Free Republic

WEIRTON, West Virginia - Most people in this town will tell you they’d rather have taken a physical punch to the gut than get the news they received yesterday when Cleveland-Cliffs Steel announced it was idling its tinplate production plant, a move that directly cost 900 people their jobs.It isn’t just those workers who face catastrophic uncertainty; this closure also jeopardizes the jobs of thousands more people whose businesses supported the plant: the barber shops, gas stations, mom-and-pop grocery stores, the machine shops that make the widgets for the steel industry. And there’s also the demise of the tax base,...

Even after 10 years, singer's death still confounds fans. By Michael Corcoran AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Thursday, March 31, 2005 CORPUS CHRISTI — Felix Madrigal recalls the solemn procession of cars after his neighbor, 23-year-old singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez, was shot and killed 10 years ago today. After the news hit with the numbing thud of disbelief, hundreds gathered outside the Quintanilla family's three-house compound in the working class Molina subdivision, lighting candles, leaving flowers and sticking messages in the chain-link fence. "Everybody was in shock. It was eerie, so quiet," Madrigal said of the day that would be known as "Black Friday"...