| HOUSE MOVES QUICKLY ON BILLS - House of Delegates Speaker Bob Kiss calls work in the House of Delegates
yesterday "momentous." For the first time in more than a decade the House has passed major pieces of legislation in the first
few days of the session.
They approved bills dealing with medical malpractice, workers' compensation, government spending, and ATVs.
MISSING WOMAN A HOMICIDE - State Police have gone on the record saying the disappearance of Samantha Burns
is now considered a homicide and two Kentucky jail escapees are the primary suspects.
Investigators had been saying all along that they were looking into a possible connection between the Marshall student's
November 11, 2002 disappearance and a five-state crime spree by the two men who were on the lam.
But there is no verification that Branden Basham and West Virginia native Chadrick Fulks will be charged in Burns'
disappearance.
MALPRACTICE QUANDARY -A consumer watchdog group says West Virginia ranks second in the nation in doctors
who repeatedly settle or lose medical malpractice lawsuits.
Public Citizen said a study says 401 of nearly 4,300 West Virginia physicians have lost or settled at least two
malpractice lawsuits.
Governor Wise has proposed transferring $20 million dollars in tobacco settlement funds to help doctors meet escalating
malpractice insurance premiums. The proposal would cap damage awards and impose further limits on medical malpractice
lawsuits.
WISE WANTS TO CLOSE SOME COLLEGES - Governor Wise says reducing the number of public colleges in
cash-strapped West Virginia must happen. .
He says the state can no longer prop up schools like Glenville State College that can't stand on their own.
Yesterday, the House of Delegates approved a bill that would close, merge or privatize at least two state colleges by 2007,
and would free up 20 million dollars to reduce the Workers' Compensation Fund's deficit.
COAL MINER BENEFITS HOLD - A federal official's failure to meet a deadline in assigning retiree obligations to
companies doesn't mean the companies should go "scot-free," says the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 6-3 Supreme Court ruling affects about 600 United Mine Workers retirees and potentially affects about 10,000 retired
miners and widows.
UMW President Cecil Roberts said the companies knew the obligations they were taking on when they signed labor
contracts and the court was right to hold them to those agreements.
"This is a huge victory for retired coal miners nationwide covered under the Coal Act," Roberts said. "Some coal operators
were convinced that they had found a way to wiggle out of their obligation to provide health care to their retired miners," but
the court did not agree.
BEAR KILL UP - The DNR says hunters in West Virginia killed a record number of bear in 2002.
More than 1,300 were killed last year, with the most killed in Randolph County - 192.
POTATO CHIP GET-A-WAY - police say a man robbed a convenience store yesterday in Rand and then drove away in a
potato chip truck.
30 year-old Charles Holbrook entered the Chelyan Go-Mart at approximately 9 a.m., threatened workers with a gun, got
some cash and drove away in a Snyder's Potato Chip Truck which was running outside.
Bailes says Holbrook drove the truck up Cabin Creek Road, a deputy followed the double tire tracks until he found the
truck turned on its side.
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