Latest Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
State Says Massey CEO Won’t Testify in Mine Explosion Probe
Dec 14 2010 // Outgoing Massey Energy executive Don Blankenship is refusing to testify as planned next week about the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine, state mine safety officials said. Deputy Director Eugene White said the Office...
Justice Department to Appeal Virginia Healthcare Ruling
Dec 14 2010 // The Justice Department said Tuesday it intends to appeal to a U.S. appeals court a ruling by a judge in Virginia declaring a key part of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law unconstitutional. Department...
Obamacare Individual Mandate Found Unconstitutional by Federal Judge in Virginia
Dec 13 2010 // A U.S. judge in Virginia Monday declared a key part of President Barack Obama’s landmark healthcare law unconstitutional in the first major setback on an issue that will likely end up at the Supreme Court. U.S....
Insurer, Agent Help Rebuild West Virginia Fire Station
Dec 13 2010 // Sissonville Volunteer Fire Department is getting $10,000 from State Farm Insurance to help replace a fire station and three fire trucks destroyed in a blaze. The insurance company announced Friday it would donate the money...
West Virginia Jury Finds Official Defamed Employee Over Internet
Dec 3 2010 // A former Jefferson County employee has won a lawsuit that accused a county commissioner of defaming him with an Internet posting. Media outlets report that the jury ordered County Commissioner Patsy Noland to pay George...
Massey Shuts Kentucky Mine; Cites Danger in West Virginia
Dec 3 2010 // Massey Energy Co. has shut down a Kentucky coal mine that federal regulators had cited for safety violations and said another of its mines in West Virginia was in danger of collapse following heavy rains. The mining...
Massey CEO to Testify About Deadly West Virginia Mine Blast
Dec 2 2010 // Massey Energy chief Don Blankenship is expected to testify Dec. 14 in the probe of an April explosion that killed 29 men in West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine. The state Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and...
Virginia Names New Insurance Commissioner
Dec 2 2010 // Virginia has named Jacqueline K. Cunningham as the state’s next commissioner of insurance. Cunningham has been deputy commissioner of the life and health division of the state’s Bureau of Insurance for nearly...
DuPont Offers $70 Million to Settle West Virginia Pollution Case
Nov 29 2010 // Chemical company DuPont last week offered to pay $70 million and spend millions more on medical monitoring for the next 30 years to end a legal battle over a toxic exposure case it lost in West Virginia. The proposal drew...
Judge Upholds West Virginia Mine Accident Reporting Rule
Nov 29 2010 // A Kanawha County Circuit Court judge has upheld a state law giving coal mine operators 15 minutes to tell regulators about fires and other serious accidents. Judge Tod Kaufman’s ruling came in a case involving...
Reports on 2 West Virginia Chemical Plant Incidents Delayed
Nov 29 2010 // Reports on a federal board’s investigations of fatal incidents at two West Virginia chemical plants won’t be released until next year. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is investigating a 2008 explosion at Bayer...
Drivers Beware When Deer Search for Mates
Nov 24 2010 // Paula Reid was cruising at the speed limit on U.S. 460 in Virginia, near Montvale, her big BMW sedan slicing through the dark highway’s miles. Then, thwack. “Out of nowhere she hit me,” Reid, 49, of...
Is Gas Drilling Causing West Virginia Earthquakes?
Nov 24 2010 // Officials say there’s no clear explanation for what may have prompted several earthquakes near Frametown earlier this year. Some have speculated that the cluster of small earthquakes was linked to local gas...
DuPont Worried About Publicity in West Virginia Zinc-Smelting Case
Nov 23 2010 // DuPont will likely seek to sequester jurors in a 2011 trial that could determine whether it must pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to some 8,500 West Virginians who won a toxic-exposure case three years...
Safety Officials Warn 13 Mines in 7 States
Nov 22 2010 // Federal regulators late Friday warned 13 mining operations in seven states, including two owned by troubled Massey Energy Co., to show improvement on safety or face stricter enforcement. The Mine Safety and Health...
Work-Related Deaths Decline in West Virginia
Nov 19 2010 // Work-related deaths in West Virginia have fallen to their lowest level since 2002. Preliminary figures released this week by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show 41 workers suffered fatal on-the-job injuries in 2009,...
Judges’ Mediation of Massey Pollution Case Fails in West Virginia
Nov 18 2010 // A lawyer for the plaintiffs says attempts to settle a long-running water pollution lawsuit against Massey Energy Co. have failed. Two judges on West Virginia’s mass litigation panel have been trying to mediate a...
Slurry Pollution Case Plaintiffs Called to West Virginia Meeting
Nov 15 2010 // Eighteen months ago, Christina Doyle packed up her two kids for an eight-hour journey to a West Virginia courthouse, hoping for some resolution to a lawsuit over water pollution she believes caused her daughter’s...
Virginia Firm Eyes High Tech Fix for Distracted Driving
Nov 14 2010 // Despite a public outcry over drivers who text, talk and e-mail that has prompted dozens of states to ban the practice, enforcing those laws is proving difficult. But Matthew Howard, co-founder and CEO of ZoomSafer, says...
Growth, Stability and Changes in Store for Long Term Care Market
Nov 14 2010 // With the first of 77 million baby boomers nearing retirement age in 2011, assisted living facilities and nursing home facilities will play a more important role than ever before. About three million Americans will require...
