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My top 10 stories of 2014

We in the media love end-of-the-year lists.  I’m no different, so here’s my short list of the top West Virginia news stories

10. President Kopp dies unexpectedly. Marshall President Stephen Kopp died of an apparent heart attack earlier this month.  Kopp, who led Marshall for nine years and oversaw $200 million of campus improvements, was only 63.  The Marshall football team wore stickers on their helmets with Kopp’s initials in their bowl game, where the Herd defeated Northern Illinois 52-23.

9. Same-sex marriage becomes legal. Court decisions rapidly struck down provisions against same-sex marriage. In West Virginia, state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey gave up his fight to preserve the Defense of Marriage Act, prompting state DHHR Secretary Karen Bowling to announce in October that same-sex couples seeking a marriage license would not be turned away at county courthouse.

8. Plants quits. Kanawha County prosecutor Mark Plants resigned after months of pressure. Plants was the subject of public controversy after he was charged earlier in the year with two domestic-related misdemeanors in connection with his messy divorce.   Plants has since gone into private practice.

7. From the bench to jail. U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury ran Mingo County like “Boss Hog.” Last June, Thornsbury was sentenced to four years in prison for abusing his authority as the county’s only circuit judge.  The federal probe also netted Mingo County’s prosecuting attorney, a county commissioner, a magistrate and a state trooper.  As the year ended, rumors continued of perhaps even more indictments for political corruption

6. From best friends to teen killers. At a January court hearing, Shelia Eddy, 18, admitted that she and Rachel Shoaf brutally murdered their high school classmate and former best friend Skylar Neese. Neese disappeared a year-and-a-half earlier after sneaking out of her parents home to hang out with Eddy and Shoaf, who she thought were her friends.  Despite the plea, it remained somewhat unclear why the two felt compelled to stab Neese to death other than vague references to not wanting to be friends any longer. The murder shocked the community and subsequent legal proceedings made national news

5. WVU hires E. Gordon Gee as President. Gee agreed to return to Morgantown to serve in the interim following the departure of Jim Clements to Clemson. However, the longer Gee stayed, the more he became intrigued with taking the job for a second time, and that was made official in March.    Within a few months, the outspoken and sometimes controversial Gee was faced with familiar problems of rioting students and the death of a severely intoxicated student at a frat house

4. Coal struggles continue. Economic and regulatory pressures continued to make life even more difficult in the West Virginia coal fields. Competition from cheap and plentiful natural gas, along with EPA pressures that make it harder to mine and burn coal, forced layoffs and cutbacks in the state’s most important industry.  The challenges spawned more debate over whether coal would survive

3. Don Blankenship is indicted. Immediately after the April 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners, federal investigators began a probe of the tragedy. They methodically worked their way up Massey Energy’s corporate structure and, in November, they brought charges against the controversial former Massey CEO Don Blankenship.  The indictment accuses Blankenship of pushing production over mine safety in the months leading up to the explosion.

2. Chemical spill causes water emergency. On January 9th, thousands of gallons off MCHM, a chemical used to clean coal, leaked from an aging and dilapidated storage tank into the Elk River and quickly reached American Water Company’s treatment plant just a mile and a half downstream. The spill set off a water emergency, fouling the drinking water for up to 300,000 customers in a nine-county region. The crisis prompted the Legislature to pass new regulations for above ground storage tanks.

1. West Virginia turns red. Republicans took both chambers of the West Virginia statehouse for the first time in more than eighty years. Shelley Moore Capito trounced Natalie Tennant to become the state’s first female Senator and state’s first Republican Senator since the 1950’s.  Long-time Democratic Congressman Nick Rahall was defeated by Republican Evan Jenkins in the 3rd Congressional District, while the GOP retained seats in the 1st and 2nd districts.   The defeat divided the Democratic Party as it heads into 2015 searching for a new direction.

 





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