Looking Ahead to the 2010 Session

The Associated Press has again held its annual daylong Legislative Lookahead conference, offering West Virginia reporters and editors a preview of the upcoming 60-day regular session.

The winter weather failed to deter attendees from such far corners as Martinsburg, Wheeling, Parsons and Buckhannon -- though one Charleston-based reporter proved unwilling to brave the roads between his East End condo and Marshall University's South Charleston campus, which hosted the event.

AP reported on the panel discussions that focused on the state budget and federal cap and trade legislation. The Herald-Dispatch also has an article from the cap and trade session. Both the Huntington newspaper and The Journal of Martinsburg offered coverage on the budget panel.

Another session touched on election politics, as the Herald Dispatch reports, while The Journal wrote separately on the overall conference.

The Charleston Gazette reported on the verbal barbs cast by Gov. Joe Manchin, the conference's keynote speaker, at Northwood Health Systems over its threatened federal lawsuit.

AP also noted Manchin's cost estimates for West Virginia from federal health care legislation. Manchin administration officials, meanwhile, said the governor "has no plans to seek the dismantling of the state's largest agency, despite concerns from lawmakers that it's too big to be fully effective," AP reports.