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The Fifth Annual Marshall Animal Rescue League Wine Tasting will be from 6-9 p.m., Thursday, May 14 at River City Ale Works. This year, I’m very humbled and blessed to have been asked to help serve wine for this event. Many years ago, my friend, Barb Scanlon, called my husband, Chuck, and I to tell us that they just had a Great Dane come into the shelter and she wanted us to come down an look at her. Well pre-Facebook, little did Barb know that we had just lost our dog named Ben to cancer a few days before.  I was still grieving for our Ben and anyone who knows me knows I talk to my dogs even when they have gone to the Rainbow Bridge.  Well, I was telling Ben he needed to help me move on and not cry so much for him.  I knew in my heart that our Ben was in a better place.  Not 10 minutes later my phone rang and it was Barb telling me about our Zoey Girl (RIP).  What can I say, Ben did his job and we had Zoey for years of enjoyment until she went to the Rainbow Bridge.  Big dogs don’t live very long, but the impact that they have on us is never short lived.  I will always be indebted to Marshall County Animal Shelter and Barb for calling us about adopting our Zoey Girl. She was a very special pet. Our shelters in our area are blessed to have people like Barb who give so much of their time to those pets lost, unwanted, abused and some even left to die. They have no voice and we the animal lovers, need to be their voice.  We need our shelters to help these four-legged friends find their furever homes.  Most of our local shelters have you fill out an application to make sure the animal you want to take into your home is suitable for you and your family as you are for the animal you want to take into your home and lives. So if you can, please come and taste the wine, have some good food and see some friends on May 14; it is going to be an outstanding event.  If for nothing else, come see me spill wine on myself because you know it’s going to happen! Barley, Guinness and Justice, the Legal Beagle, would love to see you come and support this event for our Marshall County Animal Shelter. Bark On Bordas Dog Nation, Bark On.

Are there strange traditions or phrases that you’ve wondered, “Where did that come from?” The following explains a few:  In the 1500s, most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet of flowers when getting married.  Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. Last of all, the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it. Hence the saying... don't throw the baby out with the bath water. I know, gross! Houses had thatched roofs (thick straw piled high) with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained, it became very slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying... It's raining cats and dogs. There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house.  This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed. Hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence. The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying… dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying… a thresh hold. In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.  Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme... peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old. Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could… bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and... chew the fat. Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.  Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or… the upper crust. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom of… holding a wake. England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, one out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night ( the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer. Interesting.  Do you remember some old sayings?  I can still remember my Grandmother saying things like:  “Land of Goshen!” Or “Great Day in the Morning!”  Brings back good memories!

As I stood searching for the perfect Mother’s Day card for my mom I found myself reaching for the cards dedicated to grandmothers, forgetting for just a split second that they are no longer with me. Oh how I miss those two wonderful women, but more importantly, knowing how very, very fortunate I was to have not one, but two, amazing grandmothers in my life and how each of them shaped me and helped me become the woman I am today.  My grandmothers or “Mom Maws,” as I called them, were very different individuals and I like to think I have the best of both in me. Mom Maw Cybel was the sweetest woman in all of the world, I’ve always referred to her as my angel. I don’t know where I would be today without her loving, patient, constant presence and everlasting love and support to guide my way.  She was one of those remarkable women that I admired for her constant devotion to the Lord, her untiring gift of listening with an open, nonjudgmental heart and always knowing just the right thing to say. She was my confidant, my support, my strength and my inspiration. She loved birds and to this day, when I see a cardinal or a blue jay I think of her and when the sweet sounds of chirping greet me in the morning in the spring, I like to think it’s mom maw telling me hello and that she’s watching over me. I can still picture her sweet little frame sitting in the chair on my mom’s back porch, smiling, with open arms ready to greet me.  Bette Midler’s lyrics in “Wind Beneath My Wings” touches my heart as the words truly do express my feelings for her: Did you ever know that you're my hero And everything I would like to be? I can fly higher than an eagle For you are the wind beneath my wings Mom Maw Bonnie was fun-loving, knew how to enjoy life to the fullest and cherished the company of her many close friends. She was a business woman, strong minded, independent, feisty and always seemed to look at life with the “glass half full” mentality. I always admired her mental strength and independence in the face of adversity. Mom Maw always loved the water/sun/beach and she lived and loved her later years in Florida. She passed her love of the beach onto me and when I’m there, standing on the beach overlooking the ocean, I can feel her spirit. Growing up, she and I took many road trips to the beaches in North Carolina, just the two of us, rolling down the highway listening and singing loudly to our favorite county music.  My favorite song of all was Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” and to this day, whenever I hear that song, it immediately brings back wonderful memories of our road trips to the beach together. If you are blessed enough to have a wonderful grandmother in your life, embrace her, and her love and cherish each and every moment you have with her. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom Maw’s…I love you.

I caused some trouble in school. My regular readers may find this hard to believe, but I talked back a little too much — argued a little more than maybe I should have. Questions and comments are one thing, but a teacher can’t teach a class with one kid trying to stage a full-dress debate about every issue. I did that once, or twice (or a few thousand times). My teachers needed to get me to stop talking so I could listen, and learn something. But my whole life was blessed by great teachers. I spent some years in public school, and some in parochial schools. I had some teachers I liked, and others I didn’t, but they all had their ways of handling my, well, let’s call it “energy.” I didn’t know exactly what they were doing at the time, but my good teachers all had methods to establish discipline, re-direct disruption, or capitalize on interruptions, as the situation required. I learned, and so did the class. These teachers were experienced professionals. Multiplying the hours they had spent in front of classrooms by the number of students in each class would have produced stupendous figures. They knew what I was doing before I did it, and made sure I got a good education despite myself. They had all the advantages — beyond long experience, they had training in what they were doing. They were more than a match for one hyperactive kid. Great teachers know how to control a class and command the respect they need to do their job. Thanks to my teachers, I learned about math, economics, science, english and a bunch of other subjects — but not about the subject of education. People don’t usually study education if they don’t plan to go into it. That should tell us something about political efforts to “fix” education. There are a few trained educators we’re lucky to have serving in the West Virginia legislature. But we don’t have nearly enough of them for what Charleston sometimes tries to do. For some reason, lawmakers treat education differently than other subjects. We have neurosurgeons in West Virginia. Their practice of medicine is regulated in general terms, but you won’t catch our Delegates trying to tell surgeons how to open up someone’s skull to remove a brain tumor. We’ve got engineers in West Virginia — likewise, they have some general rules, prescribed by law, to follow. But you don’t see our Senators out there trying to tell qualified engineers where to put pilings into the riverbed to build a bridge — it wouldn’t even occur to politicians to try that. But when it comes to teaching, somehow, everyone believes he or she is a world-class expert. This winter, we had people without a lick of training in education trying to micromanage curriculum, lower standards for the teachers entering our classrooms and turn the public education budget over to private companies. There are bound to be right ideas about changing our education system, and there are for sure wrong ideas. I’m not here to judge which is which. But I would like to state one idea about education reform: We will fix education the same way we got an education: by learning to respect our teachers. West Virginia has thousands of dedicated, experienced professionals working their tails off in one of the toughest jobs there is. Too many kids come to school hungry, hurting, and without the support at home they need to learn — things beyond the control of the best teachers. Many of the teachers we’re fortunate to have could make 20 percent more in Maryland or Virginia, but stay here because they care about West Virginia’s children. Nonetheless, armchair experts in education point the finger at our teachers time and time again, and whatever else you want to call that, it is disrespectful. If we are going to learn enough in West Virginia to fix the schools in West Virginia, we need to start by listening to our teachers instead of constantly running them over, running them down, and running them out of this state. Our efforts should be led, not by people with the slick political savvy that wins elections, but with the real classroom experience that educates children. Let qualified, experienced educators tell us what they need to be more successful. Let caring, veteran teachers take us to school on where the real problems lie. And let politicians who think they know more than maybe they really do — like someone I used to know — spend a little more time learning from teachers and a little less time talking about teachers.

Over the course of my life, there have been movie stars that have made me swoon and bands that I have loved, but I have never wanted to actually meet any movie stars or band members. I have never asked for an autograph, nor do I ever intend to. Why you ask? Well, it’s simple really. Reality just can’t do them justice. I fell in love with the personas they portrayed, not the actual people. Many take their fandom too far. They think movies stars are really like the characters they play. There are many stories of psychotic fans that have committed terrible crimes for the sake of their “love.” One of the more public people was John Hinkley, Jr. who shot President Regan in an effort to impress Jody Foster. He also shot a police officer, a secret service agent and press secretary, James Brady. The most concerning fact is that his doctors think he has recovered enough to be let out of the psychiatric facility he now resides in. Although he has been permitted to leave periodically for visits with his mother, some of his actions while on leave from the mental facility lead me to believe that he is pretending to be well, when he is anything but. Anyone who considers Lee Harvey Oswald a role model is not someone meant for life in society. Read about the trial of Hinkley here. Another example is the murder of John Lennon. Mark David Chapman shot John Lennon in the back and shoulder five times and while waiting for the police appeared to be reading The Catcher in the Rye. Prior to the shooting, Chapman was obsessed with Lennon but after becoming a born-again Presbyterian, became disillusioned because Lennon made the statement that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus and that he didn’t believe in God. Chapman became enraged and targeted Lennon. While his attorney entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity, Chapman later changed the plea to guilty. He has been denied parole eight times, the eighth being in 2014. His next parole hearing will be in August 2016. We can only hope that hearing will result in a denial also. While it is perfectly fine to enjoy someone’s work, as I have done many times over, whether musically or theatrically, I don’t delude myself into thinking what I see is what I am going to get should I ever have the opportunity to meet them. They are playing a role. It is not who they are. While I might have liked the character in a movie or a cute boy in a band, I am pretty sure the real people are nothing like they are portrayed to be; and as far as I am concerned, why spoil the fantasy?

May 6 of each year is recognized as Wishbone Day. For those of you who do not know what Wishbone Day is, it is the day in which community awareness is promoted for the disease,Osteogenesis Imperfecta.  Many have heard of this as “Brittle Bones.” I truly was not properly informed about this condition and then I received a flyer in my youngest daughter’s book bag.  You see, she is in kindergarten at Steenrod School in Wheeling, and Steenrod has taken the initiative to bring awareness to the community.  They are directly looking into the face of this horrific disease as one of the fifth graders suffers from this condition.  This young man has endured 55 broken bones in his young life already and Steenrod wants to help bring awareness. What is brittle bone disease? It’s a congenital disorder making bones fragile, breaking easily. It is present at birth. In addition to broken bones, it can also cause hearing loss, respiratory or heart failure, spinal cord and brain stem problemsand permanent deformities. There are different levels of the severity, all of which have very serious prognoses. On Wednesday, May 6, our children will be wearing yellow in recognition of Wishbone Day. I invite you to join in the awareness effort and wear your yellow keeping in mind all those affected by this condition.

With Mother’s Day approaching very soon, I would like to share with you something that I ask you think about and try to find it in your heart to be compassionate, understanding and non-judgmental of mothers who have either given their child or children up for adoption or had them removed. No matter the reason, whether it is voluntary or not, if you find yourself giving up a child for adoption or having a child removed from your care for whatever reason at that moment in your life, you are a mother and a mother not forgotten. Perhaps you never touched this child’s hand or held him or her in your arms. Maybe you did for just a while and now they are gone. Maybe you were afraid, but the reality of the uncontrollable circumstances at that time had an enormous impact on what to do and choices that were made. Don’t listen to opinions or criticisms.  Maybe it was your decision.  Maybe it wasn’t. If you felt your child had a better chance in this world under different circumstances, giving a child up for adoption is the most selfless act you could do and the decision was made with love. Did you get to pick the family and be involved with the process? Or was it an involuntary event that you never will know who has adopted your child?  I am not making excuses or glamorizing what catastrophic events could possibly have occurred leading to this final outcome. I am a mother who has adopted and this is where my message reaches out to you.  If your mind ever wonders what thoughts and feelings go through the adopted mom’s mind?  Well, here are mine. Before I actually went through the legalities of adopting, there was a time I fostered.  I remember so vividly when I found myself sitting in a rocking chair, in a hospital room of a very sickly, innocent child.  I hadn’t slept.  I hadn’t been home but for a few hours over the course of days.  I was trying to take care of my family and work a few hours here and there in between it all.  That was a defining moment in my life and I wept.  Out loud, I said, “Where is this child’s mother?”  I was angry at her biological mom.  After all, here was this child who went through sickness and ultimately surgery.  It was at that moment, I realized I was there.  I was her mom.  This baby that I had been up with through so many sleepless nights and illnesses, knew only one security in the world at that point and it was me and my family. Since that time, I’ve looked beyond the surface information and circumstances and grew to understand how sometimes conditions trap people and they don’t know how to get out.  Even with some of the best help and family support, they still can’t quite get away from this trap, but their children do.  Their children are given up for adoption or possibly removed from the home.  I’ve put much thought and prayer into this and I have no doubt not a day goes by that the decision isn’t run through that natural mother’s mind time and time again. Adoption is an incredibly difficult decision, but it is a decision made on a personal, individual basis. A natural mother carries the child in the womb and the adoptive mother has an understanding of the situation and has compassion for the tough choices that have been made. Over the last couple years, my child has grown.  She has learned to walk and talk and play and gets plenty of love.  I get those big squeeze hugs from her in her feet pajamas and the coloring pictures that say, “To Mommy – I love you.”  I get every laugh, tear and everything in between. I will be there for all her memories and growing pains, too.  I will pass out the hugs and kisses and provide her with structure and stability. My mind strays from time-to-time and I wonder, “Does her biological mom wonder?”  You probably don’t know I think of her and I pray for her circumstances and want her to not worry. I think of all women who have had to make a decision like this and want you to know, adoptive moms do understand.  Situations happen.  None of us are here to judge.  No matter the background, the age and under many different scenarios, it happens. Therefore, I declare in the month of May that all moms should be honored and I assure you, you have not been forgotten.

Bordas & Bordas has filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that sits in Richmond, Va., on behalf of four national, non-profit organizations. AARP, the National Consumer Law Center ("NCLC"), the National Association of Consumer Advocates ("NACA") and the Center for Responsible Lending ("CRL") have asked Bordas & Bordas, along with our co-counsel Bailey & Glasser, to address on their behalf a controversial opinion issued by the federal district court for the southern district of West Virginia in the matter styled McFarland v. Wells Fargo Bank. These organizations promote the rights of consumers, concentrating on, among other things, advocating for fairness in financial services, by providing policy advocacy, scholarly analysis and books, as well as trainings and community outreach to address predatory lending and other abuses in the mortgage market. Collectively, they represent or counsel thousands of low to moderate-income homeowners each year.  Bordas & Bordas is honored by and appreciative of the opportunity to represent them in this important matter. In the amicus brief, we argued in support of a homeowner who was the victim of appraisal fraud and facing foreclosure as a result.  Appraisal fraud poses very real harm to residential mortgage borrowers.  A borrower who justifiably relies on an inflated appraisal obtained by a lender to finance a home faces a risk of an "upside down" mortgage, where he owes more than his home is worth and is in jeopardy of foreclosure or an inability to sell or re-finance the home should the need arise later.  On a larger scale, mortgage fraud, which includes the practice of inflating appraisals, has led to a national crisis of home foreclosures, decline in home prices, and a widespread destabilization of the securities market by reducing the value of mortgage-backed securities. The district court failed to recognize this grave financial reality, instead rejecting the notion that a consumer could be harmed by receiving more financing than the true value of his home should have allowed him to receive as "ridiculous"-simply because the consumer receives credit from the transaction. The district court instead sympathized with the lender in such a fraudulent transaction.  The district court's misunderstanding of the real harm of appraisal fraud to consumers and the incentives of mortgage lenders to engage in such conduct resulted in a decision that could negatively affect thousands of consumers.  Accordingly, Bordas & Bordas, on behalf of its non-profit clients, has asked the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse and correct this decision.

IMO, the Steelers organization, performed well in this year's draft, having selected six defensive players, three of which are in the secondary, where the Steelers performed so poorly last year. Mel Kiper, Jr. gave the Pittsburgh Steelers an "A-,” one of only four teams to receive an "A." At No. 22, the Steelers got a steal in Bud Dupree, who some believed was a top ten prospect. He has been described as an awesome package of size, speed, explosion and smarts. He is 6’4, 269 pounds with 14 percent body fat. At the NFL combine, he ran a 4.56 in the 40 (second fastest among all linebackers), posting a 42-inch vertical jump (second best by any linebacker since 2006) and 11.5 feet in the standing long jump.  The Steelers are impressed with Dupree's size and athleticism, but according to former coaches and associates, the Steelers also selected a person whose character, commitment and sincerity is every bit the equal of his football talents. Senquez Golson an "INT machine" at Ole Miss who, according to Mr. Kiper, plays bigger than his size and has the hands of a solid wide receiver. At 5’9 and 176 pounds, Golson was the smallest defensive back invited to the NFL Scouting Combine.    Elsewhere in the secondary, the Steelers added a steady college performer in Doran Grant out of Ohio State. Grant is 5’10, 200 pounds and was timed at 4.4 in the 40. He is strong with good speed, a good tackler and cover man. In the seventh round, the Steeler's selected last year's NCAA interception leader, safety Gerod Holliman of Louisville. The Steelers went outside the Big Ten and SEC for the first time when they drafted defensive lineman L.T. Walton of Central Michigan with their first of two picks in the sixth round.  Walton is 6’5, 319 pound and played in the interior at CMU but will be used at defensive end where the Steelers are thin after their two starters, Cam Heyward and Stephon Tuitt.  With its compensatory sixth round pick, the Steeler's drafted Miami’s Anthony Chickillo, a defensive end for the Hurricanes, will be put at outside linebacker with the Steelers. Chickillo is 6’3, 267 pounds. There were only two offensive players selected by the Steelers in the 2015 draft. Sammie Coats, allegedly one of the better big-play receivers in Auburn's history, was the Steelers’ third round pick. Coats stands at 6'1 and weighs 212 pounds. His vertical jump was 41 inches, and he jumped between 10 and 11 feet on the broad jump. That shows his athleticism and explosion that he has. He will block and he will dig out safeties. He has been noted to drop some balls, however, the Steelers are optimistic that he will improve with drills. The Steelers chose Penn State tight end Jesse James, who played at South Allegheny High School in Glassport, in the fifth round. James stands 6’7 and weighs 261 pounds. He is the first Nittany Lions player drafted by the Steelers in six years. He started every game the past two seasons and leaves Penn State with a year of eligibility left. If our newly acquired defensive personnel can contribute in a meaningful way, and if our offense can stay healthy, the Steelers may be a serious playoff contender. Go Steelers!

Watch the videos and see the pictures. A mother slapping her child. Black men and boys throwing rocks at police. A police officer shooting a man in the back. Drone strikes on blurry human targets. Riot police advancing on crowds, behind tear gas. Armored vehicles in American cities. A dozen police officers kicking a horse thief. Beheadings. A limp body being loaded into a paddy wagon. TV and the Internet are feeding us these videos and photos every waking minute. News people know what they are about: ratings are through the roof. We deplore the images, and even complain about seeing them, but ad executives know us better than we know ourselves. Whatever we say we don’t want to see, they are in the business of knowing — and business is good. Violence fills our screens and we carry our screens everywhere. We used to worry about such images in movies and video games — people said kids’ minds would be affected, remember that? The advent of the cell phone camera left that all behind. Real violence tops the charts now. Some people say, “Thank God for cell phone cameras” or “Videos finally let us see for ourselves what’s really going on.” I thought the same when these videos started to proliferate. But after watching Baltimore, and listening to all the reactions, it sounds like no one is learning anything. You can’t see what you don’t believe. Our pre-loaded perspectives means video just shows us what we already knew anyway. If the government of Maryland demands that the citizens of West Baltimore forswear violence, they might reply, “ You first.” That is always the question about a cease-fire: who will go first? Three-quarters of Americans identify themselves as Christians. But we’re coming up pretty short on turning that other cheek. In fact, our policy seems to be that you won’t even catch us on the first cheek, before we blow your a** away. So the wind is sown. Our investments in organized violence repay us in the same coin without fail, year after year, month after month, day after day. All the riches in the world can’t save us. The wealthiest country in the world has rioting 50 miles from its capital. Watch the videos again if you can. Try to imagine that every single person, in every single one of them, is the victim. At both ends of the batons, the rocks and the guns, people suffer. And all because we can’t find a better answer to the question, “How are we going to live with one another.” Go first.

Last week, it was reported that dozens of residents near Duke Energy coal ash dumps in Raleigh, North Carolina were advised by public health officials not to drink or cook with their water after testing revealed that the water was contaminated with toxic heavy metals from coal combustion waste. In fact, testing revealed that 87 private wells near eight, coal-fired power plants were contaminated with heavy metals at levels that exceeded state groundwater standards.  Among the excess metals found in the residential water were known neurotoxins and carcinogens, including mercury, lead and arsenic that are present in the byproduct waste from burning coal to produce electrical energy. One toxin, vanadium, was detected at levels some 86 times above the state groundwater standard. This most recent revelation adds to the growing body of scientific evidence that demonstrates a serious public health risk to residents living in the large shadow of coal fired power plants.  A 2010 investigation led by expert hydrogeologists identified 137 coal combustion waste (CCW) disposal sites in 34 states that have contaminated groundwater or surface water with toxic metals and other pollutants.  More recently, the EPA reported multiple contaminants at 116 coal ash disposal units at 49 plants that exceed federal or state standards for numerous toxic metals, including arsenic (a potent carcinogen); manganese (a metal that can damage the nervous system in high concentrations); boron (a pollutant that can cause damage to the stomach, intestines, liver, kidney, and brain when ingested in large amounts); selenium (a toxic pollutant that causes adverse health effects at high exposures) and cadmium (a toxic pollutant that can damage the kidneys, lungs, and bones). Sadly, for those of us living in the Ohio Valley, these types of risks are all too real. In West Virginia, groundwater poisoning from heavy metals found in coal waste has been reported in association with the Mitchell Plant, Albright Power Station, the Kanawha River Plant, John Amos Plant, the Mount Storm Power Station, Mountaineer Plant and Phillip Sporn, among others.  In Ohio, similar groundwater contamination has been documented near the General James M. Gavin plant, the Walter C. Beckjord Station, Muskingum River Plant, Conesville Landfill and the Cardinal Plant, among others.  And keep in mind, that these are merely the sites that have been investigated.  States do not generally require off-site monitoring of drinking water wells beyond the fence line, even when there is documented contamination at the property boundary, so it is likely that the problem is even more widespread than is being reported. Furthermore, these contaminated coal combustion waste sites cannot simply be dismissed as a legacy of past practices that are no longer allowed today. Almost all of the facilities described in these studies are active coal combustion waste disposal sites, and the contamination is documented by recent data from 2007 or later. Power companies that own or operate coal ash disposal sites that contaminate groundwater should be required to clean them up, but rarely do states require the power company to stop the poisoning, let alone remediate the damage they’ve already done. Instead, state agencies routinely accept dubious claims by utilities that contamination results are due to sampling anomalies, or that “nature” is responsible for heavy metal concentrations that are far above background levels, and so they let operators return to reduced monitoring or stop monitoring altogether. And In the meantime, power companies sometimes quietly purchase surrounding property where wells are contaminated, often without alerting the state or the community that a danger exists.  But that does not mean that you have no voice or no options to make sure you and your family have safe, clean drinking water.  If you believe your water has been poisoned as a result of coal fired power operations near your home, I would urge you to contact an experienced attorney who can help you to restore purity to your drinking water and make these polluters clean up their mess before it’s too late.

About a month ago, I took my oldest daughter to Moundsville to test for her learner’s permit. She had turned 15 in February and was very eager to get behind the wheel.  Many of her friends failed the test the first time and even the second, so I was fully prepared to take her home disappointed……and that was ok because I was going to be totally relieved.  So when she emerged from the testing room smiling from ear to ear I knew she passed and I immediately felt a small, sick feeling in my stomach.  I’m not ready for this.  I’m not ready to put my child out on the same roads that I drive everyday and witness others speeding, talking on the phone, texting and tailgating. She made me take a picture of her in front of the DMV holding her permit.  She was so proud of her accomplishment, as she should be.  When we were getting in the car she asked, “Can I drive?” I knew it was coming.  There were so many ways I could have answered that question, but I calmly looked at her and explained she needed experience before she got out on the road with other cars.  We could start in a parking lot or in our quiet neighborhood first.  She accepted that answer and the conversation shifted to another topic.  And then we passed a parking lot…. “Can I drive?” – no there’s too many parked cars in that one.  Here comes another lot……. “Can I drive?” – oops, I already passed the entrance to that one and can’t turn around.  Another topic shift and soon I was making the turn to enter our neighborhood.  “Can I drive?”…… oh my God, fine ….we will try this. After all, she had backed out of the driveway before and drove slightly down the street from our house and seemed to do well…it can’t be that bad and I have to let her do it eventually.  To make a long story short, that day she hit the gas instead of the brake and almost took out the neighborhood bus stop.  My husband took her driving the next few times. I have to say she has improved greatly since that first day with me in the car.  She is a smart girl and her dad and I trust that she will make good decisions on the road.  However, I am dreading the day she ultimately pulls out of the driveway alone.  For now, I am happy to let her tag along with me happily chirping, “Can I drive?”