West Virginia has one of the country’s lowest participation rates in the 2020 census. Data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau shows only about a third of West Virginia households have responded so far and that’s the third worst behind only Alaska and Puerto Rico. Gov. Jim Justice and other state officials have repeatedly urged … Read more
Fire severely damaged a Whitesville Apartment building. No one was hurt, but the fire displaced about twenty people. The Red Cross is helping them find temporary housing. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
The Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a runaway teenager. Seventeen-year-old Melinda Atkins was reported missing from her Sissonville home. Atkins is 5’5”, 120 pounds, with long red hair and hazel eyes. She was last seen wearing gray sweatpants, a blue shirt and white Crocs. She may have left in a blue BMW.
West Virginia’s public colleges and universities will get 55-million-dollars from the U.S. Department of Education. Half the money must go to students as emergency aid grants to cover expenses related to the disruption caused by the coronavirus. Marshall University is refunding students nearly four-and-a-half million-dollars in fees for services they aren’t using while campus is … Read more
WorkForce West Virginia is getting more than twenty people from the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety to help process unemployment claims, and the state has hired sixty temporary employees. They’ve opened a second call center, and a third is expected to online soon, to process a record number of claims. Nearly forty-thousand unemployment … Read more
The Governor is promising 100-thousand-dollar block grants for each of West Virginia’s 55 counties for “hero pay” for frontline workers. Kanawha County has already allocated money for “hero pay,” but county officials applaud the Governor’s efforts.
Governor Justice is encouraging people to stay the course and continue social distancing efforts during the Easter weekend. He issued a new executive order for social distancing on golf courses, allowing one person per golf cart. Justice says he hopes the new rules will allow golf courses to stay open during the pandemic.
Update modeling shows the spread of the coronavirus peaking on Sunday with far fewer deaths than anticipated. Earlier models showed the peak in May with nearly five-hundred deaths. That number is down to 350 coronavirus related deaths. The model anticipates social distancing through May.
Clarksburg police have identified the body of a man found on the bank of the West Fork River at the end of March. Twenty-nine-year-old Anthony Holyfield had been missing since January. The Medical Examiner’s Office is waiting on test results to determine the cause of death.
A Huntington middle school teacher’s house caught fire while he was teaching a class online. Andy McKee teaches science at Our Lady of Fatima, and during a Zoom class he smelled smoke and told students he had to go. He went downstairs and saw smoke in the kitchen and flames coming from his garage. No … Read more