On this West Virginia Morning, postal unions across the U.S. rallied against job cuts and the possibility of a privatized postal service last week and a vaccine exemption bill fails in the House of Delegates.
On this West Virginia Morning, postal unions across the U.S. rallied against job cuts and the possibility of a privatized postal service last week. Reporter Jack Walker stopped by a rally in Charleston and tells us about workers’ concerns.
And as part of our daily broadcast The Legislature Today, News Director Eric Douglas sat down with Dr. Cathy Slemp – former state health officer for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources – and Del. Sean Hornbuckle, the House minority leader to discuss the defeat of the much-debated vaccine bill in the House of Delegates Monday.
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.
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 this episode of The Legislature Today, a number of bills have moved through the West Virginia Legislature this year that make changes to the practice of medicine in the state. A bill to remove the certificate of need for hospitals failed, but bills allowing optometrists and pharmacists to expand their practice are still moving. Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, has argued against some of these bills so he joined News Director Eric Douglas in our studio to discuss why.
On this episode of The Legislature Today, a number of bills have moved through the West Virginia Legislature this year that make changes to the practice of medicine in the state. A bill to remove the certificate of need for hospitals failed, but bills allowing optometrists and pharmacists to expand their practice are still moving. Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, has argued against some of these bills so he joined News Director Eric Douglas in our studio to discuss why.
Also, some state lawmakers say the cost of maintaining the state’s sex offender registry should fall on the shoulders of registrants themselves. Jack Walker brings us this report.
And Appalachian Power electricity customers protested a proposed rate increase on the Capitol steps Thursday. Curtis Tate brings us the latest.
Having trouble viewing the episode below? Click here to watch it on YouTube.
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.
On this West Virginia Morning, hundreds gathered in Morgantown for a protest against federal spending cuts, and lawmakers discuss energy policy in the state.
On this West Virginia Morning, hundreds of people in Morgantown gathered for a protest against federal spending cuts being felt on the state and local levels. Since his inauguration, President Donald Trump has empowered Elon Musk and others to make swift cuts to federal funding. Chris Schulz reports.
Also in this episode, reporter Curtis Tate spoke with Del. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, and Del. George Street, R-Preston, about energy issues in the state for our legislative recap show The Legislature Today. They touched on rising electricity costs, community solar use and data centers.
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.
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
Activists in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle are promoting local history. They hope it will encourage residents to support the preservation of a village they consider threatened by corporate development.
Updated on Tuesday, February 11 at 11:20 a.m.
Since 1851, the red spires of Grace Episcopal Church have peeked above the skyline of Middleway. For residents of the historic, eighteenth-century village, it is a space that remains full of life — made clear by a community advocacy gathering held on the evening of Jan. 31.
Shedding their rainwear, dozens of residents settled into the church’s squat wooden pews to hear about a water bottling plant proposed just a short walk from Middleway’s tiny village center.
The Jefferson County community has been embroiled in a months-long dispute over the proposed construction of Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility, a one-million-square-foot plant that would extract and package local groundwater. For months, residents have raised concerns about the project’s environmental, safety and historic preservation impacts.
Sidewinder Enterprises, the company behind the project, set forth an initial plan in November, but the Jefferson County Planning Commission ruled it incomplete, delaying it from advancing. After months of anticipation, the commission will review a revised concept plan for the project March 11.
Members of the Jefferson County community who oppose the plan have spent months voicing their dissent through community forums and letter-writing campaigns to local elected officials. As the day for the commission’s decision nears, events like the late January advocacy gathering have provided the community an opportunity to use art and local history to show why Middleway warrants protection.
Jessie Norris, president of the Middleway Conservancy Association, braves the rain to lead a tour of Middleway historic sites.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Protesting Through Song
Molly Sutter is a graduate student in Appalachian studies at Shepherd University. She wrote a song entitled “Mountain Pure” to express her worries about the project, and performed it during the gathering alongside fellow Jefferson County resident and postal clerk Jen Fisher.
“Mountain Pure, Mountain Pure. Make a problem, sell a cure,” they sang. “Leave the water for the people, and we’ll keep our mountains pure.”
“When I was looking at the Mountain Pure project, some of the things that they say are that they’re producing clean water and that they’re creating clean water,” Sutter explained. “Those are just such funny words to use for extracting water and taking it from farmers and from our community. So, a song kind of snowballed from there.”
Sutter said channeling public frustration into song feels natural in a state where music and culture has long informed activism.
“The state has a long history of protest and engagement, especially through music. I am a songwriter and singer, and I see that intersecting with my studies,” she said. “I’ll listen to a lecture about coal mining, and then I’ll go and write a song about it, because it just fires me up and I like to plug into that legacy.”
Fisher lives on the Opequon Creek, a tributary stream that feeds into Middleway’s waterways. She said in an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting that her participation in the gathering stemmed from concerns over water access for the local community.
“I see water as a basic need; as life. I don’t see this as a political issue or a revolutionary idea. It’s a self-evident truth,” Fisher wrote. “Since when did having water for your farm or your family become optional? These people have real worries, and as their neighbor, I worry with them.”
Music is not the only way residents are channeling West Virginia history into their opposition to the Mountain Pure project.
The Middleway Conservancy Association is a local nonprofit aimed at protecting the history and environmental health of the village.
Before the gathering, Conservancy President Jessie Norris offered a tour of the community’s nineteenth-century architecture — part of Jefferson County’s history she says is at risk.
“The pipeline that’s actually going to be coming in from the proposed bottling plant is going to come down this road right here, Old Middleway Road,” she said on the tour, gesturing at a street that passes through the historic village center. “It’s going to cut through here on East Street.”
The Mountain Pure facility would require pipelines to travel beneath the village’s centuries-old streets, connecting local waterways to an abandoned manufacturing site formerly operated by 3M.
Former industrial use at the site left behind a plume of toxic chemicals, and many residents have expressed concern that resumed industrial activity could produce toxic runoff for Middleway. Project representatives have repeatedly denied the possibility of chemical contaminants spreading.
After the gathering, residents were invited into Middleway’s Union Church. Local historians showed off Civil War-era artifacts collected around town, and maps of battle sites just a walking distance away.
Stacy Chapman is a nurse and Middleway resident. She’s also a lead organizer with Protect Middleway. The local activist group formed to push back against plans for the Mountain Pure project, and helped lead the advocacy gathering.
“It’s about the community and the community coming together,” Chapman said. “We feel like, with the strength of the community, that we will have a voice together, that the planning commission will hear us and listen to our concerns and deny the bottling plant’s concept plan.”
Molly Sutter is a graduate student in Appalachian studies at Shepherd University.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
DJ Kessinger performed the banjo at the advocacy gathering in Middleway on Jan. 31.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Chapman said Protect Middleway has received support from regional organizations that share that mission including Appalachian Mountain Advocates, a clean-water public interest law group, and the Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, which advocates for the protection of historic buildings.
Danielle Parker is the Preservation Alliance’s executive director. She said protecting Middleway’s historic integrity is a benefit to West Virginia and beyond.
“Middleway is a very rare historic treasure, not only for the state but the entire nation,” Parker said. “It has survived almost three centuries of growth and decline, and we feel that the water bottling facility, if it’s constructed as proposed, is threatening the longevity [and] the continued preservation of the village.”
In late January, the Preservation Alliance added the Middleway Historic District to its West Virginia Endangered Properties List. The list aims to highlight historic sites that are in danger of being destroyed.
Parker said it is rare to see so many community members rally around a preservation effort.
“I am overwhelmed, honestly, with the turnout. I am surprised that the whole church was filled, even up in the higher pews,” she said after the gathering. “There have been very few places [where] we’ve seen such a groundswell of citizen support to save a historic site like we’re seeing here in Middleway.”
“That is very encouraging, because, as I have said, we feel that public opinion can sway the future of a situation,” she added.
The Road Ahead
Sidewinder Enterprisesdenies that the project would have a detrimental impact on historic preservation and traffic.
Sean Masterson is a partner for Mountain Pure. In an email to West Virginia Public Broadcasting he provided through a media representative, Masterson pointed to the past usage of the manufacturing site by other companies as proof. He also said the project has received approval from state highway officials.
Community members at Grace Episcopal Church await the start of an advocacy gathering held to oppose the proposed construction of a water bottling plant in Middleway.
Photo Credit: Jack Walker/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
“Since the 1960s, 3M and Kodak operated successfully with employee and distribution traffic traveling directly through Middleway daily,” Masterson said. “Additionally, West Virginia owns the nearby roads. A traffic study was done by a third party and the West Virginia Department of Highways approved the study.”
But folks like Chapman maintain that environmental risks, an increase in traffic and the toll of the pipeline’s construction put historic Middleway at risk.
“Middleway needs protection from Sidewinder’s Mountain Pure bottling plant,” she said. “It’s going to affect our water supply. We’re worried about some toxins that could come into our drinking water. We’re worried about how the traffic will affect historic Middleway. We’re concerned about the protection for the wetland that could be impacted by the large water extraction.”
These differing perspectives will come to a head on Tuesday, when the Jefferson County Planning Commission will review revised plans for the Mountain Pure bottling site.
The path for the project so far has been rocky. Project representatives shared an initial concept plan for the plant with the commission in November. But the commission unanimously agreed it was incomplete, because it omitted details about the parcels of land water would be extracted from.
Project representatives quickly resubmitted a revised version of the plan, and hoped to discuss it on Dec. 17. However, the review process was postponed by a circuit court judge, who said the project team and the planning commission had not given residents enough time to review the plan.
Next month, the commission could vote to advance the concept plan as is, require changes to comply with county and state code, or reject it outright. If they reject it, they would need to explain how the project violates state and county policies, and could face legal intervention.
The planning commission is scheduled to review the concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Plant on March 11. Residents will have the opportunity to provide comments at the meeting.
**Editor’s note: The Jefferson County Planning Commission was initially scheduled to review the revised concept plan for Mountain Pure Water Bottling Facility on Feb. 11. However, due to winter weather, the hearing was postponed to March 11. This story was updated to reflect the meeting’s postponement.
Around 75 people showed up at the student union at WVU’s Morgantown campus to protest the closing of the university’s office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as other federal and state actions. It was part of a nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies aimed to bring protestors to all 50 state capitols simultaneously Wednesday.
A nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies aimed to bring protestors to all 50 state capitols simultaneously Wednesday, but students unable to make it down to Charleston held their own demonstration at West Virginia University.
Around 75 people showed up to the campus “free speech zone” in front of the student union at WVU’s Morgantown campus to protest the closing of the university’s office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as other federal and state actions.
Marin Dagger, a third-year science major who helped organize the demonstration, said the peaceful protest was meant to show leaders and policymakers that opposition exists.
“Try to make the university, and the administration even, maybe even the state officials, see we are here,” she said. “We aren’t going to just sit here and be complacent in (the face of) these harmful actions that are affecting marginalized communities.”
As a trans woman, Dagger said she has at times felt unsafe and alone on campus but being approached by other members of the LGBTQ community emboldened her to organize around this issue. Dagger said the protest was in part to show opposition to state and federal actions affecting marginalized communities, but also to show solidarity and support.
“We can all work together and everyone here is not your enemy,” Dagger said. “More people are full of love and trying to get people’s rights back than it may seem.”
Students that came out to the event, like senior Gabriela Reyes of Pendleton County, expressed concern that executive orders targeting transgender athletes or undocumented immigrants is only the beginning of a larger erosion of rights.
“I don’t think some people understand that, that it’s not just others, people who they think aren’t like them,” Reyes said. “It affects everyone, and I think it’s just important to protect our freedoms and our rights.”
Reyes said she hopes to see the Student Government Association take a stand at their weekly meeting Wednesday night.
Students were also joined by community members like Ginny Aultman-Moore. A retired social worker, Aultman-Moore said she doesn’t expect the demonstration to change a lot.
“I don’t know that they change a whole lot, except for the hearts of the people that participate in them,” she said. “I know that I need this at this moment. I need to connect with other people. I also would like my representatives to hear my voice. I have been calling them, and I would encourage everyone to let their representatives know how they feel about what’s going on right now.”
Organizers say more protests are likely.
Ginny Aultman-Moore holds up a protest sign in front of the Mountainlair, WVU’s student union building in Morgantown Feb. 5, 2025.
On Wednesday afternoon, around 300 people gathered with signs and chants on the Capitol steps, participating in a nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies.
On Wednesday afternoon, around 300 people gathered with signs and chants on the Capitol steps, participating in a nationwide “50501” protest of President Donald Trump’s policies.
Signs and speakers, gathering around a loudspeaker, carried messages against federal and state policy on LGBTQ protections, deportations, federal funding threats, and billionaire Elon Musk’s access to government information amid Trump’s effort to cut government programs.
Women’s March West Virginia President Robin Cutlip attended the event, after the group posted information about the planned West Virginia 50501 event on social media, but said the group did not organize the protest.
“We are stronger together,” Cutlip said, speaking on the loudspeaker. “We can defeat this. We have to make sure that we continue to share each other’s posts, that we continue to be there with each other. Today was not an organized event. Why did it need to be? Look around. This is what happens when the people of America come together.”
Representatives from the ACLU of West Virginia were also there, monitoring the protest and passing around volunteer sign-up forms.
“Our state is so dependent on that federal money, the people of West Virginia, this is not a party issue anymore,” Vincent said.” This is for our future.”
Last week, the Trump administration issued, then rescinded a memo freezing trillions in federal funding. At a press conference Jan. 28, Gov. Patrick Morrisey acknowledged federal funding accounts for almost half the state’s overall budget, and that his office was “going to try to unpack (the freeze announcement) and talk with the Trump administration.
Morrisey has not commented further on the freeze, and his office has not responded to WVPB’s request for comment this week about the status of talks with the Trump administration.
Vincent says she has seen school closures in Lewis County before and now teaches at a middle school that receives federal Title I grants, which support school budgets in communities with high poverty rates.
“It’s happening right now,” Vincent said, referencing school closures in the state. “I see this happening every day. I see its effect on children.”
The event ended with protestors marching around the Capitol perimeter, starting towards the Governor’s mansion. They chanted against Trump, Musk and Morrisey.
