
By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“The momentum is overwhelmingly in our direction, this is a majority Republican state and we’re growing month over month (in registration).” — State Republican Party Chairman Josh Holstein

Booths await voters at the Pennington County Administration Building during early voting on Jan. 19, 2026, for a municipal election in Rapid City, South Dakota. (Photo by Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)
By Caity Coyne
West Virginia Republicans celebrated a victory last week as their voter registration totals in Boone County outpaced those of Democrats for the first time in history, but Democratic Party leaders say party registration is only part of the story.

Family Support Center employees and community members attended a meeting of the Joint Standing Committee on Health on June 15, 2026 at Canaan Valley Resort. (Photo by Amelia Ferrell Knisely/West Virginia Watch)
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
DAVIS, W.Va. — Federal funding for West Virginia’s Family Support Centers, which provide food and child abuse prevention services to children and families, will be available next month to keep the centers open this summer. However, it’s not clear if long-term funding will continue under Gov. Patrick Morrisey as he reviews the use of federal anti-poverty funds.

Sen. Ryan Weld, R-Brooke, is the author of, “The Foundations of Wellsburg.” (Courtesy photo/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
The idea for Sen. Ryan Weld’s first book began in his childhood home. He was curious about its history and the people who had lived there before his family.
NATIONAL

A baby drinks from a bottle during a newborn care class. Congenital syphilis rates have been rising, and the only U.S.-made drug that can be used for pregnant women and babies with the infection, an injectable antibiotic, has been in shortage. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
By Nada Hassanein
The United States has a shortage of the only first-line medication recommended for pregnant women with syphilis to prevent passing it to their baby, even as congenital syphilis rates have been skyrocketing.
By Jennifer Shutt
WASHINGTON — For the first time in nearly two decades, Congress missed a deadline for reauthorization of a key surveillance authority, raising questions about whether the U.S. government can continue to monitor certain communications.
By Jennifer Shutt
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced Monday that oil barges were moving through the Strait of Hormuz, less than a day after he said the United States and Iran had brokered an end to the war.
By Ashley Murray
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday Sunday cageside at a multimillion-dollar bloody mixed martial arts event staged on the White House South Lawn, punctuated by fighter jet flyovers, a live military band and fireworks to mark the country’s 250th anniversary.
By Sam Gauntt
Days after President Donald Trump’s name was removed from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a large tarp and scaffolding was still blocking the building’s facade from public view Monday afternoon.
ICYMI
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