Labor & Economy

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. confirmed on Wednesday that some previously laid off workers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health facility in Morgantown had been restored to their positions.

Kennedy, during a U.S. House Appropriations Committee budget hearing, answered a question about the status of the NIOSH employees from Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va.

We spoke with West Virginia Congressman Riley Moore, who personally worked on the deal during his time as State Treasurer, and he describes the news as heartbreaking.

“What I’d like to see is perhaps given the national security aspect of transformers, it is a national security issue, we have to be able to produce them here in the United States, if perhaps the Administration invoking the Defense Production Act. And that is something that I’ve been speaking with the White House about this issue as it relates to Cleveland Cliffs and Weirton.”

On Wednesday, following the closure of the stock market, it was learned that plans to convert Weirton’s Cleveland-Cliffs facility to an electric transformer facility have fallen through.

WAJR: Officials with the City of Fairmont have made the trip down to the nation’s capitol to advocate for Mountain State legislatures to support local projects.

Fairmont City Manager Travis Blosser, Mayor Anne Boylard, and Fairmont Fire Chief Brian Starn, among others, traveled down to Washington, D.C., to speak with Senators Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice along with Congressman Riley Moore to discuss what projects for the city will need to be accounted for with the help of federal funds. This includes facilities in need of immediate upgrades to respond to emergencies and multi-year projects that are part of the city’s five-year plan.