When the farming start-up, AppHarvest, launched in Kentucky, it promised good jobs in coal country — but some workers called it a grueling hell on earth. We also explore an island of Japanese culture in West Virginia called Yama.
When the farming start-up, AppHarvest, launched in Kentucky, it promised good jobs in coal country — but some workers called it a grueling hell on earth.
We also explore an island of Japanese culture in West Virginia called Yama.
And fish fries have been a staple in Charleston, West Virginia’s Black community for years. We visit one and learn a little about what’s made them so popular.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
When AppHarvest built its first greenhouse in 2020, it was touted as no less than the future of farming — and even Appalachia itself. The start-up would use cutting-edge technology and local workers to produce vegetables on an industrial scale. But then, last year, the company filed for bankruptcy.
Austyn Gaffney recently reported on the downfall of AppHarvest, in a story for Grist. Mason Adams talks with Gaffney to learn more.
Japanese Homestyle Haven In Morgantown
Staff member Ryoko Kijimoto serves up rich rice bowls and ramen in Yama’s diner atmosphere.
Credit: Min Kim
High Street in Morgantown, West Virginia is a bustling strip. Tucked away off the main drag is a place called Yama, a cozy diner that’s been serving up homestyle Japanese food since the 1990s. Japanese students and staff share their language, culture and food. It’s also a place of comfort and connection for everyone.
Folkways Reporter Lauren Griffin has the story.
Fish Fries, An African-American Tradition In Charleston, W.Va.
Andre Nazario
Credit: Leeshia Lee/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Signs for fish fries are pretty common in Charleston, West Virginia, especially in the city’s Black community, where they’ve become a tradition.
Folkways Fellow, Leeshia Lee, grew up in Charleston and says friends and neighbors frequently hosted fish fries, often as a way to raise money for community needs. Lee has the story.
Remembering The W.Va. Water Crisis 10 Years Later
Kallie Cart reporting on the January 2014 West Virginia water crisis.
Credit: Kallie Cart/WCHS-TV
Ten years ago, a chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia’s Elk River contaminated the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people. The disaster became a national story, about corporate distrust and community action.
WVPB’s Randy Yohe spoke with Kallie Cart, a former broadcast reporter who covered the crisis and went viral after one particular exchange.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Chris Knight, Tim Bing, Amythyst Kiah, Jeff Ellis and Bob Thompson.
Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens.
You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.
On this West Virginia Morning, tucked away in downtown Morgantown is Yama, a cozy diner that serves up homestyle Japanese food. Since the 1990s, Japanese students have come there to share their common language and culture with the staff. It’s also a place of comfort and connection for everyone.
On this West Virginia Morning, tucked away in downtown Morgantown is Yama, a cozy diner that serves up homestyle Japanese food. Since the 1990s, Japanese students have come there to share their common language and culture with the staff. It’s also a place of comfort and connection for everyone. Folkways Reporter Lauren Griffin has this story.
Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes from Robbie Fulks, whose witty, yet sophisticated songs have captivated our audiences for years. We listen to his performance of “Fare Thee Well, Carolina Gals,” which originally appeared on his 2016 album Upland Stories.
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 CAMC and 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 and producer.
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
On a recent Friday night, a small gathering got together in Morgantown to show their appreciation to a front line veteran of the war in Ukraine.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade.
On a recent Friday night, a small gathering of about five families got together in the community center of an apartment complex in Morgantown. Young women wore flower crowns with ribbons cascading off of them. Intermixed with English, you could hear snippets of Ukrainian.
The group gathered to show their appreciation to Araiah Ben Yehuda, who recently arrived from the front lines in Ukraine.
Originally from the United Kingdom, Ben Yehuda moved to Israel in the 1990s where he served as a police officer until the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. Barring a visit to Israel at the outbreak of that country’s war against Hamas, Ben Yehuda has been on the front lines for almost two years and said it was time for a break.
“They just invited me to come to Morgantown,” he said. “I told him that I needed time to rest from the war, and they asked me to come over.”
Ben Yehuda said he appreciates the calm of West Virginia, although he was a little taken aback to find himself amongst Ukranians so far from the front lines.
“I knew I was coming to Morgantown, but I didn’t expect an evening like this, meeting with fellow Ukrainians,” he said. “It’s a nice feeling that you feel wanted, but being in the center of attention is hard for me. My body is here, but my mind is still back in Ukraine fighting, so it’s hard for me.”
For Ukranians living in Morgantown like Valeria Gritsenko, Ben Yehuda is a glimpse into the military reality of the war.
“I haven’t heard directly the military perspective,” she said. “This has been very useful for me to hear that the war is going okay. It’s not easy. It’s very tough and difficult, and there are still problems with weapons supplies, but morale is high, and everyone is determined to win.”
Gritsenko is an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at West Virginia University. Almost all of the members of the small Ukrainian community were attracted to Morgantown by the university.
Originally from the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, Gritsenko has lived in Morgantown for more than 10 years after coming to the university. Gritsenko said she gets more of the civilian perspective on the conflict from her friends and family, when she can.
“They are getting tired of the war, especially in this holiday season,” she said. “When I last talked to friends in Ukraine, the nerves are very frazzled by all the sirens and bombings and they’re just hoping that the war will end sooner rather than later, but they have no doubt that they will win.”
Gritsenko’s husband, Sergiy Yakovenko, likened Ben Yehuda to a medieval knight and said it was amazing to meet someone dedicated to defending his home country. Yakovenko hopes his work at the university with biomedical research into new prostheses will help recovery efforts, but he and others need the war to end first.
“Different types of prosthetics that would be able to communicate with the nervous system and prosthetic device and enable more, really kind of intuitive control of the device and be more like a real hand,” he said. “It’s a problem not only in Ukraine, but here, just as much of a problem for all veterans who don’t have adequate solutions for their disability.”
A Ukranian flag on display at the Jan. 5, 2024 gathering in Morgantown in honor of Araiah Ben Yehuda.
Credit: Chris Schulz/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
There is a growing frustration that international attention has lost focus on the Ukrainian conflict as it stretches into another year and new issues arise.
Yakovenko’s parents, Mykhailo and Vira, relocated to Morgantown a few months after the war. He said their experience and his struggle to get them out of the country has left him dealing with post-traumatic stress.
“It’s difficult to resolve. It’s something that we will have to deal with with the whole nation of Ukrainians and people who were exposed to this war,” Yakovenko said. “But my parents managed to get out.”
With help from Gritsenko, Vira explains that despite the distance and being in the U.S. for almost two years, her thoughts and her life are still in Ukraine.
“Here, we live our life in Ukraine vicariously through the internet,” Vera said. “We just keep watching for everything, all the events that are happening over there, especially in the holiday times. We saw that the 138 buildings were destroyed in this big last bombardment in Kharkiv, and we worry about all the people that are left without a roof over their head in winter.”
Mykhailo adds that he finds it very hard to wait out the war, and live with the constant pressure.
“I would really like it to be over sooner rather than later, and ask the Americans who support Ukraine to continue supporting Ukraine, because Putin will not stop at Ukraine and if he’s allowed to win there, he will just roll over other countries,” he said.
Although not Ukrainian, Julia Khazajeva has integrated into the small, local community. She was previously a journalist in Russia, but unwilling to support the war effort, she fled with her family in 2022.
“I just met several people who helped me and an opportunity opened right in Morgantown,” she Khazajeva said. “But I really had another opportunity to get to Washington, for example, but those moments I wanted to have something peaceful and really quiet, and Morgantown is a blessed place we found.”
Like Ben Yehuda, Khazajeva is grateful for that peace. But she and the rest of this small community live with the daily reminders that their friends and family back in Ukraine and Russia live a very different reality. Their biggest concern is that if Ukraine falls, that will only be the beginning of a broader, international conflict.
“What I keep repeating to my friends over here is that if we stop providing weapons to Ukraine, guys, Russian soldiers will go further,” Khazajeva said. ”They will go to Lithuania, Poland, even Germany. I know Russian culture. I know how these people think from inside. They will not stop.”
Ben Yehuda plans to continue traveling before returning to fight in a few weeks. In February, it will be three years since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and the group that came out to honor Ben Yehuda are left wondering what will face him when he returns to the front lines, and what fate has in store for their homeland.
On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s frontline veterans.
On this West Virginia Morning, Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sparking a new wave of fighting in a conflict that stretches back at least a decade. As that fighting enters its third year, a small community of Ukrainians, formed around West Virginia University (WVU), recently came together to honor one of the war’s front line veterans. Chris Schulz has the story.
Also, in this show, the corrections system in West Virginia is a point of discussion at the state legislature. Overcrowding staffing is at the top of the list. Last week for The Legislature Today, Randy Yohe sat down with forensic psychologist Dr. David Clayman and Senate Jails and Prison Committee co-chair Sen. Jason Barrett, R-Berkeley, to talk about the diversion of certain persons from the criminal justice system.
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 threat was made just before 12:30 p.m. on the Evansdale Campus in Morgantown.
A bomb threat was reported Monday at West Virginia University.
The threat was made just before 12:30 p.m. on the Evansdale Campus in Morgantown.
According to WVU officials, a university employee in the Mineral Resources Building received a phone call prompting an evacuation order to be posted on the university’s X page — formerly Twitter.
The Engineering Sciences buildings were immediately closed and public transit services at the Engineering Station temporarily halted.
After performing a thorough search of the Mineral Resources Building, university police officers found no evidence of a threat and campus operations returned to normal around 2 p.m.
An investigation into the origin of the call is underway.
One of the two charter schools under review to open next year held a public hearing in Morgantown Thursday night.
One of the two charter schools under review to open next year held a public hearing in Morgantown Thursday night.
Wisdom Academy is seeking formal approval from the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board. The state’s charter school law requires applicants hold a public forum during their interview process where local residents can learn about the application and provide input.
Javaid Syed is the program director of information technology and computer science at Salem University, and the board chair for Wisdom Academy. In his presentation, he discussed the importance of preparing students for a changing world, particularly around technology.
“If you do not provide digital literacy to our children properly, the school children will be left behind,” Syed said. “Time is not going to stop for anyone.”
He answered questions about the school from parents and community members for close to an hour. These questions ranged from why a charter school was necessary to what curriculum would be followed.
“We have seen firsthand the challenges that our students have felt when they were going to school,” Syed said. “We feel that at this stage we are at, we have this opportunity to create this school and address some of those weaknesses that are in the public schools. I feel that we are in a position that we can address some of those challenges that the diversity of Morgantown student body (has). We will be able to cater to the needs much better than the public schools.”
The Wisdom Academy’s application states that two of its board positions are to be filled by members from the Iqra Educational Foundation, a local non-profit offering support to the academy. The non-profit’s members purchased the Monongalia County Schools Administration Offices building in Morgantown, the proposed site of Wisdom Academy.
At least three people present Thursday night asked about the possibility of teaching Arabic at Wisdom Academy.
“We’re going to evaluate it, we are going to see what the student needs are,” Syed said. “It’s still a bit too early to say ‘No, no, we are going to do it’ because I don’t want to commit to anything. Because, first of all, we have not been approved yet.”
Syed was surprised and motivated by the more than 30 people who showed up to the forum.
James Paul, executive director of the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board, also felt attendance was notable.
“Tonight’s turnout was significantly larger than turnout in the previous application cycle,” Paul said.
He said a bigger turnout is good not just because the public forum is required by law, but because feedback can help applicants like the Wisdom Academy improve their offerings.
“It’s hopefully beneficial to the applicants who are able to respond to anything that was raised tonight, they can refine their application or prepare for how they’re going to take the feedback that they’ve received tonight and implement that if the school is eventually approved and opened,” Paul said.
Paul said the focus on Arabic as a potential foreign language at the charter school highlights the purpose of the charter school movement.
“Certainly one of the promises of charter schools is the ability to have a more specialized academic curriculum, academic themes, modes of instruction,” Paul said. “I think it’s great that this particular school is looking at potentially doing some unique things with foreign languages.”
The charter school board expects to complete its review of Wisdom Academy in November. If approved, it would become the second charter school in Morgantown and the eighth in the state.
Note: This story was updated at 4 p.m. Oct. 20 to correct a reference to the Iqra Educational Foundation. The foundation supporting the Wisdom Academy is a separate entity from an organization of the same name in Skokie, IL.
