| It's a bad break for McDowell County, one of WVs long-suffering regions of extreme unemployment. The area has some of the nation's gross poverty, despite the fact it has been in the middle of the multi-billion dollar coal field.
An official with the federal Bureau of Prisons said yesterday that the Bush administration is cutting $142 million dollars in prison construction.
That means the long-planned McDowell federal prison will not be built, at least for now.
Michael Truman says the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons will proceed with plans to try to secure funding.
The White House included the cut from the Bureau of Prisons' Buildings and Facilities program in a budget request for fiscal year 2007 that was sent to Congress.
The 1,280-bed medium-security McDowell facility was expected to infuse as much as $35 million dollars each year into the local economy. | 
