenced to a nine month curfew at home with his Italian wife in Ferrara, northern Italy.

But he went back to court after a week and begged the judge to jail him because he could not bear her nagging.

Salhi was sentenced to nine months house arrest after breaching immigration regulations.

But he turned up at his local courtroom and begged to be taken into custody because he said he could no longer stand living with her, and would rather be behind bars, Corriere della Sera reported.

He said: "I need some peace."

A local court agreed to the Salhi's request and he has been jailed for the rest of his sentence.

State School chief says Jesus Picture is Out of Place

By JUSTIN D. ANDERSON

DAILY MAIL STAFF

The president of the state Board of Education is troubled that Harrison County school officials are letting a contested picture of Jesus hang in a busy hallway at Bridgeport High School.

However, state education officials are staying out of the issue for now and allowing the Harrison school board decide.

Lowell Johnson, state school board president, said he believes public schools should maintain a secular environment.

"I usually adopt a policy of not trying to subject people to my religion without their consent," he said. "And I think this has something to do with that."

The controversial picture has been hanging outside the principal's office for about 40 years -- pretty much ever since the school was built in the mid-1960s.

The debate over the picture began a decade ago when Harold Sklar, a Bridgeport resident and lawyer with the FBI in Clarksburg, quietly asked former Harrison school administrators to take it down.

County Board of Education Fails Again!

The Harrison County Board of Education has NOT published the minutes from its meetings since the second week of January. Why not? Minutes prior to January of this year have been systematically published on their web site. Then it mysteriously stops. Ok, there is an election coming up. Is it to their advantage to keep the public in the dark? Ok, there has been an unpleasantness at some meetings recently where a non-Christian has pointed out the unconstituional actions of the Board by not enforcing the constitutionaly required behavior of subordinate government managers in reference to what religious articles they chose to display in a government school building.
The meeting minutes should have been published to fairly reflect what the argument, reasoning or complaint was in regard to that issue. It would have been informative for an interested public to not have to guess at the specific objection that was made. How much better focused the public discussion might have been if the minutes accurately captured the citizens concerns and we could better understand the position of the Board members.
If anyone knows the email addresses for these guys, how about asking them to start doing their job and keeping public records?

The Trashiest Place in Harrison County

Unbelievable! It is the Track and Football field at RCB High School. It makes Spelter look pretty! Trash was piled up under the bleachers, on the stands, and blowing across the football field. Who is in charge out there? Ask the Bridgeport High School folks what Jesus would do! RCB HS may have to lose the Eagle mascot and adopt a Pig. Shame on them! Bridgeport High School's new mascot should be. "The Martyrs" - they'll die for the constitutional sins of the Board of Education!

Man sues e-dating service and there's one hitch, he's married

"SAN JOSE, Calif. - John Claassen wants a date so badly he's suing for one.He's taking eHarmony.com to court, because the popular online matchmaker refused to find him the perfect mate.Why? Because he is married.Technically, Claassen says, he is legally separated. But that's not good enough for eHarmony, which says it is in the business of matching singles 'free of relationship commitments.' That puts him in cyber-dating limbo.'Most people don't file a suit to get a date,' Claassen said Friday after filing a civil rights suit last week in Alameda County Superior Court. 'If I had my druthers, I'd be divorced by now. I'm emotionally in a different state than I am legally,' the 36-year-old Emeryville lawyer said.Claassen alleges eHarmony is discriminating against him on the basis of his marital status. He and his wife of eight years separated last May, and he expects the divorce to be final within two months. When he reached marital status on eHarmony's online compatibility profile, he responded truthfully: 'legally separated.'"

What Happens When Religion mixes with Politics Go to Bed Married, Wake up Divorced

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A Muslim couple in India has been told by local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.
Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word "talaq," or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers Monday.
When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq." The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.
The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Sohela would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn.
The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order and the issue has been referred to a local family counseling center.
India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance.
"This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law," said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of The Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.
"The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever," Khan told Reuters.
GUNDOVALD SAYS" How much better it would be if they had the constitutional right not to be ruled by the religious beliefs of someone else. This is why in America, there is no such thing as 'majority rule' when it comes to a person's conscience.

John Kerry Hates Celery

During 2004 tour, Democrat and wife were more demanding than Dick
MARCH 27--In the spirit of bipartisanship, The Smoking Gun today extends our review of political tour riders across the aisle to examine Senator John Kerry, whose list of demands (and that of his wife) makes Sprite-lovin' Vice President Dick Cheney look like a travelin' rube. The riders for Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry were compiled during the last presidential campaign and were circulated by the Democratic candidate's advance team, a member of which provided them to TSG.
The documents (one is actually labeled "Confidential") detail Kerry's food favorites and drop the bombshell that the Massachusetts senator "hates celery." Oddly, Kerry avoids all things tomato, the fruit behind his wife's nine-figure ketchup fortune. His hotel rider notes that the "phone and the ability to order movies in suite should always be turned on and ready to go for JK's arrival," things that make him "very happy."
The more detailed rider, of course, belongs to the politician's spouse, who likes celery and snoozing on a "Heavenly Bed" in a Starwood hotel that has "good air circulation." She also digs flax bread, stone crabs, peanut power butter, filet mignon with veggies, and bottled water apparently run through a "reverse osmosis filter." Why are we not surprised?

Disaster Elsewhere a problem for West Virginia

Parkersburg News and Sentinel: "Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., is absolutely correct in one of his chief concerns about disaster planning in our state. It is that one of our top worries should be a calamity occurring elsewhere.
" Gundovald Says: What Rockefeller should focus on is keeping the war over in the countries where the terrorists live and we will have to worry less about protecting us from Byrd's neighbors in McLean, Va or Rockefeller's on Embassy Row."
Rockefeller, speaking at a recent homeland security conference for West Virginia emergency responders and government officials, warned that we in the Mountain State must be prepared to cope with the consequences of a disaster — whether natural or caused by terrorists — in the densely populated area including Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Md."

Woman Asks Where People Can See Good Things In Iraq, Bush: Blogs (VIDEO)

Expose the Left Woman Asks Where People Can See Good Things In Iraq, Bush: Blogs

(VIDEO) President Bush spoke to military and civilian families in Wheeling, West Virginia about the War in Iraq. As usual, he spent a long period of time with the audience to answer the questions they may have. One woman, a military wife, told President Bush about her husband’s career as a military broadcast journalist and the footage he got about how great things are going in Iraq. She told the President that many cable news channels are just not reporting good news and only the bad news. She wanted to know what people could do to see the good happening in Iraq. President Bush’s answers: The blogs and the internet.

Girlfriend Cheats, He Pays

Sensible Mom: "What kind of backward system requires men to pay child support for someone else's children? And why should the men be required to pay thousands for lawyers to defend themselves against a ridiculous law. From the Detroit News, 'Fathers paying child support for children who are not biologically theirs were cheering Thursday for Doug Richardson, who went to court and got his child support payments stopped and what he owes wiped out. Richardson paid an estimated $80,000 in child support over 15 years to his ex-wife even though a DNA test showed their first son was not his. Richardson said he paid support to his ex-wife while she lived with the child's biological father and then later to the biological father when the couple split up.'"

Punks mar hero’s memorial

: "The heartbroken family of a fallen Bay State soldier was devastated yesterday to find his memorial defaced by callous anti-war vandals who scrawled “Oil” and “Christian Crusade” on a sign commemorating his sacrifice. “I was enraged,” said Lou Petithory, whose son Daniel, 32, was killed in Afghanistan Dec. 5, 2001. “My main concern is that my son’s memory was attacked.” It is a memory that Green Beret Sgt. Daniel Petithory’s parents have struggled to preserve amid the politics over the war on terror. They have stopped reading newspaper editorials and watching TV news shows; not because they disagree with debate, but because they believe the truth about their son and his service is lost in the middle of it. “He had been in the military for 14 years, so he was one of the older guys on his team,” Lou Petithory recalled after scrubbing the vandalism off his son’s memorial. “They made military history. They were 200 Green Berets inserted into Afghanistan, and within two weeks the Taliban was gone.” "

President Discusses War on Terror, Progress in Iraq in West Virginia

The Transcript of his remarks

What is the established Religion of Bridgeport High School?Answer these Questions

...and who determined what that religion was to be? Did anyone vote on it? Was the local principal assigned to that position based on his superior ecclesiastical knowledge? What are the responsibilities of a principal towards carrying out the laws of the United States and West Virginia in regard to separation of church and state?

If a principal is not going to perform that part of his job, should he be replaced by someone who will? Who supervises the principal to assure that he is acting in accordance with his committment to the constitution and the law? Should that person be fired if they are not adequately supervising the principal who is not executing the school administration in accordance with the law? And how about the superintendant of schools for Harrison County? Should he not know the laws of the US and WV as well as, the policies of the state Board of Education? And if he is not setting an enforcement policy among his subordinate managers, should he also be replaced by someone who will?

Why are some issues brought to the level of the Board of Education and discussed on TV when the real solution is to hold managers responsible for either doing their job or removing them? Every single manager (principal) and their county supervisor got their job by claiming that they will obey and carry out the laws of our country and state. If they are not going to do it, then why keep them?

Who owns the picture? The county or an individual? Who determines what public or privately owned pictures may hang on the public wall? Who made that decision? What is the Law? And who is not following it? Will there be consequences for not following it? If you are on the Board of Education should you not be embarrassed that you have not all ready answered these questions and taken the appropriate action?

Jesus Portrait Controversy Goes Before Board of Education

WDTV NewsChannel 5 - by Beau MinnickThe controversy about the portrait of Jesus inside Bridgeport High School took center stage at the Harrison County Board of Education meeting tonight. Although the Board did not specifically address the issue on the formal agenda, Harrison County resident Hal Sklar spoke to the Board about why he wants the picture to be taken down. Although the controversy is hot now, he says this is not a new issue. "I, for ten years, came to this body informally on three separate occassions and not once was I ever given the courtesy of a response," says Sklar. "This is a very sensitive issue," says Harrison County School Superintendent Dr. Carl Friebel. "Certainly, it is a legal issue. We're continuing to balance those two entities -- the law on one side and personal opinion on the other." Sklar also says he and his family have faced anti- semitic remarks.

Officer pleaded for life before being shot

West Virginia News from the Eyewitness News Newsroom: "Court records show that a correctional officer from Martinsburg pleaded for his life before being fatally shot by an inmate in Maryland"

Officials say yes to raises

Charleston Daily Mail: "Under the law, elected officials must decide whether or not to accept the pay raise. Officials must accept the raise in writing by June 30 for it to be granted."

Bush to Visit with Military Families in Wheeling

WHEELING, W.Va. (AP) - Tickets to President Bush's visit on Wednesday will be available beginning Monday on a first-come, first-serve basis to members of the Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce, their employees and guests. Military families also have been invited to attend. The chamber is coordinating the town hall meeting at the Capitol Music Hall, where Bush is to meet with military families to discuss the war on terror. Chamber President Terry Sterling says others wishing to attend can contact the chamber office where their name will be placed on a waiting list.

'Elly May' in Parkersburg

Former Hillbillie Babe in Parkersburg

"Sunday night was an evening of faith, family and fun at the North Parkersburg Baptist Church. The church held its first ever 'Morning Show Live Family Edition,' tarring a special celebrity guest, the delightful Donna Douglas. You know her from none other than The Beverly Hillbillies, but Sunday, Donna Douglas, or Elly May Clampett was right here in Parkersburg. 'Oh, it's certainly a joy to be here,' says Ms. Douglas. 'I think it's beautiful here! And the community was just as happy to have her here in the Mid Ohio Valley. 'I think everyone is excited, I mean how often is it that you get to meet a living TV icon,' says Ryan Brooks, Pastor of Family Life North Parkersburg Baptist Church. 'We're excited, we're pumped, all the pastors here at North are excited and we're just happy to watch the community come together for a family event.' As Elly May, Douglas was always making folks laughs, but she says the show was much more than that. 'There was a quality to it. Our show was the story of the American Dream really,' she says. 'We loved our neighbors and were good to critters, we did all the good things and had a good attitude on life and all.'"

Former Gov. Underwood in Serious Condition

The Charleston Gazette - APNews

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- Former Gov. Cecil H. Underwood was in serious condition at a Charleston hospital on Monday after suffering a minor stroke over the weekend. The 83-year-old two-term Republican governor was admitted to Charleston Area Medical Center's General Hospital Saturday, a hospital spokesman said. Craig Underwood said his father is resting comfortably and is expected to make a full recovery, Dan Page, who served as Underwood's spokesman, said Monday. The governor was hospitalized earlier this year for treatment of bacterial endocarditis, an infection of the heart that can be triggered after an invasive dental procedure. Underwood was the state's youngest governor when he was elected in 1956 at the age of 34. He became the state's oldest governor 40 years later when he won another term in 1996 at the age of 74. He lost to former Democrat Gov. Bob Wise in the 2000 election.

Indian 'witchcraft' family killed

A family of five has been beheaded in Sonitpur district, north-east India, by a mob who accused them of witchcraft.

"The tea plantation worker and his four children had been blamed for causing a disease which killed two other workers and made many unwell in Assam state. About 200 villagers tried and sentenced the family in an unofficial court, then publicly beheaded them with machetes. They then marched to a police station with the heads, chanting slogans denouncing witchcraft and black magi"

WV Pensions tied to Terror? State pension portfolios find way to Rogue Regimes

Sunday Gazette-Mail - Business: "West Virginia’s public pensions may have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in companies doing business with terrorist-sponsoring countries. According to an analysis conducted for the Sunday Gazette-Mail, 55 stocks in state pension portfolios belong to companies that have ties to the governments of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan or Syria. The U.S. State Department has designated all these countries as state sponsors of terrorism and barred U.S. businesses from conducting operations there, but foreign companies are under no such constraints."

WVU NCAA notebook - WVU maintains underdog mentality

Sunday Gazette-Mail - Sports: "AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — West Virginia plays another of those David vs. Goliath games today in the NCAA tournament. How odd is it that this time the Mountaineers aren’t the little guys with the slingshots? Of course, West Virginia wasn’t David on Friday, either, when No. 11 seed Southern Illinois was the opponent, vanquished in a 64-46 blowout. But for a team that made a deep run in the tournament a year ago as an underdog in almost every game, this is still fairly new territory."

WV ready for more defensive pressure

Sunday Gazette-Mail - Sports: "AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — West Virginia’s basketball team showed it could handle the pressure of the NCAA tournament. The Mountaineers did so last season when they advanced to the Elite Eight. They did so in the first round of the ongoing event, drubbing Southern Illinois 64-46. Now they’ll have to handle the defensive pressure of Northwestern State. In the Demons’ 64-63 upset of third-seeded Iowa, NSU forced 19 turnovers and had four blocked shots."

Mountaineers have varying goals

Sunday Gazette-Mail - Sports

"AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Simple question. What exactly are West Virginia’s goals? The Mountaineers advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament last season. This year, they have moved out of the first round by virtue of a 64-46 rout of Southern Illinois and meet Northwestern State at 2:30 p.m. today. What is acceptable to this bunch?"

Open Casting Call for Marshall U. Movie

Know anyone who dresses like the '70's? Get 'em Down There!Huntington, WV (HNN) -- Have you been trashed because you look like a hippie or do you hear “cut your hair?” Well, hippies, hippettes, and non-traditionalists, it’s time for revenge! Seriously, Warner Bros. has hired Patrick Ingram as the local casting director for “We Are Marshall.” Ingram reminded those wanting to be extras -- non speaking parts such as in a crowd scene or in a background of a shot -- during 1970 and 1971 “clothes and hairstyles were very different than today. Men who are interested should not cut their hair or shave until they are contacted. This will help our hair and makeup departments to style everyone with that 1970 look.” The open casting call for Marshall University students will be Thursday, March 16, 2006, from 3 p.m. -6 p.m. and for townspeople 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. at the Joan C. Edwards Performing Arts Center. Students and townspeople should be prepared with a headshot and resume.

Three wins, two losses for House GOP - - The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

: "CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Republican members of the House of Delegates won three and lost two of the measures on their legislative agenda. Another bill that increased penalties for sex crimes was lost but may be revived during a special session Gov. Joe Manchin may call this week."

W.Va. hemlocks threatened by sap-eating pest - - The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

BECKLEY, W.Va. (AP) - West Virginia's eastern hemlock trees are being wiped out by a tiny sap-sucking insect that has already claimed thousands of trees in the eastern United States, a state agriculture official said. The hemlock woolly adelgid, which is similar to an aphid, was first detected in the state in 1992. Since then it has killed thousands of trees, said Karen Kish, a forest entomologist with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture.

Proof of Global Warming

Toyota, Kia Will Expand In U.S.

Study Links Ambien Use to Unconscious Food Forays

: "The sleeping pill Ambien seems to unlock a primitive desire to eat in some patients, according to emerging medical case studies that describe how the drug's users sometimes sleepwalk into their kitchens, claw through their refrigerators like animals and consume calories ranging into the thousands."

3-Year Old Boy Shoots Mom in the Knee

A 3-year-old boy shot his mother in the knee with a 9mm handgun he had found under a couch cushion over the weekend, police said.

W.Va. Governor Up for $55,000 Pay Raise - - The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register

: "The Legislature approved nearly all of Gov. Joe Manchin's proposals this session, but also added such things as a $55,000 pay raise for the governor starting in 2009."

‘Ugly’ Salukis await WVU

MORGANTOWN — Southern Illinois, West Virginia’s first-round opponent in the NCAA men’s tournament, has been accused of playing “ugly basketball.” But second-year coach Chris Lowery said Monday, “It’s only in the eyes of the beholder. We guard. And if you ask anybody that plays us, (they’ll tell you) we keep teams honest. “And when you’re patient and making people be honest — and I guess that’s ‘ugly’ in this day and age — we’ve got to pressure you.”

Upshur County to Cut back Property Taxes

The Record Delta Online

Yea, Good Idea! Change that Last Name

PA Hopes Mine Damage can Become Boon of Cheap Water and Metals

Saturday Gazette-Mail - APNews: "By MARC LEVY Associated Press Writer LATROBE, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania, the one-time coal-producing king now home to some of the nation's worst mining damage, is hoping to parlay an expensive problem into cheap new resources that could pay for the cleanup. Aided by state grants from a multimillion-dollar program, businesses, academics and entrepreneurs are devising new uses for some of the hundreds of billions of gallons of acidic mine water that range from power generation to powdered metals to 'powder'' on the slopes. Left untreated, the drainage from flooded underground mines pollutes waterways, turning them orange and depositing a heavy iron oxide silt on the bottom that smothers fish eggs and stops reproduction. Even if the drainage from a single abandoned mine is treated, the process can generate six tons of doughy sludge each day that has nowhere to go except a landfill. " --more-- mouse-over link

WV Doubles Restrictions on Freedom of Information

Saturday Gazette-Mail - APNews: "By ALLISON BARKER Associated Press Writer CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) -- West Virginia lawmakers have doubled the number of exemptions under the state's Freedom of Information Act in the last five years, marking the biggest expansion of government secrecy since the law was enacted in 1977. The open government issue took on new weight after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks when the Bush administration set a higher threshold for federal FOIA disclosures. West Virginia and many other states followed the federal example and moved to add homeland security exemptions to state public records laws. That reaction to a highly emotional and traumatic event is now being seen in an emergency rule proposed by the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management following multiple coal mining accidents that killed 16 West Virginians this year. "

Cancer Claims Former Herd Coach -

Cancer Claims Former Marshll Basketball Coach

eBay Auction: Lot of Scumbag Ex-Boyfriend’s Possessions

No Fury Like a Woman Scorned! Men - Must Read Woman- don't get any ideas!

Metro Gov Bill and County Pay Raise Bill in Limbo

Going into the final day of the 2006 legislative session today, the fates of bills to allow cities and counties to merge services through metro governments and to give pay raises to county officials were in limbo.

Unknown Date of Manchin's Proposed Special Session causes Concern

Charleston Daily Mail: " Legislators and political campaigners are hoping the timing of this year's special session doesn't affect re-election efforts"

Rat-squirrel back after 11-million-year absence - Mar 9, 2006

CNN.com - Rat-squirrel back after 11-million-year absence - Mar 9, 2006: This rodent was thought to have been a new species, but now scientists say it's been around for a long, long time.

The great GAME robbery

Crooks Steal Monopoly Money

BUNGLING crooks who robbed a van on its way to Heathrow got away with £75million — in MONOPOLY money. The gang snatched the white Ford Transit from a street — convinced it was crammed with genuine currency. But it was carrying hundreds of copies of the family board game, plus bundles of worthless Monopoly £500 and £100 notes to be used in an ad campaign. Police last night vowed to send the hopeless Great Game Robbers straight to jail — WITHOUT passing Go. One detective quipped: “There will be no Get Out Of Jail free card for these chancers when we catch them. “And they won’t be collecting £200 either.”

Urinating in Public is a Crime

Aren't You Glad we got this Settled?Emptying one's bladder in a public place is a crime, even if there is no specific law prohibiting the practice, a state appeals court ruled.

Jesus Painting Causes Concern story from WBOY

Picture of Jesus near BHS Office

A concerned parent is questioning the painting of Jesus Christ hanging next to the front office of Bridgeport High School in Harrison County.

Delegate Miley Shows some Guts on Parental Notification

Fifty Democrats got an endorsement from the WV for Life in 2004 for their position on abortion. Tim Miley was one of only five Democrats to keep his word and voted to discharge the Parental notification bill (SB519) out of committee. The vote failed by a vote of 62-37, which effectively killed the bill. This bill would have reformed the law requiring parental notification before a minor could have an abortion. The bill intended to close a loophole that allowed waivers of the law without judicial oversight. Whatever you think of the bill, Tim Miley had the courage to buck the straight line party vote and stick to his earlier promise. It would be nice if the others would have done the same. Can't wait to hear Tim's views on taxes.

Lesbian Becomes College Homecoming King

FREDERICK, Md. (AP) - Hood College is reviewing its homecoming rules after a lesbian was crowned king, a college official says.

I thought this was a Clarksburg Joke when I first heard it - But it wasn't

Strangest thing happened! Two people from North View were marvelling at what they got in the mail. It wasn't a contest to win a Million, or a credit card offer, or a bill or a tax notice. It was a letter from the Clarksburg City hall. It was a Thank You letter to them for coming to the Council meeting that was held in North View and spilling their guts about what they saw right and wrong about the city. The letter said that their complaints had been captured, put into a plan by the department heads, including the police department, and that residents should have all ready seen some results with the cleaning up of yard trash, knocking down a dilapidated garage, and stricter code enforcement. I don't know how many letters went out. About 50 people attended. The letter provided phone numbers and invited the people to call the city with other suggestions. Can you imagine making the residents your partner? What a government concept. There must be some new blood up there someplace. Someone who hasn't been sitting around for 20 years pontificating. They didn't say who signed the letter. Anyone know who's behind this radical notion of communicating with the public?

Wal Mart Pharmacy - Passing the Savings on!

Have you ever walked by a place ruminating about one thing and then just had to stop as you realized you just witnessed something out of the ordinary? Wandering through Wal Mart today, I passed the Pharmacy where there are a series of picture windows, interrupted by a couple of stalls for people to line up and get their prescriptions. You may be familar with the lay-out at EastPointe. I stopped and had to back-peddle. I thought I saw several people on the floor. As I glanced through the window again, there were indeed 4 people crawling on the floor within the pharmacy area. I stayed to watch. Spread all over the floor were what seemed like hundreds of blue little pills. The three women and one man were quickly gathering them up and putting them on a counting tray on the bench. This is that tray with the little open funnel scoop at the end that pharmacists use to dump the counted prescription into the little bottle after separating the count with a sterile knife-like instrument. Are you at all curious about what they did with them? Some went from the counting tray into a little amber bottle with a label on it for a customer; the rest went back into the big bottle for future use. Never mind that 4 different hands and fingers were on it or that it was on the floor. You'll never know and you'll probably get better anyway.

Farmer feeds friend's corpse to pigs

Fla. Teen Dies After Sword Falls on Him

Assessor Cheryl Romano Just Doesn't Get It!

WHAT ME WORRY?

Or, Does she deliberately miss the point?

The 14,800 plus people who received her 10% or greater tax letter that notifies of a significant tax increase do not see her assessment actions as appropriately valuing their real estate. In her letter to the editor in the March 5 Exponent-Telegram; she mistakenly thinks that there is a debate about the actions of the County Commissioners to hold assessed values to the 2005 level. That’s not the debate. The concern, argument, issue, and rebellion are about her brand new off-the-shelf, raise-em-all, tax assessment philosophy that she made for 2006.

Romano claims that this is all about fair market value. It is not. It is about many of the people receiving the 10% letter not being told what their new tax would be until after the period when they could have objected. Many of those who did protest their new assessment had their assessments reduced; some by huge percentages. So, if her appraisal reflected the fair market value why were so many reduced when people asked for a hearing and objected. The answer is that a lot of this appraisal was purely arbitrary. If you were not clever or experienced enough to demand a hearing by her cut-off date your taxes jumped.

Why did taxes not go up as significantly in 2002, 2003, 2004, or 2005? Is this because Cheryl Romano was NOT doing her job in those years and just started doing it this year? That so called ‘fair-market value’ did not happen in the last year alone. The State Senate is passing a bill that requires that Assessors bring up property assessments to market value over a six year period. Why did Romano think that she had to do it all in one year? She has ducked providing an answer to that question. Everyone expected to live with the established tax rates as are known and controlled by the county commissioners.

It was Romano’s misjudgment of how much the property owning public would put up with when she decided to stick it to them all in one year. Then blame the Commissioner for not lowering the tax rate to keep the taxes down. Her, “Charleston made me do it” excuse is not being bought by most people in the county, especially when they learn that over 50 out of 55 counties had not done a similar 100% market-value assessment and will phase in what “Charleston wants” over a multi-year period. Romano’s policies were over the top; it showed arrogance and lack of judgment on her part to send the radical reassessment to the commissioners and then expecting it to be rubber stamped!

Pictures: Salem Fire Aftermath

Will the Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram get serious about Editorial Blight?

You’d think it was April Fool’s Day rather than March 1. James Logue is overburdened with the responsibility of writing an editorial. He must have been up all night tossing and turning for a topic. Does he write about anything the State Legislature is doing, or the local economy, or the state of taxation, or how to help your neighbor? No! He doesn’t choose to write about anything that requires some measure of thought.

Logue chooses to criticize the City for doing something positive. After seven paragraphs of piling on about how only the newspaper saw the issue of “Fighting Ugly” back in 2001 finally someone is doing something about cleaning up the City. And get this, “We don’t rightly understand why it is Clarksburg City Council is now all of a sudden in such a lather about the city’s appearance”, says Logue. Clarksburg, like almost all central cities in WV has been in decline. Too bad that the Exponent-Telegram only sought to write about it in 2001, after all, the paper claims that they have been publishing since 1861. Where were their good ideas before? The City may have been in decline since the first Heck’s discount store opened up on Bridgeport hill which marked the beginning of the end for C’burg as a center of retail. But I bet the paper benefited from all of the advertising circulars as retail moved out of the city, all the while, decrying the lack of leadership in the City.

The Exponent-Telegram missed the biggest story of the last six months. Clarksburg does have new leadership! Patsy Trecost pushed to have a city council meeting held in North View on February 9. It was not Jim Hunt’s idea so the newspaper missed the story. Council met over there and had maybe 50 people in attendance. The people laid out in specific detail what they saw, where they saw it and how they wanted it cleaned up. Our new city manager, Martin Howe, which this paper does not seem to support, laid out an executable plan with his department heads including the police department and set out to make things happen. All of this without the benefit of having read any Exponent-Telegram editorials. James Logue was not at that North View council meeting, nor was he at the last one, nor does he ever attend any. So now there is a better understanding of why, “we don’t rightly understand” over at the Temple of Intellect on Hewes Ave.