A former town mayor in West Virginia admitted Thursday that he stole funds for personal use from a hospital where he was the chief executive officer.
A former town mayor in West Virginia admitted Thursday that he stole funds for personal use from a hospital where he was the chief executive officer.
Charles Hatfield, 61, of Williamson pleaded guilty in federal court to theft or bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds. He acknowledged stealing nearly $35,000 from Williamson Memorial Hospital.
Hatfield faces up to 10 years in prison. Sentencing was scheduled for Sept. 12.
“Charles Hatfield abused a position of trust and diverted funds for personal gain from a community hospital at a time when he knew the hospital and its employees were financially vulnerable,” U.S. Attorney Will Thompson said in a statement.
Hatfield became the hospital’s interim CEO in 2018 and later was named to the position on a permanent basis. He was relieved of his duties in 2019 around the time that the 76-bed hospital filed for bankruptcy, according to court records.
Hatfield was elected Williamson’s mayor in 2017, was reelected in 2021 and resigned earlier this month amid the federal investigation.
Hatfield admitted using nearly $9,200 in hospital funds to settle a lawsuit that sought the payment of delinquent real estate taxes and homeowners fees for a condominium he owned in Venice, Florida. Just before he left as hospital CEO, Hatfield also ordered the transfer of nearly $26,000 in hospital funds to a real estate firm he owned. Prosecutors said Hatfield never requested authorization from the hospital’s board to direct the payments from the hospital to himself.
Documentary filmmaker and West Virginia native Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
NEW YORK (AP) — Documentary filmmaker and West Virginia native Morgan Spurlock, an Oscar nominee whose most famous works skewered America’s food industry and who notably ate only at McDonald’s for a month to illustrate the dangers of a fast-food diet, has died. He was 53.
Spurlock died Thursday in New York from complications of cancer, according to a statement issued Friday by his family.
“It was a sad day, as we said goodbye to my brother Morgan,” Craig Spurlock, who worked with him on several projects, said in the statement. “Morgan gave so much through his art, ideas, and generosity. The world has lost a true creative genius and a special man. I am so proud to have worked together with him.”
Spurlock made a splash in 2004 with his groundbreaking film “Super Size Me,” which was nominated for an Academy Award. The film chronicled the detrimental physical and psychological effects of Spurlock eating only McDonald’s food for 30 days. He gained about 25 pounds, saw a spike in his cholesterol and lost his sex drive.
“Everything’s bigger in America,” he said in the film. “We’ve got the biggest cars, the biggest houses, the biggest companies, the biggest food, and finally: the biggest people.”
In one scene, Spurlock showed kids a photo of George Washington and none recognized the Founding Father. But they all instantly knew the mascots for Wendy’s and McDonald’s.
The film grossed more than $22 million on a $65,000 budget and preceded the release of Eric Schlosser’s influential “Fast Food Nation,” which accused the industry of being bad for the environment and rife with labor issues.
FILE – Morgan Spurlock poses at the Los Angeles premiere of his film “Super Size Me,” Thursday night, April 22, 2004, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.
Photo Credit: Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo
Spurlock returned in 2017 with “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” — a sober look at an industry that processes nine billion animals a year in America. He focused on two issues: chicken farmers stuck in a peculiar financial system and the attempt by fast-food chains to deceive customers into thinking they’re eating healthier.
“We’re at an amazing moment in history from a consumer standpoint where consumers are starting to have more and more power,” he told The Associated Press in 2019. “It’s not about return for the shareholders. It’s about return for the consumers.”
Spurlock was a gonzo-like filmmaker who leaned into the bizarre and ridiculous. His stylistic touches included zippy graphics and amusing music, blending a Michael Moore-ish camera-in-your-face style with his own sense of humor and pathos.
“I wanted to be able to lean into the serious moments. I wanted to be able to breathe in the moments of levity. We want to give you permission to laugh in the places where it’s really hard to laugh,” he told the AP.
After he exposed the fast-food and chicken industries, there was an explosion in restaurants stressing freshness, artisanal methods, farm-to-table goodness and ethically sourced ingredients. But nutritionally not much had changed.
“There has been this massive shift and people say to me, ‘So has the food gotten healthier?’ And I say, ‘Well, the marketing sure has,’” he said.
Not all his work dealt with food. Spurlock made documentaries about the boy band One Direction and the geeks and fanboys at Comic-Con. One of his films looked at life behind bars at the Henrico County Jail in Virginia.
With 2008’s “Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?” Spurlock went on a global search to find the al-Qaida leader, who was killed in 2011. In “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” Spurlock tackled questions of product placement, marketing and advertising.
“Being aware is half the battle, I think. Literally knowing all the time when you’re being marketed to is a great thing,” Spurlock told AP at the time. “A lot of people don’t realize it. They can’t see the forest for the trees.”
“Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!” was to premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017 but it was shelved at the height of the #MeToo movement when Spurlock came forward to detail his own history of sexual misconduct.
He confessed that he had been accused of rape while in college and had settled a sexual harassment case with a female assistant. He also admitted to cheating on numerous partners. “I am part of the problem,” he wrote.
“For me, there was a moment of kind of realization — as somebody who is a truth-teller and somebody who has made it a point of trying to do what’s right — of recognizing that I could do better in my own life. We should be able to admit we were wrong,” he told the AP.
Spurlock grew up in Beckley, West Virginia. His mother was an English teacher who he remembered would correct his work with a red pen. He graduated with a BFA in film from New York University in 1993.
He is survived by two sons — Laken and Kallen; his mother Phyllis Spurlock; father Ben; brothers Craig and Barry; and former spouses Alexandra Jamieson and Sara Bernstein, the mothers of his children.
Lyle Marcum can’t drive to the doctor when he’s feeling ill. He couldn’t go to a downtown grocery store if there was one, which there isn’t. But when he has a hankering for fresh watermelon, he takes his wheelchair across the railroad tracks to where the Williamson Health and Wellness Center operates a farmers market.
WILLIAMSON, West Virginia — Lyle Marcum can’t drive to the doctor when he’s feeling ill. He couldn’t go to a downtown grocery store if there was one, which there isn’t.
But when he has a hankering for fresh watermelon, he takes his wheelchair across the railroad tracks to where the Williamson Health and Wellness Center operates a farmers market.
As he shops for fresh fruits and vegetables, the 71-year-old stops to chat with the community health workers he credits with keeping him alive.
“If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here today,” he said.
Marcum lost his left leg to Type 2 diabetes and has been diagnosed with high blood pressure and heart disease. He’s one of thousands of residents who benefit from the center’s work tackling the devastatingly high burden of chronic illness in this small, rural Appalachian community in southwestern West Virginia.
At the center of it all are the community health workers, or CHWs, whose job includes helping clients learn to eat healthier and so much more.
The CHWs literally keep hearts beating in this coal-mining town along the Tug Fork River, overlooking the Kentucky border. Williamson is the seat of Mingo County, where the population has been steadily falling for years.
In a state ranked among the least healthy in the nation, where nearly 1 in 3 people describe their health as fair or poor, statistics suggest Mingo County’s roughly 22,000 residents face the biggest health challenges of all.
Their life expectancy is an estimated 67.2 years based on figures from 2019-2021, according to the latest County Health Rankings and Roadmaps data. That’s compared to 72.9 years for West Virginia and 77.6 for the nation during that same time period.
About 17% of adults in West Virginia have diabetes and 15% have cardiovascular disease – the highest rates in the nation, according to an America’s Health Rankings’ analysis of federal data that also showed 43% have high blood pressure. The county rankings show roughly 42% of Mingo County adults struggle with obesity, 37% are physically inactive and 28% smoke – all rates that exceed state and national averages. Poverty, lack of health insurance and scarcity of hospitals and health care professionals exacerbate these challenges.
Williamson residents also have high levels of food insecurity. So, community health workers distribute boxes of heart-healthy foods and show residents how to cook them.
Because the area lacks recreational facilities, CHWs organize walking groups and free community yoga classes. They also go to the homes of people like Marcum to take blood pressure and blood glucose readings and to help them manage their medications.
One of the most important roles the health workers play is to listen to their clients’ problems and encourage them when they feel frustrated and discouraged.
“They’re like family,” said Marcum, who told his care team, “I don’t need a wife. I got you all.”
“Some of these people have no family,” said Stephanie Bowman, a certified nurse practitioner and project manager for the CHW program in the department of family and community health at Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine in Huntington, which provides ongoing training and technical assistance to their sites. “Just to have that visit even once a week, it makes all the difference in that person’s life.”
Williamson was the first of 24 sites serving 800 people across West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio to use the CHW model developed under a 2012 federal grant.
The CHW model quickly proved successful. Within six to 12 months after enrollment, 60% of participants had lowered their A1C – a test that measures average blood glucose control for the past two to three months – by 2.4%. Emergency room visits fell 22% and hospitalizations declined 30% within a year.
When the grant ended in 2015, the model’s developers obtained funding to replicate it on a larger scale, while working with health insurers and Medicaid managed care organizations to create a shared payment plan that would sustain it on a longer-term basis.
Initially focused on helping people with high-risk diabetes, the model expanded in 2017 to cover other chronic illnesses, including heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and continues to expand.
CHWs are at the center of care teams managed by a nurse, nurse practitioner or doctor, who stays in contact with the primary care provider to make sure a care plan is being followed. CHWs are full-time employees and work directly with the patients, reporting back to the nurse. They are intentionally not medical professionals.
“The community health worker is a peer, a neighbor,” Bowman said. “They know the community and they understand the culture. They have the ability to see the person in their home, with the patient at ease, to be in a space where they can learn their self-management skills.”
When a patient enters the program, “we ask that they do a home visit right away,” Bowman said. Sometimes, a patient is reluctant to have someone in their home, so they meet at a neutral location, such as a library or a park. “But eventually that home visit happens, and that’s when the transformation begins.”
Once a CHW enters a home, they can identify the challenges the patient faces, Bowman said. They may not have enough resources to feed themselves, or they may be eating foods contributing to their illness. They may not be getting enough physical activity or know how to properly manage their medications.
“Sometimes it’s just a matter of needing better organization or understanding what resources are available when they have food insecurity,” she said.
Sometimes, the problem is keeping medical appointments.
“A lot of times, people don’t go to the doctor unless there’s something wrong with them,” said Samantha Runyon, one of Williamson’s community health workers. “And then they have transportation issues, insurance issues.”
Checking blood glucose and blood pressure levels regularly allows the team to better track people’s health so they don’t get sick, Runyon said. “If they have high blood sugar, we can speak to their doctor and get changes made to their medications sooner, rather than them waiting until their follow-up appointment to see the doctor.”
More often than not, a personal bond forms. And that’s when real progress begins, Bowman said. Community health workers “have the ability to connect and build rapport with the patients. When they do, magic just happens.”
Tony Delong can attest to that. His blood pressure and blood glucose levels were so high that when he first went to the wellness center for a checkup, he was immediately enrolled in the CHW program.
“They got me started that day,” he said, remembering how his A1C had climbed to more than 14% – double the goal for most people living with diabetes. After prescribing medication, CHWs “came to my home and called me every couple of days to do my readings – my weight, my blood pressure and check my blood sugar.”
The 64-year-old said the CHWs didn’t just manage his health. They also provided moral support and encouragement, getting him involved in support groups for people with diabetes and heart disease. They encouraged him to walk several miles a day and provided him with a blood pressure monitor so he could take readings on his own. Within a few months, his A1C was within goal and his blood pressure had returned to normal.
“They kept me motivated, and that includes helping me with things to eat,” Delong said. “I used to be a meat-and-potatoes guy. Now I’m practically a vegetarian.”
A big part of the job is helping people manage their risk factors to prevent progression of heart and kidney disease, said Melissa Justice, a nurse on one of the care teams.
Craig Warren has both. The 57-year-old entered the program a decade ago after he had a stroke, then had a toe amputated from nerve damage caused by Type 2 diabetes. The medication he took for his toe contributed to kidney damage, Justice said, and three years ago Warren received a kidney transplant.
Justice works with him to keep his blood glucose and blood pressure levels under control so that he doesn’t need to see his kidney doctor, 30 miles away in Logan, or his transplant team, 81 miles away in Charleston. His cardiologist is also 80 miles away, in Huntington.
“We have to keep up the preventive work so they don’t have to see a specialist,” said Justice, who coordinates the wellness center’s community health worker program. “We have no specialists here.”
Justice said the people they see have made steady progress, particularly in blood pressure control. In 2019, 65% of patients had blood pressure under control. In 2020 – the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic – that percentage rose to 72%, increasing to 75% in 2021. Currently, about 77% of patients maintain blood pressure within the normal range.
While enrollment in Williamson’s program was initially slow, it quickly picked up and at times, they’ve had more people seeking services than they could help.
“I’m one of the lucky ones,” Warren said. “I’m lucky to be alive.”
American Heart Association News sent reporters to five states to cover rural health challenges, and how people in rural America are working to overcome them.
Republican Gov. Jim Justice, who’s running for Senate, is just one of a handful of high flyers in West Virginia who decided it was time for a change of pace.
A former billionaire who owns the Greenbrier Resort, Justice is ineligible to run for reelection in West Virginia due to term limits. So, Justice set his sights on Washington, where Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin was facing his toughest race yet in a state that former President Donald Trump last won by about 40 points.
Justice, a former Democrat, switched to the Republican Party in 2017, making the announcement at a Trump rally in Huntington, West Virginia.
Instead of attempting to run for another term, Manchin decided to pass, adding another open seat to the map in which the Republican nominee will be the heavy favorite in the fall.
In the race for the GOP nomination for Senate, Justice is the front-runner. His top competitor is Rep. Alex Mooney, though five other Republicans are running as well.
Don Blankenship, who was convicted of violating safety standards after 29 people died in a 2010 coal mine explosion, is running for the Senate as a Democrat, even though he ran as a Republican in the 2018 Senate race. Blankenship faces Wheeling Mayor Glenn Elliott, who has Manchin’s endorsement, and Marine Corps veteran Zach Shrewsbury, who has support from the Progressive Democrats of America.
Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, the Republican nominee in the 2018 Senate race against Manchin, is running for governor, as are the sons of two members of West Virginia’s congressional delegation: car dealer Chris Miller, whose mother is Rep. Carol Miller, and former state Rep. Moore Capito, whose mother is Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and whose grandfather is the late Gov. Arch A. Moore Jr..
West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner is running for governor, as well. Two lesser-known candidates — Kevin Christian and Mitch Roberts — will also appear on the GOP ballot. On the Democratic side, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams is unopposed.
Mooney’s pursuit of the open Senate seat means he’s leaving a Republican-leaning district open, prompting a competitive primary for his U.S. House seat. State Treasurer Riley Moore won early endorsements from then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and from Mooney himself. Speaker Mike Johnson has also endorsed Moore. Moore is one of five Republicans running to replace Mooney, though retired Air Force Brigadier General Chris “Mookie” Walker is the only one who has come close to keeping pace with Moore on fundraising.
The least competitive races of the bunch might be the presidential primaries, which Trump and President Joe Biden are expected to win easily.
Here’s a look at what to expect on Tuesday.
Primary Day
West Virginia’s primary election will be held Tuesday. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
What’s On The Ballot
The Associated Press will provide coverage for 61 races, including the presidential primary. Four candidates, including former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, join Trump on the Republican presidential ballot. On the Democratic ballot, Biden’s name appears along with four others. There is no “uncommitted” or write-in option on the presidential ballot.
In addition to the open seats for governor, U.S. Senate race, and the 2nd Congressional District, West Virginia is holding primaries for multiple statewide offices, including secretary of state, state auditor, state treasurer, commissioner of agriculture, and attorney general.
Who Gets To Vote
Registered Democrats may only vote in the Democratic primary, and registered Republicans may only vote in the Republican primary. Independent or unaffiliated voters may participate in either primary. Voters who registered with a party that is not officially recognized by the state may also vote in either primary.
Delegate Allocation Rules
West Virginia’s 20 pledged Democratic delegates are allocated according to the national party’s standard rules. Four at-large delegates are allocated in proportion to the statewide vote, as are three PLEO delegates, or “party leaders and elected officials.” The state’s two congressional districts have a combined 13 delegates at stake, which are allocated in proportion to the vote results in each district. Candidates must receive at least 15% of the statewide vote to qualify for any statewide delegates, and 15% of the vote in a congressional district to qualify for delegates in that district.
There are 32 delegates at stake in the Republican presidential primary, all of which will go to the winner.
Decision Notes
Justice, a popular governor who was endorsed by Manchin in 2016 before Justice’s party switch led to a falling out between the pair, is favored to win the Republican nomination for the Senate. To have a shot at beating him, Mooney would probably have to rack up high numbers in his own 2nd congressional district.
The governor’s race, meanwhile, has become a messy messaging war as the candidates vie for the state’s conservative base, with Morrisey having spent most on the race as of the latest filing deadline, followed by Capito and Miller. All four of the top candidates have some sort of statewide appeal, since two currently hold statewide office and the others have famous last names.
Capito had represented Kanawha County for about seven years when he resigned in December to focus on his campaign for governor, and may be able to count on a small pocket of votes in the Charleston-based county.
On the Democratic side, Elliott’s endorsement from Manchin, a longtime fixture in West Virginia politics, could help boost him in the primary. Blankenship, meanwhile, has spent more than $100,000 on broadcast campaign ads, including a slate of ads in which he speaks directly to the camera, arguing that independents should vote for him. And Shrewsbury, who is running as the most progressive candidate with a working-class focus, has been the top spender in the race.
The AP does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
What Do Turnout And Advance Vote Look Like?
As of March 31, there were 1,172,783 registered voters in West Virginia. Of those, 31% were Democrats and 40% were Republicans.
In the 2020 primaries, turnout was 15% of registered voters in the Democratic primary and 17% on the Republican side.
As of May 9, a total of 55,358 ballots had been cast before Election Day.
How Long Does Vote Counting Usually Take?
In the 2022 election, the AP first reported results at about 7:40 p.m. ET, or 10 minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended at about 11:20 p.m. ET with about 87% of total votes counted.
The Wheeling University Board of Trustees announced in an email Tuesday that President Ginny Favede was relieved of all duties, news outlets reported. The statement gave no reason for the suspension and a school spokesperson told The Intelligencer Wheeling News Register that further details about it would not immediately be released.
A private West Virginia university that has struggled financially said it has suspended its president with pay.
The Wheeling University Board of Trustees announced in an email Tuesday that President Ginny Favede was relieved of all duties, news outlets reported. The statement gave no reason for the suspension and a school spokesperson told The Intelligencer Wheeling News Register that further details about it would not immediately be released.
Favede became the school’s 13th president when she was named to the position in 2019 amid financial difficulties. In 2021, the school was put on probation after the Higher Learning Commission determined it “does not have sufficient fiscal resources to support is operation,” noting it relies heavily on subsidies from the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston. The probation was lifted last year, but the organization said it would continue to monitor the school due to concerns about finances, staffing and enrollment.
The university said graduate education director Dianna Vargo was named interim chief operations officer and will work with the Board of Trustees to develop a plan to move forward without disruption.
Eleven suspects have been arrested in an investigation into illegal drugs allegedly delivered by drones into a federal prison in southern West Virginia. Another man under investigation who fled officers was later found dead, authorities said.
Eleven suspects have been arrested in an investigation into illegal drugs allegedly delivered by drones into a federal prison in southern West Virginia. Another man under investigation who fled officers was later found dead, authorities said.
McDowell County Sheriff James Muncy said his office was contacted in November by officials at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, McDowell in Welch to help with increased drone use in the area. In December, the sheriff’s office started receiving multiple tips about drone deliveries.
Muncy said in a statement Friday that the arrests were made from mid-December through early February. The charges included introduction or attempts to introduce contraband into a correctional facility, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, unlawfully operating a drone, terroristic acts and felony conspiracy.
Muncy didn’t say what drugs were allegedly flown into the facility or whether any of those arrested are inmates there.
A Louisville, Kentucky, man wanted on an outstanding warrant in the investigation fled officers on foot Feb. 9. Members of the sheriff’s office found him dead on Feb. 15. The statement didn’t indicate where he was found, and his body was sent to the state medical examiner for an autopsy.
One of the arrested suspects is a juvenile, Muncy said. In addition, two suspects were charged with assault and battery on an officer and fleeing on foot. Another suspect in the case was charged with being a fugitive from Pennsylvania.
Most of the suspects remained held Monday at the Southwestern Regional Jail in Holden. Jail records didn’t indicate whether they have attorneys who could comment on the charges.
