West Virginia Blue
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Someone emailed me this link to an excellent State Journal story about the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind in Romney.
Mary Ennis Kesler, 30, said she sometimes tries to explain to her students just how much cell phone text-messaging, the Internet and other technology have changed life for people with hearing impairments.
"We have access to the whole world now," said Kesler, a Lewis County native who enrolled at the Romney school in 1984 when she was 4. "Technology has made it so that not being able to hear doesn't keep a person from doing anything they want to do. There are all these ways to communicate, all these ways to learn. We're not isolated like before."
Situated on the same campus, the state's School for the Blind also is experiencing a revolution in technology with a plethora of devices such as Braille PDAs and laptops equipped with the latest in voice-recognition software.
Despite the tech revolution, the Romney school in many ways approaches its mission in the same way it did in its earliest days, said Patsy Shank, the school's superintendent.
"It's about our students and what they need as individuals," said Shank, a Keyser native who began teaching here in 1981 and became superintendent in mid-2007.
West Virginia's African American community is in distress. According to a new report entitled Legacy of Inequality: Racial and Economic Disparities in West Virginia, black West Virginians are more likely to live in poverty and have lower incomes and higher unemployment rates than white West Virginians, despite having similar levels of educational attainment.
The report found that in West Virginia:
28.5% of black residents live in poverty, compared with 16.6% of whites;
nearly 60% of black children under five live in poverty, compared with 28.1% for whites;
annual per capita income for whites was $21,272, compared with $14,915 for black residents;
median family income was $48,479 for whites but only $31,175 for black residents.
Racial disparities also exist in employment status, health insurance coverage, home ownership and incarceration rates.
Unfortunately, there is currently no state level office or program charged with elevating the concerns of West Virginia's minority communities.
House Bill 4161, which would create the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs passed the West Virginia House of Delegates. Its companion bill, SB 329 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been sent to Finance.
This bill is intended to provide a forum for discussion of issues that affect minorities; identify and promote best practices for programs and services to minorities; review information and research and make recommendations that can inform state policies to ensure fair treatment of minorities.
Action is needed to make sure the Senate will pass legislation to address these long neglected issues. Despite being passed by the House of Delegates and Senate Judiciary, the Senate Finance Committee has not yet taken the bill up for consideration.
TAKE ACTION Click this link to send a personalized message to your State Senators and urge them to support passage of House Bill 4161 creating the Herbert Henderson Office of Minority Affairs. In particular, calls and messages need to reach Senate Finance Committee members including Finance Chairman Senator Walt Helmick.
BY PHONE: Call 1-877-565-3447 to leave a message or be transferred to your legislator's office. You can leave messages after hours that will be delivered to your legislators the next day.
It'd be nice if the West Virginia legislature intended to actually do something about cyber bullying, but I suspect the "flaws" in the way they are doing it are a feature and not a bug.
In other words, saying they intend to protect the children is really just a cover for their true motive of silencing online critics. In West Virginia, there's a history of claiming something is done For the Sake of the Kids when really it's for no such purpose at all.
But as the ACLU of WV points out, the state legislature could have done something effective against cyber bullying through education efforts.
I was listening to a national radio show this morning (I think it was Marketplace Morning Report but I'm not sure) and Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (WV-02) was on talking about the 1000 jobs in the Toyota plant near Charleston, many of them "her constituents" and "people she's met."
She went on to say while she's certainly concerned about those jobs, she's more concerned about the safety of her constituents that drive Toyotas on snowy hilly roads. She wants to know Toyota has a safe product.
I think it's great that Capito is embracing the role of government regulation and oversight to ensure that consumers are protected from corporate greed that leads to injury or death. This certainly is a legitimate role for government regulation.
Now, after over a decade in public office with mounting evidence of the detrimental effects of processing and burning coal, and mining coal, when will Capito's concern for her constituents extend to exposure from those hazards?
Surely, Shelley, that's an equally legitimate place for sound government oversight, right?
Don Caruth (R-Mercer), the Minority Leader in the West Virginia Senate, is battling brain cancer. The story about this can be read in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph by clicking here.
BLUEFIELD — State Senate Minority Leader Don Caruth, R-Mercer, announced today that he is battling a recurrence of Glioblastoma Multiforme, a form of brain cancer, which he was diagnosed with in November of 2008.
Caruth, who has represented the Tenth Senatorial District since 2004, is currently at home with his family while he continues to seek medical treatment, according to a press release issued by Caruth’s legislative office.
Please keep Senator Caruth and his family in your prayers. He is a good man who has done his best to represent the people in the Tenth Senatorial District. While I don't always agree with Senator Caruth, he has proven to be a leader who has worked well with Democrats in Southern West Virginia on many important projects affecting our area.
Get well Senator Caruth you have a lot of friends that care about you.
"Since learning about mountaintop removal, I've had a deep ache in the pit of my stomach, a deep yearning for these mountains I know so well and love so much," she said.
[...]
"Everyone is scared, she said. "If my house has turned from a quiet sanctuary into a living nightmare, I am in deep anguish.
"On the other hand, if I have a decent job, and suddenly I'm going to be without a way to provide for my family, I am in deep anguish."
"How do we honor the deep human needs on both sides of this conflict?"
- Stenographer of the Week:Politico. Normally, this award goes to the local media (even though the absence of any real journalism there is no surprise), but the right-leaning national news site really earned this one.
You wouldn't expect them to do a progressive or even down-the-middle story, but the glaring omission in Jonathan Martin's piece,"Republicans mine coal-country anxieties," is still astonishing.
Martin manages to profile disgraced judge Elliot "Spike" Maynard's quest to unseat Rep. Nick Rahall without mentioning the name Don Blankenship even once. (I hear he has something to do with this coal stuff, after all.)
Instead, Spike gets ample space to whine about "liberal Democrats" and break out the fearmongering.
Martin mentions that Maynard is both a former judge and a former Democrat, without explaining exactly how that came about.
Politico leaves their readers to believe that it's the result of some principled stand on the issues, rather than the fact that the Democratic Party booted Maynard out in the primary due to scandal.
Given that Blankenship is the reason "former" precedes Spike's titles, and the fact that The Coalfield Don likely recruited and will be bankrolling Maynard, it's puzzling why such a relevant bit of background info was left out.
But maybe I'm being too hard on Martin. It might simply be an obscure story he didn't hear about. It's not like it resulted in Don Blankenship assaulting and threatening the lives of an ABC News team on national TV or anything.
Press Conference Cont., Meeting with Sen. Rockefeller's State Director
In December, a climate change rally was held outside of the old Daniel Boone Hotel in Charleston, along with a press conference in the lobby. The building currently houses U.S. Sen. John D. Rockefeller's office.
People gathered in support of a strong climate change bill and later, some would go on to deliver a letter and banner to Rockefeller's staff and ask for the senator's support.
The media did little to nothing with the rally, and as you all know you need the media to help garner public support for your issue, so I'm posting it now since health care reform is getting butchered (as expected) and then once that gets shot between the eyes (as expected), hopefully climate change will actually become an issue AGAIN, this year (especially in West Virginia), since our country's economy is still hurting and fixing the problem will actually create jobs.
So let's make climate an issue in 2010 and get our Congressional delegation to push for a 35% reduction in CO2 emmissions by 2020 and create much needed jobs in the process! Wreck the world, then save it and make money off of doing so. That's the American way!
***Groups represented at rally and press conference: 1SKY WV (Andrew Porter), WV Environmental Council (Jesse Johnson), Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (Mel Tyree), UE 170 (John Thompson), Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston (Rev. Rose Edington)***
You may think that the economy, health care or even the fight over mountaintop removal are the kinds of things our elected officials spend the bulk of their time focusing on.
But you'd have it wrong.
Apparently, a number of West Virginia legislators think the top priority for 2010 is focusing on passing a redundant law to address a nonexistent threat.
Longtime capitol correspondent Tom Miller reports on the latest effort by conservatives to get an anti-gay marriage amendment on the ballot to bring out the rightwingers for the midterm elections:
The first test came Wednesday afternoon at a meeting of the House Constitutional Revision Committee. Republicans filed a written motion to take the issue up, but the Democrat majority of 17 members voted against that motion while the eight Republicans voted to consider the proposal, according to Delegate Kelli Sobonya, R-Cabell.
Miller says House Republicans want the issue brought to the floor:
"I'll be surprised if there isn't a motion soon to discharge the (House Constitutional Revision) committee so we can get this issue on the House floor for a vote by the entire membership," said House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha.
Today a mixed bag of WV state senators sponsored legislation to create a governor's commission to "Seize the Future of Energy for America." What could have been a step forward for america's energy independence and West Virginia's economy looks to be just another give-away to the extraction industry.
- As expected, following his coming out ceremony, longtime closet Republican and Blankenship vacation buddy Spike Maynard has announced he will run against Rep. Nick Rahall.
"I didn't leave the Democratic Party - the Democratic Party left me," Maynard said.
Well, if by "left me" he means they were turned off by scandal to the point that a sitting chief justice suffered a landslide defeat in a primary and practically tied for last on the ballot, then, yeah, I guess the Democratic Party did leave him.
But what's a little corruption to West Virginia Republicans, who used the occasion to announce a bold new era of ethical bankruptcy for their party?
"I think he's been in the wrong party all of his life," Chairman Doug McKinney said. "We would welcome someone of his character and integrity in the Republican Party."
The usual media suspects sprang into action, touting Maynard's chances in objective, thoughtful "analysis" pieces that praised Brent Benjamin's campaign and railed against something called the "Democrat Party."
What State Sen. Joe Minard did is appalling and a total abuse of his position of public trust. This week's WVEC legislative update has the story:
By Donald S. Garvin, Jr.
WVEC Legislative Coordinator
Week 4 - Dirty Pool
In Week 1's issue of our Legislative Update we reported to you that DEP's proposed changes to the Oil and Gas Well Rule (35CSR4) passed out of the Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee "with no changes to the proposed rule."
We also mentioned that industry lobbyists were out in force, but no amendments were offered.
Well, late last week I discovered how wrong we were.
What actually happened was that we got "snookered" (to use a more polite term for what I am really feeling).
Here's what happened:
While the Rule-Making Review Committee was considering other rules, the Senate Chairman of the committee, Joe Minard (D-Harrison) went out in the hall and huddled together with industry lobbyists, and DEP staff.
They made a deal in the hall to change the language in the rule that requires all oil and gas well drilling pits and impoundments to use impermeable synthetic liners. They agreed to add the following language: "except those pits and impoundments authorized by the Office, based on soil analysis from the operator."
DEP agreed to this new language as a "modification," so a committee amendment would not need to be offered (it's the agency's rule, so they can simply agree to the modification).
When the full committee deliberated on the oil and gas rule, committee staff explained that the rule had been modified because a previous rule on marking gas pipelines at coalmine sites had to be combined with the new rule covering impoundments.
Committee members - and those of us in the audience - were never told that there was an additional modification, or what was in that modification.
Senator Minard then moved the rule "as modified," and the committee voted unanimously to approve the rule.
Delegate Bonnie Brown (D-Kanawha), the House chair of the Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee was not aware that a deal had been cut in the hallway, and never saw the modified language.
Senator Herb Snyder (D-Jefferson), the Senate vice-chair of the Joint Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee was not aware that a deal had been cut in the hallway, and never saw the modified language.
In fact, no one on the committee - other than Senator Minard - knew that a deal had been cut in the hallway and what the modified language was.
Certainly we didn't know. John and Leslee and I were sitting right there, along with Julie Archer from WV CAG. The public was never told that a deal had been cut in the hallway, and never saw the modified language.
On Wednesday this week the Senate Judiciary Committee took up the oil and gas rule and an amendment by Senator Clark Barnes (R-Randolph) was adopted that tightened up the modified language somewhat.
As it stands now the rule reads, "All pits and impoundments shall have an impermeable synthetic liner to prevent seepage or leakage, except those pits and impoundments deemed to be suitable to prevent seepage or leakage based on soil analysis from the operator and standards developed and certified by a registered professional engineer and approved by the Office."
And as it stands now, it is no longer mandatory under the rule that all pits and impoundments use synthetic liners, as originally proposed by DEP's Office of Oil and Gas.
This is absolutely the worst breach of the legislative process I have witnessed in the years I have lobbied for WVEC.
I am totally disgusted.
And there are still almost five weeks of the Session remaining.
Meanwhile, I am taking solace that most of the legislators took off early this week to get home before the next winter storm hits. Maybe they will fill their bird feeders.
Don't you forget to fill yours.
I'm not one for telling Republicans how to run their campaigns, but if I was challenger Russ Snyder I'd see a huge opening there for a populist campaign against someone in big business' pocket. Government regulations exist to protect people from polluters, not to protect polluters.
(One might also wonder where was Gov. Joe Manchin's DEP Secretary Randy Huffman in all of this?)
Lower Taxes: Building Futures for Families, Jobs and Businesses
Lower taxes, tax cuts, and tax breaks help build futures for our families, by creating jobs, and benefiting small businesses. The savings can be significant in the wide range of tax benefits Congress has passed in the last year such as the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit, the Making Work Pay Tax Cut, which was in the Recovery Act, and the $1.7 trillion in tax cuts for Americans over ten years in the FY2010 budget.
The expanded Earned Income Tax Credit could make a significant financial difference for thousands of households in southern West Virginia, particularly as families struggle during the economic downturn. Currently the IRS estimates that 20 to 25 percent of EITC-eligible workers, or 5-7 million people, fail to claim this tax benefit each year. In order to qualify for the expanded EITC you will need to be a working individual with an income of less than $43,279 for a single person or $48,279 if you are married and filing jointly. In southern West Virginia in 2008; 52,829 West Virginians received the EITC for a total of $98,243,737, with West Virginians who filed receiving an average credit of $1,800.
The Making Work Pay Tax Cut credit, a refundable tax credit of up to $400 per worker or $800 per couple filing jointly, provides over 110 million working families the tax relief they need right now and is being distributed largely by reducing tax withholding from workers' paychecks.
In addition the Child Tax Credit cuts taxes for the families of more than 16 million children through an expansion of the child tax credit. This provides a new tax cut for more than 6 million children, and increases the existing credit for more than 10 million children.
Today education costs continue to mount, which is why the American Opportunity College Tax Credit is available to help more than 4 million additional students attend college with a new, $2,500 tax credit for families.
This past year Congress also voted to extend and expand the Homebuyers tax credit which is available to provide assistance to the struggling housing market and the millions of small businesses involved with homebuilding and construction. Before the recession, building new homes accounted for a significant part of our gross national product, and this legislation amended the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) and replaced the current tax credit for first time homebuyers to allow for a one-time credit for 10%- up to $15,000 - of the purchase price of a principal residence. Under the new law, an eligible taxpayer must buy, or enter into a binding contract to buy, a principal residence on or before April 30, 2010 and close on the home by June 30, 2010. For qualifying purchases in 2010, taxpayers have the option of claiming the credit on either their 2009 or 2010 return.
There have also been significant business tax incentives put in place to create jobs such as the small business expensing provision, spurring investments by extending expensing, and doubling the amount businesses can immediately write off their taxes for capital investments and purchases of new equipment within a certain cost range made in 2009.
In addition legislation passed that helps small businesses by allowing investors to exclude 75% of the gain from the sale of small business stock that is purchased and held for at least 5 years. It also allows small businesses which are looking to reduce their debt burdens by delaying taxes on discharged indebtedness. This will help these companies strengthen their balance sheets so they can invest in job creation. It will also encourage investments in small businesses by cutting the capital gains tax on investors in small businesses that buy stock in the next two years and hold it for more than 5 years.
Congress also included incentives to create jobs and support our veterans by providing business tax credits for hiring recently discharged unemployed veterans or youth who have been out of school for 6 months prior to hire.
The Earned Income Tax Credit and the many other tax credits and benefits may work for you and your family and/or your business. Please take a look at them during this tax season as the savings can be significant. To find out more information about the EITC and other tax credits please call the IRS at 1-800-829-1040, Monday through Friday, 7:00 a.m. - 10:00p.m. or visit the IRS website at: http://www.irs.gov/.
U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) represents West Virginia's 3rd District
For those of you who read what this blog frequently, you know I criticize Democrats more than Republicans because Democrats are the ones in power. When Republicans were running government in Washington, I spent more time pointing out how misguided their ideas and political philosophy are. Now, what the GOP says or does is largely irrelevant.
As we enter Election Season 2010, it's good to remember all the ways that Democrats who represent West Virginia do a good job. For example, the majority (though not quite all) of my disagreements with Reps. Mollohan and Rahall are around the single issue of coal. I feel they over-emphasize the importance of coal to West Virginia and under-represent the interests of the other 90% of the state's economy.
But, putting that aside, there are many ways that Reps. Mollohan and Rahall do a great job of looking out for the interests of the average West Virginian. This is something that all liberals and progressives in the state should be proud of. I was reminded of that this week when the NAACP released their score card for 2009 votes on a broad range of civil rights issues.
The NAACP score card covers votes on issues related to economic justice--things that directly and indirectly make a positive impact on the lives of West Virginians.
Thank you Rep. Alan Mollohan and Rep. Nick Rahall for a job well done in 2009.
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