Latest West Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
West Virginia to Review Accidents Involving State Vehicles
May 29 2009 // West Virginia officials plan to enforce a long-ignored regulation requiring reviews of accidents involving state vehicles in response to a legislative audit that criticized one agency. The audit says 19 Alcohol Beverage...
West Virginia Physician Convicted of Insurance Fraud Seeks Retrial
May 29 2009 // A Marlinton, West Virginia, physician convicted on 29 counts of health care fraud for billing insurers for services he never performed is seeking a new trial. U.S. District Judge Irene Keeley has set a July 2 hearing for...
West Virginia Fines Trucking Firm for Fatal Mining Accident
May 21 2009 // The state of West Virginia has fined a trucking company $50,000 for violations investigators say contributed to a fatal coal mining accident in February, a spokeswoman for the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and...
Medical Device Maker to Settle Suits Against West Virginia Doctor
May 15 2009 // A medical device maker has told shareholders it is settling out of lawsuits against Dr. John King, the one-time West Virginia osteopath at the center of scores of malpractice claims. Biomet Inc. has reached agreements with...
Emergency Declared in West Virginia Due to Severe Flooding
May 11 2009 // Heavy rains caused flash-flooding this past weekend in southern West Virginia, closing many highways, forcing residents from their homes and prompting Gov. Joe Manchin to declare a state of emergency. Manchin’s...
West Virginia’s City National Bank Acquires 2 Insurance Agencies
May 5 2009 // Charleston, West Virginia-based City National Bank and its insurance division, CityInsurance Professionals, reported they have acquired two local insurance agencies: the Patton Insurance Agency in Nitro and the Dickens...
Safety Lapses Found in West Virginia Bayer Chemical Plant Explosion
Apr 24 2009 // A large explosion and fire that took the lives of two workers at the Bayer CropScience plant in West Virginia last August was caused by a thermal runaway reaction during the production of an insecticide. The event likely...
West Virginia’s Expanding Brickstreet Mutual Outsources Public Relations
Apr 20 2009 // West Virginia workers’ compensation carrier BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. says it’s getting rid of its in-house public relations and communications office. BrickStreet president and chief executive Greg...
Massey Energy Fined $2.5 Million for Fatal West Virginia Mine Fire
Apr 17 2009 // A Massey Energy subsidiary was fined $2.5 million fine this week after a federal judge accepted the company’s guilty plea to 10 criminal charges for a fire that killed two West Virginia coal miners. U.S. District...
DuPont: West Virginia Court Should Overturn Smelter Case
Apr 10 2009 // Chemical maker DuPont urged the West Virginia Supreme Court to fix what it called mistakes that led to a nearly $400 million verdict against the company by overturning the case. The court can order a new trial or even...
West Virginia House Targets Drivers’ Cell Phone Use
Mar 31 2009 // If you’re on the phone while driving and have your hands on your cell instead of the wheel, that could mean a misdemeanor charge in West Virginia. Legislation passed 80-18 by the House to the Senate aims to limit...
Business Moves
Mar 23 2009 // Auto Club Insurance, MEEMIC Auto Club Insurance Association, a Dearborn, Michigan-based insurer, reported it has agreed to acquire MEEMIC Insurance Co. and its insurance agency affiliate, MEEMIC Insurance Services...
West Virginia Lawmakers Delay Drunk Driver Lock Expansion
Mar 18 2009 // A proposal to put interlocks in the vehicles of every West Virginian convicted of drunken driving appears to be on hold this year while lawmakers await the results of an earlier expansion of the program. But a West...
West Virginia’s BrickStreet Mutual Names Allstate’s Laska as CIO
Mar 16 2009 // Tony Laska has joined workers’ compensation insurer BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. as its senior vice president and chief information officer. Laska comes to West Virginia from the Chicago area, where he had been...
Bankruptcy Won’t Help West Virginia Doctor Avoid Malpractice Payments
Mar 9 2009 // A former West Virginia doctor will not be able to use his Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing in Birmingham to block payments in scores of malpractice cases after a federal bankruptcy judge ruled he was hiding assets. The order...
West Virginia’s Workers’ Comp Writer BrickStreet to Expand Into Other States
Mar 3 2009 // Workers’ compensation insurer BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. wants to expand into Kentucky, Virginia, Alabama, Pennsylvania and Illinois. President and Chief Executive Officer Greg Burton says the West...
$160 Million West Virginia Flood Control Project Nears Approval
Feb 24 2009 // A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official says a proposed $160 million flood-control project along the Greenbrier River in West Virginia’s Pocahontas County could be approved soon. Talk of the project started more than...
Lawmakers Propose Reining in West Virginia Insurance Agency
Feb 19 2009 // West Virginia gives its insurance commission a lot of leeway when it comes to regulating workers’ compensation coverage. But pending legislation could change that. The House majority whip and judiciary chairwoman are...
Business Moves
Feb 8 2009 // Liberty Mutual, Wausau Liberty Mutual Group, which sells insurance both direct and through independent agents, is discontinuing direct distribution to mid-sized businesses and now plans to distribute its commercial...
2 More West Virginia Families Reach Sago Mine Settlements
Jan 28 2009 // Court records show that families of two more workers who died in the Sago Mine disaster have settled their lawsuits with the mine’s operator. Details of the settlement with International Coal Group were not made...
