Latest West Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
West Virginia Chemical Spill Posed Inhalation Risk: Study
Jan 9 2015 // Federal health officials overlooked risks of inhaling the licorice-scented fumes of a chemical that spilled into West Virginia’s biggest water supply last January, according to a study. The research by a Purdue...
Massey CEO Wins Delay of Criminal Trial Until April
Jan 6 2015 // Ex-Massey Energy chief Donald Blankenship won an almost three-month delay of his trial, scheduled to begin later this month, on federal charges tied to a fatal 2010 mine explosion that was the worst U.S. coal industry...
West Virginia Schedules Storage Tank Regulation Hearing
Jan 5 2015 // West Virginia regulators are taking public comment and holding a hearing on a proposed rule that regulates aboveground storage tanks. The Department of Environmental Protection has opened comment on the proposed rule...
West Virginia Resident Sues DuPont Over Drinking Water
Jan 1 2015 // A West Virginia man has filed suit against chemical company DuPont for contaminating his home’s drinking water. Fifty-two-year-old Scott Chapman of Letart sued DuPont in West Virginia federal court last...
West Virginia Insurance Board Director Jones Retires
Dec 30 2014 // The executive director of the West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management is stepping down this week. Chuck Jones will retire on Wednesday, which will be his 68th birthday. Jones has served as executive director...
More Inspections, Fewer Mines Result in Lowest Number of Miner Deaths
Dec 30 2014 // Less than five years after an explosion fueled by excess coal dust killed 29 men deep inside a West Virginia underground mine, the nation’s coal mines are on pace for an all-time low in work-related deaths. Federal...
West Virginia Fire Commission Appoints New State Fire Marshal
Dec 23 2014 // The West Virginia Fire Commission has appointed a Charleston firefighter as state fire marshal. Charleston Fire Department Capt. Ken Tyree will replace Tony Carrico, who is leaving the position at the end of the...
West Virginia Jury Awards $325K in Elder Abuse Case
Dec 21 2014 // A Monroe County, West Virginia jury has ordered a woman to pay $325,000 in damages in an elder abuse case. The circuit court jury found Betty B. Brown liable for fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment and breach of fiduciary...
Executives in West Virginia Chemical Spill Facing Criminal Charges
Dec 19 2014 // When state inspectors arrived at Freedom Industries asking about a licorice smell enveloping West Virginia’s capital city, the point person at the tank farm, Dennis P. Farrell, told them he knew nothing about a...
West Virginia Meatloaf Deaths Lawsuit Goes to Federal Court
Dec 16 2014 // A lawsuit blaming a restaurant’s meatloaf for the deaths of a former West Virginia state lawmaker and her husband is moving to federal court. In October, former Delegate Virginia Starcher’s family filed the...
Exec in West Virginia Chemical Spill Charged with Lying About Role
Dec 10 2014 // A West Virginia executive faces charges of lying to protect his personal wealth from lawsuits after his company spilled chemicals into 300,000 people’s water supply in January, according to a criminal complaint...
West Virginia Fire Marshal Resigns
Dec 10 2014 // West Virginia State Fire Marshal Anthony Wayne Carrico will be leaving his post at the end of the year. The West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said Carrico has accepted a position as a...
2014 State Specialist P/C Insurers Revealed
Dec 1 2014 // The Demotech Company Classification System categorizes insurers into one of 11 categories based on an analysis of data reported by the companies to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). The 11...
Pickens to Head Insurance Board for West Virginia’s State Agencies
Nov 30 2014 // The West Virginia Board of Risk and Insurance Management is getting a new executive director. The board announced last week that Mary Jane Pickens will succeed Chuck Jones, who is retiring effective Jan. 1. Jones has been...
Abuse Complaints Against Private West Virginia School Released
Nov 25 2014 // A former West Virginia boarding school for troubled youths was named in more than a dozen complaints of abuse and mistreatment over the past five years, one involving a student who allegedly volunteered a younger sibling...
Blankenship Pleads Not Guilty to Charges Linked to Massey Mine Explosion
Nov 21 2014 // Former Massey Energy chief Donald Blankenship pleaded not guilty to charges linked to the West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers in the worst U.S. coal industry disaster in almost 40 years. The former...
Massey Ex-CEO Blankenship Faces Criminal Charges Over 2010 Mine Explosion
Nov 18 2014 // The former Massey Energy chief, scorned by regulators and a U.S. senator, may face three decades in prison if convicted of charges stemming from a West Virginia mine explosion that killed 29 workers, the worst U.S. coal...
West Virginia University Suspends Fraternities
Nov 17 2014 // West Virginia University last week suspended activities at its fraternities and sororities after a freshman suffered a “catastrophic medical emergency” at a frat house. Nolan Burch, 18, from Buffalo, New York,...
West Virginia Court Reinstates Damages Against City for Flooding
Nov 17 2014 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has ordered the restoration of monetary damages to Huntington homeowners hit by flooding in 2011. The high court ruled in an appeal brought by five plaintiffs along Krouts Creek, The...
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...
