Latest Virginia Headlines

Jul 19 2010 // Researchers hope the project could revolutionize mobility. Do you ever feel like you’re driving blind? Have you ever passed through a stop sign and swore you never saw it? Or nearly sideswiped a car while changing...

Federal Disaster Aid for West Virginia Tops $3M

Jul 19 2010 // Federal disaster grants totaling more than $3 million have been approved to help businesses and residents slammed by storms and flooding in southern West Virginia last month. The Federal Emergency Management Agency says...

Jul 19 2010 // Researchers hope the project could revolutionize mobility and challenge long-held assumptions about perceived limitations. Do you ever feel like you’re driving blind? Have you ever passed through a stop sign and...

Insurance Professionals of Central Virginia Elects New Officers

Jul 15 2010 // Tina Carroll, a State Farm agent, has been named president of The Insurance Professionals of Central of Virginia for the group’s 2010 to 2011 year. The group’s other newly elected officers are Vice President...

Virginia Start-Up Hilb Group Acquires North Carolina, New York Agencies

Jul 14 2010 // The Hilb Group, a Virginia insurance brokerage launched in 2009 by the founder of what became one of the world’s largest brokerages along with his son, has added its first two partners as it begins building a...

Researchers Building Car for Blind Drivers

Jul 7 2010 // Could a blind person drive a car? Researchers are trying to make that far-fetched notion a reality. The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech plan to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with...

Business Moves

Jul 5 2010 // Arthur J. Gallagher, Joseph James & Associates Illinois-based insurance brokerage and risk management services firm, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., has acquired Joseph James & Associates of Dublin, Ohio. Terms of...

West Virginia’s BrickStreet Faces Competition for Government Accounts

Jul 5 2010 // West Virginia’s state-created workers’ compensation insurers is expecting to lose million of dollars in government agency contracts following the opening of the market to other carriers on July 1. One by one,...

$25M Lawsuit Filed over 2008 Virginia Shooting Rampage

Jul 2 2010 // A $25 million wrongful death lawsuit has been filed in connection with a 2008 shooting rampage in Virginia that left one man dead and two other people injured. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month in Wythe County...

Safety Agency Dropped 7 West Virginia Mines from Violator List

Jul 1 2010 // Plans to crack down on seven West Virginia coal mines with a history of excessive health and safety violations were dropped because of a lack of money, the industry’s chief federal regulator said this week. The West...

West Virginia Motorcycle Fatalities Decline

Jun 30 2010 // Motorcycle-related fatalities are declining in West Virginia. Only seven motorcycle-related fatalities have occurred in the state so far this year. Governor’s Highway Safety Program manager Barbara Lobert says 25...

Massey Fights Safety Regulator Over West Virginia Mine Probe

Jun 30 2010 // Troubled coal producer Massey Energy Co. has taken legal action against the industry’s chief safety regulator for the second time in a week. Massey said it is appealing a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration...

West Virginia Women Who Won DuPont Toxin Suit Sue Again

Jun 29 2010 // Two West Virginia women who won a class-action lawsuit against DuPont over long-term exposure to toxins from a former zinc-smelting plant are suing again, this time seeking damages for dozens of ailments they say were...

West Virginia Court OKs Suits Against Insurers Under Human Rights Law

Jun 25 2010 // West Virginians can bring bad faith lawsuits against insurance companies under the state’s human rights act, the state Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled. The court found that the West Virginia Human Rights Act...

West Virginia Mine Operator Massey Fined for Minor Violations

Jun 24 2010 // Massey Energy Co. has been fined more than $6,000 for mostly minor safety violations found during an investigation of the nation’s deadliest coal mining disaster in 40 years, according to the federal Mine Safety and...

2 West Virginia County Agencies Drop Insurer BrickStreet

Jun 21 2010 // Two Kanawha County agencies have decided not to use a state-created insurance program for workers’ compensation coverage. Both have told BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. that its proposed rates have prompted them to...

Insurance Hikes for West Virginia Voluntary Fire Departments Delayed

Jun 18 2010 // Workers’ compensation premium increases for volunteer fire departments are being postponed for a year while lawmakers address firefighter safety and liability issues, Gov. Joe Manchin said. Manchin said he hopes to...

West Virginia Voluntary Fire Units’ Insurance Hikes Raise Concern

Jun 17 2010 // West Virginia House Speaker Rick Thompson wants the state to delay workers’ compensation premium increases for volunteer fire departments. BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. announced the premium increases in May....

West Virginia Delays Black Lung Insurance Premium Hikes

Jun 15 2010 // West Virginia insurance regulators have put black lung premium increases on hold. The National Council on Compensation Insurance asked Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline’s office in May to increase rates for black...

Subpoenas Issued in West Virginia Mine Explosion Investigation

Jun 15 2010 // Government investigators have begun issuing subpoenas to reluctant witnesses to the nation’s worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, accordng to West Virginia’s mine safety director. The five subpoenas issued...