Latest news with #WillPrice
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
West Virginia Senate passes bill changing Freedom of Information Act
The West Virginia Senate passed a bill that would change parts of the state's Freedom of Information Act, on Friday, April 11, 2025. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography) The West Virginia Senate on Friday passed a bill that would change parts of the state's Freedom of Information Act. Senators signed off on House Bill 3412 Friday with a vote of 25 to nine. The Freedom of Information Act allows members of the public to access information and public records about the workings of government. Journalists, researchers and others use the Freedom of Information Act to obtain access to lawmakers' emails, presentations and more that can shed light on how decisions are being made. As it passed the House of Delegates, the bill would have exempted the Legislature from the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, if it adopts its own rules. House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, who sponsored the bill, said his intent was not to hide public documents, but to allow lawmakers to write its rules that make it clear to the public what is and is not a public record. The Senate on Friday approved a new version of the bill from the Senate Government Organization Committee. Under that version, the Legislature is not exempt from FOIA. The latest version of the bill would remove the requirement that the law be liberally construed in favor of disclosure. It provides that private personal information is not public record. Personal information includes banking and financial information, address and telephone numbers, date of birth, marital status, social security numbers as well as notes and journal entries containing opinions and more. The bill also extends the deadline that custodians of public documents have to respond to FOIA requests from five days to 14 days. Agencies would be allowed to charge a 'reasonable search and retrieval fee' for the documents. Under the law currently, agencies may only charge for actual costs of copying the documents. The Senate approved the bill with no discussion Friday. The bill will now go back to the House of Delegates for possible approval of the amended version of the bill. The 60-day legislative session ends at midnight Saturday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vroom vroom: WV Senate signs off on House bill to allow motorcyclists to stand while driving
Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, speaks on the floor of the West Virginia Senate on March 24, 2025. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography) A bill that would permit motorcyclists to stand up while driving their vehicle is nearly headed to the governor's desk. 'Standing up on the foot pegs just gives you so much more control when a bump is coming up. Your legs act like shock absorbers,' said Sen. Mark Maynard, R-Wayne, who voted in support of the measure. 'This is just heinous that if somebody does this, they would be ticketed.' The Senate signed off on the measure, House Bill 2752, Monday evening with a vote of 27-6. The bill passed out of the House of Delegates March 19, spurring a viral video that showed Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, yelling, 'Vroom! Vroom! West Virginia,' before criticizing the Republican-backed bill, saying it was unnecessary and did nothing to help residents of the state. Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel also questioned why lawmakers were spending time on the legislation. He called it the 'Organ Donor Act of 2025.' 'I've put up with a lot of shenanigans this session,' said Woelfel, D-Cabell. 'But why are we taking up the Senate's time with a bill to allow people legally to stand up on their motorcycles while the motorcycle is moving forward?' 'Of all the issues we have in our state, we're going to make legislation to let people be Evel Knievel? I'd like to have a no vote to send a message down the hallway,' he continued. Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, said she had been told that the bill, which originated in the House, was needed. 'Right now if you stand up – you still have your feet on the foot pegs — it is a crime. They needed this legislation to allow them to stand up.' Motorcyclists are already instructed to stand up in certain situations as part of their required instruction to obtain a motorcycle license, according to bill sponsor Del. Kathie Hess Crouse, R-Putnam. The bill also includes mopeds and motor-driven cycles. The House will have to concur with the Senate's vote before the legislation heads to Gov. Patrick Morrisey's desk for consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
03-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Some Mountaineers are free — but that doesn't apply to everyone
The West Virginia Senate voted to ban hormone treatment for children diagnosed with gender dysphoria on March 6, 2025. The bill has moved to the House of Delegates for consideration. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography) The freedom to make your own choices is part of being an American. West Virginians take this seriously. We believe in individual freedoms and self-reliance. It's baked into our state motto: Mountaineers are always free. In practice, freedom in our state doesn't apply to everyone. For years, the leaders in our state government have sent a clear message: Some Mountaineers are free — they have the freedom to live their lives the way they see fit. Others have to play by our rules. If you have decided to have an abortion, you can't do that here. If you have decided to help your kid get the health care they need to be themselves, you can't do that here, either. And with persistently high poverty, falling investments in public education, and a crisis in affordable child care, too many Mountaineers are trapped in generational hardship, working multiple jobs to scrape by. Every year, our Legislature gets just eight weeks to address the concerns of hardworking West Virginians. But too often, these sessions are dominated by political agendas that create more problems than solutions for our most vulnerable, and just as often, any attempt to resolve structural challenges to our communities is pushed to the side by culture wars that just cause more harm. A clear example of these twisted priorities is abortion. Abortion is completely banned for nearly every person who lives in West Virginia. The Legislature made sure of that by enacting a near-total ban three years ago. And yet lawmakers continue to attack this care, advancing a bill this year that targets out-of-state providers of abortion care by threatening them with a prison sentence. They've also kept up their attacks on gender-affirming health care. This year, lawmakers are working to eliminate an essential, life-saving mental health exception to the current ban on this care — an exception used by only a handful of young people who live here. The thing is, these politicians are counting on us to sit on the sidelines. They would prefer that their constituents stay home and let them make all the decisions, no matter the cost. And if we let them get away with that, then we have truly lost our way as Mountaineers — as people who fight for our right to live without the government telling us what we can and cannot do. New bills are introduced week by week that seek to strip us of what little reproductive rights remain, and if we allow our lawmakers to act unchecked, they will just continue to take them from us and ignore the real issues that affect us. Our resistance is essential. That's why, this Friday, April 4, Planned Parenthood South Atlantic is hosting a Reproductive Resistance Advocacy Day at the state legislature to provide Mountaineers from across the state an opportunity to show up, speak their mind, learn more about the state of their rights, and find community amongst life-minded advocates in this fight for accessible reproductive care. I'm a lifelong West Virginian and proud to be. I cherish my neighbors, my community, and, regardless of our differences, all of my fellow Mountaineers. We take care of one another. But it's time we hold our lawmakers to that same principle and apply that care to our reproductive health as well. We can't afford inaction or ignorance — our futures depend on it.
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Senate bill targets sending abortion medication to WV, where the procedure is illegal
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday, March 27, 2025, advanced a bill meant to target out of state providers or entities who send medications meant to cause abortion to West Virginia. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography) A bill advancing in the Senate would make it a felony to prescribe or distribute medications used for abortion to people in West Virginia except for the narrow circumstances when the procedure is legal in the state. The Senate Judiciary Committee referred Senate Bill 85 to the full Senate on Thursday. Senators are expected to vote on the bill next week. With few exceptions, abortion has been illegal in West Virginia since 2022. Abortion by telehealth is also illegal in the state. Sen. Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, one of the bill's sponsors, said the intent of Senate Bill 85 is to stop the flow of abortifacients into the state for the purpose of illegal abortions. The bill attempts to enforce the state's abortion ban on out-of-state entities or physicians who would send the medication to West Virginia residents. The penalty for violating the law would be three to 10 years in prison for a person who is not a licensed medical professional. Licensed medical professionals would face the revocation of their license, according to the bill. While the legislation is an attempt to stop out-of-state providers from breaking West Virginia law, federal courts are likely to decide the issue of enforcement, an attorney for the judiciary committee said. Louisiana last month charged a New York doctor with a felony for allegedly sending abortion pills to a pregnant minor in the state, according to reporting by the Associated Press. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to extradite the doctor to face the charges. New York has a shield law to protect abortion providers who prescribe the medication to patients in states where abortion is outlawed. Kelly Lemon, a nurse midwife, testified that some medications labeled as abortifacients have a lot of other uses in health care. Lemon said the state's existing abortion laws have already led to some of her patients not being able to get misoprostol for managing a hemorrhage and delays in care for treating a miscarriage. 'My biggest concern with this bill is that it's going to further create barriers to how we can get these medications to people when they need it,' she said. The bill, should it become law, would cause delays in care and drive health providers out of the state, she said. Rucker responded that the bill indicates that pharmacists filling a valid prescription issued by a licensed medical professional or a physician performing a procedure for a legitimate reason are not breaking the law. Kristin Hawkins, president of Students for Life Action, testified that the bill would close a lot of loopholes for charging physicians and entities that send abortion medication to states where the procedure is not legal. Hawkins said there are websites where people can get abortion pills sent to them, seemingly without a doctor's review. Emily Womeldorff, director of policy and campaigns for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said the bill is part of an ongoing effort to create fear and stigma around reproductive health care. 'This bill is a gross overreach of state authority,' Womeldorff said. 'It's threatening enforcement against health care providers that are located outside of the borders of West Virginia, and our government does not have jurisdiction over health care providers that provide care outside of our state borders. Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, was the only lawmaker to speak against the bill, calling it bad policy that would harm a woman's ability to get medical care. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
WV Senate passes bill that would expand work, training requirements for SNAP
Sen. Rollan Roberts, R- Raleigh, lead sponsor of Senate Bill 249, addresses the Senate during the session Wednesday, March 26, 2025, in Charleston, (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography) The West Virginia Senate has approved a bill that would expand the work and training requirements for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps. Senators approved Senate Bill 249 with no discussion and a vote of 32 to 2. With some exceptions, able-bodied people without dependents ages 18 to 54 are required to work or train in order to receive SNAP benefits. The bill would expand the age to 59 by requiring the Department of Human Services to assign people in that age range to a mandatory work or training program. Under the bill, exemptions include caring for a child under age 6 or an incapacitated adult, going to school at least part time, being employed at least 30 hours a week and participating in a drug or alcohol treatment program, among other things. The bill would allow the state Department of Human Services to exempt up to 20% of individuals from the SNAP Employment and Training program work based on challenges that the person would experience complying with the requirements. According to a fiscal note from the Department of Human Services, the agency estimates the cost of implementing the legislation would be $2.7 million in state funding for fiscal year 2026 and about $1.7 million per year in state funding when the bill is fully implemented. Those costs include hiring one new family support supervisor in each county office to oversee the program. The department warns that the implementation of a program based on this bill might lead to a higher error rate for SNAP, which could lead to the state having to pay back federal funding. 'Other states implementing mandatory E&T programs have seen drastic increases in their SNAP error rates,' the department wrote. 'Error rates above the national average for two consecutive years place a state at risk of federal financial sanctions requiring potential repayment of federal funding. While West Virginia's error rates are currently compliant, the administrative complexity of implementing new eligibility criteria under a mandatory program does expose the state to significant risk of repayment.' Rhonda Rogombe, health and safety new policy analyst for the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, called the bill harmful. 'We know from lots of studies, including some of our own, that mandating work reporting requirements disconnects people from access to food but does not connect them to work,' she said Wednesday. 'So we have lots of concerns about this bill.' The bill would also impact retailers that rely on SNAP and put pressure on the state's food banks as they fill in the gaps, she said. Jeremiah Samples, the former deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Resources and now a lobbyist for the right-leaning organization Opportunity Solutions Project, previously testified in support of the bill, saying it gives people both the expectation and resources to work. The legislation has been opposed by representatives of the state's charitable food network. Caitlin Cook, director of advocacy and public policy for Mountaineer Food Bank, told West Virginia Watch previously that in other states, mandatory education and training programs have increased food insecurity. The Senate passed the legislation during the 2024 legislative session, but the House did not adopt it. The bill will next go to the House of Delegates for consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
