· The Legislature’s Monthly Interim Committee meetings were held Monday through Wednesday in Charleston. Judiciary Subcommittee A met on Monday to review a lengthy list of possible topics to undertake between now and next January. That list of topics included oil & gas issues, coal slurry and an update on the mine safety investigations and issues.
· Delegate Roy Given (D-Ohio), chairman of the House Select Committee on Mine Permitting, announced that DEP Secretary Randy Huffman has been invited to meet with the Committee during next month’s Interim Committee meetings in Charleston.
· Governor Manchin appointed Delegate John H. Shott of Bluefield to the 10th State Senate District seat that was held by Don Caruth, who died earlier this month following a lengthy bout with cancer. Shott was sworn into the State Senate on Tuesday, May 25th. The 10th Senatorial District includes Greenbrier, Monroe, Summers and parts of Fayette and Mercer counties. Shott, a Bluefield attorney, was initially elected to House of Delegates (Mercer County) in 2008. John will seek re-election to the remaining two years of the unexpired term of Senator Caruth this November.
· Putnam County Senator Mike Hall has been selected by the Senate Republican Caucus to serve as the Senate Minority Leader, replacing the recently deceased Don Caruth. Hall, a businessman and Marshall University graduate, was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1994 before being elected to the State Senate’s 4th District (Putnam, Mason and Jackson counties) in 2006. He has served as the State Senate’s Minority Whip since 2009.
· The second part of the Special Session will convene on Monday, June 7 in Charleston and the call is expected to be expanded to deal with some mine safety issues.
