Legal Advice Blog: Legal Advice, Case Insights, & Local Law Information

It’s an ugly subject, but we cannot turn a blind eye. I would venture to say that just about everyone reading this has been impacted by the devastating effects of heroin addiction. Whether it be a neighbor, a friend of a friend or a personal situation of your own, whatever the case may be, it’s everywhere.  It effects every economic status, every race and every age right in front of our eyes.  This drug has such a powerful impact on the brain that if you survive even “just trying it once,” you eventually end up with a lifetime battle.  The effects of this are immediate and the addiction is devastating to everyone around the person involved. U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld has been doing an exemplary job in battling the drug dealers that are bringing this into our neighborhoods and making it so accessible, but he needs our participation, too.  We have a duty to work together in this fight for the lives of so many innocent people in our town and surrounding areas. A couple weekends ago, some 18 people overdosed, including three deaths in one night in Washington County, Pennsylvania.  I read something in the newspaper daily about a drug bust and the most common drug of choice seems to be heroin.  I know our local news stations seem to have a top story nightly revolving around this vile drug, not to mention the very powerful locally advertised commercials that we have all seen. With eyes wide open, this drug comes in many different forms.  It can be sniffed, snorted, smoked or injected.  Many times it’s mixed with other drugs, as well.  Its power overcomes the user.  Within seconds, it enters the brain and the euphoric feeling, hours later, is followed by unbearable withdrawal symptoms that keeps the user seeking more.  Supposing you survive, continued use only increases because now you need it. Convulsions, abnormal heartbeat, heart attack, stroke, suicidal behavior, criminal behavior, kidney failure, death – sound like a good time?  I don’t think so. If you have never tried a drug, that is a wonderful thing and may you always keep it that way.  If you have, go to someone and get help because it’s not an addiction you can beat alone.  You need support from family, friends and professionals. Report any suspicious activity.  Families need support.  They need not be ashamed - this is no time to judge.  Be proactive with what may seem to be tough love at times because you may just save a life.

How many times have you gone by that one house in your area and seen a poor dog that is living on a chain outside all year round? My first thought is why would these people have a dog?  They’re not lawn ornaments.  Dogs have only one instinct and that is to love their family unconditionally. Even when you have gone by and seen the owner out in the yard with the dog begging for their attention, the dog still seems to be neglected. Personally, I think people like this need to be tied outside on a chain for a few days and see how they like it. Since Wheeling has a sleep-out to raise money for the homeless, why don’t we have a chain-out (for people) to help raise money for our local shelters to take these dogs away from people who don’t care for them? This way we could find them good, loving homes. I know people say that their dog is mean or not good with people, but are they really sure?  How do they know?  How many hours have they spent with the dog to know whether this observation is accurate? I’ve heard so many heartbreaking stories about people getting rid of their dogs for the following reasons: they chew, go to the bathroom in the house or they just had a baby and they don’t want the dogs around because they are not sure what the dog might do.  Who was there first?  The dog. This is when a dog can be placed outside on a chain and if the dog is lucky, they will give them a dog box to protect them from the elements. Unfortunately, a lot of times this is not the case and the owners tie them to trees or put the chain on a stake in the ground and walk away. Really? That dog would never turn its back on you. Today, August 26, is National Dog Day.  Wouldn’t it be great if all those dogs living on chains could find someone to take them and love them the way they should be?  I, personally, have rescued dogs like this on chains because they have been so wrapped up in their chains, had no food or water and no one noticed. One time, I even had a person call me to report that local homeowners moved and left their dogs tied outside for days. This person was humane enough to provide the dogs with food and water until they called me and told me about the situation. They truly thought that the owners would come back for them.  How sad; this kills me. My point is, if you see a dog in your area that is chained outside and is not being taken care of, please report it to the local authorities so they can keep a watch on this animal.   Never go on the owner’s property and take a dog; that’s why we have dog wardens and police officers. Our job is to report this abuse to them. I know people have said to me, “You know you can’t save them all.” I know they are right, but I’ll die trying just to save that one dog and find that one dog a loving home that they need.  Not every home deserves a dog, but every dog deserves a good home. Bark on Bordas Dog Nation, Bark on.

I’ve heard it said that the further south you travel in the states the nicer the people are. I have done a lot of traveling around the eastern part of the United States, north and south, and I have to admit I think it’s true.  I’ve noticed this “southern hospitality” in hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, and just people in general out on the street.  Could it be that the warmer climate creates an atmosphere where people tend to be more laid back and tranquil? I have written before about the road trips that my mom and sisters began to take in 1990 after the loss of my dad and brother.  I would now like to share another one of the more memorable trips we took in May of 1991.  Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  The Great Smokey Mountains.  Gatlinburg together with its sister city, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, have become two of my favorite vacation destinations. That year we stayed at the Rocky Water Motor Inn which is located at the entrance to Gatlinburg where the Little Pigeon River runs between the road into Gatlinburg and the Inn.  Sitting out on the patio of our room that spring, I remember the feeling of peace I felt just letting the sounds of nature fill my senses and help to heal my grief-stricken mind.  It seemed like the perfect vacation for all of us that year.  It was also close to the trolley pickup so that we could leave our car parked and use the trolley cars that shuttled people around wherever they wanted to go.  That first day, we hopped the first one that stopped at the pickup booth in front of the Inn but when we were ready to return to the Inn we had a bit of trouble deciding which one to take. We knew that the trolleys were color coded for various routes but being new to the area, we were unfamiliar with the layout of the towns. This was when we got to experience, for the first time, that “southern hospitality.”  While we were in a huddle debating about which trolley to take a man stopped and in a southern drawl told us we needed to walk up to the trolley booth and catch the next trolley.  We were not used to people being so nice so we were skeptical.  Plus we all have the habit of “over thinking” a situation.  We thanked him, walked down to the trolley booth and when it came we, of course, didn’t get on it.  As we stood there studying the city map at the trolley stand, the nice gentleman came along again, pointed his finger at us and in his sweet southern drawl said, “Now, y’all didn’t listen to me.  I told y’all needed to take that last trolley.”   We laughed and admitted to him that we just didn’t follow directions very well.  He explained to us that Gatlinburg was actually made up of two streets, one going in one direction and one going in the other.  Sounded easy.  So when the next trolley came we took it. There was so much to do in the area that we literally were running from one thing to the next for the three days we were there.  One thing I suggest you must do if you are ever in the area is ride the tram up the side of the mountain.  The view is breathtaking!  The year we went we found a ski lodge restaurant at the top and a few shops where we found freshly made fudge.  If there is one thing that my family has in common it’s a sweet tooth!  We must have purchased about 20 pounds of fudge then rode the tram back down to the foot of the mountain and walked through an inside shopping mall.  My sister, Annie, mom and I discovered a huge candy store that must have had hundreds of different kinds of candy.  When my sister, Jean, who had lagged behind caught up with us and found us at the candy store, she shouted an exasperated voice, “We just bought 20 pounds of fudge!  Why are you in a candy shop?”  Red faced and laughing, we left the store. By the time we were ready to go back to the Inn, we were very tired and made our way down to the corner where we saw a trolley approaching. Annie hopped up on the step to ask the driver if he was going back to our Inn.  Mom, who was suffering a bit of altitude sickness from the tram ride ( later in our room we decided it might also have been because we made her carry all the fudge!) chose that precise moment to topple backward and for some strange reason called Annie’s name all the way to the ground.  Ironically it was Jean and I who were standing beside her.  We reached down, slipped our hands in her armpits and lifted her to her feet again before she had touched the ground for two seconds.  The driver jumped out of the trolley and helped my mother to her seat, offering to call an ambulance.  The other occupants of the trolley watched us with concern.   After the EMTs checked Mom out and made sure she was okay, we all settled into seats and the trolley continued back to our Inn.  Now, this is where any normal family would have been shaken by the incident, but not us!  As soon as we made eye contact with each other, we had to smile, then the smile turned into a giggle, then the giggle turned into a chuckle and soon we were all in a “full-fledged belly laugh.”  The people around us gazed at us because we were having such a good time at my mother’s expense.  This made us laugh even harder.  The laughter bubbled up out of us uncontrollably, our hands over our mouths, trying to stifle it, unsuccessfully, all the way back to the Inn.  Back in our room when we finally settled down for the night and were lying in bed, Annie expressing how delightfully comfortable it felt to finally rest, quipped, “Oh, Mom, now I know why you laid down in the street.”   It was another hour before we stopped laughing and got to sleep! Over the years I have returned to the Great Smokey Mountains several times, to Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge, either with my sisters and mom, my husband or friends.  Every trip there is etched in my memory with great fondness; but it is this first trip that remains my favorite. If you have never had the pleasure to travel in this area of the states, do yourself a favor and plan your next road trip there.  Experience a little “southern hospitality.”  You won’t regret it.

I have a reputation for being a bit of technophobe.  It really isn’t fair.  I’m not afraid of technology.  I’m cautious, that’s all.  I like to take things slow.  I dangle my feet in the shallow end of the techno pool instead of diving head first. Now I don’t pretend to understand everything about my personality, but I think I know where this technophobe stuff comes from.  I’m not very old--not by my own reckoning anyway.  I’m only in my 50’s.  But in my 50+ years I’ve seen a lot of technology come and go.  And, to be honest, that’s a little scary… When I was in junior high school, I liked math and my geometry teacher talked me into buying my first slide rule.  In a world before computers and calculators, the slide rule was a true technological wonder.  I still don’t know how it worked, but you could multiply, divide and do much, much more by simply moving the slider and the curser back and forth.  I decided I would invest in a luxury model--a beautiful, sturdy slide rule made of wood laminate that set me back around $75.  If you’ve ever watched Apollo 13, you’ll remember all the NASA engineers working feverishly on their slide rules, checking and rechecking their calculations.  That was me.  I had the newest gadget.  I was cutting edge.  I was high tech. But within a year or two my slide rule was reduced to dinosaur status.  Calculators began making their way onto the market.  I had to buy one.  I can’t say it was a “pocket” calculator because that would imply it would fit into a pocket.  Not this one.  No way!  As I remember, it was around eight inches long, six inches wide, and three quarters of an inch high.  Despite its monstrous size, this calculator did almost nothing other than the basics.  But $75 later, I was the proud owner of technology’s latest and greatest. Fast forward a year and I was using my new calculator as a paper weight.  I was getting ready for college and I needed a bigger, better and newer calculator.  So I plunked down $100 and I added a Texas Instruments (“TI”) calculator to my ever-growing collection.  It was probably only half the size of my first calculator, but this one had all the latest bells and whistles.  Logarithms.  Square roots.  You name it, and my brand new $100 calculator could do it all. So let’s recap, shall we… In a span of five years, I spent $250 on the simplest of math accessories.  According to an inflation calculator, that’s the equivalent of spending $900 in 2015.  Yikes!  Not only that, my slide rule literally became extinct.  My first calculator too.  I’m guessing in a very short span of time my new “TI” met the same fate. And that, I think, is the root of my phobia.  You invest time and money.  You slowly become comfortable with the newest technology.  But the only constant in the world of technology is change. And change is coming.  Trust me.  It’s right around the corner.  As the Red Queen said in Through the Looking Glass, “it takes all the running you can do” just to keep up.  And that, unfortunately, is what runs headlong into my cautious nature.   I admit it.  I get nervous about the future.  Unsettled.  Maybe, I guess, a tiny bit afraid… So what about you?  Be honest.  Are you running to keep up with technology?  Or do you have a touch of technophobia like me?

Creating magical/memorable experiences for my children was always something I so loved to do and when one of them lost a tooth, it was “show time”. When my daughter lost her first tooth, I sprinkled “fairy dust” down the hallway, across her room and onto her pillow, tucked money under her pillow and left a special note from the tooth fairy for her to find. I took a small piece of paper and in my tiniest, “pixie” handwriting, I would create a note to my daughter, Jenny, from “Thumbelina the Tooth Fairy” about the importance of good oral hygiene and always added encouraging sentiments about what a good girl she was, how proud her parents were of her, how much she was loved and promises of another visit next time she lost a tooth. My daughter was astonished to find that note – imagine “Thumbelina” actually flying into her room and taking the time to leave that sweet note! She would then tuck the note away for safe keeping in her special little jewelry box. Every time Jenny lost a tooth, “Thumbelina” would leave a trail of fairy dust and a note and that was something Jenny came to look forward to. Jenny is 19 now, and she still has “Thumbelina’s” notes tucked away in her jewelry box, has fond memories of “Thumbelina” and an appreciation of her “momma’s” efforts and imagination. My son, Nick, was always about the money when he would lose a tooth, and the promises of a visit from the tooth fairy was a motivator to get him to go to sleep on time. I remember one night I accidentally fell asleep and forgot to leave the money under his pillow. When he awoke the next morning he was distraught to find the tooth fairy had not visited and he had no money. Scrambling for the imagination, I sent him into the kitchen to get something and while he was in there, I threw money under his bed.  When he returned, so disheartened, thinking the tooth fairy had forgotten him, I nonchalantly mentioned that he did roll around in bed a lot when he slept…perhaps the money moved away from the pillow…perhaps, just maybe, the money fell off his bed. So, of course, he ran back into his room to search and, lo and behold, the tooth fairy had not forgotten him after-all! Nick’s is now 16 and fondly remembers his visits from the tooth fairy.

As the oil and gas industry continues to develop throughout the tri-state area, I have continued to receive more and more calls from people asking for help with their leases and potential lawsuits. While many oil and gas leases are complex, I thought it would be informative to do a small series regarding some of the basic legal aspects of oil and gas law. One of the most common misunderstandings I hear while talking with clients is “my lease is only for five years.”  In mineral rights leases, the type of lease that is used to by oil and gas companies, there is almost always a “primary” and “secondary” term.  The primary terms is the length of time established in the lease and agreed upon by the parties.  The primary term is usually five to ten years and many people believe this is the entire length of their lease.  However, when leasing mineral rights, a person must be aware that the oil and gas company will more than likely not be done with your property within this primary term. The secondary term is the amount of time the lease carries on after the primary term.  While all leases are different, in many leases, the oil and gas company is required to produce oil and/or gas, or the property must be operated by the company in the search for oil and/or gas, during the primary term.  If the oil and gas company does not work on a property during the primary term, the lease expires. However, if the oil and gas company does start operations during the primary term, the lease continues past the primary term of five years (for example) and enters the secondary term.  You might be wondering, “how long does the secondary term last?”  While the terms of a lease govern its length, secondary terms usually last for as long as oil or gas is being produced in paying quantities.  Generally, this means that a lease will last for as long as oil or gas is still being taken out of the ground.  We have cases where the old leases have lasted up to 100 years because oil and gas was still being removed, despite the fact that it was a small amount. At Bordas & Bordas, we have mineral rights attorneys that specifically focus on landowners’ oil and gas rights.  We have many oil and gas cases where individuals were not being paid correctly, their land was being used when the oil and gas company did not have the right to do so, and many other diverse issues.  Many times, a person’s mineral rights may be their most important asset and selling that asset without understanding every aspect of the lease has lost many people their property rights and significant sums of money.  If you have any questions regarding your oil and gas rights, always feel free to reach out to one of our attorneys for a free consultation.

The Wheeling Area Chamber of Commerce and Bordas & Bordas Attorneys will present Business After Hours on Thursday, Aug. 20 at our Wheeling location. Perhaps you are a college graduate or new business owner.  Joining the Chamber of Commerce is a great way to start making career contacts and building clientele. Business After Hours is an enjoyable event for area professionals to network while learning about other local businesses and what they have to offer. It’s a laid back environment which allows professionals to unwind a bit. During these types of events, you could come to find out that you may really like to do business with that person or perhaps you could learn some new and different options that are available in helping your business grow or run more efficiently. You find this all out from sharing your experiences with other local business owners. Not only can you share great business ideas, but you may make some friends, too. We all get caught up in the everyday work demands and the family responsibilities so attending Business After Hours is a great way to keep up with other entrepreneurs and our commitment to the people of the valley so that we can all provide them with the best services that they deserve.

I had my second neck surgery in as many years on Monday, so I have had a little extra time to just sit and think over the past few days. With the beginning of a new school year just around the corner, I found myself thinking back to my younger days, reflecting on the wonderful teachers I had along the way, and how each of them helped to get me to where I am today. I believe very strongly that teachers are likely the most under-appreciated and underpaid members of our society.  When we consider the value of what we expect our teachers to accomplish, it’s hard to think of a profession that is more important, especially in today’s economy.  Teachers are charged with the responsibility of training the next generation of leaders.  They very literally hold the future of our nation in their hands every single day.  Yet for some reason, there are those who continue to downplay the importance of teachers in our country.  I will never understand why. As I look back over my own education, it’s easy for me to pick out the teachers who had the most significant influence on my life.  Miss Hahn, who taught second grade at First Ward Elementary, showed me that learning was something that could be fun.  (I guess I’ll have to forgive her for her rabid support of her beloved Ohio State Buckeyes.)  Miss Edge, my sixth grade teacher, cultivated the seeds of self-confidence by having students speak in front of the entire class.  Mrs. Hyre, my junior high algebra teacher, was the epitome of patience and grace; a professional in every sense of the word.  Mr. Burk (quiet confidence), Mr. Chambers (dedication and perseverance) and many others added important ingredients into the mish-mash of character traits that would eventually become important parts of “me” as an adult.  These were all consummate professionals who taught not only by what they explained to us from textbooks, but by how they carried themselves in and out of the classroom.  The things they taught from the texts were important, but it was the examples they set while teaching that had the greatest impact on my life and the lives of my fellow students. We in the United States have a habit of proclaiming ourselves as #1 in the world in pretty much everything.  Unfortunately, at least where our educational accomplishments are concerned, that label may not always be appropriate.  Schools in places like Singapore, Finland, South Korea and Japan are consistently turning out students who are higher achievers than those who come out of the U.S. system.  It can’t be a mere coincidence that in those countries, teaching is a highly selective profession whose members are afforded tremendous prestige and substantial compensation.  If our goal is to turn out the best-educated students we possibly can, we must first make sure to provide them with the best teachers available.  It follows that if we want to attract the best teachers, we have to make the teaching profession attractive to the best and brightest students coming out of college.  We can do that by paying them according to their value, and treating them with the respect they deserve. And while we’re at it, we might want to consider going back to some old school parenting techniques.  When I got in trouble at school, I was more worried about what would happen when I got home than the punishment I got in school.  Teaching is hard enough without having to add parenting to the mix.

Please take a minute to peruse the “Central Blood Bank” notice that I received in the mail recently.  Check and see if you are available to donate blood at the above blood drive from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, August 20, at the Spring Hill Suites located at 908 National Road, Wheeling, W.Va. in the ground floor conference rooms. As I stated in a previous blog, so many lives can be saved when you donate blood for a “life saving” transfusion.  If you have never donated blood before, see the Central Blood Bank’s donation process below.  I am going to attempt to donate blood, so come on and join me. Here is a review of what happens in preparation for you to be approved to donate blood: Step 1: Registration - You will be asked general information such as name and address.  In order to maintain accurate records, all donors are asked to present proper identification (e.g. driver’s license, personalized Central Blood Bank donor ID card or military ID card, birth certificate and a picture ID with full name, etc.). Step 2: Mini Physical – During the mini-physical, your temperature, pulse and blood pressure will be checked.  Your hemoglobin will be tested as well — which involves a small drop of blood drawn and tested to ensure the donor has enough iron-carrying red blood cells to safely donate blood. Step 3: Medical Interview – You will meet privately with a Central Blood Bank staff member to review your medical history.  This information is kept strictly confidential. Step 4: Pre-Donation Refreshments – before the donation, you may be asked to drink a glass or two of decaffeinated fluids to help hydration levels. Step 5: The Donation – In the donation area, a trained phlebotomist will sterilize the area of your arm before drawing the blood.  When donating whole blood, one unit (approximately one pint) is removed. An automated or apheresis donation means you are donating the individual component(s) – everything that you are not donating is returned to you.  For example, if you donate platelets, whole blood is withdrawn and spun in a sterile, self-contained centrifuge to separate the platelets; then your red blood cells, white blood cells and plasma are all returned to you through the same needle.  Apheresis and automated processes take longer than the whole blood donation process. All materials used during each donation are pre-packaged, sterile and disposable.  These materials are used only once and then discarded. Step 6: Refreshments and Relaxation – After the donation, you will be directed to the café/canteen area, where you will rest while enjoying light refreshments.  After 15 minutes, you will be permitted to leave that area and resume your daily routine. So, it is not hard to donate blood and usually only takes approximately 45 minutes to an hour.  Please consider scheduling an appointment or just walk in. To schedule an appointment, you can visit www.centralbloodbank.org and click “Make an Appointment” and search with the group code: C612.  You can also schedule an appointment by calling Rachel at 421-209-7241. There’s an added bonus! Every donor receives a $10 off $50 merchandise coupon that is redeemable at any official Steelers merchandise store and at steelers.com. Donors will also be able to enter into a random drawing for the Ultimate Game Day Package which includes: two tickets to a VIP tailgate party tent, pre-game field passes and tickets to a 2015 Pittsburgh Steelers regular season game. Even if you are not a Steelers fans, please come on out and donate blood.

I spent the 4 th of July this year with my wife and friends in Denver. My wife, Linda, and I had attended the Cherry Creek Arts Festival during the day, which has become a part of our routine for the last four or five years, and were invited by our good friends, Janna and Alby Scudiere from Morgantown, to spend the evening with them, their daughter and son-in-law at a barbeque in a Denver suburb.  We had the usual fare of hot dogs, hamburgers, baked beans, barbeque and watched the fireworks shot off at a nearby country club.  It was a wonderful night. Being there and reflecting on the 4 th of July has taken me back to the time that I was a small boy.  I’ve always loved the holiday because it was a time when I was a child that my mom and dad, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, nieces and nephews would all get together for a family picnic.  The picnics were either at Kanawha State Forrest or Coonskin Park in Charleston, W.Va. It seems that, back then, more families chose to attend outdoor picnics than today.  At any rate, it was great fun.  We would arrive at the picnic site around 10 a.m., build our own little fire to cook the hot dogs, have the old fashioned grills fired up for the hamburgers, and have plenty of soft drinks for the kids and beer for the adults.  Everybody participated in all of the games that we played, including softball, badminton, croquet and the like.  We normally wouldn’t leave the picnic grounds until the park closed. Those memories were great and I have happy memories, as many Americans of my age do, of spending the time not only with their parents and brothers and sisters, but all the extended members of the family.  It seems that even though we have the get-togethers today, it’s at someone’s home and not the large extended families that we had back then. I also remembered being very much aware from the time I was young as to the significance of the 4 th of July holiday.  It really was a very important holiday that caused us to remember the sacrifices that those brave Americans who went before us endured in breaking away from England and having the courage to put their lives and their property at risk to form a new nation that would stand for liberty and justice for all.  When you think back to the opposition that our American revolutionaries encountered, even with their fellow colonists, who didn’t necessarily agree with their revolutionary views about breaking away from England.  You will recall our predecessors went to war with little money, ammunition, and training against the most powerful Army and Navy in the world.  It’s mind boggling to think what our founding heroes were able to accomplish!  Every 4 th of July, I find time to pray for and to thank in my own way those people who went before us and who were willing to lay down their lives in order to create the United States of America. I was also, during this 4 th, able to watch the television show entitled Sons of Liberty, which I felt was a very well produced rendition of the struggles of the people that were actually involved in the early formation of our country.  I thought the documentary was very well done and instructive and in large part fairly accurate.  I recommend anyone that didn’t have the opportunity to watch this show to pull it up.  I think you’ll be glad that you did.

Baltimore is turning to the federal government for help in stemming a dramatic uptick in violence over the last several months. Ten federal agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; the U.S. Secret Service and the U.S. Marshals Service will embed with the police department's homicide unit for the next 60 days, city leaders announced Monday. They join the 20 ATF agents who were sent in last week to form BFED, a joint task force that "is the next step of an all-hands-on-deck movement addressing violence in our community," Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Monday. There have been 191 killings (this year) in the city of Baltimore, that is completely unacceptable," said Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby. "The police can't do it alone. The state's attorney can't do it alone." ?To some, particularly Al Sharpton, this is a welcomed process.  Recall that in the wake of the death of Freddie Gray and the culminating Baltimore riots earlier this year, Mr. Sharpton demanded that the Justice Department to "take over policing in this country," and asserted "we're going to have to fight states' rights in terms of closing down police cases." Just recently, The Washington Post reported that so far this year, 24 unarmed black men have been shot and killed by police - one every nine days, according to a Washington Post database of fatal police shootings.  Those 24 cases constitute a surprisingly small fraction of the 585 people shot and killed by police through Friday evening, according to The Post database. Most of those killed were white or Hispanic, and the vast majority of victims of all races were armed. However, black men accounted for 40 percent of the 60 unarmed deaths, even though they make up just six percent of the U.S. population. The Post's analysis shows that black men were seven times more likely than white men to die by police gunfire while unarmed. Others are not so enthralled with the progressive efforts to commingle federal authority with powers regulated to the states. Opponents feel that the trend toward centralization of criminal justice authority in Washington is a trend toward a de facto national police force, an entity of unparalleled danger to civil liberty. Keep in mind all of the military hardware that is finding its way into the hands of state and local police. Again, these federal policing activities are in their infancy, and there may be communities that require federal resources to help make them safe and/or combat unethical behavior.  It remains to be seen whether these programs are designed to be permanent or temporary education and training systems to assist local and state governments to be more effective in curtailing crime in their respective areas.  We will keep watching these developments.

I was channel surfing a few days ago, noticing that I had hundreds of shows to choose from but, honestly, nothing that seemed worth watching.  For a moment or two, my mind swept back to simpler times… When I was growing up in the ‘70s there were only 12 television channels.  But don’t be deceived.  That didn’t mean you had 12 choices.  No, each of those channels was affiliated with one of the major networks--ABC, NBC or CBS.  Except for a small handful of local programs, like the local news, you watched whatever the “big three” networks offered.  Standing all by itself on Channel 10 was PBS, which offered a mix of children shows (Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers were the most popular ones), news and round tables, educational shows, and a few shows borrowed from British television.  That’s how I was introduced to Dr. Who--but, hey, that’s a story for another blog. If you were a ‘70’s kid, you lived for Saturday mornings.  That’s when cartoons ruled the airwaves.  That’s also the only time you knew your mom and dad would let you watch whatever you wanted for as long as you wanted.  I remember watching plenty of Looney Tunes.  I was also a big fan of Scooby Doo (and, to tell the truth, I still am).  Sure, you had to sit through a bunch of commercials trying to sell every imaginable kind of toy and breakfast cereal.  But Saturday mornings belonged to kids, and it was our patriotic duty to soak up every minute of what was offered--commercials and all. Today it seems like we’re saturated by sports shows.  Believe me, things were different in the ‘70s.  By and large, sports were limited to the weekends.  College games were played on Saturdays and professional games were played on Sundays.  Unfortunately, the pickings were very, very slim.  Each network had its own lineup--usually showcasing ranked teams or teams from one of the power conferences.  As a Mountaineer fan, that meant I usually found myself following the games on the radio.  As it turns out, this ended up forging one of my favorite childhood memories.  My dad and I would score the basketball games together, making our own charts and keeping track of the baskets, free throws and fouls as we listened to the radio broadcast.  It turned out to be a great bonding time. I also remember that NBC had a block of murder mysteries that aired on Sunday evenings.  That’s where I first met Columbo, the frumpy detective who became a television icon and a lifelong favorite of mine.  Police and detective shows were also popular in the 70’s including Kojack, Cannon and Dragnet.  I’m surprised I didn’t become a cop, but my mom swears it was actually Perry Mason who set the course for my career.  Maybe she’s right! It must have been around ’76 that our cable company in Elkins finally expanded its channels, adding WGN to its cable package.  WGN was one of the country’s first superstations, broadcasting from Chicago, Illinois.  With my teenage mindset, there was only one thing about WGN that caught my eye--baseball.  WGN covered all of the Cubs baseball games.  The owner of the Cubs believed that baseball was meant to be played in the daylight, and he refused to install any lights at the ball field.  As a result, I could watch the Cubs play almost every single afternoon throughout the summer.  I was always a Pirates fan, but many of their games were blacked out.  I was happy to have another team that I could root for. I didn’t realize it at the time, but WGN also helped to expand my horizons.  For one thing, it had programming that was aimed at Chicago’s large Hispanic community.  Because I took Spanish in college, it was fun to watch these shows and try my best to follow the dialogue.  WGN also opened my eyes to a larger world.  Throughout my childhood, I don’t ever remember traveling outside of the tri-state area.  Seeing Chicago through the eyes of WGN gave me a small taste of what the rest of the country was like.  There were people in faraway places with different customs, languages and ways of life, but we were all Americans.  I suspect this sounds strange to those of you who have grown up in the Internet age.  But without smartphones, computers or 24-hour news cycles, the world seemed like a smaller place.  Until WGN came along it seemed like the world ended at Pittsburgh.  For the first time, I could see that there was much, much more.  And that, you see, was the power of television…