Latest Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
West Virginia Supreme Court Upholds Immunity for Jail Authority
Nov 2 2014 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has again ruled that the state Regional Jail Authority cannot be held liable in a lawsuit that alleged a male correctional officer repeatedly raped a female inmate. The Charleston Gazette...
Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crashes; Co-Pilot Reported Dead
Oct 31 2014 // A spacecraft for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Ltd. tourism operator crashed during a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert, killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot. The pilot ejected and suffered...
550 West Virginia Coal Miners Flunk Drug Tests
Oct 22 2014 // In the last two years, more than 550 West Virginia coal miners have temporarily lost their mining certifications because they failed a drug test. State Office of Miner’s Health, Safety and Training Eugene White...
MEMIC Hires Comer as Senior Production Underwriter in Virginia
Oct 22 2014 // Roger Comer Workers’ compensation insurer The MEMIC Group has hired Roger Comer as senior production underwriter to serve its agents in Northern Virginia and Maryland. Comer is based in The MEMIC Group’s Tysons...
Thousands to Get Damages in Chinese Drywall Suit, Louisiana Judge Says
Oct 8 2014 // A federal judge in Louisiana has ruled that nearly 4,000 homeowners who say Chinese drywall ruined their homes are eligible to share any further damages he may award in lawsuits against Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd., a...
West Virginia Judges Give Preliminary OK to University Settlement
Oct 8 2014 // A January hearing is set on a proposed settlement of hundreds of lawsuits against Mountain State University. Media outlets reported that a three-judge mass litigation panel gave preliminary approval to the settlement...
West Virginia Begins Registering Storage Tanks
Oct 3 2014 // State environmental officials had tallied more than 46,400 aboveground storage tanks as Wednesday’s deadline to register them approached. Despite the deadline, the Department of Environmental Protection expects to...
West Virginia’s Small City Balks at Restriction on Radar Use
Oct 1 2014 // Benwood, West Virginia Police Chief Frank Longwell is calling for changes to a state law regarding radar after his city lost state funding for speed enforcement. The law doesn’t allow police in Class IV...
West Virginia Names Fire Marshal
Oct 1 2014 // Anthony Carrico has been appointed as West Virginia’s state fire marshal. The West Virginia Fire Commission selected Carrico to succeed Sterling Lewis Jr. Carrico has been serving as acting state fire marshal since...
Wells Fargo Insurance Hires Aon Exec Samuel for Metro D.C., Va. Region
Sep 22 2014 // Kyle Samuel Wells Fargo Insurance, part of Wells Fargo & Company, has named Kyle Samuel managing director for its Metro Washington, D.C., and Virginia offices. Samuel will lead business development, client service and...
Virginia Offering Storm Surge Risk Map for Coastal Areas
Sep 19 2014 // Virginia emergency management officials have created a new tool to help coastal residents assess the risks of rising water in a storm surge. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management says the Geographic Information...
Judge Approves $2.9 Million West Virginia Chemical Spill Deal
Sep 19 2014 // A federal bankruptcy judge has approved a $2.9 million settlement that would benefit 300,000 people whose water was contaminated in a January chemical spill. Judge Ronald Pearson filed the order this past Tuesday in U.S....
West Virginia Spill Lawsuit Scheduled for Next September
Sep 17 2014 // A lawsuit against a water company, chemical producer, airport and others over a January chemical spill won’t get a hearing for another year. The consolidated lawsuit that targets West Virginia American Water, Eastman...
Workplace Fatalities Declined 15% Last Year in Virginia
Sep 15 2014 // Labor officials say workplace deaths dropped in Virginia and nationwide last year. According to a preliminary report released by the U.S. Department of Labor, Virginia saw workplace fatalities decline 15 percent to 126 in...
The State of Obesity in U.S.
Sep 11 2014 // After decades of rising obesity rates among adults, the rate of increase is beginning to slow, but rates remain far too high and disparities persist, according to a new report. Adult obesity rates increased in six states...
West Virginia Nixes Special Session on Storage Tank Rules
Sep 10 2014 // West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin plans to use administrative fixes instead of a special session to adjust a law regulating above-ground storage tanks. On Monday, Tomblin’s top environmental official spelled out a...
Communities at Risk in Wake of Failure to Address Rising Seas
Sep 8 2014 // Missions flown from the NASA base here have documented some of the most dramatic evidence of a warming planet over the past 20 years: the melting of polar ice, a force contributing to a global rise in ocean levels. The...
Rural Communities Struggle to Compete With Cities for Coastal Protection Funds
Sep 8 2014 // The town of Saxis on Chesapeake Bay in Virginia is losing three to five feet (1 to 1.5 meters) of shoreline a year and suffered damage during hurricane Sandy. But like hundreds of rural communities along the coast, it is...
Full Appeals Court to Hear Obamacare Tax Subsidy Case
Sep 4 2014 // The full U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington will rehear a case on Obamacare tax subsidies, granting a government request in a move that may reduce chances of a new Supreme Court showdown over a central element of the...
West Virginia Water Utility Balks at $2.9M Chemical Spill Proposal
Sep 4 2014 // A utility is opposing a $2.9 million bankruptcy settlement that would fund projects to benefit 300,000 people whose water was contaminated in January. West Virginia American Water says Freedom Industries shouldn’t...
