| MARTINSBURG FIREMEN WANT FREE SPEECH - Five Martinsburg firefighters are suing the
city in federal court
claiming their free speech rights
were violated by a policy preventing them
from discussing with reporters their
complaints. The firemen wanted to complain about air quality in their fire station.
The suit is asking to declare unconstitutional
a Martinsburg policy that restricts its
workers' from having conversations with news media.
$5 MILLION SPENT BY LEGISLATIVE CANDIDATES -
Legislative candidates
spent more than five
million dollars for their 2002 campaigns, collecting about another million, according to
the Secretary
of State.
The two biggest spenders were in Putnam
County's Fourth Senate District.
Defeated Senate Finance Chairman
Oshel Craigo spent the most of any
candidate, doling out $405,000
in his effort to beat Republican
Lisa Smith.
Smith, the winner, spent almost $300,000
dollars, about $250,000 from her own
pocket, for her winning
campaign.
Doctor Dan Foster spent the most of any
House of Delegates candidate - $118,000.
to win a seat in the
30th District race.
The Kanawha County legislative
candidates
averaged more than $57,000
for each of its seven seats.
An expensive Senate race was
Greenbrier County's Tenth District, where
winning Republican Jess Guills and
Democrat Mary Pearl Compton spent
$285,000.
WV RESISTING LOWER DRUNK LIMITS -
West Virginia is among 17 states
refusing to implement lower alcohol limits for drunken driving.
A federal effort has been afoot to toughen
drunken driving laws across the United States,
where
many politicians say the policy is
not productive and misguided.
Highway safety regulators are requiring
states to lower the allowable blood- alcohol
level for drivers to 0.08 percent, or risk losing
millions of dollars in federal highway grants.
Some critics say the tougher laws weaken the
emphasis on catching hard-core drunks who cause the most deadly
crashes and will saddle states with the costs of prosecuting thousands
of additional violators.
COMMISSIONER SAYS BUSINESS CHANGES A MUST - The state will not be able to thrive economically until
legislators reform the business tax code, said Lewis County Commissioner Bob Conley.
Conley, a Republican, said the state is not attractive for business and industry because of its tax code.
"The Legislature needs to take the bull by the horns and complete reforms to our business tax structure," said Conley, a
member of the House of Delegates from 1981-1992. "Nothing is going to begin to happen to benefit our people until we can
reform our business tax structure."
Conley expressed serious concerns about gambling in the state. He believes the state should not be coddling the gambling
industry, whose take from the state is several billion dollars more than the state's budget.
NEHLEN WILL BE COAL INDUSTRY CHEERLEADER -
West Virginia's coal industry has recruited retired West Virginia University football coach Don Nehlen as its spokesman.
Coal operators are hoping that he has as much success as an industry spokesman as he did as the WVU coach.
BECKLEY REGISTER-HERALD SAYS "It was a tough year to be a liberal Democrat in southern West Virginia" -
Two veteran lawmakers learned that painful lesson, bowing out to conservative Republican newcomers in pivotal Senate
races.
Bill Wooton, a legislator for a quarter century and chair of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee, succumbed to Russ
Weeks in one of the state's bigger upsets on record.
And in the revised 10th District, 14-year Delegate Mary Pearl Compton, D-Monroe, watched her role as a legislator vanish
in a loss to Lewisburg attorney Jesse Guills. Compton had won the nomination in the May primary by defeating three-term
Sen. Leonard Anderson, D-Summers.
Weeks pulled off a Cinderella-like success story that had the Capitol buzzing weeks after his stunning knockout of
Wooton.
A high school dropout who embarked on a colorful Navy career that took him to the brink more than once - the aborted
Bay of Pigs invasion in the Kennedy years and the bloody Mekong Delta in the Vietnam war - Weeks set out to get Wooton
out of office more than a year ago.
No one, not even the state Republican Party, gave him a chance.
But Weeks believed in himself and proved all the pundits wrong, going door to door across Raleigh and Wyoming counties,
confident all the while he was headed to the winner's circle."
For complete story www.register-herald.com
DEER FARMERS WANT AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT OVERSIGHT -
Deer farmers will be asking the Legislature to make the Department of Agriculture their supervising body, although the
Department of Natural Resources does not agree with the change.
DNR supervises the state's 54 deer farms. They say 32 of the 54 permits issued are for people who keep deer as pets.
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