Ethics Panel Hammers State Rep. Keith Hall

State Rep. W. Keith Hall was fined and reprimanded by a legislative ethics panel Tuesday after he admitted the panel had evidence sufficient to convict him of violating state ethics laws. The ethics probe centered around work a company owned by Hall did on a sewer line extension project in 2005. Hall voted to approve the state budget which contained coal severance tax funding earmarked for water and sewer projects. A portion of that money found its way to Hall’s company via its work installing electrical boxes as part of the sewer extension.