Phil Kabler Profile Banner
Phil Kabler Profile
Phil Kabler

@PhilKabler

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Semi-retired statehouse columnist for @wvgazette . Contact at 304-348-1220, or philk @hdmediallc .com. RT's are not endorsements.

Joined February 2013
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Apparently tonight, the new WV Power ownership group was unaware of what happens when you play "Sweet Caroline" with a crowd of West Virginians in the stands...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
House floor debate now on whether God condemns aborted fetuses to hell because they never had the opportunity to accept Christ as their savior.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
West Virginians, when your $1,400 stimulus check arrives, remember that four of five members of your Congressional delegation voted against you getting it.
@MSNBC
MSNBC
3 years
BREAKING: House passes $1.9T Covid relief bill that includes $1,400 checks, $300/wk jobless benefits, child allowance of up to $3,600 for one year, $125B for K-12 schools, $30B for public transit, $25B for rental assistance, $14B for vaccine distribution.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
Today's lesson: . teachers wouldn't sell out for a $2,000 pay raise.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
For the 36th anniversary of my first day at the Gazette, I get to participate in a Zoom conference with Vice President Harris.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
To recap, looks like Jim Justice bet his entire empire on coal making a comeback. It didn't, and now he has more than $1 billion of loan debt that has come due that he can't pay. Thoughts and prayers.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Probably 90 percent of the 4,222 fans at the Charleston D-Birds' 5-3 Opening Day win tonight failed to notice a milestone. Staten Island's Kelsie Whitmore entered the game in the 9th as a pinch runner, becoming the first woman to play in a league that is affiliated with MLB.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 months
Justice gives $10 million of taxpayers dollars to Marshall for a ballfield, vetoes $2 million for groundbreaking and potentially Nobel Prize-winning research at WVU...
@SCrichlow
Scott Crichlow
3 months
WV Gov. Jim Justice vetoes millions of $ that would have gone to WVU Health Sciences, including millions for the Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Today is my first real retirement day. Slept in, put on coffee, checked the news, did some reading ("Tinderbox"), did a load of laundry (that I normally would have rushed to get done Sunday so I'd have clean work clothes), and most of all, didn't have to get to work by 9.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
55 Strong: 1 ALEC: 0
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
6 years
When the Gazette-Mail was in bankruptcy, Sen. Karnes tweeted for me to enjoy my retirement. Resisting temptation to stoop that low tonight.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Sen. Brown: "Why should 30 men in this room make the decision for 500,000 child-bearing women?"
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 months
"I can assure everyone that our bridges are inspected all the time." -- Jim Justice, commenting on Key Bridge collapse. (Ironically, West Virginia has the highest percentage of structurally deficient bridges in the U.S.)
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
For the first time, I voted a straight ticket today: Straight ticket Dems. Straight ticket AGAINST the amendments. Straight ticket FOR the bond levies.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Justice says he will sue me and the Charleston Gazette-Mail for Sunday's column.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Today we learned it is not a crime to murder a woman asleep in her bed if that woman is Black, but, yeah, let's direct our outrage to BLM stickers on football helmets.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
When John Oliver wins the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Talk Series for Sunday's episode, I hope he gives a shout out to West Virginia for making it possible.
@ayoblaz
Ayo.B
5 years
HBO really loves John Oliver. The production quality alone for a 30 min news show 😂😂 #LastWeekTonight
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 year
Under Trump, coal production in West Virginia fell to its lowest levels in 100 years. Trump did nothing to support coal, except to pantomime a miner shoveling coal, and falsely claiming he would put all miners back to work.
@JimJusticeWV
Jim Justice
1 year
I'm proud to support President Donald J. Trump! President Trump secured our Southern Border, built a strong and prosperous economy, and supported West Virginia coal, gas, and oil to achieve American energy independence. West Virginia is Trump country!🇺🇸
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
I can top that. I never saw it in 32 years covering the Legislature -- and that includes when the galleries were full of angry coal miners.
@BeachForWV
Bob Beach
2 years
In my 21 1/2 years in the legislature I’ve never seen leadership remove everyone from the gallery and lock the doors. 😳
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Interesting election night, as West Virginia voters simultaneously embraced and -- with the sound defeat of the power-grab amendments -- rejected Republican politics.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
btw, my state Capitol electronic access card was deactivated today by order of Protective Services Director Kevin Foreman (whom I consider a friend). Efforting to get an explanation. (For those unaware, I still work out of the Capitol Press Room.)
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Seems like just yesterday that I was required to open a Twitter account as a condition of employment, pretty sure that no one would pay attention, to more than 12,000 followers today. Many thanks, everyone.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
So far, organized protests by we the people to oppose the omnibus education bill and the campus carry bill have (apparently) stopped both bills. Democracy works when everyone participates.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Sen. Owens Brown, D-Ohio, points out the arrogance and hypocrisy of a roomful of middle-aged and elderly men making health care decisions for young women.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 year
If your religion requires you to discriminate, you should find a better religion. Perhaps one more closely attuned with the teachings of Jesus.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
How are we not marketing this?
@TerribleMaps
Terrible Maps
3 years
The legality of owning a kangaroo in the United States
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
That Jim Justice is using taxpayer dollars to give away $150,000 dream weddings when his Greenbrier resort is the only place in the state capable of staging such expensive fetes might be the most Jim Justice thing ever.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Just had a call from a 95-year-old reader who said she was concerned that I had been demoted. I explained I had retired of my own volition, but told her I'm continuing to work part-time, writing my column and giving public officials a hard time. We had a very nice conversation.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 months
What, a campaign ad that talks about roads, schools, and jobs -- not the trans menace and illegal immigrants flooding into the state? Is this some kind of joke?
@teamtomana
Stephanie Tomana
2 months
Meet Stephanie Tomana - a dedicated teacher running for the West Virginia House. It's time to get Charleston back to the basics--roads, schools, and jobs. Together, we can build a brighter future for all West Virginians. To learn more, visit
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Joe Biden made you buy an oversized gas-guzzler?
@RepGregSteube
Congressman Greg Steube
2 years
$167 to fill up my truck today in Arcadia. Thanks Joe Biden!
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
"If I told you about a school that has produced 25 Rhodes Scholars, 45 Goldwater Scholars, 24 Truman Scholars, and 64 Fulbright Scholars, you’d probably think I was talking about an Ivy-League school. Actually, that school is West Virginia University..."
@WestVirginiaU
WVU Mountaineers
5 years
It's no secret to us ... We've been chosen as one of the 10 Best "Hidden Gem" Public Universities in the country! 💛💙
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
I assume this also applies to women's reproductive rights.
@MorriseyWV
Patrick Morrisey
3 years
Informed citizens in a Republic don’t need government mandates to dictate how they should act. #Encourage and #Persuade , Don’t Mandate. Rely on science, get your shit together, CDC, and persuade with the information you have available.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
My takeaway from today's COVID-19 briefing: A few weeks ago, COVID outbreaks were a series of small brush fires. State did nothing, and now we have a raging wildfire. Nothing can be done now, except to wait for the wildfire to burn itself out, at great cost in lives and health.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
63% of West Virginians support AOC over Manchin on the $15 minimum wage.
@Public_Citizen
Public Citizen
3 years
. @AOC on raising the wage: It is deeply, deeply shameful that we are even having this conversation. When you take the minimum wage from several decades ago and account for inflation and productivity gains, it should be $24/hour.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
One of my concerns about early retirement was health insurance costs. Just signed up for ACA plan that includes vision and dental that's about $70 a month more than my current premium, but with $0 deductible and lower copays, it should be close to a wash. Thanks Obama and Dems.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Miller and Mooney voted against $2,000 payments to struggling West Virginians. McKinley, Miller and Mooney all voted to defund the military.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 year
Ironically, the lead sponsor of the campus carry bill (SB 10) never attended college.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Number of Biden signs spotted on my run/walk today: 14 (Plus one Rosie the Riveter "Grab Him By The Ballot" sign). Number of Trump signs: 0.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Justice: "We now have, great goodness, six red counties." Actually, we now have 48 red counties, Big Jim.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Justice takes crack at Congressman Alex Mooney, saying he's seen him one time in six years. "Does Congressman Mooney even know West Virginia exists?"
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
From a reader: "I wasn’t able to get to get to Charleston to cheer Jill Biden on, but correct me if I’m wrong -- our own governor couldn’t be bothered to greet her? If that’s the case, it’s downright bad manners, among many, many other things, and he should be castigated for it."
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
So now the game is on: 55 Strong vs. ALEC.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
In the 1980s, the late great Spy magazine famously dubbed Donald Trump as a "short-fingered vulgarian." We have a vulgarian in Jim Justice, and it occurred to me that both men were born into wealth, and never faced any repercussions for vulgar behavior as the rest of us would.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Senate Majority Leader Tom Takubo, a pulmonary physician, says he has yet to admit or treat one patient for adverse reaction to COVID vaccine.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
For some reason, I always get a bunch of new followers after each Justice outburst. Now, four away from 7,000. Thanks everyone.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Justice calls Mooney an AWOL congressman: "If he's going to hang around in Maryland all the time, it makes it hard for me to work with him."
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 year
"We do have a border crisis in West Virginia, because everyone's leaving." -- Delegate Shawn Fluharty, on bill that would prohibit immigration sanctuary cities in West Virginia (HB 2008).*
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
True story. As I was walking to work this morning, a woman stopped her car on Virginia Street and called out, "Thank you for all you do." Thanks.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Got called out by the governor and the Senate president in the same day. I should put in for a bonus...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
The odds that Jim Justice would draw the name of Bill Cole's employee out of 380,000 sweepstakes entries are approximately the same as the odds of Ilsa Lund walking into Rick's Cafe Americain out of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
34 years ago today, I started work at the Gazette, 33 years ago today, I was supposed to be up for my one-year evaluation, but the Challenger blew up that morning, and there was havoc in the newsroom, so I never got evaluated. Which I credit for my longevity at the paper.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Right now on MSNBC, Bernie Sanders is agreeing with Jim Justice on Joe Biden's stimulus plan.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Is this one of the best days ever?
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Hypocrisy is Congresswoman Carol Miller going on local media to decry the baby formula shortage, then voting against the baby formula relief bill.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 months
"West Virginia girls hoop coach vies for Joe Manchin's Senate seat, while moonlighting as governor." There, I fixed it.
@WashTimes
The Washington Times
3 months
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice vies for Joe Manchin’s Senate seat, while moonlighting as girls hoops coach
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 months
What kind of sick f**k not only proposes using . taxpayer dollars to maim and kill women and children, but uses a photo of a woman and child in harm's way to illustrate his proposal?
@MikeStuartWV
Mike Stuart
4 months
I’ll be introducing a bill in the State Senate to help Texas fund the cost of razor wire at the border. The open border and fentanyl invasion must end. West Virginians are dying because of the open border. The human toll is real. ⁦ @WVGOP
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Rewatched the governor's briefing. Thought it was interesting that he said I have "The worst vulgar mouth under the sun." I think people who know me know I almost never use vulgar words. Not that I'm offended by them, I just don't use them.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
So let me get this straight. A program to help families pay delinquent utility bills from March to July using federal funds we received in April is unveiled in late October, two weeks before the election?
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Fearless women of all generations are our best hope.
@WilliamKyleVass
Kyle Vass
2 years
Rita Ray, 80, who risked her life pre-Roe by getting an abortion from someone who wasn’t a healthcare provider, watches on as Addison Gardner, 12, contemplates her own future without access to legal abortion in WV.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
One of the prizes in the new vaccination incentive sweepstakes is $150,000 dream weddings. Can't wait for the MAGAs to lose their minds with the first state-funded LGBTQ dream wedding...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
. Constitution requires the governor, if the budget hasn't been passed by the 57th day, to issue a proclamation extending the session. Justice didn't do it. Constitution also requires the governor to reside in Charleston...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Topped 10,000 followers yesterday. Thanks everyone, and I'll try to post stuff worth reading.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Something screwy about diverting federal ARP pandemic relief funds to provide tax credits to a multi-billion $ corporation.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Those of us in West Virginia don't either.
@paulapoundstone
Paula Poundstone
2 years
I don't understand Joe Manchin.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Delegate Fast takes Reefer Madness to a new level, saying he's afraid decriminalization of marijuana will lead to stoners commandeering bulldozers and wreaking havoc.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Justice, expressing surprise over current spikes: "We really thought the sun was a tremendous ally to us." (Who, other than Trump, said the virus would go away in warm weather?)
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Between lunch, and people coming in to congratulate me for making Big Jim blow up, I haven't been able to get anything done this afternoon.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Reopenings seem to have gone from a reasoned, measured weekly phase-in to catering to whichever businesses complaint the loudest.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 months
Steve Williams.
@WVUFLU
Shawn Fluharty
2 months
The WVGOP Governor's race has reached total clown car status. Are there any adults in the room?
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
That 61% of West Virginians think Gov. Justice is doing a good job handling the COVID-19 pandemic goes a long way to tell us why we're last in everything.
@EricTopol
Eric Topol
3 years
The new US and world leader in covid cases per capita, WV
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, unable to participate in Zoom conference on broadband initiative because of "connectivity issues."
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
West Virginia's right to work law, passed in 2016, overturned in Kanawha Circuit Court as a unconstitutional taking.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Nearly $1 billion of FY2023 state spending (Equal to nearly one-fourth of General Revenue budget) comes from American Rescue Act funds. Thanks, President Biden and Democrats.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
After spending the past 10 days in places that require face masks in public places (Sacramento, San Francisco, Chicago, and aboard Amtrak trains), it's a little disconcerting to come back to . where nobody is wearing masks.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
The thing about racism that amazes me is how it can embolden completely unextraordinary people to look down on people who are extraordinarily accomplished, talented and intelligent.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
COVID-19 briefing delayed one hour, as Justice awaits announcement of Trump's return to the White House...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
When Manchin was governor of ., the press corps had a saying that the easiest way to get injured at the Capitol is to get between Manchin and a TV camera.
@matthewamiller
Matthew Miller
3 years
Just can’t figure out why Manchin keeps dragging out this Build Back Better debate.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
What a beautiful day.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Senator, you could have stopped this on Feb. 5, 2020.
@SenCapito
Shelley Moore Capito
3 years
This is the United States of America. This needs to stop right now. We don’t do this. It’s not who we are.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
Anchor on Sinclair-owned station just said Mueller report found no evidence of collusion or obstruction...Charleston deserves better.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Isaac Sponaugle sends letter of intent to sue Gov. Jim Justice for failure to comply with previous settlement agreement to reside in Charleston, as required by the state Constitution.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Justice's take on the Build Back Better bill: "That is nothing but a money giveaway beyond belief because we're concerned about the mid-term elections." Which part? Universal pre-K? Free community college tuition? Expanded Medicare coverage? Paid medical and family leave?
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
No offense, but if you haven't been to Tudors, you haven't lived in West Virginia, you've occupied space in West Virginia.
@RlinglyEarl
Earl langle
3 years
@PhilKabler I have lived in WV for 40 years and never been in a Tudors.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Justice: Bars in Mon County closed as of 4 p.m. today. Boom!
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
During today's COVID briefing, Justice showed photos and videos of lawnmowers given away in the Babydog sweepstakes featuring signage advertising Adams Power Equipment, a clear violation of the Ethics Act's prohibition against using public office for the private gain of another.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
East End Taco Bell is open. Whoever decided to put a Taco Bell in walking distance of the Red Carpet and the Empty Glass deserves the fortune they're going to make...
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
2 years
Delegate Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, asks West Virginians to fly American flags -- symbol of freedom and liberty -- at half staff: "We are going to deny our fellow Americans liberty and freedom."
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Justice: COVID numbers are ticking back up again. (Ironically after he opened up everything but the Capitol and his pressers.)
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 month
At his virtual briefing today, Jim Justice touted both a $1.2 billion grant for state broadband expansion, and on-going construction at the Nucor plant in Mason County -- without acknowledging that both are the direct result of President Joe Biden's Infrastructure Act. 1/2
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Mask Up, Mountaineers!
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 months
I went to work at McDonald's at age 14 1/2, and worked throughout high school. I look back at that as a terrible mistake, with the many, many hours lost that I could have spent studying and just being a teenager.
@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 months
"This is a good bill. Let's get these kids to work." -- Delegate Todd Longanacre, R-Greenbrier, in support of legislation to allow children under 16 to be employed without obtaining a work permit (HB 5159).
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
1 month
Looks like Robert Karnes is out as a state senator, after having changed his residency from a substantial home in Upshur County to a hunting cabin in Randolph County in order to run four years ago.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Tomorrow, it will be safe enough to eat at dine-in restaurants, but still too dangerous to allow a half-dozen reporters to attend Justice's briefings in person.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Surely it can't be safe to reopen schools so long as its too dangerous to have in-person Justice press briefings.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
I FOIA'ed the governors office for all written procedures regarding how vaccination sweepstakes contest winners are contacted...and they responded by sending me a copy of the contest rules posted on the Babydog website.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Justice on K-12 mask mandate: "The net, net of the whole thing is, why aren't these kids vaccinated?" Maybe because vaccines are not authorized for under age 12?
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
4 years
Nothing makes the time pass faster in a pandemic than spending all afternoon analyzing tape to determine if the governor dropped an "F" bomb during his statewide COVID-19 briefing.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Now learning that one of the week 2 pickup truck winners works at the Lewisburg Hardee's that Justice frequents nearly every morning, and made national news as one of the "Hardee's girls" that Justice had Donald Trump leave a note for when he spoke at The Greenbrier.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
3 years
Rachel Maddow was just talking about a rally at the . Capitol calling for Manchin to oppose SR1, where everyone was bused in from out-of-state. By chance, I jogged past the rally and was surprised that when asked, no one could name either of our senators.
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@PhilKabler
Phil Kabler
5 years
Delegate John Shott, R-Mercer, on his motion to move campus carry bill to House inactive calendar: "The only people who want it are the NRA and CDL. The universities certainly don't want it."
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