People bring to Charleston their experiences in real life in a way that should temper legislation with common sense.

Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, brings to the Statehouse experience from halfway around the world. As a lieutenant commander in the Navy Reserve, Wells just completed a tour in Afghanistan.

It led him to call for making it easier for West Virginians who have been overseas to vote by extending the deadline for registration - it has to be in person - to the day before the election. His proposal would apply not only to military personnel but to Merchant Marines and military spouses and dependents.

"You're in a combat zone," Wells told Mannix Porterfield of the Register-Herald in Beckley. "The last thing you're thinking about is sending in a voter registration form."

Wells' wife, Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, is the state's chief elections officer. She supports the measure.

Just one question:

Wouldn't everyone then want to be able to register the day before an election?

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WEST Virginia Northern Community College has teamed up with Dominion Energy and Chicago Bridge & Iron to offer free training to people who want to work as pipefitters at Dominion's half-billion-dollar gas processing plant at Natrium.

The offer is open to people in the state's Northern Panhandle as well as those in nearby counties of Ohio and Pennsylvania.

"We're very excited to be part of this partnership to prepare individuals not only for job opportunities that will be available soon, but also for future opportunities that are sure to come with the Marcellus and Utica shale resources," college president Martin J. Olshinsky told the Wheeling Intelligencer.

Dominion spokesman Charles Penn said it is also "a testament to our willingness to 'build here, hire here,' as our Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation friends have encouraged us to do."

West Virginia needs more such joint efforts from industry and academia.

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THE West Virginia Breast Feeding Alliance may be on its way to victory after years of lobbying to have lawmakers declare nursing babies in public is "socially acceptable."

State Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, who sponsored the legislation, said it will lead to healthier kids and save money on formula.

Foster had his suspicions about the motives of the opposition.

"The big push is from the industry making the formula," Foster told the Register-Herald in Beckley.

"That's where a lot of it's coming from. They do a lot of advertising and have been able to convince women it's just as good because they have a product they're trying to sell. That's where a lot of the resistance comes from."

Foster is right to encourage breast-feeding, but identifying corporations as the bogeymen seems a bit of a stretch.

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A receipt from a restaurant in Newport Beach, Calif., recently made international news.

Media outlets from CNN to the London Daily Mail reported that a banker left a tip of only $1.33 for a meal that cost $133.54 - or 1 percent.

On the receipt, the customer appeared to have written: "Get a real job."

Some seized on the receipt as proof that the top 1 percent of earners disdain everyone else.

But the Smoking Gun website investigated and found the receipt had been doctored. The actual bill was $33.54 and the customer paid a cash tip of $7, more than 20 percent.

The questionable receipt first appeared on a blog that has since crept off into the night.