Discussing Confederate Monuments And Unemployment On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, we explore a couple contentious topics. We look at the impacts of Confederate monuments standing in our region, and we hear a report on Universal Basic Income and whether it could be one answer as residents in West Virginia experience unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Statues set in stone signify a sense of eternity. But that view is changing rapidly as recent events demonstrate. A Virginia Tech sociologist has been exploring how people in communities with Confederate statues relate to them today. Robbie Harris spoke to Ashley Reichelmann, an assistant professor for the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Universal Basic Income, or UBI – unconditional, government-subsidized, regular cash payments for adults – is back in vogue. A basic income has been discussed as part of a strategy to reduce poverty in the U.S. since the 1970s. Now, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to push millions of Americans out of work. In much of Appalachia, including West Virginia, unemployment rates have reached nearly 20 percent in some areas. And folks still working feel the pinch of the pandemic, too. Laura Harbert Allen has more.

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Support for our news bureaus comes from West Virginia University, Concord University, and Shepherd University.

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