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Craft fair draws crowds
Michele Porta of Parkersburg works on her display of glass bead jewelry during the 2009 Mountain State Art and Craft Fair. The fair continues through today. (Photo by Wayne Towner)
July 4, 2009
RIPLEY— As the 2009 Mountain State Art and Craft Fair enters its final day today, organizers are hoping to see record attendance if the weather is cooperative.
Robert Wines, vice president of the MSACF, said the Ripley-area fair started slow Thursday due to rain but was picking up Friday due to the cloudy and cool but dry weather.
“We’ve got a record crowd in here, it looks like,” Wines said Friday afternoon. “We’ve got every parking spot parked full and we’re recycling spots at this point. It’s looking very well at mid-point in the fair.
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Police step up holiday patrols
July 4, 2009
PARKERSBURG — Law enforcement will be out in the Mid-Ohio Valley making sure drivers and people in neighborhoods have a safe Fourth of July.
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No plans for special session on prison overcrowding
July 4, 2009
PARKERSBURG — Gov. Joe Manchin doesn’t have an immediate plan to call a special session of the Legislature to address prison overcrowding, a spokesman said Friday.
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Kirk picked for Macy’s band
July 4, 2009
PARKERSBURG — A drummer in the Parkersburg High School marching band has been chosen for the 2009 Macy’s Great American Marching Band.
» Full Story
Top Headline Poll
Are you traveling out of the area over the Fourth of July holiday weekend?
Yes
12%
No
76%
No need to; plenty to do in the Mid-Ohio Valley
12%
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Jolene Craig
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Michael
Thu, June 25, 2009 @ 9:01PM
With the sudden death of pop star Michael Jackson today (June 25) part of my childhood has also died. Being named after a song, music has been part of my life from second one. Some of my earliest memories involve Jackson in some manner or another. I was a little older than 2 when "Thriller" was released and - as my parents tell it - I insisted they buy the album for me. For several years after that I was known to dance around our dining room table to now classics "Billie Jean" and the title song. I stayed a fan through the Bad years and have continued to enjoy his work through the insanity of his plastic surgeries, marriage to Elvis' daughter and other insanity. I was even looking forward to the tour he had planned to begin this summer in England. That, of course is over now. I feel sorry for the three young children he leaves behind, but most of all I feel remorse for the life he lef.
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Amy Mendenhall
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"By Invitation Only" Review
Mon, June 29, 2009 @ 7:50AM
Summer at the Hamptons with some great characters in "By Invitation Only" by Jodi Della Femina and Sheri McInnis. Soak up the atmosphere in this highly entertaining book of socialites and townies as two women return back to their roots and find love over the summer. Toni Fratelli is returning home to live with her father after her Manhattan restaurant closes and her relationship with her boyfriend ends abruptly. As she is thinking of all of the things she'll miss about New York, she is reminded of what she won't miss - job-addicted power-hungry men, as she is partially helped and then ignored in the street by a handsome businessman. Returning home, she begins work at her father's restaurant, opening a side catering business in the hopes of paying him back his loan sooner and maybe starting her own career over again.
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Jody Murphy
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Surrogacy vs. Prostitution
Tue, June 30, 2009 @ 9:13AM
Can someone explain to me how it is legal for a perfectly healthy woman to have children via a surrogate yet prostitution is illegal? A woman or a couple can pay another women to bear a child for them - because they don't want to deal with the trappings of pregnancy (see Sarah Jessica Parker) - and it's all nice and legal. But purchasing sex is illegal. I understand the logic behind prostitution being illegal. I get it. But how can anyone make the argument for the legitimacy of surrogate motherhood in the same breath? How is one OK and the other not? So you can purchase the end result of the deal, which is a lifetime committment, but you'll be fined and ridculed if caught trying to buy a booty call. I ain't see'n the logic h.
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Art Smith
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Jackson news traveled quickly
Thu, June 25, 2009 @ 10:29PM
The news of Michael Jackson’s death Thursday spread like wildfire around the planet. In this day of instant communication it doesn’t take long for major stories to spread from source to consumer. For many, learning the details of a big story come not from conventional media, but from networks of social networking sites, text messages and other non-centralized communication methods. For those old enough to remember other music icons that have died before their time, the news likely came from reading it in a newspaper, seeing it on TV, or hearing it on the radio. I heard about the death of Michael Jackson while visiting Cleveland Thursday. My wife Lori was taking part in the Teaching Institute at the Rock in Roll Hall of Fame and I visited the museum all afternoon Thursday. Along with hundreds of other archives of rock legends, you can find a special collection of things that belonged to the king of po.
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Jim Smith
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No banana sheaves, please
Fri, July 3, 2009 @ 2:10PM
OK, I know it won't make a darn bit of difference to me, but being buried in banana sheaves just doesn't do it for me. I have no desire to be the dead fruit wrapped in the sheaves. Yes, I know there are naturalists who want to be buried in biodegradable coffins made of recycled newspapers (which doesn't sound too bad to me since that's the industry in which I've made my living for nearly 40 years) or cardboard, but banana sheaves go beyond the line, in my book. Ecoffins USA, based in Montrose, Colo., is selling caskets made of banana sheaves that take six months to two years to biodegrade, and at least 14 funeral homes around the nation have begun offering them. In such natural burials, bodies are not embalmed and decompose into the earth, which I have to admit doesn't sound too bad to me, but that doesn't mean I want to be the banana in the shea.
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AN EVENING WITH ELVIS 7/3/09
Williamstown Pool
Mtta Aquatic Center
Mountain State Arts & Crafts