Day 56 Roundup

• West Virginia lawmakers may share their power to grant specialty license plates, The Associated Press reports. A Senate committee is slated to take up a House-passed bill that would allow the Division of Motor Vehicles commissioner to issue plates sought by non-political nonprofit groups under certain condition. DMV officials recently testified that motorists can choose from among 110 specialty plates so far.

• AP also covered the latest exchange between eye care specialists over a bill that would allow optometrists to perform more procedures. The Register-Herald of Beckley, The Charleston Gazette, the Charleston Daily Mail and MetroNews also covered the public hearing held by the House Health and Human Resources Committee.

• The Charleston Daily Mail reports that House Education "endorsed a bill that would revise the way West Virginia colleges pay their staff and also strengthen the state's Higher Education Policy Commission by taking back some autonomy from Marshall University and West Virginia University." MetroNews also has an item.

• The Register-Herald reports on an "anti-racial profile training" provision added by the Senate to a House-passed bill targeting criminal gang activity.

• West Virginia will go another year without treating failure to wear a seat belt as a primary offense for traffic stops, after House Roads and Transportation elected not to take up the necessary bill, MetroNews reports.

• Public Broadcasting reports on a Senate committee advancing legislation that "would strengthen reporting requirements for Marcellus shale drilling," adding that "environmentalists and regulators want the bill, but some oil and gas representatives think it’s unnecessary." With audio.