Back on the front page: "Murray: Bankruptcy Possible if No Tax Cut"
A look at the severance tax cut proposal
Once again Robert Murray is back on the front page. On Thursday, he "demanded" a tax reduction (see three posts down); this time he argues that without a drop in the severance tax his company will face bankruptcy.
Half of the article is devoted to his explanation of the unfairness of WV's severance tax and the . . .
Posted in: coalmurray energyseverance tax
"Void, void Kiss My Ass, Bob"
You probably didn't know that the Murray Energy employee handbook has a policy against profanity
I wrote about this case back in July when this first broke. The story concerns two Marion County miners who returned bonus checks to Murray Energy and what they wrote on the backs of their checks. The International Business Times explains what happened:
Richard Harrison and Jesse Stolzenfels used to work at the West Virginia . . .
Posted in: murray energyumwa
Following the WV legislature 4
House of Delegates holds hearing on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act
Legalizing the freedom to discriminate?
In another action by the WV legislature not covered by our local "newspapers," the House of Delegates is considering a "religious freedom" bill. Yesterday they held hearings:
On Thursday morning, nearly 60 people spoke either for or against the West Virginia . . .
Intelligencer front-page story: "Murray Demands Tax Reduction"
Article, however, does not report whether he also stomped his feet and threatened to hold his breath until the severance tax was reduced
This morning's Intelligencer reports:
. . .Murray Energy CEO Robert E. Murray said paying $7.6 million in West Virginia severance taxes on New Year's Eve forced him to lay off 674 coal miners, so he's urging lawmakers to slash rates by more than half to "save what is left of its coal industry and jobs."
Posted in: coalmurray coalrobert murray
Following the WV legislature 3
This morning's "newspaper" did carry the AP article on the House of Delegates passage of a bill that eliminates the prevailing wage on public construction projects.
Since the AP didn't cover it, the Intelligencer didn't mention any additional legislation. According to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, however, the . . .
I guess they weren't newsworthy enough
A look at three stories you didn't see in the morning Intelligencer
The first story is obvious if you watched any non-Fox news yesterday or read any news online:
Grand jury indicts leader behind Planned Parenthood videos
That's the headline found on many of the 6,000+ morning news sources that carried an AP report that begins:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A Houston grand jury . . .
The war on coal miners continues
Here we go again
A bankrupt coal company wants to cut off benefits to its miners while at the same time giving huge bonuses to its executives. Doesn't this sound like what happened with Patriot Coal's bankruptcy last year? (I wrote about it here.) Yes, and that's exactly what's happening in the bankruptcy proceedings . . .
Posted in: alpha natural resourcescoalwar on coal
