Latest Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
First Major Snowfall in West Virginia Blamed for Dozens of Wrecks
Dec 21 2015 // West Virginia’s first significant snowfall this year is to blame for dozens of highway wrecks. There were no reports of deaths, but slick roads Friday night left many drivers and their passengers injured. In Kanawha...
Best, Worst States for Insurance Regulation
Dec 21 2015 // Vermont, Utah, Iowa, Virginia and Kentucky get an “A” and North Carolina an “F” in one think tank’s annual grading of states on how they regulate the property/casualty insurance industry. The...
West Virginia Hospital Association Releases Guidelines to Reduce Opioid Drug Abuse
Dec 18 2015 // The West Virginia Hospital Association Board of Trustees has endorsed a set of guidelines to help West Virginia’s hospitals reduce the misuse of opioid prescription drugs. Director of Communications Tina Rymer said...
Virginia’s Tangier Island Residents Could Become ‘Climate Change Refugees’
Dec 17 2015 // A report says islanders in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay could be among the first “climate change refugees” in the continental United States. The research published in the journal Scientific Reports says...
11 West Virginia Workers Injured at Chemical Manufacturer Plant
Dec 17 2015 // Eleven contract workers were injured Tuesday in a boiler accident at chemical manufacturer Axiall Corp.’s Natrium plant in West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle, the company said. The company said in a statement...
Blankenship Sentencing Set For Next Year in West Virginia Mine Case
Dec 14 2015 // Former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship will be sentenced next year on a conviction of conspiring to violate safety rules at the mine where a deadly explosion occurred. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger on Dec. 10...
OSHA Cites West Virginia Logging Company for 22 Safety Violations
Dec 14 2015 // Federal regulators have cited a logging company for 22 serious worker safety violations. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration says Ray Clearing Inc. of Bickmore also was issued one other-than-serious...
Report: Southeast States Unprepared for Future Risks from Climate Change
Dec 11 2015 // Source: States at Risk Many states across the country, particularly in the Southeast, are unprepared to face the risks posed from extreme heat, drought, wildfires, inland flooding, coastal flooding and other extreme...
Blankenship Verdict Too Late for Struggling West Virginia Coal Industry
Dec 7 2015 // A 48-foot black granite monument with life-size silhouettes of 29 fallen miners defines this small Appalachian town, just downhill from the site of one of the deadliest U.S. mine disasters. Survivors and friends of those...
How a King of Coal Conspired Against Mine Safety
Dec 4 2015 // To hear Donald L. Blankenship tell it, the U.S. coal industry has been undone by inept regulators, evil unions, the media and “global warming hoaxers.” But for jurors at his criminal trial in Charleston, West...
Blankenship Found Guilty of Conspiracy in W. Virginia Mine Blast
Dec 3 2015 // Former Massey Energy Chief Executive Don Blankenship was found guilty in federal court on Thursday of conspiring to violate safety standards at the Upper Big Branch mine, the site of a 2010 blast that killed 29...
Disaster Loans Offered to West Virginia Businesses Impacted by Weather
Dec 3 2015 // Small businesses in West Virginia that have been impacted by bad weather may be able to get financial assistance from the federal government. The U.S. Small Business Association says economic injury disaster loans are...
Blankenship Jury Still Deadlocked in West Virginia Mine Blast Case
Dec 2 2015 // Jurors at former Massey Energy Co. Chief Donald Blankenship’s criminal trial ended their eighth day of deliberations after telling the judge they remain deadlocked on charges the coal executive plotted to ignore...
Best, Worst States for Insurance Regulation
Dec 1 2015 // Vermont, Utah, Iowa, Virginia and Kentucky get an “A” and North Carolina an “F” in one think tank’s annual grading of states on how they regulate the property/casualty insurance industry. The...
Virginia Approves 3.4% Overall Increase in Workers’ Comp Loss Costs
Nov 25 2015 // The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) announced Tuesday the approval of revisions to the premium levels charged for workers’ compensation insurance in Virginia. The revisions will result in an overall...
Seniors Fitted for Safe Driving Through Virginia’s Car Fit Program
Nov 23 2015 // William Cohen beeped his car horn, making those nearest jump and then laugh. Getting the all-clear from a nearby Albemarle County, Virginia, police officer, the senior driver took off for the parking lot exit in his black...
Blankenship Case in Limbo in West Virginia as Jurors Struggle to Reach Verdict
Nov 22 2015 // After a third full day of deliberations, a jury recessed Friday without reaching a verdict in the criminal trial of ex-Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. Jurors had been trying since Tuesday, Nov. 17, to reach a decision....
Florida Man Gets 10 Years for West Virginia Pill Trafficking
Nov 20 2015 // A Florida man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for prescription pill trafficking and money laundering. Forty-six-year-old Lester W. Taylor of Daytona Beach, Fla., also was ordered in federal court in Charleston to...
Northern West Virginia Forms Group to ID Health Care Fraud
Nov 19 2015 // State and federal authorities have created a multi-jurisdictional working group to identify and deal with health care fraud in northern West Virginia. U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II and representatives of the FBI,...
Defense Rests in West Virginia Mine Blast Trial, Blankenship Stays Mum
Nov 17 2015 // Former Massey Energy Chief Donald Blankenship won’t take the witness stand to explain what happened when a company mine exploded in 2010 killing 29 workers, choosing instead to leave his fate in the hands of jurors...
