By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“This court cannot take over the foster care system of West Virginia. The blame squarely lies with the West Virginia state government.” — U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin said in 2025 when dismissing the lawsuit meant to improve West Virginia’s long-troubled foster care system.
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
The West Virginia Attorney General’s office is seeking to pause a sweeping lawsuit brought by foster children against the state while attorneys ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the ongoing suit.
Workers from The Beverage Market, who are represented by Teamsters Local 175, have been on strike since May 12 as they await a fair contract from the company’s owners. (Photo courtesy of Teamsters Local 175)
By Lori Kersey
Eight weeks into a strike, union representatives said Tuesday that the owners of the Beverage Market in Charleston, West Virginia, and employees are not close to reaching an agreement to settle the labor dispute.
NATIONAL
(Illustration by Alex Cochran for Stateline)
By Jonathan Shorman and Kevin Hardy
A quarter millennia after its founding, the United States faces a stark choice that will define its future.
In the years ahead, the country can continue to follow the path blazed by President Donald Trump, who is attempting to bring states under the authority of a more powerful federal government led by him. Or it can move in a different direction, one where states become a heavier counterweight to an aggressive White House and rebalance the relationship between the states and the federal government.
By Jacob Fischler
A host of high-profile Democrats called for Graham Platner, the party’s nominee to take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine in November’s election, to drop out of the race as they tried to save the party’s chances to retake the Senate majority.
COMMENTARY
The Congressional Research Service reports that nearly all American met coal comes from Appalachia — West Virginia alone accounting for almost half of U.S. output — and that China is the world's largest consumer of it. (Photo by Karen Kasmauski/Getty Images)
By Jim Branscome
Washington promised that China's entry into the World Trade Organization would bring prosperity. In the mill towns, glass houses and coalfields of Appalachia, the promise often arrived as a foreclosure notice — and helped turn one of the most loyally Democratic regions in America solidly Republican.
ICYMI
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