By Trish Turner

Santa Claus came to town early this year -- in "secret" fashion -- spreading good tidings of great joy in one unlikely place -- the U.S. Senate.

Most gift-givers would probably give lawmakers lumps of coal at this point -- and the black gem actually did surface in Monday night's mystery gift exchange so common to many workplaces.

But senators participating in the "Secret Santa" exchange kept it mostly safe this season, sticking to their inner circle in a bipartisan manner that seemed to vanquish the partisan Scrooginess -- however fleetingly -- that has haunted the corridors of the Capitol all year.

By C.V. Moore

Register-Herald Reporter

BECKLEY — Southern West Virginia lacks a reliable, educated workforce, say business and industry leaders gathered Wednesday in Beckley.
“Everybody needs good employees right now. I don’t know of a business who doesn’t,” said local businessman Warren Hylton.
Hylton was among two dozen business people who gathered in Beckley for a regional meeting of the West Virginia Business and Industry Council (WVBIC), a lobbying organization for the business community.

The Association completed its third of three Regional Membership Meetings on Wednesday evening in Beckley.  The first meeting had been held in Morgantown with the second one in Charleston on Tuesday.  Each of the sessions were well attended with a great deal of discussion and exchange on the variety of issues confronting our industry today.  While health & safety and environmental regulations, policies and statistics were covered, a good bit of time in each meeting was taken with discussions surrounding the manpower challenges facing the industry as well as the Legislative issues expected in the 2012 Regular Session.  We appreciate everyone who participated by keeping the meetings lively and pertinent.

Earlier this month, Board of Directors’ member, Jim Bunn II, was named a Young Gun by the West Virginia Executive Magazine.  Jim was one of only ten who were named from more than 250 nominees for the Class of 2011.  Nominees must be 43 or younger, live and work in West Virginia, have held the same position for two years and be active in their community.  Jim and the others, along with their families were recognized at a November ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion.  The article describing Jim’s award is available at the following link, www.wvexecutive.com.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar issued an order on Monday (11/28) postponing the proposed consolidation of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).  In October, Secretary Salazar announced plans to merge OSM, which regulates coal mining and reclamation, with BLM, which oversees federal lands and energy leases, effective as of December 1 of this year, in order to improve efficiency and reduce agency resource needs.  The new order gives the US Department of the Interior (DOI) officials until February 15, 2012, to meet with stakeholders and provide a written report concerning the potential effects of the merger on those impacted by coal mining, including industry, tribes, state regulators and local communities.  Monday’s order also states a new effective date for the merger will be set following the issuance of the February report.