A new spacecraft headed to the International Space Station later this month will be named after NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, a native West Virginian.
“Her work at NASA quite literally launched Americans into space, and her legacy continues to inspire young black women every day,” Northrop Grumman wrote in a press release this week.
The company traditionally names each spacecraft after a person who played a pivotal role in human space flight.
Over her 33-year NASA career, Johnson’s calculations were critical to some of America’s great space achievements including John Glenn’s trip orbiting the Earth and the Apollo 11 moon landing.
“If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go,” Glenn notably said.
Johnson, a native of White Sulphur Springs, W. Va., received a degree in mathematics and French from West Virginia State College at the age of 18. She took every math class offered at the school.
After that, she was one of three Black students chosen to integrate West Virginia’s graduate school and the first Black woman to attend graduate school at West Virginia University.
In 2015, Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honor. She passed away last year at the age of 101.
An attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #87 sent a letter to the Morgantown City Council on Tuesday opposing a proposed police review board ordinance and promising immediate legal action if it becomes city code.
Nearly all Morgantown Police Department officers who would be affected by the board are members of the lodge.
“It has become clear the City of Morgantown intends to violate West Virginia law by passing an ordinance creating a Citizens’ Police Review Board,” wrote Wheeling attorney Teresa Toriseva in the letter.
In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting on Tuesday, Dulaney said the town does not have a direct response to the letter but welcomes the input.
“We have already shared publicly the process we, as a special committee of city council, … have planned, which by design includes ongoing public participation open to all stakeholders and viewpoints, to consider the issue of civilian police oversight in Morgantown,” wrote Dulaney. “We accept the letter from the FOP’s attorney as a contribution to that process.”
In the letter, Toriseva called the board unnecessary because the department already operates to the “highest standard.”
Specifically, she cited the department’s current use of force policy, annual implicit bias and de-escalation training, a choke-hold ban and the use of body cameras.
Advocates for the proposed board agree with and support all of these practices but say the police department can be even better.
“This is about being proactive,” said Morgantown Mayor Ron Dulaney at last week’s city council meeting. “This is about creating great transparency. It is about involving citizens in policing and really protecting the safety of everyone in our community going forward.”
Toriseva questioned the legality of the proposed board and its investigative powers. In September, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey wrote the city council a letter with similar concerns.
State law creates a Civil Service Commission for each paid police department. This three-person commission oversees all hiring, firing and discipline.
Advocates say the proposed board’s investigative powers would not infringe on this oversight, because it would only be able to make recommendations.
The letter from the FOP’s attorney said the proposed ordinance would violate state law and cited Morrisey’s September letter in questioning whether cities had the authority to create such a board.
“That is a question that will likely only be resolved by our State Supreme Court of Appeals,” wrote Toriseva. “But even if cities can create these boards (admittedly this question is clear), they certainly cannot violate civil service provisions in doing so.”
West Virginia Coronavirus Czar Clay Marsh spoke to a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday and credited the state’s success in vaccinating its population to “scrappy and resilient” leadership.
West Virginia Coronavirus Czar Clay Marsh spoke to a U.S. House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday and credited the state’s success in vaccinating its population to “scrappy and resilient” leadership.
In West Virginia, state leaders took control of vaccine distribution, partnered with local agencies and pharmacies and prioritized the most at-risk populations.
“In order to best meet the needs of our citizens, we need to have local involvement at many levels so that we can share information,” Marsh said.
Almost one in nine West Virginians have received at least one dose of vaccine, second to Alaska. West Virginia leads the nation with 3.8% of its population having received two doses of vaccine, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Ultimately, West Virginia created a plan that worked for us,” Marsh said.
He said the state has the capacity to increase the weekly number of people vaccinated by as much as eight times the current numbers.
The state has received 207,200 first doses and 94.5% of them have been administered, according to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources COVID-19 dashboard.
Additionally, 121,400 second doses have been received and 58.4% have been administered.
While many of the questions at the hearing were directed at Marsh because of West Virginia’s success, lead health officials from Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana and Colorado also testified.
Marsh suggested creating a venue for state and federal leaders to share strategies that are working and said this would help state leaders coordinate their vaccine distribution.
“The fact that we have these vaccines are game-changers,” said Marsh. “This is the most complex, problematic response of modern-day America and the world. So staying together and working together and sharing with each other best practices is really key for our global and country’s success.”
Caseworkers who work directly with West Virginia’s homeless population conducted the annual point-in-time count last week, measuring the number of individuals experiencing homelessness on one of the coldest nights of the year.
“Most people who are going to be sheltered are sheltered during the last ten days of January,” said Matt Hedrick, who coordinates the count for the West Virginia Coalition to End Homeless. “The people we find on the street… have nowhere else to go.”
The count measures people either staying in shelters or on the street. And it has been adapted to keep volunteers and clients safe from transmitting COVID-19.
Instead of sending out teams of volunteers to conduct the street count, Hedrick will rely on an existing database of those experiencing homelessness and receiving services.
While the results of this year’s count won’t be known for a couple of months, he has some expectations.
“There are a lot of people entering the system who have never been in it in terms of the homeless service system, and that are newly experiencing homelessness,” said Hedrick, “That’s kind of what we’re anticipating.”
Researchers say the point-in-time count is the best data available but even in a normal year comes with a lot of caveats.
Many people who are experiencing homelessness don’t want to be counted,” said Daniel Brisson, executive director of the Center for Housing and Homelessness Research at the University of Denver. “Or don’t want to be seen, don’t want to be known, don’t want to be found, don’t want to talk to other people.”
He says there are many predictions that homelessness has increased during the pandemic but he honestly doesn’t know what the count will show.
“We know the point-in-time is not a perfect tool,” said Brisson. “Whether the tool can capture homelessness in this new environment is still to be seen,”
Brisson says it’s important to listen to people on the ground because the data might be inaccurate.
Lisa Badia, the executive director of the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless, said she’s seen something like this recession before.
“The last time we saw a real increase of people who were experiencing a housing crisis for the first time resulting inevitably or imminently, homelessness would have been back at the early onset of the fracking industry,” said Badia, who has worked with this population for 27 years.
As fracking companies relocated workers into the Northern Panhandle, rent prices increased by 58% between 2011 and 2014.
After rent went up, the number of first-time homeless families increased by 300% between 2015 and 2016, according to data from the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless.
Over the same period, the number of families headed by a single father who became homeless for the first time increased by 600%.
Since the pandemic began, she said there’s been an increase in the number of people who need financial assistance to help pay rent.
As people are becoming homeless in the Northern Panhandle, many for the first time, that sustained need has strained Badia’s staff.
She has seen her entire direct staff change over the course of the pandemic. Long-time workers, some of whom had been with her for 19 years, have gotten burned out.
“I do believe this will be similar, although certainly, we’ve never undergone a pandemic,” said Badia. “That’s a whole different level of fatigue.”
The Morgantown City Council heard a presentation on a proposed ordinance to create a civilian police review and advisory board at a workshop meeting Tuesday night. If approved, the proposed board would be the second of its kind in West Virginia.
Over the past seven months, a special committee has gathered input from experts on police reform along with a variety of Morgantown city leaders and community members.
“We went section by section and we had a room of people in there,” said Jerry Carr, president of the Morgantown/Kingwood Branch of the NAACP. “We discussed it, we debated it, we argued sometimes. And then when we were done with a particular section we’d move onto the next one.”
The nine-member Morgantown board would review and make recommendations on police department procedures and practices, begin community outreach and investigate civilian complaints of police misconduct.
Bluefield has a similar review board stemming from a 2000 consent decree but with weaker investigation.
In September of last year, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey sent the Morgantown City Council a letter questioning the legality of the investigation powers in the proposed ordinance.
Members of the special committee have since changed the language of the proposal and believe it complies with state law.
The process would start with a civilian complaint filed with the board. Then, the board would investigate and the officers involved would present their case.
If, at the end of all that, the board determines that misconduct occurred, it would give the police chief a recommendation.
As required by state law, the police chief retains the authority to implement any disciplinary action.
Mayor Ron Dulaney stressed at Tuesday’s meeting that the proposed ordinance was proactive and praised the past work of the Morgantown Police Department in implementing de-escalation training and a choke-hold ban.
West Virginia University professor and criminal justice expert Jim Nolan spoke during Tuesday’s meeting in support of the proposal.
He cited a 2009 statewide study from the West Virginia Criminal Justice Statistical Analysis Center that found Black drivers were 1.58 times more likely to be stopped by a police officer than white drivers in Morgantown.
The study also found Black drivers were 2.27 times more likely to be searched by police.
“This is not the result of bad actors,” said Nolan. “Discrimination in policing is systemic. We all need to work together to fix it.”
The proposed board would create a level of transparency and community trust in the police force, said Carr.
“We have a police force, they do a lot of good in the city but we know there’s ways that we can improve upon that process,” said Carr “And we’re looking for a structured way for civilians to have that input to make that happen.”
Next, the language of the proposed ordinance will be sent to the West Virginia Attorney General’s office for review.
Robert Seay has been hunting in the New River Gorge since he was born, nearly. His family has hunted there for almost a century.
“It’s just a beautiful place, I mean something about watching the fog rise, hearing the roar of the river and watching the sunset,” said Seay, a fishing and hunting guide in Southern West Virginia. “It’s not just about the hunting. The deer or the game is just a bonus. It’s doing what your family’s done where you learned to do it.”
Courtesy of Robert Seay
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Robert Seay poses with a fish.
Seay’s decades-long family tradition is changing due to a new park designation for the area.
The New River Gorge was originally given federal protection as a National River in 1978. Last year, it became West Virginia’s first National Park and Preserve from year-end appropriations legislation.
Advocates for the new designation say the name will bring more visitors and valuable tourism dollars to the area.
“With proximity to major metropolitan areas such as Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, Richmond, Charlotte, and other major cities, the New River Gorge has the potential to attract new tourists and thrill-seekers to the Gorge and the region as a whole,” wrote U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) in a joint op-ed published in the Beckley Register-Herald on Dec. 22, 2020. “The potential economic impact for surrounding communities and the entire state are boundless.”
Ten percent of the New River Gorge will become a national park, and hunters like Seay will lose access to this section of the land, as hunting is not permitted in national parks. The remaining 90 percent will become a national preserve and remain open to hunting as before.
The national park section is in the north near the iconic New River Gorge Bridge and some of the most difficult terrain around. Seay said he spends around 15 days a year hunting this section for personal reasons, not commercial expeditions.
“The reason people do not fish and hunt as much is because it is rugged,” said Seay. “It is tough hunting. It is tough country. And that’s why those animals are there. That’s why those deer are there, because they’re not easy to get to.”
Another local hunter, Logan Bockrath, said hunters are the “sacrificial user group” under the new park boundaries.
“If we asked kayakers and rafters to lose 10 percent of the rapids, or climbers [to lose] 10 percent of their rock-climbing routes, or mountain bikers to lose 10 percent of the trails, name the user group, it would be an uproar,” said Bockrath. “Hunters are the only ones getting cut out of the equation.”
Seay said he understands the decision but it feels like he’s lost his first love.
“I learned to hunt in the gorge — with my father — that’s where I learned trees, learned direction,” he said.
While hunters are losing access, the new park status is expected to improve the local economy.
In 2019, visitors to the New River Gorge spent $60 million dollars in the surrounding community, and the number of visitors to the park is expected to increase under the National Park brand.
Rafting companies are some of the biggest supporters of the park’s new status as the number of river users has declined since the 90s, according to commercial whitewater reports from the West Virginia Department of Natural Resources.
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“We expect to see an increase, we expect it will be gradual,” said Haynes Mansfield, marketing director at ACE Adventure Resort, a large rafting outfitter in the gorge. “Honestly, the big shift we have seen recently is a cultural shift driven by COVID-19.”
After COVID-19 lockdowns closed the rafting industry in the spring, ACE Adventure Resort saw a huge rebound over the summer.
“We were shut down, we had no booking,” said Mansfield. “And then we had record sales, record website visits, phone calls, phones ringing off the hook.”
This surge in visitors was also seen at hikes and popular sites for rock-climbing, according to Eve West, a spokesperson with the National Park Service.
Maura Kistler, the co-owner of Water Stone Outdoors, an outdoor gear and climbing shop in Fayetteville, also noticed the crowds and said the increase highlighted existing problems with an underfunded park infrastructure.
“I am excited and I am concerned. These are not mutually exclusive,” Kistler said.
The park needs more trails and more parking lots so visitors can experience the beauty she gets to see every day, said Kistler.
“We don’t want more people if we’re not treating the resource properly and we’re not providing a good experience,” she said. “We don’t want to send people home frustrated and annoyed.”
The recent legislation authorizes the park to buy up to 100 acres of land for parking lots, but provides no additional funding for the park. Individual park funding is determined by the National Park Service.
““One of the hopes that accompanies the great news about this designation is the opportunity for more stable—and perhaps even increased—resources,” said Capito in a statement to West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
She also said that while annual budgets can be challenging, the new designation puts the New River Gorge in a better position to receive additional funding.
In the years to come, the balancing act of who gets to access, who gets to use, and who’s going to pay for this land will continue in the New River Gorge.
Hunters, rafters, rock climbers, hikers, and tourists alike will continue to come to the gorge for a wide variety of world-class outdoor activities.
“That’s why we’re a national park,” said Mansfield. “But look at all of those communities that have to be served fairly and it’s not an easy task”
