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MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL STUDY STILL ON HOLD - The long awaited study on the environmental effects of
mountaintop removal coal mining has been delayed again.
The study was originally to be finished by December 2000.
The study is required under a partial settlement of a federal lawsuit that challenged how West Virginia regulates mountaintop
removal mines. A ruling in the case covering the disposal of mine wastes in streams was overturned.
READ THIS AFTER GOING FOR A BURGER - A Greenbrier County man tried to collect damages for being served
Burger King burgers, allegedly topped with feces.
Jim King testified one bite of the burger made him sick and when he lifted the bun he found a foul-smelling substance. A
laboratory analyst testified the burger had a high fecal coliform content. King claimed a Burger King employee must have
placed the feces on two Big Whoppers.
Attorneys for Burger-King said the contamination could not have happened at the restaurant, indicating someone must have
tampered with the toppings after the burger was served. The jury believed Burger King.
GOODBYE TO SAT-9 - This year West Virginia students finish their final Stanford Achievement Test Ninth Edition. It will
be replaced by the West Virginia Educational Standards Test (WESTEST).
The new test won't be timed and students will record the answers in a test booklet, instead of a separate bubble sheet.
Educators say the test content will reflect what children are taught and will eliminate teaching the test.
When the state seized control of McDowell County schools in November 2001, state school officials scolded McDowell
teachers and administrators for allegedly inflating the county's overall test results by excluding the scores of hundreds of
low-performing students.
Charleston's Sunday Gazette-Mail analysis of Stanford Achievement Test data shows that McDowell County excluded even
more students' scores after the state Board of Education took over, one in every four children.
State officials continue to trumpet rising test scores in McDowell County. "It's misinformation. They just out and out lie," said
Linda Martin, who directs Challenge West Virginia, a school reform group. "They accuse a county of doing something, then
they go do something worse."
The State Board of Education is closing community schools in McDowell County, building larger consolidated buildings.
Some are a considerable distance over tortuous mountain roads.
WV HAS LARGEST MOVABLE OBJECT - The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the largest movable object on
land, weighs 16.727 million pounds, plus or minus 30,000 pounds.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory engineers finally arrived at the weight after an extensive process. .
The telescope's four legs stand on four railroad trucks, enabling the telescope to turn 360 degrees. The earth actually moves
around under the telescope as it turns.
YOU JUST CAN'T WIN DEPARTMENT - Prices for retail gasoline may go down with the cost of natural gas going up
this summer.
The Triple-A reports that gas prices at West Virginia pumps are down more than ten cents a gallon since mid-March and are
expected to fall even further following the end of war in Iraq.
Analysts say natural gas prices are roughly double what many industrial users have been accustomed to paying in recent
years. Prices could soar since natural gas inventories across the nation are at record lows.
That's bad news for West Virginia manufacturers that rely on natural gas.
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