Free Republic

Bloomberg is reporting on the increase in coal company bankruptcies in recent years, due to the switch by power companies to natural gas and fracking, which has flooded the market with cheap gas. Driving this conversion is the prospect of new, draconian rules to be issued by the EPA on emissions from coal plants. Exports are failing to save U.S. miners. Slowing Chinese growth and rising competition from overseas, including increased Australian output, have sent the price of metallurgical coal, used in steelmaking, to a six-year low. Central Appalachian thermal coal, used in power plants to produce electricity, fell on...

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin (D) has some explaining to do. Although the senator has proclaimed to be pro-life, his recent support of a Democratic bill to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling on Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, suggests otherwise. This failed legislation would have reversed a decision that protects the Christian company’s religious freedom and avoid providing employees abortion-inducing drugs. Click here to sign up for daily pro-life news alerts from LifeNews.com joemanchin2Manchin explained his support for the bill as such: “Today, I voted in support of overturning the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision that ruled for-profit companies can opt...

History will be made in West Virginia this year when Mountain State voters elect their first female U.S. senator. They will choose between Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito and Secretary of State Natalie Tennant for the seat being vacated by Democratic incumbent Sen. Jay Rockefeller. The GOP has targeted West Virginia as one of six Senate seats it needs to win to gain control of the Senate. The others include: Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina and South Carolina. In this increasingly Red State, Tennant brought out a firebrand liberal, Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Capito shot back with...

WHAG NEWS - A Hedgesville high school teacher is facing sexual assault charges accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student. The Berkeley County Sheriff's Office confirmed Erin Thomas is charged with third degree sexual assault and two charges of computer harassment. Officials say the 31-year-old allegedly had a relationship with a female student that began last year when she was a Freshman.

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- A bear was hit and killed Monday by a vehicle in Kanawha County, according to Kanawha County Sheriff's dispatchers. There was no word exactly where it happened or if the bear was possibly one of the two black bears spotted earlier in the South Charleston area. Those two bears made their first appearance Monday morning along Interstate 64 near the Montrose exit. South Charleston Police, who investigated the case of the bear hit and killed, confirmed it happened but had no immediate information where or when.

Police spent much of Tuesday searching for a fugitive. During the search West Virginia State Troopers and the Mason County Sheriff's Department said they had to shoot and kill a woman's dog. Police spent almost 12 hours searching for Johnathon Jeffers, but with no luck. At one point during the search, police came out of the woods and onto Ginger Sweats’ property in Mason County. She has no ties to Jeffers, but was immediately caught up in the search when officers said they had to fire their guns. Accompanied by the dog she has left, Sweat was still trying to...

The Environmental Protection Agency’s new rule on carbon pollution is the latest headache for Democrats trying to defend a fragile Senate majority. With many vulnerable Democrats coming from energy-producing states, Republicans argued the Obama administration’s call for power plants to cut their carbon emissions 30 percent by 2030 would cost local jobs and increase energy prices. Democratic candidates in coal-rich West Virginia and Kentucky were among the first to try to distance themselves from the president after the changes were unveiled Monday.

WINFIELD, WV - Students at Winfield High School in Winfield, WV have started a petition asking the Putnam County Board of Education to reconsider their decision to remove a popular graduation day tradition. Coach Leon McCoy is well known in Winfield, WV. He has made it a tradition to speak at Winfield High School's graduation. But after complaints from some parents about the religious theme in his presentation the speech has been called off. Students are fighting back. "I think it is very disappointing and unfortunate that Coach McCoy can't speak," said senior Hannah Clark. She said when she was...

"As I stated on March 28, the language contained in House Bill 4588 is unconstitutional. I encourage legislators not to call themselves into a special session to revisit the same issue. Should members of the Legislature take the same action again, I will again veto the bill. As I also said on March 28, I am proud of my pro-life record, and I would be happy to work with members of the Legislature during the 2015 regular session to pass a bill that is constitutional." Friday Marks 2 Years Since Murder of Charleston Man More From Our Partners

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Tips helped Charleston Police track down a juvenile suspect in connection to a mailbox explosion that was posted on YouTube. According to Charleston Police Detectives, the teenager is facing a charge of criminal use of a destructive device. A neighbor on Louden Heights Road, located in the South Hills area of Charleston, captured the incident on home security video during the weekend .

Saira Blair, who just unseated an incumbent West Virginia state legislator, isn’t thinking about her plans for the summer. She’s thinking about how to defeat Democrat Layne Diehl come November. Because if Saira wins, it will make her the youngest legislator in West Virginia’s history- she’s just 17 years old.

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Pro-life, pro-family 17-year-old beats 2-time incumbent in West Virginia by Teresa Platt Thu May 15, 2014 16:53 EST CHARLESTON, WV, May 15, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Running on an explicitly pro-life and pro-family platform, Saira Blair a 17-year-old high school student beat out two-time incumbent Larry Kump to represent the Republicans in the November race for the state House of Delegates. Blair, a strong Catholic said on her election signs: “I am a Fiscal Conservative, I’m pro-life. I’m pro-marriage I’m pro-family. I’m pro-second Amendment. I’m pro-business. I’m pro-jobs I’m pro West Virginia....

Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz claimed his first victory in the battle to control the Republican Party on Tuesday night when his two candidates in Nebraska won their primary elections.Cruz endorsed gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts and Senate candidate Ben Sasse won their respective primary races, positioning Cruz as kingmaker in November.'Ben Sasse’s decisive victory in Nebraska tonight is a clear indication that the grassroots are rising up to Make DC Listen. They’re rising up to take our country back,' Cruz posted to his Facebook. Ted Cruz, left, campaigns in Omaha, Nebraska, on Friday, May 9, for Republican gubernatorial candidate Pete...

The Tea Party, left for dead by the mainstream media only a week ago, roared back to life on Tuesday with two big Republican primary victories in Nebraska and West Virginia. All eyes now turn to Mississippi's June 3 Republican U.S. Senate primary between establishment incumbent Thad Cochran (R-MS) and Tea Party-backed state senator Chris McDaniel as the next big test of the Tea Party's ability to win elections. In Nebraska, the Republican U.S. Senate primary race that many thought had tightened into a three way race turned into a romp for Tea Party-backed Ben Sasse, who easily won with...

Saira Blair will graduate from a West Virginia high school later this month. She posts photos of her smoothie habit on Instagram, volunteers at the Martinsburg VA hospital and helps raise money for the Make-a-Wish foundation. She will not be eligible to vote until July. But on Tuesday, she beat a sitting state delegate who was seeking a third term in office. With all 13 precincts in her Martinsburg-area district reporting, Blair beat state Del. Larry Kump (R) by an 872-728 vote margin. Blair campaigned on an antiabortion, pro-Second Amendment platform, offering her cellphone number to constituents and pledging not...

Former Maryland GOP Chairman Alex Mooney has won the Republican primary for West Virginia’s second congressional district, according to the Associated Press, beating pharmacist Ken Reed and former U.S. International Trade Commissioner and state legislator Charlotte Lane.With 74.9 percent of precincts reporting, Mooney had 35 percent of the vote to Reed’s 22 percent, and Lane was running third with 18.4 percent.Those were the three leading candidates, but it was a seven-way brawl to replace Rep. Shelley Moore Capito who is leaving her House seat to run for the Senate. This is a clear victory for the tea party as Mooney...

Capito will be the republican nominee for the US Senate (and likely the next senator from WV).

THIS IS FOR THE MIDWEST (NORTHEAST and SOUTH is in a separate thread and West coming later, see links below) There are numerous important House Primary Races! And places where we can WIN! PLEASE contribute! And if you can't contribute money ... the least we can do is go to their pages and give them a "like" or a tweet. All of these candidates are involved in primaries that are close (or could be close) against generally more moderate or liberal Republicans. All of these districts are winnable in November. West Virginia: ALEX MOONEY, WEST VIRGINIA-2, May 13th .... Open...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The U.S. House seat Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.) has held since 1977 is now considered one of the most “vulnerable” in the country during the November general election. “In the past, Rahall boasted one of the best local brands in politics, effectively keeping enough distance between himself and a national party that’s increasingly unpopular in West Virginia,” according to a Tuesday article in Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. But Shira Center, who contributed to that Roll Call report, said times are changing and so is the political climate in West Virginia, especially in Rahall’s 3rd District....

Sen. Jay Rockefeller unloaded on lawmakers Tuesday, accusing some of blocking efforts to solve urgent problems during Barack Obama’s presidency “because he’s the wrong color.” Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), who will retire at the end of the year, made his comments during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on transportation funding, saying he’s confounded by the “lack of will to keep ourselves from dropping into rivers and rolling over bridges that are no longer there.” “It’s an American characteristic that you don’t do anything which displeases the voters, because you always have to get reelected here,” he added. “I understand part of it....