Thursday, December 8, 2011

Fomer directors at Pleasant Valley Hospital allege they were fired for being gay | The West Virginia Record


POINT PLEASANT - The former human resources and marketing directors for a Mason County hospital allege they were terminated from their positions by the hospital's board of trustees on account of their sexuality.

Pleasant Valley Hospital is named in a wrongful termination suit by Terri Greenwald-Hill and Amy Leach in Mason Circuit Court. In their complaint filed Nov. 28, Greenwald-Hill, 43, of Mineral Wells, and Leach, 43, of Point Pleasant, allege PVH violated the state Human Rights Act when the board fired them earlier this year because of their sexual orientation.

According to their suit, Greenwald-Hill and Leach allege they were fired by the board as the hospital's human resources and marketing directors, respectively, for unspecified reasons. However, they maintain the "true reason" for the Board's decision was "because they are lesbian, because [the board] perceived them to be lesbians and/or they do not conform to traditional sex or gender stereotypes acceptable to [the] Board members."

For more on this story, go to The West Virginia Record.

Photo: PVH's Board of Trustees

Friday, November 11, 2011

Sheriff Anthony accused of wanton endangerment

The man charged with enforcing the law in Mason County has found himself on the wrong side of it this morning.

Sheriff David Anthony has been arrested and charged with wanton endangerment, according to WCHS-TV 8/WVAH-FOX 11.  Troopers from the West Virginia State Police Detachment in Winfield arrested Anthony, 42, and booked him into the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville about 1:30 a.m. 

According to the Regional Jail's Web site, Anthony was still incarrcerated at 9:50 a.m.

Despite most government offices being closed for the Veterans Day holiday, Anthony was expected to be arraigned by a magistrate later today.  Because of the closure, no other information is available about his arrest.

A former Mason County deputy sheriff, Anthony, a Democrat, is in his first term as sheriff.  In 2008, he defeated Point Pleasant Police Chief, and Earnie Watterson, a Republican who previously served as sheriff in the early 1990s, to succeed Scott Simms, who was barred from running again due to already serving two terms.

Aside from the criminal charges, Anthony is also accused of improperly firing Deputy Robert Glenn in March after he, while working as school resource officer at Hannan High School, made an inappropriate comment about a T-shirt worn by Kelsey Williams.

After the county Civil Service Commission upheld Anthony's decision in May, Glenn appealed to Mason Circuit Court.  In his appeal, Glenn argues Anthony did not provide him a pre-disciplinary hearing as required by state law.

A month after Glen filed his appeal to circuit court, the state Supreme Court reversed a Jefferson Circuit judge's ruling upholding that county's civil service commission's decision affirming the firing of a deputy sheriff.  In its ruling, the Court said Sheriff Robert Shirley should have granted Sgt. Michael T. Dodson a pre-disciplinary hearing before firing him in 2009. 

A hearing on Glen's appeal is scheduled Mon. Dec. 12 before Judge Thomas C. Evans III.


Paths of Glory- Final Scene

Sunday, May 22, 2011

An open letter to state Schools Superintendent Jorea Marple

Dear Dr. Marple:

I am writing you regarding remarks you made to the Legislature regarding homeschool students in West Virginia. Your remarks were, to say the least, antagonistic. Those of us in the homeschool community question your motivation. Naturally, we are dismayed.

You’re investigating reducing onerous regulations and increasing flexibility for public schools in an effort to improve teaching and learning for those students. Certainly, you are to be commended for taking this common sense approach. The flexibility enjoyed by homeschoolers plays a significant role in why we are so successful. Given the numerous achievements of homeschoolers in West Virginia and the rest of the nation it is hard to imagine why you would even consider imposing additional burdens upon us.

One in four West Virginia high school students fails to graduate in four years, if ever. Reading scores of West Virginia’s eighth graders are lower than those of students in 41 other states. One in every three high school seniors cannot read at the “basic” level. Math scores are abysmal across the board. Is it any wonder more families are opting to educate their children at home?

This really ties in directly to what you told legislators is the reason you wish to implement further “oversight” on homeschooling families. Anecdotal evidence of county “officials” is not justification for intruding in our lives. It seems to me that parents of children who are “under-performing” in these failing institutions are wise to seek other options.

You have a lot on your plate, to be sure. Nearly 300,000 youngsters attend public schools in West Virginia and those students deserve better than they are getting. I suggest you focus all of your energy upon them. If, however, homeschool students are still a concern of yours, I suggest you take action to help these families succeed in their educational journey. Require school districts provide special education services to children who school at home. Allow our children to participate in extra-curricular activities. Invite our children to participate in clubs and athletics. You should order local districts to have requested textbooks available by September 1and provide accompanying consumables.

Perhaps these remarks by you were just an unfortunate misstep. Perhaps it’s just a misunderstanding or a miscommunication. It would be truly wonderful if the new superintendent of schools wanted to increase flexibility for the homeschool community instead of placing obstacles in our paths to educational excellence.

Sincerely,
Stephanie E. Butcher

Butcher is homeschooling mother in Leon.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

End totalitarianism in kids court | Freedom Politics

Judicial proceedings involving children are the last bastions of The Court of the Star Chamber says Steven Greenhut.

Peter King’s Radical Ignorance | The American Conservative

Is not bliss given how the New York Republican's McCarthyite hearings on home-grown Islamic terrorism are a result of the U.S. Global War on Terror says Jack Hunter.

A Tsunami is Not a Stimulus | OpenMarket.org

Natural disasters are just that, disasters, says Ryan Young.

Ballad of the Saint Patrick's Battalion by David Rovics

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Just In Time: An Important New Book for a World in a State of Flux | Economic Policy Journal


Even the casual observer of news must realize that the world is shifting at its core, that the future may very well be much different than the world we live in today.

The uprising in Tunisia and Egypt are just two examples of people desiring to be free of oppressive governments. In places like Tunisia and Egypt, the oppression is obvious. In other cases, such as the United States, the government moves may be a bit more slick, but the edge to the banksters and other power elite is becoming more obvious. In the U.S. this has spawned the Tea Party and others suspicious of ever-expanding government.

My chief complaint with these anti-regime movements has been that there seems to be no clear understanding of what the current regimes should be replaced with. The average man seems to have little understanding of the importance of free markets and its importance in creating a prosperous society.

In his new book, Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. addresses my complaint. Aimed primarily at a United States audience, the book brilliantly weaves facts with theories to explain why the United States is in the financial mess it is in today and the way out of the financial mess.
For more on this commentary, go to EconomicPolicyJournal.com.

Monday, February 7, 2011

You're invited | LewRockwell.com


The historic first hearing of Chairman Ron Paul's monetary policy committee, to expose the Fed as the prime creator of unemployment and so much human suffering, will take place at: 10:00AM on Wednesday, February 9, 2011, in Room 2128 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the main hearing room of the Financial Services Committee. The witnesses include the eloquent Austro-free-market stars Thomas DiLorenzo of Loyola College and Richard Vedder of Ohio University.

The Fed itself, and at least three big banks, lobbied against Ron's chairmanship. Republicans who share their fear of the truth worked with Paul Ryan, chairman of the "Budget" Committee, to schedule hearings with Bernanke at the exact same time as Ron's, to try to diminish the significance of Ron's. Ryan, btw, is the fair-haired boy of the Republican leadership who gave the boring response to Obama's boring State of the Empire Address. Like the Republican leadership, Ryan talks about cutting spending, but that is only a ruse. Ryan is a big-government neocon, and so naturally supported TARP, Bush's prescription drug welfare, his wars, and the empire.

I don't believe this insider trick will work against Ron, because his support comes not from the regime or the Republican leadership, but from the grassroots. I think the Paulians will pack Ron's hearings, and not only to show their support for him against the power elite. These hearings will have huge significance in the fight against the Fed, the fractional-reserve banksters, and other destroyers of our prosperity and freedom. It will also be a lot of fun!

Reposted from LewRockwell.com
Photos: Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), chairman of the House subcommittee on Monetary Policy, top left, and Ben Bernake, chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The Unraveling of U.S. Mideast Policy | The Future of Freedom Foundation

The Arab people have grown weary of the Washington, D.C.-backed puppets who rule over them says Sheldon Richman.