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January jobs report: Unemployment rate falls to 4%, wages rise more than forecast; Trump signs order imposing sanctions on International Criminal Court over investigations of Israel; Ten Commandments in public schools debate reaches South Dakota; Virginia ranks among worst states for wage theft; Mexican long-nosed bat makes appearance in Arizona.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi strikes a Trump tone at the Justice Department, federal workers get more time to consider buyouts, and an unclassified email request from the White House worries CIA vets.

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During Black History Month, a new book shares how a unique partnership built 5,000 schools for Black students, anti-hunger advocates say ag communities would benefit from an expanded SNAP program, and Americans have $90 billion in unpaid medical bills.

Senator: “Public Outcry” Forced a Better Election Finance Bill

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Thursday, March 5, 2015   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – It's a public outcry that forced lawmakers to keep a state rule against corporations contributing to West Virginia political campaigns, according to one state senator.

As originally written, Senate Bill 541 would have removed many state limits on campaign contributions.

But Sen. Mike Woelfel (D-Huntington) stresses the bill was dramatically improved in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. And he credits pressure from the public for saving the prohibition on corporate contributions.

"The public spoke clearly and loudly,” he points out. “I don't think any particular senators deserve credit.

“I think the people of our state deserve credit for speaking out in favor of restricting the injection of money into politics."

Woelfel adds he thinks the committee worked out a good compromise on the bill. He predicts it will have wide bipartisan support on the Senate floor, and says he expects to vote for it.

In the last election, millions of dollars of so-called dark money was spent in West Virginia's congressional and U.S. Senate races – donations made in secret that fund mud-slinging attack ads.

Woelfel says the bill as rewritten in committee now includes a lot of disclosure that should open those kinds of donations to public scrutiny – at least for state-level elections, if not congressional races. And he says the bill now includes other important provisions.

"Much more transparency than our old law, and some modest increases in contributions by individuals,” he states. “And we would be consistent with our current law, which would allow no corporations to contribute directly to candidates."

Woelfel and a number of other Democratic senators on the Judiciary Committee opposed the bill when they first started work on it. He explains the original draft completely removed contribution limits they thought were vital – not only for individual and corporate donations, but even on foreign money.

"As the bill was introduced, contributions from foreign governments would not be prohibited, although there might be some federal legislation that would impair those,” he explains. “However, reasonable minds did prevail."




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