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...
West Virginians, when your $1,400 stimulus check arrives, remember that four of five members of your Congressional delegation voted against you getting it.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
"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.)
For the first time, I voted a straight ticket today:
Straight ticket Dems.
Straight ticket AGAINST the amendments.
Straight ticket FOR the bond levies.
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.
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.
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.
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!🇺🇸
Interesting election night, as West Virginia voters simultaneously embraced and -- with the sound defeat of the power-grab amendments -- rejected Republican politics.
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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
"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..."
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.
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.
.
@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.
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.
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."
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.
"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).*
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...
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.
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?
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
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.
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?
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.
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...
. 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...
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.
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?)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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...
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."
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
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.
"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).
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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."