Shutdown Takes Half of US Mine Inspectors Off The Job

Fewer than half the Mine Safety and Health Administration's inspectors are working during the government shutdown, and they're focused on mines the agency knows have a history of hazards.

MSHA's shutdown plan furloughs nearly 1,400 of its 2,355 employees nationwide.

Only 13 people remain on the job at the national office in Arlington, Va.

The United Mine Workers of America is stepping up safety efforts at union mines, but it worries about the effect of the government shutdown on non-union operations.

At union mines, workers can point to safety hazards and demand management fix them. If they go uncorrected, miners can refuse to work.

UMW spokesman Phil Smith says it's harder for non-union miners to feel comfortable exercising that right because they often fear retribution.

Thornsbury resigns; pleads guilty to federal charges

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury both resigned his elected office and pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal criminal charges.

Thornsbury, 57, of Williamson, turned in his resignation to the state Supreme Court Wednesday morning and then admitted before U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston a few hours later that he violated a man’s constitutional rights in an attempt to protect his close friend slain Mingo County Sheriff Eugene Crum.

Thornsbury admitted to being part of a conspiracy to pressure Delbarton drug dealer George White to change attorneys. White, after consulting with his first attorney, spoke with federal investigators about Sheriff Crum’s alleged illegal drug habits. White claimed he was Crum’s drug dealer.

The conversation came in the months after Crum led a drug bust at White’s Delbarton sign-making business. White claimed Crum was upset with him because White was trying to get money from the sheriff still owed him from making campaign signs.

Thornsbury promised a lighter sentence if White changed attorneys.

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin said what Thornsbury did more than crossed the line.

“To violate someone’s rights in order to obstruct a federal investigation….that’s really unthinkable,” Goodwin said.

Thornsbury, who has been Mingo County’s only circuit judge since 1997, told the court he took the action because he wanted to protect Crum. Crum was shot and killed last April, his widow Rosie was in the courtroom Wednesday. Goodwin said afterward federal prosecutors have no evidence linking Thornsbury to Crum’s death.

Thornsbury will face up to 10 years in federal prison at his Jan. 13 sentencing but Goodwin said he could get a lot less.

“It depends on how much he cooperates (with the ongoing federal corruption investigation). It depends on if he has fully accepted the responsibility for his crimes,” Goodwin said.

Thornsbury has been granted limited immunity. Goodwin said federal prosecutors can’t use anything the former judge tells them against him in the ongoing investigation.

Thornsbury agreed to resign and also not to fight losing his law license. He could reapply in five years. Thornsbury has also agreed never again to seek political office.

South Charleston chemical leak under investigation

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. – An investigation was underway into a Wednsday morning chemical leak at the Clearon plant in that produces pool chemicals.

The alarm sounded at the plant, which is located on U.S. Route 60,  around 8:25 a.m. C.W. Sigman, Kanawha County’s deputy emergency manager, called the leak a “burp” of chlorinated dry bleach.

“When we got off the MacCorkle Avenue exit you could see just a little cloud moving down river. Here at the plant it looked pretty clear,” Sigman said.

Clearon facility manager Scott Johnson said the company could not immediately confirm how much of the chemical was released into the air, but employees worked quickly to contain it.

“All employees were accounted for at the beginning of this incident and all are safe,” Johnson said.

A shelter-in-place alert was issued for South Charleston, Dunbar and North Charleston soon after the alarm.

“Emergency management and Clearon folks went down to the lower end of the city limits and Dunbar area and tried to assess the situation. The plant folks checked [the air], couldn’t find anything on our monitors. They had the meters to check it,” said Sigman. “They could smell a minor amount of chlorine but nothing significant.”

That cloud soon dispersed and the odor was gone but the shelter in place wasn’t lifted until shortly after 10 a.m.

Sigmon said Clearon employees and emergency responders worked alongside each other to flush the chemical.

“It’s plant personnel and South Charleston/Dunbar firefighters working as one, the way it should be,” the deputy director said.

Johnson said the next phase is finding what caused the leak.

“We’re doing a complete investigation of the incident to find out what happened, where and how we can address it,” said Johnson, noting that an  OSHA investigator was brought onsite.

Though Johnson praised response from the county’s team, he said there was one glitch involving the alarm extending beyond its intended area.

“That shelter-in-place was originally identified for the local community,” he said. “My understanding is it went out to the entire county and that’s one of the things that we’ll have to work on further with that system.”

The Clearon plant, which employs 118 workers, was on a routine maintenance shutdown at the time of the incident.

Route 10 in Logan County to Reopen This Month

A closed section of West Virginia Route 10 in Logan County is expected to reopen in mid-October.

The section between Dabney and Man was closed in late July after contractors found the hillside had become unstable.

West Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Carrie Bly said Tuesday that Bizzack Construction LLC of Lexington, Ky., plans to finish excavation by the end of this week.

Bly says West Virginia Paving is scheduled to begin paving on Oct. 14.

The road is expected reopen by the middle to end of that week.

Tomblin monitors federal government shutdown

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said Tuesday the impact of the federal government shutdown would be minimal on the state unless it stretched for several days.

“There’s a lot of planning to be done but there are a lot of unknowns also. Simply because we have no idea how long it will take Congress to act,” Tomblin said.

The governor got an update Tuesday morning from members of his cabinet. He said state mine inspectors are preparing to do more if federal mine inspectors are faced with a furlough. The governor said he’s also concerned about how a prolonged shutdown would impact certain public schools in West Virginia where many teachers receive federal funds as part of their salaries.

“If they are not being paid they can’t work. We may have to possibly close some schools down or else try and change some programs for the day so students can be there with teachers who are paid with state dollars,” he said.

The governor said if the shutdown only lasts a few days it shouldn’t be a problem.

“We think we can continue with the operations so people will not really notice a difference. However, if it gets in past a week or into next week or something then we are obviously going to have to start making some changes,” Tomblin said.

The marketplace is open

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The new health care marketplace is open in West Virginia. Those without health insurance began the process Tuesday of taking advantage of the provision under the federal Affordable Health Care Act.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is the only provider in the marketplace in the Mountain State and president Fred Early said Tuesday on MetroNews Talkline call volume was up.

“There will probably be some delays here and there,” Early predicted. “We do have some time built into that. It’s Oct. 1 and these policies aren’t going to go into effect until Jan. 1.”

The marketplace is mainly for those who don’t have health insurance. Blue Cross Blue Shield offers four basic plans with about a dozen options for coverage. The plans differ in the cost of monthly premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. Early said  the benefits of each plan are essentially the same.

“The highest rated plan is the Platinum Plan. It would pay 90 percent of the anticipated cost under that entire program and the individual would be left for 10 percent and it goes down 10 percent for each of the other middle levels,” Early said.

West Virginia DHHR Assistant Secretary Jeremiah Samples is the state’s point man on the Affordable Care Act. He said it’s believed as many as 107,000 state residents will receive health insurance through the marketplace by 2016. He said that won’t be everyone who needs it.

“This is not a universal, 100 percent of the uninsured will now be covered, that’s just not going to happen. There’s still going to be a large number of people out there who are uninsured,” he said.

Samples added the federal government hasn’t done an adequate of explaining the new health care options to the general public. He said the DHHR and the state Insurance Commission are working together to make ‘in-person assisters” available in the county DHHR offices to answer questions.

Samples said the marketplace isn’t one-size-fits-all.

“We recommend folks assess what’s available to them in their unique situation and from that make a personal decision on what the course is moving forward,” Samples said.

Early said the process is started by going to  healthcare.gov and from there a person chooses their state and begins reviewing the plans. There’s also information on which doctors will take which plans.

Most other states have more than one provider. Early said his company anticipated as many as six possible providers in West Virginia. He said, despite being the only provider, the company’s prices are competitive.

“When we set those prices we were anticipating that we would have a competitive market,” he said. “We set our prices accordingly.”

Life sentence in Webster County triple murder case

WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va. — A man has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison in what’s believed to be the first-ever triple murder in Webster County. 

Michael York, of Hacker Valley, was sentenced Monday after his Sept. 20 conviction on two counts of first degree murder and one count of second degree murder. York shot and killed Lamar Allen, Denise Coates and Dustin Brown in the summer of 2012.

Mercy was not recommended by the jury so a judge sentenced York to life in prison without the chance for parole.

“I was pleased with the jury verdict and I believe the (victims’) families were pleased with it. The verdict reflected the jury considered the evidence and very carefully made their decision,” Webster County Prosecutor Dwayne Vandevender said.

The jury also found Michael York’s wife, Amanda York, guilty of three counts of voluntary manslaughter and one count of conspiracy to conceal a deceased body. She’ll be sentenced Nov. 4.

Prosecutor Vandevender said the shootings took place over a pair of appliances.

“They (the Yorks) alleged there had been an argument earlier in the day and the victims came to their house to repossess a washer and dryer they had given them,” the prosecutor said.

Amanda York initially called 911 and claimed she was the shooter but a young family member was overheard by a deputy saying it was Michael York that did the shooting. Prosecutor Vandevender said that was a key part of the prosecution’s case.

A Braxton County jury convicted the couple after there was difficulty choosing a jury in Webster County.