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Manchin Announces Help for Winter Heating Costs.

Gov. Joe Manchin announced the new West Virginia Utility Assistance Program along with six of the state’s largest utility companies and other groups. Low-income residents will be able to apply for grants to help cover the costs of utility bills. A network of assistance agencies for processing the applications is being set up by the Salvation Army and the Dollar Energy Fund. Manchin said the program will be especially useful as winter—and the climbing cost of heating homes—approaches. Read more

CAMPAIGN NEWS

Today is Washington state’s top-two primary. Read more

WA- Gregoire Running New Radio Ad. Gov. Chris Gregoire’s campaign has a new radio ad running in the Tri-Cities that features Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller, a Democrat, talking up Gregoire’s contributions to the community, including support of Hanford cleanup, the Washington State University Tri-Cities expansion and the state’s new Columbia River Management Program. Read more

NC- Perdue to Debate Tonight. North Carolina’s gubernatorial candidates are preparing for their first live, televised debate. Republican Pat McCrory and Democrat Beverly Perdue are scheduled to participate in an hour-long debate tonight. The debate, set to begin at 8 p.m. The forum is the second of five planned debates between the two major party candidates. Read more

GENERAL NEWS

IA- Culver Honors Troops before They Report for Duty. Twenty Iowa soldiers left for active duty. Seven different units are represented, but the troops all have the same mission of training army and police forces overseas in Afghanistan. Gov. Chet Culver offered words of encouragement before the Iowa National Guard soldiers left for their tour. “Always remember that you are not alone and we will always be here for you and we will always be grateful for your service to our state and our country,” Culver said. Read more

KS- Sebelius Promotes Increased Mentoring. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed an executive order allowing State of Kansas employees to positively impact children’s lives through the Kansas Mentors program. “Since creating Kansas Mentors with Coach Snyder over two years ago, employees have expressed a significant interest in helping with the program,” Sebelius said. “This creates an opportunity for employees to volunteer as a mentor and make a difference in the lives of children.” Executive Order 08-10 will allow full-time employees in the Executive Branch of the State of Kansas to spend up to 90 minutes of regularly scheduled work time per two-week pay period mentoring with any program which is part of Kansas Mentors’ gold star program. Read more

MI- Granholm Expected to Announce 6,800 New Jobs. Southwestern Michigan is expected to benefit from a “record-breaking” round of state-tax-break awards. State officials are preparing to announce 20 economic development projects across the state that could generate $658 million in investment by companies and create about 6,800 new jobs directly by those companies. Gov. Jennifer Granholm was eager to spread the word of the largest job-creation agenda. Read more

MT- Schweitzer Launches Website to Help with Housing Search. Gov. Brian Schweitzer has announced a new Web site designed to link Montanans to a wide range of rental housing choices. www.MTHousingSearch.com provides free, real-time rental housing information to people looking to list or find rental property. Schweitzer says the easy-to-use Web site is a “remarkable tool” that will “revolutionize” how people find rental housing in Montana. Read more

NJ- Corzine Increases Hospital Oversight. Gov. Jon S. Corzine signed a bill into law that requires the finances of all 74 of New Jersey’s hospitals to be more strictly monitored by the state Department of Health and Senior Services. The legislation requires the hospitals to submit monthly financial reports to the state health department, and allows the agency to intervene when a hospital is determined to be in fiscal distress. Corzine said the legislation will “ensure that there is increased transparency, better financial management and long-term planning in place for all New Jersey hospitals.” Read more

NC- Easley Works to Curb Home Foreclosures. Gov. Easley signed three bills to help home foreclosure filings, including one that requires lenders to provide 45 days notice before a foreclosure is filed. The law also allows the bank commissioner to extend any foreclosure filing notice by 30 days. The state would use that time to negotiate with the homeowner and mortgage holder on a loan interest rate and payments. Easley said the law could help more than 25,000 families stay in their homes.” The program is the first of its kind in the nation that makes sure homeowners and lenders avoid foreclosures, where everyone ends up a loser,” Easley said in. “Our goal is to help bring borrowers and lenders together so that the family gets to keep their home and the bank does not lose money on the loan.” Read more

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