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THEREGISTER HERALDSunday, October 6, 2013 Beckley, West Virginia ◆ Single copy: $1.50

Volume 134Number 109

BRIDGE. . . . . . . . . . 6E

CALENDAR . . . . . . . 6A

CLASSIFIED . . . . 4C-8C

COMICS. . . . . . INSIDE

DEAR ABBY . . . . . 10E

DEATHS . . . . . . . . . 6A

HISTORY. . . . . . . . . 7E

HOROSCOPES . . . . . 4E

NEWS OF RECORD . 8A

OPINION . . . . . . . . . 4A

SPORTS . . . . . . 1D-6D

STATE & REGION . . 3A

STOCKS . . . . . . 3B-4B

TELEVISION. . . . . . . 7B

INSIDE TODAY

Mostlysunny.

High 82. Low 60.Details, Page 8A

WEATHER

F. BRIAN FERGUSON/THE REGISTER-HERALD

F. BRIAN FERGUSON/THE REGISTER-HERALD

CHRIS TILLEY/FOR THE REGISTER-HERALD

Dennis Daniel gets a chili sample from McBee’s Irish Pub andRestaurant’s chef Rocky Goodell at Chili Night in Uptown Saturday.

RICK BARBERO/THE REGISTER-HERALD

Cpl. Morgan Bragg, of Beckley Police Department, works with domestic vio-lence issues and was recently appointed to the Governor’s West Virginia Do-mestic Violence Fatality Review team.

Beckley Police officer’s domestic violence work has statewide impact

■ RALEIGH COUNTY STOP TEAM

By Jessica FarrishREGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

As National Domestic Vi-olence Awareness Monthcontinues, one local policedetective will be continuinglife as usual.

But for Cpl. MorganBragg, 28, of Beckley Po-lice Department, and forvictims of domestic vio-lence, the detective’s workis anything but the norm.

Bragg, who began hiscareer at BPD in 2008,

was a domestic violence of-ficer for the city for twoyears. Although he recent-ly stepped out of that posi-tion, his work with domes-tic violence is continuingto impact the city and thestate.

Bragg is a member ofthe Raleigh County STOPTeam (Family ViolenceTask Force), which is be-ing awarded the 2013 U.S.Attorney’s Law Enforce-ment and Victim Assis-tance Award.

He was recently ap-pointed to the Governor’sWest Virginia DomesticViolence Fatality Reviewteam, a Charleston-basedgroup that reviews domes-tic fatalities from acrossthe state and works onprevention.

Bragg was one of severalofficials from the area toreceive an Incite Hopeaward Saturday, given bythe Women’s Resource

See IMPACT, 8A

BECKLEY BLASTS OFF

Rocket Boys and Chili Night light up the townFestival encourageskids’ interest in scienceBy Cody NeffREGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

FWOOOOOOSH! Rock-ets sprayed off of theirlaunch pads Saturday atthe second annual RocketBoys Festival in Beckley infront of a cheering crowd.

One of the original RocketBoys says the event is agreat chance to inspire chil-dren.

“The goal of the festival isto allow us to come togethereach year and participate inother events and promotethe major idea behind theRocket Boys’ story and thatis education and the impor-tance of education,” RocketBoy Billy Rose said.

“Our lives and how weovercame difficulties ineach of our lives can serveas something that kids cantake away and apply totheir lives. These kidsshould be able to say, ‘If Iget an education, I can getout of whatever situation Imight be in.’

“As a result of going toschools and speaking to stu-dents ..., we tend to inspirethem to do a better job ofbeing a a good student.Maybe they all would havegone on and done all of thisanyway, but I like to feelthat we had a part in doingthat and inspiring them togo on and to go to college toreplicate what we’ve donein our lives.”

Another of the originalRocket Boys says the oldversion of the festival raninto a few problems in itsformer home of Coalwoodbefore it eventually had tostop.

“Coalwood is very difficultto find,” Roy Lee Cooke

See FESTIVAL, 7A

ABOVE:“October Sky” actor

Chris Owen, left, fires the rocket of

Virginia Tech student Renee Spangler, right.

Owen portrayed originalRocket Boy Quentin

Wilson in the movie.

RIGHT:Brittany Drake holds

Erik Daniels as they enjoythe rocket launches Saturday during the

Rocket Boys Festival atthe Beckley Exhibition

Coal Mine.

People bring their specialtiesfor a spicy cook-off UptownBy Cody NeffREGISTER-HERALD REPORTER

Things were really cookingSaturday in Uptown Beckley.Crowds made their waythrough the streets in an ef-fort to try the chili of 42 differ-ent cooks at the 23rd annualChili Night

According to those who wereat the festival in the begin-ning, the event has grownquite a bit.

“It started out in a parkinglot where the federal buildingis now,” Beckley Renaissancedirector Jill Moorefield said.“It was the very first year andwe had 400 people. It wasn’t acook-off. It was just selling oneperson’s chili and raising mon-ey. The money that we raisedfrom this event funds all of theevents throughout the year,along with some sponsors.”

CHRIS TILLEY/FOR THE REGISTER-HERALD

CHRIS TILLEY/FOR THE REGISTER-HERALD

Deb Evans, of Beckley, enjoysa chili sample in Uptown Beckley, where throngs of people crowded the streets,left, in search of a spicy concoction.

See UPTOWN, 7A

4-H:LEARNINGBY DOING

BAYLORBREAKS

WVU

BAYLORBREAKS

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Voters approve

Greenbrier excess levy

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