Latest West Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
West Virginia Insurers Pay More for Deer-Related Auto Accidents
Oct 27 2011 // West Virginia auto insurers are paying more for deer-related accident claims despite the fact that fewer drivers are involved in deer-related crashes. The West Virginia Department of Insurance has released its 2010 study...
Ex-Mine Official Convicted in Deadly West Virginia Disaster
Oct 26 2011 // The former security chief at a West Virginia coal mine where 29 miners died last year was convicted of two felonies Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. Hughie Elbert Stover, 60, was convicted by a federal...
West Virginia Judge Affirms $91M Damage Award Against Nursing Home
Oct 24 2011 // A Kanawha County, West Virginia judge has affirmed most of a $91.5 million damage award against a Charleston nursing home in a lawsuit that claimed it failed to properly feed and care for an elderly woman who died hours...
Workplace Deaths Double in West Virginia
Oct 19 2011 // Fatal on-the-job incidents in West Virginia more than doubled in 2010 compared to the previous year. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said 95 workers were killed in workplace incidents, up from 41 in 2009. It’s...
West Virginia Orders Emergency Mine Inspections
Oct 19 2011 // West Virginia mine safety officials have ordered emergency inspections of up to 500 rescue shelters in the state’s underground coal mines. The Office of Miners Health, Safety and Training issued the order...
Number of U.S. Deer-Vehicle Collisions Falls 7 Percent
Oct 5 2011 // For the third consecutive year, the number of deer-vehicle collisions in the U.S. has dropped, according to Illinois-based State Farm Insurance. And the downturn is accelerating. The percentage decline over the last year...
Parties Mum on $35M West Virginia Coal Slurry Settlement
Oct 3 2011 // Lawyers, plaintiffs and others are remaining quiet about a $35 million settlement with hundreds of people who say a Massey Energy subsidiary poisoned their wells with coal slurry. More than 300 people gathered at the...
Nursing Home Case Spotlights West Virginia’s Malpractice Damages Cap
Sep 30 2011 // Lawyers for a West Virginia nursing home are preparing to take a case to the state’s Supreme Court on the grounds that a $91.5 million jury award should be reduced under the state’s medical malpractice law. In...
Video on West Virginia Plant Leak Urges Manufacturing Safety
Sep 26 2011 // The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, releasing a video depicting a deadly chemical leak at a DuPont plant in Belle, West Virginia last year, said the final investigation report should remind every manufacturer to make safety a...
West Virginia College Town Tries to Curb Football Game Fires
Sep 21 2011 // Morgantown, West Virginia fire officials are trying to prevent the spectacle of nationally televised street fires after a big football game Saturday night by ordering hundreds of people to remove furniture and other...
Zurich Wins West Virginia Workers’ Comp Contract
Sep 19 2011 // West Virginia state agencies will have a new workers’ compensation insurer beginning next month. Zurich Insurance Co. submitted the winning bid of $19 million for the one-year contract. Zurich will replace...
3 Insurers Bid for West Virginia Account
Sep 5 2011 // Three companies are vying to provide workers’ compensation coverage for state agencies. Acting Insurance Commissioner Michael Riley said that BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co., Chartis, and Zurich Insurance Co....
West Virginia Jury Awards $7 Million in Electric Plant Explosion Death
Aug 30 2011 // A West Virginia jury has awarded $7 million in damages to the family of a worker killed in a 2007 explosion at an American Electric Power plant in Ohio. A Marshall County jury found AEP and subsidiary Ohio Power Co....
DuPont Plantiffs in West Virginia Allowed to Seek Medical Monitoring
Aug 22 2011 // A judge says 14 plaintiffs can enroll in a court-administered medical monitoring program even as they sue DuPont over a West Virginia zinc-smelting plant they say made them sick. Plaintiffs got copies of Harrison County...
Massey Wants to Know How $35M West Virginia Settlement Became Public
Aug 17 2011 // Lawyers for Massey Energy Co. want to know who violated the confidentiality of a $35 million settlement agreement reached with hundreds of West Virginia residents who say the mining company poisoned their wells with coal...
3 Insurers Bid for West Virginia’s Workers’ Compensation Business
Aug 15 2011 // Three companies are vying to provide workers’ compensation coverage for state agencies. Acting Insurance Commissioner Michael Riley said that that BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co., Chartis, and Zurich Insurance Co....
Massey Offers $35 Million to Settle Coal Slurry Claim in West Virginia
Aug 11 2011 // Massey Energy Co. has offered $35 million to settle a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who say the mining company poisoned their drinking supplies with wastewater called coal slurry. The...
West Virginia Jury Awards $91.5 Million in Nursing Home Death
Aug 9 2011 // A jury in Kanawha County, West Virginia has awarded $91.5 million in damages to the family of an 87-year-old woman who died after her stay at a Charleston nursing home. The jury ruled that Heartland of Charleston failed to...
21 West Virginia Flood-Prone Properties Eligible for Buyouts
Aug 9 2011 // Owners of 21 flood-prone properties in a rural Berkeley County, West Virginia community are being offered buyouts. The parcels in Sportsman’s Paradise include nine vacant lots and 12 with dwellings. Donna Seiler...
Workers’ Compensation Costs Continue to Drop in West Virginia
Aug 3 2011 // West Virginia employers would continue to benefit from lower workers’ compensation rates if the state agrees with an industry filing that loss costs be cut by 8.1 percent. Since the state privatized its...
