By Kristin Murodck
Four teenagers were gunned down in front of a Huntington duplex two years ago this week. No one has been charged with the murders, but police say they are getting closer to making an arrest. The victims’ families did not know each other before their children were brutally murdered. But their bond has grown stronger, as they continue to search for answers.
By Anna Sale
Last week, 600 coal miners, their families and community members gathered in Logan
County to protest an ongoing mountaintop removal court battle. It’s hardly the first time a mountaintop removal permit is the subject of a lawsuit. But this time, the public relations battle outside the courtroom is hitting new political heights with Gov. Joe Manchin joining in.
By Beth Vorhees
The primary federal inspector of the Aracoma Alma #1 mine in Logan County says the mine scared him to death, but there was little he could do about it. Minness Justice talked to Sunday Gazette-Mail reporter Ken Ward, Jr. about the fatal mine fire. Ward spoke to Beth Vorhees about his story during Monday’s West Virginia Morning.
By Jan Geneice
Allegheny Mountain Radio
Woody Harman is a blacksmith working in an Artisans Co-op near Greenback in Pocahontas County. He’s finding a new market for his work in the high-end homes being built at the Greenbrier Sporting Club on the grounds of the Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs.
Inside Appalachia is West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s weekly regional newsmagazine. Beth Vorhees is the host.
Inside Appalachia Rundown May 19, 2007
By Beth Vorhees
Leaders from the National Endowment for Financial Education and the state treasurer’s office are promoting a new curriculum that teaches the basic of money management to young people. They are introducing the new curriculum at Hurricane High in Putnam County this week. John Parfrey is the director of the National Endowment for Financial Education’s high school planning program.
By Cecelia Mason
Delegate John Doyle of Jefferson County voted for the casino table games bill that lawmakers passed this year. Now, Doyle is urging his constituents to vote against casino table games at Charles Town Races and Slots.
He argued his position during a debate last night in Shepherdstown. Cecelia Mason spoke to panelists on both sides of the issue and filed this report.
By Kristin Murdock
Tuesday marks the second anniversary of the quadruple murder. No one has been charged, but police suspect one of the victims was the target of a
Detroit drug dealer. The others were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The house where they were shot stood empty for a year. A church is now working to turn the house into a source of hope. Below are links to the transcript and video of the story. Also belows are links to a transcript and video of an interview Beth Vorhees had with Huntington City Councilwoman Brandi Jacobs-Jones. They discuss what has and has not changed in Huntington since the four murders.
Studio lead: Earlier this week, the executive director of National Council on Problem Gambling announced that his group might stop routing calls to the West Virginia hotline. He was concerned that the West Virginia Lottery is taking control of the program from the state Department of Health and Human Resources on July 1.
Now, the people that run another national hotline are saying that they might stop referring callers to West Virginia’s program. And this hotline, 1-800-Gambler is the hotline used by the vast majority of West Virginia callers. Scott Finn reports.
The director of the Beckley Veterans Medical Center – and his boss – received hefty performance bonuses in 2006 – all this while Sen. Jay Rockefeller has called for a change in the Beckley facility’s top administrator.
According to the 2006 Department of Veterans Affairs Bonus Justification Listing, Gerald P. Husson, the director of the Beckley VA, received a bonus of $14,000. His boss, Daniel F. Hoffman, a Veteran Integrated Service Network Director, received a $24,000 bonus. Husson has not replied to repeated requests for an interview.
Sen. Rockefeller says of the 4 VA centers in West Virginia, Beckley is the one for which he receives the most complaints – from veterans and employees.
Rockefeller says low moral has led to chronic staff shortages, delaying care for veterans. He also accuses Husson of knowingly supplying false information to Veterans Secretary Jim Nicholson regarding those staff shortages.
In Washington this week, Secretary Nicholson is under fire for performance bonuses of a similar range given last year to top Veterans officials – nearly two dozen of those bonuses going to officials who sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments.
A proposed power line has residents in Northern West Virginia upsset. The line would run from a power plant south of Pittsburgh to Northern Virginia, but the majority of the line would be in West Virginia.
Allegheny Power has applied to the state’s Public Service Commission for approval to build and maintain the line. Letters of opposition have flooded in.
The PSC’s Consumer Advocate Division now wants the company to study an alternative route. But in the end, the federal government could trump the state’s decision on the future route of this power line. Emily Corio reports.
Today, the Kanawha and Hancock County Commissions will meet to approve new dates for the table games vote. Both commissions are expected to endorse the date of June 30th that was requested by the racetracks in both counties.
They made this request after it was discovered that legal advertisements about the vote were not published in time. Now both tracks are gearing up for an extended campaign. Keri Brown reports.
Last week, federal prosecutors filed a massive environmental lawsuit against coal company Massey Energy and its subsidiaries. They allege that Massey Energy violated the Clean Water Act more than 4,000 times over the past six years in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Which raises the question – where were federal and state regulators all those years? Mining companies were reporting violations on a daily basis, but for years the state Department of Environmental Protection wasn’t paying attention. Scott Finn and Anna Sale report.
By Keri Brown
Racetracks in Kanawha and Hancock counties want to delay the votes on table games planned for June 9. Both Tri-State Racetrack in Nitro and Mountaineer Racetrack in Chester have asked to delay those votes because county clerks failed to advertise the election in newspapers within 30 days of June 9. The two county commissions are scheduled to take up the matter at special meetings on Thursday.
By Beth Vorhees
A political news blog broke the story about problems with the table games election in Kanawha and Hancock Counties. Republican political consultant Gary Abernathy talks about how his blog, the Republican Gazette, fits into the state’s media landscape.
By Emily Corio
You don’t normally think about coming across an explosive device when hiking or camping in West Virginia, but in the northern Monongehela National Forest, it’s something you might keep in mind.An area called Dolly Sods was used as an artillery training ground for the U.S. Army during World War Two.This left behind ordnance. This summer, West Virginia University students will comb through the soil and sample streams, trying to find out what else was left behind.
Emily Corio reports.
The vote on table games in Kanawha and Hancock counties may be put on hold. The reason? The public notices were not published in newspapers in time.
According to the House Bill 2718 passed in March, a published notice about the local option election on table games in the racetrack counties must be printed twice 30 days prior to the election. The elections are set for Saturday, June 9. County clerks in Ohio and Jefferson counties published their notices on time.
Authorities in Hancock are weighing their options about the election. But Kanawha County commissioner Kent Carper insists the election should go on as planned.
“I believe if the election goes forward and a court would review this, I would hope the court would look at the purpose of a classified advertisement to give adequate notice to the public. This matter has had more notice in Kanawha County than any election I believe in 50 years,” Carper says.
Carper says the Kanawha County clerk took responsibility for the mistake. Usually, public notices must be published 21 days, not 30 days, before an election. A longer version of this story will be posted on this website soon.
By Beth Vorhees
Human trafficking in southeast Asia threatens the welfare of women and children in the region. Eleven students from WVU will spend a month at An Giang University in southern Vietnam to learn about the problem.
By Beth Vorhees
The Public Service Commission has approved the Beech Ridge Energy’s plan to build a wind farm in Greenbrier County, but opponents have taken the issue to the state Supreme Court. Dave Groberg is a Vice President of Invenergy, the parent company of Beech Ridge. Steve White is with the Affiliated Construction Trades Foundation.
By Anna Sale
556-4936
In new television and radio ads, the Police Chief of the town of St. Albans in Kanawha County endorses the June 9 referendum for table games. St. Albans Mayor Dick Callaway doesn’t think that was appropriate. He says he didn’t authorize the police chief’s appearance, and he would not have if he’d been asked.
“Unfortunately with the police chief appearing in uniform, it appears that the city did make an endorsement but that’s not the situation.”
St. Albans is a town of about 11,000. It’s less than ten miles away from the Tri-state Racetrack and Gaming Center in Nitro.
“I have discussed the issue with the chief, and we discussed the ramifications and he understands that the city had not officially acted upon it, and of course, dealing with personnel issues, I can’t say a lot in that particular area.”
But the matter hasn’t caused a major public outcry. The mayor says city hall has only gotten three complaints from citizens.
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