WV SUFFERS FIRST BIG EARMARK LOSS

(01/03/2011)
West Virginia's first big causality with Washington's move to stop earmarks is cutting a $900,000 appropriation for a proposed interchange of the King Coal Highway and the Coalfield Expressway in southern WV.

The US Senate has rejected the earmark, part of a Republican effort to reduce the national debt, although earmarks are less than 1% of the budget.

The interchange was planned near the new $232 million federal prison that recently became operational in Welch.