Miners and advocates rallied Wednesday at the West Virginia Capitol in support of a series of bills aimed at preventing and treating severe black lung disease. Five bills introduced by lawmakers would make it easier to make qualify for state benefits and provide benefits to miners who have early-stage black […]
Read MoreTag: Politics
W.Va. Teacher: We Went on Strike to Fight Retaliation, Not Reform
My great-grandfather was a coal miner. He dropped out of school to mine coal at age 14, and he supported his family with his wages from the mines and what he could grow on the small farm I would one day grow up on. And while he never regretted his […]
Read MoreWest Virginia Teachers Enter Day Two of Strike with End Likely in Sight
West Virginia teachers and school service personnel are on strike for the second day, despite a procedural move Tuesday in the state’s Republican-led House of Delegates that jeopardizes the passage of a sweeping education reform bill. The bill included a 5 percent pay raise for school employees and some additional […]
Read MoreWhen W.Va. Delegate Compared LGBT to KKK, He Highlighted the History of Religious Right Prejudice
When West Virginia House of Delegates member Eric Porterfield, R-Mercer, called the LGBT community “the modern-day version of the Ku Klux Klan” in an interview with a Charleston Gazette-Mail reporter last week, it drew condemnation not just in the state, but nationwide. But Porterfield, in fact, joined a long legacy […]
Read MoreAppalachians Share Solutions for Coal Transition with Congress
Democrats in the U.S. House are continuing their focus on climate change, this week shifting from its environmental to its economic impact and looking to Appalachia for next steps to aid communities with fossil fuel-based economies. On Thursday, members of the Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee heard testimony on how […]
Read MoreFact-check: Did Obamacare Premiums Rise 160 percent in West Virginia in Four Years?
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, recently took to Facebook to criticize the Affordable Care Act, the landmark law also known as Obamacare. Morrisey is seeking to overturn the law through a suit filed by a number of Republican attorneys general. In his Jan. 2 post, Morrisey said the country must […]
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