John Douglas

More than 50 patients of Dr. Matt Hahn drove all the way to McConnellsburg, Pa. on Monday night to show support for the physician who was recently fired by the Tri-State Community Health Center board of directors. The public raised interesting points, to say the least.

A recurring theme was that no reason has been given for Hahn's termination as medical director of the clinic. A letter to patients from Executive Director Leslie Colbrese merely said Hahn won't be seeing patients after July. Speakers pointed out that the firing puts a cloud over Hahn, though there is no reason to think it has anything to do with the health care given by Hahn, who has been named Maryland Family Practitioner of the Year.

When the cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny next month, it will simply be the first of what may be many annual price hikes.

Last year, Congress passed a reform law that allows the U. S. Postal Service to raise rates each year. The price of first class letters can go up as much as the inflation rate. Costs of package delivery can be raised to the levels of UPS, FedEx and other private deliverers.

The Morgan County Commissioners made a good move when they passed a resolution to look into selling War Memorial Hospital last Friday afternoon.

When we proposed the idea in editorials and conversations with the commissioners last year, we pointed out several angles that should enter into the thinking.

Two Berkeley Springs teenagers charged with sexual assault were among 18 people indicted by the Grand Jury on Tuesday, April 8, the opening day of the April Term of Morgan County Circuit Court.

Nicholas J. Campanelli and Blair A. McCann, both 18, were each charged with several felonies in connection with the rape of a 16-year-old girl after a party on Saturday night, February 2.

The case of the children removed from a Texas polygamy cult last week has brought new attention to questions of religious freedom. Nothing in the U. S. Constitution allows people to break laws in the name of their religion. Nor should it.

The same First Amendment that guarantees freedom of religion also guarantees freedom of speech. Yet we all know there are limits to this freedom. You don't have the right to commit perjury or slander others. You shouldn't incite violence or, as the old example goes, yell Fire! in a crowded theater. You can't deal in child pornography. Few of us would remove such limitations.

In case they might have forgotten, West Virginians were reminded last week that they deserve better from the State Supreme Court. The national ABC News reported twice on the connections between Chief Justice Elliott Spike Maynard and Justice Brent Benjamin and Don Blankenship, the president of Massey Energy.

Maynard and Blankenship, if you recall, vacationed together on the Riviera at the same time that cases involving Blankenship were before the court. Benjamin, on the other hand, had his election campaign helped when Blankenship funded a media blitz against his opponent. While Maynard removed himself from hearing a recent Massey Energy case, Benjamin refused to recuse himself, claiming he could be fair.

A 19-year-old Berkeley Springs youth was charged on Monday with drug possession after he allegedly returned to pick up a stash that he had hidden.

Zachary Jordan Peacock of Starlight Lane was charged with possession of morphine, a controlled substance, according to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court on Monday afternoon, April 14.

Berkeley Springs senior right-hander, Amanda Waltman, pitched a 2-hitter and got plenty of offense from her teammates on Monday, March 31, as Berkeley Springs defeated Clear Spring, Md. 10-0 in softball.

The State Tax Department has rejected an attempt by the Morgan County Commission to reduce real estate assessments, saying the commissioners lowered assessments too much.

If county officials want to lower tax bills, they should cut the tax rates levied by the commissioners, the school board and towns, according to the State Tax Commissioner's Office.

Usually, West Virginia Legislature sessions are pretty uninspired, horse-trading affairs. This year, however, legislators slipped from lackluster to pitiful when they passed a bill that could really hurt our part of the Mountain State.

Legislators found time to give themselves a raise, but once again they couldn't agree to ban four-wheelers from public roadways or restrict drivers' use of cell phones for safety's sake. They couldn't even agree on a bill to give landowners more say in where gas wells can be drilled on their properties.