Robert Byrd’s legacy is celebrated  – State News – Charleston Daily Mail – West Virginia News and Sports -

A ceremony honoring Sen. Robert C. Byrd included plenty of pomp and circumstance at the state Capitol Wednesday afternoon.

There were balloons, trumpets, fiddles and even a live eagle.

Byrd officially became the longest-serving member of Congress in history Wednesday, tallying 56 years and 320 days of service and surpassing the late Carl Hayden, a Democrat from Arizona.

“We felt it was important to unite and honor our dear friend on this special day,” Gov. Joe Manchin told a crowd in front of Byrd’s statue near the Rotunda of the state Capitol.

Byrd was not able to attend the party in Charleston as he was in Washington, D.C., where his fellow members of Congress also were celebrating his accomplishments.

Senate committee nixes OPEB relief plan – NewsandSentinel.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information – Parkersburg News and Sentinel

Local education officials were left scratching their heads Wednesday after the West Virginia Senate Finance Committee in Charleston rejected a plan to give school boards a temporary reprieve from a growing OPEB debt and in the process stave off a possible lawsuit against the state.

The committee voted Wednesday to reject Gov. Joe Manchin’s special session proposal to allow them a partial, one-year reprieve from Other Post-Employment Benefit costs.

The governor wants lawmakers to allow government employers to pay just what they owe their current retirees in ”other post-employment benefit” costs this budget year. A nearly unanimous committee instead favored pursuing a long-term solution that also addresses future, promised benefits during the 2010 regular session. It starts in January.

”I don’t think we should be doing this in a special session,” said Sen. Robert Plymale, D-Wayne. ”We need to do a lot more work on this, from the Senate’s standpoint.”

Manchin spokesman Matt Turner noted the House version of the bill remains alive. The House Finance Committee advanced that version to the full House later Wednesday.

Special Session News – West Virginia Headline News and Talk Radio

The municipal pension bill has had little problems this week. West Virginia Municipal League Executive Director Lisa Dooley says the bill has broad support among lawmakers. She says they recognize something must be done to help cities that are having financial problems with current police and fire pension plans.

The bill allows cities to close out their current pension plans and pay them off during the next 40 years. Any new police or fire hires would be placed in a new, less lucrative, pension plan.

Dooley gives credit to Governor Manchin for getting all interested parties at the table to discuss the issue. She says lawmakers and city officials have also shown great leadership.

Maynard e-mails should have been released, Workman … – News – The Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports

State Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman said Wednesday that the public should have known about the frequent e-mail messages former Justice Spike Maynard was sending to Massey Energy President Don Blankenship.

Workman concluded that information about the e-mails would have made clear the close relationship between Blankenship, whose company was appealing a $50 million verdict against it, and Maynard, who had refused to recuse himself from that appeal.

In a dissenting opinion, Workman said the e-mail messages sought by The Associated Press were public records that should have been released under West Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.

“Put simply, when a judge or a justice communicates, via a record that is prepared, owned and retained by a public body, with a party litigant (or someone closely connected therewith) while that party’s case is pending before that judge, such communication necessarily contains information that relates to that judge or justice’s conduct of the public’s business to the extent that it reveals the nature of the relationship between the two,” Workman wrote.

Charleston Gazette, Feds Continue Negotiations – State Journal – STATEJOURNAL.com

Settlement negotiations are continuing in a court case pitting the owners of The Charleston Gazette against federal prosecutors, who allege the company illegally attempted to put its longtime rival out of business.

In 2007, federal prosecutors filed an antitrust lawsuit in U.S. District Court against the parent companies of both the Gazette and the Charleston Daily Mail. They alleged that when the Gazette’s owners took over most operations of the Daily Mail a few years earlier, they began a campaign to drive down the newspaper’s circulation and gut its newsroom so it no longer would be financially viable, giving them reason to close the paper.

Both newspapers are part of a joint operating agreement, which allows them to share some business costs but gives them immunity from certain antitrust laws provided they maintain separate editorial staffs. Federal prosecutors alleged the companies’ actions violated that agreement.

Senate announces $848 billion health-care bill – washingtonpost.com

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid presented an $848 billion health-care overhaul package on Wednesday that would extend coverage to 31 million Americans and reform insurance practices while adding an array of tax increases, including a rise in payroll taxes for high earners.

Democratic leaders were jubilant that the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office determined that the Senate bill would cut federal deficits by $130 billion over the next decade. That projection, released shortly before midnight Wednesday, represents the biggest cost savings of any legislation to come before the House or Senate this year, but the measure’s effective date also was pushed back by one year, to 2014. Democrats said the savings could prove more significant in the long run, though the CBO said they “would probably be small,” amounting to around 0.25 percent of the overall economy, or no more than $650 billion between 2019 and 2029.

Those projected reductions could prove critical in winning the support of three wavering moderate Democrats whose votes Reid (D-Nev.) must secure to bring the legislation to the floor before the Senate breaks for Thanksgiving. But Reid also stacked the bill with provisions sought by liberals, including a public insurance option, albeit a version with an opt-out clause for states.

Powered by ScribeFire.