State briefs

CAMC to get $500,000 for rural health care

Charleston Area Medical Center will receive a $500,000 federalgrant for a long-term comprehensive health-care program for seniorcitizens.

The program is one of the first of its kind in any rural area inthe United States, Sen. Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday. The program -which will serve older residents in Jackson, Fayette, Roane andRaleigh counties - is based on a national model that only servesurban areas.

The idea behind the initiative - called the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly, or PACE - is to combine medical andsocial services to allow elderly recipients to live at home ratherthan in nursing homes or hospitals.

"Seniors in rural areas should have the same access tocomprehensive-care options that seniors in urban areas do,"Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said in a statement. "PACE will enable ourseniors to remain at home and in their communities."

2nd student expelled over toilet bomb

KINGWOOD - The Preston County school board has expelled a secondstudent for a Sept. 11 prank at Preston High School.

Board members also classified the 16-year-old male freshman as adangerous student, board member Robert McCrum said. Theclassification allows the board to deny the student alternativeeducation.

A 17-year-old senior expelled last week for the incident was notclassified as dangerous and likely will be placed in an alternativeeducation program, school officials said.

The teens were accused of placing two soda-bottle bombs made withbathroom cleaner in a cafeteria trashcan and a boy's bathroom. No onewas injured and no property damage was reported when the bottle bombsexploded on the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NewYork City and Washington, D.C.

High-tech Braxton firm nets $1.6 million grant

A technology company in Braxton County now has $1.6 million fromthe Department of the Defense to help develop software for the AirForce, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito's office reported.

The money will create 25 jobs at Triune Software, a Beavercreek,Ohio-based company with an office in the new Braxton CountyTechnology Building in Flatwoods.

"This money will help build a foundation for high-tech jobs inBraxton County," Capito said in a news release.

In August, the company had five software engineers working, withplans to expand to 25 by spring,

The $1.6 million will be used on their EXODUS project, a high-tech software system developed for the Air Force. The software willhelp retain information during an impending period of high turnoveramong the Air Force's civilian work force.

"We're tickled to death," said Terry Frame, Braxton CountyCommission president. "That only means more jobs here in the county."

She hadn't heard about the funding on Wednesday afternoon.

Previously, Capito worked with the Braxton County DevelopmentAuthority to secure $1.135 million from the Economic DevelopmentAdministration to construct the tech building. The 30,000-square-foot building opened in August.

"It's great," said John David Jordan, Braxton county clerk andpresident of the county's economic development authority. "It's anongoing funding process."

Ex-employee accused of e-mail threats

SHEPHERDSTOWN - A former information technology assistant atShepherd University is accused of sending threatening e-mailspromising to set fire to campus buildings and shoot fleeing studentsif the university did not close for a week.

Gregory Shannon Fike, 29, is charged with one felony count ofmaking threats of terrorist acts and one felony count of using acomputer to send threatening communication.

Police accused Fike of sending four e-mails to schooladministrators over a two-day period last week threatening to destroythe university's image as a safe campus if the school didn't closefor seven consecutive days.

Sgt. David Kelvington of the university's police department saidthe e-mails were sent through a server that blocked the trackingInternet Protocol addresses, making it difficult to trace the originof the e-mails. But one of the Web sites used to send the threateninge-mails, SecurityPunk.com, helped Kelvington track the IP address toFike's desk computer at Shepherd.

The threat charge carries a penalty of up to three years inprison. Using a computer to send threatening communication carries amaximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Fike is being held at the Eastern Regional Jail in lieu of a$300,000 cash bond.

State's fall foliage changes in early stages

Autumn is approaching in the Mountain State and with it comes theanticipation of seeing lots of fall foliage.

"West Virginia is the third-most-forested state in the countrywith nearly 80 percent or 12 million acres of the land covered withtrees," state forester Randy Dyes said Wednesday. "When the state'shardwood forests are at peak color, they rarely disappoint even themost experienced leaf peeper."

According to the Division of Forestry, anticipation for thebrilliant foliage is high, but the season of change has barely begun.Some of the best areas for early leaf changes are the higherelevations of Grant, Pendleton, and Tucker counties, where foliagehas reached between 25 percent and 40 percent peak color.

Mount Storm and Dolly Sods in Grant County are showing some color,as is Spruce Knob in Pendleton County. In Tucker County, the higherelevations are close to 45 percent peak color with splashes of redshowing up amid the otherwise green landscape.

In Pocahontas and Randolph counties, the higher elevations are at25 percent peak color where maple, birch, and poplar leaves arechanging quickly. Foliage along the Scenic Highway in PocahontasCounty is showing spectacular fall hues.

Foliage in Hardy County is about 20 percent peak color.

Sycamore, poplar, and maple trees are starting to take on coloralong the New River in Summers County, although color is presentlyonly near 15 percent peak.

The next fall foliage report will be released Oct. 4.

Monongalia joins effort to help Morgan County

MORGANTOWN - Monongalia County has become at least the thirdcounty in the state to give up a chance at state funding in order tohelp rebuild Morgan County's courthouse, which was destroyed by fire.

Officials in Grant and Preston counties had previously decided notto apply for courthouse renovation funds from the West VirginiaCourthouse Facilities Improvement Authority.

Monongalia County Administrator Diane DeMedici said the county hasasked the authority to give any remaining funds to Morgan County.

The authority was created to help counties modernize theircourthouses and bring them into compliance with the Americans withDisabilities Act. It has about $2 million a year to allocate to all55 counties and limits individual grants to $80,000.

Authority Chairman L.D. Egnor has said authority members maydiscuss changing the policy to address situations like those faced byMorgan County, whose 98-year-old courthouse was destroyed in an Aug.8 fire caused by an electrical short.

Morgan County had more than $3 million worth of insurance on thebuilding, but county officials said the estimated replacement costwill top $12 million.

From staff, wire reports