W.Va. candidate removed from hearing after speaking out against oil and gas drilling legislation

[laserhaas]

Source: The HILL

A candidate for the West Virginia House of Delegates was reportedly cut off and removed from a hearing last week in the state's lower chamber on a piece of legislation regarding oil and gas drilling on private land.

During her testimony, Lissa Lucas spoke about her opposition to a bill that would require the approval of only 75 percent of landowners for oil and gas companies to drill on private land, according to the Huffington Post.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/373391-woman-removed-from-west-virginia-hearing-after-speaking-out-against

---

The Congressional News credits HuffPo original story
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a812a88e4b0c6726e14cb0b

That reported...

Lissa Lucas ventured to Charleston to voice her objections to the proposed bill, HB 4268, ..as Lucas, also a Democratic candidate for West Virginia’s seventh district, used her testimony to read a list of donations that lawmakers had received from oil and gas companies, information that was publicly available. But shortly into her allotted time, Lucas was ordered to refrain from making “personal comments” about members of the House Judiciary Committee.

“

The people who are going to be speaking in favor of this bill are all going to be paid by the industry,” Lucas said, noting that “the people who are going to be voting on this bill are often also paid by the industry.

”

[Staph]

1. And here's Lissa's personal description of the hearing

including the text of her entire speech and the video of what happened.

As I tried to give my remarks at the public hearing this morning on HB4268 in defense of our constitutional property rights, I got dragged out of House chambers.

Why? Because I was listing out who has been donating to Delegates on the Judiciary Committee.

This is, of course, public information.

Allow me to point out that if Delegates genuinely think that my talking about who their campaign donors are—and how much they’re receiving from corporate lobbyists/corporate PACs—is an ad hominem attack… then they should be refusing those donations.

Yeah, refuse any donation that, if someone mentions it, makes you feel personally attacked.

Because that’s not an attack. That’s guilt. And you SHOULD be feeling that. Let that guilt about who you’re really working for inform your votes; don’t let the corporate money do it.

https://lissalucas.com/2018/02/09/i-was-dragged-out-of-the-wv-house-chambers-because-i-listed-delegates-campaign-donors/

[FakeNoose]

6. She sounds like a woman with principles

I applaud her and wish her well. But West Virginia is sadly, a very misguided state now.
It's going to take something major to wake them up.

[SunSeeker]

2. I sent her some money on her ActBlue link:

https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/holler

[jalan48]

3. We need more like her.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. as a famous comedian once said perhaps all congress critters and state

legislatures should wear nascar like uniforms with all their doners names on them . good for her.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

5. West Virginia print media took a hit in January with the bankruptcy of the Charleston Mail Gazettte.

ProPublica: Meet the Seven Reporters Joining Us on ProPublica's Local Reporting Network

Retweeted by Dave Weigel: https://twitter.com/daveweigel

What great news! I know from experience how good @Kenwardjr is: when I covered the environment, he kicked my butt on stories about WV, coal and mountaintop removal.

Link to tweet

##FF Our new ProPublica Local Reporting Network reporters: @rebekahallen @Kenwardjr @JaymeKFraser @RebeccaKMoss @jcsheckler @MollyParkerSI @WMFEHealthNerd

Link to tweet

Meet the Seven Reporters Joining Us on ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network

by Charles Ornstein Dec. 8, 5 a.m. EST

There are two types of police reporters, Christian Sheckler recalls his executive editor telling him not too long ago: Those who try to make friends with officers and get rewarded with juicy tips about crimes, and those who press for answers on such thorny topics as civil rights, misconduct and accountability.
....

Sheckler and the South Bend Tribune are among seven applicants we selected to be part of our inaugural local reporting project. With support from a new three-year grant, we’re covering the salary and benefits of a reporter at each of these news organizations. The reporters will spend next year working on an investigative project in their home newsrooms and they will receive extensive guidance and support from ProPublica. Their work will be co-published by their home newsroom and by ProPublica.
....

They were selected from a pool of 239 applications and will cover a diverse array of topics, including conflicts of interest, housing, workplace safety, mental health and criminal justice.

The other reporters and newsrooms chosen to take part in the reporting network include:
....

• Ken Ward Jr., a reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail since 1991 who covers the environment with a focus on coal mining, mine safety, the chemical industry and workplace safety. In 2014, when a chemical leak contaminated the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people, Ward exposed significant flaws in federal safety guidelines for the chemicals and in the state’s water sampling program. His disclosures led to the appointment of an independent scientific team to examine the spill’s impacts. “I can’t think of many places that are in need of good journalism more than West Virginia is, or what higher calling journalists have than to try to write stories that make their home a better place,” Ward said in an interview with the Columbia Journalism Review a few years back.
....

Charles Ornstein is a senior reporter at ProPublica, covering health care and the pharmaceutical industry.

[e-mail]

@charlesornstein

917-512-0222

Signal: 818-679-9363

[yellowcanine]

7. And yet she persisted!