By Amy Purpura | West Virginia Watchdog
Ever since Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland passed laws legalizing slot machines and table gaming, racetrack-casinos in WV worried that this increased competition would attract fewer customers to the state. While this worry has proven accurate, especially for the two racetrack-casinos in the northern panhandle, state regulations from Charleston have [...]

By Amy Purpura | West Virginia Watchdog
In the previous article of this series on firearms, one of the biggest myths about gun violence was debunked. Namely, that statistics show more guns do not result in more gun murders. However, the last article did not discuss any of the gun policy in place in the US [...]

By Terry Wallace | West Virginia Watchdog
In 1944, Hitler’s Schutzstaffel commandeered the entire European potato crop and turned it into ethanol to fuel V2 rockets.  With their foreign oil sources interdicted by Allied advances, the Germans resorted to replacing imported oil supplies by converting civilian food stocks into ethanol.
The Nazi terror weapon turned out to [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin‘s substance abuse bill passed one committee today on the West Virginia Senate side, but still has two more committees to go through.
The Senate Health and Human Resources Committee passed SB437, Tomblin’s proposal that would create a regulatory framework in place to monitor [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — One scrap yard owner told lawmakers that their proposal to curb copper theft had good parts, but it also had bad sections.
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard this morning from Tony Coffman, owner of Coffman’s Metals in Birch River, W.Va. Senators are looking at SB528, which has [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — A bill designed to curb copper theft in West Virginia could do harm to the scrap metal industry despite its good intentions.
Last Tuesday 16 Senators introduced SB528: Senate President Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall), Majority Leader John Unger (D-Berkeley), Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson), Richard Browning (D-Wyoming), Corey Palumbo (D-Kanawha), [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — The lead sponsor of right-to-work legislation in the West Virginia Senate encouraged her fellow lawmakers to discuss the issue, while a union-employed senator said such legislation would be harmful to labor.
SB508, sponsored by state Sen. Karen Facemyer (R-Jackson) and introduced last Friday, would allow workers to [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — A bill making texting while driving a primary offense is now on its way to the West Virginia House of Delegates after passing the state Senate.
Senators passed SB211 unanimously today, after the penalties in the bill were changed. SB211 would make it a primary offense to [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Unless the bill returns in another chamber, for the time being future county magistrates will not have to go to college.
The West Virginia Senate defeated a measure that would have required county magistrates to have a two-year college degree to be eligible to run for office. [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Two lawmakers who support requiring prescriptions for cold medicines containing ingredients used in the making methamphetamine say the bill will put the hurt on local meth labs, but can’t guarantee that demand for the powerful narcotic will decease.
Last week, lawmakers introduced SB 346, called the Larry [...]