Staff
Charleston Civic Center

Since 1988, Craig Calhoun has attended annual West Virginia University basketball games at the Charleston Civic Center.

Calhoun, a season ticket holder, was again at the Civic Center Tuesday night when WVU faced Morehead State.

It was the first game on the new floor at the Civic Center sponsored by the Friends of Coal.
Calhoun says the floor, which features three silhouettes of West Virginia coal miners, is a good representation of the state.

"It will give a lot of recognition to the state," Calhoun said.  "I like the paint job.  I like the floor."
Calhoun's friend and fellow season ticket holder Alan Petty had one word to describe the floor: "Awesome."

A new batch of emails purportedly stolen from the servers at the University of East Anglia were posted online Tuesday, echoing the 2009 data breach dubbed "Climategate" that turned the world's attention to the internal debates among scientists hoping to determine whether man's actions are warming the planet.

Excerpts from the emails posted on climate skeptic websites are certainly eye-opening:

<1939> Thorne/MetO: Observations do not show rising temperatures throughout the tropical troposphere unless you accept one single study and approach and discount a wealth of others. This is just downright dangerous. We need to communicate the uncertainty and be honest.

<3066> Thorne: I also think the science is being manipulated to put a political spin on it, which for all our sakes might not be too clever in the long run.

<4755> Overpeck: The trick may be to decide on the main message and use that to guid[e] what’s included and what is left out.

The Civic Center has a brand new basketball floor that has a rich history and will reflect the proud tradition of West Virginia’s coal miners everywhere. The new court is 120 feet by 60 feet and is constructed of First Grade Northern Hard Maple and was used in the last two NCAA Final Four Women’s Basketball Tournament held in Indianapolis in 2011 and San Antonio in 2010.  It was refurbished by Connor Sports Floors of Chattanooga, Tennessee and installed yesterday.  The first game to be played on this new court will be this coming Tuesday when West Virginia hosts Morehead State.

The floor features a very distinctive, yet familiar, design that is symbolic of the relationship between the State of West Virginia and coal mining.  The floor features a black perimeter and large orange outline of our state with the silhouettes of three coal miners.

Patriot Coal Corporation (NYSE: PCX) announced the realignment of its operations management to strengthen oversight of key mine complexes in Appalachia and facilitate plans for expansion of captive production. Effective November 21, the following management team will report directly to Bennett K. Hatfield, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer:

• ·John R. Jones will join Patriot as Vice President, Operations – West Virginia South Region, including the Rocklick, Wells, Big Mountain and Paint Creek complexes.
• ·James N. Magro will serve as Senior Vice President, Operations – West Virginia North Region, including the Panther, Kanawha Eagle and Federal complexes.
• ·Michael D. Day will be Senior Vice President – Engineering and West Virginia Central Region Operations, with dual responsibilities for both the corporate engineering group and an operating region that includes the Logan County, Corridor G, Campbell's Creek and Blue Creek complexes.
• ·Lawrence J. Millburg will become Vice President, Operations – Kentucky Region, including the Bluegrass, Dodge Hill and Highland complexes.
• ·Terry G. Hudson will continue in his current position as Vice President – Safety.
• · E. Kent Hartsog will continue in his current role as Vice President - Operations Support

Governor Earl Ray Tomblin was inaugurated as the 35^th Governor of the State of West Virginia on Sunday afternoon on the Capitol steps with his wife, Joann and son by his side.  Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman issued the oath of office, with a program that included Landau Murphy, Jr. (Logan County resident winner of America’s Got Talent) opening with the Star Spangled Banner and closing with Amazing Grace.