- Thirty-one year old Jason Howard is facing domestic battery, kidnapping and malicious assault charges after police say he went to his ex-girlfriend's house in Randolph County to get his vehicle, forced her into the car and choked and hit her. Police say she jumped out of the vehicle while it was going between 30 and 40 miles per hour, and Howard stopped and tried to put her back in the car.
- As U.S. Senator Joe Manchin heads toward the 2012 election, West Virginians for Life, the state's leading anti-abortion group, has denounced him after he helped defeat an attempt to deny federal funds for Planned Parenthood. The 1976 Hyde Amendment restricts taxpayer spending on abortion. Anti-abortion groups target Planned Parenthood because it provides abortion services through other revenues. Manchin, a lifelong abortion foe, says the federal grants at issue fund vital health services for women. West Virginians for Life says Manchin has betrayed West Virginians who oppose abortion rights.
- Working people who earn less than $43,000 a year can still sign up for almost-free, nonhospital medical care through the state's West Virginia Connect program operated by the state Department of Health and Human Resources. Since December, about 7,100 have enrolled in the 10,000-person demonstration program, but there are 2,900 slots left. You are eligible if you are a West Virginia resident, have a job, have been uninsured for at least six months, are between ages 19 and 64 and make less than $43,320 for a single person, $88,200 for a family of four (or four times the federal poverty level).
- Firefighters were called to Slaughters Creek Drive in Kanawha County just after 3:30 P.M. Saturday afternoon after fire erupted inside the Big E Trucking Company's building. Workers were still inside when the fire started but officials say everyone made it out safely.
# posted by Homer Owens @ 9:44 PM