Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signs SB469, providing a funding mechanism for West Virginia’s $5 billion OPEB debt. (Photo/Steven Allen Adams)
By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a bill making West Virginia the first state to deal with its multi-billion dollar retiree health [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia Senate put Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s public retiree health care funding proposal on the fast track to full passage by the Legislature later this week.
The state Senate suspended the rules requiring a bill be read on three separate days before passage and sent [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Our seventh most read story on West Virginia was about the protest of the state’s Commissioner of the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.
In June, Scott Speedy – the former curator of the Grave Creek Mound Complex in Moundsville, W.Va. – led a musical protest [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — If Monday’s nearly five-hour debate is any indication, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin‘s Marcellus Shale regulation bill will take time before passage.
The bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon, with debate starting at 9 a.m. and ending close to 2 p.m.
The Governor’s bill applies to any [...]

West Virginia Senate President Jeff Kessler (D-Marshall) takes the oath of office. (Photo/Steven Allen Adams)
By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Just like his predecessor, Jeff Kessler dropped the “acting” from in front of his title.
“The time of acting is over,” Kessler said. “We’re going to get rid of that six-letter word. Yesterday [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., had some blunt words for Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai today.
“Mr. Karzai, I’m sorry, but it’s time for us to leave your country and let you take care of your own problems,” Manchin said.
Manchin’s comments after Karzai to a Pakistani TV station [...]

Governor-elect Earl Ray Tomblin speaks at the first meeting of Region 5 of the Governor’s Regional Substance Abuse Task Force. (Picture/Steven Allen Adams)

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Governor-elect Earl Ray Tomblin was on hand for the first meeting of Region 5 of the Governor’s Regional Substance Abuse Task Force.
Tomblin, acting as [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — In what is quickly becoming a tit-for-tat race, the Republican Governors Association released their third ad attacking Senate President and Acting Governor Earl Ray Tomblin, the Democratic nominee in the Oct. 4 special election for West Virginia’s next governor.
The ad, titled “We Need a Referee,” defends [...]

By Steven Allen Adams | West Virginia Watchdog
CHARLESTON — Both leading party candidates for West Virginia’s next governor traded barbs today over a recent negative TV ad campaign.
The negative ad, released in the middle of last week by the campaign of Republican Bill Maloney, claims that his Democratic opponent, Senate President and Acting Governor Earl [...]

By Steven Allen Adams
steven@westvirginiawatchdog.org
The West Virginia State Senate is replacing their floor books with iPad 2 touchscreen tablets with the hopes that the new technology will help streamline how the Senate operates, allow Senators to track bills and amendments in real-time, and save taxpayer dollars on printing.
The initiative, started by Senate Majority Leader John Unger [...]