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West Virginia Senate refuses to confirm former Freedom Rider

By TINA ALVEY

The Register-Herald

The West Virginia Senate Committee on Confirmations has dramatically altered course from its previous task of serving as a “rubber stamp” for gubernatorial appointments.

Earlier this month, the committee surprised many when it rejected a dozen of Gov. Jim Justice’s appointees for various boards and commissions. That action was simply a signal of the new attention to detail in its responsibility to “advise and consent” to those appointments, according to Senate Majority Leader Ryan J. Ferns, R-Ohio.

“The committee was not active in the past, except for politically-motivated reasons,” said Ferns, the confirmation committee’s vice chair. “We’re really trying to do our job as defined in State Code.”

Caught up in the committee’s about-face was Ronceverte resident Joan Browning, whose appointment to the West Virginia Human Rights Commission (HRC), announced last summer, was among those rejected for confirmation.
A 1960s Freedom Rider and former HRC member who is well known in the local community for her social justice activism, Browning was shocked by the committee’s action.

Read the entire article: http://www.register-herald.com/news/senate-refuses-to-confirm-former-freedom-rider/article_e4779476-ab88-5f2e-8fd5-07d2151d3853.html

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