West Virgina’s Broadband Deployment Council, charged with expanding...

West Virgina’s Broadband Deployment Council, charged with expanding high-speed Internet availability in the state, will disband at the end of the year, after failing to get additional funds from the Legislature to do other projects, the council’s chairman Dan O'Hanlon told us in an email. The council was given $5 million when it was established in 2009 by then-Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. The council used the initial funds, mostly for wireless Internet projects in rural areas, as well as to hire a consultant to review grant applications and create a deployment map, O'Hanlon said.