Liz is WVPB's Webmaster/Digital Coordinator and Eastern Panhandle Bureau Chief, based in Shepherdstown, WV on Shepherd University's campus. Liz is a native of Charleston, West Virginia. She received a M.A. in Strategic Communication from American University in 2022 and a B.A. in Communication and New Media from Shepherd in 2014. Prior to her role as webmaster, Liz was WVPB's Eastern Panhandle reporter from 2014-2022, the House of Delegates reporter on "The Legislature Today" from 2015-2017, and she covered K-12/higher education from 2020-2022. Liz has also worked as a technical assistant and associate producer on "The Legislature Today."
Dr. Samuel Mudd, the physician who set John Wilkes Booth’s leg after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, has been portrayed in a variety of media as an innocent victim who was wrongly accused for conspiring with Booth.
Mudd is the subject of Berkeley County author, Ed Steers’ newest work and his first play titled, “The Trial of Dr. Mudd.”
Steers is now known as one of the leading experts on the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, appearing on numerous television and radio shows like PBS’s Morning Edition with Bob Edwards, NBC’s Today Show, CSPAN’s Book Notes, and more.
In 2009, Steers completed his first play, “The Trial of Dr. Mudd,” which deals with the controversy and intrigue surrounding the trial of Dr. Samuel Mudd, a Maryland native who was imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of President Lincoln.
This year, the play was picked up by the Morgan Arts Council also located in Berkeley Springs and will premiere on stage in February.
Auditions for “The Trial of Dr. Mudd” will be held on Sunday, December 14th from 2-4 PM and Monday, December 15th from 7-9 PM at the Ice House in Berkeley Springs for a staged reading of Steers’ play. It will be directed by Kirsten Trump.
130 new school principals attended a training today in Charleston focused on effectively responding to an active shooter on school grounds.
In the aftermath of a number of school shootings throughout the country, the West Virginia Center for Professional Development hosted its two-day Principals’ Leadership Academy for new principals.
The academy brought in two officers to lead the discussion. Lieutenant Eric Johnson, the commander of the Metro Drug Unit and active shooter instructor for the Charleston Police Department was one of the instructors. He says if a person’s first thought is to hide when a shooter is at your school or business, they’re doing it wrong.
“We provide a simple acronym through this training,” Johnson said, “It’s ADD, and that stands for Avoid, Deny, and Defend. The first step is to avoid the shooting, avoid the killing, get away, escape. If that’s not possible then deny entry into an area where you can get yourself and others secured, and if you cannot deny that entry, or if that comes to an end, then you need to defend yourself. If you cower to a corner, or if you hide, the statistics have shown through all these events that have happened in the last fifteen years that the killing will continue.”
Johnson says it’s very important for principals to know how to use the Avoid, Deny, and Defend tactic at their schools because it takes first responders at least 3 to 15 minutes to arrive depending on a school’s location. He says principals will have to take charge and make decisions quickly to protect as many lives as possible in those minutes.
Tawny Stilianoudakis is the principal of Buffalo High School in Putnam County.
“You can’t sit there, as the lieutenant said, you can’t always sit there and think everything through, because lives could be lost,” Stilianoudakis said, “so you do have to have in your mind, played it out, and know exactly how you can react when those situations occur.”
Lieutenant Johnson says what will prepare schools the most is to ask when a shooting could happen, not if.
Governor Earl Ray Tomblin visited Piedmont Elementary School in Charleston today to speak with a third grade class about the importance of STEM-based learning.
Tomblin issued a proclamation at Piedmont Elementary School announcing this week as the official week of Computer Science Education in West Virginia. Computer Science Education Week is a STEM-related initiative to encourage more technology based learning in West Virginia classrooms. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.
Tomblin visited with Laura Jensen’s third grade class.
“I’m hoping that they’ll see the governor today and recognize that they have a great deal of value that someone that important came to this school to watch them,” Jensen said.
Jensen hopes the visit encourages her students to stay interested in STEM related topics.
Governor Tomblin told the third graders STEM education is important because it will help them go to college and get jobs in the future.
“That’s part of my whole education reform plan, is you know, to get these kids to thinking about a career…let them know how important math and science and technology is. That’s where the jobs are going to be in the future,” Tomblin said.
The annual “Christmas in Shepherdstown” festival continues tomorrow evening. A Civil War Christmas comes to Shepherdstown this weekend, with music, dance, carriage rides, and lectures all about the town at Christmastime during the Civil War.
Saturday morning will feature the annual Shepherdstown Christmas parade. During the festival, many landmarks throughout the town will host special events.
The festival began last weekend after Thanksgiving celebrating a 21st Century celebration in Shepherdstown, the second weekend looks at the Civil War, the third looks at James Rumsey and the late 18th Century in Shepherd’s Town, and the fourth features Christmas in Mecklenburg, the original name of the town, where re-enactors will be found strolling the streets.
Other Christmas themed events will be hosted throughout the eastern panhandle during December, including Olde Tyme Christmas in Harpers Ferry, events in Berkeley Springs, and parades in Charles Town and Martinsburg.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery located in Jefferson County has attracted around 50,000 tourists since it opened in 2011. While Jefferson County has been called the leader in tourism and economic impact in the state, some say the rural economy is struggling, and this distillery could be helping to revive it.
Allison Manderino is one of the fun-tenders, or bartenders, at the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery. She drives two-in-a-half hours every weekend from Pennsylvania to the eastern panhandle just to work weekends serving drinks.
“You ask anyone here who works here, we all have the same answer, we all love each other,” said Manderino, “and Tom and Linda, our owners, we want them to succeed so much that we will do whatever we need. And if that means that, you know, I drive and live in a different state every weekend, that’s okay. I’ll do it, because I want to see this through, and I know we’re going places, and I just want to help them get there in whatever way I can.”
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Bloomery Sweetshine’s Greenhouse
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery began after co-founders, Linda Losey and Tom Keifer went on a trip to Italy in 2010. While there, they tasted Limoncello, a very popular lemon liqueur and wanted to replicate it once back in the US. After scouting out various locations, they found a rural spot in Charles Town, where they began to build their business in an old bloomery, or ironworks mill, from the 1700s that was in disrepair.
“So we thought, why not settle in West Virginia,” remembered Losey, “and I came out here, and I texted Tom, I’m like, I’m going to meet the craigslist killer, and he said where are you and what are you doing, and I said, don’t worry if I like it, you’re in trouble, if I don’t like it, it’s no worries. And I liked it, and so here we are, on 12 acres in Charles Town, West Virginia, growing lemons and Hawaiian ginger and raspberries and black walnuts and pumpkins.”
Losey says she’s amazed at the success of the distillery in such a short time, but attributes that success to the fun-tenders who always try to connect to each patron individually and make each customer feel welcome.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Allison Manderino as the Dancing Lemon, the distillery’s mascot.
“Everybody brings their own sort of quirkiness to the team,” Losey noted, “and if you come and get a tasting on a Friday and have one fun-tender, and you come back in on a Saturday, you’re going to get a completely different experience.”
Tom Keifer, the other co-founder, says he thinks it’s the naturalness of the product that’s attractive and keeps bringing in customers.
“Because we have only whole ingredients, there’s nothing artificial, no coloring, no dyes, no flavors, anything like that,” Keifer said, “And there’s this robustness that comes with that. I mean when you taste the ginger you’ll see, I mean, it tastes like liquid ginger root, and when you taste our pumpkin spice, it tastes like grandma’s pumpkin pie. It’s just awesome.”
Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery grows most of its ingredients on-site, but since its products are in such high demand, it gets some ingredients locally in Charles Town and Martinsburg, but some come from farmers as far away as California.
It’s open only four days a week, but the owners say they average 300 customers every weekend. Their products have won American and International awards, and have seen at least one tourist from every state in the US, as well as a handful of other countries.
Annette Gavin is the CEO of the Jefferson County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. She says the distillery is definitely making an impact on Jefferson County’s economy.
“They didn’t just decide to do this, develop it, and, you know, wait for people to come. They market it; they market the heck out of it. You know, they get out there, and it’s literally stomping the pavement to let people know,” said Gavin.
Gavin also says the Distillery is in a perfect location being so close to Washington, DC and Baltimore.
With an array of flavors to choose from and an ever growing number in tourists, the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery continues to do well in Jefferson County.
Landfilling has been the main source of getting rid of waste for centuries. But a new technology coming to West Virginia may change how we think of waste disposal, and in the long run, help our environment.
Entsorga is an Italian resource recovery company that has been around since 1997. About four years ago, the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority was looking for ways to promote a cleaner environment and find a safer and more efficient way to dispose of waste. …Entsorgaended up finding them.
After three years of waiting, Entsorga received approval from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to begin constructing a new resource recovery facility later this year on property owned by the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority. The facility will take anywhere from 65 to 75 percent of the refuse they collect and turn it into fuel instead of putting it in the ground.
“Essentially what you take waste, and you use it as a resource or you use to make energy,” said Clint Hogbin, the chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, “This is garbage that will be picked up on the street, no differently then it’s being picked up today. And instead of the truck going to a landfill, the truck will go to a 4 acre building, and unload its waste inside of a building, where mechanical equipment, electro-mechanical equipment will sort and process that waste and prepare it to be used for fuel.”
The Berkeley County facility will be the first Entsorga plant in the country and the first resource recovery facility in West Virginia using a technology called HeBIOT.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Acreage just behind the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority’s main office. The Entsorga facility will be built just beyond this fence.
“HeBIOT is an acronym. It stands for high-efficiency biological treatment, and it’s a patented technology, patent by Entsorga,” Hogbin said, “It uses the biology of waste if you will, the decomposition of waste, to prepare the waste to be used for a fuel.”
Hogbin says while there are other resource recovery facilities in the United States, this facility is the only one that will use the HeBIOT technology. The waste is turned into a confetti-like material by use of high-tech machines operated by humans within a clean room. The material is then dried and can be burned for fuel and used as a replacement for some non-renewable resources like coal. And that’s what Hogbin says may keep the state from embracing the new fueling system.
“We were worried about there being some concern, particularly from downstate, about the impact on coal, because this would be competing with coal,” Hogbin noted.
With the push from the federal government to reduce carbon emission, however, Hogbin says recycling refuse is a viable option for not just West Virginia, but the entire country.
Credit Liz McCormick / West Virginia Public Broadcasting
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West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Clint Hogbin, chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, stands in the field soon to be under construction.
“Emissions from burning of this material has been studied. It’s been studied by Entsorga. It’s also been studied by the United States Environmental Protection Agency who literally sent this board a letter, advising us their opinion of burning this material was significantly lower or equal to the emissions of burning coal.”
Entsorga has an agreement with another Italian company called Essroc, also located in Berkeley County. The confetti-like material produced at the Entsorga plant, will be sent to Essroc, where this fuel will be used to power the plant that makes cement.
Apple Valley Waste Services will also play a role by providing Entsorga with the garbage it will use to make the fuel.
Hogbin says once the Entsorga facility is up-and-running, it would employ around 12 people, with salaries ranging from forty to sixty-thousand dollars a year.
