Tag: A. James Manchin

A House, Senate Recap, Student Journalists Report And A Lookback At A. James Manchin

On this episode of The Legislature Today, we wrap up another week of the West Virginia Legislative session, and the pace is starting to pick up in both chambers. We also have a story from our student reporters and a history lookback as well.

Updated on Monday, Feb. 12, 2024 at 11:20 a.m.

On this episode of The Legislature Today, we wrap up another week of the West Virginia Legislative session, and the pace is starting to pick up in both chambers. We also have a story from our student reporters and a history lookback as well.

In the House, 10 bills passed through third reading, all with either unanimous or near unanimous votes. Some follow a trend this session of creating more legislative oversight. Others increase consumer protection on gift card fraud and phone spam. Randy Yohe has more.

In the Senate, the chamber approved five bills on things like new energy technology and left lane driving. Seventeen bills advanced. Briana Heaney has more.

Debate broke out on the House floor after amendments were proposed to the Women’s Bill of Rights. Emily Rice has more.

Our high school reporters this week bring us a look at three bills they’ve been following.

Also, the House earlier this week introduced House Bill 5006. The bill is related to the administration of the A. James Manchin Rehabilitation Environmental Action Plan. Who was he? We asked Bob Brunner to give us a little more background.

Finally, we regularly invite reporters from outside news organizations into our studio to discuss what they are seeing during the legislative session. Our own Briana Heaney and Emily Rice spoke with Lori Kersey, a reporter from the independent news organization West Virginia Watch.

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The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.

Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

June 25, 1980: Two Women Murdered Traveling to Rainbow Gathering

On June 25, 1980, Nancy Santomero and Vicki Durian, who were apparently hitchhiking to the Rainbow Family reunion in Webster County, were murdered on Droop Mountain, in southern Pocahontas County.

The Rainbow Family is a loosely organized group, variously characterized as hippies and drifters, or as peaceful nature lovers and ecologists.

The annual gatherings, first held in Aspen, Colorado, grew from popular social, political, and cultural movements of the 1960s and early 1970s. The name “rainbow” signifies the diversity of people involved.

In the weeks before the 1980 gathering and the murders, West Virginia Secretary of State A. James Manchin and a group of Marlinton residents filed suit to bar the Rainbow Family from Monongahela National Forest. Manchin was quoted as saying that West Virginia didn’t need “this bunch of derelict misfits.” The federal court suit was dropped.

Despite the murders, about 6,000 gathered at the Rainbow Gathering in Webster County. In 1993, Pocahontas County native Jacob Beard was convicted of the murders. He was later acquitted and received a $2 million settlement after Joseph Paul Franklin, a white supremacist and serial killer, confessed to the murders.

April 7, 1927: A. James Manchin Born in Farmington

A. James Manchin was born in Farmington on April 7, 1927. He’d become perhaps the most colorful politician in West Virginia history.

During his one term in the House of Delegates in the late ’40s, he fought for civil rights issues, which possibly led to his re-election defeat. After stepping away from government for a decade, he returned as state director of the Farm Home Administration in the ’60s.

In 1973, Governor Arch Moore named Manchin head of the Rehabilitation Environmental Action Program, known as REAP. With great fanfare, Manchin helped remove thousands of cars, appliances, and old tires from the countryside.

And he coined one of the great quotes in state history: “We must purge these proud peaks of their jumbled jungles of junkery.”

After serving two terms as secretary of state, he was elected state treasurer in 1984. After the 1987 stock market crash cost the state more than $300 million in investments, A. James Manchin was impeached and then resigned in 1989. But he made a surprise political comeback at age 71, winning three elections to the House of Delegates before his death in 2003.

Senator Joe Manchin Born in Fairmont: August 24, 1947

U.S. Senator and former governor Joe Manchin was born in Fairmont on August 24, 1947. Growing up in the Marion County town of Farmington, he worked in his family’s grocery and furniture stores. He later returned to Farmington to run Manchin’s Carpet Center and eventually his own energy-brokering firm.

In the 1980s, the lifelong Democrat served a term in the House of Delegates and began a 14-year stint in the state Senate, where he promoted welfare, health care, and Medicaid reforms. A staunch Catholic, he opposed abortion rights, putting him at odds with many Democrats.

In 1996, Manchin ran for governor but lost a bitter Democratic primary to Charlotte Pritt. In the November election, Manchin—and many conservative Democrats—refused to support Pritt, who lost to Republican Cecil Underwood.

Manchin became secretary of state in 2001 and, in 2004, defeated Monty Warner to become West Virginia’s first Catholic governor. During his term, he helped pay down West Virginia’s debt and privatize the workers’ compensation system.

In 2010, Joe Manchin defeated John Raese in a special election to fill the late Robert C. Byrd’s U.S. Senate seat.

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