West Virginia Supreme Court hears arguments in horizontal drilling taxation case involving Antero


Brian Skinner Courts, Gas and Oil, Tax Policy

WV News — By Matt Harvey — October 6, 2020 CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WV News) — West Virginia’s Supreme Court justices heard arguments Tuesday on whether oil and gas companies owe tax on items like sleeping quarters, rented portable toilets and industrial-size trash containers at horizontal drilling sites. At issue is a consumer sales tax assessment …Read More

Director hire made for West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy


Brian Skinner State Fiscal & Economic Policy

WV MetroNews – – By Shauna Johnson — October 6, 2020 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A divergence in economic recovery during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic is what the new executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy said analysts with her organization have been tracking in recent weeks. “Higher income folks have almost completely recovered jobs in West …Read More

The Federal Government Releases Tips For Secure Teleworking


Brian Skinner COVID-19, Information Technology, Workforce

  Route Fifty — By Aaron Boyd, Senior Editor, Nextgov — October 5, 2020 The mass teleworking required by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is creating new cybersecurity vulnerabilities and exacerbating old ones. In response, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a quick guide to help organizations address these issues at every level. The guide is broken into …Read More

Contact Tracing in the Workplace


Brian Skinner Contact tracing, COVID-19

  By Brian Skinner, Esq. We are all now acutely aware that COVID-19 is a highly contagious and potentially fatal virus that disproportionately impacts persons, and particularly older adults, with preexisting conditions and weakened immune systems. As businesses begin to reopen, both employers and their employees have concerns about the potential risks involved in returning …Read More

WV DHHR Announces Medical Cannabis Grower Permit Approvals


Brian Skinner Medical Cannabis

October 2, 2020 The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, Bureau for Public Health, Office of Medical Cannabis (OMC) today announced the successful applicants for medical cannabis grower permits.   These permit holders will cultivate medical cannabis plants before sending them for processing into allowable forms for patient use.  The allowable forms for …Read More

One-Year Federal Transportation Funding Measure Approved


Brian Skinner Government & Policy, Transportation

  Route Fifty — By Andrea Noble — October 1, 2020 President Trump signed a continuing resolution Thursday that will avoid a government shutdown through December and provide a one-year extension of federal transportation funding. The extension of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act adds $13.6 billion to the Highway Trust Fund. The approval allows the …Read More