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December 10, 2024 by
New Bureaucratic Red Tape Puts Unemployment Insurance at Risk for Rural Workers

Beginning July 1, 2024, many displaced workers in West Virginia became subject to more onerous bureaucratic red tape as a condition of retaining their earned unemployment benefits. As part of the much-discussed and hastily drafted SB 841, which dramatically overhauled the state’s unemployment insurance system in the waning days of the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers…

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January 7, 2020 by
Adding Adult Dental Coverage to Medicaid Can Improve Health in West Virginia

Poor oral health is widespread in West Virginia. It significantly affects the employability of our workforce, contributes to higher emergency room utilization, and is often both an indicator of and a contributor to other chronic health conditions. According to a 2014 report, only 40 percent of West Virginians have dental insurance.[1] While Medicaid expansion has…

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October 15, 2022 by
Student Loan Forgiveness Applications Open in Beta Test

Daily Athenaeum - The Biden Administration launched a beta version of its student loan relief program late Friday night, allowing borrowers to submit applications before the website is officially launched later this month. Read the full article. Thousands of students at West Virginia University could see some level of loan forgiveness as part of the federal…

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January 20, 2025 by
An Efficient and Effective State Government Requires Sufficient Resources to Fund Public Services

West Virginia Watch, Beckley Register-Herald, Spirit of Jefferson - At his first press conference as governor last week, Patrick Morrisey promised that under his watch state government will be “more efficient and effective than ever before.”  He indeed has a powerful opportunity to increase government efficiency through comprehensive and thoughtful agency reviews, but he may…

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April 24, 2012 by
Why Not Drug Test State-Funded Job Training?

Today the Governor officially ordered Workforce WV to begin drug testing those enrolled in job training programs (see below press release). What was not mentioned was that these programs are completely funded by federal dollars and that they mostly go to the "disadvantaged and at-risk youth, adults, and dislocated workers." However, the big question is…

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March 5, 2025 by
Gutting the Federal Workforce Won’t Make Government More Efficient

West Virginia Watch, Beckley Register-Herald , Ohio Capital Journal- Two hundred workers were laid off from the Bureau of Fiscal Service in Parkersburg. Thousands from the Department of Veterans Affairs (including at least 10 in West Virginia). And hundreds each from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Caring for our veterans,…

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