The State Journal back issues from March 2008:
Promise Keepers Event Expected To Attract 10,000 To Charleston
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - Promise Keepers is keeping its promise to return to the Mountain State. In 2004, a gathering of the organization drew more than 10,000 people to the Charleston Civic Center for the two-day event. John Fowler, media coordinator for the upcoming conference, said Promise ...
Facing Suit, Bridgeport Doctor No Longer Missing
Mar 07, 2008; ... A Bridgeport-area radiologist who was missing for months has reappeared and is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against him that alleges RICO and civil conspiracy, racketeering and fraud. Dr. Ray Harron, who made a name for himself as an expert lung X-ray reader in asbestos ...
Parkersburg Native Continues Research as Freshman at Wesleyan
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - When she was growing up, Kelydra Welcker always was a curious girl. Every summer, she found a research project to keep her busy. Often, they involved animals. More recently, the Parkersburg native's work has focused on a contaminant hidden in her drinking ...
Bethany Veterinarian to Support U.S. Olympic Team in China
Mar 07, 2008; ... BETHANY - Dr. Heather Stone is about to live her own version of the Olympic dream. The Bethany veterinarian recently was chosen to care for horses during the 2008 Olympics in China. "Being part of the Olympic games, especially as a veterinarian, is a lifelong goal," she said ....
Marion County Teachers Face Uncertainty About Jobs
Mar 07, 2008; ... FAIRMONT - Dozens of teachers are facing job uncertainty this week. Last week, the Marion County Board of Education sent out Reduction In Force notices to 27 professional and 12 service positions. Those may be eliminated entirely. Also, 51 professional positions - teachers ...
West Virginia Symphony Surpasses 75 Percent of Its Campaign Goal
Mar 07, 2008; ... The West Virginia Symphony announced March 3 that its endowment and recapitalization campaign, "A New Vision for New Times," has passed the $6 million mark, pushing it 75 percent of the way toward its total campaign goal of $8 million. "The end of the race now begins to come into view," ...
Bill Would Redirect Millions In Severance Taxes to Counties
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - A proposed bill rushed out of the state Senate at the last minute would redirect a portion of natural resource severance taxes to their county of origin to be used in local projects but with the caveat that state lawmakers - not local officials - get to decide how the money is going ...
Land Owner, Army Corps Continue Scrap over Highlands Land
Mar 07, 2008; ... A property owner contesting development of a theme park at The Highlands has served notice he will sue if the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues a permit for Phase 5 of the project before mitigation required for previous stages has been done. Moorefield attorney J. David Judy filed ...
IRS Sees Increase in Electronic Filing, Web Site Visitors
Mar 07, 2008; ... The Internal Revenue Service announced that e-file is off to a fast start in 2008 with more than 38 million tax returns filed electronically so far. The 2008 e-file level is up 5 percent from the 36 million returns filed for the same period last year, with double digit growth coming from ...
Housing Markets Have Stayed Strong In North-Central Region
Mar 07, 2008; ... A Fairmont credit union executive says housing market conditions in north-central West Virginia are solid, and people interested in buying property shouldn't allow news about a sagging national market deter them. "We hear the daily barrage of bad news from national media sources, just ...
Poca Valley Bank Turns 100
Mar 07, 2008; ... Poca Valley Bank is in its 100th year and continuing to hold on to the small-town ideals that have meant so much to its success. When Walton, a tiny town along the Pocatalico River needed a bank, Poca Valley Bank set up shop in 1908. Since that time, six branches have opened, but the ...
FDIC's Free Money Smart Program Targets Nation's 'Unbanked'
Mar 07, 2008; ... While banking has become a mainstream way of managing money in America, a small percentage of people still cash paychecks at grocery stores, pay bills with cash or money orders, and put savings in a cookie jar. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. estimates 10 million American households ...
Program Protects Seniors from Fraud
Mar 07, 2008; ... Making sense of investing can be tricky for anyone, and a program that's just a few years old has been set up within the West Virginia Auditor's Office to protect the state's senior population from investment frauds. The Seniors Against Investment Fraud program works from the grassroots ...
RPM Restaurant Revs Up With a Car-Based Theme
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - A 5-foot tall hot dog man draped in an American flag stands at the edge of one of Patrick Street Plaza's lots. With a determined expression, and perhaps an extreme level of altruism, he is topping himself with ketchup and mustard. "His name is Hot Rod," said Jack ...
Credit Unions Offer Unique Banking Services to Members
Mar 07, 2008; ... The more things change, the more they stay the same. Credit unions came about to help modestly employed people get a little bigger piece of their version of the American dream. Today, credit unions make available a whole host of services, but the plan that started it all is still the ...
Solid Business Plan Helps With Business Startups
Mar 07, 2008; ... Elizabeth Patterson and her husband, Dan, knew it was a risk to quit their jobs to go into business for themselves. "It was just my husband and I, so anything was going to be a risk," she said. "But he'd been doing this type of work for a long time, and I had done a lot of the paperwork ...
PSC Staff Challenges Need for TrAILCo Project
Mar 07, 2008; ... Allegheny Energy does not need the transmission line it wants to build across northern West Virginia, according to the staff of the state Public Service Commission. "The company has not demonstrated that the proposed high-voltage transmission line is needed to meet current or anticipated ...
Rural Firefighters, Cities Spar Over Pension Bailout Bill
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - The state's cities are having trouble keeping up with payments of their firefighter and police pensions and relief funds, but critics say that the solution that city leaders have proposed amounts to little more than a bailout for bad management practices. A bill that already ...
West Virginia Crop Production Value Falls in 2007
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON -This past year was a rough one for some farmers in West Virginia. The total value of production of principal crops fell 4 percent to $102.7 million in 2007, according to information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service. The West ...
Wheeling On Track to See Million-Dollar Budget Surplus
Mar 14, 2008; ... Wheeling is on track to realize a budget surplus in the million-dollar range, Mayor Nick Sparachane said. Although several months remain in the 2007-08 budget year, Sparachane said the city is on track to realize a surplus somewhere between $700,000 and $1.2 million. "It's only ...
Trial Bus Run to The Highlands Coming to an End March 15
Mar 14, 2008; ... Ohio County commissioners are pulling the plug on the trial bus run to The Highlands. Commissioners said the bus route, in place since mid-November, didn't get the ridership numbers they'd hoped for. They blamed the disinterest on the way the route - which originated and ended at the ...
Almost There
Mar 14, 2008; ... POINT PLEASANT - Jo Hannah Rorrer gets a little misty eyed when she looks around the auditorium at the nearly completed new Point Pleasant Junior/Senior High School. It was about three years ago that she and a group of people from the community decided to undertake the challenge of ...
White Puts Years of Experience to Work for Clients
Mar 14, 2008; ... In just a few days, Pete White will reach a milestone few others in his business can claim. March 16 will mark the 50th anniversary of the first life insurance contact he signed. Although much has changed in the business during that time, his company, The White Planning Group, has ...
Horse Park Promoter Restless After Legislative Setback
Mar 14, 2008; ... Frustrated with the state Legislature, West Virginia horse man Steve Garvin has decided to put it to the people: Should the state make it possible for him to develop the third largest theme park in the country? That's right - third largest, after Walt Disney World and ...
Wheeling Jamboree to Present Comeback Concert May 24
Mar 14, 2008; ... Wheeling Jamboree has booked its first big comeback concert, an appearance by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band May 24 concert at WesBanco Arena. Jamboree Operations Director Bud Forte said they chose the band because of its "long-standing prominence in the music industry." Cherryholmes, the ...
Applications Available for Apprenticeship Program
Mar 14, 2008; ... WHITE HALL - The Cement Ma-sons Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee announced it will be taking applications for apprenticeship in the cement mason's trade through-out the year between 9 a.m.-noon the second and fourth Thursdays of each month at the Construction Employers Association of ...
Panhandle Blacksmith Hammers Out Historic Recreations, Art
Mar 14, 2008; ... KEARNEYSVILLE - Two centuries after the Industrial Revolution started to push aside the need for a blacksmith in every village, many of us remain transfixed by the hand-crafted work done in a forge, and that's a phenomenon that very much pleases local blacksmith Eric Johnson. "Not to ...
Morgantown Starts Work on Event Center Project
Mar 14, 2008; ... MORGANTOWN - Long in the planning, the Morgantown Event Center is scheduled to break ground March 17 in the Wharf District on the Monongahela River. "Obviously this is a very exciting project for the city of Morgantown. A lot of folks have worked very hard for a long time to make it ...
Charleston Set for Equipment, Technology and Design Expo
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - Contractors from across West Virginia and other states are expected to attend the 29th annual West Virginia Equipment, Technology & Design Exposition March 19-20 at the Charleston Civic Center. "Normally, about 6,000 people attend," said Pat Parsons, show manager. "Last ...
Life in Marie
Mar 14, 2008; ... MARIE - Emma Jean Goldberg enjoys her quiet life in the country. She and her family have left behind the hectic pace of city life in Washington, D.C., where her husband ran a liquor business for most of their married lives. Having moved to Marie Road in the small town of Marie, ...
Forecast paints Rosy Picture for Morgantown
Mar 14, 2008; ... MORGANTOWN - The concentration of educated residents around Morgantown is helping insulate the area from downturns taking place in the state and national economies. That's one of the messages George Hammond sees in a new forecast released March 11 at the Morgantown Economic Outlook ...
Medtronic Case Returns to West Virginia
Mar 14, 2008; ... A lawsuit that has bounced around the federal court system for more than two years is back in Huntington federal court. Back in February 2006, the family of James A. LoFiego filed a medical malpractice lawsuit in federal court against Medtronic Inc., alleging the company's equipment made ...
Esmark Sells Stake in Wheeling-Nisshin Plant
Mar 14, 2008; ... Esmark Inc. is selling its stake in Follansbee-based Wheeling-Nisshin to its majority partner, Nisshin Holding Inc. The $71.4 million deal will make Nisshin the sole owner of Wheeling-Nisshin, the steel-coatings plant established in 1986 as a joint venture between Nisshin Steel Co. Ltd ....
West Virginia Rubber Product Exports Jump
Mar 14, 2008; ... West Virginia may not make it on many maps for its rubber manufacturing industry, but according to the state Development Office, rubber exports increased 106 percent from 2006 to 2007. Rubber manufacturing accounts for 1.5 percent of the state's total industrial output, and West Virginia ...
Parkersburg Campus' Gnage Vows to Continue Ties to WVU
Mar 14, 2008; ... Legislative ties binding West Virginia University at Parkersburg to West Virginia University may be severed, but President Marie Foster Gnage says the relationship between the two schools will continue. The Legislature signed off on a bill cutting legislative ties between the state's ...
Mountain Leverage Looks to Keep the Talent at Home
Mar 14, 2008; ... Fast-growing Grafton Information Technology company Mountain Leverage is leveraging the assets of smalltown Appalachian life to keep talented West Virginians at home. "I don't know of any place that's as nice to live as West Virginia is," said Alex Reneman, a native of Grafton and ...
Alloy Silicon Plant Teams Up With Energy Recycler
Mar 14, 2008; ... Recycled Energy Development LLC has contracted with West Virginia Alloys, a silicon manufacturer in Alloy, to capture heat exhaust from the plant and recycle it into electricity, an environmentally friendly process that will garner the company a percentage of the energy it needs at a cheaper ...
Community College Split Worries Some Students
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - A bill passed during the final hours of the state Legislature's 2008 session would sever the administrative link between the state's universities and their associated community and technical colleges in a move that has many people from the Parkersburg area crying foul. House ...
D&E Names 'Buck' Smith As College's 13th President
Mar 14, 2008; ... ELKINS - The Davis & Elkins College Board of Trustees has named G.T. "Buck" Smith as the college's 13th president. Smith served most recently as president of Bethany College in West Virginia and previously as president of Chapman University in California. Smith is scheduled ...
AEP Receives PSC Approval to Build IGCC Plant
Mar 14, 2008; ... American Electric Power received authority March 6 from the state Public Service Commission to build the first "clean coal" gasification power plant in West Virginia. "We think it's a very strong, positive statement by the West Virginia PSC," said AEP spokesperson Melissa McHenry. "Their ...
The Bills of 2008: Drunk Driving, REAL ID and Giant Sloths
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - Soon drivers caught driving while under the influence of alcohol will have a choice: Interlock or go to jail. Among the bills passed by the state Legislature in 2008 was a proposed law that will allow first-time DUI offenders with a blood-alcohol content of less than 0.15 to ...
Vision Shared Legislation Requires Easier Business Licensing
Mar 14, 2008; ... The Mountain State might have fewer mountains of licensing and permit information to sort through, thanks to the Permitting and Licensing Information Act, which passed both houses of the Legislature in the final hours of the 60-day regular session March 8. Senate Bill 553 was promoted by ...
Captive Audience, Sick Leave Bills Hit Roadblocks
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - Two efforts by unions that they believe would have protected workers from employer abuse in the workplace failed to win the necessary votes to become law as the 2008 session of the West Virginia Legislature came to a close March 8. Both were part of larger, national efforts ...
Energy, Environmental Legislation Meets Mixed Fate
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - More regulation may be in store for many of the state's streams, but not for oil and gas operators who want to access minerals on private land. And come fall, residents will have a few days to buy energy-efficient appliances without paying state sales taxes. The 2008 session ...
St. Joseph's Hospital Regains Level 3 Trauma Status
Mar 14, 2008; ... St. Joseph's Hospital in Parkersburg has regained its Level 3 trauma status, CEO Alan King reports. King, who took over as St. Joseph's CEO in February, said they have been able to reinstate around-the-clock orthopedic coverage. "It's very good news for the hospital, very good ...
Report Shows Impact of State's Higher Education Investment
Mar 14, 2008; ... Five years ago, the West Virginia Legislature voted to invest in the state's research infrastructure. Since 2002, the state has put $8.4 million into that program, now called Research Challenge Grants, and now a new report shows the return on that investment, said Paul Hill, vice ...
Other Industries May Be Impacted by Medical Monitoring
Mar 07, 2008; ... In recent years, thousands of West Virginians have received free medical tests to determine if actions by certain corporations have put them at risk for developing diseases, such as cancer. The testing, known as medical monitoring, has been extended to people who live and work near ...
Lawmakers Seek Solution to Teacher Pension
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - As state lawmakers entered the final week of the 2008 Legislature session, they were no closer to reaching an agreement about how to bail some 19,100 teachers out of a retirement system that left many of them with little money to retire. Three separate proposals have been ...
Banking Legislation Quietly Ekes Out Niche in Legislature
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - It passed through quietly, but one of the first bills to get the endorsement of both chambers of the Legislature. during the current session was legislatioan to give the West Virginia Board of Banking and Financial Institutions the authority to approve the acquisitions ...
Senate Removes Tier 2.5 Stream Designation
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - A years-long battle over which streams to place on a special list of protected waterways may not be ending soon after two last-minute moves by state lawmakers promised to keep the debate raging long after the session is over. Lawmakers in the 2008 Legislature have been ...
Captive Audience Bill Fizzles in Senate Judiciary
Mar 07, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - A proposed law that would limit what employers could discuss with their employees in the workplace apparently is dead, with the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee saying he decided not move it forward because of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that has the potential of ...
LAWSUIT AFTERMATH
Mar 07, 2008; ... SPELTER - Rod Tenney has spent most of his life living under the shadows of a zinc smelting operation in this Harrison County community. His grandfather worked at the plant, as did most men in Spelter. Growing up, Tenney would spend hours playing in the gob piles of discarded rock and ...
Companies Pleased With Career Fair at WVU
Mar 07, 2008; ... MORGANTOWN - The first career fair in safety management, industrial engineering, industrial hygiene and civil engineering took place Feb. 29 at West Virginia University, and event organizers reported an enthusiastic response. Fifteen vendor slots for the day of morning displays and ...
Leadership West Virginia Names Class of 2008
Mar 07, 2008; ... Forty-nine professionals from the banking, legal, nonprofit, government and other sectors have been selected to participate in the new class of Leadership West Virginia. Leadership West Virginia is a statewide education and leadership development program affiliated with the West Virginia ...
Teachers Look for More Competitive Pay
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - Many public school teachers will receive pay raises higher than what Gov. Joe Manchin proposed in his state budget, but the unions that represent them aren't exactly jumping up and down with joy. State lawmakers ended the 2008 session of the west Virginia Legislature on ...
U.S. Cellular Plans to Add 70 Towers in Rural Areas
Mar 14, 2008; ... When the signal bars on John Cumberledge's wireless telephone disappear, it means extra time on the job, driving around in his delivery vehicle, searching for service or a land line. Cumberledge brings medical supplies to homebound customers in every corner of West ...
Lawmakers Funnel Funds Home
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - The Budget Digest was supposed to have disappeared from the state budget last year, but that doesn't mean legislators have stopped directing state funds back to their home districts. This week, lawmakers from around the state are in Charleston to finish the state's budget ...
WRAPPED UP
Mar 14, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - When the West Virginia Legislature wrapped up its 2008 regular session March 8, lawmakers had passed 245 bills ranging from mandating hunter safety classes in public schools to designating the timber rattler as the first official state reptile. They also made millions of ...
The Purple Moon Plans Downtown Charleston Move
Mar 28, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - The Purple Moon, West Virginia's only mid-20th century modern design shop and art gallery, recently announced it would move from one downtown Charleston location and expand in another. "We moved in three years ago, and we're literally maxed out on space," said Chuck Hamsher, ...
Realizing Profits, BrickStreet Seeks to Accelerate Debt Payment
Mar 28, 2008; ... CHARLESTON - BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. ended the 2007 calendar year with near-record profits. the company said in a news release. BrickStreet President and CEO Greg Burton announced March 21 that the West Virginia workers' compensation insurer had $185 million in earnings last ...
Minghini's Celebrates 20 Years of Service to Martinsburg Area
Mar 28, 2008; ... MARTINSBURG - For years, Minghini's General Contractors has been operated under its owners' philosophy of trying to be the best, not the biggest, business of its kind. That, coupled with the personal attention each project gets from the top down, has helped usher the company into its ...
Businesses Deal With Donation Requests in Many Ways
Mar 28, 2008; ... A community requires support from many different corners, and at times it may seem as though it takes a whole village to raise a Girl Scout troop or a high school band. But new businesses might have a hard time learning when to say "no." A company usually has to go through some trial and ...
Fairmont Endowment Targets Neighborhood Revitalization
Mar 28, 2008; ... In an unusual approach to neighborhood revitalization, Main Street Fairmont has established an endowment for the city's Southside neighborhood with the Community Foundation of North Central West Virginia. "We want to create an area where people can gather, walk, bike and generally enjoy ...
Prominent Speakers Part of First West Virginia Public Safety Expo
Mar 28, 2008; ... Although their jobs have much in common, it's not often that the state's firefighters, police, emergency medical services and homeland security workers have a chance to train together. But that will change in May. The West Virginia Public Safety Expo is scheduled for May 7-9 at ...
WVU Course Teaches Students About Social Responsibility
Mar 28, 2008; ... MORGANTOWN - Each spring, a small group of seniors at West Virginia University has the pleasure of giving away $20,000. It's part of a course in corporate social responsibility co-created seven years ago by alumnus Robert Reitman, former chairman and CEO of Tranzonic Companies in ...