Much of the debate in the House of Delegates Tuesday morning focused on satisfying a potential $465 million federal clawback regarding the state’s spending on education. When it came to the budget debate, some promised program funding that was not education related, fell by the wayside.
Much of the debate in the House of Delegates Tuesday morning focused on satisfying a potential $465 million federal “clawback” regarding the state’s spending on education. When it came to the budget debate, some promised program funding that was not education related fell by the wayside.
House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, wanted to make the reason behind passing Senate Bill 701 perfectly clear. The bill Supplements and amends appropriations to the Department of Education, School Construction Fund.
The bill appropriates $150 million to the School Building Authority, satisfying all the reconstruction requests made by state school districts.
Criss said the allocation intentionally goes toward satisfying the executive branch goal of showing in-kind state education funding to waive a potential $465 million-dollar federal clawback. The issue came up last week over concerns that the state did not spend enough money on education to match federal covid money.
“There are HVAC projects,” Criss said. “There were actually maybe two or three actual new schools involved in the projects, some roof projects, but cumulative, it was $150 million. And that these dollars will help, from what the governor’s office explained, would help towards the negotiations with the federal Department of Education”
The bill passed 94-2 and now goes to the governor.
Debate on the House Budget Bill 4025 began with a series of amendments proposed by Democrats.
Del. Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, asked that the governor’s request for a $50 million agriculture lab at West Virginia State University be funded from budget back-end surplus money.
“This is needed. This will benefit us,” Rowe said. “I just can’t tell you how much it will lift West Virginia State into a new level of research and delivery of agricultural services throughout southern West Virginia.”
Del. Kayla Young, D-Kanawha, proposed an amendment to allocate $44 million from surplus budget funds for child care programs. The same programs were championed early on by Republican leadership and promised by Gov. Jim Justice.
“Last week, the federal government mandated that we do enrollment versus attendance to pay for child care,” Young said. “There is funding proposed with the federal government, but we all know they’re not so fast to do anything. And our child care centers are in desperate need of this money to keep maintaining, having all their services and keeping all the slots open.”
Concerned over balancing monies being poured into education, House Finance Committee Co-Chair Del. John Hardy, R-Berkeley, urged and got a voice vote rejection for every Democrat proposed amendment.
“I think that we’re very, very early in this process of the federal government coming out in front of this,” Hardy said. “Not being a priority of this legislature right now to be putting money being spent in the back of the budget as surplus revenue.”
With program funding concerns mounting and talk of a May Special Legislative Session to finalize a budget, Del. Daniel Linville, R-Cabell, questioned a possibly wasted effort.
“So all these amendments are fashioned to House Bill 4025. Is that right?” Linville asked Hardy. “Yes,” Hardy said. “And yet the vehicle that’s going to be the budget is Senate Bill 200, is that right?” Linville said. “So everything that we’re doing here does not matter in the least does it?”
The House postponed any more debate on HB 4025 for one day, but they were far from done.
After a fire drill, the House returned to session and took up the Senate’s budget bill that Linville referred to. Criss walked through every major department in the budget and indicated where the Senate budget was different from the governor’s proposed budget. After a 45-minute discussion on Senate Bill 200, it passed by a 74 to 16 vote.
The two chambers will have to come together in a budget conference committee to work out differences between the two bills.
Inside the Appalachian mountains of Institute, West Virginia lies one of the nation’s leading public institutions of higher education for African Americans. In 1891, West Virginia State University (WVSU) was founded, and it is full of rich history and cultural traditions. One of the school’s biggest traditions each year is Homecoming. The annual week-long celebration is filled with on- and off-campus activities. The step show is always a crowd favorite.
This story originally aired in the Feb. 25, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Inside the Appalachian mountains of Institute, West Virginia lies one of the nation’s leading public institutions of higher education for African Americans. In 1891, West Virginia State University (WVSU) was founded, and it is full of rich history and cultural traditions. One of the school’s biggest traditions each year is Homecoming. The annual week-long celebration is filled with on- and off-campus activities. The step show is always a crowd favorite.
Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips recently attended the 2023 West Virginia State University Homecoming step show with her 11-year-old daughter, Jayli, and has this story of a tradition that is common at most Homecomings at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU).
Inside the old WVSU gymnasium, the space is filled with sounds of clapping, stomping, chanting, music and audience enthusiasm. Members of the public are in the bleachers surrounding the basketball court where the stage is set up.
College students representing each Greek organization on campus take turns entering the gym to a selected song or chant. Along with the undergrads are alumni from the 1960s through present day. After their grand entrance, the students take to the stage and perform a three- to five-minute routine. Everyone wears Greek paraphernalia — hats, boots, pins and sweatshirts — in their organization’s colors.
“You got Delta Sigma Theta walking out right now,” Jayli announces.
Delta Sigma Theta, a sorority that was founded in 1913, is just one of the sororities that is stepping today. As an HBCU graduate and Delta member myself, I thought it was important for my daughter, Jayli, to know this history and to experience this culture. Her being here is a rite of passage. Both of Jayli’s grandmothers are WVSU graduates. I am hoping she will one day attend an HBCU and be a Delta, too.
“Let’s see, I think they are about to stomp and clap again,” Jayli says. “I think they’re all helping each other out. That’s what I see.”
This is all part of a long tradition at HBCUs. The Homecoming step show is a way for African American fraternities and sororities to express love and pride for their respective organizations to a broader community. It is also a way for alumni and community members to reunite.
Kenny Hale of Charleston, West Virginia is at the step show today. He is a member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and was initiated during the 1970s at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
“Homecoming is when you see all this crowd come in and you get to see the people you knew and went to school with,” Hale says. “And just the enthusiasm that an HBCU brings with the power and the fellowship of scholarly people.”
Addison Hall of Cincinnati, Ohio is an alumni of WVSU and is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He says the Homecoming step show is a reunion.
“It’s a lot of people that you haven’t seen in a while showing back up, being in the same space that y’all shared and created all these memories at,” Hall says.
Members of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity performing during the 2023 WVSU Homecoming step show.
Photo Credit: Traci Phillips/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Shanequa Smith is from New York. She went to WVSU and now lives in Charleston, West Virginia. She is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
“I’m Greek, and so it’s just a joyous time, and stepping is part of our history. It goes way back. And so this is a part of that, where we get to stay connected,” Smith says. “And it’s always good to see different people actually taking up that throne of stepping.”
The origin and roots of stepping stems from African cultural traditions. Stepping can be described as a synchronized movement using stomping and clapping. During the 20th century, America’s Black fraternities and sororities played a unique part in the reemergence of stepping on college campuses. Almost three million members strong, America’s nine Black sororities and fraternities are part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, also known as the Divine Nine.
Up next to perform is Alpha Kappa Alpha, a sorority that was founded in 1908.
“They are walking out with little kids and everybody’s holding up their pinky for the AKAs,” Jayli says. “They are rockin’ this … They have a brown outfit with their state facts on it.”
One of today’s performers is Ashlyn Bell, a Delta Sigma Theta Sorority member from Charleston, West Virginia. Bell is a junior majoring in elementary education. She says part of why she joined a sorority was her memories of going to step shows.
“Growing up in West Virginia, I came to Homecoming all the time and I just always seen the community. Actually, my mom is a Delta, so I’m a legacy. And we would come down and watch the step shows and I just remember really enjoying it,” Bell says. “It was lit, it was just over-the-top loud. I just thought it was so fun and so cool. Just couldn’t keep my eyes off what they were doing, how they’re moving with their hands, and jumping and screaming. I just thought it was amazing.”
This year, Bell performed by herself, representing her sorority, Delta Sigma Theta. She came out to the 1970s hit song, “Got To Be Real” by Cheryl Lynn, and early 2000s hit song “Knuck If You Buck” by Crime Mobb, doing a move called “the duck.” To do the duck, Bell says you have to, “bend your knees, hands out, head turned slightly up just a little bit. You know, you just lean into it.”
Bell wears black shorts, a red vest with Delta designs on it, sunglasses and spray-painted red boots. “The boots are actually traditional, something that past Alpha Delta chapter members have done for the step show,” Bell says. “So I’m gonna continue the tradition.”
Ashlyn Bell poses before her performance at the WVSU Homecoming step show. Her hand signal represents the shape of the letter “D” for Delta in the Greek alphabet.
Photo courtesy of Kristy Lyles-Bell
Clothing and Greek paraphernalia are a big part of the step show. Debra Hart is the director of Equity Programs at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and was initiated during the 1970s on the campus of West Virginia State University.
“When we crossed line in 1976, we all had to get a white suit made with a red shirt. And we got gloves and we got boots to match,” Hart says. “All 12 of us had a cane, and we were going to tap the canes and cross them back and forth.”
Kids are also a part of the community at Homecoming. Hart says she remembers going to a step show as young as eight years old.
“My grandmother would dress us in black and gold, because we’re all going to State’s Homecoming. When I was ten years old, I remember aggravating my family to stay for the step show,” Hart says.
Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips (back middle), poses with her family during the West Virginia State University step show. Family members include (from left to right): Brother, Danny Adkins — member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity — and his daughter, Ellie Adkins; son, True Phillips; and daughter, Jayli Phillips.
Photo courtesy of LaQwanza Jackson
After the step show, I asked my daughter, Jayli, what she thought of her experience.
“I thought the step show was really empowering and motivating. The people out there stepping looked really good,” Jayli says. “I loved it, it looked like a fun thing to do. I can’t wait to get there and do it myself one day.”
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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.
This week on Inside Appalachia, step shows are a tradition at many historically Black universities, including schools in Appalachia. We hear about one that’s part of West Virginia State University’s annual homecoming celebration. And, abandoned industrial sites have long been a magnet for people to explore and turn into not-at-all-legal hangout spots, but some come with hidden dangers. We learn about the danger at Fairmont Brine, a site in West Virginia that processed liquid used in hydraulic fracking.
Step shows are a tradition at many historically Black universities, including schools in Appalachia. We hear about one that’s part of West Virginia State University’s annual homecoming celebration.
Abandoned industrial sites have long been a magnet for people to explore and turn into not-at-all-legal hangout spots, but some come with hidden dangers. We learn about the danger at Fairmont Brine, a site in West Virginia that processed liquid used in hydraulic fracking.
You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.
Members of Delta Sigma Theta at WVSU’s homecoming. The sorority was part of the annual step show at the university.
Photo Credit: WVSU’s Alpha Delta Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.
Fraternities and sororities at West Virginia State University (WVSU), one of the state’s two historically Black universities, introduced step dancing at the school decades ago. They made it part of the school’s annual homecoming celebration.
Folkways Reporter Traci Phillips has been attending step shows since she was a kid. Last fall, she brought along her 11-year-old daughter Jayli. They brought us the story.
Teaching Soul Food
Xavier Oglesby cuts onions for a macaroni salad he is cooking inside Manna House Ministries’ kitchen. A pot of boiling water is behind him, cooking the pasta for the dish.
Photo Credit: Vanessa Peña/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
The Appalachian table is complex and varied. Along with biscuits and gravy, it includes things like collard greens, extra cheesy mac and cheese and fried chicken feet — soul food.
Soul food is associated with southern Black communities, but it’s also traditional to Appalachia, too.
Folkways Fellow Vanessa Peña visited with Xavier Oglesby, a master artist in soul food cooking from Beckley, West Virginia.
Radioactive And Dangerous
Fairmont Brine has fallen into disrepair since it was abandoned.
Photo Credit: Justin Nobel
Starting in the late 2000s, parts of Appalachia saw a natural gas boom from hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking. But, some of that faded and in some places, the oil and gas industry has left behind dangerous industrial sites — like Fairmont Brine in Marion County, West Virginia.
Left alone, the abandoned site became a popular hangout spot for unsuspecting young folks.
Mason Adams spoke with Nobel about his investigation.
Sugar Syrup Season In Central Appalachia
Valerie Lowry offers samples to visitors at the Highland County Maple Syrup Festival.
Photo Credit: Clara Haizlett/West Virginia Public Broadcasting
Highland County, Virginia and its neighbors in West Virginia are some of the southernmost places in the U.S. to make maple syrup.
Generations of people in these communities have turned tapping trees for syrup into a longstanding tradition — but modern producers are experimenting with new syrups while adapting to changing demands, and a changing climate.
Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett brought us the story.
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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Jeff Ellis, Tyler Childers, Amethyst Kiah, Joe Dobbs and the 1937 Flood and Frank George.
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.
Deriving medicine from plants goes back to the Egyptians. Since then, scientists have identified more than 390,000 plants on the earth, most of which have not been studied for their medicinal applications.
Deriving medicine from plants goes back to the ancient Egyptians.Since then, scientists have identified more than 390,000 plants on the earth, most of which have not been studied for their medicinal applications.
Promoting and fostering research, development and conservation of plants useful to human health is the focus for the 12th annual American Council for Medicinally Active Plants Conference, now underway at West Virginia State University.
One in-state conference presenter is Dr. Gary Rankin, vice dean of Biomedical Sciences with the Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine.
Rankin said many don’t realize that a lot of the drugs that people first started using came from natural sources.
“Aspirin is actually developed out of the bark of willow trees,” Rankin said. “Digitalis, which is one of our main drugs for treating congestive heart failure, actually comes from a plant called foxglove.”
Rankin said plant-based treatments are germane to treating the many forms of cancer.
“There are over 270 different types of cancers,” Rankin said. “When we talk about finding a cure, we’re actually talking about individual diseases under the umbrella of cancer. We have a number of natural products that are already on the market for treating cancer, drugs like Aqua Taxol or Taxol, which we got from the western yew. Zinc alkaloids have been around for years, and they come from the Madagascar periwinkle, so the potential is there.”
Rankin said worldwide research continues to find new plant extracts to treat diseases.
“New drugs, or compounds to make the drugs, to treat not only cancer but infectious disease, cardiovascular disease, many other things,” Rankin said.
Rankin said studies in medical cannabis continue to advance in discovering new medical applications.
“Anytime you look at different strains of the marijuana plant, you’re always looking for new uses for the chemicals that are in cannabis,” he said. “I know one of the subspecies of cannabis they’ve looked at that produces a high level of a chemical that can treat certain types of epilepsy that are resistant to other types of drug therapy.”
He said in the battle for global food security, many people don’t realize that most food is lost because of fungi that grow on different food crops.
“There are a lot of studies going on right now trying to find new compounds from natural sources that will combat these fungi and kill them so that the food is not destroyed by fungal infections,” Rankin said.
The conference theme is “Exploring the Unexplored: Science and Applications of Medicinal Plants.” Lectures and seminars will focus on scientific advances in several health areas, including anticancer plant bioactives, chemistry of medicinal plants, plant-based antimicrobials, and the forementioned and newly emerging field of hemp and medicinal cannabis.
More information about the conference, including the complete agenda of speakers, is available at www.acmap.org.
West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension 4-H will host a free gallery/discovery walk to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month on Thursday, Sept. 28.
West Virginia State University (WVSU) Extension 4-H will host a free gallery/discovery walk to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month on Thursday, Sept. 28, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the James C. Wilson University Union.
Ana Karen Gaticia Toledo, WVSU’s instructional coordinator for Spanish and English language programs, said visitors can view informative posters and cultural displays showcasing the many contributions and diverse cultures of the Hispanic community.
“This will be a gallery walk,” she said. “It’s an informative and educational event where I will have interactive posters as well, because they will have questions for people to reflect a little bit. I will also be offering a taste of some dishes from different Hispanic countries, and we’ll have a trivia game for the attendees.”
Gaticia Toledo said she hopes the event opens up conversations and dispel some misconceptions about the Hispanic community.
“For me, I’m always curious to hear about others,” she said. “Because once you hear about others, it allows you to even learn more about yourself, to kind of contrast, compare about your own world and about others and see that there’s a lot more to what you may have believed.”
Hispanic Heritage Month is celebrated from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Sept. 15 is the Independence Day of several Latin American countries, including Mexico, Chile and Costa Rica.
On this West Virginia Week, employees at a federal prison had an informational picket to protest unsafe working conditions, WVU announced more cuts, groups from Kanawha County are suing the EPA about cancer causing chemicals, and much more.
On this West Virginia Week, employees at a federal prison had an informational picket to protest unsafe working conditions, WVU announced more cuts — this time to library services, groups from Kanawha County are suing the EPA about cancer causing chemicals, we learned what we all suspected — historically Black colleges and universities have been underfunded, and a small town classified ad publication is closing its doors after 50 years.
We’ll also hear feature stories on the proposed silica dust rule as more and younger miners get black lung, a rebuttal story to our workforce series from a small business owner and a story about the rise of COVID-19 once again.
News Director Eric Douglas is our host this week.
West Virginia Week is a web-only podcast that explores the week’s biggest news in the Mountain State. It’s produced with help from Bill Lynch, Briana Heaney, Caroline MacGregor, Chris Schultz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Liz McCormick, and Randy Yohe.
