WOWK - This week on Inside West Virginia Politics, officials from West Virginia and beyond discuss President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill, how West Virginia is expanding broadband, and how a donation to a university in West Virginia will help undergrad students. Watch the full segment. In Segment 1, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R) Kentucky shares his…
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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…
West Virginia MetroNews - West Virginia’s senators are assessing the price tag and policies of the “American Families Plan” introduced by President Joe Biden last week. Read the full article. Biden introduced the $1.8 trillion education and social safety net plan in a joint address to Congress last week by saying, “we also need to make a…
Huntington Herald-Dispatch - Cabell County and the city of Huntington are set to go to trial Monday against drug distributors they accuse of helping to fuel the area’s drug epidemic. Read the full article. At stake is up to $500 million or $1.25 billion to help local communities deal with the damages from the opioid…
Hep Mag - The federal government has awarded West Virginia about $393,000 for viral hepatitis surveillance, according to an announcement from the state’s U.S. senators, Republican Shelly More Capito and Democrat Joe Manchin. Of that funding, $78,659 has been set aside to explore how the opioid epidemic affects rates of infectious diseases such as hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS. Read the full article.…
WOWK - West Virginia had the sharpest loss of any state in the nation, with a population drop of 3.2%. When Congress allocates federal funding for everything from health care to public transit to highway construction and education, it’s based on population. Because West Virginia lost people, it’s going to lose federal aid. Watch the…
Mountain State Spotlight, WDTV, News Break, Opera News - The first round of 2020 U.S. Census data is in, and as expected, West Virginia has lost more residents and another congressional seat. Read the full article. There are 1,793,716 people living in the Mountain State. There are also an additional 1,329 West Virginians living overseas, such as U.S. military members…
Mountain State Spotlight, Beckley Register-Herald, WDTV, Yahoo News, Opera News - Five years ago, West Virginia lawmakers cut state funding to local health departments by 25%. Read the full article. The move — equivalent to an annual loss of $4 million — was a hit to the infrastructure that supports the well-being of our communities: the local workers…
Wheeling Intelligencer, Associated Press - If the human toll is not enough reason for some elected and bureaucratic officials to take seriously the fight against substance abuse in our state, here is one that might come closer to speaking their language: According to the Center on Budget and Policy, treating and addressing substance abuse and…
Charleston Gazette-Mail - I was trying to find a word that sums up the 2021 legislative session, and after much consideration, it came to me: Despicable. Read the full article. Despicable, in that the Legislature committed acts of cruelty for no reason but the sheer pleasure they derived from doing so. They passed a despicable…