Chris Schulz, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Local Kroger Workers Oppose Company’s Merger

Kroger union members plan events at stores in Clarksburg Tuesday, April 4 and Charleston Wednesday, April 5 to protest the company’s plans to merge with Albertsons Companies.

Unions at two locations of the Kroger grocery store chain are planning protests this week.

Kroger union members plan events at stores in Clarksburg Tuesday, April 4 and Charleston Wednesday, April 5 to protest the company’s intention to merge with Albertsons Companies.

Albertsons owns several grocery brands and chains, including Safeway and Jewel Osco. A pair of protests at Safeway stores in Virginia and Washington, D.C. is also planned for Wednesday.

The October 14, 2022 announcement of the merger stated the two companies operate a total of 4,996 stores and employ 710,000 workers across 48 states and the District of Columbia. Kroger has stated their plan to invest $500 million to lower prices, as well as $1 billion to raise benefits and wages for workers.

The merger is currently being reviewed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), and consumer groups such as the American Antitrust Institute have raised concerns that the merger would significantly increase concentration in already highly concentrated food markets.

Jonathan Williams is the communications director for the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 400 Union, which represents 13,000 Kroger workers in Virginia, West Virginia, and parts of Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

He said a merger between two of the country’s largest grocers will put pressure on workers, customers and suppliers.

“Just as less competition leads to higher prices for consumers, less competition for workers leads to lower wages, worse benefits, overall a worse situation for people who work in the industry,” Williams said.

Williams said this week’s worker actions are meant to raise awareness and help add voices to a growing coalition of more than 100 organizations opposed to the grocers’ merger.

“Now is the time for them to hear from customers in America and workers in this industry about their concerns about this deal,” he said.

In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, a Kroger spokesperson stated that the company will not lay off any frontline workers or close any stores, distribution centers or manufacturing facilities as a result of the merger.

“Kroger is one of America’s largest unionized workforces, and this merger secures the long-term future of union jobs while creating a more competitive alternative to large, non-union retailers,” the statement reads. “Beginning day one, we will invest an additional $1 billion to raise wages and benefits, continuing our longstanding track record of associate investments. We pursued this merger to grow jobs, lower prices and provide more choices to consumers across the U.S.”

Williams is wary of the organization’s claims.

“There is no chance that less competition will lead to better outcomes for consumers, that breaks every law of economics,” he said. “Just recently, (Kroger) announced that they would be selling off 250 to 300 stores. Are those workers going to continue working at Kroger when those stores are gone? Are they going to continue working at Albertsons when those stores are gone?”

Strong Winds, Storms Expected Across The State Saturday

A State of Preparedness remains in place for all 55 West Virginia counties ahead of severe storms moving into the state, bringing heavy rainfall and strong winds.

A State of Preparedness remains in place for all 55 West Virginia counties ahead of strong winds expected across the state for most of Saturday.

Thursday evening, the office of Gov. Jim Justice extended the State of Preparedness ahead of severe storms moving into the state, bringing heavy rainfall and strong winds. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear declared a State of Emergency Friday in anticipation of the stormfront creating tornadoes in the west of the state.

Jason Frazier, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Pittsburgh Forecast Office, said the region could experience wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour Saturday.

“The key window for these wind gusts developing is between 10 a.m. Saturday through about 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday,” Frazier said. “Some of those high winds could continue to last into the early morning hours Sunday for the higher terrain.”

Residents are advised to tie down outdoor objects, have emergency kits ready in anticipation of power outages and to continue monitoring forecasts for updates.

“You want to have things in place like flashlights, first aid kits to be able to handle if any of these sorts of impacts develop,” Frazier said. “With any sort of high wind warning situation, I think it’s best to just continue to monitor the latest watches, warnings, forecasts, and the latest updates that you might see from the various offices, social media channels, to kind of know when to expect potential impacts, and various energy companies to know where power outages may be, and to take caution.”

This is just the latest high wind event to affect the region in recent weeks. Frazier said that a storm track with its center to the northwest of West Virginia has set up a recurring situation to bring high winds into the state.

“It’s been fairly similar patterns and similar tracks of where these low pressure systems have gone each of these past couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s allowed us to have similar sorts of impacts and similar events of having these high wind threats each time.”

Comedy Festival Returns To Morgantown

A weekend of comedy kicks off Thursday in Morgantown. Now in its second year, the Red Eye Comedy Festival not only highlights the state’s nascent comedy community, but is also attracting national talent to the region.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with festival organizer Cody Cannon to discuss the event.

A weekend of comedy kicks off Thursday in Morgantown. Now in its second year, the Red Eye Comedy Festival not only highlights the state’s nascent comedy community but is also attracting national talent to the region.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with festival organizer Cody Cannon to discuss the event.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: What exactly is the Red Eye Comedy Festival?

Cannon: Just basically a celebration of everything the comedy community has done over the past few years here in downtown Morgantown with a couple of lead up shows across the state. The festival itself is held in downtown Morgantown, multiple venues bringing some of my favorite nationally touring talent starting Thursday, March 30. Friday, Saturday, April 1 is the all-day comedy and beer festival just like we did last year at Morgantown Brewing Company. Eddie Pepitone is doing a late-night show at 123, closing out the whole festival. I did my best to make it a really great deal and experience for those who want to attend.

Schulz: This is your second year doing this now. What goes into an independent festival?

Cannon: Everything I’ve done has been super independent and also my first time doing anything like this stuff. I’m just kind of piecing things together as I go along and figuring out what works.

I need to first reach out to potential headliners and lock those in, try to find a diverse group of people. I also do my festival submission-based. All of the local and regional I try to give them a little more favor because they put a lot of work into the community and stuff. But I also want to highlight people around Appalachia and the country in general. If people are interested in flying out for a weekend festival, then I’d love to have you, but definitely want to focus on local and regional talent. This year, I think we probably had a good 100, maybe 80, submissions, something like that.

Schulz: That’s primarily from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or…?

Cannon: Yeah! But we got some people from like Colorado, St. Louis. We have a couple of comedians, like coming from Louisville, and, you know, Florida and stuff like that.

Schulz: What did you learn from last year?

Cannon: I need to get so much more done in advance. I’ve done a little better this year. But next year, I’m planning on stepping it up even further. I’m definitely going forward hoping to reach out to and potentially get grants so I can potentially bring in bigger names and things like that. I just have no experience in that matter, and so I’m just kind of figuring all of this out as I go along.

Schulz: The festival isn’t just local comedians, as you alluded to there, you’re bringing in some pretty big names. Why is it important for you to obviously highlight local comedians, but also to bring in some of those bigger names?

Cannon: Well, for me, I’ve committed to staying here. I have a kid here, I want to stay here at least till he’s old enough to travel. So I want comedians to want to come to the state since I’ve committed to staying here. Also I just really love the state. I’m hoping this summer to take a couple of comedians on whitewater rafting trips. And every time a comedian comes through town, always the morning after a show I take them to Tudor’s Biscuit World. I try to make it an experience.

For me, it’s cool because I’m hanging out with people I look up to and aspire to be like one day. But it’s also because I get to introduce a community, the comedy community, to a place that I love very much. Since I started producing shows after things opened up in 2021, most of the comedians that I’ve had through have told me that it’s the first time they’ve ever been to West Virginia, other than maybe driving through but never like stopping for shows.

I would love to see the state thrive. I would love to see more tourism. The music scene is pretty great, and you get a lot of pretty fantastic touring bands. I just saw an opportunity, a vacuum, for touring comedy and decided to open up those roads and have more stops for comedians to potentially make money.

Schulz: Talk to me a little bit about, you know, the local scene and how that’s been progressing since you started this last year.

Cannon: I’m so grateful that I am surrounded with so many talented and excited and enthusiastic comedians because everyone’s pulling their own weight. Everybody’s kind of doing little things here and there to try to make the scene more exciting and interesting to people who might not normally think to come to a show in Morgantown, West Virginia. I’m just so proud of where everyone’s at and how hard everyone is working. Everyone’s constantly coming to the stage with fresh and exciting material and trying to work on new stuff and I’m really proud of everyone that I work with.

Schulz: Why do you think it’s important to set up a festival and not just focus exclusively on your set, your show and yourself?

Cannon: For one I wouldn’t be where I am without the community I have. It’s a chance for me to show off to this great community. So many of these nationally touring comics that you mentioned, have been like, “Wow, you have a great thing set up here. These people are really supportive. These venues are really cool.”

I like to give back. I’ve always enjoyed festivals in general. Wine and Jazz is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I love a good music festival. I’ve always wanted to do something like that. And so this is kind of me making something happen out of what I love. I don’t know, I just want to keep growing the scene and want people to keep wanting to come to West Virginia. 123 is a magical venue. Every comedian that’s performed there, it’s like “This place is something special.” So, I want to keep that going.

More information, including a list of featured comedians and participating venues, can be found on the Red Eye Comedy Facebook page.

Justice Briefing Touches On COVID, Narcan

COVID-19 cases are trending down nationally, but state health officials are still advocating for vaccination, and the governor discusses over the counter Narcan.

COVID-19 cases are trending down nationally, but state health officials are still advocating for vaccination.

In a prerecorded message presented during Gov. Jim Justice’s press briefing Wednesday, state Coronavirus Czar Dr. Clay Marsh said that despite a downward trend in COVID-19 deaths nationally, West Virginians over the age of 65 should still seek out an updated Omicron vaccine booster.

“Ninety percent of deaths that we’re still seeing are in Americans over 90 years old, and about 70 percent in Americans over 75 years old. That really also has mirrored the data that we see in West Virginia,” Marsh said. “So it’s important that anybody who has not gotten their bivalent booster vaccine, who is over 65 years old or who is immunocompromised and is still eligible, please go ahead and update that booster to the new omicron booster.”

He said the average daily death rate nationwide is down to about 250 people, compared to about 400 people a day in previous weeks.

“That’s still more people that die during a bad flu season per day,” Marsh said. “So it’s not to be ignored, but it does demonstrate the benefit of the immunity that we know that people in our country and our state are getting, and they’re getting that both from the vaccines and recovery from infection.”

Marsh also stressed the symptoms of long COVID, including brain fog, that have kept millions of Americans out of the workforce.

“When we think about long COVID, we now know that about four million people are not working, which represents about $190 billion a year in loss of revenue from these people,” he said.

Guidance has not changed, and Marsh reiterated the importance of preventing infection, as well as testing to ensure early interventions that can help avoid serious illness and long COVID.

Naloxone Over The Counter

Wednesday morning, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approved the overdose-reversing nasal spray Narcan for over-the-counter, nonprescription, use.

It is the first naloxone product approved for use without a prescription.

Later in the briefing, Justice was asked if he would support any action to increase the availability of the treatment in West Virginia, such as a law requiring it to be in schools and public buildings.

“I don’t know a lot of the details right yet and everything but without any question I would support,” Justice said. “It is a question for the legislature but to make this more available, more present in schools or wherever it may be, churches or whatever, this just saves lives. That’s all there is to it. Anything that we can possibly do to make things better and save lives for the people we need to be out doing it.”

Federal Money Helps Fund Wide Array Of State Programs

Millions of federal dollars are coming to the state for a variety of programs ranging from affordable housing to mental health training.

Millions of federal dollars are coming to the state for a variety of programs.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, Tuesday announced more than $12 million for projects ranging from affordable housing to mental health training.

More than $1 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission will support increasing staffing and strengthening administrative capacities for 13 projects across the state.

The bulk of the money, close to $10 million from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will bolster 20 community-based efforts across the state to address homelessness.

The largest individual awards will go to the Huntington, West Virginia Housing Authority and the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness, that will each receive close to $1.8 million to help connect individuals and families currently experiencing homelessness with vital supportive services.

Additionally, $1.5 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Mental Health Service Professionals Demonstration Program will be split between West Virginia University and Concord University to support the training of school-based mental health service providers for employment in schools and local educational agencies across West Virginia.

The program provides funding to establish innovative partnerships between institutions of higher education and local schools and educational agencies. It trains school counselors, social workers, psychologists and other mental health professionals qualified to provide school-based mental health services, with the goal of expanding the pipeline of these workers into low-income public schools to address shortages of school-based mental health service professionals.

WVU President Gordon Gee Faces University’s Challenges In State Of University Address

West Virginia University President Gordon Gee outlined several challenges facing the university Monday morning.

West Virginia University (WVU) President Gordon Gee outlined several challenges facing the university Monday morning.

After saying the state of the university is strong, Gee outlined several obstacles including declining enrollment, which has led to a budget deficit of $35 million for the upcoming fiscal year. He also highlighted what he calls are attacks on higher education.

“Make no mistake, higher education is under attack,” Gee said. “We, as a university, must stand firm. And we must provide example after example of why an educated citizenry is the best path forward for our country and our state.”

He expounded upon the Board of Governors’ directive to reposition the entire WVU System to be more responsive and relevant moving forward from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I ask that we face forward to address our future and focus our energies on what I am calling our first principles,” Gee said. “To begin with, we must put our students first. Second, we must embrace our land grant mission and the people we serve. And third, we must differentiate ourselves by investing in the initiatives that uniquely serve our campus community, reflect our values and play to our strengths.”

The president announced WVU Pledge, a new scholarship program that will assist qualifying Promise scholars, who have an expected family contribution of zero, with their costs.

Gee also addressed the recent passage of Senate Bill 10, more commonly known as the “Campus Carry Bill.” The law allows holders of concealed carry permits to bring handguns and pistols on college campuses, with certain restrictions.

“I want to stress that the university has always advocated for local control,” he said. “However, when we knew the legislation was likely to pass, we were prepared with best practices and exemptions that were included in the final bill. Though it does not go into effect until July 1, 2024, we will use that time wisely to prepare our campus.”

Gee said the university will always strive to ensure that campus safety is a top priority, including access to mental health resources.

“The university has invested significantly in mental health and safety resources over the past several years,” he said. “We have begun training faculty and staff on how to recognize students in distress and how to help, and we established a wellness and student mental health advisory board, which helps shape decisions made by our mental health experts. We know this is a serious concern for our students and we will continue to work with them to provide the resources they need.”