March 11, 2025

First Energy planning to replace coal plants in W.Va. with natural gas

HAYWOOD, W.Va (WDTV) - First Energy announced during their fourth quarter earnings presentation on Thursday, February 27, 2025, that there are plans to shut down 2 Mon Power coal plants in favor of natural gas.

“We have about 3,000 megawatts of coal powered generation that’s going to be retired - that’s planned to be retired, whether that happens or not - between 2035 and 2040,” said First Energy President and CEO, Brian Tierney.

The Harrison plant in Harrison County and the Fort Martin plant in Monongalia County are scheduled to shut down within the next 15 years; however, the replacement natural gas facilities are expected to begin being constructed within the next 5 years.

5 News reached out to First Energy for comment. They confirmed that they are developing new “dispatchable generation” in West Virginia, and that they are in the early stages of the planning process.

https://www.wdtv.com/2025/03/03/first-energy-planning-replace-coal-plants-wva-with-natural-gas/

March 1, 2025

Inside the 139 minutes that upended the US-Ukraine alliance

White House chefs were at work in the West Wing on Friday laying out plates of rosemary chicken, celery root puree and collard greens when the sound of raised voices began floating over from the Oval Office.

Inside, a remarkable scene was unfolding. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance had begun berating their guest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a hitherto unseen public implosion of a key global relationship.

(snip)

A whirlwind day in Washington drew to a close as Trump boarded Air Force One and flew to his Mar-a-Lago resort for the weekend. Shortly after takeoff, Zelensky came on Fox News, for an interview that Trump watched on the presidential aircraft.

Zelensky said he did not believe he owed Trump an apology for the fiery outbursts in the Oval Office, but expressed his regret that it all unfolded on television for the world to see.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/01/politics/inside-trump-zelensky-meeting/index.html

February 11, 2025

Possible DOGE visit to Parkersburg (WV) has people talking

PARKERSBURG, W.Va. — Mayor Tom Joyce says he’s heard nothing about any intentions the Elon Musk group DOGE may have to change the operations at the Bureau of Fiscal Service in downtown Parkersburg.

Reports have indicated that representatives of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will visit this week. Musk and DOGE after been making cuts in federal spending under the authority of President Donald Trump.

Joyce said he spoke with U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s office Monday about the possible visit.

“The communication was that it’s not uncommon for folks to come in and review the system that they use for remuneration for these federal public dollars,” Joyce told MetroNews, adding he’s heard nothing about anyone wanting to close the operation.

https://wvmetronews.com/2025/02/10/possible-doge-visit-to-parkersburg-has-people-talking/

January 28, 2025

Feds detain 53 suspected illegal immigrants in W.Va.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) - West Virginia’s governor confirmed Monday that the state’s jail system is detaining more than 50 individuals suspected of illegal immigration.

W.Va. Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he has directed state agencies to support the federal government’s immigration enforcement through active coordination.

As of Monday afternoon, Morrisey said 53 suspected illegal immigrants were being detained in state facilities. Those detentions had occurred at the direction of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.

“We will take all appropriate steps to protect our citizens and work with the Trump Administration to crack down on illegal immigration,” Morrisey said in a written statement.

https://www.wsaz.com/2025/01/27/feds-detain-53-suspected-illegal-immigrants-wva/

January 12, 2025

Report: Jim Justice, once W.Va.'s wealthiest resident, has net worth 'less than zero'

Fri, January 10th 2025 at 3:44 PM

A new report issued Friday suggests West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who will soon become the state’s U.S. Senator, has a net worth “less than zero.” (West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's YouTube)

WEST VIRGINIA (WCHS) — A new report issued Friday suggests West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, who will soon become the state’s U.S. Senator, has a net worth “less than zero.”

The report from Forbes said the net worth claim is due to what it estimates as $1 billion in debts owed by Justice as well as a decline in valuation of his assets.

Justice held his final news briefing Friday as governor, but did not address the report or take questions from reporters. Forbes said Justice’s attorneys and spokespeople did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The report said Justice’s famed Greenbrier Resort "may now be worth less than half the $1 billion" it was once allegedly valued at. The Justice family’s coal mines, which still produce coal, are estimated to generate $150 million in revenues.

https://wchstv.com/news/local/report-jim-justice-once-wvas-wealthiest-resident-has-net-worth-less-than-zero

September 24, 2024

West Virginia State Senator arrested for second time since August

MARSHALL COUNTY, W.Va. — West Virginia State Senator Michael Maroney was arrested Monday for the second time in just over month.

Maroney, R-Marshall, was arrested in McMechen after officers conducted a traffic stop for numerous traffic infractions. Maroney was arrested for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence and charged with Control of Vehicle Under the Influence, Expired Registration, and No Registration.

Maroney was taken to North Central Regional Jail.

Maroney was also arrested on August 13 and charged with disorderly conduct and indecent exposure after surveillance video showed him performing a sexual act in the gaming room of a Glen Dale gambling parlor on August 4. Maroney was removed from Senate Committee positions following the arrest.

https://wvmetronews.com/2024/09/23/west-virginia-state-senator-arrested-for-second-time-since-august/

He's a lame duck since he was defeated in the GOP primary.

August 25, 2024

Hezbollah launches missiles at Israel, prompting airstrikes on Lebanon

Source: Reuters

JERUSALEM/BEIRUT, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Hezbollah launched hundreds of rockets and drones at Israel early on Sunday, as Israel's military said it struck Lebanon with around 100 jets to thwart a bigger attack, in one of the biggest clashes in more than 10 months of border warfare.

Missiles were visible curling up through the dawn sky, dark vapour trails behind them, as an air raid siren sounded in Israel and a distant blast lit the horizon, while smoke rose over houses in Khiam in southern Lebanon.

The extent of damage was not immediately clear and Hezbollah indicated it was not planning further strikes yet, while Israel's Foreign Minister said the country did not seek a full-scale war.

Any major escalation in the fighting, which began in parallel with the war in Gaza, risks morphing into a regional conflagration drawing in Hezbollah's backer Iran and Israel's main ally the United States.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-strikes-hezbollah-targets-lebanon-military-says-2024-08-25/

August 16, 2024

State senator arrested for indecent exposure, disorderly conduct.

GLEN DALE, W.Va (WDTV) - A West Virginia state senator was arrested for indecent exposure and disorderly conduct in Marshall County.

Michael Maroney, 56, is accused of performing sexual acts on himself in a gaming room at Gumby’s Cigarette & Beer World, according to the Glen Dale Police Department.

Maroney is a senator in the 2nd Senate district, which consists of Monongalia, Marion, Doddridge, Gilmer, Ritchie, Tyler, Calhoun and Wetzel counties.

Employees of the store told police Maroney came out of the back room to the ATM machine and was “breathing heavy and touching himself” at approximately 1 p.m., according to court documents. After watching the CCTV, they saw him performing sexual acts on himself.

https://www.wsaz.com/2024/08/14/state-senator-arrested-indecent-exposure-disorderly-conduct/

Another GOP sicko.

August 14, 2024

Harris is ahead in RealClearPolitics Poll Average by 1.1%

This is amazing! Harris leads Trump in the conservative RCP poll average, despite the eternal outlier, Rasmussen. This is part of a trend.

https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-harris

March 18, 2024

Even the Supreme Court's Conservatives Are Fed Up With the Garbage Coming Out of the 5th Circuit

What happens when a lawless judge and a terrible appeals court embrace the dopiest First Amendment claim you’ve ever heard out of pure spite toward a Democratic president? That would be Murthy v. Missouri, a brain-meltingly dumb case that the Supreme Court was unfortunate enough to hear oral arguments in on Monday. Murthy poses a question so asinine that to ask it is to answer it: Can government officials encourage social media companies to moderate certain content that they deem harmful—most importantly, disinformation about COVID-19 in the middle of the pandemic?

Yes, of course they can: The First Amendment does not gag public officials from urging Facebook or the Washington Post or anyone else to publish or not publish certain information, especially when it contains dangerous lies about a once-in-a-century pandemic that could exacerbate the crisis. The First Amendment bars government censorship, not government persuasion, and the Biden administration planted itself on the latter side of that bright line. At least six justices grasped this basic constitutional principle on Monday. Several of them used arguments to highlight how this inane case illustrates so much of what’s wrong with the judiciary today, and hinted at the dangers it could pose to American democracy in the future. That we should pay attention to. The rest was an unfortunate sideshow.

Like so many Supreme Court cases these days, Murthy is built atop a heap of fake facts. The case began when Missouri and Louisiana sued agencies and officials across the Biden administration, falsely accusing them of coercing social media companies into censoring their residents’ free speech. (These states later added a handful of fringe anti-vaxxers to the suit.) They filed their complaint in the Monroe Division of the Western District of Louisiana, where—surprise!—they were guaranteed to draw a Trump appointee, Terry Doughty, the one judge hearing cases in that division. Judge Doughty has a record of issuing nationwide injunctions against the Biden administration on the basis of dubious legal and factual analysis. Most notably, he issued a nationwide bar against Biden’s vaccine mandate for health care workers in an opinion riddled with anti-vax nonsense (which the Supreme Court reversed).

Doughty, in other words, was certain to rule against Biden in the social media case. Even still, the opinion he handed down on July 4, 2023, was a humiliating mess of contradictions, fabrications, and (ironically) misinformation. Doughty adopted the plaintiffs’ theory that the administration “coerced” social media companies into removing “conservative” speech about COVID, including posts promoting hydroxychloroquine and rejecting the efficacy of vaccines. He accused government officials of launching a “coordinated campaign” to silence conservatives by forcing private companies to take down anti-vax content, as well as false claims about election fraud. And he issued one of the most sweeping injunctions in the history of the American legal system, prohibiting any employee—including Homeland Security, the State Department, the Department of Justice, and the FBI—from “engaging in any communication of any kind with social-media companies” encouraging content moderation.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/03/supreme-court-conservatives-5th-circuit-dumb-case.html