Authorities searching for inmate

Authorities are searching for an inmate who escaped from a police transport van along the West Virginia Turnpike. Fayette County Sheriff Steve Kessler says in a news release that 37-year-old Paul Ira Hopkins of Smithers opened the van’s door open and jumped over a guardrail Wednesday near the North Beckley Toll Plaza. The release says police tracked Hopkins to a garage where he allegedly stole a car.