On this West Virginia Morning, West Virginia is slated to receive millions in settlement dollars from lawsuits surrounding the opioid crisis. Now, counties and community stakeholders are left with big decisions surrounding how to best use the money.
Hannah Heiskell, a student journalist at West Virginia University (WVU), spoke with reporter Chris Schulz about her recent investigation into who decides where the award dollars go and why. This is the first installation in a four-part series produced in a WVU investigative reporting class taught by Assistant Professor Ashton Marra.
Meanwhile, Appalachia has faced high rates of substance abuse and mental health disorders for years. As these issues reached a boiling point during the COVID-19 pandemic, a few communities tried using crisis response teams to intervene, and the groups seem to be working. For Inside Appalachia, Mason Adams spent months with the teams and brings us this report.
West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which is solely responsible for its content.
Support for our news bureaus comes from Shepherd University and Marshall University School of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Maria Young produced this episode.
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