Late last night the Republicans and Democrats got together and came up with a trillion dollar spending bill that will finance the federal government through September. My concern when I first heard about it this morning was, probably not unlike many West Virginians, the fate of the retired UMWA miners. The lateness of the agreement meant that morning papers did not cover the agreement. As the morning wore on, the AP published a number of stories about the agreement. Here is one that was posted on WSAZ's webpage around 10 AM that directly addressed the retired miners' fate:

West Virginia lawmakers cite fix for retired miner benefits

And here's the first sentence:

West Virginia lawmakers say the new congressional spending plan contains a permanent extension of health care benefits for more than 22,000 retired miners and widows whose medical coverage is set to expire this month.

Good news and so I waited to see how the afternoon News-Register would handle the story. Except that they didn't. While they did feature a front page story about the budget agreement, the AP article that was used made no mention of the permanent benefits for the retirees. (By the way, the largest article on the front page was "Tales Ready to Wag," a story about the upcoming opening of Wheeling's dog park.)

Hey, aren't we due for another one of those editorials that tells us what a great job they do keeping us informed?