Nash hearing Nov. 19

Western will get its day in court Nov. 19.

A federal judge will rule next month on Western’s motion to dismiss a recent lawsuit filed by Western employee Staci Nash and her husband, Brian “Slim” Nash.

The family filed a lawsuit in August after HCC Life, which handles Western insurance claims over $75,000, denied coverage of 4-year-old Presley Nash’s bone marrow transplant because the Food and Drug Administration said the procedure is experimental.

Western agreed in August to pay for the transplant – a $500,000 procedure – and any associated costs, minus a $1,400 deductible and co-pay. The university filed a motion in September to dismiss the lawsuit.

– Mai Hoang

Writer to speak today

Karen McElmurray, a Kentucky native, will read her soon-to-be-published memoir, “Mother of the Disappeared: An Appalachian Birth Mother’s Journey” at 7 p.m. today in Cherry Hall Room 125. McElmurray is the Writer-in-Residence at Berry College in Rome, Ga., and her 1999 novel, “Strange Trees in the Tree of Heaven” was the winner of the 2001 Thomas and Lillian D. Chaffin Award for Appalachian Writing.

The event is free and open to the public.

Cultural Crossroads

The School of Journalism and Broadcasting will host its second Public Relations Symposium, “Cultural Crossroads,” at 8:30 a.m. today in Garrett Center Room 201. The event will last until 3:15 p.m.

The event was organized by faculty in the public relations department and will feature a number of speakers.

For more information, contact PR professor Wilma King-Jones at 745-6497 or the School of Journalism and Broadcasting at 745-4144.

– Rex Hall