Latest West Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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...
Massey Settles Massive West Virginia Coal Slurry Case
Jul 29 2011 // After a marathon mediation session that ended just before dawn Wednesday, mining company Massey Energy settled a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who claim the company poisoned their...
BrickStreet Bids to Keep West Virginia Workers’ Comp Accounts
Jul 27 2011 // BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. has decided it wants to continue providing workers’ compensation insurance to state agencies. BrickStreet had said earlier this year that it wasn’t interested in continuing the...
Judge Blasts West Virginia Medical Damages Cap
Jul 25 2011 // A West Virginia judge who helped West Virginia’s Supreme Court hear a recent medical malpractice case is blasting the outcome. First Circuit Judge Ronald Wilson dissented sharply on Friday with last month’s...
West Virginia Court Weighs Pollution Liability of Massey Subsidiary
Jul 25 2011 // Three judges hearing a coal slurry pollution lawsuit against Massey Energy are considering whether the parent corporation should be held liable for the actions of a subsidiary it claims operated independently. Massey...
West Virginia Extends Deadline for Insurer Bids on State Business
Jul 19 2011 // The deadline for insurers wanting to submit bids to write the workers’ compensation coverage for state agencies in West Virginia has been extended until October. West Virginia’s primary workers’...
West Virginia Moves Ahead with Plan for Business Court
Jul 18 2011 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has given a committee the go-ahead to design a new court system that would consider business-related lawsuits. Wayne County Circuit Judge Darrell Pratt, the committee’s chairman, said...
Counties Join West Virginia Risk Pool
Jul 18 2011 // In the wake of a decision by a West Virginia workers’ compensation insurer to drop its program for government agencies, more counties are lining up to join a risk pool. County governments throughout the state are...
West Virginia Receives Funds to Demolish Flood-Prone Homes
Jul 8 2011 // The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded $1.2 million to West Virginia’s Wayne County to acquire and tear down flood-prone homes. Rep. Nick Rahall announced the hazard mitigation grant. The West Virginia...
Report Faults DuPont in West Virginia Worker’s Death
Jul 7 2011 // Chemical maker DuPont failed to promptly inform emergency crews about a phosgene leak that killed a worker last year, according to a U.S. government report released Thursday. The report by the Chemical Safety Board (CSB),...
West Virginia Firefighters Get Insurance Premium Subsidy Check
Jul 7 2011 // A volunteer fire department in Kanawha County has become the first in West Virginia to receive a rebate check to cover the costs of higher premiums for workers’ compensation insurance. The check for $1,638 was...
West Virginia Firefighters’ Relief
Jul 4 2011 // West Virginia’s volunteer fire departments looking to offset increases in their workers’ compensation premiums can now apply for help on a website launched by state Auditor Glen Gainer. “Volunteer...
Federal Report: Coal Dust, Deception in Fatal West Virginia Mine Blast
Jun 30 2011 // The blast that killed 29 men in a West Virginia coal mine last year was probably caused by coal dust ignition, compounded by safety failings, intimidation and deception by the mine’s owner, the U.S. mine regulator...
