Is it unfair to say that the fossil fuel industry runs this state?
Your West Virginia legislature at work (or in the case of fracking, not at work)
Coal
From WV Metro News earlier this evening:
Senate Finance passes 3-year steam coal tax cut
Senator Doug Facemire (D – Braxton) stated the obvious:
“Are we helping the miners and the counties, or are we just going to stick this money the coal companies’ pockets?” Facemire asked.
The . . .
How about a little arsenic and radium with your drinking water?
Coal ash and Congressman McKinley
A new study
The first national study of coal ash pollution was released yesterday and found 90% of the regulated coal ash repositories are leaking (including 30 of them in the Ohio Valley). The study was done by the Environmental Integrity Project and “used industry data that became available to the public for the first time in 2018 . . .
Posted in: coal ashdavid mckinleyepa
Shorter version of today’s Wheeling News-Register editorial: “We’re shocked, shocked that anyone could possibly think that the WV Republican Party encourages racism”
Who is criticized the most? A look at the possible answers
A. It's not House Speaker Roger Hanshaw. The speaker is quoted in the article about allowing:
national level politics to become a cancer on our state, to become a cancer on our Legislature, to invade our chamber in a way that, frankly, makes me . . .
More on the Republican racism on display at the Capitol rotunda
Yesterday, the group that the racist poster group claimed to be affiliated with put out a statement that essentially said: “Hey, we aren’t that racist!” And why did it take so long for WV Republican officials to notice?
Act for America responds
The controversial booth with the racist poster at Friday’s “Republicans Take the Rotunda” event claimed affiliation with Act for America. The Southern Poverty Law Center considers ACT for America to be an anti-Muslim hate group because
it pushes wild anti-Muslim conspiracy theories, denigrates . . .
Posted in: racismrepublican legislature
Some thoughts on the practice of blogging
Five years of blogging
In February of 2014 I decided that I needed to do something beyond complaining to my wife and friends about the state of journalism in the Wheeling area. I decided to create a blog; the Wheeling Alternative was the result. I published my first blog post on March 2, 2014 about a biased headline that ran in the . . .
Posted in: blogginglocal news
WV Republican intolerance strikes again
Here's WV Metro News's report:
Tempers boiled over in West Virginia’s House of Delegates about a display outside the chamber depicting anti-Muslim images and statements.
The materials were on display on a table right outside the House as part of a “Republicans Take the Rotunda” event. Not far away were . . .
Posted in: racism
Can an entire state suffer from battered spouse syndrome?
“Now for the first time in our history we’re going to help the people who brought us to the dance” -- Delegate Vernon Crisp (R – Wood) explaining the WV House of Delegates voting to reduce the severance tax on thermal coal
Today’s Wheeling “newspapers” featured a front-page story that the WV House of Delegates voted to reduce the taxes on steam coal. Delegate Crisp’s comment comes at the end of the story. Is Crisp familiar with West Virginia’s past, or for that matter, present? It’s difficult to study the state’s history and not see that those “who brought us . . .
