CHARLESTON -- A conference next week in Charleston will focus on the economy.

The West Virginia Economic Outlook Conference will be held Nov. 15 at the Charleston Civic Center.

The annual conference is being presented by the West Virginia University Bureau of Business and Economic Research.

Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, will discuss the national economy. Dr. Paul Speaker, a WVU associate professor of finance and adjunct associate professor of economics, will talk about the state's economic outlook.

The cost to attend the conference is $75.

Coal company to lay off 156 workers in Utah, Ill.

ST. LOUIS -- A coal producer owned by a longtime critic of President Barack Obama's energy policies will lay off nearly 160 workers at Illinois and Utah mines, blaming the freshly re-elected president for a "war on coal."

Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. said in a statement supplied Friday to The Associated Press that it would give pink slips to 102 workers at its West Ridge Mine in Utah and 54 at its underground mine in the southern Illinois town of Galatia. Both mines are run by Murray Energy subsidiaries.

Murray did not specify when layoffs will take place or the total number of workers at each affected site. The company refused an email interview request, saying only that "unfortunately, we will be forced to make even more layoffs, none of which we want."

TECO laying off 90 in Kentucky coalfields

HAZARD, Ky. -- About 90 jobs are being lost in the eastern Kentucky coalfields.

WYMT-TV in Hazard reported TECO Coal Corporation is cutting back production and shedding jobs.

Company personnel director Paul Matney told the station no mines are closing, but manpower and staffing is being trimmed to match reduced production from the mines.

Matney said the layoffs are at several locations and are the result of economic conditions in the coal market.

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