The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

April 25, 2010

Obama, Biden here today for service

Gov. Manchin, Sen. Byrd, Rep. Rahall also scheduled to attend miners’ memorial

By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter

For only the second time in its history, Beckley is rolling out the welcome mat to a sitting president, and this time, the occasion is a solemn one — a public memorial service for the 29 coal miners who perished April 5 in an underground explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in Raleigh County.

When he takes the podium this afternoon at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center, President Barack Obama will join his predecessor, George W. Bush, as the only presidents to visit Beckley while occupying the White House.

Bush came here in 2004 on a campaign swing. Obama visited Beckley as a candidate back in 2008.

Obama and Vice President Joe Biden headline the 3:30 p.m. program, hosted by Gov. Joe Manchin and first lady Gayle Manchin, as a means of honoring the latest victims of one of the more perilous occupations known to mankind.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the patriarch of West Virginia political leaders, perhaps is more familiar than any of them with the inherent dangers of mining.

A coal miner’s son who married a miner’s daughter, Byrd is making the trip for the memorial service, one that took on an added dimension of sadness late in the week with the death of another coal worker at an International Coal Group mine at Eccles.

“I am flatly heartbroken to learn about the death of yet another young coal miner in Raleigh County,” the senator said Saturday.

“I am praying for these lost miners and their families.”

Given his background in a mining family, Byrd pledged to do “everything possible to see that no more West Virginia miners will suffer death, injury or illness due to lax safety practices or toothless oversight.”

“I also know that my resolve in this regard is being amplified by the efforts of thousands of men and women in our mining industry — efforts that grow stronger day by day. God bless the coal mining families of West Virginia and all of Appalachia. My heart is heavy with your loss, but my resolve to fight for you has never been stronger.”

Byrd doesn’t plan to offer any remarks at the service but intends to speak with families of the 29 victims.

For days, law enforcement agencies in the region, working in tandem with the Secret Service, have been honing security.

“It looks good,” State Police Capt. Scott Van Meter said Saturday. “Everything is tight. Everything is ready. We’re ready.”

About 50 state troopers, including those assigned to Special Operations, others working with canine units and many in plainclothes, are assigned to the presidential detail.

Airport Road will be closed, as well as Interstate 64 down to the center, while motorcades are heading to the event and leaving it, Van Meter emphasized, but will be reopened during the event to maintain routine traffic flow.

Tight safeguards likewise are being taken within the city by Beckley police and the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department.

Beckley Police Chief Tim Deems says side streets within the immediate area around the convention center will be closed while the motorcades are in progress before and after the service, but traffic will be reopened during the 90-minute ceremony.

“The only really restricted areas are just going to be around the convention center,” the chief said.

“Once the motorcades make it to their destination, whether to or from, then we’ll open those back up and traffic will flow normally from then.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com

Text Only
Today's Front Page
  • visit Getting technical assistance

    Kristean Hallett, a student at New River Community and Technical College, center, shows Jemeria Toney, left, and Meranda Todd, both seniors at Woodrow Wilson High School, how to use a infrared camera that shows cold spots in a house at the college’s Advanced Training Center in Ghent Wednesday. Fifty students from Liberty, Shady Spring and Woodrow Wilson high schools visited the college to learn about the school’s various training programs.

    February 9, 2012 1 Photo

  • OPEB bill passes without changes

    Republican fears that ingredients of “Obama care” are embedded in it failed Wednesday to sway the House of Delegates from altering a Senate bill retiring the Other Post-Employment Benefits liability.
    One by one, with a few Republicans voting against them, the House shot down amendments that would have eliminated a dozen points of SB469.

    February 9, 2012

  • Tattoos, tanning for kids targeted

    Skin artists can imprint no tattoos on minors before their time.
    At least that was the thinking Wednesday in the Senate’s unanimous approval of a bill that makes it unlawful for anyone under 16 to walk into a tattoo parlor and get a skin picture.
    Teenagers between 16 and 18 would have to be accompanied by an adult or legal guardian before getting a tattoo. The bill also bans all indoor tanning for children.

    February 9, 2012

  • ‘Perfect storm’ brewing against coal

    A mild winter, sluggish global economy and more strict enforcement of federal laws relating to smokestack emissions have combined to create “a perfect storm,” for West Virginia’s coal industry, according to Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.
    Raney responded to a question concerning Wednesday’s announcement that FirstEnergy Corp., will retire three coal-fired power plants that are part of its Monongahela Power Co., subsidiary in northern West Virginia.

    February 9, 2012

  • House amends child neglect law

    Her voice choked with emotion, Delegate Barbara Fleischauer arose on the House floor Wednesday with a sordid tale of a child born with organs outside her body and only a single lung.
    A victim of repeated neglect, Fleischauer said Madison Violet Dodson died, one year and three months after arrival, the night her father left the child on the floor and went to sleep.
    Minutes after she spoke, the House unanimously approved a bill that alters the child neglect law so that a tiered system of offenses is provided.

    February 9, 2012

  • Senate forbids tattoos for anyone under 16

    Skin artists can imprint no tattoos on minors before their time.
    At least that was the thinking Wednesday in the Senate’s unanimous approval of a bill that makes it unlawful for anyone under 16 to walk into a tattoo parlor and get a skin picture.

    February 8, 2012

  • House amends child neglect law

    Her voice choked with emotion, Delegate Barbara Fleischauer arose on the House floor Wednesday with a sordid tale of a child born with organs outside her body and only a single lung.
    A victim of repeated neglect, Fleischauer said Madison Violet Dodson died, one year and three months after arrival, the night her father left the child on the floor and went to sleep.

    February 8, 2012

  • sign Sparks are flying

    Mike Williams, an employee with SKYWAY Signs and Graphics out of Bastian, Va., is showered with sparks as he uses a cutting torch to help dismantle the old Raleigh Mall sign Tuesday afternoon in Beckley.

    February 8, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bill would strengthen copper theft laws

    Copper thieves, led largely by an insatiable hunger for narcotic drugs, are vandalizing telephone lines, even swiping manhole covers, in what one senator terms “an epidemic” spreading across West Virginia.
    A fresh bill put on the Senate floor Tuesday by nine senators seeks to throw up a roadblock when stolen copper is fenced at scrap metal dealers and hopefully open a trail back to the bandits.
    Put simply, it means no junk dealer may buy any metal that is “reasonably” recognized as stolen.
    “It bans the purchase of copper that’s been burned,” explained a co-sponsor, Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming.

    February 8, 2012

  • ‘Paint the town blue’

    Mountain State University hopes members of the business community, public officials and citizens will show their support for the school by painting the town blue as the university prepares for an upcoming accreditation visit, said Andrew Wessels, public relations officer.
    Students, faculty and staff will be handing out “I support MSU” buttons and yard signs to individuals and businesses this week.

    February 8, 2012