West Virginia’s Congressional delegation is asking the EPA to help with elevated lead levels in the Clarksburg Water System. Manchin, Capito and McKinley are asking the agency to step in with emergency grants, sampling activities, and bottled water and point-of use filters for homes that are impacted.
A Scioto County Correctional Officer is under arrest for having a sexual relationship with a former female inmate. Officer James Layne IV is on administrative leave until the investigation is complete. He’s charged with 3rd degree sexual battery and dereliction of duty.
Two people are under arrest after an investigation into possible drug trafficking at the Chief Logan Lodge. Police seized crystal meth, heroin, three guns, and over four-thousand-dollars in cash. Craig Carter and Rena Redmond, both from Huntington, are facing possession with intent to deliver charges.
Bluestone Resources, the coal company owned by Governor Justice and his family, is making progress in talks with international finance company Credit Suisse over almost 700-million-dollars in debt. The Justice company is agreeing to work on restructuring debt obligations after the insolvency of Bluestone’s man lender, Greensill Capital.
With a spike in COVID-19 cases, many people are wondering if mandatory mask wearing will make a comeback. Governor Justice says no. He says it is premature to go back to masks. Health official are advising you to voluntarily keep a mask in your pocket or pocketbook.
WVU and Marshall University are teaming up to identify variants. West Virginia University School of Medicine leads the lab that sequences the variants, and then it is sent over to Marshall to be identified. The variant sequencing team and state health officials warn that the days of the original COVID-19 strand are long gone. COVID-19 Czar Dr. Clay Marsh says, “This is a different disease,” and it’s “much worse.”
One West Virginia County has moved into red and twelve others are yellow on the state’s COVID-19 alert map. Webster County is the state’s only red county. Active cases climbed to over 13-hundred, and ninety people are in the hospital. The state is reporting thirty-five cases of the Delta variant.
A new report from 24-7 Sports says that Texas and Oklahoma will inform the Big-12 conference of their intentions to leave the league for the Southeastern Conference by Monday. It could leave the Big-12 with an uncertain future. The conference has never been a great fit for West Virginia, which is at least seven-hundred miles from the closest team in the league.
Kanawha County Schools is looking to fill hundreds of open positions. The school system received over 80-thousand-dollars through the American Rescue Plan, which will provide salaries for almost two-hundred positions. The positions will no only support students academically, but emotionally and socially as well.
Three people are under arrest for trying to conceal a dead body. Marvin Hansrote went missing on July 3rd. His body was found ten days later near a home in Inwood. Hansrote’s boss said he gave him a large sum of money to find a place to live and buy furniture.