Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act attorney Jim Roberts to the show to give updates and explain the Chancery court judge’s decision to strike down the ballot initiative.
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Virgin Hyperloop One will build a certification center in West Virginia for the high-speed transportation concept that uses enclosed pods to zip passengers underground at over 600 mph (960 km/h).
The company had received bids from more than a dozen states in the past year to build a 6-mile (9.7-kilometer) testing track and other safety facilities over hundreds of acres for the electromagnetic levitation transportation technology.
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The Supreme Court on Monday paved the way for a critical permit for a proposed natural gas pipeline that would cross under the Appalachian Trail, siding with energy companies and the Trump administration.
The justices ruled 7-2 to reverse a lower court ruling that had thrown out the permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. It would bring natural gas from West Virginia to growing markets in Virginia and North Carolina. Its supporters say the pipeline would bring economic development, thousands of jobs and reduced energy costs for consumers.
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The governor of West Virginia signed a bill into law that protects babies born alive through botched abortions and penalizes doctors for allowing these babies to die.
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by Steve Bittenbender A multistate organization in charge of improving the quality of one of the country’s most important rivers voted on Thursday to adopt a new plan on how to ensure states meet water pollution standards. By a 19-2 vote, with one abstention, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission (ORSANCO) passed a measure at its meeting in Covington, Ky., that now gives states more flexibility in regulating water standards. It capped a more than more than four-year review process for the panel on how those standards are established. The states represented on the commission are Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Richard Harrison, ORSANCO’s executive director and chief engineer, told The Center Square the review came about as the commission looked at the best way to utilize its resources. While the commission, which was established in 1948, had established mandatory requirements for the states, commissioners began to wonder if those regulations were duplicative of federal standards established in the Clean Water Act. Last October, the commission proposed a measure that would have essentially done away with the standards. However, after significant pushback from the public, the commissioners tabled that “and went back to…
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by Salena Zito WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va.—No sitting president has ever visited here before. So it was a pretty big deal when 14 local high school students in a civics class had President Trump talking to them in their classroom Wednesday, all thanks to a Skype video call that Sen. Joe Manchin was having with them. Senior Brennan Williams, 18, is still grinning ear to ear a few days after the experience. “Well, I mean, I’ve never talked to somebody that important before, and it was just crazy,” he said of initially talking to Manchin. “Then, the president of the United States calls the senator and then decides he wants to talk to us, well, that was even crazier. I just couldn’t stop smiling; I still can’t.” His classmate Parker Stout, 18, says it was an honor he will never forget: “We prepared for our Skype call with Sen. Manchin by watching the State of the Union Address Tuesday night. What we never expected was that that would include talking to the president.” Manchin said the once-in-a-lifetime event was organized by Webster County High School Principal Stacey Cutlip and his office to discuss issues that came up during the State…
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by Evie Fordham West Virginia House of Delegates member Caleb Hanna wants to fund a southern border wall with $10 million of his state’s surplus to combat West Virginia’s drug problem, he said on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday. “West Virginia has a terrible drug problem,” Hanna said Tuesday. “I believe that a lot of those drugs and opioids are coming directly from the southern border. I spoke to local and state law enforcement, and they say these drugs are so pure they can’t be coming from anywhere other than Mexico. So I believe that the wall is a crucial part in addressing West Virginia’s drug problem.” Hanna and his fellow Republican delegates Carl “Robbie” Martin and Patrick Martin plan to introduce the bill that would transfer $10 million of the state’s $185 million surplus to the border wall that President Donald Trump has proposed, reported The Mountaineer Journal. The state surplus funds would not make much of a dent in the wall fund, though — Trump is asking for more than $5 billion. Watch the latest video at foxnews.com “So, the West Virginia Republican majority in the House has been very supportive of President Trump and his efforts to…
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by Evie Fordham The West Virginia House of Delegates convened Wednesday with a record-setter in its midst – freshman Del. Caleb L. Hanna, who became the nation’s youngest black legislator following his election at age 19 in November 2018. “I always knew that I was not satisfied with the leadership I was getting within my own house district,” Hanna told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “I told myself if I ever had my opportunity to take that, I would give it my shot.” At first, his small Republican campaign was designed to push Democratic incumbent Dana Lynch to be “more proactive in the legislature,” Hanna told TheDCNF. But things shifted when Hanna realized he could win the Republican primary — even if he was running his campaign from his dorm room at West Virginia State University, where he studies economics. Leading up to the general election, Hanna faced doubts about his age and experience, a shoestring budget and one instance of racist flyers he reported to law enforcement. But Hanna defeated Lynch by roughly 25 points in West Virginia’s House of Delegates District 44 in November, with results reported as 60.3 to 35.7, according to Ballotpedia. Making It…
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by Kevin Daley The West Virginia state legislature is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision halting impeachment of several state Supreme Court justices. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals was roiled by a public corruption scandal resulting in a slew of resignations and indictments. The justices will probably be reluctant to get involved, however. The West Virginia state legislature has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a decision that halted the impeachment trials of several members of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. State lawmakers said they are not aiming to restart removal proceedings against the state Supreme Court justices. Rather, they believe the ruling at issue essentially dismantles their impeachment power. “We have said since October that a strict reading of that opinion removes virtually all of the constitutional checks and balances we have on the judicial branch of government,” House of Delegates Speaker Roger Hanshaw said in a statement. “Our action today is not an effort to resume the impeachment proceedings against any individual, but rather an effort to restore the proper legal and constitutional authority granted to the legislature with regard to impeachment proceedings.” The case arose after the legislature…
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by George Rasley On Tuesday, the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of allegedly “fiscally responsible” House Democrats announced its new leadership team as their party is poised to retake the gavel in the 116th Congress. The Blue Dogs claim they embrace a “bipartisan approach” to legislating and are looking to play a major role in brokering compromise positions on legislation with a Republican-held Senate and President Trump. “In this new era of divided government, we Democrats must introduce bold ideas and fight for our shared values, and we must also seek bipartisan cooperation that keeps our government functioning and improves the lives of our constituents; the alternative is a partisan stalemate that brings our country to a halt,” said Florida Representative Stephanie Murphy, the Blue Dogs’ incoming co-chair for administration, reported the online news site The Well. The reality is that the Blue Dogs are, when push comes to shove, anything but “bipartisan” as their voting records show. Rep. Murphy, who represents Florida’s Seventh Congressional District, has a lifetime rating of 6 percent from Heritage Action for America. The House Democrats’ average is 8 percent, meaning Rep. Murphy is even more liberal than the average Democrat. The Blue Dogs’…
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by Kevin Daley West Virginia is in the grips of a constitutional crisis, as the state’s highest court effectively ended an impeachment proceeding against one of its own members. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that the state legislature exceeded its authority in impeaching its own chief justice, Margaret Workman (pictured, far right), for violations of the state judicial conduct code. Should Workman be removed from office, she would become the fourth justice in as many months to leave the court in disgrace. West Virginia’s Supreme Court has been in a state of disarray since the summer. A full complement of duly elected justices sat on the court in June of this year: Workman and Justices Robin Jean Davis, Menis Ketchum, Beth Walker and Allen Loughry. Since then, Loughry and Ketchum have been convicted on fraud charges in federal court, Davis retired to avoid an impeachment trial, and Workman and Walker were impeached by the state legislature. GOP Gov. Jim Justice appointed two interim justices to the vacant Davis and Ketchum seats in August. Workman appointed a third acting justice to replace Loughry. Workman in turn sued the state legislature, arguing her impeachment is unconstitutional on separation of powers…
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A Democratic Supreme Court justice in the state of West Virginia said hours after she was impeached Tuesday that she was retiring, triggering a special election for her replacement and denying the Republican governor a chance to name her successor. The citizens of West Virginia now “will be afforded their constitutional right to elect my successor in November,” Justice Robin Davis said as she announced her departure at the state capital. Davis announced her resignation after being impeached for committing wrongful acts, including spending $500,000 on office renovations. The House of Delegates voted Monday to impeach all four remaining justices over spending issues. They will be brought to trial in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, as is the House. Davis said their impeachment was a travesty of justice and a brazen attempt by one branch of government to seize control over another. Justice Menis Ketchum retired earlier this year. Any of the three remaining justices who are considering resigning must do so by the Tuesday deadline in order for their replacements to be decided in a November special election. Gov. Jim Justice will appoint replacements who will serve until the election. All four justices were impeached for failing…
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by Kevin Daley Who presides over the impeachment trial of a state Supreme Court justice if the entire state Supreme Court is being impeached? It’s an absurd constitutional hypothetical West Virginians are left to grapple with, after the West Virginia House of Delegates Judiciary Committee drafted articles of impeachment against four justices on the state’s highest court. Five justices sit on the state Supreme Court in West Virginia. The state legislature has drafted articles of impeachment against Chief Justice Margaret Workman and Justices Robin Jean Davis, Beth Walker, and Allen Loughry. The court’s fifth justice, Menis Ketchum, retired in late July. Ketchum will plead guilty to two federal corruption charges on Aug. 29. Loughry was placed on unpaid administrative leave in June after a state commission lodged a 32-count complaint against him, alleging pervasive violations of the state ethics code. He has since been indicted in federal court for fraud, witness tampering, and making false statements to investigators. The remaining three justices — Workman, Davis, and Walker — face impeachment for wasting government resources and failing to effectively administer the state courts. All three spent large sums of taxpayer dollars on lavish improvements to their chambers in the state capital, which cumulatively totaled…
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by Nick Givas West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael claims the Republican party is responsible for the state’s economic turnaround and believes the election of President Donald Trump has only added to their prosperity. “For the first time in over 83 years the people of over West Virginia selected the Republicans to lead the state in 2014,” Carmichael told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “Both houses have been Democrat for 83 years and that leadership brought us the lowest income per capita in the country.” Carmichael blamed Democratic leadership for a loss in population and manufacturing jobs, then accused them of selling out to special interest groups. “All these markers point to a failure in leadership,” he said. “The good news is after only four years of Republican leadership our state is growing and we have had the most improved unemployment rate in America.” The GOP’s policies have brought back construction jobs, increased wages and dramatically lowered the unemployment rate, Carmichael claimed. “We’ve added more jobs, wage rates are rising, unemployment is down and we turned a budget deficit into a budget surplus this year. And we did it all without increasing taxes,” he continued. Republican lawmakers focused on four major pillars to…
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A coalition of a dozen states led by Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift lower court injunctions forbidding enforcement of President Donald Trump’s proclamation on enhanced vetting, the latest iteration of his travel ban. Federal courts in Hawaii and Maryland issued orders enjoining the proclamation in October. The proclamation was issued at the conclusion…
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The shellacking handed to the GOP in Virginia on Tuesday has sent panic-stricken Republicans scrambling to distance themselves from President Donald Trump, whom they blame for the results. Not in West Virginia, though. While Trump’s approval rating has eroded across the country over the past year, he remains popular in the Mountain State, where he posted…
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President Donald Trump on Thursday stormed into West Virginia and left with a political coup — a party switch involving one of the country’s dwindling number of Democratic governors. Gov. Jim Justice, who won election as a Democrat last year despite Trump’s landslide win in the presidential race there, drew enthusiastic cheers in Huntington on Thursday…
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