Trade

VIERA, Fla. (AP) — The Washington Nationals traded hot-tempered outfielder Nyjer Morgan to the Milwaukee Brewers on Sunday for minor league infielder Cutter Dykstra and cash. Dykstra is the son of former major leaguer Lenny Dykstra. The trade came two days after Milwaukee sent outfielder Chris Dickerson to the New York Yankees for pitcher Sergio Mitre. Morgan stole 34 bases last year during a season in which he drew a pair of weeklong suspensions from Major League Baseball.

Mark Reynolds is taking his big swings to Baltimore. The Orioles acquired the strikeout-prone slugger from the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday for right-handed relievers David Hernandez and Kam Mickolio in a trade between last-place teams trying to upgrade in different ways. “We needed to improve our offense,” Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said. “We think Mark Reynolds very much represents that.” There is no doubt that Reynolds can hit the ball a long way — when he hits it, that is. Reynolds has averaged nearly 35 homers for the last three years.

Tough-looking guys in work boots, hard hats and goggles worked diligently Saturday in a quiet room with concrete floors, makeshift walls and an array of materials and equipment. They focused intently on their implements, from time to time consulting prints and scratching their heads. The men were participants in the 2011 ABC Construction Craft Competition. The Cumberland Valley Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors and Barr Construction Institute hosted the event Saturday at the ABC/Barr Construction Institute on North Locust Street in Hagerstown.

David Mercer, 1, rides on the shoulders of his stepfather, Joseph Horst, on the way to donate a stroller full of items to World Treasures Thrift Shop in Hagerstown.

In the last 20 years, U.S. politicians who wanted to demonstrate that they were serious about economic development put together trade missions to Japan, sometimes opening trade offices in that Asian nation as well. But those efforts often met with mixed success, for reasons that weren't always clear at the time. That wasn't true of West Virginia, which has brought in 13 Japanese-owned companies and a university, in large part due to the efforts of U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.

NEW YORK (AP) - Commissioner Bud Selig gave his blessing Monday to a trade that will send Randy Johnson to the Yankees, making a contract extension the last major obstacle to be resolved in the drawn-out Arizona-New York swap. New York was given a 72-hour window to come to terms with the five-time Cy Young Award winner. Johnson's current deal pays him $16 million in 2005 and expires after this season. The Diamondbacks would receive pitchers Javier Vazquez and Brad Halsey, young catcher Dioner Navarro and $9 million to be paid over three years.

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - While they might never have their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Federal Little League 11-12 All-Stars are learning what it's like to be celebrities. At the Little League World Series, all the players are stars. "It's been pretty cool because all these little kids will come up to you and ask for their autograph," said Josh Moats. "It's been awesome. When I was a little kid, I'd always dream of coming up and playing here, and my dream has come true.

By DAVE McMILLION Staff Writer, Martinsburg MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Three Eastern Panhandle development agencies announced Wednesday the groups will come together to study ways of increasing international trade and foreign investment in the region. The West Virginia International Trade Development Council plans to help existing companies in the three -county area explore ways of exporting their goods abroad, said Bob Crawford, executive director of the Berkeley County Development Authority.

MONT ALTO, Pa. - In two years, engravings of kings, queens and national heroes will be gone from the currency of 11 European countries, to be replaced by a common currency that a European Union official said will benefit trade and tourism with the United States. "The Euro is currently an electronic currency," William Burros told a group of students and faculty Tuesday at the Penn State Mont Alto campus. The currency was introduced on Jan. 1 but can only be used for electronic transactions, such as credit card purchases, he said.

Staff members in the Hagerstown-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau are traveling far and wide to attract tours, conventions and other visitors to the county. Trade shows in California, Puerto Rico and London are among the scheduled destinations over the next six months. The bureau has $55,690 budgeted to pay for 21 trips scheduled for 1999. That pays for travel expenses and registration fees at the trade shows - the most expensive of which is a four-night trip to San Diego, Calif.

A Berkeley County man is accused of bartering prescription medication for secretarial services, according to Berkeley County Magistrate Court records. George H. Van Wagner, 59, of 56 Majestic Court, Martinsburg, was arraigned Tuesday by Magistrate Joan V. Bragg on one felony count of delivery of a controlled substance, according to court documents. Van Wagner was being held in Eastern Regional Jail Wednesday night on a $100,000 bond, according to court and jail records. He is accused of providing three valium tablets to a confidential informant Tuesday in exchange for yet to be provided secretarial services, according to a complaint filed in magistrate court by West Virginia State Police Cpl. J.M. Walker.

Michelle Ross said she took her three young children to see a piece of history at City Park on Monday. Although Ross' twin daughters, Alivia and Lauren, are only 3, and her son, George, is just a toddler, she said she wanted them to see the Sept. 11 memorial to teach them early on about the importance of that fateful day. “Girls, do you see this?” Ross asked her daughters. “This came all the way from New York.” “It's perfect,” Alivia said. The large girder that once was part of the World Trade Center in New York City is now a mangled piece of steel.

The Washington Redskins have selected guard Josh LeRibeus of SMU in the third round of the NFL draft. LeRibeus was chosen with the No. 71 overall pick Friday. The Redskins originally held the 69th selection, but they moved down two spots and picked up a seventh-round choice in a trade with the Buffalo Bills. LeRibeus is the second player taken by the Redskins in the draft. They chose quarterback Robert Griffin III in the first round on Thursday. Washington didn't have a selection in the second round, having traded that pick to the St. Louis Rams in the deal that allowed them to move into position to take Griffin.

Washington County's lobbying coalition talked with top state lawmakers in Annapolis on Thursday, then hosted a reception and trade show for the first time. It was the coalition's annual chance to get face time with key decision-makers and spread the word about important local projects and priorities. In the morning and afternoon, the group met with the Senate president, the House speaker and other lawmakers in leadership positions. Brien J. Poffenberger, who coordinates the coalition's activities, said the group shared its 2012 legislative agenda, which includes a road and bridge project near Eastern Boulevard and Robinwood Drive, and a possible multiuse stadium for sports and entertainment.

As shoppers left the Butcher Shoppe on Stouffer Avenue Thursday, many stopped by the portable display containing steel beams, huge bolts and rubble from the World Trade Center. Eventually, a permanent memorial containing the trade center artifacts will be erected next to Letterkenny Chapel at Letterkenny Army Depot, Chambersburg. The Letterkenny Chapel 9/11 Franklin County Memorial Committee is spearheading the effort. "It was a very sad day," Cheryl Alleman of Fayetteville, Pa., said of the Sept.

A piece of the World Trade Center rubble left after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, made its way to the Waynesboro area this week in a journey two men say changed them forever. "We had no idea what we were getting into when we went up there (to New York City), just thinking we were going to get an I-beam," Gary Shatzer said. "We brought history to the township," Geoff Rickett said. Shatzer and Rickett are Washington Township, Pa., municipal employees who volunteered to pick up the steel Wednesday.

A cover was pulled off the brown, fire-scarred steel I beam and, for a few moments, there was silence as cameras clicked to capture the image. Then an applause erupted and more camera flashes went off as daylight started to give way to darkness. Hagerstown now has a piece of New York City's World Trade Center, which was reduced to ruin in the terrorist attacks 10 years ago. The section of beam, about 5 feet tall and bolted to the ground, was unveiled Tuesday night in a Remembrance In the Park ceremony in City Park in Hagerstown.

A piece of the World Trade Center twin towers will be memorialized in Hagerstown this month as a permanent reminder of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. The city, together with the Washington County Citizen Corps, local elected officials, law enforcement, fire and rescue services, and members of the  military, will hold Remembrance in the Park, a ceremony at Hagerstown City Park on Sept. 13 at 7 p.m. to pay tribute to our fallen heroes, according to a city news release.

West Virginia acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Wednesday that he has spoken with Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley about illegal drug activity crossing state lines and suggested the two governors could work more closely to tackle Baltimore’s heroin trade. “Perhaps it’s something that we could work on together ... even though he’s the governor, not the mayor (of Baltimore), still I think those discussions probably need to happen ... and hopefully can influence some change over there, which could possibly help us here,” Tomblin said in a roundtable discussion with local law-enforcement and community leaders at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.