WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The state Department of Health announced Friday that contact tracing has been done in connection with the first positive case of measles in the state in 15 years.
State Health Officer Dr. Matthew Christiansen said health workers have learned 152 people were potentially exposed to the confirmed case from Monongalia County. He said 128 of them are West Virginia residents from 30 counties and 24 are out-of-state contacts from four neighboring states.
Christiansen told MetroNews Friday state health officials have been working closely with the Monongalia County Health Department to ensure they have adequate supplies for testing measles as well as ensuring the availability of the Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) vaccine in Monongalia County. Additionally, they are assisting in the contact-tracing process.
“To ensure they have the adequate resources, support, and expertise to do contact tracing around this one measles case that we have,” Christiansen said. “This is the first measles case we’ve had in 15 years.”
Measles is a highly contagious disease spread through the air by coughing or sneezing. Symptoms include a high fever, inflamed eyes, a sore throat, and a blotchy red skin rash. The symptoms do not appear until 10 to 14 days after exposure.
“It is something we’re watching very closely and making sure we can stop this in its tracks and keep other vulnerable people from getting sick,” Christiansen said.
As many as 62 of those potentially exposed don’t have documentation of adequate protection against the measles and are considered high-risk. Those without evidence of immunity are being asked to quarantine until May 9 or May 10 depending on their last date of exposure.
“For those that do not have adequate documentation, we’re recommending they see their health care provider to get what are called titer tests done to test antibody levels to see if they’re protected or not, or to self-isolate,” Christiansen said.
The measles vaccine is generally administered in two doses, with the first recommended between 12 and 15 months of age. The second dose is recommended between four and six years and, in West Virginia, is required before entering kindergarten. Those without evidence of immunity, adults born after 1956, should get at least one dose of the MMR vaccine, and two appropriately spaced doses of the MMR vaccine are recommended for healthcare personnel, college students, and international travelers.
“If they’re born before 1957, we do recommend they get another dose of MMR if they don’t have other evidence of protection through titer or another measure,” Christiansen said. “We encourage people to reach out to their health care provider.”
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United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts contends newly-final federal rules on power plants represent a nail in the coffin for coal mining.
“We are analyzing the potential impact of this rule on our membership and will have more to say after that analysis is completed,” Roberts said this week.
“At first glance, however, this rule looks to set the funeral date for thermal coal mining in America for 2032 – just seven and a half years away – along with the hundreds of thousands of jobs that are directly and indirectly associated with it.”
Under the EPA rule announced this wee, coal plants that plan to stay open beyond 2039 would have to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032. Plants that expect to retire by 2039 would face a less stringent standard but still would have to capture some emissions. Coal plants that are set to retire by 2032 would not be subject to the new rules.
EPA’s rules come under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. EPA described the announcement as providing regulatory certainty as the power sector makes long-term investments in the transition to a clean energy economy.
“By developing these standards in a clear, transparent, inclusive manner, EPA is cutting pollution while ensuring that power companies can make smart investments and continue to deliver reliable electricity for all Americans,” said EPA Administrator Michael Regan.
The UMW’s Roberts, in a statement and on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” expressed doubt that technological innovations like carbon capture and storage are truly feasible or affordable as a way or continuing to use fossil fuels.
“There’s not anything we’ve found that would point in any other direction because carbon capture and sequestration is not available at this point in time, and it’s not cost efficient at this time,” Roberts said on statewide radio.
“Since we don’t have the technology, it looks to us as if 2032, if this rule stands as us, coal power power plants couldn’t operate after 2032.”
Roberts said the changes threaten the livelihood of members of the United Mine Workers. He said the rollout of the EPA’s power plant rules does not fulfill the administration’s promises to coalfield communities.
“I’m not trying to pick a fight with anybody, but I’m not going to mislead anybody either,” he said. “Part of the understanding was there would be jobs come to Appalachia — anywhere coal is currently being mined where power plants might close, coal mines might close — there would be good-paying union jobs to take their place. That has not happened either.”
The power plant announcement drew criticism from West Virginia political officials.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito, ranking member of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, said she would introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval to overturn the emissions rules.
Senator Joe Manchin predicted court challenges to the EPA’s new rule and projected the Senate Energy Committee that he leads would file a brief in support of the challenge. “And I’ll guarantee you, we will win in court.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who is running for governor, vowed a court challenge.
Gov. Jim Justice, a Republican who is running for U.S. Senate, blasted the EPA during an appearance Thursday at a West Virginia Coal Association event in Wheeling.
“The EPA and White House’s tone is clear: West Virginia doesn’t matter. We are being told to close our facilities and send workers home without considering the economic impact. All West Virginians need to support our miners right now,” Justice said.
“I refuse to accept that thousands of hardworking West Virginians in our plants and mines are expendable. I promise you, not under my watch.”
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BUCKHANNON, W.Va. — The deadline to apply for the 2024 West Virginia Scholar Program is this Sunday.
The program, now in its 17th year, includes a four-year scholarship to West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. One high school junior in the state will be selected for the scholarship valued at approximately $160,000.
WVRC Media, the parent company of MetroNews, is partnering with Wesleyan to provide the scholarship that includes free tuition, fees, and room and board.
“It actually covers that as the costs change during the year, so they’ll know that for the future their student costs at the college are all covered,” John Waltz, vice president of admissions at Wesleyan, said on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
Students who apply can also be considered for other prizes and admission to Wesleyan, Waltz said.
“They’re getting a head start on applying to college. This is their application to West Virginia Wesleyan so they will have already applied to college and when September rolls around, they’ll already be into that process,” he said.
Waltz said students have to be well-rounded in their community and participate in extracurricular activities in addition to having a solid GPA. He said a lot of talented scholarship winners have gone on to do great things in the state over the years.
“Having done this for 17 years, we see people living and working in West Virginia as doctors, attorneys, working in politics, working in education, working in all the different fields you can imagine. It’s been really amazing to see that happen,” Waltz said.
Fifteen finalists will be announced next month. Each finalist will next go through a personal interview process and a review by the sponsors. The winner will be announced in June.
Th sponsors for the 2024 West Virginia Scholar Program include Greer Industries, Friends of Coal, West Viriginia Hospital Association, ZMM Architects & Engineers, the West Virginia Farm Bureau and West Virginia Wesleyan College.
To apply for the West Virginia Scholar Program, CLICK HERE.
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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When he looks back on last season, West Virginia’s leading rusher doesn’t feel as though he exceeded expectations.
This, despite Jahiem White being one of the nation’s leaders in yards per rush (7.7) and tops on the Mountaineers with 842 yards on the ground, a feat made more impressive by the fact White was third on the team in attempts with 109.
“How I played last year wasn’t really a surprise,” White said. “It was just a matter of time to when I got on the field and I’d show my talent.”
White had all of 18 carries throughout September of 2023 when the Mountaineers played five of their 12 regular season games. He had seven carries in the sixth game at Houston, then nine in the next one at Central Florida. That’s about the time White began to come on to the scene and he gained 85 yards against the Knights, while scoring his first touchdown in Big 12 Conference play.
When West Virginia returned home the following week to welcome BYU, White rushed for 146 yards on 16 carries.
Over the season’s final three games against Cincinnati, Baylor and North Carolina, White rushed 50 times for 387 yards with two rushing touchdowns. He added four receptions for 119 yards and two additional scores, including a 75-yard reception against the Bearcats.
“There wasn’t really a difference. I just didn’t really get the chance to get on the field in the first half of the season because of little injuries,” White said. “Once I got on the field for the second half, I just took off.”
Head coach Neal Brown and offensive coordinator/running backs coach Chad Scott often praised White for his talent before he had much of an opportunity to showcase it over the opening month of his college career save for a Week 2 win against Duquesne.
Both, however, also noted the need for White to improve his practice habits early into his freshman season — something not all that uncommon for a player transitioning from high school to major college football.
Around the time that message got across to White coincided with him getting healthier and opportunity increasing. By and large, White made the most of it, though he’s adamant there could have been more success and needs to be more scoring for a player who reached the end zone on four runs and two receptions.
Four of White’s five catches as a true freshman came over the final three games, including the lengthy scoring grab against the Bearcats, which was followed one week later by White hauling in a 29-yard pass with 23 seconds remaining to provide the game-winning points in a 34-31 victory at Baylor.
“Catching in traffic is one of the big things,” White said. “Coach Scott always says you’re going to get hit regardless, so catch the ball. That’s been my mindset playing football all my years.”
Yet against the Bears, there was hardly traffic as White streaked open up the sideline and was essentially uncovered before making the catch on a well-placed pass from Garrett Greene one step into the end zone.
Receiving has always come naturally for the tailback, according to White.
“It was really in me when I first started little league,” White said. “I’d get little swing routes or slants and it was automatically glued to my hands.”
Throughout April, finding a way into the end zone at a higher rate has been a point of emphasis for White. It’s the second such instance the York, Pa., native has been able to partake in spring football after enrolling early ahead of his true freshman season.
“BYU, I left a couple out there,” White said. “I could’ve gotten into the [end zone] more. Cincinnati, one run I had going towards the band and I broke off two or three [tackles], I should’ve scored. There were a couple more games I should’ve scored.”
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LOGAN, W.Va. — Investigators with the Logan County Sheriff’s Department say the discovery of a body in the county just after daylight Friday morning is being investigated
Sheriff P.D. Clemens said the man in his mid-30’s was discovered dead in a field in the community of Mount Gay just outside of the Logan city limits. The victim had been shot and his dog has also been shot.
Deputies know the victim’s identity, but have not released the name pending notification of relatives.
Clemens said they don’t have any suspects at this point and are still attempting to firm up the circumstances as to why the man was in that location. Authorities believe the shooting happened sometime Thursday night or in the early morning hours of Friday.
The investigation is ongoing.
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Today on MetroNews This Morning:
–West Virginia leaders react to the federal EPA’s new rules which aim to end coal fired electricity in the U.S.
–West Virginia will get the full $1.2 BILLION for broadband expansion from Washington
–Work to transform the old Macy’s location in Charleston into the Capitol Sports Center is off the ground
–In Sports: Darian Devries continues to build his first Mountaineer basketball team
Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 4-26-24” on Spreaker.
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WHEELING, W.Va. — The Wheeling-based Mt. Zion Cemetery Corporation received a $2 million check from Gov. Jim Justice Thursday to help with repairs following a mudslide that damaged as many as 150 headstones after heavy rains earlier this month.
Del. Shawn Fluharty, D-Ohio, was one of the first lawmakers involved the day following the incident, also the same day U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was making a scheduled visit. Fluharty started the ball rolling with that conversation and another at the state level.
“We knew from the very beginning that this was going to be more than a few volunteers with shovels heading up the hill,” Fluharty said. “This is going to take a lot of heavy lifting; it’s going to be a major project.”
The cemetery, which has the graves of hundreds of veterans including those from the Civil War, has been maintained since 2015 by the Mt. Zion Cemetery Corporation, a non-profit led by President Charles Yocke and Secretary/Treasurer Paula Stein. Those two have a cadre of different volunteers and businesses that are prepared to help make repairs.
Yocke said a Morgantown-based engineering firm is working with them to fix an unstable area above the slide site. Before any major repair work can be done, the surrounding area has to be stabilized for the safety of the workers.
“We’re trying to get a contractor up there to fix the slip because it is still ready to come down,” Yocke said. “It’s like a “V” up there all bottled up.”
The next step will be to identify what headstones have been moved. The conditions have not permitted an investigation into what headstones have been damaged, how many are damaged, and how extensive repairs will be.
“We’ll go along each side of the pile to find the markers and zero in to try to find out what moved,” Yocke said.
A company that specializes in this type of work has given a price range of $1 million to $1.5 million to repair the headstones and reset them on new footers. The process involves finding the pieces, taking them to another location to be reassembled, and returning to the cemetery to be reset.
“They would dig the footers and remount them, and that whole process will take about a year,” Yocke said.
Yocked said the help of Fluharty and State Senator Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, have been very helpful through the process. Fluharty said that in this case, the power of the government was blind to party affiliation and focused on fixing a serious community problem.
“We all came together- a good example of bipartisanship, some good government, some good community service all coming together to see what we can figure out and do this piece by piece,” Fluharty said.
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I’m off for a couple of days. The commentary will return on Wednesday. Dave Wilson is filling in as host of Talkline on Friday and Monday.
Hop
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SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Less than an hour after scoring 20 runs in their Mountain State Athletic Conference tournament semifinal victory over Spring Valley, Hurricane continued to put big numbers on the scoreboard in the league championship game. The Redskins defeated Cabell Midland, 9-5 to win the MSAC title.
Hurricane scored four runs in the first inning and three more in the third to build a 7-3 lead. Ten of their 14 hits came in the first three innings.
“We were working her deep in the counts. We were getting a lot of foul balls and being very patient, waiting on their pitch and getting something to drive,” said Hurricane head coach Meghan Stevens.
On Wednesday, the Knights erased a 6-2 deficit in the seventh inning to defeat the Redskins, 7-6 in their final regular season conference game.
“I think yesterday whenever they came back in the last inning and beat us, it really made us want to work harder and be able to have more good at bats,” said Hurricane junior Alexandra Anderson.
“I think yesterday we realized that we could beat them,” Stevens said. “We said we wanted to learn from it, come out today and not let it happen. Their bats were on fire and they had good energy. There was good production from the whole team.”
Both teams cruised to victories in their semifinal contests. No. 1 seed Cabell Midland defeated St. Albans, 12-4 in 5 innings while the No. 3 seed Hurricane knocked off Spring Valley 20-4 in 4 innings.
Sophomore Kate Justice went the distance in the circle for the Redskins after picking up the win against the Timberwolves.
“That’s what we kept asking her, if she felt good,” Stevens said. “She really wanted it. She kept saying that she felt fine so she went back out there. And she was super-efficient.”
Hurricane and Cabell Midland shared the MSAC title two years ago. Sectional play for both teams begins next week.
“This one is great and we want to celebrate it,” Stevens said. “But we want the ones next week even more. So I think it is good for us. But get a little taste of it and stay hungry.”
“My freshman year, we were co-champs with Cabell Midland,” Anderson said. “It has been head-to-head since then. So it feels good to finally win the championship.”
Kenzie Kessel and Elise Pye each had three hits for Hurricane. Anderson, Jaden Jones and Kyndall Harper each had two hits for HHS (16-7). Quinn Ballengee, Becca Conrad and Baylee Smith each had multi-hit games for CMHS (22-4). Olivia Bell had a two-run home run in the seventh for the Knights.
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WESTON, W.Va. — Lewis County’s Joey Aman was in control from the first pitch Thursday against East Fairmont, but it didn’t stop the Bees from battling with the Minutemen.
Yet with the game tied at 3 in the home half of the sixth inning, the Minutemen got a one-out double to left from Luke Clem, and it allowed Drew Cayton to score what proved to be the winning run in a 4-3 victory over the Bees.
“Quality at bats is always our go-to,” Minutemen head coach Tyler Wood said. “We don’t keep track of the hits as much as getting on base and contact percentage. Coming up with it during key times is part of our game.”
Cayton led off the sixth with a single to center and advanced to second on Ryder Aman’s sacrifice bunt. Clem then delivered the clutch knock, connecting off East Fairmont (13-6) starting pitcher Tristan Boone to put the Minutemen back on top.
Later in the sixth, Class AA No. 3 Lewis County (15-3) had an opportunity to increase its advantage, but Clem was thrown out at the plate while trying to score from second base on Joey Aman’s single to left.
“I told them, ‘thank you for having my back,’ because that was one of the worst coaching decisions I’ve ever made with my best hitter at the plate,” Wood said. “They have my back, they have each other’s backs and to know that you have each other’s backs is what carries us in close games like this.”
The Bees had one more chance to prolong the game when they came to bat in the top of the seventh, but Joey Aman retired the side in order. Aman, who threw 109 pitches over seven frames, recorded the final two outs with his eighth and ninth strikeouts against the No. 1 and 2 hitters in East Fairmont’s lineup.
“Sometimes you just tip your cap. He made some good pitches and we weren’t squaring as many balls up as what we normally do,” East Fairmont head coach Joe Price said. “We had nine quality at bats, which that’s a season low this year. We needed to get some more guys on base, get them around and get them in, and it just didn’t happen.”
Lewis capitalized on East Fairmont’s only error of the game in the second inning to produce the first run. What could’ve produced the final out instead extended the frame, and two batters later, No. 9 hitter Leo Jones singled to center, allowing Ryder Aman to score the game’s first run.
The Minutemen went in front 3-0 in the third courtesy of Trenton Hunt’s two-run home run to the deepest part of the park in center field. It allowed Joey Aman to score after he’d led off that inning with a base-on-balls.
“I wasn’t quite sure it was gone, but he has the pop to take it opposite field, and we’ve already seen it once before this year,” Wood said. “I like the gap to gap hitters. If you’re early, you can pull it down the line, and if you’re late, you can pull it down this line. If you have gap to gap power, you’re going to do pretty well at the plate.”
But momentum for the Minutemen was short-lived and the Bees pulled even in the fourth despite managing only one hit. Brody Bledsoe drew a leadoff walk, and consecutive errors helped EFHS generate its first run, which Bledsoe scored. After Remington Pourbaix was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Casey Linn laid down a bunt that looked as though it would yield the second out of the inning on a force play at the plate, but catcher Garrett Moats was unable to hang on to a throw from Hunt at third base, and Ian Graffius scored to make it 3-2.
Boone helped his cause with a two-out single to score Tanner Mayfield that tied it at 3, but the Bees squandered a chance for their lead when Pourbaix was thrown out at the plate trying to advance from third on a pitch that had briefly gotten away from Moats.
Boone retired six of the seven batters he faced over the fourth and fifth innings, and the Bees had another chance to go in front in the sixth. After the inning began with two outs, Pourbaix was hit by a pitch for the second time and Case Linn drew a walk. But Joey Aman never wavered and got River McClain to hit a fly ball to center for the final out of the inning.
When Aman came back out to toe the rubber in the seventh, his team had gone back in front.
Joey Aman walked three over his stellar seven-inning effort.
“He was painting the bottom left-hand corner of the zone,” Wood said. “That’s hard to hit. You then only have one side of the field. You can’t ask for much more from him.”
Clem and Joey Aman keyed Lewis’ eight-hit attack with two apiece.
In addition to finishing with the Bees’ lone hit, Boone struck out five and walked three over a quality six-inning start.
“He was around the zone all day long,” Price said, “and did a very good job.”
It marked the second time this season the Minutemen knocked off the Bees in competitive fashion after they secured a 5-3 victory in an earlier meeting.
“Tyler coaches a good team and we’ve had two dogfights with them,” Price said. “We’ve come up on the short end both times, but we know we’ve been in the games, and that’s a good test for our guys, and it’s a good test for their guys. We’re really happy with where we’re at. We aren’t satisfied with this result, but we’ll move forward and tomorrow’s a new day.”
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