Session Shorts, Day 43

ABORTION: Wednesday is Pro-Life Day at the Legislature, with a rally planned by West Virginians for Life. The Herald-Dispatch offers details.

CASTLE DOCTRINE: The Senate has sent the House a bill that says that would allow homeowners to use deadly force against intruders. The Register-Herald and MetroNews report.

EYESORES: The Huntington newspaper also focuses on the progress of legislation "aimed at giving West Virginia cities more power to demolish dilapidated structures."

METHADONE CLINICS: Some lawmakers feel snookered into letting officials from a national network of methadone clinics address two committees in the House chamber last week. The Associated Press has the details.

TAXES: With senators debating over an immediate vs. gradual repeal of the business franchise tax, The Charleston Gazette and the Beckley paper report on efforts at a compromise to ensure that something passes during the session.

AP reports on the full Senate getting a tax holiday measure from its Finance Committee. The panel endorsed Gov. Joe Manchin's bill to exempt Energy Star-rated products from the 6 percent sales tax the first week of each September.

TOLL ROADS: The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown hears from Eastern Panhandle lawmakers about Manchin's "idea that W.Va. 9, U.S. 340 and U.S. 522 could be converted to toll highways to help pay for road improvements." The lawmakers are unenthusiastic -- "I think it's lousy," Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, told the paper -- and a Manchin spokeswoman "cautioned that there is no plan to put tolls on Eastern Panhandle highways and emphasized that any such proposal would be presented to the local community to gauge reaction."

The Register-Herald, meanwhile, highlights a House-adopted resolution that would name the West Virginia Turnpike after former Gov. Okey L. Patteson.