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Smartphone ownership is growing. In 2011, 52 percent of drivers reported owning a smartphone, and by 2014 that number had grown to 80 percent. The greatest increases in smartphone ownership are among adults age 40 and older. At any given daylight moment across America, approximately 660,000 drivers are using cell phones or manipulating electronic devices while driving, a number that has held steady since 2010. Five seconds is the average time your eyes are off the road while texting. When traveling at 55 mph, that's enough time to cover the length of a football field blindfolded. In 2014, 3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers in the United States.  Ten percent of all drivers 15 to 19 years old involved in fatal crashes were reported as distracted at the time of the crashes. This age group has the largest proportion of drivers who were distracted at the time of the crashes. Drivers in their 20s are 23 percent of drivers in all fatal crashes, but are 27 percent of the distracted drivers and 38 percent of the distracted drivers who were using cell phones in fatal crashes. The percentage of drivers text-messaging or visibly manipulating handheld devices increased from 1.7 percent in 2013 to 2.2 percent in 2014. Since 2007, young drivers (age 16 to 24) have been observed manipulating electronic devices at higher rates than older drivers. (NHTSA) In Pennsylvania, distracted driving citations increased by 43 percent statewide between 2014 and 2015 – with more men being cited (67 percent) than women (31 percent). Forty percent of the people cited were in their 20s; 26 percent were in their 30s; 15 percent in their 40s; and, people in their teens and 50s, came in at 7 percent, respectively. In 2015, 60 percent of the citations were issued by local police, and the greatest number of citations are given between 8 a.m. – noon.  Not including Philadelphia County, the top five (5) counties with the most distracted driver citations was: (1) Montgomery; (2) Allegheny; (3) York; (4) Bucks; and (5) Chester. As of June 2012, 39 States have enacted anti-texting laws, and 10 States have passed laws banning all hand-held phone use by drivers. Pennsylvania law prohibits drivers from: (1) wearing or using headphones or earphones while driving; (2) texting while driving, which includes sending, reading or writing texts or emails while car is in motion.  Title 75, sections 1621, 1622, 3316 (texting), and 3314 (headphones).  A $50 fine, plus court costs and fees, can be assessed against an individual found to be texting while driving. West Virginia is one of the few states that have a hand-held cell phone use ban for all drivers. Like many other states, West Virginia prohibits all drivers from texting, and bans novice drivers from all cell phone use. The penalties for distracted driving in West Virginia include a $100 fine for first-time offenders, which increases to $200 for second-time offenders and $300 for third and subsequent offenses. In addition, third and subsequent convictions carry three demerit points against your license. Ohio law bans all drivers from texting and novice drivers are not allowed to use cell phones behind the wheel.  The fine for adult drivers is $150, while novice drivers who violate these laws face a 60-day driver's license suspension, in addition to the $150 fine. In order to reduce the risk of catastrophic injuries and death, in addition to abiding by the aforesaid laws, please consider completing phone conversations before you start driving your car.  If your phone rings while you are driving, and you are unable to pull over and park to answer it, please consider allowing the call go to your voice mail.  If everyone followed these few simple rules while driving, thousands of lives would be saved every year.

OK, so right up front, let me say that the following discussion has absolutely nothing to do with law. But it was very much born from my work as a lawyer.  You see, as a trial lawyer, I am on the road a lot, travelling throughout West Virginia and the country at large, constantly gathering evidence to present at trials on behalf of our clients. I average about 2,000 miles a month on my car, in addition to the thousands of miles of air travel I’m also logging each year.  With all that travel, especially the driving, it is nice to have something to pass the time, and boy did I find it at the start of 2016 in the form of Apple Music. Apple allows you to try the service for free for the first three months.  I signed up in January, so my free trial is coming to an end and I now find myself at a crossroads as to whether to continue to pay for the service. But not for the obvious reason that I will now have to shell out cash every month.  Instead, my dilemma stems from the fact that Apple Music is perhaps too good.  Allow me to explain. For those unfamiliar with this service, Apple Music is Apple’s answer to Spotify, Pandora and all the other popular music streaming services that have utterly transformed the way music is consumed by the listening public. But before I tell you how great Apple Music is, lest anyone think I’m a paid spokesperson (I wish) you should know that I am no Apple loyalist.  I’ve used Apple products off and on, along with others, for a number of years now and find them to be reliable enough and user friendly enough, but I think there are plenty of other products out there that do things just as well, if not better, than Apple’s products. With the exception of Apple Music. Now while I’ve never been particular tech savvy, I have been on the digital delivery bandwagon since its inception, trying Napster, Music Match, Rhapsody, Pandora, Spotify and pretty much every other streaming site du jour that has come out in the last 15 years. Having now used Apple Music for a few months, I can say, unequivocally, that it is far and away the best music service I have ever used. At $10 a month (at the end of your free trial), Apple Music is simply an incredible deal. Apple Music gives you instant, on demand access to seemingly every song ever recorded in the history of music.  OK, I’m sure Apple doesn’t have every song, but I have yet to come up empty using this service. New music is instantly available when it hits the street, and I have found the back catalog to be vastly more extensive than any other offering from competitors.  In addition to playing whatever music you want, whenever you want, Apple Music also offers a seemingly endless number of curated radio stations. These stations can generally be divided into three categories – genre, artist and news based.  For instance, there are stations that play hard rock, old school rap, today’s pop hits, etc. and then there are stations specific to your favorite artists.  Love Pearl Jam? Great, there are at least three different “Pearl Jam” radio stations that play music from the group itself, its collaborators over the years and other similar sounding artists.  Similar stations exist for practically every popular artist out there.  Finally, Apple Music includes ESPN Radio, BBC and other news-based stations.  While I listen to those frequently, I particularly like the genre and artist radio stations, because I am always on the lookout for new artists and new music to discover, and the traditional radio outlets simply don’t offer that anymore. Today’s terrestrial radio seems to be singularly focused on either music for teenage girls or playing the same 100 classic rock songs that I could die happy if I never heard again (Smoke on the Water.  Again.  Really?). So for the past decade, most of my new music/artist discovery has come from listening to the Artist-based radio stations on these streaming services.  And therein lies the crux of my indecisiveness over continuing with Apple Music. You see, Apple Music is commercial free and the artist and genre based stations are so deep that you can listen non-stop for hours and hours without any repeats, and you can skip as many songs as you want without restriction. Apple Music’s offering is so vast and its utility so unfettered that I find myself constantly skipping through what are probably great songs if I’m not instantly captivated. My thinking goes something like, “well this song is great/interesting/classic and all, but maybe there’s another song coming up that I’m going to like even more.”  For me that’s an unfortunate mindset to have, but the possibility that an even better song looms just a click away often proves awful hard to resist.  I have no doubt that the unfettered access Apple Music offers has summarily undermined my patience when it comes to digesting new music, which is probably causing me to miss out on some great stuff that requires multiple listens for me to fully absorb, understand and ultimately dig. In the old days when I was shelling out $15 - $20 for a CD, you better believe I was playing it over and over to get my money’s worth, whether I thought it was good upon first listen or not. And by doing that, there were a countless number of times where an album I thought was mediocre, or not as good as the last offering from a particular artist, upon first listen became one of my favorites after taking the time to get familiar with it.  I experienced this same phenomenon through the free version of sites like Pandora, which limits the number of skips you can make in a day, which forced me to be very selective and listen to songs or artists that I might think are just OK at first, but eventually come to really enjoy by being motivated to listen all the way through.  But with Apple Music, I find myself constantly looking for the next great song, and skipping songs if they don’t instantly grab me within the first few notes. And despite my complete awareness of what I’m doing, I do it anyway. While I realize this dilemma is solidly in the “first world problem” category, I don’t believe I’m alone in this habitual skipping practice and I find myself concerned, and feeling guilty, that by constantly looking for the next great thing, I’m contributing to a larger phenomenon within the music industry that I believe undermines music as a career in today’s world.  The business model of modern music has evolved towards a singles driven market and the support and cultivation of artists by record labels, to enable artists to realize their full potential, has largely vanished. Recording artists are seemingly becoming increasingly disposable and largely abandoned once the label has milked a hit or two for all its worth and the artist fails or refuses to create more of the same. If this were the model in the 1970’s, we’d never know artists like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty or any other artists that had to get a couple albums under their belts to really hit their stride. The easy compromise, of course, is to just stop skipping songs, but with the depth and freedom Apple Music provides, that is proving to be much easier said than done for me. It’s hard enough to make a profession out of being a musician and, in as far as the law of unintended consequences goes, I find myself wondering whether Apple Music might just be too much of a good thing.

I had a wonderful time in Las Vegas last week! When you see Las Vegas in the movies, it looks so confusing, but it’s really not. I did get lost in the Forum (a mall with hundreds of shops in it), but that was because the ceiling was like a sky light and everything looked the same. Plus, it was darker than I am used to. I touched a Louis Vuitton bag and looked longingly at some Christian Louboutin shoes. That was so exciting because I will never own either one, so seeing and touching them was the next best thing. I do love my bags and shoes! I went horseback riding at Red Rock Canyon. The mountains are beautiful and the desert is really something to see. My horse, Blue, was misbehaving because she always wanted to stop and eat, but I did not allow that to stop me from having a good time. I had to be the boss and submit her to my will. Blue wasn’t happy about it because she wanted to eat every tiny piece of grass and bush, but she got to eat when she got back to the barn, so she survived being bossed around. All-in-all, it was a very nice ride. Amazingly, I didn’t get sore at all, which was surprising since I have not ridden in years. I also saw the Hoover Dam, which was fantastic. It is so huge. It really is awe-inspiring. We took a tour to see the inner workings of the dam and then went to the Overlook to see it up high. It was strange being able to walk from Nevada to Arizona in just a few steps because the Hoover Dam is in both states. The view is terrific from the Overlook. It really is a must-see. Walking the strip was really interesting. There are so many people from so many countries and all speaking other languages. It was fun to listen to them, even though I had no idea what they were saying. Although we didn’t understand each other very well, everyone was very friendly. There are so many things to see, it’s really hard to take it all in in just a few days. One of the most exciting parts was flying. I had never flown before so I was really looking forward to seeing what it was all about. Well, let me just say that I love it, and I want to fly again! Seeing the ground from so high in the air is really amazing. Some said it was not a good landing because of the turbulence but since I had nothing to compare it to, I had no idea! It was really fun – sort of like a rollercoaster only for planes. If you have never been to Las Vegas, I would definitely recommend it. It is a fascinating place to visit. There is something there for everyone. The shows are really good, and Rod Stewart’s concert was fantastic. Also, let’s not forget about the food. It is out-of-this-world good. I had wonderful meals the entire week. There was not one thing I didn’t like. There are also family-oriented things to do if you want to bring your children. So, if you haven’t planned your vacation yet for this year, think about Las Vegas. It’s fun!

It's a shame that it took me until Kobe Bryant's last game to become a fan. It's not that I ever liked or disliked Kobe one way or the other. He just came into the league at the wrong time for me. I grew up a Michael Jordan fan. After all, I was nine years old when Air Jordan came to be.  It was impossible not to be a Jordan fan. When Kobe came into the league, it was a little different. He was younger than me, entered right out of high school, and played for a West Coast team whose games were on late at night.  It's hard as a senior in college to become a huge fan of a high school aged kid. As a sports fan, I watched a number of Lakers games over the years. I always had a lot of respect for Kobe and the way he played the game. As I got older and had kids of my own, they too did not become Kobe fans as his time had largely passed and they are growing up amidst the Steph Curry phenomenon. But, last night all of that changed. Kobe reminded me of everything I love about sports.  He brought emotion, he overcame the struggles of a shaky start, he found strength even when his legs were tiring, and he willed his team to victory when it looked like all hope was gone. Oh yeah, he also scored 60 points (that's right, 60!) while doing it, including 17 in a row when the game was on the line. He did it with hard work, perseverance, and flair. In short, he delivered the type of performance that everyone thought had long passed him by and that he was not even conceivably capable of producing. Shaquille O'Neal, one of his former teammates and one of dozens of celebrities in attendance, may have summed it up best in typical Shaq fashion when he said, "I challenged him to get 50 and the Mother****er got 60." Indeed, he did. And in the process, I no longer was someone who just respected the way Kobe played the game.  He dazzled us while the whole world was watching him do something so much more than they had expected. Everyone was hoping for a show. What they got was a legendary performance of epic proportions. That is what defines greatness. And he did it in his finale. He did it when he was supposed to have nothing left. He went out on top like no one else in sports ever has. So, now, count me as a Kobe fan. I only wish I had been one sooner. It's a shame that it took me until Kobe Bryant's last game to become a fan. It's not that I ever liked or disliked Kobe one way or the other. He just came into the league at the wrong time for me.

During winter break of my first year as a law student at Notre Dame, I participated in a program called Group Alternative Live-In Legal Education, and better known as “GALILEE.” GALILEE is a unique, one-credit course during which law students form small groups and select a city in the United States, then schedule a number of visits to various organizations, with the goal of gaining a better understanding for different types of public interest and public service legal work. During the visits, students generally have the opportunity for one-on-one discussion with attorneys who have experience in these fields. Examples of organizations visited often include the offices of public defenders, county courthouses, legal aid offices, immigration law clinics, non-profit organizations that offer some element of legal assistance and pro bono divisions of for-profit law firms. The program is a great chance for law students to get a feel for different potential career paths early on in their legal education and to get a first-hand understanding of the need for social justice work in our legal system nationwide. My GALILEE group visited a number of legal organizations in Chicago. While I really enjoyed each experience, and learned a lot about some areas of law and career options I had never really considered before, there was one visit that will always stick out in my mind as being especially memorable and meaningful. We started one of our days off with a visit to the Center on Wrongful Convictions, at the Northwestern University School of Law ( http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/). The Center on Wrongful Convictions is akin to what many people know as an “innocence project,” and, by its own assertion, is dedicated to work that seeks to “reform the criminal justice system” and “to identifying and rectifying wrongful convictions and other serious miscarriages of justice.” ( http://www.law.northwestern.edu/legalclinic/wrongfulconvictions/aboutus/). These objectives are primarily achieved through representation of inmates in post-conviction efforts, research on the causes of wrongful convictions, and policy reforms aimed at minimizing future wrongful convictions. The Center is run by a number of staff attorneys who supervise and work with Northwestern law students, as well as pro bono attorneys. Second and third year law students at Northwestern have the opportunity to enroll in the Center as a clinical course, and gain a hands-on experience, reinvestigating crimes, speaking to clients, reviewing evidence, drafting briefs and other legal documents, and appearing in court, among many other things. In addition to the staff and student attorneys, the Center also benefits from volunteers. Following an introduction from several staff members at the Center, my GALILEE group then sat down for a talk from a woman who was a volunteer there at the time. In a calm and very well-spoken manner, this woman proceeded to walk us through one of the most horrifying things that could happen to a person, detailing her recollection of a brutal physical attack and forcible sexual assault she had endured many years earlier. She stated that she remembered during the attack her promise to herself to remember every detail of the man who was responsible, so that she could help police find him and prosecute him. She explained the many times during the course of the criminal case against this man where she was required to provide descriptions, and that she felt confident in her memory and description each time. She told us how the man was eventually found guilty of her assault, and imprisoned. Then she told us about how, after the man had already served well over a decade of his sentence, advancements in testing of DNA evidence established that this man was not, as she had long believed, her assailant. The woman told us of her shock in learning of this development, and the many emotions she experienced as a result. She was so honest in her descriptions, and I will never forget her telling us how she encountered the man who she had believed for so long had hurt her, and apologized to him, asking his forgiveness, which he granted and they shared a hug. She went on to discuss the possible reasons for her own, and many other, incorrect eyewitness accounts which have contributed to wrongful convictions over the years, and how this experience inspired her to become a victim advocate and participate in the efforts of the Center and other “innocence projects” to rectify and prevent wrongful criminal convictions across the United States. Most memorable about this discussion, however, was the woman’s comments at the end of our talk. She told us that the man who had wrongly served an 18 year prison sentence was back in prison, this time for the murder of a young woman. She said that the whole situation really raised some of the fundamental issues surrounding wrongful convictions. On the one hand, it was possible that the 18 years that this man spent behind bars had actually prevented him from committing other crimes during that period. On the other, it is also possible that spending 18 years in prison cultivated violent tendencies or otherwise contributed to the commission of later crimes after he was released. She didn’t comment much more on the specifics, but reiterated that these are reasons that wrongful conviction work is so important to our criminal justice system and society. Years later, while watching the popular and controversial Netflix documentary Making a Murderer, I heard the very same story that I had hear from this woman during my GALILEE visit to the Northwestern Law School Center on Wrongful Convictions. The woman volunteer that I had been privileged to meet with during my GALILEE visit was Penny Beernsten, the victim of the sexual assault which resulted in the wrongful conviction of Steven Avery, who is the subject of the documentary series. While it was incredible to recognize such a significant personal connection to the series, I found myself drawn most of all to my memories of Ms. Beernsten as an advocate and volunteer at the Center. Her courage and strength, and desire to invoke positive changes in the social and justice systems in our country, arising out of terrible tragedies such as sexual assaults and wrongful convictions, is something that wasn’t captured by the documentary series. I am all the more grateful for my visit to the Center on Wrongful Convictions, and the opportunity to hear Ms. Beernsten speak, and hope that others who may have watched Making a Murderer, or other true crime television series, keep in mind that these types of shows, while designed primarily for entertainment, also present serious issues which continue to surround our criminal justice system nationwide.

I am following-up on my blog about the For Federal Use driver’s license where, at least, in West Virginia, you have a choice to opt in or out of a For Federal Use driver’s license. If you choose the For Federal Use license then you have to provide additional information that you are who you say you are.  I had to produce my marriage license/certificate because my name had been changed. During our Firm’s trip to Las Vegas, my husband and I received a red stamp and/or a red “E” on our boarding passes and was told that we did not have to go through the body scanners or take our shoes off.  At the Pittsburgh airport, I thought it was a random-type thing.  But after receiving a rather large “E” on our boarding passes at the Las Vegas airport and was once again told that we did not have to remove our shoes, etc., I am speculating that it had to do with our For Federal Use driver’s license.  The one with the Gold Star. I did not have to go through the body scanners, just the metal detectors, and I did not have to remove my shoes at either airport.  Tom, however, who has had a knee replacement, did go through the body scanners, but did not have to remove his shoes at either airport. I am not sure that our having a For Federal Use driver’s license was at all the reason for this, but I was able to sail through while Tom had to stand in a rather longer (scanner) line than I did, if, in fact, there was a line at all.

How will you spend the day with your pet on National Pet Day? Barley and Guinness will be at the office and having a ball with everyone. We will be out and about celebrating in style! In honor of this special day, the boys will feast on chicken nuggets from their favorite food place, a walk in the park, an ice cream cone and then a nice long nap.  A ride to one of the local animal shelters to help promote adopting a pet on National Pet Day may be in our plan, too. We would like to know how you will be celebrating with your pets. Tell us and maybe Barley and Guinness will want to join! Please remember, adopt don’t shop for your furever pet.  All our local animal shelters will more than likely have just what you’re looking for. From our pets to yours, Happy National Pet Day! Bark on, Bordas dog nation, bark on.

1991. It was a year marked by turmoil and constant change.  American soldiers poured into Kuwait as the Gulf War began.  The Soviet Union collapsed. Fighting in Yugoslavia marked the beginning of a conflict that would stretch into decades. But a little closer to home, in Charleston, W.Va., I was facing a change of my own.  For four and a half years I had been working for the Supreme Court in Charleston.  I began as a law clerk for Justice Thomas Miller, a gifted lawyer and a truly brilliant jurist.  As a law clerk, I did legal research and a lot of writing, mostly opinions, speeches and handouts for conferences where the judge was speaking.  It was a challenging and rewarding experience.  Then I accepted a job as the director of magistrate courts, a job that brought a new set of challenges.  I helped oversee the magistrate court system—more than 350 court employees serving in all 55 counties.  I traveled a lot, which meant I got to see quite of bit of West Virginia in the process.  I was also able to teach on a fairly regular basis, fulfilling a lifelong dream of mine.  There was a lot to love about my job, but I longed for something new. I remember the day Jim and Linda Bordas stopped by my office at the capitol building.  They had a case scheduled for argument that day.  But before leaving town, they made it a point to see me and to ask if I might be interested in coming to work for their law firm.  Linda and I had gone to law school together, and I had actually worked for Jim one summer as a law student.  I knew the chemistry was right.  But was it the right time to go? My wife and I talked, prayed and sought advice from people we trusted.  In the end, we believed that a move from Charleston to Wheeling was the right thing to do.  My wife served as the "advance team," driving up to Wheeling again and again to hunt for a house and make the rest of our onsite preparations.  There was a house that both of us loved.  We made an offer, but somebody else outbid us.  We were devastated.  But before long the house was back on the market and we grabbed it up as fast as we could.  All of the pieces were falling into place.  In March 1991, we packed up our belongings and headed north for our new adventure--me, my wife and my two young daughters. The move went smoothly and on April 1--yes, that's right, on April Fools Day--I officially began my legal career at Bordas & Bordas.  As you can imagine, the firm was much smaller in those early years.  In fact, there were only four other lawyers when I joined.  I met my new secretary, Eleanor, on the first day and we've been together for the entire 25 years.  Boy, does she have a few stories she could tell!  But because she's a friend and a loyal employee she probably won't. Probably... In the first year or two I had a wide-ranging practice.  Like most lawyers, I did deeds, contracts, and title work. I did legal research and writing.  I even dabbled in trial work--a handful of simple cases to get my feet wet.  I remember trying a case involving a contractor who was bilked by the owner of a construction project.  I also tried a case where a parked car careened down a hill and smashed into an apartment building. Those were great learning experiences for me, but I felt like I should play to my strengths.  For most of my 25 years I've devoted my time to legal research, writing and oral argument, especially appellate work.  I've appeared in over 45 appeals in courts across the southeast.  I've personally argued 15 of them. I know most of the Bordas & Bordas lawyers thrive on the energy and excitement of trial work.  But, for me, arguing an appeal is the most exciting thing a lawyer can do.  I love the intellectual challenge of it.  I love answering the court's questions and making the best, most compelling argument possible.  I also love the possibility of making new law that could help injury victims years and years into the future. As you can imagine, a lot has changed in 25 years.  Years ago, getting a research assignment meant driving to the nearest law library and reading case books--lots and lots of case books.  Now everything I need is only a mouse click away.  Technology has affected almost every part of the practice of law.  Computers have made the brief writing process much easier.  Not only can you edit your brief, you can also share your edits with others lawyers involved in the case, receive their edits, and share comments back and forth.  When the brief is done, you don't even have to leave the office to file it.  Almost all court filing is now done electronically. The firm itself has gone through many changes, too.  It's gotten big.  Really big!  The Wheeling office had plenty of unused space when I began.  As the firm grew, the basement, the garage, and even parts of the attic were converted into offices.  We added new lawyers, of course, but we also added more and more support staff, including secretaries, paralegals, bookkeepers, and IT specialists.  We also opened offices in three new locations.  The first was in St. Clairsville, Ohio, which is where I've been working for the last two years.  Moundsville was next.  The firm refurbished a historic bank building next to the courthouse.  More than a year ago, the newest office opened in Pittsburgh.  In a span of 25 years, the firm has grown to the point that it boasts more than 40 employees and a bustling tri-state practice. I'm older now. And as my pictures will confirm, I'm grayer too.  I've seen a lot of change.  I'm sure there's more change lurking around the next corner. But that's OK.  I've watched how Bordas & Bordas responds to change.  They adapt. They grow. They thrive.  Whatever the future holds, I know our firm will embrace the change.  And they'll succeed.  And I plan to be around to see it!

It is finally April! I’m sure most everyone is excited to start enjoying the warm weather, grilling out with friends and family, the start of baseball season and many other fun things that the spring time has to offer. For me, and I’m sure many others in my position, are excited about April for an entirely different reason, the countdown to tax day. Why you ask?  I am married to a CPA.  Once the holidays come and go and everyone is excited to start the New Year, my husband is mentally preparing himself to work seven days a week for the next three months.  I can almost see it in his eyes, that glazed look, like he is on another planet and it only gets worse as we enter February and March. Forget having any kind of serious conversations or making any kind of plans, one small deviation from his normal work routine and it would be complete chaos in his mind. The deeper into tax season he gets the denser the fog is surrounding him.  He is in total tax mode. So, it’s no surprise that once April rolls around, I am more than excited to get my husband back on the 15 th, oh wait, I almost forgot, since the 15 th is a federal holiday this year, tax day is on April 18 th, an extra 3 days for accountants everywhere! I am sure they are all thrilled. I also look forward to the obnoxious commercials to end; you know the ones I’m talking about…”Get your billions back America!” and “It’s not tax season, it’s refund season!” Now, don’t get me wrong, I often love to quote these commercials to my husband and remind him that Anthony Davis goes to H&R Block  for his taxes; while I think I am being hilarious, I don’t think my husband finds it too funny. All jokes aside, I am proud of the time and hard work my husband puts in during every tax season. Soon enough it will all be over and my husband will awaken from his tax coma and we can spend time together again and we can make plans with family and friends. Hang in there accountants, the end is near!

I've learned lots of new things as I have moved forward with my campaign over the past year or so. I've learned, for instance, that despite what people may think, most folks are very polite and respectful when you knock on their door to ask for their vote.  I've knocked on several thousand doors in the past months, and I've only had three occasions when people were out-and-out rude to me.  I've also learned that when you knock on a door and a voice from inside tells you to "come on in," you probably should think twice before doing so.  You might not be ready for what awaits you inside.  Most surprisingly, I've learned that the Five Man Electrical Band had it right back in 1971. For the young readers out there, 1971 was the year in which the Five Man Electrical Band released the single titled simply "Signs.” The lyrics to the chorus of that song, in which the band laments the proliferation of signs everywhere one looks, are: "Sign, sign, everywhere a sign, blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind, do this don't do that, can't you read the sign?” I have to admit that I am a bit embarrassed as I drive around Marshall County these days.  Pretty much everywhere you look, there is a sign promoting my candidacy, or the candidacy of my opponent.  In many instances, signs from both camps are located within a few feet of each other.  I score a new location, and within a few days he has a sign close by.  I put out a yard sign, so he puts out a bigger one.  He puts out one, so I put out two next door.  Driving through Glen Dale on Route 2, you can't look in any direction without seeing multiple signs for both of us.  Former Miss West Virginia Paige Madden recently lamented that even when she closed her eyes, she still sees the signs. I truly wish that our system worked differently.  I wish that we could rely upon the fact that voters are going to be familiar with all candidates in a race, that they would study each candidate's experience and qualifications, and cast their vote accordingly.  Unfortunately, that just isn't always the case.  In some circumstances, success in an election depends more upon name recognition than it does upon who is the best person for the job.  Candidates therefore feel compelled to get their names "out there" in every way possible, and the signs spring up like weeds in a garden. If there is any consolation here, it is that the signs for the judicial race will disappear in just a few weeks.  The election for this office is now non-partisan, so it will be finally decided on May 10.  Within a few days of that date, it's safe to assume that most of the signs for my race will be gone.  A week or so after that, the 17-year locusts will emerge.  I never thought I would see the day that I was looking forward to the locusts.

When Kris Jenkins buried a 3-point shot at the buzzer to give Villanova its first national title in 31 years last night, I couldn't help but smile. Not because of the great game I had just watched. Not because I thought back to the last Villanova title when I was 10 years old and didn't watch the historic upset over Georgetown because I thought it would be a Georgetown blowout win and went to a movie instead. No, I smiled because I had just watched a memorable sports moment with my 7-year-old son. He struggled to keep his eyes open down the stretch but managed to stay awake until the final shot went through the net. He watched the trophy presentation and then said goodnight and told me he loved me. Shortly after he fell asleep next to me, "One Shining Moment" came on. It's one of my favorite sports moments each year.  Although I was disappointed he didn't get to see it, I smiled as I watched tournament highlights of some of his favorite teams and players--- the Mountaineers, Buddy Hield, Marcus Paige --- and thought about my own childhood and watching the tourney with my dad. It seems like just yesterday I was next to my dad, trying to not fall asleep and making sure I made it to the final bucket.  No matter what, I always wanted to be sure I stayed awake long enough to see "One Shining Moment." Now, life has brought me full circle doing the same thing with my son. Sports has always been something that I have enjoyed with my dad.  So, I couldn't help but enjoy this "One Shining Moment" just a little bit more as I looked down at my own son, happy to know that the little boy lying there had once been me and that perhaps some day, he will have a son of his own who will enjoy the tournament with him. It will certainly be his own "One Shining Moment." Even though he didn't make it long enough to see this year's rendition, it was the best one yet for me.

It's that time of year again! Baseball is officially back and many fans are looking forward to seeing what the 2016 season has in store for their favorite team. People think of many different things when reminiscing on America's favorite pastime. Perhaps it's attending an MLB game for the first time, playing the sport as a youngster, Buctober (Go Bucs!) or even just tossing a baseball in the backyard. When this author thinks of baseball, a famous song comes to mind- "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." Singing the song while watching the Pirates Opening Day game brought on some curiosity about the history of the iconic song. It turns out that the word's author, Jack Norworth, didn't even like baseball. You're thinking, "Wait, what?" Well,  Norworth was in the show business industry and in 1908, while riding a subway, he saw an advertisement for baseball in the city and pondered if there was a better way to promote the experience that came with the sport. He then thought about a title for the song and wrote his idea down. From there he took it to a music composer, Albert Von Tilzer. Together they created today's iconic baseball song. About 40 years after the song was written and composed, a tradition was born. The unofficial anthem of baseball games ("Take Me Out to the Ball Game") would be played during the seventh inning stretch. Today, the tradition continues and the song is played at every MLB game. In fact, the song is so popular that it is in the top three songs sung by Americans- The National Anthem, Happy Birthday and Take Me Out to the Ball Game. There are different verses to the song, but the chorus is the most popular and preferred. So get your tickets, get your sports gear, pack up your family and friends and head to your favorite baseball game and remember to sing along: “Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd; Just buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don’t care if I never get back. Let me root, root, root for the home team, If they don’t win, it’s a shame. For it’s one, two, three strikes, you’re out, At the old ball game.” P.S. Incase you were wondering, Norworth did make it to his first MLB game...40 years after the song was written. Here's to a great year of baseball, and most importantly, LETS GO BUCS!