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Why An Appalachian School Board Pulled 57 Books Off Library Shelves

School boards have become the latest front in America’s culture wars — especially when it comes to books in school libraries that some people think are inappropriate for students. That situation has been playing out in Rockingham County, Virginia, which sits midway down the Shenandoah Valley.

This conversation originally aired in the April 14, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

School boards have become the latest front in America’s culture wars — especially when it comes to books in school libraries that some people think are inappropriate for students.

That situation has been playing out in Rockingham County, Virginia, which sits midway down the Shenandoah Valley. In January, the school board voted to remove 57 books from school libraries, prompting an outcry from people who see this as a book ban.

Ashlyn Campbell has been covering the story for the Daily News-Record. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams reached out to Campbell to learn more about what’s happening.

Adams: We’re talking about Rockingham County, located in the Shenandoah Valley, where the school board voted 4-1 to remove 57 books from school libraries. Why did they take this vote?

Campbell: This was something that multiple members of the school board campaigned on in November. A new majority came in who were very vocally conservative. They’ve said that they’re concerned over sexual content, profanity and violence. At the meeting where they took the vote, they said, we read the books, they’re deeply disturbing to us, and we want to protect the kids and the county. So that’s kind of the gist of why they wanted to remove the 57 books.

Adams: What kinds of books were removed? Can you share some of the titles?

Campbell: It’s a broad list of books. A lot of them have to do with the LGBTQ community, racial issues, mental health, stuff like that. One of the books, Felix Ever After, is about transgender teen, which is a coming of age story. There are some books on the list that are considered classics — books like The Bluest Eye, Beloved from Toni Morrison and Slaughterhouse-Five. There are books on the list that do have sexual content, profanity, violence. Looking for Alaska is on the list.

And then there are one or two books that don’t have any sexual content, profanity, violence. One of them is The Invisible Boy, which is a picture book. And then the other one is Drama, which is a middle school theater book that has kissing but no real sexual content. With The Invisible Boy, which is a picture book that talks about not feeling alone and having empathy, one of the board members said that they think it was mistakenly included. There’s another [similar] title that has to do with race and evangelical Christianity and stuff like that. One of the school board members did say that she thinks the picture book was mistakenly included on the list.

Adams: How did students and parents respond to this decision by the school board?

Campbell: [The school board] said that this removal is temporary while they develop a new policy to review library books. The vast majority of parents and students that I’ve talked to have been very upset about the ban. Students have walked out at several of the high schools. They held a rally about all of the issues going on with the book ban. I know a lot of people have sent a lot of emails to the board sharing their concerns — they don’t think they should ban books, because they help represent students, and it’s a slippery slope, and stuff like that.

There are community members that have spoken in favor of the removal. From their point of view, they don’t want sexual content in books at school libraries. But for the most part, the vast majority of parents and students I’ve talked to or have spoken out at meetings have been against the decision.

Adams: One of the things that comes up in your story is the board members do clarify like this, they say it’s not a book ban. It’s a “temporary removal.” So what happens next in terms of process?

Campbell: They’ve started the process of creating the policy of how books enter libraries, and how books are reviewed if they’re challenged. The other week, they met with school librarians to talk about what policies they have in place, what they would like to see from the policy, stuff like that. I think that was the first meeting to talk through what those policies will look like.

They’ve said they want to hear from community members, parents, teachers, librarians, all those kinds of people to start developing the policy. They’ve said that they would like to get it out sooner rather than later. They had that first meeting, and then I think they’re going to have another meeting where they hear more from the community. But from there, they’re going to develop a policy and we’ll see what they decide to include.

Adams: One of your follow-up stories notes that this isn’t an isolated incident, but part of a national trend. And certainly, we’ve seen other communities in Appalachia that have done something similar. Can you tell us a little bit more about what’s happening in the bigger picture?

Campbell: Rockingham County is not the only school division that has experienced both challenges, book bans and removals. A lot of school divisions have removed a lot of similar titles or have similar lists that they’re removing. A lot of that has to do with this website called Book Looks, which is a book review website that, while it says it’s not connected to Moms for Liberty, it has ties to the group.

For Rockingham County, the board member who compiled the list said, I pulled these from parent complaints, but then went and researched through Book Looks. She has this document that the vast majority of the books that she researched, which was about half of the list, she said is from Book Looks. There’s at least one screenshot for one of the books that she pulled directly for Moms for Liberty, too, which is a similar theme across a lot of school divisions where they’re using Book Looks or sources like Moms for Liberty to either pull directly from those lists of books, or, like in Rockingham County, the board member used to research it.

PEN America has said that book challenges [and] book bans are on the rise. A lot of this has to do with those groups that are now pushing removal of books, like Moms for Liberty, who in a lot of school divisions are directly going in and advocating for removing a lot of the books that are also on the Rockingham County list.

Adams: So this decision was made back in January, and it’s got a lot of attention. There was a Washington Post op-ed, I see there’s a thread on Reddit, and a lot of other outlets have picked up the general story. Do you think that bigger attention has made a difference in Rockingham County at all?

Campbell: For the school board, no. Now, the National Coalition Against Censorship sent a letter to the school board, advocating for them to put the books back and to have certain things in their process to review books. PEN America also worked with a number of authors to again advocate for them to return the books, to not have a book ban.

When I’ve talked to the chair of the board about this, he said that he’s not interested in national groups’ opinions about what’s going on because he’s listening to his constituents in Rockingham County. I think he sent a one sentence email back to PEN America that was like, “My constituents are in Rockingham County.” When I talked to him about the National Coalition against Censorship letter, he said something similar. He’s not taking anything that they’re saying into account, because he’s listening to people in Rockingham County.

Adams: Have there been any changes since this happened in January? It’s been a couple of months.

Campbell: The biggest thing that’s happened is that meeting with librarians where they shared their thoughts. A lot of them said that the decision really hurt them because the board didn’t consult them beforehand. But for the most part, I think the board is going ahead with the new policy to review challenged books, and then also to determine how books end up in school and classroom libraries. There’s been a lot of backlash. There’s been a lot of discussion about what’s going on.

But from what I’ve seen from the school board, I think they’re just going to go forward with their plan of how they’re going to develop the policy. In one of the work sessions, they did pull from a lot of other school divisions that have examples of policies for libraries. And they’ve said, not everything that are on those policies they want to include, but they want to pick and choose.

Adams: From reading your story, it looks like there are existing procedures already set up for the libraries. Can you tell us more about what those look like?

Campbell: They have collection development policies for each school. So they use things that compile reviews. There’s a number of websites that they use to look at books and determine what’s going to be included in their libraries. The division has also had a policy that was used to review challenged material for library books or instructional material. Now, the board has said that’s only for instructional material. It’s been a practice to use it for library material, but really, the policy is only written for instructional material. The policy has been used for library material for a number of years.

For the school division, libraries have collection development policies. Parents can go in and research what books are in their school libraries. And parents also have the option to be notified when their child checks out books, so they can see what their kid is checking out and, from my understanding, it’s in the single digits for the number of people that have actually utilized that option. So there are school-specific collection development policies. They use a lot of similar resources. There also was a county policy that they said is used for instructional material, but has been used for library material in the past.

Violets Make Medicine, Munchies And Memories

Every spring, violets bloom across Appalachia, a carpet of purple, white and yellow. These unassuming flowers do everything from spruce up a cocktail to fight cancer. Here are a few of the ways herbalists use them for food and medicine.

This story originally aired in the April 14, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

Brandy McCann is a self-taught herbalist from Blacksburg, Virginia, who considers violets a personal gift. She was born in late April, when the flowers typically bloom.

It has always delighted McCann that she was born on Earth Day. When her mother went into the hospital, things were a bit dark and dreary, but when she emerged a week later, violets were in bloom.

“So that’s always been a very special thing to me, when I see the violets blooming, every spring around my birthday, I just feel like it’s such a gift from Mother Nature,” McCann says.

McCann enjoys reciprocating the gift of violets by using them to make presents for friends and family. In her sunny kitchen with a view of the flowers growing in her yard, she demonstrates how to make skin toner.

“I have a jar full of dried violets and I harvested them probably a couple of weeks ago. I let them air dry on a towel and put them in the jar,” McCann says. “And then I have here some jojoba oil, or you can use olive oil, any kind of carrier oil that’s good for the skin. And then I pour the oil and fill the jar, leaving just a tiny bit of headspace and then set a lid on it, and give her a good shake out every day.”

For a month or so, McCann says to keep the infused oil in a clean glass jar away from light, heat and dampness. Then strain out the plant material and keep the oil.

Brandy McCann makes skin toner from violets and jojoba oil. She has made gifts from violets for more than a decade.

*Photo Credit: Wendy Welch/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

That’s one fun project people may want to try with violets, but there are many uses for these flowers. Nica Fraser studied at the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. She teaches her daughters herbalism as part of their homeschool curriculum. One of their projects is making violet lavender sugar.

Tastes differ, but Fraser suggests one to two tablespoons of culinary dried lavender combined with two cups of sugar is a good base. To this you can add a fourth- to a half-cup or so of dried violets — leaf and flower, not roots. Start with less and add as you go, then blend the mixture until smooth. Taste, then add anything you think it needs more of.

A blender can be used to make violet sugar. A mortar and pestle will also work.

*Photo Credit: Wendy Welch/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Learning with violets can be fun, and Fraser particularly likes that the violets add vitamins to the sugar all children love.

“I think per gram, you get about double the dose of vitamin C in a gram of a violet leaf than you do in a gram of an orange. They’re also rich in vitamin A, they’ve got great magnesium content, and they’ve even got calcium in them,” Fraser says.

Fraser’s youngest fills a flower bowl for processing back at the house. Fraser has taught her daughters to forage for spring violets, along with other edible flowers.

*Photo Credit: Nica Fraser*

That high vitamin content is also why Fraser likes to watch her daughters pick flowers during playtime — and consume them.

Of her oldest daughter, she says, “One of her favorite things to do is to know that she can just be walking outside playing, take a break, eat some flowers and keep going.”

Fraser learned to love foraging from her grandmother, who taught her as a child to hunt morels.

“She was actually the person who planted that seed in me, that you could find nourishment out in nature.”

It is a seed Fraser delights to see growing in her children as they forage on the family homestead in southeastern Ohio.

“I get to take my two daughters out into the woods, and I teach them what I know, and they are so very interested,” Fraser says. “They light up … they love taking this in and they retain it. They apply it, they ask questions, and it’s just really, really enjoyable to watch these little budding herbalists run around in the yard every day with their inquisitive minds.”

Those minds have retained a great deal of information, even at their tender ages. Fraser asks her kids whether they should eat violets that grow near poison ivy, and they come up with excellent information.

Violets are versatile and vibrant.

*Photo Credit: Nica Fraser*

Fraser’s daughters head toward a favorite foraging spot. They have been learning about plants during home school lessons with their mother.

*Photo Credit: Nica Fraser*

“We definitely don’t want to pick it because it will put the oils on from the poison ivy,” the girls reply, more or less in chorus. They add not to pick near busy roads where car exhaust would saturate the petals and leaves, or in a barnyard pasture, because — poop.

Keeping all those caveats in mind, violets are still one of the safest flowers for new foragers because they’re so easy to identify.

Dr. Beth Shuler and a patient at Powell Valley Animal Hospital. Shuler studied herbal medicine for animals as a supplement to her licensed veterinary practice.

*Photo Credit: Powell Valley Animal Hospital*

Dr. Beth Shuler, a veterinarian who studied at Purple Moon Herbs and Studies, loves violets.

“They just make me smile. I like that they’re gentle, they’re easy to find,” Shuler says. “It’s so safe and easy to use that you can put it in your cocktail or your salad, but at the same time it’s very strong and powerful enough to help cure cancer.”

Shuler owns Powell Valley Animal Hospital in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and often uses violets in her practice. She says they’re a good herb for breast care in dogs and people.

“Most of the dogs that we would use violets for are dealing with breast cancer, mammary cancer or mastitis,” Shuler says. “We would do a combination of oral treatment with a tincture.”

Violets are also a great cleanser for infected wounds. Shuler’s youngest dog, Sirrus, is about to get a special treat because Shuler wanted the flower power working inside of him. He had cut his foot on some ice, and it was a little bit swollen.

Or, as Shuler puts it, “he’s got mild lymphatic inflammation up in his axillary lymph node draining from that injured toe. So I’m placing some tincture, violet tincture in ethanol, on a corner of a piece of toast.”

Sirrus chows down. Shuler’s pleased by that, adding that giving dogs toast is not a common thing in her household, since bread is not good for dogs as part of a daily diet.

“But it does act as a very nice absorptive sponge for tinctures to go down easily. And less mess,”

Schuler explains that humans and dogs have multiple lymph nodes; think of them as internal trash cans trying to keep the garbage away. When people get sick, lymph nodes under our arms sometimes swell up and ache. But lymph nodes have no pump. Violets are excellent at breaking up and dispelling lymph from our bodies. Just another reason to love it, in Shuler’s opinion. But also a reason to treat it with respect and not eat too many of them at once.

“The violet is very powerful and easy to find. But again it is not a simple herb,” Shuler says.

In other words, don’t go eat a bunch of violets — or rub them on your dog’s feet — and expect either one of you to feel better right away. Shuler’s dog Sirrus got a few days of tincture toast.

Sirrus, the youngest of the Shuler/Tester family dogs, is happy to have eaten violet toast live on the radio. He had a mild cut that became inflamed, so Shuler treated him for a few days with violet tincture.

*Photo Credit: Brandon Tester*

“It’s not a one dose and done,” Shuler says. “These are built up in the body as repetitive use, it’s not an overnight fix.”

Literally safe enough for small children to swallow as a snack, violets can clean wounds, fight cancer or spruce up a gin and tonic. Violets are nothing if not versatile.

Violet gin fizzes are wonderful drinks. Shuler made two for drinking in her back garden, as a celebration of violet versatility.

*Photo Credit: Wendy Welch/West Virginia Public Broadcasting*

Dr. Beth Shuler and her husband Dr. Brandon Tester both took classes held on the North Carolina coast from Purple Moon Herbs and Studies. She is a veterinarian; he is a chiropractor.

*Photo Credit: Brandon Tester*

For a fun list of things to do with violets, check out Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine. Remember, never try a new unidentified plant or medicine without first consulting an expert.

——

This story is part of the Inside Appalachia Folkways Reporting Project, a partnership with West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s Inside Appalachia and the Folklife Program of the West Virginia Humanities Council.

The Folkways Reporting Project is made possible in part with support from Margaret A. Cargill Philanthropies to the West Virginia Public Broadcasting Foundation. Subscribe to the podcast to hear more stories of Appalachian folklife, arts and culture.

Chair Caning And Keeping Utilities In Good Shape, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, when your power goes out, water bill comes in or your nearby fire hydrant looks ancient, there’s a state organization keeping tabs on all of that and more. Randy Yohe talks with Charlotte Lane, chair of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, on how this regulating entity balances public protection with keeping utilities viable.

On this West Virginia Morning, you don’t see caned chairs as much as you used to. Cane breaks down with age and there aren’t many people who know how to repair these old chairs. But in Wheeling, there’s a workshop called Seeing Hand, where skilled workers repair old chairs and so much more. For Inside Appalachia, Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett brings us this story.

Also, in this show, when your power goes out, water bill comes in or your nearby fire hydrant looks ancient, there’s a state organization keeping tabs on all of that and more. Randy Yohe talks with Charlotte Lane, chair of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, on how this regulating entity balances public protection with keeping utilities viable.

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.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

The Many Uses Of Violets And Ed Snodderly Has Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, violets bloom across Appalachia throughout spring, but the flowers are more than just some extra color in the yard. They’ve long been a key ingredient in herbal remedies.

On this West Virginia Morning, violets bloom across Appalachia throughout spring, but the flowers are more than just some extra color in the yard. They’ve long been a key ingredient in herbal remedies. For Inside Appalachia, Folkways Reporter Wendy Welch brings us this story.

Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us Ed Snodderly, whose songs have been recorded by some of roots music’s most well-known names. We listen to his performance of “Gone with Gone and Long Time,” accompanied by the Mountain Stage Band and Lisa Pattison on fiddle and vocals.

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.

Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Emily Rice produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

W.Va. Mobile Home Park Tenants Fight A Media Giant

When a new owner took control of a mobile home park in Mercer County, West Virginia, its residents noticed immediate changes. Rents went up, and it seemed like the new owner was doing less to take care of problems like broken windows, or even a sewage leak. So one resident started looking into exactly who this new owner was.

This conversation originally aired in the March 31, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.

When a new owner took control of a mobile home park in Mercer County, West Virginia, its residents noticed immediate changes.

Rents went up, and it seemed like the new owner was doing less to take care of problems like broken windows, or even a sewage leak. So one resident started looking into exactly who this new owner was.

What she found led to a story in Voices of Monterey Bay, an online publication from California. It’s titled, “The Davids in Appalachia fighting the Monterey Bay Area’s news Goliath.”

Julie Reynolds reported the story. She recently spoke with Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams from a van in the Mojave desert, north of Quartzsite, Arizona.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

Adams: I think you are the first person I’ve interviewed who has been in a minivan sitting in the desert.

Reynolds: Most likely, but you know, the sound quality is pretty good.

Adams: The story you have is headlined, “The Davids in Appalachia fighting the Monterey Bay area’s news Goliath.” This story sprawls across the U.S., but let’s start where the story does, in Mercer County, West Virginia. Can you tell us about Elk View Estates, which is the property at the beginning [of your story]?

Reynolds: Sure. Elk View Estates, according to one of the tenants there, Valeria Steele, was a very nice mobile home park manufactured home community until about 2021, when a very mysterious entity bought the park. Tenants didn’t know who these owners were. They were told to send their rent checks to a place in Englewood, New Jersey to a man named Tom del Bosco and various other entities.

At different times, the rent checks went to a lot of different places. Valeria is kind of a citizen journalist, and she started investigating and digging into public records and connected the dots to see that the entity that bought her mobile home park was an affiliate of the same investment firm that had taken over a huge swath of American newspapers. She found my reporting about this company Alden Global Capital, and its related business Smith Management, and connected the dots and saw that the company that bought her mobile home park, Homes of America, was actually a business affiliate of Alden Global Capital, the same company that was known for destroying local newspapers.

Adams: Now the residents of Elk View Estates are suing Homes of America. What’s the latest on what’s happening there?

Reynolds: So a pro bono law firm called Mountain State Justice decided to support the tenants in all six Mercer County mobile home parks that were owned by Homes of America. They have filed several lawsuits, including one that’s a possible class action. They’re waiting to see if they get certified. And the reason I call them “the Davids fighting Goliath” is because they’ve actually had some successes. They were able to stop rent increases. They were able to halt some evictions. When Homes of America took over, rents just shot up. I mean, Valeria’s went up $300 a month, from $550 to $850 a month. Some went up 60 percent. And we’re talking about, many people in these parks are on very limited income — Social Security, veterans benefits — and can’t even fathom affording that kind of rent increase.

At the same time, they’re stuck there if they’re renting the land, but they own their mobile home. The costs of moving the home are prohibitive. You know, it can be in the tens of thousands of dollars to move one of these mobile homes. So many of them just left. The parks now have a huge vacancy rate. Valeria has told me that there’s been sewage leaks, that there’s overgrown grass, broken windows. And all of this took place since Homes of America took over the park.

The lawsuits, like I said, have had some successes. To me that was very inspiring, because journalists have been trying to figure out how to save their local newspapers, and so far have been kind of befuddled. They’ve been fighting back, and they’ve had a few small victories against Alden Global Capital. But this was stunning and inspiring to see these tenants organizing themselves. They went out with cell phones, shot photos of the sewage leaks and things like that, and put together a case.

Adams: What is the latest with their case at the moment?

Reynolds: They’re kind of on hold for a little bit. The judge handling the cases, the main one retired in December, and the new judge has not been appointed. So they had been in the middle of a process of submitting some motions, because Homes of America was not complying with the court orders. They were not supplying what’s called “discovery,” which is all the documents showing what’s going on. There is a motion still pending to order them to provide this discovery.

They’ve been ordered once and they ignored that order, and now they’re waiting for a new order to have some consequences because they’re absolutely ignoring the court’s order on this. So, they’re in a holding pattern right now. And we shall see what happens next. But they are still fighting.

Adams: You know, here in Appalachia, we’re seeing both of these trends play out in real time, with different companies buying up mobile home parks, and in a lot of cases, raising rent, and making it harder for residents to live there. At the same time, we’re seeing increasing numbers of newspapers acquired by corporate owners who appear to be stripping down the paper for parts. How does Alden bring these stories together? And how did you make these connections?

Reynolds: It was pretty easy because I’m a public documents nerd. Once I started looking at the deeds for these mobile home parks, I recognized the names. I recognized the address in Englewood, New Jersey, I knew that was Smith Management. That’s the firm of Randall Smith, the co-founder of Alden Global Capital. I saw names of Alden executives, all kinds of documents, acquisition papers, permits. Valeria has shown me a check that was cashed by an Alden affiliate was literally a firm set up by Alden completely unrelated to Homes of America. They play very loose and sloppy with all these business entities. There’s a lot of overlap. A lot of the same players are involved in them. So I recognized the names from many of the newspaper documents.

What was most disturbing was an entity — it was called, I believe, Tribune Finance MHP, LLC, something along those lines. That raised my hackles because Alden had recently acquired Tribune Publishing. And I have been trying to follow that trail to see if Alden actually extracted money from the Tribune newspapers to buy these mobile home parks. The name of that entity certainly makes it look like that. And it’s not out of Alden’s wheelhouse because they actually did the same thing with the newspaper chain I worked for, Media News Group. They extracted hundreds of millions of dollars and used that money to buy unrelated businesses that they profited from. Meanwhile, the papers were languishing. We literally had leaky roofs. We had no hot water in the building.

Alden just stopped paying bills, stopped doing maintenance — exactly the same activities they’re doing in these mobile home parks. To them, a business is just a way to extract cash. There’s no interest in journalism, there’s no interest in providing housing — these things that are essential to our society. Companies like Alden do not take that into consideration. It’s just a spreadsheet in their offices. They find ways to extract the maximum profit and provide the least amount of service because that’s what costs money.

Adams: This twin dynamic of corporations, pushing people out of housing or making it harder to live where they live and stripping down newspapers. They’re both pretty bleak. Where do you find hope in all this?

Reynolds: I find hope in Mercer County, West Virginia. I was very inspired by what these tenants are doing. They are not giving up, they are still fighting. These are their homes. This is the one thing that you can claim is yours and hold onto, and it gives you some sense of security. They are not letting go. They are tenacious. The cases are still winding their ways through the courts. Like I said, they have had some successes, and just the fact that they were able to halt the rent increases is a dramatic victory.

I think the hundreds of mobile home parks around the country that are going through the same situation, probably thousands, can look to Mercer County, and take some inspiration and study those cases and see where they’ve been able to have these successes. I mean, I’m just very inspired. I recommend journalists look at them, and study, how are they able to get this kind of success? Because if it’s not illegal, what Alden is doing, it is certainly unethical, it’s immoral.

In many cases, they have just completely ignored permitting processes, things like that. And so that’s where these tenants are able to catch them in the act and find, “Hey, you are not meeting the requirements to even get a permit to operate this business.” And the court says, “Hey, that’s true. Let’s do something about this. You can’t keep charging extra rent until you fix these things.” And in fact, I’m told by the attorneys handling the case that everything they have fixed has been because of a court order.

Adams: It’s pretty cool that a reporter from all the way across the country is still tracking these legal proceedings in West Virginia. Julie Reynolds, thank you for your work. And thanks for coming on and speaking with us on Inside Appalachia.

Reynolds: You’re very welcome. And it’s my pleasure. And both my parents are from Appalachia. So I have roots in eastern Kentucky.

Issues In A Mercer County Mobile Home Park And Our Song Of The Week, This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, after a new owner took over a Mercer County mobile home park, rents quickly went up while repairs slowed. One resident did some digging and found a reporter in California who had some unexpected answers about who this new owner was. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with reporter Julie Reynolds.

On this West Virginia Morning, after a new owner took over a Mercer County mobile home park, rents quickly went up while repairs slowed. One resident did some digging and found a reporter in California who had some unexpected answers about who this new owner was. Inside Appalachia Host Mason Adams spoke with reporter Julie Reynolds.

Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from GRAMMY-winning Australian rock star Colin Hay. We listen to an acoustic rendition of his international hit, “Down Under.”

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.

Our Appalachia Health News project is made possible with support from Marshall Health.

West Virginia Morning is produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.

Eric Douglas is our news director. Emily Rice produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning