West Virginia

West Virginia

• W.Va. gets $22M for ‘bad schools’

  Nearly $22 million in federal stimulus money will help West Virginia’s worst schools take drastic measures, including replacing principals and overhauling curriculum, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Thursday.

  West Virginia is the first state to receive money through the federal School Improvement Grants program, which seeks to improve student performance by targeting chronically low-performing schools.

   

  March 12, 2010

• Dead bills pile up in W.Va. Legislature

  Teenage tanners, seat belt scofflaws and adults who text while driving are among those who will evade further legislative restriction this year.

  With three days to go before the regular legislative session ends, Thursday was the last day for most bills to reach the full House or Senate in time for a final vote.

   

  March 12, 2010

• W.Va. Senate bolsters proposed FY11 budget

  Federal stimulus dollars and a recent pension funding change have allowed West Virginia’s Senate to tweak the upcoming state budget by $248 million.

  But the amended budget bill unanimously passed Wednesday still cuts general revenue spending by $47 million from what the Legislature passed last year.

   

  March 11, 2010

• Proposed fees may doom election funding bill

  The head of the Senate Finance Committee warned that the governor’s proposal to publicly finance state Supreme Court races could be derailed by concerns over the fees it would charge.

  Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, a Pocahontas County Democrat, questioned whether his committee would consider the legislation after it advanced late Monday from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

   

  March 10, 2010

• Mountain State cities may get more freedom

  State lawmakers appear ready to increase the independence of West Virginia’s local governments, and they aren’t waiting on results from an ongoing experiment on the subject.

   

  March 8, 2010

• Lawmakers entering session’s crunch time

  West Virginia’s Legislature has less than a week to decide the fate of proposals targeting abortion, corporate political spending and prescription drug abuse.

   

  March 7, 2010

• Foreman says mine boss ordered him to fake records

  A mining foreman accused of forging safety inspection reports at a West Virginia coal mine says his boss put profit ahead of potential danger, telling him to stop production and evacuate the mine only if a federal inspector was watching.

   

  March 6, 2010

• Advocates speak for, against ultrasound bill

  After easy Senate passage, a contentious abortion bill is the subject of a fight in the House of Delegates where a public hearing Friday morning drew more than two dozen supporters and opponents.

  The situation is familiar to the Legislature, where bills supported by abortion foes generally have an easier time in the Senate but have been derailed in the House for five consecutive years.

   

  March 6, 2010

• Agenda to curb drug abuse moves ahead in Legislature

  A set of bills aimed at curbing West Virginia’s prescription drug abuse problem is now before the House of Delegates, but one measure in particular is drawing questions about the state’s ability to change companies’ internal policies.

  A measure passed Thursday by the House Health and Human Resources Committee would require all pharmacies in the state to provide pharmacists with access to West Virginia’s online prescription drug database.

   

  March 5, 2010

• Education reform ‘to move forward’

  West Virginia education officials invested more than 4,500 hours trying to land $80 million for educational reforms only to be shot down Thursday as a finalist for the first phase of the $4.3 billion “Race to the Top” program.

  But that isn’t deterring state schools Superintendent Steve Paine, administrators, teachers unions, educators and others who plan to tweak their application and resubmit it by June 1, the deadline for the second round.

   

  March 5, 2010

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