Charleston Daily Mail

Twisting and Turning 50: ; the Turnpike Is 50, and the Parkways Authority Is Inviting People to Help Celebrate

DAILY MAIL STAFF It's always been over the hill - and another hill and another and another - but this year, the West Virginia Turnpike is turning 50.

Swing State Status Brings Big Ad Bucks: ; Anti-Bush, Anti-Kerry Groups Have Spent More Than $70,000 Each Since Start of August

DAILY MAIL STAFF Swing state status means being saturated by advertisements, and the candidates aren't the only ones vying for airtime.

Woman Describes Son Accused of Trying to Rob Her

DAILY MAIL STAFF RIPLEY - The mother of a Jackson County man accused of masterminding a plan to rob her at a VFW hall said her son had been acting strangely, but she thought it was because he was dealing with fatherhood for the first time.

Fund for Boy Nears $10,000: ; Johns Hopkins Surgeon Who Is Also a Dwarf Is Best Person to Perform Operation

DAILY MAIL CAPITOL REPORTER A fund established to help pay for surgery to correct a Roane County boy's deformed feet generated almost $10,000 in its first two days.

Cheney's Power Without Parallel: ; Vice President Called Most Influential Ever in Post On Both Domestic, Foreign Policy Issues

LOS ANGELES TIMES WASHINGTON - For weeks, amid growing fears that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council staff hammered out a tougher, more aggressive stance for U.S. delegates to take at an international meeting later this month in Vienna, Austria.

Woman Describes Son Accused of Trying to Rob Her

Crowd Estimate Unknown for Labor Day Event: ; List of Groups Wanting to Participate Growing

AT A GLANCE The Kanawha Valley Labor Councils Labor Day celebration will be Monday at Haddad Riverfront Park. Here is a schedule of events: n Noon Opening Ceremony * 12:30 Labor & Faith: A Gospel Celebration * 1:45 Bob Thompson Unit * 2:30 Carpenter Ants, Larry Groce, Don Dixon * 3:45 Nanci Griffith * 4:45 Indigo Girls * 6:00 Asleep at the Wheel * 7:00 National Labor Leaders * 7:30 Judy Collins * 8:00 Cecil Roberts President, United Mine Workers of America, Rev. Jesse Jackson Presid...

New Hospital Chief Focuses On Positive: ; Ceo Now Running Both St. Francis and Putnam General

DAILY MAIL PUTNAM REPORTER HURRICANE - After being named the new president and chief executive officer of Putnam General Hospital, Daniel Lauffer did not shed much light on how he would address the hospital's image problems.

Republican House Candidate Says His Address Really Does Exist

A Republican candidate for the House of Delegates is bemused by the Democratic county chairman's allegation that his address does not exist and he may not live in the district he is seeking to represent. "I'm standing in the apartment right now. I can assure you it exists. I pay my rent every month. If it doesn't exist I'm going to stop paying rent," Patrick Lane joked Tuesday.

Marion Teen Pleads Guilty in Deaths of Mom, Mom's Boyfriend

FAIRMONT - A Marion County teenager accused of killing her mother and her mother's boyfriend pleaded guilty to two counts of voluntary manslaughter. Crystal Nicole Eagle, who turned 18 on Sunday, entered the plea Tuesday one day after she was scheduled to be tried as an adult on first-degree murder charges.

Almanac

Yesterday's high 79 Record high 104, 1932

Forecasts

Tonight Patchy fog after midnight. Lows around 60.

Regional Forecasts

Akron 57 76 Rain Charlotte 84 70 Rain

National Forecasts

Anchorage 71 55 Clr Baltimore 86 70 Rain

Talks to End Fighting in Baghdad Hit Snag: ; Iraqi Officials Refuse Militants' Demands to Keep U.S. Forces Out of Shiite Slum in Capital

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Talks to end fighting between U.S. forces and Shiite militants in the Baghdad slum of Sadr City have stalled, with the government refusing militant demands for American troops to keep out of the troubled district, negotiators for the militants said today. Meanwhile, Iraq's 100-member National Council, intended to act as a government watchdog and help shepherd the nation to elections scheduled for January, was convened for the first time today as a nearby mortar barrage injured...

Hundreds Held Hostage in Russia: ; Attackers Wearing Suicide-Bomb Belts Strike On First Day of School

BELSAN, Russia - Heavily armed militants wearing suicide-bomb belts seized a Russian school in a region bordering Chechnya today, taking hostage about 400 people - half of them children - and threatening to blow up the building if police storm it. At least eight people have been killed, one of them a school parent. In a tense standoff, Russian forces took up positions on the perimeter of the school in the town of Belsan.

Nation & World

U.S. denies claims of strikes against civilians

Democrat Promises Health Care for All: ; Edwards Visits State, Says Bush Is to Blame; for High Insurance Costs

PINEY VIEW - Finally retired to his rural home after working 43 years in the coal mines of southern West Virginia, things aren't going quite the way Dickie Todd thought they would. "These should be what they call the 'golden years,'" Todd said Tuesday as he sat on his front porch, waiting for a visit from Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards.

Putnam Plan Uses Funds From Proposed Tax District: ; Money Needed to Fix Road to New Theater; Date Set for Public Hearing On Increment Tax District

DAILY MAIL PUTNAM REPORTER WINFIELD - Putnam County officials already have plans for money to come from an as-yet unapproved plan to derive income from increasing property values in Teays Valley.

Woman Sues State Police Superintendent Over Crash

A woman who says she was injured in a fender-bender with West Virginia State Police Superintendent Col. Howard Hill two years ago has filed a lawsuit one day before legal limitations were to run out. Susan E. Wilson says she suffered various injuries to her neck and back in the Aug. 28, 2002, crash outside the agency's headquarters in South Charleston, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Kanawha Circuit Court. Wilson said in her lawsuit that she will have to have medical treatments for the...