By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“If I’m a week late with my sales tax return, I get a notice. It is beyond me to understand how 10 years of sales tax could be neglected. There’d have to be a room with notices that could fill a closet.” — Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer
Del. Marty Gearheart, R-Mercer, questions how the Department of Arts, Culture and History failed to properly remit sales tax for 10 years during a meeting of the Post Audits Subcommittee at the state Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia on Sept. 14, 2026. (Photo by Will Price/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
The West Virginia Department of Tourism is correcting widespread financial mismanagement, including inappropriate cash-handling activities, that occurred within the Department of Arts, Culture and History.
Eric Caruthers, a Belle resident who is concerned about the proposed Clean-Seas project, speaks at the Kanawha County Commission meeting on July 23, 2026. Caruthers — along with several of his neighbors — delivered a petition signed by nearly 1,000 residents opposing the pyrolysis plant to Commissioners Ben Salango and Natalie Tennant. (Photo by Caity Coyne/West Virginia Watch)
By Lori Kersey
Organizers opposing a controversial “advanced recycling” facility planned for eastern Kanawha County will host a community meeting about the project this week.
NATIONAL
School buses parked outside Hammond High School in Columbia, Md., a suburb of Baltimore. Students ages 12 to 18 experienced higher rates of reported victimization at school than away from school in 2024, according to a new report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics. (Photo by Amanda Watford/Stateline)
By Amanda Watford
Students ages 12 to 18 experienced higher rates of reported crime at school than away from school in 2024, according to a new federal analysis. But the overall rate of crime victimization at school has not changed significantly since 2014.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — A coalition of civil rights groups and union organizations Friday sued the Trump administration to prevent the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to polling locations during November’s midterm elections.
By David Lightman
WASHINGTON — The rare 2026 issue that draws huge support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress is the same one that’s mobilized many Americans: restrictions on giant data centers.
By Ashley Murray
WASHINGTON — A federal judge told the Trump administration Friday a case against the Department of Justice’s $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund is “still alive and kicking.”
COMMENTARY
A server room in a data center. (Photo by Getty Images)
By Kelly Allen
Public opposition to data centers is real and growing across the political spectrum.
Residents largely see data centers as bad neighbors — emitting air and noise pollution, gobbling up huge tracts of land and water and raising utility costs, all while creating few if any permanent jobs for locals.
ICYMI
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