A pack of wild dogs is roaming the streets of Montgomery. The dogs are killing family pet and digging through trash cans. The pack has grown to more than a dozen dogs and it is getting more aggressive. The city has received more than one-hundred reports of attacks and sightings in recent months. The city has purchased a tranquilizer gun, and is taking the dogs to a no-kill animal shelter.
A Cabell County grand jury indicted two women in connection with a 2020 kidnapping and murder in Huntington. Thirty-seven-year-old Zinya Dooley and forty-one-year-old Freda Ingels are accused of kidnapping and beating two women for days, until one of the victims died.
A Charleston woman will spend ten years in prison. Samantha O’Brien pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the death of 41-year-old Adam Swim. He was shot in the head at his home on Ash Street in June 2019. Another person, Lasalle Burnett, is also charged with Swim’s murder.
Charleston police arrested almost fifty people in warrant sweep on a variety of charges during a two day operation. Police say the sweep partially targeted areas of concern voiced by Charleston residents.
The future of the Big 12 Conference could be in jeopardy. Oklahoma and Texas are considering a jump to the Southeastern Conference, which would leave only eight teams in the Big-12. A majority of teams already in the SEC would have to vote in favor of extending an invitation to join the league.
Governor Justice says he is not seeking any influence over the governing boards for WVU or Marshall University. The Governor appointed his outgoing senior adviser, Bray Cary, to West Virginia University’s board of governors, and earlier this month, former Lottery Commissioner Alan Larrick was appointed to the WVU board of governors. Marshall University is searching for a new president, and there have been calls for the governor to stay out of the process.
West Virginia union members rallied outside Senator Shelley Moore Capito’s offices in Charleston and Martinsburg asking for her support on labor rights bill. The PRO Act will reform labor laws and expand various labor protections related to employee’s rights to organize and collectively bargain in the workplace. Capito says she supports labor unions but believes the PRO Act is too extreme.
Negotiations continue on the over one-trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure plan. Senator Shelley Moore Capito is hopeful Republicans and Democrats can pass a legislative package. Her comments come a day after the Senate rejected a motion to begin debate on the proposal. Capito is on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee; and she wants to make sure a 35-billion-dollar measure on water infrastructure, and an over 300-billion-dollar surface transportation bill are part of the final plan.
The Kanawha County Commission is establishing an application process for any municipality or organization that wants funding from the American Rescue Plan. The county will receive over thirty-million-dollars, and the commission wants to develop a budget before spending any of the money.
COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled across the country over the past two weeks. West Virginia’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Clay Marsh, says he’s very worried because the Delta variant is much worse than anything we’ve seen before. West Virginia has identified 35 cases of the Delta variant, and there are over twelve-hundred active cases of COVID-19 overall. Fewer than half of West Virginia’s are fully vaccinated.