, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Accrediting body lifts probation for Marshall Medical School

In June 2011 Marshall University’s Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine was recommended for probation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. After making many necessary changes the school had its probation lifted late last week.

The LCME’s complaints were in the areas of a lack of diversity for students and faculty; lower-than-average scholarship support and higher than average student debt; limited programs to promote student wellbeing, limited advising, lack of a financial aid and debt management program and curricular issues. Dr. Joseph Shapiro was hired in the spring of 2012 as the new Dean with the mission of bringing the school out of probation. Shapiro said each of the issues was addressed.

“We need to continue to build things and we need to continue to get better and better. I’m very happy with our trajectory and I’m very happy that we’re moving in the right direction,” Shapiro said.

In the areas of diversity, a new diversity director was hired, new programs have been put in place to help students find scholarships and get financial help and research has become a much more important issue at the medical school than ever before. Shapiro said the probation could turn out to be a good thing.

“Was it a blessing in disguise to be on probation? Well maybe, it certainly got people focused and people were certainly receptive to the message I brought, but we’re doing the things we should be doing now and I still find it an incredible challenge and opportunity,” Shapiro said.

"Was it a blessing in disguise to be on probation? Well maybe, it certainly got people focused," Shapiro said.

Shapiro said Marshall’s medical school can’t compare to top medical research institutions like Harvard, Yale or Penn. Instead, the school must focus on what it does well.

“If we look at numbers like how many of our students are do practice in West Virginia and how many of them ultimately do primary care practices, our numbers are pretty good and how well we’re training them and how good they are as doctors is again a hard number to get too, but those are the numbers that are kind of interesting,” Shapiro said.

The Dean said the probation period definitely hurt the recruiting the school was able to do during the two year period. But the hope is with the probation lifted, things will begin to look up.

“It certainly hurt enrollment and hurt recruitment, the year before I came on, although we traditionally recruit very well in West Virginia, we were really challenged because of probation,” Shapiro said. “Last year we recruited better for medical school, I think because we told students all the things that we were doing.”

Shapiro said although the probation has been lifted Marshall will work to continue to improve on the areas that the Liaison Committee on Medical Education questioned.

W.Va. delegation weighs in on shutdown's effect on miners' safety

West Virginia’s congressional delegation is weighing in on the shutdown’s
effect on mine safety. Approximately 1,400 of MSHA’s 2,355 employees are
furloughed during the government shutdown. Three miners were killed
on three consecutive days this past weekend, including one from West
Virginia.

In his remarks Thursday from the House floor, Congressman Nick Rahall
urged his colleagues to “abandon this ridiculous political showdown that
is undercutting the safety in our mines, our industrial facilities, our
food chain, and so much more.”

“There is talk that the shutdown is causing no real pain. The most extreme anti-government politicians even express the hope that such a cutback in government programs and services should be made permanent. And too many others are content to hang back and let those with extreme views have their way for the time being. But I stand here today to remind my colleagues, and the public, that cuts in government funding and government programs have consequences –sometimes deadly. It is a lesson we learned in 2006 when annual coal mining deaths soared to 45, a 10-year high, reversing an 80-year trend of steadily falling fatalities – a trend attributed, in part, to years of underfunding the Mine Safety and Health Administration.”

Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito introduced legislation Thursday to fund the Mine Safety and Health Administration through December 15, 2013. The bill would fund MSHA at the same level that was in effect the day before the shutdown began.

“MSHA performs the critical role of making sure that West Virginia coal miners come home safely each day,” Capito said. “This important legislation would allow MSHA to operate at full capacity, protecting our miners notwithstanding the government shutdown.”

In a news release issued Thursday, Capito says she voted for three Continuing Resolutions prior to September 30 that would have averted a government shutdown.

Senator Jay Rockefeller also released a statement Wednesday on the matter:

"My heart goes out to the family of 62-year-old Roger R. King of Moundsville who was killed late last week at the McElroy Mine in Marshall County. Any time a miner perishes while working underground, we are reminded of the critical importance of keeping our miners safe on the job. While details are still forthcoming about this and other mining fatalities we’ve suffered in recent days, I cannot help but to express my deep frustration about the misguided government shutdown that has furloughed MSHA inspectors and prevented them from conducting the regular inspections that make sure coal companies are operating their mines as safely as possible. During this shutdown, I urge all coal operators to be vigilant about safety procedures in their mines that will prevent mining injuries and deaths. I also urge miners to report any behavior that you believe is putting you and your fellow miners in jeopardy. Even during a shutdown, MSHA has said it will continue to investigate complaints from miners about conditions that may pose serious safety problems.”

West Virginia Morning – October 10, 2013

On this West Virginia Morning, Sen. Joe Manchin calls for an investigation into the Food & Drug Administration, more federal charges are brought against…

On this West Virginia Morning, Sen. Joe Manchin calls for an investigation into the Food & Drug Administration, more federal charges are brought against officials in Mingo County, Fayette County Schools talk consolidation with the state Board of Education and more.

NOVA's David Pogue keynote speaker at 2013 STaR Symposium in Morgantown

Science journalist and public television host David Pogue will be the keynote speaker for the fifth biennial Science, Technology and Research Symposium, sponsored by the Division of Science and Research of the WV Higher Education Policy Commission.

The symposium takes place Oct. 22-23 in Morgantown.

Pogue is a New York Times columnist, author, CBS News correspondent and host of NOVA Science Now.

His new series Making More Stuff takes a wild ride through the cutting-edge science that is powering a next wave of technological innovation. Pogue meets the scientists and engineers who are plunging to the bottom of the temperature scale, finding design inspiration in nature, and breaking every speed limit to make tomorrow’s “stuff” “Colder,” “Faster,” “Safer,” and “Wilder.”

Watch Making Stuff on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on WV PBS beginning Oct. 16 with “Making Stuff Faster.” (“Making Stuff Wilder” will air on Oct. 23 and “Making Stuff Colder” will air on Oct. 30.)

The STaR Symposium is open to students, faculty, researchers, industry and business people wanting to learn about energy use, energy conservation and energy research in the Mountain State. Learn more about the STaR Symposium and registration details. Advance registration ends Monday.

Author Wil Haygood speaks at the University of Charleston

In most cases, a novel or biography inspires a film. But for journalist and author WilHaygood, the sequence has been dramatically different. A November 7th, 2008 article by Haygood in The Washington Post inspired the Lee Daniels film The Butler and then Haygood went back to write the book, The Butler: A Witness to History.

On Wednesday, September 25, 2013 WilHaygood spoke at the University of Charleston as part of the school’s Speaker Series. Here is Haygood’s talk in it entirety. We apologize that the audio is slightly overmodulated. Do not adjust your speakers.

Nature dives into "Saving Otter 501"

Nature tells the story of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 501st attempt to save a stranded orphan otter and teach it to fend for itself in the wild when…

Nature tells the story of the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s 501st attempt to save a stranded orphan otter and teach it to fend for itself in the wild when Saving Otter 501 airs on Wednesday, October 16 at 8 p.m. on West Virginia PBS.

http://video.wvpubcast.org/video/2365094383/

After the broadcast, the episode will be available for online streaming at pbs.org/nature.

From her discovery as a newborn pup crying on the beach, through her rehabilitation in secret roof tanks atop the Monterey Bay Aquarium, follow Otter 501 as she learns how to survive in the wild. Watch as she is introduced to her surrogate mother — a method invented by marine biologist Karl Mayer and his team in 2005 — and follow as she struggles to learn how to dive, hunt, eat, and fend for herself in an artificial environment meant to mimic the “real world.”

It is a tale of mysterious threats, persistent failures and small victories, where survival is a long shot at best. Throughout, Otter 501 acts as a lens. Her story reveals a previously unseen world of otter behavior and also acts to illuminate some of the most difficult ecological questions of our time: Do we have a responsibility to save species that hover on the edge? Are our actions the cause of the illnesses sweeping through the sea otter population? And since we simply can’t return the world to its pristine pre-human form, are preservation efforts like this doomed to fail?

Otter 501’s survival may hold the hint of an answer. California sea otters are struggling in the wild and no one quite knows why. Hunted to near extinction for their fur since the mid-18th Century, the hidden enclave of approximately 50 otters discovered near Big Sur in 1938 was a surprise to many along the California coast. The entire current population of about 2800 can trace their origins to that group of 50, but they all live in one small area which is a problem. One localized event, like an oil spill, could wipe them all out. That’s why their status is listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.

Find video clips, educational materials, and more at the PBS Nature website.