All the headlines from our Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jun 30 2010 // Motorcycle-related fatalities are declining in West Virginia.Only seven motorcycle-related fatalities have occurred in the state so far this year. Governor’s Highway Safety Program manager Barbara Lobert says 25...
Jun 30 2010 // Troubled coal producer Massey Energy Co. has taken legal action against the industry’s chief safety regulator for the second time in a week.Massey said it is appealing a federal Mine Safety and Health Administration...
Jun 29 2010 // Two West Virginia women who won a class-action lawsuit against DuPont over long-term exposure to toxins from a former zinc-smelting plant are suing again, this time seeking damages for dozens of ailments they say were...
Jun 25 2010 // West Virginians can bring bad faith lawsuits against insurance companies under the state’s human rights act, the state Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled.The court found that the West Virginia Human Rights Act...
Jun 24 2010 // Massey Energy Co. has been fined more than $6,000 for mostly minor safety violations found during an investigation of the nation’s deadliest coal mining disaster in 40 years, according to the federal Mine Safety and...
Jun 21 2010 // Two Kanawha County agencies have decided not to use a state-created insurance program for workers’ compensation coverage.Both have told BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. that its proposed rates have prompted them to...
Jun 18 2010 // Workers’ compensation premium increases for volunteer fire departments are being postponed for a year while lawmakers address firefighter safety and liability issues, Gov. Joe Manchin said.Manchin said he hopes to...
Jun 17 2010 // West Virginia House Speaker Rick Thompson wants the state to delay workers’ compensation premium increases for volunteer fire departments. BrickStreet Mutual Insurance Co. announced the premium increases in May....
Jun 15 2010 // West Virginia insurance regulators have put black lung premium increases on hold.The National Council on Compensation Insurance asked Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline’s office in May to increase rates for black lung...
Jun 15 2010 // Government investigators have begun issuing subpoenas to reluctant witnesses to the nation’s worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, accordng to West Virginia’s mine safety director.The five subpoenas issued to...
Jun 10 2010 // An administrative law judge ruled this week that there was no pattern of violations that would lead to stricter regulation at a Massey Energy Co. mine in Virginia.A Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission judge...
Jun 9 2010 // Teams found no problems Monday during a daylong expedition inside the West Virginia coal mine where 29 men died in the industry’s worst disaster in 40 years, officials said.Teams entered Massey Energy Co.’s...
Jun 8 2010 // A fireball and explosion burned seven members of a crew drilling for natural gas at an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia Monday, the second big fire at an energy formation known as the Marcellus Shale in less than a...
Jun 8 2010 // An affiliate of The Hartford has paid nearly $67,000 in restitution to policyholders in Virginia, following an investigation by state regulators over premiums charged by Trumbull Insurance Co. The company agreed to a...
Jun 7 2010 // An insurance company doesn’t have to pay for damages at a Virginia man’s home ruined by Chinese-made, sulfur-emitting drywall, a decision by a federal judge Thursday that could affect how lawsuits by thousands...
Jun 4 2010 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has refused to reconsider its decision involving DuPont and punitive damages arising out of a pollution case.Wilmington, Del.-based DuPont asked the court to reconsider a ruling it issued in...
Jun 2 2010 // Investigators probing the nation’s worst coal mining disaster in 40 years plan to enter the Upper Big Branch mine for the first time today, owner Massey Energy Co. said.Unsafe levels of toxic and explosive gases have...
Jun 1 2010 // West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller is urging President Barack Obama to make several mine safety improvements immediately. In a letter dated Sunday, Rockefeller told Obama he should consider several suggestions made by...
May 28 2010 // One of just two major makers of emergency air packs for U.S. coal mines has stopped selling the devices because they often don’t automatically start and the industry fears it will lead to a shortage, officials...
May 27 2010 // The North Carolina-based Smart Choice Agents Program, which says it currently provides personal and commercial lines markets for some 3,000 independent agencies in 32 states, is expanding into six additional states.The...