By Lori Kersey | Deputy editor
“My son is a combat veteran who suffers from COPD from his time in Iraq, and he lives right behind me. This is going to hurt him. It’s going to hurt me as an older person. It’s going to hurt little children,” — Laura Wellstead, who lives a few miles down the road from the proposed Clean Seas plant in London.
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 Virgina Watch)
By Caity Coyne
Members of the Kanawha County Commission sent a letter to the state Department of Environmental Protection this week urging it to refrain from issuing an air quality permit for a proposed “advanced recycling” plant until the company behind the project can provide more details to confront concerns raised by residents.
Jane Lew, West Virginia, flooded during the storms July 21 and 22. (Photo courtesy of Andrew McDonald)
By Lori Kersey
The National Weather Services has now confirmed that nine tornadoes touched down in West Virginia during the storms on July 21 and 22.
NATIONAL
Republican U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, left, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska talk during a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in February 2025. The two were the only Republicans on the committee to vote for a bill to block Education Department interagency agreements July 30, 2026. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan effort to rein in President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education has cleared its first major legislative hurdle in a bipartisan U.S. Senate committee vote.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — Bryan Chavez knows that having access to legal representation as an unaccompanied minor can be a lifeline.
In 2017, immigration officials separated him from his mother and brother at the southern border, as they were caught up in the family separation policy of the first Trump administration.
By Ashley Murray
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump defended his highly criticized, nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” settlement fund on social media and in a Cabinet meeting Friday, as two key Republican senators withheld support for the president’s nominee for attorney general over Trump’s refusal to formally end the pot of money.
ICYMI
WV Treasurer Pack says it’s ‘unacceptable’ clothing voucher closed amid $370M surplus | Amelia Ferrell Knisely
US Senate panel backs Trump’s CDC nominee after tense hearing | Shauneen Miranda
US Senate panel advances Trump Labor Department nominee | Shauneen Miranda
Trump looks to veterans to fill trucking jobs after booting immigrants from industry | Ariana Figueroa
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