Potpourri: Oct. 29, 2012
The Marcellus Shale gas boom is boosting West Virginia -- but it's a calamity for big-money investors, a New York Times analysis says. Slick-talking financiers induced wealthy interests to pour hundreds of billions into deep "fracking" wells around America, the national newspaper says -- but so much gas flowed that gas prices fell by half, and drilling firms now operate at a loss. This slump was among reasons why Aubrey McClendon was forced out as chairman of Chesapeake Energy. Meanwhile, the glut of cheap gas is clobbering West Virginia's coal industry, which can't compete against the low-cost fuel.
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Some Kanawha Valley car-owners are getting official-looking letters from the "Motor Vehicle Division" urging them to buy extended warranties. Recipients may think the letters are from a state government agency, but they're just another sales gimmick by insurance hustlers.
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Visiting the University of Charleston pharmacy school, Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., said ObamaCare soon will produce "an expansion of insured folks and an explosion of people seeking care." Is this a "first" -- for a Republican to admit that President Obama's health reform will protect 30 million more Americans?
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Democracy at work: Early voting crowds stretched down a sidewalk Saturday at the Kanawha County registration office at Court and Quarrier streets.
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Bearing arms in West Virginia: David Booker, 25, was found shot to death beside an East End street -- and on the same day, Joe Green, 21, was wounded multiple times in a Dunbar apartment.
The Marcellus Shale gas boom is boosting West Virginia -- but it's a calamity for big-money investors, a
New York Times analysis says. Slick-talking financiers induced wealthy interests to pour hundreds of billions into deep "fracking" wells around America, the national newspaper says -- but so much gas flowed that gas prices fell by half, and drilling firms now operate at a loss. This slump was among reasons why Aubrey McClendon was forced out as chairman of Chesapeake Energy. Meanwhile, the glut of cheap gas is clobbering West Virginia's coal industry, which can't compete against the low-cost fuel.
***
Some Kanawha Valley car-owners are getting official-looking letters from the "Motor Vehicle Division" urging them to buy extended warranties. Recipients may think the letters are from a state government agency, but they're just another sales gimmick by insurance hustlers.
***
Visiting the University of Charleston pharmacy school, Rep. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., said ObamaCare soon will produce "an expansion of insured folks and an explosion of people seeking care." Is this a "first" -- for a Republican to admit that President Obama's health reform will protect 30 million more Americans?
***
Democracy at work: Early voting crowds stretched down a sidewalk Saturday at the Kanawha County registration office at Court and Quarrier streets.
***
Bearing arms in West Virginia: David Booker, 25, was found shot to death beside an East End street -- and on the same day, Joe Green, 21, was wounded multiple times in a Dunbar apartment.
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