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More than a week after the fact, thousands of West Virginians are still reeling from the effects of the toxic spill into the Elk River. Water supplies were cut off. Some were actually exposed to the contaminated water, resulting in nausea, vomiting and other symptoms requiring emergency treatment. More than that, there are still questions for the future. MCHM is a known carcinogen. Are those who were exposed to the contaminated water likely to develop cancer in the future? And what effect could exposure have on pregnant women and their unborn babies? I lived in Charleston for over four years, and I still have friends who live in the Charleston area. This was more than a news story to me. My heart ached for all of those who were affected. Like others, I'm proud of the way the people living in Charleston and the surrounding areas stood tall during this crisis. Like others, I'm also proud of the way people throughout West Virginia rallied to help--sending drinking water, food and paper supplies, or volunteering their time. It makes me proud to be a West Virginian. But I've also had a chance to think about the facts lying behind this tragedy. There are lessons to be learned, and things that can help us shape a better and safer future. I have three takeaways that I want to share. My first takeaway is this: big companies don't police themselves. It's sad, but it's a reality in today's market place. In many cases, the sole driving force is turning a profit regardless of the consequences. Big companies just aren't interested in promoting safety. There was supposed to be a containment wall around Eastman Chemical's storage facility to prevent any leak of MCHM from spilling into the water supply. It was a simple, inexpensive protective measure. Did Eastman Chemical care? No! The containment wall had a hole in it, rendering it useless. If Eastman Chemical had inspected the wall, it would have discovered the hole and this terrible tragedy could have been prevented. Sadly, safety simply isn't a part of the modern corporate mindset. Here's my second takeaway: government has to step up. It seems unbelievable to me that government inspections of this facility weren't required. Apparently, under current law, inspections are only mandatory for chemical production facilities. But as we've seen for ourselves, chemical storage facilities can be every bit as dangerous. Big companies won't inspect for themselves. That's a given. So it's up to the government to insure that inspections take place. Just as important, it's up to the government to insure that any safety violations are promptly and effectively remedied. My third takeaway is this: big companies that fail to protect us should be held legally accountable. Eastman Chemical's tanks were filled with a toxic, cancer-producing chemical. The tanks were sitting next to a water source serving over 300,000 people. The duty of care was very high indeed. Because Eastman Chemical failed to take even the simplest steps to keep its facility safe, it should be required to pay for all of the injuries, damages and losses that it caused. These same takeaways also apply to new industries coming into our state, including gas drilling. Everyone knows that gas drilling has been a big boom for the economy, but at what cost? Pollution. Dangerous air emissions. Contaminated water from fracking operations spilling into the water table. These are only a few of the health and environmental impacts that are facing West Virginians. Gas drillers aren't embracing safety and the Legislature has failed to act. Certainly, the MCHM spill in Charleston should be a wake-up call. It's time for the Legislature to develop meaningful regulations to protect West Virginians from these dangers. And, of course, whenever gas drillers fail to act responsibly and cause injury, property damage or other kinds of losses, they should be held accountable through our legal system for paying full and fair compensation to the victims.

The day after the NFC championship I woke up to a world of highly opinionated sports enthusiasts giving their take on the public interview between Erin Andrews and Richard Sherman. I was browsing through my Facebook feed and realized that I had missed quite a controversial moment in sports history. Upon reading my Facebook friends' posts, I realized that there was a huge divide in the way people took the Andrews/Sherman interview. Some of my friends had statuses calling Sherman a "thug", some called him "classless", and most of the statuses seemed to feel that his breathless rant was highly inappropriate. I did have some friends that were defending his actions and saying that he is not a thug but in fact a Stanford-educated man. Some said he was an emotional athlete who was just minutes removed from the adrenaline high of having made the biggest play in his career. At this point, I began to find myself a little sorry that I had missed all of this excitement and this clearly important interview since so many people were taking the time to comment on it. Facebook is my only social media outlet. I am not on Twitter, and so I can't speak intelligently as to what comments were being tweeted there, but I imagine that it was a similar situation. I couldn't help but find myself curious to learn more. So... I turned to my husband, one of the biggest sports fans I know, a football coach himself, and someone who I knew personally watched the game. I said to him, "So what happened?" He would never miss a chance to talk sports. So, he gave me the very intricately detailed play-by-play, down to the number of seconds remaining on the clock and the hand Sherman used to deflect the ball. He was telling me about some "exchange" between Sherman and Crabtree on the field after the play and I was trying to follow it all to help it make sense. After he was done, he then told me about his own comments on social media about the incident. Paraphrasing, it was  something to the effect that in a big moment in Sherman's life, when he had an opportunity to thank God or his mother, he instead chose to use that moment to put down Crabtree. This was coming from the mouth of a football coach, past football player and someone who always sees the good in everyone and every situation in life. Jamie is the first person to give someone another chance or simply say that people make mistakes. So at this point, I was even more intrigued by it all. This instance had caused my sports-obsessed, and football-loving husband to form an opinion and publicly comment on social media! What have I missed? Unfortunately, I have to admit that my personality sometimes causes it to be very difficult for me to stay out of a good debate. I tried hard to just let it go. I mean, I didn't even watch the game. I didn't see the big play and I certainly hadn't witnessed the interview. Then I thought to myself, had I watched the game and the interview would it have even affected me that much to care and form an opinion? To be completely honest, probably not. But now, now that it is big social media news, I want an opinion (even if I keep it to myself). Then, I did some research. It's amazing how fast you can learn things these days. Less than 24 hours after the game, I couldn't even type in the first three letters of Sherman's last name without Google and other search engines guessing that I wanted information regarding this highly debated interview. You could watch the clip of the game where he deflected the pass, the post- game interview with Erin Andrews, another interview with Sherman that took place over the phone (where Sherman seemed much calmer and level headed), and you could get footage of sportscasters commenting that this Sherman/Crabtree animosity all stemmed from a past off-season workout. You could get an enormous amount of information and hundreds of people's opinions with just three keystrokes! I could have spent hours upon hours listening to what people thought about Sherman's actions, but what was more astounding to me was how heated and opinionated people were getting over this. I was amazed at how much press this football player was getting for a 30-second play followed by a 2-minute interview. I then came to my own revelation... I couldn't spend any more time researching this and quite frankly I didn't want to form my own opinion on this anymore. Instead, I wanted to walk away with a lesson from it - a lesson for myself and a lesson for my children. Could it be that Richard Sherman is a hot-headed, classless, egotistical football-playing thug? Well, I suppose so. I mean, I never met the man, and have never seen him in any  capacity other than as a successful professional football player. Which, let me add, by its very nature and rules of the game you are supposed to physically engage and bring to the ground another human being so that they don't score. So, maybe all of my friends' negative opinions of him had been in fact true. On the other hand, could he have been a fine young man who was a stellar defensive cornerback, Stanford-educated and just highly emotional after the biggest play of his life? Well, I guess that is possible as well. I have never made the game-winning play and advanced to the Super Bowl - the biggest football event. (The game in which every little boy running around on the little league football field envisions himself playing in some day, usually only in the capacity of a dream, yet this had become Sherman's reality, and I'm guessing was a past dream of his own.) Could he have had a vendetta with Crabtree as a result of something in the past that none of us know about and for whatever reason he felt that he had to prove himself better than his opponent? Did he feel inferior and, thus, his harsh words that came out as vanity really were disguising some insecurity he had felt? Sadly, I guess that is possible as well. Personally, I can think of moments where my own reaction to someone or something was highly unwarranted, but it was a reaction to my own insecurity or a feeling that I had to impress someone or prove myself. It's possible that even at what could have been one of the biggest and best moments of his life, that he felt that he had to defend himself or some proposition that had internally been haunting him. And that makes me sad for him. And, yes, it's true we would all like to think that if we were famous or rich and had the social media span and the attention received by public figures (be it professional athletes, movie stars, etc.) that we would conduct ourselves with much more class and tact, and that we would use media outlets for the good and not the bad. Maybe, we would do as my husband suggested and thank God for giving us such tremendous talent and such an amazing opportunity. I no longer needed an opinion because it seemed like each and every other person's opinion could be possible and plausible. BUT... But, what we sometimes forget is that these public figures (these immensely talented athletes) are in fact human. They have problems of their own. They have past quarrels with friends, enemies, and competitors. They have bad days too. And they certainly make mistakes. What I learned from it all is that we need to make the most of our great opportunities. Sometimes we make bad choices. Sometimes all that it takes is a second to change people's opinions of us. After all, look at how fast Sherman went from the best cornerback in the league, making an awesome game-winning play, someone that every little boy watching admired, to someone who many thought lacked class and control over his emotions and someone many mothers wanted their little boys to no longer idolize? Minutes. It took minutes. I honestly do not have an opinion as to what I think of that interview. But I do know that I want my children to know that you can go from hero to villain in minutes. I want them to know that what you do in today's world can instantaneously be put on social media for the world to see and to form their own opinions about you. I want them to know that you only get one chance to make a first impression- so make it good. I want them to know that you can't recover the word after it's spoken. People will judge you no matter who you are. I want them to be kind because everyone is fighting a battle that they know nothing about. I want them to know that everyone makes mistakes, and undoubtedly, they will too. But that learning from their mistakes is what really matters.

It's hard to imagine a more compelling NFL Championship weekend. In the AFC, old rivals Tom Brady and Peyton Manning square off yet again when the Broncos host the Patriots. In the NFC, the new rivalry between the Seahawks and the 49ers takes center stage. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell couldn't have asked for a much better line-up. Not all is well in the world of the NFL, though. Earlier this week, Judge Anita Brody, the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit brought by more than 4,000 former players against the NFL, rejected a settlement proposed by the parties. As Judge Brody found, the settlement may not be enough to compensate the players for the injuries they suffered in the sport. The Judge ordered the parties to provide her with more information regarding the adequacy and fairness of the proposal. Judge Brody deserves credit for her stance. The law provides her with the authority to make sure that members of the class are protected in cases like this. That is a serious responsibility and, if she believed that she needed more information before reaching a decision, she was right to demand that information from the parties.

From shows like Buckwild to offensive tweets about incest, West Virginia often takes a beating in the media. Bordas & Bordas is proud to have deep roots in the state, and knows that many of our readers are too. As native West Virginian Carrie Scanlon details below, there are many reasons we're happy to declare that we're from somewhere more specific than just "fifty miles south of Pittsburgh." What are your points of West Virginia pride? I'm proud to be from West Virginia. That wasn't always the case. For a span of about a decade and a half that started when I entered college and went well through most of graduate school, when people would ask where I was from I simply would answer "fifty miles south of Pittsburgh." It was simple enough, not a lie and yet not entirely the truth. Identifying myself with the city that I had grown to love was a lot easier than being attached to a state that had an image that was, well, less than flattering. Images of ignorance, stereotypical redneck behavior and social awkwardness were something that seemed to be widespread on the mainstream media when it came to the portrayal of my state and frankly I wanted nothing to do with it. I was a Steeler fan anyway, shopped in the South Hills, and had a membership to the Carnegie Museum so I figured the facts really didn't matter. People seemed to paint all West Virginians with quite a broad brush so I took the opportunity to skirt the issue entirely. While I was pretending to be from somewhere else, the media was busy figuring out how to capitalize on widespread generalizations. It's actually quite easy. Just ask MTV. The wildly successful Jersey Shore show did little to showcase the reality of 'real-life' New Jersey and rather sensationalized the behavior of Italian-American 20-somethings, hand-picked for their outrageous behavior. Bad behavior translates to good ratings. Jersey Shore has had quite a run despite public outcry about how the show depicted life on the actual Jersey Shore. In 2011, New Jersey governor Chris Christie vetoed a tax credit that would have assisted with the funding of the show stating that he was "duty-bound to ensure that taxpayers are not footing a $420,000 bill for a project which does nothing more than perpetuate misconceptions about the state and its citizens." Exploitation of the outrageous is nothing new for MTV. In 2009, they produced a much talked about documentary entitled The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia which followed the family of the "Dancing Outlaw" Jesco White and his family in Boone County, West Virginia. Even within the documentary, the mayor, when asked about the Whites said "why don't you ask me about the local high school kid who just got accepted to MIT?" Well, Mr. Mayor...because MIT doesn't sell advertising and MIT doesn't get viewers. Pregnant Teen Moms from just outside of Charleston do. Camouflage weddings do. Oh yes, MTV was there for that as well. 16 and Pregnant "star" Leah Messer-Calvert, from Elkview, West Virginia was featured on not one, but two seasons of MTV's reality show focusing on teen mothers and their struggles. MTV also hoped for a trifecta when they produced a "reality" show that replaced Jersey Shore in its coveted Thursday time slot. Hoping to attract a similar fan base, " Buckwild " featured young adults in Sissonville, WV as they cut-loose, behaved badly and let "whatever happens, happen." The show was cut short and canceled due to the untimely accidental death of one of its cast members but not before Senator Joe Manchin protested to MTV stating publicly in a Today show interview that the show was not an accurate depiction of the state. "It's not just who we are," he said. "It's not how we were raised and to portray this as the norm is wrong. The viewers must understand that this is not real West Virginia." I couldn't agree more. Today, I am proud to say I'm from West Virginia. I came to this conclusion when I realized that if good citizens disassociate from the state then the only reference outsiders will have is what they see on television. So, yes, I'm from West Virginia. I don't own a gun. I have all of my teeth and they actually are quite nice. While I know what a "crick" and a "holler" are, those words are not part of my daily vernacular. I have been blessed enough to travel the world and even though I've seen some amazing things along the way, I've also had the pleasure to witness a sunset over the New River Gorge Bridge. I've rafted the Gauley. I have spent endless hours on the Ohio River. I've sat by backyard bonfires with friends and I have seen autumn leaves that would make any landscape photographer's jaw drop with awe. I have walked the gardens of The Greenbrier (and toured the hidden bunker...so very cool) and waited patiently in line for Wheeling's Winter Festival of Lights. I have two degrees from West Virginia schools of higher education. I'm a fan of Brad Paisley. I value hard work and appreciate the abundant natural resources this place has to offer the rest of the country and the world. I work with accomplished professionals and my community is filled with individuals who compliment this great state in ways that often go unnoticed. Yes, I'm from West Virginia and I'm proud of it. So, rather than buying into some of the unfortunate and glaringly inaccurate stereotypes of this wonderful state why not check out the State Journal's 40 Under 40 for 2012 which highlights 40 young West Virginians who are making a significant impact in their community, state and country? It may not be "reality television" but it is very much reality. Great things are happening here and great people are the reason. Comments about this blog can be directed to carrie@bordaslaw.com.

We all have memories, and we all undoubtedly have things that make them flare up from time to time. For some, it is the smell of fresh cut grass on a hot summer afternoon, for others it is the sound of crisp leaves crunching beneath cold feet on a brisk October evening. For me, snow- an early forecast, the beginning snowflakes of the season's first snowfall, the footprints left behind in the freshly fallen powder- holds some of my most cherished memories and just the sight of a small flake or two sends them flooding back in. I remember being young (younger) and watching the weather portion of the 11 o'clock news before bed. The weatherman's call for snow made it nearly impossible to fall asleep for the excitement surrounding a potential snow day was almost too much to handle. I would wake up the next morning, rush to the front window in my bedroom and look out at a snow-covered Watson Street, sending my praises to Mother Nature for coming through for me. I remember sled riding. My grandparents live on the biggest (and best) hill in Dillonvale, a hill so large that a ride from the very top to the very bottom can take upwards of fifteen seconds. My mom, sisters and I would pile on layers upon layers of clothes and make the 5-minute trek up the hill on foot because Hill Street was too slick to drive up on a snow day. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a neon orange sled on the back porch and my grandma and pap smiling and ready to snap unflattering photos with a disposable camera in the front window. An hour or so later, with tired legs, frozen fingers and wind burnt faces, we would make our way inside for homemade hot chocolate and games. I remember college snow days, and even though they were few and far between, we made the most of the ones we had. Early into the second half of my freshman year on what I believe was a Tuesday morning, my roommate whispered to me from across the room that classes were cancelled and the university was closed. We woke up around noon and spent the day watching movies and eating Chinese food in preparation for an intense night of sled riding on cafeteria lunch trays. Students of all ages gathered on every hill on campus and spent hours speeding down the slopes on a "sled" that was no more than 2-feet wide by a foot-and-a-half tall. I remember finding a piece of paper in the snow many years ago adorned with words of wisdom that I will never, ever forget. As I walked through one of the university's parking lots and at least 3 inches of snow one February morning, trailing a few paces behind a couple of friends, I looked down and saw a notecard buried and barely visible at my feet. On the front beneath a partial shoe print were the words "#1 Rule to Always Remember." I flipped open the folded-up notecard to find the following advice inside: "Everything happens for a reason - good or bad, that's the way it's supposed to be. Destiny will run its course and love will conquer over all in the end." I could not have stumbled upon such a wonderful message at a better time. Four years later, the lesson contained on the trampled notecard is still so very relevant. I carry it with me everywhere I go. It should not be hard to see that snow means much more to me than the slick roads and icy walkways most others associate it with. For me, falling snow illuminated by the streetlight across the alley from the home I grew up in transports me back to many different years, ages and places, helping me to remember some of my most cherished memories. As long as the Ohio Valley is predicted to experience at least one good snowfall a season, I am certain I will never forget those snowy memories -they will always have a special place in my heart.

West Virginians are going to remember WVCHS8's iconic photo of Gary Southern swigging ice-cold bottled water as he walked away from reporters in Charleston, citing a "very long day" that he had after depriving hundreds of thousands of West Virginians of usable water. The "Freedom Industries" CEO is not all that different from British Petroleum CEO Tony Hayward, who famously " wanted his life back "  after questions from reporters put him out, just because BP had dumped over a 100,000,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. These men don't understand our lack of sympathy for their plights, when they are "unfortunately" caught red-handed doing the things they do every day. These lamentations from the multi-millionaire or even billionaire class are becoming more and more common. West Virginia's own Don Blankenship famously complained of the " indignity " he felt subjected to as his mines violated state and federal laws and safety standards, ultimately resulting in numerous unnecessary deaths of coal miners. Former Bloomberg CEO and billionaire mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg recently took time out from his busy schedule to tell us that homeless people are homeless because "that's how God works." You could do a whole story just on our friends at AIG - current CEO Robert Benmosche recently complained that when his titanic bonuses of tens of millions of dollars are criticized, he feels like he's being lynched in the Jim Crow south. His predecessor, Hank Greenberg, having received over 180,000,000,000 in public money, is now suing us, the taxpayers, for not being generous enough to him. Each of these super-wealthy leaders displays the same fundamental attitude towards the rest of us - that of the narcissistic personality disorder. American corporate culture excels at producing these individuals who have outsized notions of their own importance, an inability to empathize with others, a penchant for exploiting others and "a very strong sense of entitlement." And so, whether they are in the midst of polluting Charleston's water supply, or the Gulf of Mexico, whether they are getting men killed underground in the mines, leaving the homeless on the street in New York City or simply destroying America's economy for their own financial gain, these folks repeatedly see themselves as victims, even martyrs. These folks have come to believe, because of their wealth, that they are simply above the rest of the people in this country. A certain number of them have swallowed the notion that they are the "job-creators" and that the rest of us are just oh, so lucky to have them in our lives. They may be devotees of Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged - believing, truly believing - that without them, the world would simply fall apart. The facts tell a different story. In this most recent disaster, Southern's company not only failed to report the disaster immediately, they actually knew ahead of time the leaking tank was bad, but failed to act. When the EPA inspectors arrived "no measures" had been taken to contain the spill. These don't appear to be the acts of elite talent managing a company "better than government." Nonetheless, these same individuals believe that any regulation of their work is "job-killing" and "burdensome." In fact, we come to find out that getting "government out of the way" of Freedom Industries is what paved the way for the spill in the first place as the company appears to have been covered by loopholes that prevented there from being inspections at the site to make sure the company was acting safely. Mr. Blankenship has tried to hold himself out as an advocate for mine safety, but his internal memoranda sing a different tune: "If any of you have been asked by your group presidents, your supervisors, engineers or anyone else to do anything other than run coal (i.e. build overcasts, do construction jobs, or whatever), you need to ignore them and run coal. This memo is necessary only because we seem not to understand that the coal pays the bills." A lot of good West Virginians died underground to cash the checks written by one CEOs outsized ego. The collection of great men, earning unbelievable salaries and bonuses, sometimes paid by the taxpayers of this country, just can't seem to get their own basic jobs right. We needn't bother reciting how our best-paid CEOs in the financial industry brought down the economy in 2008. What we should wonder is why we paid them so well to do it, and why do we reward them with even more afterwards? We have underfunded agencies trying to keep up with unsafe workplaces, toxic releases and financial frauds. Dedicated public servants work for modest pay at OSHA, EPA and the SEC, for example. But all they get is heat from the anti-government crowd and the next thing you know, there's no clean water to drink in Charleston for a week. Meanwhile, it only gets tougher for ordinary people. With the largest unemployment figures since the great depression, unemployment benefits are not just cut, they're terminated (they should be raised). Somehow, opinion makers seem to think that America's deficit is due to the poor and nearly poor collecting too much in the way of benefits. Each time lawmakers meet in Washington DC, more punishment for the poor and the unemployed tops the list of topics. Maybe it's time to start punishing the people who are actually responsible for what's happening in this country. Maybe they need more rules, more regulations, and more oversight and maybe it's time they started actually paying for the trouble they've caused out of their bursting bank accounts. Here's what it comes down to: While no one in Charleston had clean water to use this past week, you can bet Gary Southern did. While the BP oil spill crushed livelihoods in the Gulf, Tony Hayward was planning his next sailing adventure. When our miners died underground, Don Blankenship was safe and snug at home. Mike Bloomberg doesn't sleep on the street because unemployment and poverty are God's decision, as far as he's concerned. And when millions of ordinary Americans lost their pensions and investments in 2008, the billionaire bankers only got richer on the taxpayer's dime. It's no wonder they think so well of themselves - we always give them what they want. It's ordinary Americans that pay the price for our CEO culture, over and over again. It's ordinary Americans who take the blame for what a privileged few do wrong, over and over again. These CEOs eat the big dinners while we pick up the checks. How about next time we stiff 'em?

Don't miss the first episode of the Bordas & Bordas Legal Review for 2014 that deals with the political mess created for Chris Christie when it was recently learned that emails and text messages from his staff had were obtained by the New Jersey press. The emails and texts tended to show that the Governor's administration had deliberately tied up the George Washington Bridge creating traffic back-ups that were hours long, in both New York and New Jersey. Chris Regan and Jamie Bordas will dissect the scandal and the potential effect on Christie's 2016 presidential hopes. In addition, the Legal Review will cover the breaking news in West Virginia, Friday, January 10th, of a major incident of water contamination in the Kanawha region of West Virginia. As many as nine or ten West Virginia counties are without usable water for drinking, cooking, bathing, brushing teeth, etc. as a result of a company called Freedom Industries that spilled a chemical called 4-methylcyclohexane methanol into the Elk River. Regan and Bordas will discuss the legal implications of the spill, as well as the history of industrial accidents and the attitudes toward incidents like this in West Virginia and around the country. Click here to view the program on vimeo, or watch the embedded version if your browser supports it. View the WLUTV schedule here to watch a live-stream of WLUTV and check this page for a schedule of when the program airs.

My daughter is a freshman at St. Clairsville High School, and she recently brought home an order form for the yearbook. I noticed on the order form that you could donate a yearbook. Now this may not be a new thing, considering I haven't ordered a yearbook for 25 years (hard to believe I've been out of school that long!), but it was news to me. I didn't know you could donate a yearbook to someone else. This definitely sounded like something I wanted to do, but I needed more information. How would I know that the money I sent in to the yearbook company would actually be used to donate a yearbook to a student at St. Clairsville High School? So I called the school and talked to Tony Ciroli, a teacher who is the liaison to the yearbook company. He was aware of the program and informed me that the  school already had a plan in place. The principal, the guidance counselor, and Mr. Ciroli would decide who would get the yearbook because they knew the kids the best, who would appreciate it the most, etc., and the yearbook would definitely go to a senior since they would not have another opportunity to get one in the future. What a great thing to do! To be able to give this gift to someone, a gift that will last a lifetime, would have such an impact. I couldn't imagine not having a yearbook. I know how much my yearbooks mean to me. I still look at them from  time to time, and my daughter enjoys looking at them too. With the help of my co-worker, Jenna Heaston, and my employer, Linda Bordas, we were able to donate three yearbooks to three lucky students at St. Clairsville High School. You can donate a yearbook too. Just contact Tony Ciroli at 740-695-1584, or contact your local school and find out if they participate in this program also. You can make a difference in a child's life.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE WATER IN WEST VIRGINIA? A company called Freedom Industries spilled a large amount of a chemical called 4-methylcyclohexane into the Elk River in South Central West Virginia. Kanawha county and the counties surrounding it, as far north as Jackson and Roane conties, as far south as Boone county and as far west as Cabell county are directly affected. WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH THE WATER IN WEST VIRGINIA? The water is unsuitable for anything except flushing toilets. Do not drink, cook, bathe, brush teeth or do anything else to come into contact with this water if at all possible. Do not give it to pets or other living things. A state of emergency has been declared by the President and supplies of usable water are being brought into these counties. WHAT IS THE CHEMICAL THAT WAS SPILLED IN THE WATER IN WEST VIRGINIA? The chemical is called 4-methylcyclohexane. It is a solvent, a "sudsing agent" and a component of jet fuel. WHERE CAN YOU GET CLEAN, USABLE WATER IN THE AFFECTED AREAS OF WEST VIRGINIA? Kanawha county locations include: Riverside High, Elkview Shopping Center, South Charleston Community Center. You can also obtain water at: Saint Andrew United Methodist Church 815 Kanawha Terrace St. Albans, W.Va. Bartlett-Chapman Funeral Home 409 6th Avenue St. Albans, W.Va. 304-727-4325 Emergencies only until Friday morning - Opens at 7 a.m. Chapman Funeral Home 3941 Teays Valley Road Hurricane, W.Va. 304-757-7531 Emergencies only until Friday morning - Opens at 7 a.m. Saint Marks Episcopal Church 405 B Street Saint Albans, W.Va. Will open at 7 a.m. Friday. West Hamlin Volunteer Fire Dept. 121 Guyan Street West Hamlin W.Va. Please bring your own container. Hamlin Volunteer Fire Department 8049 Vine Ave. Hamlin, W.Va. They are giving out one case of water to each household that comes to their station. Each household must show that they live in one of the affected areas. Lincoln Co. 911 Call Center 911 Marconi Dr. West Hamlin, W.Va. This center is being operated by the National Guard. Boone County 911 Center 1267 Smoot Ave. Danville, W.Va. This center is being operated by the National Guard. Wharton-Barrett Volunteer Fire Department 35279 Pond Fork Rd. Wharton, W.Va. Crossing Baptist Church 2031 Harrison Avenue Saint Albans, W.Va. West Virginia Division of Highways HQ Route 60 and Walnut Street Saint Albans, W.Va. Please bring you own container. Culloden Volunteer Fire Department 2102 3rd St. Culloden, W.Va. HOW LONG WILL THE WATER BE CONTAMINATED IN WEST VIRGINIA? At this point, that is not known as the extent of the spill is not known. The company spilling the material into the Elk Rive may have failed to notify the proper authorities of the spill when it started, making it difficult to calculate how much water has been contaminated, with how much 4-methylcyclohexane. WHEN WILL IT BE SAFE TO DRINK THE WATER IN THE WEST VIRGINIA COUNTIES AFFECTED BY THE FREEDOM INDUSTRIES CHEMICAL SPILL? Again, this is not known, but all affected residents should wait until clearance is given before using any of the water from the affected systems for anything other than flushing toilets. The water is not safe to drink or cook with or bathe in or brush teeth with. Further information is available at these links: WVPublic.org's list of places to obtain usable water in West Virginia: http://wvpublic.org/post/where-find-water-list-distribution-centers Further coverage of the West Virginia water disaster: Chemical Leak Causes Water Emergency In West Virginia by MARK MEMMOTT January 10, 2014 7:00 AM http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/01/10/261282459/chemical-leak-causes-water-emergency-in-west-virginia By ASHLEY SOUTHALL and TIMOTHY WILLIAMS, JAN. 10, 2014 Chemical Spill Leaves Thousands Without Water in West Virginia http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/us/west-virginia-chemical-spill.html

Our modern world has seen goods and commodities transport on the once mighty and ubiquitous railroad system give way to transport by the private trucking industry, putting more than 11 million trucks on U.S. highways logging over 288 billion (with a "B") miles a year. The interstate these days seems like a trucking industry world that we're all just living (or more pointedly trying to survive) in. Road haulage is one of the most dangerous industries in America, and the danger is ever increasing. In 2009, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, reported that tractor-trailers and large trucks were involved in 286,000 crashes, which led to over 3,000 deaths and 74,000 injuries. By 2010, the number of tractor trailer collisions had doubled. Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation recorded 500,000 collisions in 2010 that resulted in more than 5,000 fatalities. Not surprisingly, a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that 76 percent of these fatalities from tractor-trailer collisions were the occupants of the passenger vehicle. There are a number of common factors involved in trucking-related collisions, including: Size and weight. A tractor-trailer is more than 25 times heavier than the average passenger vehicle, ranging in weight from 12,100 to 80,000 pounds, which means that it takes a tractor-trailer longer to stop than a car or light truck. A car traveling 55 mph takes 265 feet to stop, while a large truck needs at least another 45 feet. Driver Fatigue. Truck drivers get paid by the mile, not by the hour, and, therefore, sometimes drive longer than they should. Fatigue can decrease driver reaction time and impair driver judgment. In fact, a 2006 government survey suggested that around 13% of tractor trailer collisions are fatigue related. Driver Distraction. As anyone who has spent any time on the Pennsylvania Turnpike can attest, long hours spent in the relative monotony of the interstate system can cause some truck drivers to become distracted and bored. Improper weight distribution. In contrast to the routes they drive, the one thing that is seemingly ever-changing for a tractor-trailer driver is the type and density of the haul load. This can lead to problems in the load distribution and if a load is not properly distributed, the trailer can sway. Passenger vehicle driving. I certainly do not mean to suggest that tractor-trailer collisions are caused exclusively by the tractor-trailer drivers. In fact, as often as not, it is the driver of the involved passenger vehicle who is responsible, aggressively weaving through traffic lanes and cutting in front of tractor-trailers, which forces them to brake suddenly. Winter is possibly the most dangerous time of the year, seeing a significant uptick in the volume of truck traffic trying to make on-time holiday deliveries, coupled with the wintry mix of rainy, foggy, snowy, icy weather conditions, which only adds to the likelihood of a collision. Unfortunately, trucking related fatalities continue to rise. However, hope seems to be on the way. The trucking industry in the United States is in the midst of an estimated $2 billion regulatory upheaval that will fundamentally change the way truck drivers operate on America's highways. The next few years will see the phase-in of mandatory laws requiring all U.S. tractor-trailer operators to carry an electronic on-board recorder (EOBR) in their vehicle. This EOBR is basically a tracking device that can offer real-time monitoring of a host of factors designed to reduce tractor trailer-related collisions, including when a truck's engine is running and its on-duty status, to help ensure that drivers are not working for more than 14 consecutive hours. The EOBR's also contain a number of "apps" to improve safety, like a graphical display that gradually turns from green to red as a driver chews through his permissible time behind the wheel. In the meantime, however, there remain a host of effective steps we passenger drivers can take to protect ourselves out on the road. With the hustle and bustle of the Holiday season, the last thing on most of our minds is driving safety, but it is also one of the most important considerations this time of the year. So, if you have read this far, please go all in with me and give some thought to the following safety tips as you head out on the road this winter. 1. You better recognize. Please respect the operational limitations of the tractor-trailer. The size and weight of these trucks make maneuverability very different than cars or light trucks. This means you have to give yourself plenty of distance both behind and in front of a tractor trailer. The classic, "2-second" following distance we were all taught as teenagers is grossly insufficient when sharing the road with a tractor trailer, so please give yourself a wide berth when following a semi. 2. Don't cut 'em off. Avoid passing a truck and then quickly moving back into the truck's lane or cutting in front of the truck to exit. Often we find ourselves being pushed by speedy drivers behind us, and this can present a particularly perilous situation when we approach a semi in our adjacent lane of travel. You know this  situation: a semi on your right and a car or truck barreling down on you from behind. The natural tendency is to pass the semi to get out of the way of the speeding driver as quickly as possible by cutting in front of the truck. But such an unexpected move can force the truck driver to slam on his brakes which puts not only your vehicle, but other vehicles nearby in danger. Always make sure to safely pass a truck, leaving plenty of distance in your wake, before you attempt to move back into the truck's lane. Likewise, avoid passing a tractor trailer quickly to cut directly in front of it to exit. This behavior causes accidents. 3. Know your "No Zones" Tractor trailers have much larger "blind spots" or "no zones", those areas where you cannot be seen in a semi's rear or side view mirrors. The "no-zones" for tractor trailers are around the left rear, right front, and in the back of a tractor trailer, and traveling in these areas puts you at significant risk that a truck driver will pull into your travel lane without seeing you. Remember this maxim: if you can't see the driver in the truck's side mirrors, the driver can't see you. To minimize the risk of riding in the "no zone": Avoid travelling alongside a tractor trailer for longer than it takes you to pass the truck at a reasonable speed (this also minimizes the risk of injury from a tractor trailer tire blowout). Get in the habit of either passing a tractor trailer immediately when you approach one or dropping back in your lane behind the truck to a point where the truck driver can easily see your vehicle in his side view mirror. If you decide to pass, take a few extra seconds to make sure the truck is not signaling any imminent lane changes before you pass. Look for turn signals or even slight drifting towards your lane of travel. Honking the horn as you begin to pass can also help alert a truck driver that you intend to pass. If you decide to pass, don't change lanes too quickly. Sudden movement in a driver's periphery can sometimes cause a tractor trailer to react unpredictably. Instead, use your turn signal beginning from a safe starting distance and give the tractor trailer every available visual indicator of your intentions. 4. Get Back and Stay Back Maintain a following distance of 20 to 25 car lengths behind any tractor-trailer, which allows more distance to maximize braking capabilities. Also give tractor trailers a wider berth when following them uphill. Shifting gears can sometimes be more problematic for a truck driver travelling uphill and trucks on inclines can and do drift backwards. Finally, remain alert to tractor trailers making a right turn. Tractor trailers must "swing wide" to make a sharp right turn at an intersection, and often times must move left in order to swing right. This can be confusing if you are behind a truck, because the natural tendency is to think the truck is turning left, so you keep going. Then, when the truck cuts back right, you're trapped in what is often termed the "right turn squeeze", which can cause significant damage and injury. 5. Get Off The Road in an Emergency In an emergency, pull completely off the road as far as possible. If you can safely set out flares or triangles, place them at both ends to warn approaching traffic. Then move as far away from your vehicle as you can, preferably on the far side of any guardrail, and immediately contact the state and/or local police to alert them to the road hazard. Law enforcement officers are trained how to appropriately warn approaching traffic of the hazard, reroute traffic safely around your broken down vehicle, and have it moved off the road promptly. Under no circumstances is it ever advisable to try and fix a problem yourself while on the side of the highway, even if the problem is as basic as changing a tire. And this is particularly true at night. It is practically as hazardous to stop on a highway shoulder after dark as it is to stop in a highway travel lane, because night vision often plays tricks on people's perception on the roadway. For instance, the lights a truck driver sees in the distance and assumes belong to a vehicle in a moving travel lane may instead belong to a vehicle stalled on the road or on the shoulder. If the driver of a tractor trailer makes this error, he is likely to strike your vehicle when it is stopped on the shoulder, and truck drivers are especially prone to make these errors in judgment at night when they are tired after a long day's drive. 6. Night Time Is Not the Right Time Fatigued driving remains the scourge of commercial transportation. Given the nature of the industry's demands, truck drivers remain exposed to excessive rates of sleep apnea and insomnia. The best way to combat this is to limit your driving between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. Trying to drive all night to get to your destination (still a popular tactic for Myrtle Beach vacationers from the Ohio Valley) disrupts the natural circadian rhythms of the human body and can lead to decreased perception and reaction times, as well as sheer exhaustion, all of which are a recipe for catastrophe. The commercial transportation industry and our government are working to improve highway safety and reduce trucking-related collisions. But, regardless of the scope and timing of these new regulations, following the practices outlined above can keep the odds in our favor. So drive defensively, stay alert and be safe this winter and every other time you venture out on the highway.

When you move into a house, you generally inspect the plumbing, check the roof and look for termites, but, in most cases you have no idea who your neighbors are. You might be lucky and get the kind who bring over a home cooked meal your first night there, want to be surrogate grandparents to your kids and are the "live and let live" type of people. Then there's the other side of the coin: the neighbors from hell. They come in many varieties. They call the police when you play your music too loud, call the dog warden the first time your dog sets foot (or paw) on their property and think no one can park in front of their house but them. On the other hand, maybe you are the neighbors from hell. You complain when their tree grows a foot over the property line, think they shouldn't mow the lawn on your day off and think children should be seen and not heard. Like it or not, you may be neighbors for years to come. They're like family....you might not like them, but they're not going away, so it may be best to call a truce and make life more peaceful for all of you. I recently spent some time with friends who lived on a mountain in the middle of nowhere in Montana. The nearest homes could barely be seen through the treetops three hairpin turns down the mountain. We walked to the upper neighbors home, but not without our sixteen inch tall can of bear mace. I thought, "Boy, when you live out here you don't have to know or see any of your neighbors." My friend soon set me straight on that. He said "Are you kidding me? These guys are my posse. If there's a fire, the fire department may take 45 minutes to get here. My neighbors will be the ones to help me put out the fire. If I get stuck in a snow drift, there's no AAA. I call a neighbor to pull me out with his truck". The moral of the story is, no matter where we live, we all have posses. That neighbor you don't like may be the one banging on your door when he sees your house on fire in the middle of the night. Your neighbor might be the only one who notices you haven't picked up the morning paper and finds you lying on the floor after a heart attack. Love them or hate them, but get along with them. It's not only the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do.

January 26 th is quickly approaching, and you know what that means: The 56 th Annual Grammy Awards are almost upon us! Daft Punk. Pink. Kendrick Lamar. They are all set to perform! Justin Timberlake. Jay-Z. Willie Nelson. They will all be in attendance! Sadly, most of us will only be able to view this star-studded event from our television screens. It doesn't have to be this way though. The opportunity of a lifetime is within reach! Bordas & Bordas and WTRF 7 are sending one lucky Ohio Valley resident and a guest to the Grammys! We have prepared everything for you: two tickets to the live 56 th Annual Grammy Awards, two paid round-trip plane tickets to Los Angeles, first class hotel accommodations at The Standard, shuttle transportation, two tickets to the official Grammy After-Party, admission to the Grammy Museum and $300 in spending money! All you have to do is relax, plan out your outfit and think about what conversations you could have with Beyoncé. How do you enter this contest? Well, it only takes a minute. Go to this link and fill out an entry form. We are accepting entries from January 1 st to January 12 th. It is just that simple! How can you increase your odds of winning? If you "like" Bordas & Bordas Attorneys, PLLC on Facebook, a bonus code will be revealed. This bonus code will provide you with five additional entries. You can't beat that! The winner will be announced on January 12 th by WTRF 7 News. Good luck and we look forward to seeing you on the red carpet!