Dry, windy conditions and low humidity have increased the threat of wildfires in West Virginia.

The Obama Administration wants to reverse a last-minute bush-era rule that allows mountaintop mining waste to be dumped near streams.

A Kanawha County judge Monday heard testimony about the state's efforts to ease crowded conditions at its two psychiatric hospitals, efforts that range from adding new beds to spending $17.5 million since 2006 on community care.

The head of a New York City high school says one of the 28 people who have confirmed cases of swine flu at the school is a teacher.

The Supreme Court appears likely to give Ohio another chance to sentence a convicted killer to death, despite a previous finding that the man is mentally retarded.

Democrats who control the Ohio House plan to boost funding for services for children and older adults who may face abuse, neglect or exploitation.

The executive director of Ohio's largest state employees union is stepping down after five years.

Gov. Joe Manchin has vetoed his first bill of 2009 but is asking legislators to try again.

A body found in the Ohio River has been identified as that of a deckhand who fell from a coal barge two weeks ago.

A newspaper reports that state budgeteers shorted their boss, Governor Strickland, in the budget proposal they submitted to lawmakers in February.

General Motors Corp. says it will temporarily close 13 assembly plants in the U.S. And Mexico as it tries to control growing inventory due to slumping sales.

A University of Akron faculty member who has researched crime-related reality tv shows is missing.

A federal court in Cincinnati is considering arguments by a conservative christian group that the ten commandments belonged in a courthouse display titled "Foundations of American Law and Government."

Two people briefed on the plan say General Motors Corp. will close most of its U.S. factories for up to nine weeks this summer because of slumping sales and growing inventories of unsold vehicles.

Ohio is amending its list of highway projects getting federal stimulus money, swapping $115 million from a major bridge project in Cleveland to fund 52 additional road projects.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has called on state agencies to stop contract work, limit the purchase of supplies and reevaluate travel for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Ohio's politically generous nursing home industry scored a lucrative victory in the budget rewrite that house democrats proposed this week.

The family of a 78-year-old man whose death may be linked to the widespread peanut butter salmonella outbreak has sued an Ohio company in connection with his death.

Ohio's elections chief wants to simplify the state's voter identification and provisional ballot laws, and increase the number of early voting sites.

A judge has set bond at more than $1 million for an Ohio man accused of leading police on a chase that resulted in an officer being struck by a police cruiser.

Authorities are offering a $5,000 reward for information on a pair of fires ruled suspicious in Chillicothe in southern Ohio.

A federal judge says Ohio's lethal injection process has flaws but is not unconstitutional, paving the way for the possible execution of a man who mutilated his victim and left her body parts in Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is teaming up with grocers to help recycle plastic bags.

A lawyer for an FBI police officer accused of spying on girls as they tried on prom dresses at a charity event says his client is innocent and expects to be acquitted.

The state and Appalachian Regional Healthcare are planning a new $47 million psychiatric treatment facility in Beckley.