A consideration of the long history of "hillbillies' in West Virginian and American culture on the occasion of a movie based on "Hillbilly Elegy," whose author can at best claim status as "a hillbilly twice-removed."
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EDITORIAL: Counting Down the Days of “No Show” Capito’s Snub of Biden-Harris
You'd think by now WV Sen. Capito might look over her shoulder and recall what it feels like to have a backbone now that Trump is slowly evaporating into a disgruntled mist. Yet 15 days after the election was called for Biden-Harris, she has yet to formally congratulate them.
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Homeless in Huntington WV: A View From the Street
Homeless on the streets of Huntington WV in a time of pandemic is as difficult as it ever was. Douglas J. Harding hears first-hand about life on the streets of West Virginia's second largest city as cold weather sets in.
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NATUREGRAM | 10 Variations on a West Virginia Ginkgo
It is an auspicious place, this former plantation and home to more than 50 slaves before West Virginia ever came to be. But on this Autumn Appalachian day, the ginkgo biloba trees recall a more illuminated present.
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What now, West Virginia?
Want a shopping list of the challenges West Virginia faces in addressing Covid-19, the future of energy, poverty, a Legislature full of white guys, and beyond? This Mountain State Spotlight post-election roundup has you covered.
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READINGS | Looking Back on a Hindu Hillbilly Upbringing
"There is the constant question asked every time our brown-skinned family attends a gathering of White West Virginians. "Have you been saved?" Neema Avashia looks back on growing up "a motley crew, this band of Hindus, gathering once a month to pray in southern West Virginia in the mid 1980s."
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5 QUESTIONS: West Virginia native tracks a journey into “Giving Up Whiteness”
West Virginia native Jeff James has written a book with one of 2020's most provocative titles: "GIVING UP WHITENESS." Elizabeth Gaucher takes a deep dive into the genesis and themes of the book in "5 Questions" with the author.
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EDITORIAL | “Pills & Suits,” a Justice Project Video
In an illustrated excerpt from Pulitzer-winner Eric Eyre's "DEATH IN MUD LICK," he describes WV Attorney General's Patrick Morrisey's entanglement with one of the huge pharmaceutical companies that helped spawn the opioid crisis, and the devastation that continues to affect families.
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EDITORIAL | A Shelley Moore Capito Reader
We present for your reading and viewing interest a selection of three items pertinent to the candidacy and further office-holding of the Republican senator from West Virginia, Shelley Moore Capito.
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POEM | “The Greats” by PJ Laska
‘The Great Tower/ The Great Wall/ The Great Power/ Conquering All/ The Great Look/ The Great Weave/ The Great Assets/ Of Make-Believe … ‘ | A Poem by PJ Laska
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EDITORIAL: The Art of the Trumpian Limerick
As Donald Trump's first term limps towards its end, we drop in on a Trumpian chronicler. West Virginia poet and writer Colleen Anderson has been chronicling Trump's misrule for four years now—in limericks.
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EDITORIAL: “The West Virginia Hills” and the Race for WV Attorney General
On the one hand in this year's election contests in West Virginia, you've got state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and his Trump-Adoring, Big Pharma connections, and Affordable Care Act Torpedoing Ways. On the other hand, there's labor lawyer Sam Brown Petsonk. Here's are two minutes about that.
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CHARACTERS | The “Spark-eyed” Vision of WV Poet Bob Snyder
Influential West Virginia-native poet Bob Snyder died in 1995. But a new collection of his poetry exemplifies why, says a fellow poet: "Every West Virginia writer should know Bob. At least know about him. You may not ever get the whole story, but this book will help you understand some of it."
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EDITORIAL: “The Silent Senator Capito,” A Justice Project Video
Waiting on WV Senator Shelley Moore Capito to do the right thing—not just mouth the right thing—you might notice your hair turn another color and not from hair dye. So, WestVirginiaVille points its second Justice Project editorial video her way.
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COVID CHRONICLES | One in Eight Million
We begin our new occasional series 'Covid Chronicles' with a personal report from WestVirginiaVille's Minister of Paragraphs, Connie Kinsey, who was just recently diagnosed with a—we pray it stays that way—mild case of Covd-19.
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EDITORIAL | John Mandt Jr., Uncensored
In the debut of our multimedia editorial feature, The Justice Project, we take a musical walk-through of the chatroom comments that led WV delegate John Mandt Jr., to resign. He has since said he'd serve if elected on Nov. 3.
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Some formerly incarcerated West Virginians can’t vote. Others can, but may not know it.
The hue and cry has gone out—get out there and vote! But in West Virginia, advocates say education about voting rights for people with prison time or records, as well as after they get out, is often unclear—and that changes are needed to keep former inmates from being disenfranchised.
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5 THINGS | 1 Painting; 1 Bridge; 1 Hospital; 1 Poster & 1 Sign
What do the New River Gorge Bridge, Cabell Huntington Hospital, a GOTV poster, Pepperoni Rolls, and one painting have in common?
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MINI-DOC | “What’s In a Name?” The Deeper Story Behind a WV Confederate Legacy
The removal of a Confederate general's name from the former Stonewall Jackson Middle School in West Virginia's capital city this Summer was more than just a cosmetic change. In 2020, America confronted the wounds that have haunted the country’s existence. The renaming of the school laid bare that history.
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Frontier’s history of scandals killed a proposal for crucial funding for West Virginia broadband
If you live in West Virginia, you live with constant laments about the state’s lousy broadband and how it hinders investment, rural development and population growth. Here’s a good Mountain State Spotlight explainer as to why that is so.
