VICKI SMITH

Associated Press
Add To Watchlist

Ky. men sue Andy Dick over alleged W.Va. assault

Two Kentucky men who say they were sexually assaulted by comedian Andy Dick at a West Virginia nightclub two years ago have filed a lawsuit against the comedian.

Continue reading this entry ...

W.Va. settlements don't end Alpha's legal troubles

Wrongful death lawsuits brought by the families of the 29 men killed in West Virginia's Upper Big Branch mine disaster have been resolved, but that doesn't mean the days in court are over for coal producer Alpha Natural Resources.

Continue reading this entry ...

SEC requiring coal firms to report safety problems

A lawyer suing the former Massey Energy Co. says investors might have made better decisions about putting money into the coal company had it been required to report safety violations to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before last year's Upper Big Branch mine disaster that killed 29 miners.

Continue reading this entry ...

Power plant closures to cost US towns jobs, taxes

For more than 90 years, the coal-fired power plant in Glen Lyn, Va., has been churning out electricity and contributing to local prosperity. Of late, it has generated nearly a quarter of the revenue for the $1 million budget of the town.

Continue reading this entry ...

Former POW Jessica Lynch finishing teaching degree

Jessica Lynch was just 19 when the world first saw her — a broken, blond soldier caught on combat video in Iraq, her face wearing something between a grimace and a grin.

Continue reading this entry ...

Families demand prosecutions in W.Va. mine blast

Money — even a lot of it — is cold comfort to some relatives of the 29 men who died in the worst mining disaster in decades. They want justice, the kind that comes with a courtroom and a prison cell.

Continue reading this entry ...

Big East will seek dismissal of WVU lawsuit Dec. 5

The Big East will seek dismissal of a West Virginia University lawsuit aimed at invalidating conference bylaws and speeding up the Mountaineers' departure for the Big 12.

Continue reading this entry ...

W.Va. aiming to protect LGBT students from bullies

A proposed anti-bullying policy for West Virginia schools acknowledges for the first time that sexual orientation and gender identity are common reasons for harassment. Had it been in place when Michael White was in middle-school, it might have spared him the worst years of his life.

Continue reading this entry ...

Union says Massey's actions amounted to homicide

The nation's largest mine workers union accused Massey Energy Co. and its managers on Tuesday of "industrial homicide" for creating the conditions behind the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 men at a southern West Virginia coal mine.

Continue reading this entry ...

Mylan Inc. co-founder, WVU donor Puskar dies at 77

Milan "Mike" Puskar, the co-founder and former chairman of generic drug maker Mylan Inc. and a philanthropist who gave tens of millions of dollars to West Virginia University, died Friday night at home after battling cancer. He was 77.

Continue reading this entry ...

Home on site of abolitionist's hanging for sale

A mansion at the site where abolitionist John Brown was hanged more than 150 years is going on the auction block.

Continue reading this entry ...

AP Newsbreak: Coal slurry case to cost Massey $35M

Massey Energy Co. has offered $35 million to settle a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who say the mining company poisoned their drinking supplies with wastewater called coal slurry.

Continue reading this entry ...

AP Newsbreak: Massey settles WV coal slurry case

After a marathon mediation session that ended just before dawn Wednesday, mining company Massey Energy settled a 7-year-old lawsuit with hundreds of southern West Virginia residents who claim the company poisoned their drinking water supplies with coal slurry.

Continue reading this entry ...

Hundreds marching 5 days to save W.Va. mountain

On this steep-sided mountain in West Virginia's southern coalfields, hundreds will retrace the steps of miners who waged the nation's largest armed uprising since the Civil War, hoping 90 years later to protect the site of that bloody battle.

Continue reading this entry ...

Families: Massey acted 'above the law' after blast

Interviews with rescuers who helped find and pull bodies from West Virginia's Upper Big Branch mine last year suggest some of them question who was in charge during the chaotic early hours after the explosion — Massey Energy Co. or the federal government.

Continue reading this entry ...

Civil War guide touts spy, life off battlefields

There are battlefields, and then there's Belle Boyd, teenage temptress and Confederate spy.

Continue reading this entry ...

Feds: 3 face charges after US marshal's death

Federal prosecutors charged three West Virginia residents Tuesday with obstructing justice, lying to investigators and other federal counts related to a February shootout that killed a deputy U.S. marshal and the fugitive he had sought to arrest.

Continue reading this entry ...

MSHA cites W.Va. mine after watching 'Coal' on TV

The first episode of a reality show filmed in a southern West Virginia coal mine had real-world results: Federal inspectors who watched the Spike TV series have cited Cobalt Coal Corp. for activities they say endangered the miners.

Continue reading this entry ...

Year after W.Va. mine blast, family can't move on

Gary Quarles kneels on his living room carpet and unrolls the 4-foot-long map that he's studied so many times, trying to understand why his son died in the Upper Big Branch mine.

Continue reading this entry ...

Mine workers rally in Pa. for public employees

Thousands of union coal miners and supporters from several states tried to fuel an uprising in southwestern Pennsylvania on Friday, proclaiming themselves ready to mobilize for the war they say is being waged on organized labor in the United States.

Continue reading this entry ...

MSHA tells Congress it needs more mine safety laws

Federal mine regulators need stronger laws to protect the nation's underground coal miners, particularly when it comes to protecting whistle blowers and criminally charging operators who deliberately cut corners on safety, the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration said Thursday.

Continue reading this entry ...

Massey agrees to medical monitoring in slurry case

Massey Energy Co. said Thursday it will create a medical monitoring fund to provide health screenings for hundreds of southern West Virginia residents suing the company over claims it poisoned their wells with coal slurry.

Continue reading this entry ...

Attorney General Holder eulogizes slain US marshal

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says a deputy federal marshal killed in the line of duty last week left the world too soon, but left it a better place.

Continue reading this entry ...

Solar power reaches southern W.Va. coalfields

A group devoted to creating alternative energy jobs in Central Appalachia is building a first for West Virginia's southern coalfields region this week — a set of rooftop solar panels, assembled by unemployed and underemployed coal miners and contractors.

Continue reading this entry ...

Year after airlift to Pa., Haitian children thrive

Dania Brock is no longer afraid to go to the bathroom at night. The rats that haunted the outhouse in Haiti can't get her in Georgia.

Continue reading this entry ...