West Virginia
updated
12:09 p.m.
From JK: Drunken, abusive Massey Energy miners threaten crowd, curse children at July 4th gathering: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v... This is what we're fighting, folks. Warning: lots of foul language in the video. ...
West Virginia Blue - 9:59 a.m.
When you wake up in the morning and rub the sleep out of your eyes are you surprised to find a great shadowy figure in the room? We are past the Fourth and the "let's celebrate America" holiday feeling only to find that the lobbyists continued to move forward while we were distracted by fireworks and speeches. The Wapo points out this morning that a large number of former inner-office employees o...
West Virginia Blue - 9:20 a.m.
Brad Mills reminisces after visiting his childhood home near Beckley and asks some pertinent questions. Less than nine miles southwest lies the end of the new Coalfields Expressway, a four-lane road which will eventually extend through Mullens, Pineville, Welch, and Bradshaw, and terminate in Slate, VA (near Grundy). These are all tiny communities, Welch being the largest with about 2600 peopl...
West Virginia Blue - 1:08 a.m. - 2 clicks 
Everything you could possible want to know about the The Economics of Wind Power but probably didn't know enough to ask. One of the big differences with wind compared to coal and natural gas is it has high up-front costs and then almost zero marginal operating costs. In the case of wind, it is important to note that most of the costs are upfront, i.e. you need to spend money to manufacture an...
West Virginia Blue - Sat 5:22 p.m.
There's a lot of politicians in West Virginia who like to talk about the importance of coal as a domestic source of energy. Those tend to be the exact same politicians who stress United States energy independence as a policy goal. So, here's what I'd like to hear them explain: If coal is such an important national asset to secure American energy independence, why haven't they put a ban on ...
West Virginia Blue - Sat 12:28 p.m. - 8 clicks
From an email: The Southwestern District Labor Council, AFL-CIO will be hosting its 3rd part in a series of three Town Hall Meetings. This meeting deals with the modification to the National Labor Relations Act, known as the Employee Free Choice Act. We have assembled a panel to provide information, discuss and answer questions pertaining to this important piece of legislation. This is a publi...
West Virginia Blue - Sat 2:30 a.m. - 7 clicks
From an email: Report: Health Care Costs Skyrocketing in W.Va. Read the Report Here: http://www.wvcag.org/issues/he... Charleston, W.Va. - The skyrocketing cost of health insurance is increasingly putting health care out of reach of working families and businesses in West Virginia according to a new report released today by West Virginia Citizen Action Group (WV-CAG). WV-CAG is part of Hea...
West Virginia Blue - Fri 5:44 a.m. - 7 clicks
Via the indispensable Coal Tattoo, here's a contest announcement that will be of great interest to West Virginia Blue readers: Since West Virginia is allowing its mountains to be destroyed, it is no longer possible for us to claim the nickname "The Mountain State." Nor is it possible to root for athletic teams called the "West Virginia Mountaineers." Therefore a contest is announced to s...
West Virginia Blue - Fri 5:44 a.m. - 4 clicks
This is an encouraging sign. Last week W.Va. Department of Environmental Protection (sic) Secretary Randy Huffman was on Capitol Hill boasting about his department's surface water runoff regulation approach. This week the Obama administration U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement sent him back with homework. They want the W.Va. DEP to do a better job . Who knows, with enou...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 2:26 p.m. - 6 clicks
May 2009 unemployment figures announced. Here are the numbers for West Virginia: LABOR FORCE DATA LABOR FORCE DATA NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NOT SEASONALLY ADJUSTED Table 1. Civilian labor force and u...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 2:26 p.m. - 6 clicks
In West Virginia, you just have to buy an ad to have this kind of access to most of our state's newspapers : For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" - Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is det...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 8:23 a.m. - 5 clicks
Yesterday, a report "Commissioned by the Governor" was released outlining 14 actions the state should take to address West Virginia's exploding prison population. Months ago, I blogged about this issue and what seemed to be a very powerful push to build yet another prison in West Virginia. Well, it seems the Governor's Commission has decided that the cornerstone of any plan to ad...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 8:23 a.m. - 4 clicks
Posted late last night at HuffPo: Why would I fly across the country on my own dime knowing I would most likely end up in jail in one of the poorest parts of America? Well, have you ever heard of MTR? Don't feel bad, my friends are intelligent, well-read and informed people, but most of them had never heard of MTR (Mountain Top Removal) either. More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... ...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 5:47 a.m. - 6 clicks
Rightwing Fox News guest actually cheers on Bin Laden. This is beyond parody. More lunacy from the Glenn Beck program. http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/2... Again, all it takes is losing an election for the Republican mouthpieces to embrace the nutjob fringe wholeheartedly. And if these people don't speak for the majority of conservatives, then where are the more reasonable voices in the GOP (an...
West Virginia Blue - Thu 5:47 a.m.
I'm proud to have worked on campaigns with members of the United Mine Workers of America. From the short conversations I've had with him and the longer speeches I've heard, I can safely say there's a whole lot more that UMWA President Cecil Roberts and I agree about that what we disagree about. If you haven't heard Cecil Roberts lately, watch this video for a real treat. (via "Ludlo...
West Virginia Blue - Wed 1:19 p.m.
I'm getting tired of seeing 20 "anonymous" posts all saying the same things. So, because I can see your ip addresses and know that there's only about 4 or 5 of you, I have to start making rules, because you can't be trusted to act like semi-adults. First, you can start by using a fucking name, so there's not 50 straight messages by "anonymous," all saying basically the same thing cluttering up...
West Virginia Political Sweatbox - Jun 22
