WQBE News

Justice administration general counsel, Brian Abraham, will become the new Chief of Staff. Abraham succeeds Mike Hall, who announced his retirement last week.

A Kanawha County man is under arrest for attempted burglary. Forty-year-old James Short was trying to break into houses near Rolling Hills Road and Devondale Circle. He was found in a wooded area near the homes and taken into custody.

Four pet goats were found shot and killed on a farm in East Bank. A fence was damaged, and fur was found on the barbed wire. Officials think another animal may have been involved. West Virginia State Police are investigating.

Kanawha County Emergency Management is preparing for the storm and will open the Emergency Operations Center virtually, if needed. They’re asking Appalachian Power to pre-stage equipment for potential power outages.

It looks like it will be a white Christmas. The National Weather Service is issuing a Winter Storm Warning for this afternoon through Friday afternoon. The rain will turn to heavy snow this afternoon with four-to-six inches of the white stuff.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is canceling the annual Christmas tree recycling program because of rising COVID-19 cases. Officials say composting and mulching your tree is a better alternative than throwing it into a landfill.

West Virginia is reporting a record breaking 14-hundred new COVID-19 cases, and another daily record of over forty more deaths. There are almost 23-thousand active cases of the virus across the state.

November unemployment numbers are up in over half of West Virginia counties. Calhoun County has the highest unemployment rate at over thirteen-percent. The state’s overall unemployment rate is just over six-percent.

Senator Joe Manchin helped put together a coalition of Republicans and Democrats to create a new COVID-19 relief bill. He says he couldn’t come back to West Virginia without a deal in place. President Trump is asking Congress to increase what he calls the ridiculously low 600-dollar payment, to two-thousand-dollars.

Governor Justice says he plans to spend all CARES Act funding by year’s end, despite an extension from the federal government. According to the state Auditor’s Office there is over 750-million-dollars in the CAREES Act account. More than half of that will go to pay unemployment compensation benefits.