The 2012 Regular Session of the West Virginia State Legislature will begin January 11 and run through March 10.  This year’s session will see some changes with leadership, but we expect it to be relatively smooth.

The key issues for the session from the perspective of the Association include congressional redistricting, developing a comprehensive drug testing policy for the mining industry and the development of manpower training opportunities for the mining industry.

Governor Tomblin will kick off the session with his first State of the State Address since being elected to complete the term of former Governor and now U.S. Senator Joe Manchin.  Tomblin will deliver the State of the State Address beginning at 7 pm on January 11.

Prior to the opening of the regular session, Interim meetings of the Legislature begin on Sunday, January 8. Discussion is expected to center around ways to address the recent U.S. District Court decision striking down the state’s congressional redistricting plan.

The 2012 WV Mining Symposium will begin on February 1 thru February 3^rd at the Charleston Civic Center.  Registration information was sent to all members on Monday and have been coming back into the Association at a steady clip.

The program will be finalized in the next week and will also be sent to all members via e-mail.  Please complete and return the registration form so all nametags will be available upon your arrival and we have good counts for all of functions.

Please contact Sandi at 304.342.4153 or e-mail: sdavison@wvcoal.com with any questions.

The new edition of Coal Facts will be sent to all members, legislators, key-government officials, all libraries, all chamber of commerces and media next week. The publication will once again feature all the annualized data for production, employment, distribution, coal severance taxes and other information, as well as features on the history of mining, an overview of surface and underground mining, post-mine land use and restoration efforts, and our annual award-winning operations.

A pdf copy of the publication will also be available online.

Delegate Tim Ennis (D-Brooke) is leaving the West Virginia Legislature to fill a vacancy on the Brooke County Commission. The Herald-Star of Steubenville, Ohio, says the commission appointed Ennis on Tuesday to fill the seat held by the late Commissioner Bernie Kazienko, who died Dec. 5.

Candidates planning to run for public office in the 2012 elections may begin filing candidacy papers on January 9, according to the West Virginia Secretary of State's Office.

The office also will offer a free live video stream every day of the filing period, including up to the midnight deadline on January 28, for people wanting to watch who is filing. The live streaming video will be available on a link that will appear at the top of the Secretary of State's website at www.wvsos.com.