By PHIL KABLER Charleston Gazette-Mail CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some House members were critical Wednesday of a new Public Employees Insurance Agency wellness initiative, calling it intrusive and an invasion of privacy. “We have some pretty doggone unhappy state employees. A lot of that unhappiness is based on this program,” Delegate[Read More…]

By ANDREA LANNOM The Register-Herald CHARLESTON, W.Va.  — A bill introduced in the state Senate seeks to require schools to provide elective courses on the Bible. Senate Bill 252 is sponsored by Sens. Mike Azinger, R-Wood, and Sue Cline, R-Wyoming, and seeks to require all schools to provide an elective[Read More…]

By ANDREA LANNOM The Register-Herald CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A bill that seeks to establish specialized public charter schools was introduced in the West Virginia Senate Wednesday. Senate President Mitch Carmichael is the lead sponsor of Senate Bill 304, under which, beginning in the 2018-2019 school year, up to two public[Read More…]

By ANDREA LANNOM The Register-Herald CHARLESTON , W.Va. – The West Virginia Senate introduced Concurrent Resolution 5 Wednesday which requests the Division of Military Affairs and Public Safety and the Division of Personnel to develop a plan to raise correctional officers’ salaries. Last month, Gov. Jim Justice declared a state[Read More…]

By RYAN QUINN Charleston Gazette-Mail CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia House Education Committee passed Wednesday an extensive bill that would dismantle the state Department of Education and the Arts, sending agencies and functions within it to other areas or spinning them off as independent agencies. But committee members who[Read More…]

By JOSELYN KING The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register CHARLESTON, W.Va.  — Delegate Pat McGeehan has sponsored a resolution to amend the West Virginia Constitution to require a two-thirds majority to pass any future tax or fee increase by the Legislature. “The people of West Virginia are taxed enough already, and[Read More…]

By JAKE ZUCKERMAN Charleston Gazette-Mail CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia House of Delegates Judiciary Committee Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer, established a subcommittee Wednesday to rework a bill that would create an independent commission to draw voter redistricting lines following the decennial census. In previous years, legislators have used updated information[Read More…]

By JESS MANCINI The Parkersburg News and Sentinel CHARLESTON, W.Va.  — A bill introduced in the House of Delegates will once again call for the establishment of 100 single representative delegate districts in West Virginia. A Wood County delegate thinks this has a good chance of passing. House Bill 4002[Read More…]

By RYAN QUINN Charleston Gazette-Mail CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s House Education Committee on Wednesday passed, 13-8, a proposed amendment to the state’s Constitution that would allow elections for six of the nine state Board of Education members and shorten their terms from nine years to six years. But the[Read More…]