On this West Virginia Week, West Virginians went to the polls for primaries to decide some national and local issues. We’ll talk about the results of some of Tuesday’s elections and hear from some voters. 

We’ll dive into the soon-to-be legal raw milk trade. West Virginians will be able to purchase raw milk, as long as it is properly labeled. But that might come with a risk. 

We’ll also learn about a demonstration at West Virginia University (WVU) calling for the university to disclose investments in and ultimately divest from Israel over the war in Gaza, as well as child nutrition.

Finally, we hear about Gov. Jim Justice's call for a much-anticipated special session of the state legislature this coming Sunday.

Chris Schulz is our host this week. Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert.

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, Chris Schulz, Curtis Tate, Emily Rice, Eric Douglas, Jack Walker, Liz McCormick and Randy Yohe.

Learn more about West Virginia Week.

On this West Virginia Morning, the Kentucky Mountain Laurel Festival in Pineville, Kentucky has staged a formal dance for nearly a century that has remained the same for generations. Folkways Reporter Will Warren takes us for a visit.

Also, in this show, our Mountain Stage Song of the Week comes to us from Ohio University alum and Nashville singer-songwriter Kim Richey. We listen to her performance of “A Place Called Home,” which was originally released on her 2002 album Rise.

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 and Liz McCormick.

Eric Douglas is our news director and 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 West Virginia Morning, the stage is now set for a two man, two party political race for governor of West Virginia. Randy Yohe gives us an initial look at what we can expect from the Republican and the Democratic nominees.

Also, in this show, African Americans played a pivotal role in the development of Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. In honor of those contributions, the park recently offered special programs dedicated to telling the stories of the enslaved African Americans that helped introduce the largest cave system in the world to visitors.

KPRN’s Alana Watson went on one of those tours and learned more about the park’s history of Black guides — a tour that included a member of a celebrated legacy.

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.

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

On this West Virginia Morning, the results from Tuesday’s primary election came in mostly as expected. Government Reporter Randy Yohe has covered the intense campaigning leading up to the primary and he joins us live in the studio with results and reactions.

Also, in this show, we have the latest installment of our series "Now What? A Series on Parenting." Parents are often left with many questions about how to raise a child. Two of the areas that are most concerning and confusing are feeding and nutrition. Government programs can offer many kinds of support, as Chris Schulz learned when he sat down to speak with WIC Outreach Liaison Sarah Moore.

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

On this West Virginia Morning, Tuesday’s primary election may be the most important the state has seen in a while. Voters have endured a gubernatorial media campaign blitz with unprecedented mudslinging – coupled with a dominant charge to see a new but familiar face representing West Virginia in the U.S. Senate. Randy Yohe has our story.

Also, in this show, starting in early June, West Virginians will be able to purchase raw milk, as long as it is properly labeled. As Emily Rice reports, that may come with a risk.

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.

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

On this West Virginia Morning, a pipeline safety watchdog said federal regulators “should be on notice” about a pressure test failure on the Mountain Valley Pipeline earlier this month.

Plus, students at West Virginia University’s Morgantown campus demonstrated in support of Palestine for the second time in as many weeks. Reporter Chris Schulz covered the protest from downtown Morgantown.

With the May 14 primary election fast approaching, nonprofit newsroom Mountain State Spotlight has created a statewide voter's guide. West Virginia Public Broadcasting's News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Editor-in-Chief Ken Ward about the guide and how to access it.

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.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting 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. Teresa Wills is our host. Chris Schulz 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

This week, rock climbers with disabilities have found a home in Kentucky’s Red River Gorge, which offers some pumpy crags.

Climbers have also been working to make West Virginia's New River Gorge more inclusive.

And a master craftsman, who makes one of a kind whitewater paddles remembers some advice.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

• Adaptive And Inclusive Climbing
• Removing Racist Language From Rock Climbing
• Crafting A Classic Paddle

Adaptive And Inclusive Climbing

The mountains of Appalachia are home to some killer rock climbing, but they’re also accessible for some groups who’ve felt excluded in the past. 

Adaptive Sports Reporter Emily Chen-Newton covers athletes with disabilities. She brings us this story, exploring why climbing festivals are making a home in Appalachia.

Removing Racist Language From Rock Climbing

In West Virginia, one of the most popular climbing destinations is the New River Gorge. Advanced rock climbers continue to pioneer new climbing routes there. The first people to climb these new routes are called “first ascensionists.” And they get the privilege of naming the routes. But what happens when dozens of those route names are plainly and clearly offensive?

In 2020 and 2021, Zack Harold followed the story of a climber at the New River Gorge who wanted to make the sport he loved more inclusive for his son. 

Crafting A Classic Paddle

Jon Rugh with his wooden paddle at the New River near Blacksburg, VA.

Photo Credit: Clara Haizlett/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Appalachia has several huge rivers — the New River, the Youghigheny, the Pigeon — so, it’s no surprise whitewater paddling is popular across the region, but it wasn’t all that long ago that modern paddlers first started exploring these rivers, designing their own gear and even building their own paddles. Some of those DIY paddle makers became master crafters.

Folkways Reporter Clara Haizlett followed one. 

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Sturgeon Creek, Anthony Vega, Oakfield, the Delorian, Biba Dupont, Marissa Anderson, Tyler Childers, Jerry Douglas and John Blissard.

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: [email protected].

You can find us on Instagram, Threads and Twitter @InAppalachia. Or here on Facebook.

Sign-up for the Inside Appalachia Newsletter!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting

On this West Virginia Morning, the League of Women Voters of West Virginia has released their 2024 Legislative Scorecard. It compiles the votes from all delegates and state senators on 26 bills that became law to give an idea where they stand on issues.

Judy Ball, chair of the League’s Legislative Action Workgroup, spoke with Government Reporter Randy Yohe on the scorecard results.

Also, in this show, many communities see people turning away from homeless shelters to temporary encampments. Nonprofit agencies and government programs struggle to support a vulnerable population with complicated needs. 

At a recent AP award’s event, the Virginias AP Broadcasters acknowledged an Us & Them episode focused on homelessness with a second place for Best Podcast. In that episode, host Trey Kay talks with Barbara DiPietro, the director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council. We listen to an excerpt.

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.

Chris Schulz 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 West Virginia Morning, while Republican candidates dominate the media leading up to next week's primary election, there are also Democrats up and down the ballot running for state offices. Their campaign strategy, however, takes a different path.

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, chair of the West Virginia Democratic Party, spoke with Randy Yohe on the efforts to rebuild the party and restore Democrats to state offices.  

Also, in this show, Harpers Ferry is a hot spot for Black history in West Virginia. The town was home to a major abolitionist uprising, a Black civil rights conference and the historically Black Storer College.

But preserving the city’s historic sites requires upkeep. When the town’s residents saw a historic Black Baptist church falling into disrepair, the idea for a new preservation project was born.

Now, the project has received a $100,000 rehabilitation grant. Jack Walker spoke with Lynn Pechuekonis, incoming chair of the Harpers Ferry-Bolivar Historic Town Foundation, about what’s in store for First Zion Baptist Church.

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.

Chris Schulz 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

Homelessness has been on the rise since 2016, and the pandemic only exacerbated an acute shortage of resources to help people living on the streets. Many communities are struggling to provide support, even as some homeless people turn away from emergency shelters and remain in outdoor encampments.

In Charleston, West Virginia, the city’s opioid response program also focuses on support for people who are homeless. Tent cities have been a focus at the state legislature as debate continues over how to help people living on the street. 

At the same time, some people say they’re more afraid of people living on the street than in the past. Providing sustained care for homeless people continues to elude and divide even well-meaning and determined communities.

Earlier this year, our Us & Them episode called Compassion Fatigue received a second place award from the Virginias AP Broadcasters for Best Podcast. 

This episode of Us & Them is presented with support from the West Virginia Humanities Council and the CRC Foundation.

Subscribe to Us & Them on Apple Podcasts, NPR One, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and beyond.

Us & Them host Trey Kay met Randy Lantz on the steps of First Presbyterian Church in Charleston on a cold night in January 2023. Lantz, who’s from Georgia, said he’s been homeless since 2016. Lantz said after serving three prison sentences, he found his way “back into the world” after his first incarcerations, but this time, he said, he’s struggling.

Photo Credit: Julie Blackwood Rev. William Myers became First Presbyterian Church’s new head minister in August 2021. It wasn’t long before he became aware of the church’s transient guests who slept on the building’s front steps. Rev. Myers allowed them to camp there overnight, but he also wanted to set limits, knowing children in the church’s preschool program used that entrance every morning and afternoon.

Myers established ground rules for those sheltering on the steps. But this did not resolve the concerns of some community members in and outside the congregation. In his first days in Charleston, Rev. Myers was quickly immersed in the debate over how best to help people living on the street.

(Click here to view Rev. Myer’s sermon about caring for homeless people.)

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting Ashley Switzer and her husband have raised five children in West Virginia’s capitol city. Her grandson attends a preschool located near First Presbyterian Church and St. John’s Episcopal Church, which houses Manna Meal, a soup kitchen that’s been serving meals to homeless people for more than four decades.

“There was a group of parents from this school right here who actually called for a meeting with the mayor of our town because of instances with homeless or criminal vagrants on school property, near school property, banging on parents’ car doors, children in the back screaming,” she said, standing outside the preschool playground where her grandson plays. “There have been children playing on this actual playground where homeless people will threaten them. My grandson has witnessed someone walking down this very sidewalk with no pants.”

Photo Credit: Ashley Switzer Barbara DiPietro, senior director of policy for the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, oversees the group’s federal advocacy and policy analysis. “It's not compassion in our public policies when we consistently choose not to fund housing, not to raise wages, to allow people to not get health care,” DiPietro said. “Homelessness isn't an accident. These are conscious public policy choices.”

Photo Credit: National Institute for Medical Respite Care Taryn Wherry, director of the City of Charleston’s CARE program, or Coordinated Addiction Response Effort, said the city’s outreach program focuses on those with substance use disorder as well as people living on the streets. The CARE program began under Charleston’s current mayor, Amy Goodwin.

(Click here to hear Mayor Goodwin on meeting the needs of Charleston’s homeless population.) 

“We take a very hands-on, boots on the ground approach every day,” Wherry said. “We’re in the streets, we're on the [river] banks or in abandoned properties. We're talking to people and meeting them where they're at.”

Wherry said CARE staff know firsthand what it is like to be out on the streets, struggling with drug or alcohol addiction. 

“We have individuals who have lived and learned experience in all fields, people who are in long-term recovery who have been in active addiction,” she said.

(Click here to view former Charleston Mayor Danny Jones announcing his order to dismantle a homeless encampment known as “Tent City.”)

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting A peer support worker with Covenant House, Sommer Short works for the nonprofit service organization that partners with Charleston’s CARE team. When Sommer was 21, she was injured in a car accident and prescribed opioids. Over the next five years, she transitioned to heroin use and said she eventually left home and became homeless. 

Short works to support people who are living without shelter, like she used to live. She said many of the homeless people she meets are living with substance use disorder and feel like “her people.”

“Though I may be in a position where I'm three years sober today, I am comfortable going out there and trying to help someone the same way that someone helped me,” she said.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting Short offers food and hygiene bags that she keeps in her trunk to homeless people camping in and around Charleston. 

“We have a Ziploc bag, which contains the toilet paper and their socks and some ointment. Then we have some baby wipes. And inside, we also have a bottle of water, a hairbrush, a comb, a little travel pack for their toothpaste and a brush, a razor, shaving cream,” she said. Short also has food gift cards and Narcan nasal spray, which can be used to reverse a drug overdose.

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting As Short walked toward a homeless encampment, she passed under a highway overpass where someone had written “HOPE” in yellow spray paint on the concrete wall. 

“Hold On Pain Ends,” Short said, describing what the word means to her. “You always gotta have hope. Pain ends eventually. But you got to work for it as well.”

Photo Credit: Trey Kay/West Virginia Public Broadcasting

On this West Virginia Morning, a West Virginia circuit court removed two members of the Jefferson County Commission from office. But as Jack Walker reports, a last-minute party change has cast confusion over which party will name her successor.

Also, the construction of a pipeline in western Pennsylvania and a rupture in the Mountain Valley Pipeline has left environmentalists asking questions.

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.

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