Associated Press, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Olympic Gymnastics Champion Mary Lou Retton Is In Intensive Care With Pneumonia

Retton’s daughter, McKenna Kelley, shared Retton’s condition in an Instagram post on Tuesday. Kelley said the 55-year-old Retton, who became the first American woman to win the Olympic all-around title, is “fighting for her life” and not able to breathe on her own.

Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton has pneumonia and is in intensive care in a Texas hospital.

Kelley started a fundraising campaign on Retton’s behalf for medical expenses. Kelley wrote that Retton does not currently have medical insurance.

Retton was 16 years old when she became an icon of the U.S. Olympic movement during her gold medal-winning performance at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles. Retton, who grew up in Fairmont, West Virginia, also won two silver and two bronze medals at those Olympics to help bring gymnastics — a sport long dominated by eastern European powers like Romania and the Soviet Union — into the mainstream in the U.S.

Retton, a mother of four, currently lives in Texas. She retired from competitive gymnastics in 1986 and did numerous commercial endorsements. She also made several film and television appearances, including a stint on “Dancing with the Stars.”

She and her husband, Shannon Kelley, divorced in 2018.

The Supreme Court Rejects An Appeal From Former Coal Company CEO Don Blankenship

The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from former coal company executive Don Blankenship, who argued that major news outlets defamed him by calling him a “felon.”

The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Tuesday from former coal executive Don Blankenship, who argued that major news outlets defamed him by calling him a “felon.”

The justices left in place an appellate ruling against Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy. He served a year in prison on a misdemeanor charge after he was found guilty of conspiring to violate safety standards at a West Virginia mine before an explosion in 2010 that killed 29 men.

Justice Clarence Thomas, while agreeing with the court’s action Tuesday, repeated his call for the court to overturn its landmark 1964 libel ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s determination that CNN, Fox News and 14 other outlets sued by Blankenship did not act with “actual malice” amid coverage of his unsuccessful 2018 U.S. Senate campaign, even if they failed to meet journalistic standards.

The high court had previously turned away Blankenship’s appeal of his conviction.

Adoptive Parents Charged With Felony Neglect After 3 Children Found Alone In Dangerous Conditions

Two adoptive parents have been charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home.

Two adoptive parents in West Virginia were charged with felony neglect after two children were found locked inside a small barn and a third child was located in an unprotected loft inside an adjacent home, police said Tuesday.

The parents were arraigned Tuesday on charges of gross child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury.

Authorities began investigating after they received a call Monday from someone expressing concern about the children’s welfare. Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies forced their way into the barn, where a boy and a girl were locked inside a small room. The children had been deprived of adequate food and hygienic care, and the room had no running water or bathroom facilities, the sheriff’s department said in a news release.

Inside the main residence, a small child was found alone in a loft about 15 feet (4.6 meters) high with no protection from falling, the statement said.

No adults were present at the home. The adoptive parents were arrested when they returned, and each was being held in jail on a $200,000 cash bond. An Oct. 12 preliminary hearing is scheduled. Jail records didn’t indicate whether the parents have attorneys who could comment on the charges.

The Associated Press is not naming the parents in order to protect the identity of the children, who have been placed with Child Protective Services.

White Supremacist Admits Threatening Jury And Witnesses In Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooter’s Trial

A self-proclaimed white supremacist has pleaded guilty to charges that he made online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

A self-proclaimed white supremacist pleaded guilty Tuesday to making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, the U.S. Justice Department said.

As part of his plea agreement in federal court for West Virginia’s northern district, Hardy Carroll Lloyd admitted that the actual or perceived Jewish faith of the government witnesses and victims in the trial of Robert Bowers prompted him to target the jury and witnesses.

Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, West Virginia, faces more than six years in prison if the plea agreement is accepted by the court.

The Justice Department described Lloyd as a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy movement. Prosecutors said Lloyd, who was arrested on Aug. 10, sent threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites during Bowers’ trial. Lloyd pleaded guilty to obstruction of the due administration of justice.

Bowers was sentenced to death last month after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate.

“Hardy Lloyd attempted to obstruct the federal hate crimes trial of the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. “His guilty plea underscores that anyone who attempts to obstruct a federal trial by threatening or intimidating jurors or witnesses will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

In May 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety offered a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to Lloyd’s arrest after he allegedly posted a series of comments online threatening to carry a firearm onto the Texas Capitol grounds and challenge any police officer who tried to “take enforcement actions” against him. A statement from the department said Lloyd was a convicted felon.

Smoky Haze Blanketing US And Canada Could Last Into The Weekend

With weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing across the U.S. and Canada from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.

NEW YORK (AP) — On air quality maps, purple signifies the worst of it. In reality, it’s a thick, hazardous haze that’s disrupting daily life for millions of people across the U.S. and Canada, blotting out skylines and turning skies orange.

And with weather systems expected to hardly budge, the smoky blanket billowing from wildfires in Quebec and Nova Scotia and sending plumes of fine particulate matter as far away as North Carolina and northern Europe should persist into Thursday and possibly the weekend.

That means at least another day, or more, of a dystopian-style detour that’s chased players from ballfields, actors from Broadway stages, delayed thousands of flights and sparked a resurgence in mask wearing and remote work — all while raising concerns about the health effects of prolonged exposure to such bad air.

The weather system that’s driving the great Canadian-American smoke out — a low-pressure system over Maine and Nova Scotia — “will probably be hanging around at least for the next few days,” U.S. National Weather Service meteorologist Bryan Ramsey said.

“Conditions are likely to remain unhealthy, at least until the wind direction changes or the fires get put out,” Ramsey said. “Since the fires are raging — they’re really large — they’re probably going to continue for weeks. But it’s really just going be all about the wind shift.”

Across the eastern U.S., officials warned residents to stay inside and limit or avoid outdoor activities again Thursday, extending “Code Red” air quality alerts in some places for a third-straight day as forecasts showed winds continuing to push smoke-filled air south.

The smoke has moved over Greenland and Iceland since June 1, and was expected to reach Norway on Thursday, the Norwegian Climate and Environmental Research Institute said, but wasn’t expected to be a health concern.

In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered schools to cancel outdoor recess, sports and field trips Thursday. In suburban Philadelphia, officials set up an emergency shelter so people living outside can take refuge from the haze.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said the state was making a million N95 masks — the kind prevalent at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — available at state facilities, including 400,000 in New York City. She also urged residents to stay put.

“You don’t need to go out and take a walk. You don’t need to push the baby in the stroller,” Hochul said Wednesday night. “This is not a safe time to do that.”

The message may be getting through. So far, officials said Wednesday, New York City has yet to see an uptick in 911 calls related to respiratory issues and cardiac arrests.

More than 400 blazes burning across Canada have left 20,000 people displaced. The U.S. has sent more than 600 firefighters and equipment to Canada. Other countries are also helping.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke to President Joe Biden by phone on Wednesday. Trudeau’s office said he thanked Biden for his support and that both leaders “acknowledged the need to work together to address the devastating impacts of climate change.”

Canadian officials say this is shaping up to be the country’s worst wildfire season ever. It started early on drier-than-usual ground and accelerated quickly. Smoke from the blazes has been lapping into the U.S. since last month but intensified with recent fires in Quebec, where about 100 were considered out of control Wednesday.

“I can taste the air,” Dr. Ken Strumpf said in a Facebook post from Syracuse, New York, where the sky took on the colorful nickname of the local university: Orange.

The smoke was so thick in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, that office towers just across the Ottawa River were barely visible. In Toronto, Yili Ma said her hiking group canceled a planned hike this week, and she was forgoing the restaurant patios that are a beloved summer tradition in a nation known for hard winters.

“I put my mask away for over a year, and now I’m putting on my mask since yesterday,” Ma lamented.

Eastern Quebec got some rain Wednesday, but Montreal-based Environment Canada meteorologist Simon Legault said no significant rain is expected for days in the remote areas of central Quebec where the wildfires are more intense.

In the U.S., federal officials paused some flights bound Wednesday for New York’s LaGuardia Airport and slowed planes to Newark and Philadelphia because smoke was limiting visibility.

Major League Baseball’s Yankees and Phillies had their games postponed. On Broadway, “Hamilton” and “Camelot” canceled Wednesday performances and “Prima Facie” star Jodie Comer left a matinee after 10 minutes because of difficulty breathing. The show restarted with an understudy, show publicists said.

It was not to be at Central Park’s outdoor stage, either. Shakespeare in the Park canceled its Thursday and Friday performances of “Hamlet,” saying ’tis not nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of wretched air.

___

Gillies reported from Toronto.

W.Va. Man Arraigned In Fatal Shooting Of State Trooper

A suspect in the fatal shooting of a West Virginia state police officer was arraigned Saturday on a first-degree murder charge.

Timothy Kennedy, 29, was arraigned by video in Mingo County Magistrate Court. Kennedy of the Mingo County community of Beech Creek, near Matewan, was being held without bond in the Southwestern Regional Jail. Jail records didn’t indicate whether Kennedy had an attorney who could comment on the charge.

Dozens of police officers had searched for Kennedy for hours. He was arrested in a stolen vehicle Friday night at a law enforcement checkpoint, news outlets reported.

Earlier Friday, Sgt. Cory Maynard and two troopers had responded to a complaint of a shooting at a home and were fired at when they arrived, state police said in a statement. Maynard was shot and taken to a hospital in Logan.

Gov. Jim Justice announced Maynard’s death in a statement Friday night and said he was “absolutely heartbroken.”

“The brave men and women of law enforcement, and all first responders who put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe, are an inspiration to us all,” Justice said.

Maynard earned a state police award in 2015 after he administered first aid to a man was had been involved in a pursuit, crashed his vehicle and stabbed himself in the neck in the Eastern Panhandle, according to state police.

During the initial shooting Friday, Benjamin Adam Baldwin, 39, of Matewan, was shot with a rifle. He was in serious but stable condition Saturday at a hospital in Charleston, state police said. The motive for the shooting is unknown and remains under investigation.

Nearby residents were advised to stay indoors during the search for Kennedy, and a Friday night graduation ceremony at Mingo Central High School was postponed.

The shooting happened in the same county where Sheriff Eugene Crum was shot to death in April 2013 in a spot in Williamson where he usually parked his car for lunch. A suspect later was found incompetent to stand trial and was ordered to be committed to a state mental health facility for life.