Latest West Virginia Headlines
All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Judge Delays Ex-Massey CEO’s Trial, Keeps Case in West Virginia
Jun 15 2015 // A federal judge has agreed to delay the criminal trial of former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger on Friday delayed the trial from July 13 to Oct. 1, The Charleston Gazette reports....
West Virginia Woman Suing Lumber Liquidators Over Chinese-Made Flooring
Jun 2 2015 // A West Virginia woman who purchased flooring from Lumber Liquidators is suing the company, citing reports its Chinese-made laminate flooring contains high levels of the carcinogen formaldehyde. Genevieve Baldwin filed suit...
Prosecutors Say No to Moving West Virginia Chemical Spill Criminal Case
Jun 1 2015 // Prosecutors oppose a motion by former executives asking a judge to move their criminal case over a chemical spill. In Charleston federal court May 29, prosecutors wrote that ex-Freedom Industries officials Gary Southern...
West Virginia Supreme Court Rules Addicts Can Sue Pharmacies, Doctors
Jun 1 2015 // Pharmacies and doctors who negligently prescribe pain medication can be sued for enabling people’s addictions, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled. The ruling last month involved 29 people who were patients of...
Report Finds West Virginia Roads, Bridges Among the Worst in U.S.
May 27 2015 // West Virginia received poor marks in a new report that examined traffic fatalities and road and bridge conditions in rural areas. Twenty-nine percent of major rural roads in West Virginia were in poor condition in 2013,...
West Virginia Supreme Court Rules Addicts Can Sue Pharmacies, Doctors
May 18 2015 // Pharmacies and doctors who negligently prescribed pain medication can be sued for enabling people’s addictions, the West Virginia Supreme Court ruled. The ruling involved 29 people who were patients of Mingo...
DuPont’s Teflon Spin-Off Plan Worries Neighbors of West Virginia Chemical Plant
May 8 2015 // DuPont Co.’s plan to spin off its Teflon unit is spurring concern on the West Virginia-Ohio border that the new company won’t cover medical payments for residents sickened by a chemical long-used at the...
Freedom Industries Seeks to Settle West Virginia Spill Case for $2.7M
May 4 2015 // Freedom Industries wants to wrap up its bankruptcy case by paying a variety of groups $6.7 million, including $2.7 million for victims of the company’s January 2014 chemical spill that sullied the water supply across...
New Mining Map Tool from Environmental Activists Finds West Virginia Most at Risk
Apr 30 2015 // Environmental activists said that mountaintop removal coal mining has been expanding closer to communities in central Appalachia in recent years, with nearly half of the 50 areas most at risk in West Virginia. As part of...
Alpha Natural Facing Big Insurance Buy for Abandoned Mines Shortfall
Apr 20 2015 // Alpha Natural Resources Inc, a struggling U.S. coal company, may be forced to buy costly new insurance or otherwise ensure it can cover obligations for cleaning up any abandoned mines, according to officials in West...
Prosecutors Launch Website for West Virginia Spill Victims
Apr 17 2015 // Federal prosecutors have set up a website offering updates to victims about the criminal cases over last year’s massive chemical spill in West Virginia. On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced the new...
Massey Ex-CEO Blankenship’s Criminal Trial Moved to July
Apr 12 2015 // Former Massey Energy Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship was given a three-month reprieve to prepare for a criminal trial over an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners. The blast at the Upper Big Branch...
Ex-Massey Mine CEO: ‘I Don’t Want to Go to 100 Funerals’
Apr 9 2015 // Former Massey Energy Co. Chief Executive Officer Donald Blankenship, facing criminal trial over an April 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners, said the year before that he feared a disaster with 100 deaths. “I...
Pipeline Developer Sues More Than 100 West Virginia Property Owners
Apr 6 2015 // More than 100 property owners in West Virginia are being sued by the developer of a proposed natural gas pipeline. Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC’s lawsuit seeks access to the properties to conduct a survey for a...
Jury Awards $3M to West Virginia Man in Ford Crash Lawsuit
Apr 6 2015 // A 74-year-old West Virginia man who sued Ford Motor Company after his gas pedal got stuck, causing him to crash his truck, has been awarded more than $3 million in damages. The Charleston Gazette reports that a federal...
West Virginia Lawmakers Put Off Decision on Uber
Apr 6 2015 // It looks unlikely that Uber is coming to West Virginia this year. With debate closed, the Republican-led House of Delegates voted on March 13 against reviving an Uber bill that was idled. The bill would have allowed Uber...
Family Sues Over West Virginia School’s Use of Walking as Discipline
Apr 2 2015 // A student’s family is suing West Virginia’s Berkeley County Schools over a school’s use of walking as a form of discipline. The lawsuit says Mountain Ridge Intermediate School’s policy violates...
Freedom Industries, West Virginia Sign Spill Site Cleanup Agreement
Apr 2 2015 // Freedom Industries and West Virginia regulators have signed an agreement for cleaning up the site of a 2014 chemical spill in the Elk River that prompted a tap water ban for 300,000 people for days. The agreement announced...
West Virginia Governor Signs Scaled Back Version of 2014 Water Safety Law
Mar 30 2015 // Less than a year after signing legislation with new safeguards in response to a 2014 chemical spill that prompted a tap-water ban for 300,000 people, West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill Friday to trim...
West Virginia Chemical Spill Settlement for Community Projects Dropped
Mar 27 2015 // Lawyers for businesses and people affected by a massive chemical spill last year say a settlement to fund community projects is no longer being considered. In June 2014, lawyers for the groups affected by the Freedom...
