Actress Ashley Judd — who is extremely intelligent and perceptive — struck a blow for equality last week by protesting that American women are rated too much for their looks, not for their value as people. After doses of steroids caused her face to be puffy, commentators speculated that she had undergone plastic surgery. She retaliated by writing a bitter essay complaining that females suffer lifelong judging for their appearance, forcing them to spend heavily on cosmetics and fitness clubs in a struggle to meet beauty standards. Judd deserves respect as a fighter.

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A caller alleges it took three phone calls to bring police to a fight at Charleston's Transit Mall — and one officer used vulgar, abusive language to witnesses.

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Bearing arms in West Virginia: A pickup truck tumbled off U.S. 60 at Cedar Grove and landed on railway tracks. Inside, police found a .45 pistol, a 9mm assault weapon and a stash of illicit pills.

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You've heard of the "multiplier effect"— how a new industry creates additional spinoff jobs. Well, Wetzel County Sheriff James Hoskins says the influx of out-of-state drillers for the Marcellus Shale boom is causing a prostitution upsurge.

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A Democratic consultant triggered a firestorm when she said on TV that multimillionaire Mitt Romney's wife "never worked a day in her life." Protesters replied that raising five sons is hard work. But Charleston artist Paul St. James says the super-rich usually have nannies, maids, cooks, gardeners, chauffeurs, etc. — so raising kids doesn't burden them as much as it does common folks.

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The hottest publishing sensation in recent years is the Hunger Games trilogy, about a future civilization in which chosen teenagers are forced to fight to the death in a televised tourney to entertain the public. "Kids killing kids," as critics call it, is wildly popular, selling 24 million copies in America. This makes us wonder: What buried trigger, deep in the brain, causes people to be fascinated by violent death?