Author: Associated Press

Agriculture Dept. still deciding site of hog farm to feed inmates

A West Virginia Department of Agriculture spokesman says the agency hasn’t yet selected a site for a hog farm that would help feed state inmates.

     Last week, Mingo County Revelopment Authority director Steve Kominar told the authority’s board that the county had been chosen as a site for the hog farm.
 
     Department of Agriculture spokesman Butch Antolini said Tuesday that Mingo County is one of several locations being looked at in the southern coalfields.
 
     Agriculture Commissioner Walk Helmick says the state buys more than 100,000 pounds of pork annually from outside the state to feed inmates in state prisons. That doesn’t include regional jails and juvenile facilities.
 
     Helmick says taxpayer dollars used to feed and house inmates should be spent in West Virginia.

Kanawha Co. clerk seeks delay in gay marriage lawsuit

The clerk of West Virginia’s biggest county says she needs more time to answer a lawsuit over the state’s ban on same-sex marriages.
 
     Kanawha County Clerk Vera McCormick filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Charleston, asking the deadline for her response be extended past Wednesday.
 
     The New York-based gay rights group Lambda Legal sued earlier this month, declaring West Virginia’s Defense of Marriage Act a violation of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
 
     It filed a similar lawsuit challenging Virginia’s gay marriage ban in September.
 
     McCormick says the case involves constitutional questions of widespread importance, and 21 days is not long enough for her to prepare.
 
     She also says it’s unfair to require a response before she knows whether the state Attorney General is going to intervene.
 

Property owners sue FirstEnergy over coal ash impoundment

More than 50 West Virginia and Pennsylvania property owners are suing FirstEnergy over groundwater pollution, soggy yards, and foundation damage they say…

More than 50 West Virginia and Pennsylvania property owners are suing FirstEnergy over groundwater pollution, soggy yards, and foundation damage they say was caused by a leaking coal ash impoundment.

The lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Wheeling accuses the Ohio-based power company of negligence, reckless conduct, trespassing and creating a nuisance.

It says arsenic and other substances have leached out of the unlined, 1,700-acre Little Blue Run impoundment into groundwater, and the air has been fouled by the noxious odors of hydrogen sulfide gas.

The complaint says the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has repeatedly cited FirstEnergy for violations, so FirstEnergy’s conduct should qualify as willful and reckless.

FirstEnergy spokeswoman Stephanie Walton said the company hasn’t formally received the lawsuit, but a proposed closure plan is under review by Pennsylvania regulators.
 

W.Va. school board to discuss concussion rule

Updated October 9, 2013 1:39 p.m.

   The West Virginia Board of Education has postponed consideration of the concussion rule until its meeting next month. 

The West Virginia Board of Education is set to vote on a proposal that would require high schools to inform parents, coaches and student-athletes of the risk of sports-related head injuries.

The rule that is up for a possible final vote today also would require schools to report those injuries within 30 days.
 
     The board took up the issue in August, sending the proposal to a 30-day public comment period. No comments were received.
 
     Earlier this year, legislators passed a bill requiring the rules aimed at preventing youth concussions.
 
     The legislation also requires schools to create a written procedure for recognizing injuries and then clearing athletes to return to play, including the written permission of a licensed health care professional.

W.Va. agriculture chief: Shutdown won't affect operations

West Virginia Agriculture Commissioner Walt Helmick said Tuesday the partial federal government shutdown won’t affect his agency’s operations.
 
     Helmick said  in a news release that the Department of Agriculture is continuing daily inspections at livestock slaughter and processing facilities.
 
     The department also is continuing surveillance of egg and dairy products, testing poultry flocks for disease and conducting other routine activities.
 
     Helmick said the department has broad powers under the state code to conduct inspections, enact embargoes and quarantines, and to deal with any livestock disease outbreaks.
 

Group appeals PSC order approving billion-dollar power plant deal

West Virginia Citizen Action Group says it will appeal the approval of a $1.1 billion deal for the sale of the Harrison Power Station.

The Public Service Commission approved the transaction late Monday, saying it would reduce Mon Power rates by $16 million a year.
 
     The deal involves Ohio-based FirstEnergy subsidiaries Mon Power and Potomac Edison, and affiliate Allegheny Energy Supply.
 
     Mon Power is buying the 80 percent of the 1,984-megawatt plant that it doesn’t currently own. In exchange, Mon Power will sell 8 percent of its interest in the Pleasants Power Station to Allegheny Energy Supply.
 
     Opponents say the transaction is inflated by $257 million and is bad for consumers.
 
     West Virginia Citizen Action says that price markup ruling violates stipulations of the merger agreement and contradicts commission policy.
 

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