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AP IMPACT: Evacs and drills pared near nuke plants
Without fanfare, the nation’s nuclear power regulators have overhauled community emergency planning for the first time in more than three decades, requiring fewer exercises for major accidents and recommending that fewer people be evacuated right away. Nuclear watchdogs voiced surprise and dismay over the quietly adopted revamp — the first since the program began after Three Mile Island in 1979. Several said they were unaware of the changes...
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Preparing for changing job market
The recession has been tough on all age groups, but the past four years have been particularly difficult for young job seekers. A little more than 8 percent of Americans are unemployed, but the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for young adults is about 13.5 percent. But that is just part of the picture. About 32 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds are considered “underemployed,” according to tracking for the Gallup polling company. That...
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Scientists hunt ways to stall Alzheimer’s earlier
WASHINGTON (AP) — Look for a fundamental shift in how scientists hunt ways to ward off the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease — by testing possible therapies in people who don’t yet show many symptoms, before too much of the brain is destroyed. The most ambitious attempt: An international study announced Tuesday will track whether an experimental drug can stall the disease in people who appear healthy but are genetically destined to get a t...
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Hillary Clinton
So what is it about Hillary Rodham Clinton’s stint as U.S. secretary of state that gets people all riled up? Crises averted? Dictators stared down? Pacts signed? Diplomacy accomplished? Let’s try “Hair and Makeup” for $400, Alex. Yes, one of the most powerful women in the world, who practically lives on a plane that flies her hundreds of thousands of miles a year to the globe’s hot spots, is still taking it on the chin for whether her hai...
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Medicare Combats Fraud With Billing Statements That Beneficiaries Can Understand
In the latest effort to enlist seniors in the fight against Medicare fraud, federal officials have overhauled Medicare billing statements to make it easier to find bogus charges without a magnifying glass. The new, more consumer friendly format, which goes online Saturday on Medicare’s secure website, www.mymedicare.gov, includes larger type and explanations of medical services in plain English. The revised paper version, which is mailed to...
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EPA administrator
In a way, it is a shame Al Armendariz was forced out of his regional administrator’s job for the Environmental Protection Agency. He was just being honest in the comment that got him into trouble, after all. About two years ago, Armendariz said this in a speech: “My philosophy of enforcement was kind of like how the Romans used to conquer little villages in the Mediterranean. They’d go into a little Turkish town somewhere. They’d find the f...
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Honoring Our Mothers
This Sunday, we honor a woman who answers to many names. You may know her as Mother, Mama, Mommy, or simply, Mom. No matter her title, the responsibility she takes on and the gift she gives so willingly are often incomprehensible to us as children. It is often when we reach adulthood or we, ourselves, become parents, that we truly understand what our own mother has given us. As an adult, Anna Jarvis of Grafton, West Virginia realized just h...
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Happy Mother’s Day!
Thank you, dear Lord, for our mothers Who were brave enough to give birth Who loved through many growing-up years Who taught about God and love and being good Who often got no thanks Whose ears could hear the slightest cry Whose eyes didn’t miss much either Whose hands held and bathed and picked up Whose heart was often broken Who always forgave and forgot Who encouraged when things went bad Who always had time to listen...
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Low staffing creates a balancing act for small biz
NEW YORK (AP) — If you work for a small business there’s a good chance that, since the recession, you have taken on additional responsibilities and are working longer hours. Some of the work that used to be done by fellow employees may be getting farmed out to freelancers or other independent contractors. The U.S. economy is growing, but at a sluggish pace. Companies are cautious because they don’t know what business will be like in the mon...
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Federal stimulus spending
A Gallup Poll survey in August showed only 17 percent of Americans had a positive opinion of the federal government, while 63 percent had a negative attitude. This mistrust is well earned. Consider the $24 million the federal government gave the state in 2010 to buy 1,064 powerful Cisco routers — they direct data among computer networks — to help bring high-speed Internet to the farthest reaches of Appalachia. This was done in the name of...
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Europe’s bad mood: Does Obama need to worry?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The elections that drove Nicolas Sarkozy out of power in France and left Greece scrambling to build a coalition government pose a financial threat to the United States that could undermine President Barack Obama’s efforts to cast himself as the agent of a U.S. economic revival. For Obama, the danger is that any economic turmoil unleashed by the French and Greek elections will spill over to the United States, slow the recov...
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Coal ash dust up
Criticism of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., for not supporting a measure to prevent coal ash from being declared a hazardous substance clearly has touched a nerve with the senator. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., succeeded in convincing the House of Representatives to adopt an amendment to a major transportation bill also pending in the Senate. McKinley’s amendment would force the Environmental Protection Agency to back away from a plan to re...
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Is your child’s temperament a good fit with yours?
NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a concept that parents may not be familiar with, but experts say it can explain a lot about family conflicts: Is your child’s temperament a good “fit” with yours? For example, a stubborn child who’s a chip off the old block might have a lot of showdowns with an equally stubborn mom or dad. But contrasting temperaments don’t necessarily assure good results: A determined child might overwhelm an overly flexible parent. ...
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The use of antibiotics
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing largely voluntary measures to curtail the use of antibiotics in livestock. They are useful as far as they go, but the agency should do more to close potential loopholes. Eighty percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used on livestock, not humans. The new FDA rules require farmers and ranchers to get prescriptions for about 200 powerful antibiotics, including penicillin and...
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Report: Law on credit-reporting fails consumers COLUMBUS
Report: Law on credit-reporting fails consumers COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Americans are virtually powerless to correct damaging mistakes in their credit reports due to loopholes and obstacles in the federal law governing credit-reporting agencies, an Ohio newspaper reported Sunday. The lack of government regulation allows errors that wrongly deny thousands of people the chance to buy homes or cars, take out a college loan, receive medical c...
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Weary of war
President Barack Obama is right about one thing: The American people are weary of war. They are weary of an Afghan war that began righteously, in pursuit of the evil-doers who plotted the 9/11 terrorist assault, but whose capital was frittered away with the sideshow of unnecessary war in Iraq. They’re weary of a war that is itself now a sideshow to the Taliban’s rise, abetted by new terrorist havens in Pakistan. More than a decade after 9/1...
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Why didn’t we … sooner?
Sometime ago in a big city a child got lost in the park. The frantic father summoned police and friends to help in the search. Twenty hours had passed and the child was not found although the searchers looked carefully in every ditch and under every bush. Hope began to fade since it was late in the season and there was fear of the child dying from exposure. Finally one of the neighbor ladies said, “Let’s join hands and then we will be certa...
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1st-amendment-right-to-job
Holding that “no matter what one makes of associational rights, friendship cannot have greater status than political speech,” the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that an Illinois village employee did not have a First Amendment right to her job. Kimberly Benedix sued the Village of Hanover Park in 2011 after a newly elected board of trustees fired the village manager and abolished Benedix’s executive coordinator position. B...
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Synthetic drugs
It took a state law enacted a year ago to convince some West Virginia retailers to stop selling synthetic marijuana. Unfortunately, virtually anything — including ersatz dope — is available by mail order, often through the Internet, these days. Synthetic marijuana goes by a variety of names, ranging from “Mr. Smiley” to “Black Mamba.” Disguising the stuff is one tactic those who manufacture it use to get it on store shelves. Last March, l...
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US economy recovering but isn’t yet accelerating
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy’s recovery looks enduring. It’s just not very strong. Hiring, housing, consumer spending and manufacturing all appear to be improving, yet remain less than healthy. Economists surveyed by The Associated Press expect growth to pick up this year, though not enough to lower unemployment much. A clearer picture of the nation’s economic health will emerge Friday, when the government reveals how many jobs empl...
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Letters
A very clear message
Editor, Thank you Logan County Democrats! You sent a very clear message to Obama and his greatest cheerleader, Nick Joe Rahall. If I were Nicky Joe, I’d be pretty nervous right now. It sure lo...
4 days ago | 2 2 comments | 4 4 recommendations | email to a friend
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Vote as you feel
Editor, Concerning Staff Writer Paul Adkins’ article of May 10, 2012, “Conservatives have field day with inmate’s success,” comprised many comments from national political and supposedly journal...
4 days ago | 1 1 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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Following the law
Editor, To the citizens of West Virginia: I am writing to correct misinformation which has been circulated in print and social media, relating to the appearance of a convicted felon, as a cand...
4 days ago | 1 1 comments | 1 1 recommendations | email to a friend
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In response
Editor, In response to the letter written by Shawn Higgins. Investors Business Daily. All West Virginians would do well to heed the letter and listen up. West Virginia is COAL. It’s the liveliho...
10 days ago | 1 1 comments | 5 5 recommendations | email to a friend
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Get out and vote!
Editor, With the election only a few short days away, I am writing this in the hopes that all who read this would make it a point to not only vote, but grab those who are eligible to do so and d...
11 days ago | 1 1 comments | 2 2 recommendations | email to a friend
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