Academic literature on the topic 'United States. District Court (West Virginia : Northern District)'

This Article summarizes and discusses important cases and legislation, issued or enacted between September 1, 2011, and August 31, 2012, pertaining to the law of oil and gas in West Virginia. The Article is divided into two parts. Part One discusses the Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act, which was enacted by the West Virginia Legislature on December 14, 2011. Part Two discusses developments in West Virginia's case law regarding oil and gas. In this Part, the Authors will discuss and analyze major decisions issued by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, as well as decisions by the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia.

This Article summarizes and discusses important cases, legislation, and regulations issued or enacted pertaining to the oil and gas jurisprudence of West Virginia between September 1, 2010, and August 31, 2011. The Authors acknowledge that the term "important" is subjec- tive; nevertheless, they endeavor to discuss the most germane cases and regulations affecting the oil and gas industry. This Article is divided into two parts. Part One discusses a very important regulation promulgated by the Office of Oil and Gas, a division of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, regarding water use by the oil and gas industry when drilling horizontal wells. Noticeably absent from this Part is any discussion of major legislation affecting the oil and gas industry. During the requisite period, no significant legislation was enacted, which the Authors subjectively deemed worthy of discussion. Nevertheless, the legislature introduced numerous bills, which if enacted, would have substantially impacted the oil and gas industry. Part Two of this Article discusses developments in West Virginia's case law regarding oil and gas. In this Part, the Authors will discuss and analyze major decisions issued by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ("Supreme Court of Appeals"), one important case litigated in the Circuit Court of Monongalia County, West Virginia, and the United States District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled, in United States u. Texus Tech University, 171 F.3d 279 (5th Cir. 1999), that the Eleventh Amendment bars a private citizen from bringing a qui tam action in federal court against a state, absent federal intervention.Intervenor Carol Foulds was a dermatology resident at the Texas Tech Health Services Center. While a resident, Foulds examined patients, made diagnoses, and prescribed treatments for patients. Foulds alleged that she and other residents performed these medical services without the supervision of staff physicians. Foulds further alleged that, after residents performed these services without physician oversight, staff physicians signed charts and Medicare and Medicaid billing forms certifying that they personally performed or supervised the administration of these services. Foulds estimates approximately 500,000 false claims occurred in a span of ten years.In 1995, Foulds filed a qui tam action with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. As regulated by the False Claims Act (FCA), 31 U.S.C. § 3729(b)(2) (West 1998), the complaint remained under seal.

Basil Chapman retired from ACF Industries, a railroad-car maker, after thirty-eight years of service. In December 2003, he received an unexpected phone call at his West Virginia home from a union representative, who informed him that an ACF executive wanted to speak with him. When they spoke, the executive informed Mr. Chapman that ACF was planning on changing its retirees’ health coverage plan. The ACF plan would now have a lifetime maximum benefit cap on hospital and surgical expenses for each participant and would require retirees to make monthly contributions. According to court papers filed later, Mr. Chapman responded, “We have a contract. You can’t do that.” Then, he said that he would “file in federal court” against ACF. The next business day, ACF filed a declaratory judgment action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri asking the court to rule that retiree benefits were not vested and that ACF accordingly could alter benefits unilaterally. On January 26, 2004, Mr. Chapman, other named plaintiffs, and their union sued ACF in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

In Minersville School District vs Gobitis (1940) the United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 overturning lower court decisions barring states from implementing compulsory flag salutes. Three years later, the Supreme Court overturned that ruling with a 6 to 3 decision in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943). The cases were nearly identical and argued similarly but had different outcomes. How did the landscape of America change so drastically in a three-year period? First, the Supreme Court did not see a danger in the rise of nationalism in the United States or the social impact the ruling would bring. Second, the violence that followed Gobitis decision caused Jehovah's Witnesses, a pacifist group that was uninvolved in politics, to become more persistent in utilizing the legal system and more vocal concerning persecution of its members. Finally, the Supreme Court was not the same. A change in justices and a shift in the focus of the Court from economic matters to personal liberties created a different political landscape, when West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnett reached the Court in 1943.

Judge Nora Barry Fischer has served as a district judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania since 2007, when she was appointed by President George W. Bush. Prior to her service as a district judge, Judge Fischer worked as a legal editor at Callaghan & Company, was a partner in private practice at Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck, and was an equity partner at Pietragallo Bosick & Gordon. Additionally, Judge Fischer worked as a trained mediator and arbitrator in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Judge Fischer is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, an active member of the Executive Women’s Council of Pittsburgh, a past President of the Academy of Trial Lawyers of Allegheny County, and a member of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, where she serves on the Mentoring Subcommittee. She received a Bachelor of Arts Degree magna cum laude from Saint Mary’s College, and a JD degree from Notre Dame Law School in 1976.

Background: Little research exists on sociodemographic and geographic inequalities in Long COVID, defined as COVID-19 symptoms lasting 3 months or longer. Using the latest nationally representative data, we examine geographic disparities in prevalence of Long COVID and severe COVID symptoms among United States (US) adults aged ≥18 years. Methods: We analyzed five consecutive rounds of the US Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey from June 1 to October 17, 2022 (N=108,064). Using multivariable logistic regression and health disparity indices, we modeled disparities in Long COVID and severe COVID symptoms by state and metropolitan area, controlling for race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, health insurance, and other demographic characteristics. Results: During June–October 2022, an estimated 35.4 million or 32.2% of COVID patients in the US reported developing Long COVID; and 15.2 million or 13.8% of COVID patients reported experiencing severe COVID symptoms. The prevalence of Long COVID ranged from 24.0% in the District of Columbia (DC), 25.4% in Hawaii to 39.2% in Alabama, 39.9% in Wyoming, and 43.6% in West Virginia. Adjusted for covariates, adults with COVID-19 diagnosis in Alabama, Wyoming, and West Virginia had 48-178% higher adjusted odds of developing Long COVID than their counterparts in DC. Adults with COVID-19 diagnosis in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota,Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming, and West Virginia had 2.0-2.5 times higher adjusted odds of experiencing severe COVID symptoms than their counterparts in Vermont. Large disparities in prevalence of Long COVID and severe COVID symptoms existed among the 15 largest metropolitan areas of the US, with the prevalence of Long COVID ranging from 21.9% in San Francisco to 38.0% in Riverside, California. Socioeconomic, demographic and health insurance characteristics explained 34% of the state-level disparity and 45% of the metropolitan-area disparity in Long COVID prevalence. Conclusion and Implications for Translation: Marked geographic disparities existed, with COVID patients/survivors in the Southeast, Southwest, and Northern Plains states being at substantially higher risks of developing Long COVID and severe COVID symptoms. Equitable access to care and support services among patients with Long COVID is critical to reducing inequities in COVID-related healthoutcomes. Copyright © 2023 Singh et al. Published by Global Health and Education Projects, Inc. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0.