CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia lawmakers are considering new maps for the state's congressional districts, while the legal fight continues over the one struck down by a panel of federal judges this month as unconstitutional.

Several Senate leaders plan to introduce one such alternative today. It would keep all three U.S. House incumbents in separate districts, but significantly reshape two of their territories.

The changes would include uniting the Northern and Eastern panhandles into the 1st District, linked by Monongalia and Marion counties. That district also would include the Potomac Highlands region. The redrawing would separate Kanawha County, the state's most populous and home to the state capital, from the Eastern Panhandle.

The plaintiffs in the ongoing federal challenge, the Jefferson County Commission and Kanawha County lawyer Thornton Cooper, seek such a remedy. They trace their opposition to the 1990s-era redistricting, when the two areas were first drawn into the same district.

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