| Charleston Daily Mail columnist L. T. Anderson writes about the stuff that really mattered in 2002.
It is worth your while.
LT Anderson
December 27 2002
The Stuff That Mattered In 2002
L.T. Anderson zip@citynet.net
Daily Mail columnist
dailymail.com
Significant events in West Virginia during the year 2002:
Iggy the Piggy, a 240-pound potbellied pig, alerted Cathy Carder's family to a fire in a Poca home.
In Martinsburg, a 13-year-old boy pulled a gun on a convenience store manager and demanded an adult magazine.
Kanawha County commissioners turned down a pay raise authorized by the state Legislature.
A Miami University coach was arrested and charged with knocking a Marshall fan unconscious after the Miami team lost a
close football game to Marshall.
Another Miami coach was ordered by the Miami president to pay for damage to the Marshall stadium.
Margaret Workman accused Jim Humphreys, her opponent in the Democratic primary race for the Second District House
seat, of copping a feel. He said he was only nudging her to make room for him.
Visiting Charleston, Chuck Yeager was critical of the airport that bears his name.
After flying above a West Virginia mountaintop removal site, Gale Norton, head of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, said: "I
think one of the things that really struck me is that there aren't any trees."
Gary Abernathy, executive secretary of the West Virginia Republican Party, said a rich man could get to heaven and that
feeding the hungry isn't the job of government.
Gov. Wise called for austerity in government, citing a financial crisis.
Gov. Wise made Christmas Eve a full-day holiday for state employees, citing family tradition.
In Jefferson, Kanawha County, the Cafe Risque was converted to the Living Hope Baptist Church.
McDowell Circuit Judge Booker Stephens told police by phone that an armed man was threatening him, but later said he
was only testing the officers' response time.
A threatening telephone call was made to the home of Delegate Mike Caputo by a caller who apparently had never heard of
Caller ID.
J.D. Morris, who as president of the Clay County Board of Education had advocated prayer in school, pleaded guilty to
stealing $172,000 from the Clay County Bank, of which he was president.
In Morgantown, a man brandished a gun in a convenience store and demanded money of clerk Beatrice Bacorn. She said
she wasn't going to give him any. He ran from the store.
A crackdown on persons who owed for tickets issued at a Statehouse parking lot revealed that a state Supreme Court
employee owed $2,850 on 356 tickets.
The Legislature passed and Gov. Bob Wise signed into law a bill permitting cities and counties to ban "exotic entertainment"
clubs. A scrupulous definition includes places at which dancers reveal "the female breast below a horizontal line across the
top of the areola at its highest point."
The Pocahontas County school board had police arrest a former county commissioner and teacher who had videotaped a
board meeting. He was handcuffed and charged with disruption of governmental business.
West Virginia racetracks installed emergency power systems that would permit gamblers to continue playing slot machines in
case of power failure.
A school bus driver was among those ticketed for speeding near Overbrook School in Charleston.
Kanawha County's Work Release program was suspended after an inmate got drunk by drinking alcohol left in the bottles he
was sorting at a recycling center.
State Police Superintendent Howard Hill said he was embarrassed when he crashed into a pickup truck while he was trying
to make a left turn out of State Police headquarters in South Charleston.
While Santa Claus listened to children in the Martinsburg Mall, someone stole his pants and wallet left in a locker.
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