By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“It is a 44 year old formula that does not meet the current needs of our 55 county boards of education and the 234,000 children they serve everyday. The lack of adequate funding for our 45,000 special needs children is the fatal flaw in the current formula that is crippling county boards and contributing to the large number of school closings across the state.” — Paul Hardesty, president of the West Virginia Board of Education
A child eats a free breakfast through the county’s summer feeding program at Elk Center Elementary in Charleston, West Virginia, on June 10, 2026. (Photo by Marcus Constantino for West Virginia Watch)
By Lori Kersey
The American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia on Friday filed a lawsuit with the state’s highest court in an attempt to require state lawmakers to “correct the school funding formula,” the organization said Friday.
A California official calibrates rooftop air monitoring equipment used to track local air pollution. (Photo courtesy of the California Air Resources Board)
By Ames Alexander and Brad Racino, Floodlight
Across much of the U.S., people have little way to know when the air they breathe turns dangerous.
Over recent decades, federal funding for public air monitoring has declined, the number of monitors has fallen, and much of the remaining equipment is aging or located far from major polluters.
Now, the stakes are rising: Wildfire smoke is reaching more communities, data centers are adding pollution, and climate-driven heat waves are worsening ozone levels. The Trump administration, meanwhile, has delayed and rolled back requirements meant to hold companies accountable for their emissions.
NATIONAL
New federal rules likely will force three dozen states to reduce their annual Medicaid payments to healthcare providers by a total of more than $50 billion. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo / New Jersey Monitor)
By Shalina Chatlani
New federal rules likely will force three dozen states to reduce their annual Medicaid payments to doctors and hospitals by a total of more than $50 billion — potentially shrinking the number of providers willing to see Medicaid patients, according to a new analysis.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration Thursday made an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court to allow for rapid third-country deportations of noncitizens to continue, after an appeals court blocked the policy last week.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — An appeals panel Friday seemed inclined to agree that more than 100 Venezuelan men the Trump administration sent to a brutal prison in El Salvador are entitled to due process hearings to challenge their removal, which was made under an archaic 18th-century wartime law.
COMMENTARY
A Flock camera is seen in a parking lot in Morgantown, West Virginia on Sept. 4, 2026. (Photo by Leann Ray/West Virginia Watch)
By Aaron Hamler
As we descend into the panopticon era of technofascism, one of the biggest proponents of this descent is the installation of the Flock cameras we’re seeing in our communities.
I’ve been waiting for a report that shows us the data that is needed to decide whether these Flock cameras reduce crime and increase crime clearance rates; the true measure of their efficacy. Recently, such a report was released, where people used the FBI Crime Data Explorer tool for a closer look at the numbers. According to findings, despite nearly an eight-fold increase in the number of cameras in Atlanta, Flock didn’t significantly decrease crime or increase clearance rates as promised.
ICYMI
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