WVPA Holds Legislative Lookahead

By: Autumn Shelton
West Virginia Press Association
The West Virginia Press Association held its annual Legislative Lookahead Feb. 7 at the Culture Center in Charleston. 
The event brought members of print, broadcast and digital journalism together to hear from the state’s legislative leaders, statewide elected officials and more on their plans and goals for the upcoming legislative session, which will begin Feb. 12. 
During the Legislative Lookahead, multiple student journalists from both Marshall University’s student newspaper “The Parthenon,” and West Virginia University’s student newspaper “The Daily Athenaeum,” were in attendance.
“I did want to take just a quick moment to note all of our student journalists with us today,” said John McCabe, editorial director for Ogden Newspapers.
“For those of us that have been doing this a while, it wasn’t all that long ago when we would have no student journalists, or maybe one, attend these events. So, it really is nice.” 
Shauna Johnson, WVU’s director of news communications, later added that it won’t be long until those students “will be up at the podium leading us.” 
“We are thrilled to see what you’re going to do as you go out into the world,” Johnson stated. 
As the event began, Doug Skaff WVPA’s interim executive director, introduced the first panel: Speaker of the House of Delegates Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay; House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell; Sen. Amy Grady, R-Mason; and Del. Clay Riley, R-Harrison. 
“Yesterday, I was admonished that after Jan. 31 it’s poor form to say ‘Happy New Year,’ Speaker Hanshaw began.
“But, it’s the first opportunity that we’ve had as a Legislature to be with you collectively since the beginning of the New Year. So, I do want to say ‘Happy New Year,” and I mean that because it’s a time to reflect every year on what’s good about our state, what happened over the course of the past year to help prepare us for where we want to go and begin thinking about where we want to go when spring comes – when we see the rebirth of nature and of the state. Our legislative session every year is an opportunity for us to pause and think about how we want to create West Virginia.” 
McCabe introduced the second panel of the day consisting of members of the West Virginia Board of Public Works: Attorney General John “J. B.” McCuskey, Secretary of State Kris Warner and State Auditor Mark Hunt. 
“What I think you’ll find in this government is that we have a commitment to radical transparency,” McCuskey began.
“And, one of the things we talked a lot about in the auditor’s office is that government works best when people understand what it’s doing. That is really a partnership between taxpayers and the media.
“So, we are really, really hopeful that West Virginia is becoming a place where our media members, particularly our young people, have access to the government – what they’re doing – so when you do complain and you do go to the voting booth, you can say ‘I know why you did that, I know what you did, and I’m going to be making an informed decision.’” 
During lunch, Legislative Lookahead attendees heard from Fred King, WVU vice president of research and professor in the C. Eugene Bennett Dept. of Chemistry within the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. 
King spoke about the importance of investment in research. 
“The university is about taking the sons and daughters of West Virginia and giving them an opportunity to show what brilliant people we are and help put them on a path toward a very successful career,” King said. “And, from my perspective, research is a key part of that education that they go through.” 
The final speaker of the day, Treasurer Larry Pack, was introduced by Gaylene Miller, state director of AARP-WV. 
“Thanks for what you do,” Pack said to members of the media. “Local media is so important to our communities, to our citizens, and I really appreciate what you guys do.” 
For the first time, the Legislative Lookahead was live-streamed on wvpress.org, giving reporters from around the state the chance to view the event if they were unable to attend in person.
A video recording of the live-stream will soon be posted on wvpress.org.
Additionally, the WVPA  will share articles written about the Legislative Lookahead in the upcoming days on its website and on social media.
“We thank everyone who was a part of the Legislative Lookahead,” said Stella Gill, WVPA’s coordinator of special events.
“The legislative session begins soon, and we know how hard journalists work to deliver up-to-date legislative coverage to all of their readers. We are proud to bring our state’s elected officials and legislative leadership before members of the media each year. We feel this provides everyone with an overview on what will be happening over the course of the next two months.” 
Lastly, the West Virginia Press Association sends a special thank you to sponsors, who helped make the event possible. 
“We can’t do this without our sponsors,” said Skaff, adding that this year’s Legislative Lookahead sponsors included: AARP-WV, Vandalia Health, The Health Plan, WVU and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine.