By Lori Kersey | Deputy editor
“We would not be where we are today if we had not had those people come in. Some of them just came in and cut grass, some just came in and painted a house, and some came in and built a porch…. I just would love to be able to go back and thank all those people for everything they did for our community.” — Clendenin Mayor Kay Summers on the volunteers who helped rebuild the town after the June 23, 2016 flood.
Clendenin Mayor Kay Summers was one of many residents who rebuilt their homes after they were damaged in the 2016 flood. The town, which has rebuilt over the past decade, will mark the flood’s anniversary with a celebration this weekend. (Photo by Lori Kersey | West Virginia Watch)
By Lori Kersey
CLENDENIN, W.Va. — Ten years later, rain can still trigger panic in Kay Summers. On June 23, 2016, she and her husband were trapped upstairs in their home as water rapidly filled the town of Clendenin during a historic flood.
The smell of the mud from the disaster lingers, she said.
“(To) this day, if I go outside and it starts raining, I have to check everything,” she said. “Because I’m so afraid (of) what’s going to happen.”
Inside a Kanawha County elementary classroom in West Virginia. (Photo by Lexi Browning/West Virginia Watch)
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
More than 26,000 students have applied for full funding of the Hope Scholarship for the upcoming school year, costing the state of West Virginia an estimated $155 million so far.
The estimated cost for the education voucher program will continue to increase throughout the year as applications are received for reduced funding amounts. This first initial round of applicants will receive $5,435.62 to use for private school tuition, homeschooling, tutoring services, horseback riding lessons, laptops and other qualifying expenses.
NATIONAL
Voting at the Portland Expo in Maine’s June 9, 2026 primary election. (Photo by Jim Neuger/Maine Morning Star)
By Jonathan Shorman
The Trump administration illegally overhauled a U.S. Department of Homeland Security computer program in its hunt for noncitizen voters, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision that laid into federal officials for violating the privacy of millions of Americans.
The ruling struck at the core of President Donald Trump’s project to assert authority over state-run elections ahead of the November midterms. Under Trump’s control, the executive branch has spent the past year attempting to obtain state voter rolls to feed into the computer program, called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE.
ICYMI
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