Humane Society Hires New State Director - and - Will St. Albans Use Its New "Home Rule" Powers Humanely?

HSUS (Humane Society of the United States) Names New WV Lobbyist and State Director

In case you missed it, Heather Perkins Severt is the new Humane Society of the United States lobbyist and State Director in West Virginia replacing Summer Wyatt who resigned. 

According to the HSUS website, Ms. Severt owned a social media and marketing company prior to taking her current role as West Virginia's HSUS lobbyist and state director. Ms. Severt's email address is hmsevert@humanesociety.org

What you can do right now:
With the 2016 Legislative session right around the corner, you should start sending emails and letters to your elected legislators right now. Tell them you vote and that you support laws that protect animals. Don't be surprised if some legislators call you on the phone and ask you  if there are any specific animal protections you favor. Last year I received phone calls from Corey Palumbo, John McCuskey and Doug Skaff.

Other Animal News:
I hope to report soon on how and whether St. Albans' new status as a "home rule" city will help animals. Prior to St. Albans' attainment of home rule status,  a St. Albans city councilperson invited me to a committee meeting where animal advocates hoped to start work on an ordinance similar to a Huntington ordinance which outlaws most forms of dog tethering. City attorney Charles "Chuck" Riffee advised St. Albans City Council not to pursue animal protection ordinances for fear that anything St. Albans did to protect animals might exceed state code. Now that St. Albans has attained home rule status, that same city councilperson texted me today to assure me that efforts to strengthen and add specificity to laws against cruelty to animals will soon resume. I'll report further developments when I know about them. 

What You Can Do Right Now:
Send a letter to St. Albans City Attorney, Chuck Riffee, and tell him you support city ordinances that specify what constitutes cruelty to animals. Tell him the state code on cruelty to animals is too vague and subject to too much individual, subjective interpretation. Tell him to assist, not impede, efforts to outlaw cruelty to animals.

Write St. Albans City Attorney Charles Riffee at:

3818 Maccorkle Ave SE # 101
Charleston, WV 25304

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, Te State Journal, Mandi Cardosi, Laura Bevan, Andi  Bernat, Heather Severt, Heather Perkins Severt, Heather Severt

109 Willow Wick Dr. 

Morgantown, WV 26505 

(304) 685-8089

Heather.Severt@Yahoo.com

How Obamacare Creates New Clients For One Charleston Business

Here's something you don't hear every day: Obamacare (The Affordable Care Act) is driving new clients into the arms of some industries and businesses. One such business is Commercial Technology Group in Charleston, a 12-year-old, woman-owned automated workforce technology company that helps avoid fines for Obamacare non-compliance by providing them with sophisticated "time and attendance" systems that interface with payroll software and provide digital evidence of ACA compliance.

Two different provisions of ACA - Employer Shared Responsibility provisions and Full Time Equivalents provisions - require employers to track employees' time in a way that is auditable, accurate and evidentiary.  Old-fashioned honor systems like paper time sheets provide no evidentiary value since they can be lost, destroyed or falsified. In fact, mechanical time clocks have similar limitations. Time tracking is necessary to determine (a) whether the employer is subject to the Employer Shared Responsibility provisions and (b) the employer's number of Full Time Equivalents since FTEs determine whether a company is an "applicable large employer."

An applicable large employer will be liable for an Employer Shared Responsibility payment if they do not offer qualified health coverage for at least 95% of its FTEs.   

For some employers, the ACA employee time tracking burden is even greater and more complicated. Beginning July 1 2016, nursing homes (long-term care facilities) will be required to submit their employee time tracking and patient census data through a new "Payroll-Based Journal" system at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).  Such data submission is not easily done if the facility uses a mechanical time clock or a time sheet system as these systems provide no digital evidentiary value.

Larger employers long ago migrated from honor system time and attendance systems to automated time and attendance systems that interface with their payroll software providing them with faster, more accurate payroll processing but now Commercial Technology Group's President, Pat Ward, says smaller and medium-sized businesses are acquiring sophisticated time and attendance systems to reduce risk of incurring fines for ACA non-compliance.

Ward's clients include county school systems, hospitals, nursing homes, staffing companies, manufacturers, government agencies, city governments, coal mines, banks, law firms, retailers, manufacturers and more. Commercial Technology is located at 888 Oakwood Rd. in Charleston and has a website at www.comtechwv.com.

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, Te State Journal, Mandi Cardosi, Laura Bevan, Andi  Bernat, Heather Severt, Heather Perkins Severt, 

The Blog Zone on Linkedin

Thanks to the hard work of the late Mike Clough, The Blog Zone is already Linkedin's largest blogger group but my goal is to make it the best. To make The Blog Zone attractive to bloggers, journalists, columnists and writers with whom my mission and message resonates, I have expelled THOUSANDS of spammers, scammers, troublemakers and fake accounts since I took over in January of 2015. 

If you belong to other blogging groups you have already noticed that they attract a certain unsavory element of non-bloggers who join blog groups to sell and market various products and services. The Blog Zone is a pre-moderated group that allows no spam whatsoever to post in the Discussions area. "Pre-moderated" means that submissions to the Discussions queue do not post without manual approval by an authorized group manager. Right now, I am the only group manager so I see every submission to the Discussions queue and nothing posts there unless I personally approve it. 

I cannot build The Blog Zone into the kind of group that serious bloggers, writers, citizen journalists and columnists want to join if I admit spammers, scammers, fake accounts and other troublemakers to The Blog Zone so I am admitting very few new members right now.  To the best of my ability, I am screening out undesirables and admitting only those applicants whose online footprint suggests they will be leaders and role models in The Blog Zone. The Blog Zone receives about 20-25 requests to join (RTJs) daily and I am declining 90% of them because the applicants failed to convince me that they will enhance The Blog Zone.

It is my intent to admit only those applicants who have established a verifiable, positive, professional reputation as bloggers and writers. I scour Linkedin profiles, I look for Twitter accounts, I "Google", I look applicants up on Facebook. Only those applicants whose online reputation is verifiable and positive will be admitted.

NOTE: Due to a glitch or bug in Linkedin, many RTJs do not receive the automated acknowledgement of their request to join. That automated message asks recipients to contact me. When they don't, I reach out to them via Linkedin or Twitter or email. If they do not reply, they will not be admitted to The Blog Zone. I've learned from experience that people who won't communicate with the group owner are up to no good.

LEADERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES In The BLOG ZONE
As I admit new members I'll be looking for people who may wish to manage a subgroup within The Blog Zone. When I took over The Blog Zone early in 2015, I found that subgroups were really just little cliques and fiefdoms that subgroup managers used to promote their own business interests and where subgroup participants went to avoid people they didn't like and to be with people they liked. 

In "the new" Blog Zone, subgroups will serve a higher purpose. Subgroups in the new Blog Zone will exist to accommodate some of the diversity inherent in a group this large. For example, some of our members appreciate my policy of not allowing bloggers to self-promote while others actually want a place where they can share blog posts with a group and get feedback. I will never allow self-promotion in the main Discussions forum but if I can find a manager for a subgroup where such posting is welcome, I will happily allow it.  Similarly, we have members whose spam tolerance is higher than mine so if somebody wants to start a subgroup with relaxed rules about spam, I will be happy to allow it. Such subgroups don't exist because role models have not volunteered to manage them.

Off-topic submissions are not posted in the main Discussions area but if somebody wants to start a discussion group where bloggers can discuss politics or current events , I welcome it if a role model volunteers to be that subgroup's manager.

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ABOUT GROUP OWNER, Joseph Higginbotham
Joseph Higginbotham is the third owner of The Blog Zone and has been a member of The Blog Zone since 2009. Higginbotham owns or manages 6 Linkedin groups. 

Higginbotham sold his first article, on a dare/bet by his high school creative writing teacher, Nancy Williams, while a senior in high school. Since then Higginbotham has sold hundreds of articles to dozens of print publications and was a columnist for healthcare, business and other newspapers. Higginbotham is a ghostwriter, copywriter, corporate publications writer, white paper writer, speech writer and has even dabbled in technical writing. 

Higginbotham has been a professional business manager, a program manager, an independent "headhunter"  and a public speaker at about 40 paid venues and has often said he would never do another honest day's work if he could get enough speaking gigs to pay the bills. This is not what you expect to hear from an introvert like Higginbotham. (Higginbotham is a Myers-Briggs INTP)

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Kate White, Pat Ward, Rob Byers, Ann Ali, Jim Workman, Erin Timony, Te State Journal, Mandi Cardosi

13th Circuit Judge Serves As A Panelist In A Public Drug Summit, Risks Contact With Voters And Stakeholders

With the exception of the 13th circuit's newest judge, Joanna Tabit, I have sent letters to every 13th circuit judge inviting them - pleading with them - to come out to a St. Albans Neighborhood Watch meeting and discuss ways to get drugs and drug dealers out of our neighborhoods when prisons are full and incarceration isn't an option. Most of the judges didn't reply to me even after multiple emails and letters. Those who did reply did so through court staffers who explained that judges don't really make such public appearances because it would be "inappropriate" or even "unethical" for them to do so. 

One 13th circuit judge, Carrie Webster, agreed to meet privately with St. Albans City Councilwoman Cheryl Thomas and me but later cancelled the meeting and ignored out calls to re-schedule. 

I also invited all 13th circuit judges except the newest judge, Joanna Tabit, to attend a meeting of neighborhood watch leaders, city council members and St. Albans Police Chief, Mike Matthews. None took me up on the offer. 

So let's give Kudos to Judge Jennifer Bailey who participated in last night's "drug addiction summit" at the Culture Center. Apparently, Judge Bailey doesn't think it's unethical or inappropriate for judges to participate in public fora. In my last post I cynically suggested that perhaps Judge Bailey accepted the invitation to participate in the drug summit as a sort of unofficial kickoff to her re-election bid but I don't really care why she went out and risked contact with people below her social class, I'm just glad she did and I hope other 13th circuit judges will get out and talk to stakeholders - even if only to get re-elected.

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

Judge Jennifer Bailey To Participate In Drug Addiction Summit Monday June 1

I don't know Kanawha 13th circuit Judge Judge Jennifer Bailey so when I heard she would be a panelist at tomorrow's West Virginia Addiction Summit I didn't know if she's going to be the 13th circuit judge who shows the others how to engage with the stakeholders or if I was simply seeing the unofficial start of her re-election campaign. She's been quoted using the words "prison" and "alternatives" in the same sentence so I followed her on Facebook. Yeah, she has her "follow" button turned on. But I can't find her on Twitter.

I'll tell you who I did find on Twitter: Judge Carrie Webster. Well, sort of. I found an account in her name. It says it's run by the committee to elect Carrie Webster. That account hasn't tweeted since 2010 when Webster had to actually get elected to the seat to which she had been appointed. I don't know if Judge Webster even knows she has a Twitter account.

Speaking of 13th circuit judges on social media, I have high hopes that Judge Joanna Tabit (who replaced the retired Paul Zakaib) plans to be engaged with stakeholders. I'm actually connected to her on Linkedin. I got a thank you letter from her after I served jury duty in February and March.

Judge Tabit is also on Twitter @JoannaTabit.

If you have social network info about Kanawha County 13th Circuit judges please share that info in the form of a comment.

The summit is being held 5:30 PM at the Culture Center Theater at the Capitol Complex, Monday 1 June. For more information, go to ::

http://wvpublic.org/post/delegate-host-substance-abuse-forum for more information.

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, Jennifer Bailey, 

Breaking News: Local TV Station ALMOST Reports On The Sentence Judge Carrie Webster Gave Timothy Basham

Until she read the email I sent to local media after I published Wednesday's post about Timothy Basham's sentencing on drug charges, the TV reporter who called me didn't know Basham had been convicted. Ahem, I renew my insistence that the 13th circuit judges - who have to win re-election if they wish to remain on the 13th circuit - need to hire a PR person. 

The reporter said her station wanted to get a story ready for the 5PM news and asked me if I could give her 5 minutes of my time for an on-camera interview. I told her I was at work and couldn't meet her on such short notice. She offered to come to my office. I countered by referring her to St. Albans city councilwoman, Cheryl Thomas and SAPD's media guy, Captain James Agee. 

If the 13th circuit had a media person I would have happily sent the reporter to the courthouse. 

There was nothing about Basham's sentencing in their 5PM and 6PM news. 

On a personal note, a reporter from this same station used to call me at 4AM and ask me to meet her for on-camera interviews about neighborhood watch at 7. I always agreed because my neighborhood watch was young and I was willing to go almost anywhere at almost any time to get some free media for the group. I've met reporters at the police station, at Roadside Park and in several St. Albans neighborhoods. 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

Timothy Basham Sentenced to 1 - 5 years in South Central Regional Jail

13th Circuit Judge, Carrie Webster, has sentenced St. Albans' most notorious Opana dealer, Timothy Basham,  to 1 - 5 years in South Central Regional Jail. 

Basham will get credit for the 279 days he already served awaiting trial and conviction.

Members of the media may remember that Basham slipped through  the court's fingers on a previous drug charge when the Kanawha County Prosecutor botched the case against him. 

The sentence was entered March 23 2015 on case 14-F-402. I want to, once again, thank Rhonda Cavender, Linda Allen and "Jenny" at the Kanawha Circuit Court for mailing and emailing copies of the sentence to me.

I want to thank St. Albans Police Chief, Mike Matthews, St. Albans Police Captain, James Agee, Lieutenant Marc Gilbert and other members of the SAPD for patiently and professionally gathering the evidence and building the case against Basham.

I want to thank Ward 4 councilwoman, Cheryl Thomas. It's no secret that city departments get things done when city council members want them done. The squeaky council member gets the law enforcement grease. The SAPD has no better ally on council than Cheryl Thomas who worked closely with the police who expertly built the case against Basham. Had Basham lived in a ward with a less involved council member, I think Basham would be selling Opana out of his father's garage right now. I feel lucky to live in a ward that is represented by Thomas. 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

Thank You, Linda Allen, Rhonda Cavender and a Kanawha Circuit Court Employee I Only Know As "Jenny"

I want to thank Linda Allen, Rhonda Cavender and a Kanawha Circuit Court employee I only know as "Jenny." Linda and Rhonda emailed me copies of the sentence Judge Carrie Webster handed down in the Timothy Basham drug dealing case and "Jenny" snail-mailed it to me.

By the way, Webster sentenced Basham to 1 to 5 years in prison with credit for the 279 days he has already served. 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

When Will Newspapers Figure Out That The Way To Keep Subscribers Is To Report News Readers Can't Get Elsewhere?

Yesterday I emailed the 13th circuit court to find out why I can't find the exact text of the sentence Judge Carrie Webster handed down to local drug felon, Timothy Basham, on the internet. A few hours later I received a phone call from someone who only identified herself as "Jenny." Jenny told me she could either fax or mail me a copy of the official sentencing information. I asked her to email it to me. She said she couldn't do that. 

If I were a 13th circuit judge like Carrie Webster and I wanted to be re-elected to the bench, I would hire a a PR person to publicize the convictions of drug dealers like Timothy Basham. A PR person would probably put up a website, start a blog and do some tweeting to publicize the sentencing of drug dealers by Carrie Webster and other judges with a "soft-on-crime" reputation. Now that former legislator, Suzette Raines, no longer has her $75,000 job with AG Patrick Morrissey, maybe she would work cheap. 

If I were a local newspaper editor like Rob Byers at The Charleston Gazette or Chris Dickerson at The West Virginia Record, I would assign a reporter to hang out at the courthouse and report all the stuff that happens after the arrest - court dates, attorneys, sentencing.  

Perhaps if Kelly Stadleman had planted reporters in Putnam and Cabell County courthouses and given her target markets the news nobody else will give them, her excellent small newspapers would still be in business. I don't know Ms. Stadeleman and I didn't live in one of the counties her papers covered, but I was sad to see The Cabell Standard and The Putnam Standard go out of business after she did so much to improve them. When Stadleman took over The Putnam Standard it looked like an overgrown church bulletin. Stadleman improved the look, the writing and the reporting. It wasn't enough.

West Virginia's judicial opacity is West Virginia newspapers' opportunity squandered. When will somebody in the news business figure out that the way to save themselves from bankruptcy is to report news that readers can't get anywhere else? 



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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa, kelly stadleman, erin beck, Putnam standard, chris dickerson, west virginia record, rob byers, charleston gazette, 

The Jimmy Love Test in 271 Words

Can you pass The Jimmy Love Test?

I first learned about The Jimmy Love test from the lips of the late great car dealer himself in 1989 or 1990 when my company sent me to a court-ordered bankruptcy auction to bid on and acquire the remains - office furnishings and equipment - of a failed Main Street consultancy.

Jim Love and his entourage were among the vultures circling the bones of the failed consulting business.

While we were waiting for the auctioneer to get things started, Jim Love turned to his flock of scavengers and asked in a stage whisper, "Who was this guy, anyway?"

While others shrugged their shoulders and shifted their feet nervously, one member of the volt said, "He was some kind of consultant."

"Consultant?" snorted Jimmy Love. "And he's bankrupt? Why would anybody need a consultant who's bankrupt? How much did this bankrupt consultant make last year?"

"I heard he made $60k," said one aide de camp.

Pay attention to what Jimmy Love said next for herein is the answer to the question "What is The Jimmy Love Test?"

"I made $4 million last year and this consultant made sixty-thousand? Why would I need him? Why would anyone need him?"

I've been reluctant to offer advice to rich guys - even when they ask me a direct question - ever since hearing The Jimmy Love Test. And I've often wondered how many good observations and ideas Jimmy Love didn't hear because of The Jimmy Love Test and how many more millions he might have made had he not measured peoples' worth by how much money they made. 

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How To Get 50,000 Twitter Followers By Mastering Memes

How to get 54,000 Twitter followers:
1. On the day of the infamous Hobby Lobby SCOTUS decision, tweet a photo of yourself standing in front of the Hobby Lobby wearing a "Pro-Life" T-shirt and holding a Chick-Fil-A cup.
2. Soon afterwards, tweet a photo of yourself standing in front of an American flag while you hold a gun and a Bible.

Incidentally, when the local conservative media reported on these viral tweets and the 20-something ultra-conservative Nitro woman who did the tweeting, they told us only that  she was a mom and the wife of a military man. They didn't tell us she had a communications degree from Marshall University and that she worked for Cabell County Schools. Did she learn meme mastery from Marshall? 

How to get 3,000 MORE Twitter followers:
1. Have your affair with a Tea Party staffer reported by a fellow conservative activist. The activist who reported your affair is hated and reviled. You get 3,000 more twitter followers.

Local conservative media didn't report the affair nor did they report if she learned meme mastery from her Tea Party Paramour. 

Besides the fact that conservatives don't demand that their icons actually live what they claim to believe so long as they "make liberals' heads explode", what else do these Twitter-related facts teach us?

I say these facts teach us that Twitter success is about meme mastery and meme multiplication. Whether the Nitro meme queen learned meme mastery from Marshall or her Tea Party paramour, she certainly put on a how-to-use-Twitter clinic for the rest of us.  

Who else do you know in Nitro or Kanawha County who has 57,000 Twitter followers? Let's put this number in perspective. The Nitro meme queen has 10 times more Twitter followers than Governor Tomblin and twice as many as Senator Joe Manchin. 

The cheating Nitro meme queen's Twitter success reminds me of some advice I once gave to an Australian atheist who emailed me to ask how he could make a living being an atheist. I was only half-kidding when I told him to do the following:
1. Start lampooning and ridiculing iconic Australian religious figures and institutions and pray to the god you don't believe in that at least one of these high-profile religious figures or institutions returns fire. Write letters to the editor of Australian newspapers, start parody accounts on social media, use every means of communication at your disposal to mock and deride religion and its symbols in Australia.
2. When one of your targets answers your attacks, make sure every newspaper and TV station know about it. 
3. Start an organization with a bank account in its name and ask fellow atheists to send money so you can fight back against your well-financed religious attackers. When the checks start coming in you will be a paid, professional atheist. And as I once said in my deeply-flawed, unpublishable novel, pretty soon you and the religious symbols you attack and are attacked by in return have a symbiosis. You schedule public debates, you write op-eds against each other and, of course, both the professional religionists and your atheist org  use the feud in fundraising appeals. Everybody wins.

Will a liberal meme queen arise to become the sort of anti-Nitro-meme-queen? I don't know but I admitted a blogger into my Blog Zone group this morning who might have the moxy to become to liberals what the Nitro meme queen has become to conservatives. She's about the same age as the Nitro meme queen, she's cute, she has a blog and she has nearly 10,000 Twitter followers. If she figures out what to do with memes that make conservatives' heads explode, I think she can. 

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Higginbotham At Large does not read or publish pseudonymous or anonymous comments. When you click the "submit" button your comment is not yet published it is merely sent to me for my approval or deletion. Commenters who hide behind "handles", nicknames or other pseudonyms will not see their comments published here. If readers won't know who you are, I will delete your comment. No Ring of Gyges for you. I like email addresses that include the submitter's actual name like mine does: JosephHigginbotham@gmail.com.

West Virginia, Saint Albans, St. Albans, Dunbar, Charleston, Kanawha, Speaker bureau, speakers bureau, speaker's bureau, speakers' bureau, guest speaker, 25177, 25143, 25303, 25309, 25301, 25302, 25305, 25311, 25314, 25304, neighborhood watch, animal rights, animal welfare, no-kill, shelters, crime watch, neighborhood crime watch, ward 4,vegan, vegetarian, liberal, liberalism, progressive, branding, naming, home rule, dog tethering,  Peoples Party, portmanteaus, ghost writer, ghostwriter, ghostwriting, ghost writing, neologisms, neologism, brand names, brand name, dog racing, Grey2K, Carey Thiel, Phil Kabler, Rob Casto, Holly Fisher, Joel Frewa