Latest West Virginia Headlines

All the headlines from our West Virginia Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Unsealed Records Show Drug Firms Flooded Rural West Virginia With Painkillers

May 27 2016 // Information about pill shipments that prescription drug distributors being sued by the state had sought to keep secret show that the firms flooded rural West Virginia with hundreds of thousands of painkillers.The...

West Virginia Motorcyclist Wins $500K in Suit Against Travelers, Truck Driver

May 25 2016 // A jury has awarded more than $500,000 to a motorcyclist in South Charleston, W. Va., who was injured in a lumber spill wreck.The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports jurors reached the verdict last week in Larry Keeling...

West Virginia Drug Diversion Squad to Aid in Fight Against State Drug Abuse

May 24 2016 // A new tactical diversion squad through the Drug Enforcement Agency will help north central West Virginia fight the state’s growing drug problem. WBOY-TV reports that starting next month the diversion squad will...

West Virginia Town Issued ‘Do Not Drink’ Advisory Over Chemical Level in Water

May 23 2016 // West Virginia officials have issued a “Do Not Drink” advisory for Vienna water after the Environmental Protection Agency announced a new limit for the amount of a chemical present in Wood County’s...

W. Virginia AG Announces New Initiative Against Prescription Drug Abuse

May 20 2016 // West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey plans to purchase incinerators for the disposal of unwanted and expired prescription medication in a state that leads the nation in the rate of overdose deaths.Morrisey...

Blankenship Headed to Jail After Judge Denies Appeal Request

May 13 2016 // Former Massey Energy CEO Donald Blankenship is headed to prison even as he appeals his conviction for conspiring to flout mine-safety laws in connection with the worst U.S. coal industry disaster in almost 40 years.The...

Jury Rules Billionaire’s Coal Co. Didn’t Contaminate West Virginia Drinking Wells

May 9 2016 // A West Virginia jury has ruled that a coal company owned by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice did not contaminate the drinking water wells of residents, but the plaintiffs’ attorneys say the jury may...

Judge Grants Class Action Status to West Virginia Miner Lawsuit

May 6 2016 // A lawsuit filed by miners in West Virginia who say they were unlawfully laid off in Wyoming County has been certified as a class action.The Register-Herald reports Judge Irene Berger granted the certification Tuesday in...

Asbestos Confirmed at West Virginia University

May 4 2016 // A West Virginia University official says test results at the WVU Coliseum confirm the presence of asbestos in materials that were exposed during recent construction activities.WVU Environmental Health and Safety John...

West Virginia Doctor Gets 8 Years in Drug, Health Care Fraud Case

Apr 29 2016 // A pain clinic doctor in Beckley, West Virginia, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for illegally prescribing a controlled substance and submitting false health care claims.Dr. Jose Gordinho was sentenced...

West Virginia to Receive $8M From Wells Fargo in Marketing Practices Dispute

Apr 27 2016 // Wells Fargo will pay $8 million to West Virginia as part of a settlement of a decade-long dispute involving marketing practices.Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced Monday that Wells Fargo will pay the money to the...

West Virginia Supreme Court Reverses Dismissal of Age Discrimination Case

Apr 22 2016 // The West Virginia Supreme Court has reversed a previous ruling it made that dismissed a lawsuit alleging age discrimination. The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports that the court on April 14 reversed its decision to uphold a...

West Virginia Agent Pleads Guilty to Burning Down His Own Home

Apr 14 2016 // A West Virginia man has pleaded guilty in federal court to aiding and abetting arson and conspiracy to tamper with a witness. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of West Virginia said in a news...

Mississippi and West Virginia Governors Both Sign Ridesharing Laws

Apr 7 2016 // Mississippi and West Virginia have become the 30th and 31st states to pass legislation to create a statewide regulatory framework for ridesharing services offered by transportation network companies like Uber and...

Massey Ex-CEO Blankenship Sentenced to 1 Year in Jail for Fatal Mine Explosion

Apr 6 2016 // Former coal baron Donald Blankenship was sentenced to a year in prison for evading mine-safety rules in one of the final chapters of a fatal mine explosion that was the worst U.S. coal industry accident in almost 40...

6 Years After Upper Big Branch Tragedy, Ex-CEO of Mine Faces Sentencing

Apr 6 2016 // Six years after 29 miners were killed in a West Virginia coal dust explosion, the man who ran the mining company like a fiefdom — a coal baron and power broker who earned millions of dollars a year — will learn...

Apartment Fire in West Virginia Displaces 100 Residents

Apr 6 2016 // Fire officials have confirmed that smoke detectors inside a Huntington apartment complex didn’t go off when the building caught fire, causing more than 100 residents to be displaced.News outlets report that...

Ridesharing Gets Green Light in West Virginia

Apr 4 2016 // Companies like Uber and Lyft can soon start offering rides in West Virginia under a new law approved by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.The Democrat signed a bill in March letting ridesharing companies operate in the state. The...

West Virginia Officials Propose $93K Fine Against Natural Gas Company

Mar 31 2016 // West Virginia environmental officials have proposed a $93,000 fine on an Antero Resources natural gas company for polluting waterways. In a consent order, state Department of Environmental Protection and Antero Midstream...

West Virginia Pharmacists Reduce Hydrocodone Dispensing by Nearly 13M

Mar 31 2016 // West Virginia pharmacies are dispensing significantly fewer doses of the state’s most popular prescription painkiller, hydrocodone.The number of prescribed hydrocodone products dropped by nearly 13 million tablets...