Tag: Government

Drought Likely To Affect Fall Foliage

After a dry hot summer, the leaves are already beginning to change to their fall form. Despite an expectation of duller colors, New River Gorge National Park Superintendent Eve West said she thinks this will still be a great fall with lots to see and do. She spoke with reporter Briana Heaney. 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity. 

Heaney: It’s been a very dry summer, the worst drought on record. How will this affect the fall leaves? 

West: Well, it’s probably not going to affect them very well. I’ll just be honest. But you know, we hopefully will get some rain between now and when things begin to turn. Of course, things are already kind of starting to turn a little bit. But you know, what typically triggers fall is when you have the longer nights, the shorter days. But, you do have other varying factors, such as moisture and then also temperature. And so moisture has been kind of our limiting factor this time. It’s been hot, too. So I’m not sure we’ll have to kind of see what happens.

Usually when you get your best falls is when you have, like, a warm, wet spring, and you have a really good summer, and then in the fall you get warm, sunny days, and you get those cool, crisp nights. So maybe we’ll get some cool, crisp nights and warm, sunny days in the fall. So that’ll help but, a little bit of moisture would definite8ly help as well.

Heaney: Moisture, even this late, could still be a positive thing? 

West: It could help. It’s better to have it early on, but it could still help. 

Heaney: So moisture, that’s the factor that we have going against us in this very, very dry summer. What other factors contribute to a good fall turnout? And what are some things that could happen this fall to help the colors last a little longer or shine a little brighter?

West: Well, you know, as long as the fall temperatures, don’t You know, we don’t have some sort of summer time extremes in the fall. You know, we’ve had cooler temperatures late this summer, which has not been a bad thing at all. But if we end up with some nice fall days that are warm and sunny, and we don’t get high winds, that’s the other thing- these high winds, once the leaves start to dry out, they can really knock the leaves off the trees fairly quickly. So, if we get those cool nights, warm, sunny days during the fall, and we get some moisture between now and then and then, we will maybe still have a good fall, we’ll see. I mean, it’s, it could very well be. 

Heaney:Yeah, my fingers are crossed, because I love fall here in West Virginia, and so do a lot of people, including people who don’t live here in West Virginia, the fall colors are a big driver of tourism.

West: Exactly,

Heaney: How will some of these lackluster colors, or short lived colors affect how many people come to visit the region and visit the National Park this year?

West: I don’t really think it’ll have a huge impact, because people come. I mean, the fall is a wonderful time of the year here. I think with all the events that we have going on, Bridge Day, all the smaller town festivals and things, the good hiking weather, Gauley season coming on. I think we’ll do just fine.

Heaney: Yeah. I mean, that goes right into my next question for you, which you kind of hit on already. But other than the beautiful fall colors, what are some things happening in and around the park this fall?

West: We actually have one of our biggest events in a park, from the park standpoint, that is our primary event. It’s called Hidden History week, and it’s for the next, really month, throughout the middle part of September and also into October. We do a lot of guided walks. We actually have “Sounds of the Appalachia Music Festival” that’ll be at Grandview the very last weekend of September, on that Saturday, and we have a lot of live music that day featuring bluegrass and some traditional, you know, Appalachian music. So that’s going to be the last weekend of September. And then a lot of our partners are going to be having guided walks and all sorts of things. And of course, you know, there’s other stuff. There’s a ton of stuff that the communities are putting on. As I mentioned, Bridge Day is always the third Saturday in October, and that’s shaping up to be a big event again this year. And then, you know, Gauley seasons going on right now. So we’ve got the Gauleyfest coming up, and that’s in Summersville, and that’s always a big event that pulls in people from, you know, all over the United States.

Feds Partner With Local Agencies To Reduce Domestic Violence

Two regions of West Virginia have been given a special designation intended to reduce domestic violence involving firearms.

Of the 19 West Virginia homicides linked to domestic violence in 2020, 14 of them involved firearms. Now the Charleston and Wheeling areas are among 78 communities nationwide approved for concerted federal efforts to reduce intimate partner firearm violence.

U.S. Attorney Will Thompson, of the Southern District of West Virginia, will oversee efforts in Kanawha County.

“Usually [in a] highly volatile domestic violence situation, somebody’s going to end up dead,” Thompson said. 

“Not only do we worry about the victims of domestic violence, I also worry about my law enforcement partners. Some of the most volatile situations they ever have to encounter while they’re on duty is walking in not knowing who’s gonna be armed or not armed,” he added.

In the Northern District of the state, U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld will handle cases in Ohio, Brooke, and Hancock counties. He says the designation means prosecutors won’t always have to rely on victims, who are often reluctant to testify against abusers. 

“Most of the domestic violence cases are charged in state court. We’re talking about misdemeanor domestic battery and domestic assault. We’re talking about felony domestic violence. We’re talking about violations of protective orders that occur just within a particular county and don’t involve interstate commerce,” Ihlenfeld said. “The overwhelming number of those cases are prosecuted at the state level. What we can offer from the federal level is stiffer penalties.”

Ihlenfeld also said the designation makes it easier to prosecute domestic violence cases because they don’t rely as heavily on testimony from victims who may be reluctant to testify.

The Justice Department anticipates additional jurisdictions will be designated for focused attention in the future.

State Supreme Court Hears Arguments on AmerisourceBergen’s Insurance Litigation Timeline

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals heard two cases Tuesday morning involving AmerisourceBergen, a major drug company involved in opioid settlements with the state.

AmerisourceBergen has asked two of its insurance companies – ACE American and St. Paul – to pay for their opioid settlement costs. However, the case the state Supreme Court heard Tuesday morning is about whether litigation on AmerisourceBergen’s insurance coverage in West Virginia should influence how and when parallel cases in other states, centering on Delaware, should continue. 

Lawyers argued whether AmerisourceBergen sought a “preferable” state judiciary system rather than letting cases in other states proceed at the same time. Arguments to halt the other cases concern the concept of “comity,” which involves respecting other state’s judicial systems and consistency between rulings.

Chief Justice Tim Armstead voluntarily disqualified himself from hearing the case on Sept. 12. Armstead cited the general disqualification rule in the Code of Judicial Conduct but did not provide further comment. Judge Robert Ryan from the Twenty-First Judicial Circuit sat in on temporary assignment.

The court’s fall term ends in November.

Religious Leaders Unite To Help Those Seeking To End Pregnancies

It’s been two years since Gov. Jim Justice signed a near-total ban on abortions into West Virginia law. But there are loopholes and travel funds that have allowed abortions to continue – sometimes with the guidance of pro-choice religious leaders. Now some of those leaders are joining forces, just as they did in the days before Roe vs. Wade. 

Back in the late 1960s, when Rev. Jim Lewis was an Episcopalian priest in Martinsburg, West Virginia, women regularly sought his counsel in handling troubled pregnancies – whether they wanted to keep the babies, put them up for adoption or abort. 

“They came to talk to me because they couldn’t talk to parents, talk to their boyfriend, talk to anyone around who could help,” Lewis said.  “Everyone had answers. This is what you should do. I didn’t do that.”

At the time, abortions were illegal in West Virginia and most of the nation. They were allowed in a handful of states and under very specific circumstances. A non-denominational group of religious leaders formed the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion, or CCSA, in New York where it was legal. They helped to facilitate abortions for patients from out of state.

“A minister named Howard Moody in Greenwich Village began it with a group of Jews, Protestants, and Catholics. They came together in New York because you could get an abortion in New York, and they formed this consultation network. And that’s where I began connecting to that,” Lewis said.

He reached out to Moody. 

“He came to West Virginia, and he met with a group of us, maybe 10, 12, 15, from around the state. And we joined together and formed, really, what was a consultation that worked right here in West Virginia,” Lewis said.

Through the West Virginia chapter of the CCSA, Lewis oversaw the Eastern Panhandle. His role, he said, was to help women do what they decided was right for them – including ending a pregnancy. 

“All the situations were different. There were married women. There were people who had had personal either incest or particularly, violence – [they were] beaten,” he said.

Lewis said he doesn’t see a conflict between his strong religious views and his support for women’s rights – including abortion. But the pro-life movement is largely driven by Christians who view the issue of abortion very differently – as a sin. Even murder.

“I understand, but we need to protect a woman’s right,” Lewis said. “The only thing I want from the legislature is, people should keep out. I want the legislature to protect women… because it’s their bodies, and they have to make these decisions.” 

In January 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court essentially agreed, ruling that the U.S. Constitution protected a woman’s right to abortion. Half a century later, Lewis was in Charleston and semi-retired when the court reversed itself in 2022, ending the constitutional right to abortion.

“When it all got thrown back on the states, do we do something by referendum? Do we do something by giving it to the legislature to create law? Oh, my God, and that’s what we did,” Lewis said. “To leave it in the hands of the legislature or the governor was deadly.” 

On Sept. 16, 2022, Justice signed a bill banning all abortions in the state, except in cases of medical emergency or for victims of rape and incest until eight weeks of pregnancy for adults and 14 weeks for children. Since then, pro-choice advocates have funded travel to other states for abortions, and have guided West Virginians seeking to end a pregnancy.

Margaret Chapman Pomponio is the executive director of West Virginia Free, which advocates for reproductive health access. She and Lewis decided to attend a New Orleans gathering of the Spiritual Alliance of Communities for Reproductive Dignity, or SACReD, earlier this year.

“It was a gathering of spiritual people to talk about reproductive rights and justice in this post-Roe world, and figure out how as spiritual people we are called in this moment to help people connect with what they need to live safe, fulfilling lives, and that means being in charge of their reproductive destinies,” Chapman Pomponio said.

There, with Protestant, Catholics, Jews and other advocates, they led a panel discussion on resurrecting a modern-day version of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion. 

“It was a tremendous reception. There was a lot of joy in the room. There was a lot of brimming excitement about putting this together again in a new way,” Chapman Pomponio said.

There are similarities, she said, but reproductive health today is not the same as it was all those years ago.

“We are surrounded by a number of states where you can go and get an abortion. But the other thing that’s really different now is medication abortion,” she said. “The government cannot get into our mail. So pills are being sent to all 50 states across this country, and people are self managing at home.”

Outreach to spiritual leaders across the state has already begun. Later this month, a conference call with advocates out of state interested in forming a network… and early next year, they hope, training for clergy will get underway.

“The beauty of this is, we don’t have to be underground. So we can talk about this. And I guarantee you, people are going to be coming to us and saying, ‘I want to be part of that,’ just like they did then, but even more so now,” Chapman Pomponio said.

Lewis is once again part of leading the efforts in West Virginia. With a long history of battles behind him, from the Vietnam War to the banning of textbooks, women’s rights is one fight he says he plans to continue.

“I’m 88 years old, and I only got a couple more years, and I made the commitment to really focus those years,” he said. “I’ve been involved with a whole lot of issues, but I see underneath that women’s issues. So I’m saying the last years of my life are going to be spent working at that.”

Court Hearing Arguments On-the-Road for Constitution Day

The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) will leave their Charleston courtrooms on Tuesday to hear an argument docket at Davis & Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia. The event falls on Constitution Day. Proceedings will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the college’s Harper-McNeeley Auditorium.

Tuesday’s event is the third in the ICA on Campus series, aimed at engaging the public with the judiciary’s role in West Virginia. Judges have taught in selected colleges’ classrooms on topics such as checks and balances and disparities in the legal system based on socioeconomic factors like race and gender.

“Every part of life is tied, in one way or the other, to the law and our legal system,” Chief Justice Thomas Scarr said.

Scarr said the court tries to assemble on-the-road dockets with topics that interest students or have regional relevance along with engaging lawyers arguing the cases. Tuesday’s docket will include a West Virginia University Law student arguing a case, a first for the ICA.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals will visit Williamstown Middle/High School on Oct. 8. Both courts’ oral arguments are always open to the public both in-person and via webcast on the West Virginia Judiciary YouTube page.

House Democrats Urge Republican State Leaders To Make Big Child Care Policy Change

Later this month legislators will convene at the Capitol in a special session to consider changes to the state’s childcare policy, but House Democrats want more than just a child care tax credit. 

Later this month legislators will convene at the Capitol in a special session to consider changes to the state’s childcare policy, but House Democrats want more than just a childcare tax credit. 

A bill introduced during last winter’s regular session by Sen. Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell, would have provided some tax relief for West Virginians who pay for childcare. That bill, and others addressing childcare, didn’t pass. 

Del. Joey Garcia, D-Marion, said during a press conference in Parkersburg, held during interim meetings, that a tax credit would help – but not enough. 

“Thank God the governor is calling this,” Garcia said. “It may be late, but it is an opportunity. It cannot just be this tax credit. It can absolutely not just be that.”

Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, said that her and other House Democrats have discussed multiple childcare policies, like policies that would cost share childcare between employers, families, and the state or policies that would focus on collecting data about childcare in the state so that it can be better addressed. She says all of these proposals will strengthen the state’s workforce. 

“We know that childcare is the workforce behind the workforce, and we just need to make sure that these businesses (childcare providers) are staying open so folks can go to work and that we can increase the number of childcare facilities that we have,” Young said.  

There is no official word on what bills the legislature will consider during that special session which begins on Sept. 30. The session will also include a proposed 5 percent income tax cut.

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