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.
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AUDIO: When Clean Needles Disappeared, People Turned To Used Ones
The City of Charleston WV's attempts to quash the distribution of clean needles to users on the streets—which has constrained efforts undertaken by a group called SOAR—has had the consequence of increasing the dangers and hazards of addiction, reports WVPB.
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EDITORIAL: Shelley Moore Capito Remains Missing-In-Action
It is Dec. 4—28 days after the 2020 U.S. presidential election was called for Biden/Harris. Yet WV Sen. Shelley Moore Capito has yet to formally recognize Biden as President-Elect or repudiated Donald Trump's dangerous lies about election fraud lies.
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ATTENTION, TEACHERS: And students at home—A chance to learn more about racism
Our documentary, “WHAT’S IN A NAME: A West Virginia Community Confronts a Confederate Legacy,” will screen 7 p.m., Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020 on WVPB. The documentary and resources we've gathered lay the groundwork for a better understanding and even more thoughtful discussion of the history of racism in America, and how institutional racism continues to affect our daily life.
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PHOTO-ESSAY: Five WV Variations on the Art of Thankfulness
From horses on porches to possible sightings of Jerry Garcia in a rural marsh, here are five images from around West Virginia that spark our thankfulness. Happy Thanksgiving.
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‘Hillsploitation’: Things to know before you watch “Hillbilly Elegy”
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.
