This week, people with mental health challenges or substance use disorder often end up in jail. But crisis response teams offer another way. Also, one year after the Mountain Valley Pipeline went into service, people who live directly in the pipeline’s path have received compensation. But not everyone. And, the Sacred Harp songbook gets an update for the first time since the early 1990s.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, 90 bills to-date have been introduced this year between the Senate and the House about election laws.
We’ve heard a lot since the 2020 general election about potential voter fraud, although numerous courts have ruled there was no election fraud that would have changed the outcome of that election. Secretary of State Mac Warner has also said there was also no major election fraud in West Virginia. He has prosecuted a handful of people for election violations in the last few years.
Briana Heaney spoke with Del. Josh Holstein, R-Boone, and Sen. Jack Woodrum, R-Summers, to get their perspective.
In the House, eight bills advanced from third reading to the Senate. Two of the proposals help further protect the environment and one takes telehealth a step further with a proactive technological approach to medical care. Randy Yohe has the story.
In the Senate, the chamber approved five bills, sending them to the House for consideration. The Senate advanced 12 other bills. Briana Heaney has more.
Finally, advocates and recovery experts filled the Capitol rotunda on Monday to educate lawmakers about substance use disorder. Emily Rice has the story.
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The Legislature Today is West Virginia’s only television/radio simulcast devoted to covering the state’s 60-day regular legislative session.
Watch or listen to new episodes Monday through Friday at 6 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting.
When his Welch, W. Va. restaurant was functional following massive February flooding across the southern part of the state, Roberto Diaz went to work feeding anyone in need -- but now his business needs help with its own recovery.
Wyoming County is one of the state’s most rural. It’s home to about 20,000 residents, but no hospital and zero certified treatment beds, according to the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy. As the nation’s opioid overdose epidemic raged, Wyoming County had a prescription overdose death rate of 54.6 per 100,000 people from 1999 to 2014 — the highest in the nation.
An investigation conducted by journalism students at West Virginia University’s Reed School of Media shows the oversight and accountability built into local spending of opioid settlement funds can be markedly inconsistent from county to county.
