Tuesday, February 01, 2011
EKB Capsule News...West Virginia...2-2-11
- Freelin Emmanual Vance, 39, of Dingess, in Mingo County, has admitted that he sold marijuana to a confidential informant on two occasions. During the March 18, 2010 drug deal, a child between the ages of 5 and 10 was filmed in the same room as Vance weighed the marijuana he sold. Vance faces up to five years in prison when sentenced May 4th.
- Anthony Eckenrode, 27, of Charleston was charged with attempting to operate a clandestine lab after police discovered meth making materials in his vehicle during a traffic stop on Sissionville Drive. Deputies also found and seized a loaded .380-caliber pistol underneath the front seat.
- Three people are dead in Wyoming County after an apparent double murder-suicide. Sheriff Randall Aliff says 54 year old James Maynard II shot his 50 year old wife Tammy and 25 year old son Chad with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, and then shot himself.
- On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted Jose Guadalupe Reyes-Infante, 48, a Mexican man arrested in Beckley on January 5th on charges that he illegally re-entered the U.S. Reyes-Infante's previous convictions include the attempted murder of a police officer in Texas in 1983. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and possible deportation.
- Tara Dunkle of Charleston has been charged with child neglect creating the risk of injury after police say she left her three children, ages eight, four and three, unattended and outside in the rain, soaking wet and without shoes.
- Chad Holland, former legislative director and aide to Georgia Governor George "Sonny" Perdue III, will join Republican Party Chairman Mike Stuart this week as GOP executive director. Holland was the director of legislative affairs under Perdue's administration, and, before that, he was the deputy political director for Perdue..
- A bone marrow drive is scheduled for February 3rd at Cabell Huntington Hospital for 5 year old Mailyn Chandler, a Kentucky girl who has cancer that relapsed last year. Others drives are set for Saturday from 11:00 A.M. to 2;00 P.M. at the American Legion Post 20 in Charleston and Sunday from noon to 4:00 P.M. at the American Legion in Milton.
- The state Medical Examiners Office is examining bones found Monday by workers constructing a new state office building in downtown Logan to determine if they are human remains.
- Frank Woodruff Buckles of Jefferson County, America's last surviving World War I veteran, celebrated his 110th birthday Tuesday. Buckles has lobbied for a National World War I Memorial in Washington, D.C., and is the oldest person to have ever testified before the U.S. Senate, in 2009. Buckles, who is considered the last Doughboy of World War I, was a prisoner of war during World War II.
- Secretary of State Natalie Tennant announced Tuesday that West Hamlin, Bethany, Harrisville, Paw Paw, Ridgeley and Thurmond will be part of a pilot program that passed the legislature in 2009 allowing early voting for their municipal elections by mail. The voting process will be similar to absentee voting.
- West Virginia's Legislature must pick final dates for special primary and general elections for governor after the House and Senate each voted unanimously on different dates Tuesday. Senators approved an October 4th general election with a primary June 20th, West Virginia Day. Delegates passed a version to hold the primary on Saturday, May 14th, followed by a September 13th general election.
- West Virginia general tax revenues topped their January estimate by a whopping $81 million. Tax collections topped $425 million for the month, putting state government $241 million above revenue projections for the budget year that began July 1. State government expects to collect $3.7 billion by June 30, and so far has brought in $2.3 billion.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:12 PM 
