Insurance

State Farm Insurance Companies donated $5,000 to Children's Village of Washington County on Nov. 4. The money will be used to fund programs that use uniformed firefighters and police officers to teach fire, traffic, water, pedestrian and other personal safety skills to county elementary students. Nearly 2,000 second-graders in Washington County attend the center each school year. Annual family outreach is estimated at 10,000. An annual open house draws another 2,000 people to the center.

The Kelley Allstate Insurance Agency held its grand opening Oct. 14 at 17613 Virginia Ave. in Hagerstown. Pictured are, from left, Amber Ritchie, Leslie Swiger, Brien J. Poffenberger, Gary Kelley, Tracy Keefer, Amanda Stevens and Sandra Leyba.

INWOOD, W.Va. -- A woman reportedly upset that her husband removed her as a beneficiary of his insurance policy is accused of shooting the man Wednesday night, according to charging documents filed in Berkeley County Magistrate Court. Flor Demaria Slone, 41, of 87 Russell Way in Kearneysville, W.Va., was being held Thursday at Eastern Regional Jail without bond on felony counts of kidnapping and malicious assault, according to court records. A preliminary hearing was set for Oct. 29 by Magistrate JoAnn Overington, who arraigned Slone Thursday morning.

MARTINSBURG, W.VA. -- A Martinsburg physician charged with felony counts of prescription fraud and conspiracy to commit the crime was allowed Thursday morning to plead no contest to a lesser charge of obtaining a prescription by insurance fraud. Tressie M. Duffy, 39, of 808 Jerry Court, was fined $500 and ordered to pay court costs in a hearing before Berkeley County Magistrate Sandra L. Miller. "This is more technically correct for what she did," Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Jean Games-Neely said of the misdemeanor charge made part of a plea agreement reached between her office and defense attorney B. Craig Manford.

Free clinic patients uninsured for variety of reasons Uninsured struggle to get specialized care If you don't have health care insurance or can't get it, or if you recently have lost coverage, there are options available. The federal and state governments provide a range of insurance programs. Following is a list of some of those options and information on what they provide, and what they don't. All of the information was obtained at the Web sites listed. COBRA www.cobrahealth.

Retiree Glen Tarner was working part time, making deliveries for a paint company in April when he suffered a seizure or a stroke, crashed into a tree and was injured badly. "His brain was bleeding and swelling. It was like a month before he started to come out of it," said his wife, Mary, 66. "There was a time there when they didn't think he'd live. "We thought the company's insurance would pay. But they said it was a medical condition that existed before the accident, so they wouldn't pay. " Fortunately, the Hagerstown couple's own health insurance did. It's a mix of the Medicare that Glen Tarner, now 71, got when he turned 65, and the supplemental policy they got from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

o Health insurance rate hikes: Costs, causes and effects o Employers, individuals face tough choices on health coverage CLEAR SPRING -- His wife newly diagnosed with a crippling disease, Jeff Pine was dealing with back pain so severe he had to quit his longtime career as a bricklayer. And now he was facing another crisis -- health care costs. The Pines needed health insurance they couldn't afford, yet couldn't afford to go without. "It just gets to be a nightmare," said Pine, 40. "Thankfully, we had some friends, neighbors and church members that set up a fund and helped us. We're kind of lucky there, blessed that we're around pretty good Christian people.

o Dealing with difficult health choices o Employers, individuals face tough choices on health coverage HAGERSTOWN -- Maryland's largest health insurer posted one of its lowest profits ever last year -- even as some of its clients are seeing their highest insurance bills ever. CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, which covers nearly 3.4 million people in Maryland, northern Virginia and Washington, D.C., cleared $9.3 million -- about "one-tenth of 1 percent" of its $6.6 billion in revenue, said its chief spokesman, Michael Sullivan.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The total number of people on the unemployment insurance rolls dropped for the first time since early January, the government said Thursday, while new claims for benefits rose slightly. The Labor Department said the total unemployment insurance rolls fell by 148,000 to 6.69 million in the week ending June 6, the largest drop in more than seven years. The decline is a sign that layoffs are easing. The drop also breaks a string of 21 straight increases in continuing claims, the last 19 of which were records.