Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz is attracting attention for her visceral photos of life in Appalachia and the South. Sometimes her photos are hard to look at, but they’re always compelling. That’s the case with a project published earlier this year. ProPublica’s story, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” follows a young family in Tennessee.
Members of the state Senate had 25 bills on their morning calendar Monday, passing almost all unanimously. Those bills included:
Senate Bill 623
The bill requires employers in the mining industry to report all positive drug and alcohol tests to the Office of Miners’ Health, Safety and Training. Currently, notification is only required if a miner is discharged.
Senate Bill 476
The bill sets regulations and standards for vehicles being altered to run on alternative fuels. The bill states that no diesel engine modifications for dual fuel retrofit can change the original engine in any way. A similar piece of legislation was passed by the chamber last year, but died in the House of Delegates.
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Cecelia Mason reports on the bill.
Senate Bill 431
The bill lengthens the driver’s license renewal cycle from 5 to 8 years. The bill also allows for the development of an online renewal process and permits individuals with expiring licenses to be notified electronically.
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Ashton Marra reports on the bill.
Senate Bill 469
The bill creates the Veterans and Warriors to Agriculture Program under the Department of Agriculture as a tool to integrate veterans into agriculture jobs. It aims to help West Virginia veterans find employment after returning from combat as well as strengthen the future of the state’s agriculture economy.
All four bills will now move to the House for further consideration.
An extraordinary legislative session ended with tensions high among lawmakers who wanted more transparency in spending from the Department of Health and Department of Human Services.
As of May 10, no members of the West Virginia National Guard are stationed in state prisons or jails. This follows more than a year of National Guard support over understaffing.
Lawmakers said they did not think they could trust the secretaries of the Department of Health and the Department of Human Services to spend the money accordingly, without the line items.