The shooting death of an 18-year-old student-athlete killed April 7, cast a pall over West Virginia's capital city, as yet more senseless gun violence robbed a family and community of a bright light.
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PHOTO/EDITORIAL: Springtime for a Supermajority in W.Va.
The desire to bust out of a politically benighted, often colonially run, and depressed-in-every-which-way state has a long and storied past. Where I am right now on the 'fight/flight/freeze' syndrome that comes with living in West Virginia.
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Overdose deaths soar amid pandemic in West Virginia, which already had the highest rate in the U.S.
Drug overdose deaths are up more than 40% in West Virginia, an increase likely driven by the coronavirus pandemic. "People are dying at mass rates," says one Boone County administrator.
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NATUREGRAM: Cleanup needed at the Huntington Museum of Art trail
I normally post photographs and videos of Nature in all its solitudinous glory, when sickened by social media junk food and needing more wholesome nourishment. But our dear Mother is not always picture postcard perfect when we seek her aid.
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SPOTLIGHT: Of Black Hair & Confederate History in the WV Legislature
Legislation is moving quickly to allow Confederate monuments to remain on the West Virginia Capitol grounds while the Crown Act to ban Black hair discrimination stalls.
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POETICS: The Art of Being West Virginia’s Poet Laureate
We sit down — digitally — with longtime West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman and quiz him about his "Dispatch From the Mountain State" in the NYTimes and the obligation of a poetry to be the sort of "political being" described by W.H. Auden.
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PASSAGES: Sister Mary Pellicane Moves On at 99
A look back at the long life of Sister Mary Pellicane, who died today at age 99, at the Catholic retreat house in West Virginia's capital city that she helped found.
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NATUREGRAM: Two minutes of nothing but pines, plus some calming music
We can't share with you the sweet aroma of a stand of pine trees in Putnam County, West Virginia. But we can share with you the experience of standing among them. A new WestVirginiiaVille shelter-in-nature short video.
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CLIMATE CRISIS: Getting to ‘net-zero’ carbon emissions a ‘heavy, but necessary lift’
A recent report by America’s leading scientific organization urges the country to adopt a modest carbon tax, pursue strong clean energy standards and energy efficiencies measures, and other steps to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. This is no ordinary report.
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COVERSTORY: BE THE CHANGE: The Tale of A Song and Its Two Songwriters
The COVERSTORY for our March 2021 edition is a twofer: Watch the debut of an original WestVirginiaVille music video of "Be the Change" — and hear songwriters Ron Sowell and Jon Wikstrom talk about the roots of their song and their long songwriting comradeship.
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SOCIAL/MEDIA: ‘Wait. Doug Reynolds said what about what on Twitter?!?’
The word 'gobsmacked' should be used sparingly. It derives from the Irish/Scottish word for mouth — 'gob' — so might be transliterated as 'smacked in the mouth.' But in slang usage it means to be flabbergasted, astounded or made speechless. I am sure I wasn't the only West Virginian gobsmacked by a tweet posted by HD Media headman, Doug Reynolds
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SUPPORTERS/SPONSORS: WVPure: Organic, Extra-strength CBD Hemp Oil from the WV Hills
SUPPORTER/SPONSOR CONTENT: With the issue of WestVirginiaVille.com, we welcome Video Production Support by WVPure, extra-strength CBD hemp oil, organically grown deep in the West Virginia hills.
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Seeking ‘clarity,’ West Virginia lawmakers push to turn more employees into independent contractors
The effect of a bill moving through the WV Legislature would be "a dramatic increase" in people working as independent contractors, without unemployment coverage, workers compensation, and other protections, says a West Virginia employment lawyer.
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GUEST COLUMN: How to Draw People Back to Appalachia
What will it take to attract more people to settle in West Virginia and Appalachia. Why not ask someone who has already made the move with his wife and their three kids — he's an analyst, she's an employee counselor and in 2016 they moved to New Cumberland, WV from the Philadelphia suburbs
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PHOTOSHOW: A warehouse after the workers have gone
What is it about abandoned industrial spaces that make them so compelling to the inquiring eye? Maybe it's the forlorn, yet intriguing glimpse of past workaday lives — the lunches, the labors, the left-behind tools and flotsam of work — in a place now emptied of human activity.
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ARTSHOW: ‘How Do You Serve the Ice?’
How do you properly shoot, process, and filter photographs of an ice storm for the ages? How about artifying them? But how much is too much? Here are some humble attempts to portray the Great Winter Ice Storm of 2021.
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PARADIGM SHIFTING: Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s Life in the Trenches of Poetry
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's storied life came to a close this Monday, Feb. 22, 2021, at the remarkable age of 101. I was blessed to interview him in 1995. What this "ageless radical and true bard" had to say — not to mention his poetry — remains timely and pertinent.
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POEM: “Haymaking”
We cut, rake, and bale / till the sun goes down and the dew settles on the fields, / then start again next morning once the dew burns off ...
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MUSICVIDEO: “Winter Walking,” when it’s not such a wonderland
A long winter grips the land. Add in cabin-fever weariness from a year-long COVID quarantine—and you can be forgiven if it seems like we are living through "a winter that never dies." Here's a music video about that.
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CDC says Kanawha County WV HIV outbreak is the most concerning in America
A top U.S. government health official says the rise in HIV cases in Kanawha County WV linked to injection drug use is currently the “most concerning [outbreak] in the United States," rivaling all the cases in New York City in 2019.
