Tennessee photographer Stacy Kranitz is attracting attention for her visceral photos of life in Appalachia and the South. Sometimes her photos are hard to look at, but they’re always compelling. That’s the case with a project published earlier this year. ProPublica’s story, “The Year After a Denied Abortion,” follows a young family in Tennessee.
New Therapy Dog Arrives for First Day of Work at Mary C. Snow Elementary
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Students at Mary C. Snow Elementary School on Charleston’s West Side got to meet the school’s new therapy dog Monday. Two years ago, the students said goodbye to their beloved friend Paca, who had been one of the state’s first therapy dogs to work at a school. Paca had to leave because her owner, the school’s librarian, took a job out of state.
Now, two years later, Paca’s successor has arrived. His name is Axelle.
On Monday morning, the dog’s handler, music teacher Walter Tucker, introduced Axelle to students for the first time. The dog smiled, wagged his tail, and even licked some faces on his first day of work.
Axelle has been trained to specialize in helping children cope with emotional stress and trauma, and to encourage students to enjoy learning. He’ll be working with all of the students, but especially with special needs students.
The students, teachers, community members, and even students in neighboring Lincoln County, helped raise thousands of dollars to purchase Axelle from a training facility in Kansas. It was the same facility where Paca came from, and they are also the same breed and color, a black English Labrador.
On this West Virginia Morning, the Mountain Valley Pipeline failed a water pressure test in Virginia earlier this month and the Pipeline Safety Trust is urging federal regulators to take a close look at the failure. Also, in this show, we hear about radioactive waste in the Marcellus Shale fields, one of the country's largest natural gas producing formations.
The West Virginia House of Delegates passed a Senate bill Monday that makes changes to how much money is set aside into the state’s rainy day funds. For the bill to become law, the Senate must concur with an amendment.
The Supreme Court has declined to take up another appeal from a group of landowners challenging the use of eminent domain by developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The decision comes as many await a decision by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on whether the pipeline can begin service by May 23. Developers have asked to begin running gas in the pipeline by June.