Magistrate court to close hour earlier

Kanawha County Magistrate Court has started closing its doors anhour earlier each night.

Night court now runs from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m., Chief Kanawha CountyMagistrate Joe Shelton said Tuesday. Previously, court stayed openuntil midnight, and the staff took an hour dinner break between 6p.m. and 7 p.m.

The magistrates voted unanimously to get rid of their dinner breakand close an hour earlier at a recent meeting, and Chief KanawhaCircuit Judge Charles King approved the change, said Shelton.

"I think it'll serve the public much better," Shelton said,because more people are able to get to the courthouse in the eveningthan late at night.

Kanawha Court …

Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor dead at 24, day after shooting at his home

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder's eyes were red. His voice cracked and was barely audible. Next to him sat coach Joe Gibbs, barely more composed.

Safety Sean Taylor's violent death had left his NFL team in tears and a league in mourning.

"This is a terrible, terrible tragedy," Snyder said.

Taylor died on Tuesday of a gunshot wound from an apparent intruder, a tragic end for a 24-year-old whose life was transformed by the birth of a daughter 18 months ago.

"We're going to miss him," Gibbs said. "I'm not talking about as a player. I'm talking about as a person."

A day earlier, Taylor and his …

Poisonous preaching

OPENING SHOT . . .

According to the standard political script, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, having burst into the national consciousness in a manner not particularly flattering to him or the black church, would then quickly repair to a secluded bower somewhere to read the Bible and pray that his church member, Barack Obama, might yet become president.

But this is not a standard election.

Thus we have Wright pouring gasoline on the embers of the controversy. He lashed out at the media, repeated the paranoid fantasy that HIV was invented as a weapon against minorities and reiterated his beliefs that the United States deserved to be attacked on 9/11.

"You cannot …

Power thoughts

Transform your thoughts and behavior

A key to success lies in your thoughts and behavior. You have a wide range of choices in life. You can choose to think negative or positive, to be happy or unhappy. If you want happiness and success, choose to think positive. If you change your thoughts, you can change your life. It has been said, "As a man thinketh so is he, and as a man chooseth so is he." You have the power to redirect your thinking and transform your behavior. In short, you should remove negative thoughts from your mind and replace them with positive thoughts.

You can change your way of thinking by cultivating positive thoughts. Develop an I can attitude instead of …

Rockies Series Tix Will Be Online Only

DENVER - The Colorado Rockies have changed their plans for selling World Series tickets, switching to online purchases only.

The team announced the new plan on Wednesday.

Tickets were to go on sale at Coors Field and Rockies' Dugout Stores in the Denver area on Monday using a lottery system …

Bank of England likely to keep rates on hold

The Bank of England will make its decision on interest rates Thursday as recent data suggested that the domestic recession may have bottomed out after the economy shrank sharply in the first quarter of the year.

With the early _ but tentative _ signs of a recovery on the horizon, economists expect the British central bank to keep rates on hold at a record low 0.5 percent and continue its policy of expanding the money supply.

Bank governor Mervyn King has repeatedly downplayed suggestions that the worst is over, warning recently that the road to recovery will be longer and harder than anticipated.

"It is clear ... that the bank has major …

Expert Scoffs at Phaseout

LONDON Leo Drollas, chief economist at the Center for GlobalEnergy Studies, an independent group founded by a former SaudiArabian oil minister, Sheik Ahmed Zaki Yamani, said the Greenpeaceidea of phasing out oil was ridiculous.

"To achieve what they want would require huge changes …