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President Joe Biden issued the first veto of his presidency Monday in an early sign of shifting White House relations with the new Congress since Republicans took control of the House in January — a move that serves as a prelude to bigger battles with GOP lawmakers on government spending and the nation’s debt limit. Biden sought to kill a Republican-authored measure that would ban the government from considering environmental impacts or potential lawsuits when making investment decisions for people’s retirement plans. In a video released by the White House, Biden said he vetoed the measure because it “put at...

President Joe Biden issued his first veto on Monday, rejecting a bipartisan bill that would have reversed his Labor Department rule allowing left-wing environmental, social, and governance (ESG) policies to be considered in retirement investing. “I just vetoed my first bill,” Biden said in a tweet announcing the move. “This bill would risk your retirement savings by making it illegal to consider risk factors MAGA House Republicans don’t like,” Biden claimed. “Your plan manager should be able to protect your hard-earned savings — whether Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene likes it or not.”

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) teed off on President Biden’s decision earlier on Monday to veto a bill that would have nixed a Labor Department rule on environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing. Manchin, who was one of two Senate Democrats to vote with Republicans to overturn the rule on March 1, called Biden’s decision “absolutely infuriating” in a statement and panned the administration for putting its “radical” and “progressive agenda” ahead of the country’s needs.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) hit back at White House staff Monday and warned that Democrats had miscalculated by thinking that they could pressure him into backing President Biden's spending plan. "They figured surely to God we can move one person. We surely can badger and beat one person up. Surely we can get enough protesters to make that person uncomfortable enough that they'll just say, 'OK I'll vote for anything,'" he said in a local radio interview. "Well, guess what? I'm from West Virginia. I'm not from where they're from and they can just beat the living crap out of...

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) - Three Maryland counties are calling to secede from their own state are hoping to find a new home in West Virginia. The announcement has many asking, is this even possible? Lawmakers from Garrett, Allegany, and Washington Counties sent letters to the West Virginia legislature stating, “We believe this arrangement may be mutually beneficial for both parties.” Delegate Gary Howell from Mineral County says there are advantages to both states. “For Maryland, these counties are their poorer counties and they actually send more money from Annapolis than Annapolis gets from them so they are a drain on...

HAMLIN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia State Police say a man has been arrested after trying to rob a gas station and threatening to kill President Donald Trump. News outlets report 27-year-old Jesse Ryan Nunley was arrested Wednesday and charged with attempted robbery and terroristic threats. A criminal complaint says witnesses reported Nunley told a Lincoln County gas station clerk "I'm going to rob you. I need something to drink."(continued)

CHARLESTON — Thousands of union members crowded the West Virginia Capitol Wednesday night to protest right-to-work and other items on the Legislature’s agenda. In a campaign organized by the West Virginia AFL-CIO, union members were bused to the Capitol to kick off lobbying efforts for the state's 60-day legislative session. The protesters gathered under the Capitol dome and chanted at legislators who were on their way to the governor’s annual state of the state address. Union officials want to prevent any changes to prevailing wage requirements for government-funded construction projects, avoid cuts to government employee health benefits and prevent West...

Here’s what happens if astronomers make contact with a civilization on another planet.The false alarm happened in 1997. The Green Bank Radio Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, was picking up some unusual signals—and Seth Shostak, then the head of the Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research in Mountain View, Caifornia, was convinced that they had come from intelligent life somewhere in the universe. “It looked like it might be the real deal,” Shostak recalled. Within a few hours, he had a call from The New York Times. But within a day, it became clear that the source...

Shelley Moore Capito largely has avoided national attention. Now her U.S. Senate race has raised her profile as one of the Republican Party's best hopes to tip the chamber's balance of power. The party could win a narrow majority this fall if it holds onto its 45 Senate seats and takes six of the 55 held by Democrats, including that of West Virginia's Jay Rockefeller, who is retiring. She is one of the few moderate candidates out there and has the right profile in this state to become the first Republican senator since the 1950s. If she beats her Democratic...

A US senator is asking the federal government to take this remarkable step: completely ban Bitcoin. Joe Manchin, a Democratic senator representing West Virginia, sent a letter Wednesday to the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and other regulators characterizing the virtual currency as encouraging "illicit activity" as well as being "highly unstable and disruptive to our economy."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia is joining more than half a dozen states, so far, in rejecting President Barack Obama’s proposal which allows health insurance companies to renew plans not in compliance with the Affordable Care Act for one more year. On Thursday, state Insurance Commissioner Mike Riley said the “single year” re-enrollment proposal is not necessary in West Virginia because of the proactive steps taken, this year, to allow for a transition period that is “consistent with the existing law.” “The abrupt CCIIO (Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight) proposal comes at a time when West Virginia employers,...

(CNN) - Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia, called on the president Saturday to delay the individual mandate in the health care law that requires Americans to obtain insurance or face a penalty. The GOP-controlled House passed a bill this summer urging the administration to do so, but the bill has no future in the Democratic-controlled Senate. The administration already announced it would delay a provision requiring businesses with more than 50 employees to provide insurance. "It’s time for your Senate to pass – and for you to sign – the House’s bipartisan delay of the individual mandate," the congresswoman...

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) announced Friday that he will not run for reelection in 2014, giving Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in a state that's grown increasingly red in recent years. “As I approach 50 years of public service in West Virginia, I’ve decided that 2014 will be the right moment for me to find new ways to fight for the causes I believe in and to spend more time with my incredible family," Rockefeller said in a statement. Republicans already have their top recruit in place for the race. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) threw her hat in the...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Jorea Marple was carrying out numerous recommendations from the much-discussed audit of West Virginia's public schools system when she was fired as superintendent, by Board of Education members eager to signal to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and the Legislature that they supported the extensive review of education spending, policy and organization. Those board members have cited the need for change when explaining Marple's ouster, in light of struggling student performance. At least one member, Gayle Manchin, has commented further. "My viewpoint was, we should all embrace this audit and garner from its findings and recommendation that would...

WVGOP HISTORIC WINS Biggest House and Statewide Wins in 80 Years CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The West Virginia Republican Party will have more Delegates and Statewide elected officeholders than any year in the last 80 years. Period. "Tonight, West Virginia made the move to a two-party state for the first time in over 80 years," said West Virginia Republican Chairman Conrad Lucas. "We gave folks tremendous choices up and down the ballot. Tonight, we added at least ten new Delegates, three new State Senators and elected the first Republican attorney general since 1928 in Patrick Morrisey. Allen Loughry is exactly the...

EV is now 24 Romney, Obama has 3.

With 60-odd percent of the vote counted in West Virginia's Democratic primary, a man named Keith Judd can make a unique claim. He has won a greater proportion of the vote -- almost 40 percent -- than any other primary candidate running against Barack Obama. Who's Keith Judd? He's prisoner #11593-051, currently serving out a sentence for making threats at the University of New Mexico. In 2008, he caused a minor stir for making the Idaho primary ballot, confounding state officials, who thought they had rules preventing that sort of thing. Unbowed, he ran again this year, delivering FEC reports...

President Barack Obama might not be the only Democratic presidential candidate to receive a national party delegate in West Virginia. Keith Judd might receive one, also. But, in order for him to be represented at the Democratic National Committee convention in North Carolina, he must win at least 15 percent of the vote. The Charleston Gazette reports: Under state and national Democratic Party rules, if little-known Democratic presidential candidate Keith Judd secures 15 percent of the vote in today's election, he will technically be entitled to have at least one delegate from West Virginia at the Democratic National Convention in...

West Virginia’s Democratic Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he is not endorsing President Barack Obama for re-election, saying the president “has apparently made it his mission to drive the backbone of West Virginia’s economy, coal and the energy industry, out of business.” Tomblin is running for re-election in the heavily Democratic and major coal-producing state this year. He won a special election for the governorship last year after Gov. Joe Manchin was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. “As a loyal member of the Democratic party and as governor for our state, I will continue to do everything I...

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. -- “Last week, I was talking about some coal deals,” businessman and Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Raese told a packed crowd at the local Holiday Inn Saturday night, “and I said let’s close the deals before the hammer-and-sickle come down.” The 200-plus guests at the Berkley County Republican dinner here cheered. They knew exactly what Raese was talking about: the Obama administration’s assault on the coal industry that is the economic backbone of West Virginia. Almost to a person, Republicans we spoke to here agree that a series of regulations and rulings from the Environmental Protection Agency...