Free Republic

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A company owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family says it wanted to settle a $4 million debt by selling a helicopter, but the lender hasn’t been cooperating. James C. Companies, Justice Aviation — and the governor personally — were sued in the Southern District of New York in September over default on a loan for the companies’ private helicopter. A little more than $4 million is remaining on the loan. The plaintiff, Citizens Asset Finance, wants to foreclose and take back the helicopter. In an answer filed on Friday, lawyers for Justice and his companies...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A man on his way to a Bluefield drug rehab facility took off in the ambulance after the driver had stopped to help a second crew member. The stop occurred Tuesday night on Interstate 77 just east of Charleston. According to police, the Priority Ambulance driver stopped because the patient was struggling with his fellow crew member in the back of the vehicle. He stopped to help and then the patient took off in the ambulance. He later let the female crew member out of the ambulance. The man–driving the ambulance–was later pulled over in downtown Charleston....

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Federal regulators have approved two major natural gas pipelines that would start in West Virginia and supply the eastern seaboard. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted certificates to both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Mountain Valley Pipeline on Friday evening. The pipelines would transport gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale deposits. One of the commissioners dissented, calling the public interest of the projects into question. Additional necessary permits are pending at the state level in both West Virginia and Virginia. The $5.1 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline would span 600 miles from Harrison County and across...

*** Following an exclusive interview with Bossie on Thursday, Breitbart News reported: “We support Patrick Morrisey for Senate because he has a proven record of results fighting for conservative West Virginia values and against the harmful liberal agenda of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” Bossie added. “Attorney General Morrisey was there to take on executive overreach at the Obama Environmental Protection Agency for the coal miners and he’s been there to support President Trump’s agenda taking on sanctuary cities and pushing for much needed tax reform. I look forward to working with Patrick Morrisey to enact President Trump’s conservative agenda...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — United Mine Workers Union President Cecil Roberts says the West Virginia Supreme Court stepped beyond its authority in its decision on the attempted overturning of the state’s right-to-work law. Y “They basically told her (Kanawha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey) how to rule, which is not what they should have done. They, as they say, ‘got over their skis on this,'” Roberts said. UMWA President Cecil Roberts was a guest Thursday on 580 Live on 580 WCHS Radio in Charleston. Roberts gave his take on the case during an appearance Thursday on the talk show 580-Live on...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice, who switched parties to become a Republican in early August, told a crowd of Republican lawmakers this week that he supports Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s re-election to the U.S. Senate. Manchin, a former governor who has served in the U.S. Senate since 2010, is in what most political observers consider to be a hotly-contested election in 2018. Congressman Evan Jenkins and state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey are running in the Republican primary. Governor Justice was speaking to Republicans on Monday evening at the state Culture Center. He addressed his desire to pass a multi-million...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Companies owned by Gov. Jim Justice and his family are being sued in federal court in Kentucky, accused of fraudulently transferring property to avoid responsibilities in a business deal that was the subject of a related lawsuit a few years ago. The lawsuit wants punitive damages of at least $16.9 million. “This agreement was an unlawful and corrupt agreement by the conspirators to accomplish an unlawful goal of fraudulently transferring or liquidating valuable real estate belonging to Justice Companies, so that plaintiffs could not collect on debts owed to them by Justice companies,” the lawsuit alleges. The...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Supreme Court has overruled a lower court injunction that blocked West Virginia’s right-to-work law, chastising a circuit judge for the pace of decision-making and for issuing the injunction in the first place. The state’s unions failed to establish the likelihood of success based on the merits of three constitutional claims, wrote Justice Menis Ketchum in the court’s majority opinion. The state AFL-CIO issued a statement noting that the Supreme Court ruling applied specifically to the injunction, saying unions will continue to fight during a broader hearing in circuit court and anticipating an eventual appeal of...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It’s possible there could be additional delays before a decision is made on the constitutionality of the West Virginia Workplace Freedom Act following an hour of oral arguments Tuesday before the state Supreme Court. Justice Margaret Workman questioned the decision by the office of state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey to bring the right-to-work law to the Supreme Court before there’s been a full hearing on the merits of the case in circuit court. “I just think you all are taking a shortcut coming up here wanting all of the answers without the lower court having made any...

LEXINGTON, KY — David Black Daugherty, the former Social Security administrative law judge who was based in Huntington, was sentenced Friday to spend four years in federal prison for his role in a multi-million dollar fraud scheme. Daugherty, 81, approved more than 3,000 Social Security disability cases submitted by a now convicted Kentucky lawyer in exchange for money. He pleaded guilty earlier to two counts of receiving illegal payments. Daugherty’s attorney asked the federal judge at Friday’s sentencing in Lexington, Kentucky, to allow his client to self-report to prison in order to give him time to help his wife adjust...

Will They Be Removed?: 30 Places Named After Former Klansman Robert Byrd August 16, 2017 That's just a few. Since we're gonna rename schools and take down every sign and statue of people who have a controversial past. Are we also going to include Former Klansman and Grand Wizard Robert Byrd? If we are consistent, these are some places named after Robert KKK Byrd that should be taken down. You won't see this on cable news.

Longtime liberal pollster Stuart Rothenberg apparently had a hard time handling President Donald Trump's visit to West Virginia on Thursday. During that visit, Mountain State Governor Jim Justice officially announced his switch to the Republican Party, thereby consolidating full GOP control over the executive and legislative branches in that state, and bringing the total number of Republican U.S. governors to 35.

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Bragging about keeping his promises on immigration, the economy, the environment and crime, President Trump celebrated on Thursday with a raucous West Virginia crowd as the state’s Democratic governor announced that he will switch to the Republican Party. With Gov. Jim Justice by his side, Mr. Trump hailed stock market records and the growth of coal income in West Virginia. And he delivered a lengthy critique of the federal investigations of his campaign’s ties to Russia, calling the matter “a fake story that is demeaning to all of us.”

See you tonight Huntington, West Virginia! #MakeAmericaGreatAgain🇺🇸 Tickets: http://www.DonaldJ.Trump.com SEE YOU TONIGHT AT 7:00pmE - HUNTINGTON, WEST VIRGINIA! I will be heading to Huntington, West Virginia tonight! Enjoy a THROWBACK THURSDAY

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The goal of Appalachian Power Company is to rely 50 percent on coal and 50 percent on renewable energy, according to the company’s president. “The intent is to get coal down to about 50 percent, stay there and then bring the other resources up,” Chris Beam said on last week’s MetroNews “Talkline.” As the company starts to work with new employers, the demand for new energy sources increases. “A lot of the things that we’re hearing from them is they have their own mandated requirements that they have to meet from their board of directors like you...

RANSON, W.Va. — The decision a few years ago by leaders in the Jefferson County City of Ranson to annex the former Jefferson Orchards property along state Route 9 paid off in a big way Thursday when the manufacturing company Roxul announced plans to build a $150 million plant there. Roxul, which makes stone wool insulation, decided the Ranson site was the best after reviewing a number of other sites for its second North American plant, Ranson City Manager Andy Blake said. “We competed with people from all over the company. Their site selection team decided this was strategically one...

The resurrected feeling of American possibility came not from pontificating TV pundits or a radio host in a studio miles away. Optimism arrived here in Gillette, Wyo., because of what people were seeing: the unemployment lines getting shorter and their daily commutes getting longer. Tom Gorton, 41, drove through those increasingly congested streets in his Arnold Machinery truck late on a spring afternoon, under the watch of mountains covered in white from a spring snowstorm. As Gorton settled behind his desk, he was heartened to see how messy it was with orders, one year after hundreds of layoffs at two...

In 1922, four years after her American son was killed in action in World War I, Sallie Maxwell Bennett received a letter from Emil Merkelbach, a German officer who had fought against her son in the battle that ended his life. "You will look upon my writing, no doubt, as something unusual, and rightly so, for it is indeed not exactly usual for a former enemy of his own accord to report about his opponent in the World War. I was myself a German officer in the World War." Emil Merkelbach was the leader of a German balloon squadron stationed...

After years of fights with the Obama administration and the EPA, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is well positioned to take down Senator Joe Manchin in 2018. About a year ago, the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, and though the court didn’t know it at the time, this probably killed off the plan for good. [snip] If and when the Clean Power Plan is cast aside, it will be a major victory for Patrick Morrisey, currently the attorney general of West Virginia, chairman of the Republican Attorney Generals Association, and a strong...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Secretary of State Mac Warner is working with all 55 county clerks to clean up voter rolls in the Mountain State. The office has removed 47,490 names off the lists since Warner took office in mid-January. “There are a lot of people who have moved, changed names, gotten married, deceased — there are a number of reasons why these files have extra names on there,” Warner explained on Tuesday’s MetroNews “Talkline.” Of the total removed names, 1,170 were convicted felons who lost their right to vote upon conviction. West Virginia had at least three counties that had...