The Charleston Gazette - Watchdog

Official spent years lobbying for military credit that would boost his pension

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 23:45:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- While serving on the state retirement board, state Administration Secretary Robert Ferguson has repeatedly pressed board members and agency administrators for a policy change that would significantly boost his pension, rec...

FBI: Encore falsified records

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:45:00 -0400

Read more: Charleston developer asked for $30K to drop discrimination complaint CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Executives and other employees at a Charleston company owned b...

Developer asked for $30K to drop complaint

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 23:45:00 -0400

Read more: Developers company falsified records, defrauded government, FBI alleges CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston housing developer Douglas E. Pauley offered...

Perdue aide voted on project criteria

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:00:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last fall, state Treasurer John Perdues designee to the West Virginia Housing Development Fund voted to approve the rules, selection criteria and scoring system ultimately used by the state agencys staff to award a $3.67 million f...

C8 Science Panel meets with public

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 23:45:00 -0400

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. -- Members of a three-person science team promised Monday night that Mid-Ohio Valley residents would soon get answers about whether the chemical C8 is making them sick. "We will be reaching a lot of conclusions soon," said...

Detective: Charges to come in alleged prep school scam

(Kate White) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A South Charleston detective says its not a matter of if, but when criminal charges are filed against Daniel Hicks, who allegedly brought more than 20 athletes to the area under the mistaken impression theyd be attending a prep sch...

Restaurant owners say critical health inspections unfair

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Downtown Charleston restaurant owners and Mayor Danny Jones want the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department to rein in the agencys newest inspector, who has cited the establishments for numerous critical violations in recent mont...

Keyser proposes new public records fee system

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:48:18 -0400

KEYSER, W.Va. -- Keyser City Council is considering a policy that would charge what Mayor Randy Amtower says is a fair fee for public records requests.

The Mineral Daily News-Tribune reports that the...

State launches website to help taxpayers track spending

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:42:43 -0400

State officials hope a new website that details state spending can help West Virginia taxpayers see how their money is spent, and help the state pull up its grades in online transparency. State Auditor Glen Gainer and Senate President Earl Ray Tombl...

State launches website to help taxpayers track spending

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:05:53 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State officials hope a new website that details state spending can help West Virginia taxpayers see how their money is spent, and help the state pull up its grades in online transparency.

here. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Workers at DuPont Co.s Wood County plant who were exposed to the chemical C8 were more likely to die from kidney cancer and other kidney di...

Phone cramming continues to hurt consumers, Rockefeller says

pjnyden@wvgazette.com (Paul J. Nyden) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:34:57 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va.-- U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller said Wednesday that a "$2 billion a year scheme" to add unauthorized fees, often for unclear services, to millions of telephone bills has been going on for more than a decade. People, businesses an...

DuPont rejected safety options for Belle plant, records show

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:45:00 -0400

Read the reportCHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It was May 1988, and DuPont Co. engineers and managers were debating how to best build a facility where their companys Belle plant could turn the poi...

Investigators to be sent to youth home

gharki@wvgazette.com (Gary A. Harki) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state Supreme Court is sending investigators to the Industrial Home for Youth within days to look into problems at the center, after a report in The Charleston Gazette earlier this week. Chief Justice Margaret Workman is w...

Study: birth defect rates higher in MTR areas

pjnyden@wvgazette.com (Paul J. Nyden) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Researchers found "significantly higher" rates of birth defects in areas with mountaintop removal mines than in non-mining regions in central Appalachia, according to a study released Tuesday. ...

Report: W.Va. debit card program for unemployment problematic

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Thu, 12 May 2011 20:26:06 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A state program that pays unemployment benefits with prepaid debit cards is "problematic" because it hits jobless West Virginians with high transaction fees, according to a new report. The

Watchdog group highlights Capitos husbands banking job

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:53:20 -0400

Click here to read the letterCHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A national watchdog group is highlighting the banking job of Rep. Shelley Moore Capitos husband as the congresswoma...

Keyser to charge citizens $300 for public record

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Wed, 04 May 2011 09:45:24 -0400

KEYSER, W.Va. -- A citizens group is furious that Keyser officials are charging $300 for a detailed copy of the budget. Karol Ashenfelter of Keyser Citizens for Fiscal Accountability asked for detailed revenues and expenses for fiscal 2009 late last ...

WVU tight-lipped on Clements new contract

davinwhite@wvgazette.com (Davin White) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:00:16 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Members of the state Higher Education Policy Commission are expected to vote Friday on a revised contract for West Virginia University President Jim Clements. However, members of t...

N.C. prosecutors say dozens more crime lab errors found

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 17:12:35 -0400

RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolinas crime lab has found dozens more cases of mishandled blood evidence, adding to an already extensive review of years-old files, prosecutors said Tuesday. District attorneys from around the state are preparing to reassess t...

C8 exposure linked to onset of menopause

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Women exposed to higher levels of the toxic chemical C8 were more likely to have experienced menopause, according to a new West Virginia University study that offers some of the strongest evidence to date that such chemicals disrupt th...

CSB study details potential MIC leak impacts

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:13:11 -0500

Read the report. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Thousa...

Ex-Pocahontas officer could get certification back

gharki@wvgazette.com (Gary A. Harki) — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:07:10 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A former Pocahontas County sheriffs deputy whose certification was revoked after he drunkenly fired his gun while at his girlfriends house could get that certification back next year, according to state documents requested under the Fr...

Developmentally disabled man raped at state facility

aclevenger@wvgazette.com (Andrew Clevenger) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:45:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The mother of a developmentally disabled man says he was raped last month at Mildred Mitchell-Bateman Hospital, even though a judge ordered him into a treatment program and out of the hospital 15 months ago. Kim Crose, Shawn ...

Justices hear case of man assaulted at mental hospital

aclevenger@wvgazette.com (Andrew Clevenger) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:56:35 -0500

Read the DHHRs brief "here". : http://www.state.wv.us/wvsca/briefs/feb11/35671appellant.pd...

Bayer says fears not enough to prevent MIC re-start

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:24:14 -0500

Read the legal briefs. CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Lawyers for Bayer CropScience are urging a federal judge to turn down a request to temporarily block the...

Ex-grant managers pension stripped

ericeyre@wvgazette.com (Eric Eyre) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:01:47 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A state agency has stripped the public pension of a former job training grants administrator after she admitted using her position to steer federal funds to her son, daughter-in-law and housemate. The West Virginia Consolidated Pub...

WVU tightlipped on new Clements contract offer

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 13:35:44 -0500

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Board of Governors wants to keep West Virginia University President James Clements on the job, but its not ready to say how long or how much its willing to pay. The board approved a new contract agreement after an executive ...

Report details drilling damage to forest

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:33:02 -0500

Read the report CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A natural gas drilling operation in the Fernow Experimental Forest in Tucker County killed dozens of trees, damaged roads and eroded t...

Lawmakers revisit state public records law

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 19:44:36 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia lawmakers are looking at which records can be revealed under the Freedom of Information Act. The House Judiciary Committee endorsed a measure Thursday that would define what that law considers a public record. The bill ...

Questions remain on eve of final Bayer report

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 23:45:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Last weeks announcement that Bayer CropScience will stop making, using and storing the deadly chemical methyl isocyanate, or MIC, may have taken some of the air out of the U.S. Chemical Safety Boards release Thursday of its final rep...

Court to hear arguments on states brain-injury services

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 20:00:00 -0500

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Two and half years after a drunk driver hit him on Capitol Street, B.J. Berkhouse is getting around with the help of a walker. But like many with traumatic brain injury (TBI), Berkhouse says he still cant do simple chores. T...

Victim, father talk about Marshall University rape

Zachary.Taylor@wvgazette.com (Zac Taylor) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 18:03:41 -0500

Read the Sexual Victimization of College Women, 2000 study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice here. Read the database of campus rapes reported to the U.S. Department...

Monongalia school board OKs fees for electronic records

webmaster@ap.org ( The Associated Press) — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:05:13 -0500

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Monongalia County school board will charge 35 cents a page for records it provides to the public in an electronic format. The board unanimously approved the fee Tuesday, though some open-government advocates had objected. Super...

Ethics Commission to try again for tougher disclosure rules

alisonk@wvgazette.com (Alison Knezevich) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:45:23 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State ethics commissioners say they will again push lawmakers to toughen financial disclosure rules for public officials. At a meeting Thursday, though, some members of the

OSHA fines Huntington Postal Service $212,500

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:06:35 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Federal inspectors have fined the U.S. Postal Service more than $200,000 for what they say were willful violations of electrical safety standards at a mail processing facility in Huntington. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Adm...

Court rejects narrowing of state public records law

kward@wvgazette.com (Ken Ward Jr.) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 13:35:05 -0400

Read the ruling: Read more CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- A pesticide that is a major product of Bayer CropSciences Institute plant will be phased out because it "may pose unacceptable dietary risks, especiall...

Watch your speed in Gauley Bridge

gharki@wvgazette.com (Gary A. Harki) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:45:00 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Carol Wright doesnt think she was driving over the speed limit the two times she was given a speeding ticket in Gauley Bridge. "I had slowed down already for the railroad track," Wright, of Pittsboro, ...

Credit union scam hits local consumers

(Staff reports) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:47:27 -0400

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- People who get a telephone call, text message or e-mail telling them their credit or debit card has been canceled should be careful, because a string of consumer fraud attacks has been sweeping the region. Area residents have...