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West Virginia healthcare institutions are keeping an eye on potential Trump administration changes to temporary, non-immigrant visas intended to let U.S. employers hire foreign workers with specialty skills.
President Trump signed a proclamation late last month calling for a $100,000 annual fee on organizations for each individual working under an H-1B visa. The current fee is $215.
Much of the national news coverage of this issue has focused on the effects on tech sectors. But in West Virginia,

The judge in a vaccine exemptions case that resumes this week asked lawyers to complete some homework about a central question that is also existential: How would you differentiate between religious beliefs and a philosophical viewpoint?
Spoiler: The lawyers in the case responded with very different views about how broadly to interpret religious exemptions and what standards, if any, should apply to determining the depth of belief.
Michael Froble
During two days of a permanent injunction hearing

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Declining populations, school consolidation, and more education choices are pushing the state public school system to reform. That process could begin to take shape during legislative meetings that begin Sunday.
Joe Statler
The growth of the Hope Scholarship, homeschooling and the emergence of the charter system have steadily chipped away at public school enrollment.
Del. Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, the vice-chair of the House Education Committee, said adding options has been

Senator Shelley Moore Capito remains frustrated as a federal shutdown stretches into its third day, and she expressed concern that the executive branch could make good on threats to to conduct mass permanent layoffs in the federal workforce as the shutdown continues.
The Senate was set to reconvene and vote on whether to take up two different proposals to reopen the government, but neither was expected to win the bipartisan backing necessary to end the shutdown.
Shelley Moore Capito
“I always