The birth of West Virginia was more complex than the usual telling that it was born as a result of the Civil War. Industrial and labor forces were in play well before the war that would lead to a breakaway state carved out of western Virginia—with key support from Abe Lincoln, write the authors of the new book "Seceding from Secession."
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VIDEO: A Sky-high View of the New River Gorge Bridge
The New River Gorge Bridge is one of West Virginia's most iconic landmarks. But have you ever seen it from an eagle's eye view—or maybe an Olympian god's?
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ESSAYS: The Rise and Fall of an American Con Man
A look back at a false prophet who was in fact a manipulative, sadistic, misogynistic, cunning con man who many people adored. We mean, of course, Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter," shot in Moundsville WV. A timely essay.
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Behind West Virginia’s vaccine success story, chaos for local health departments
A surprise announcement from Gov. Jim Justice to begin vaccinating the general public caught county health departments in West Virginia — responsible for coordinating the state’s frontline response to the pandemic — off guard.
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NATUREGRAM: January Stroll Under an Azure Sky
The dried out, frosty marshlands are not really absent of life and color. You just have to hang out and look and listen more closely as you stroll the woods and walkways beside the Ohio in western West Virginia.
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ESSAYS: ‘David Bowie, Dad & Me’
Here's a new dispatch from our "Play That Funky Music Bureau"—a touching memoir of the ties between a young West Virginia-born writer and her Dad woven by the music of David Bowie—who have been 74 on January 8.
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COVID FAMILY PROJECT 1: Remain Vigilant, Plus a Recovery Tale
We launch WestVirginiaVille's year-long COVID Family Project 2021, featuring articles, videos, and audio stories from the pandemic frontlines—stories of family loss and recovery, plus people working hard to stop the rising tide of infections and death.
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BREAKING: We Interrupt this Insurrection for David Bowie News
WestVirginiaVille marks David Bowie's 74th birthday today with news from our "Play That Funky Music" News Department. Wait—what does Bowie have to do with West Virginia?! Read and watch on.
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ARCHIVES: Revisiting West Virginia’s Connection to “Gilligan’s Island”
The death from COVID of the actress who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island" is another sad pandemic casualty. Her passing is an occasion to recall the connection West Virginia has to the iconic television show from the 1960s.
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VIDEO: 9 Ways of Looking at ‘Hallelujah”
We dip into the archives of West Virginia cultural multimedia with a 2010 video appreciation of Albert Paley's striking 198,000 monumental sculpture, "Hallelujah," in Charleston WV. Get up close-and personal with a great work of art.
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VIDEO: When Snow Day is Christmas Day & the Day After
It's rare for Huntington, W.Va. to get snow on Christmas, much less the perfect snow for sledding. The Christmas Eve snowstorm at the end of the long, hard year of 2020 will likely remain for a long while in people's memories, as Christmas unfolded with snow, sunshine and the holiday all wrapped into one day.
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VIDEO: The debut of “Animals in Appalachia” with “Deer Me”
In the start of a new short video series, "Animals in Appalachia" by WestVirginiaVille.com, a mother deer puts her foot down as she momentarily loses track of her two fawns.
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VIDEO: The Artist’s Work Considered As a Moving Picture Show
Sharon Lyn Stackpole's art considered as a video: "I always had a female character in my drawings either in illustration form or comic and I'd have her acting out whatever I was also living in my drawings. For some reason, this was reassuring and helped me to feel less alone."
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What happened when WV Gov. Jim Justice charged ‘broadband’ expenses to the CARES Act
What happened when Gov. Jim Justice promised this Fall to expand broadband and hook more families, schools, and industries to the Internet in rural West Virginia, using COVID relief funding? Not much, reports Mountain State Spotlight.
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CHARACTERS: The West Virginia brain drain made one of the world’s greatest popstars
In a new edition of our 'Characters' series, we reprint a John W. Miller piece on Lady Gaga's West Virginia roots—and how her Northern Panhandle grandma lifted her up at a low moment, sending her packing back to New York with instructions to "kick some ass."
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PHOTO|ESSAY: 10 ways of coping with a dreary West Virginia winter’s day
On a winter day of all-day rain and bone-chilling cold, I give up trying to Figure It All Out. Instead, I sift through my photos, crop and lightly filter them. Maybe I can find order and meaning there. Or an aesthetic distraction, which may be just as good.
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West Virginia’s minor league baseball teams suffer major league disappointment
West Virginia has a rich baseball past, with affiliated pro teams going back over a century, but Major League Baseball just cut its ties to the state's four minor league teams.
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MAKEITSHORT: Three Not-the-News, Under-a-Minute Videos
Sometimes, you don't need serious. Sometimes, you need a dog, happily barking with excitement out the window of the car besides yours. Or a Japanese fire in the West Virginia outback. Or a singing Buddha bird. Here are three musical, under-a-minute videos.
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With deadline looming, critics question WV governor’s CARES Act priorities, unspent funds
Mountain State Spotlight takes a deep dive into WV Gov. Jim Justice's confounding inaction in allotting $1.25 million in CARES Act Covid relief funding to businesses and families in need in West Virginia, as a deadline looms for disbursing the funds.
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5 QUESTIONS: Kyle Vass on street-level addiction reporting & telling audio stories
Multimedia journalist Kyle Vass on hitting the streets of Charleston WV to report on the addiction crisis and the art of audio storytelling.
