Health

July 5, 2021 by Seth DiStefano
Lawmakers Focus on Hunger in West Virginia

West Virginia MetroNews - West Virginia has one of the highest percentages among states of households where there was sometimes or often not enough to eat during a week of trying to get by. Read the full article. That’s according to the most recent U.S. Census’s Household Pulse Survey, which showed that 11.8 percent of West…

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June 22, 2021 by WVCBP
Rutherford County Reported the 12th Largest Population Growth in the U.S.

WGSN Radio - For the first time ever, California posted a population decline in 2020, and the United States as a whole didn’t fare much better. Its growth has decelerated to 0.35% year-over-year, the slowest growth rate since the Great Depression. Read the full article. Population experts blame the slowing growth rate on three big…

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June 15, 2021 by Kelly Allen
A Broad and Equitable Economic Recovery Requires Prioritizing Paid Leave

The last time a permanent national policy was passed to address the need for family and medical leave was 28 years ago. In 1993, Congress passed the Family Medical Leave Act, which provided some private sector employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the arrival of a child, time off for one’s…

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June 8, 2021 by WVCBP
Retired DEA Official Says Distributors were Put on Alert over Practices Years Before Opioid Crisis

Huntington Herald-Dispatch - A retired high-ranking official for the Drug Enforcement Administration testified in Charleston on Monday that distributors accused of fueling the region’s opioid crisis were on alert they needed to rein in their distribution practices as early as 2005. Read the full article. The distributors responded by bombarding the DEA with reports of…

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June 8, 2021 by Rhonda Rogombe
TUESDAY: Public health is a Team Concept

Beckley Register-Herald - As if our politicians and favorite baseball teams don’t give us enough to worry about, the pandemic lingers. Well, not everyone worries and some have been out and about through it all without a mask or a care in the world. And some worry more than they should and remain in isolation…

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May 25, 2021 by Seth DiStefano
Food for All Coalition

WSAZ News Channel 3 - WVCBP policy outreach director Seth DiStefano discusses the efforts of the Food for All coalition and how it works to combat hunger and poverty in West Virginia. Watch the full interview here.

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May 15, 2021 by WVCBP
Alleviating an Epidemic

Martinsburg Journal-News - It seems that just about everyone has been impacted by someone battling substance abuse or addiction. Although treatment options exist, limited resources make access challenging, and few treatment facilities seem to assert continued success. Read the full article. However, it appears that West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle has been fortunate in welcoming the…

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May 3, 2021 by WVCBP
Drug Overdose Deaths Hit Record High in West Virginia in 2020

WSWS - West Virginia, the national epicenter of the opioid crisis for the past decade, saw its fatal overdose rate spike by at least 45 percent in 2020 according to data from the state Office of the Chief Medical Officer. The increase is a reversal of two years of declining drug deaths and marks a…

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