By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
Over the last three years, West Virginia Watch reporter Caity Coyne has been following the West Virginia First Foundation, a private nonprofit created in 2023 to dole out the state’s share of opioid settlement dollars. She’s spent hours and hours looking through reports to determine how localities have used their share of the money. The funds are supposed to be used to support treatment of opioid use disorder and any “co-occurring” substance use disorder and mental health, and programs must be evidence-based or evidence informed. However last year, Caity found that most of the funds were not used that way. In her final story for West Virginia Watch, she looks at how the second year of funds were used, although some localities did not explain their expenditures. Others did not send a report in at all.
West Virginia localities gave the highest percentage — about 23.8% — of their opioid settlement funds to law enforcement in fiscal year 2025. Police cruisers were the largest single spending category for law enforcement. (Stock photo by Halbergman/Getty Images)
WV local govs spent most opioid settlement funds on police, jail bills, EMS in fiscal year 2024-2025
By Caity Coyne
West Virginia localities spent nearly $10 million more of the opioid settlement funds they received between 2024 and 2025 than in the year previously, with a bulk of that spending going toward law enforcement, jail bill payments and support for emergency medical services, according to a West Virginia Watch analysis of a local spending report published by the West Virginia First Foundation earlier this year.
Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, asks questions during a meeting of the Joint Committee on Children and Families Sept. 14, 2026, about a measure meant to help students who may be removed public schools to shield abuse. (Photo by Perry Bennett/West Virginia Legislative Photography)
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
A group of West Virginia lawmakers spent the summer reworking a controversial piece of anti-child abuse legislation that sent the House of Delegates into chaos this year during debate over protecting children versus parents’ rights.
NATIONAL
Chase Johnson of Cary, North Carolina, is among the cancer survivors and patients participating in a clinical trial for a new breast cancer vaccine. New cancer vaccines could be coming, but doctors and researchers are worried that rising vaccine hesitancy, fueled in part by the Trump administration, could blunt their impact. (Photo courtesy of Chase Johnson)
By Sofia Resnick
In the past two decades, there has been steady progress in developing vaccines for cancer. Researchers are especially excited about the potential of mRNA vaccines, which use synthetic genetic instructions to teach a person’s immune system how to recognize and destroy unique proteins found on cancer cells.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — Department of Homeland Security officers may have broken state laws carrying out the Trump administration’s orders to find noncitizens voting illegally in federal elections, Democratic senators alleged Monday following a whistleblower complaint.
By Jacob Fischler
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday kept in place a lower court’s order blocking President Donald Trump’s embattled plan to place new restrictions on mail ballots for this year’s midterm elections.
By Jennifer Shutt
WASHINGTON — Both chambers of Congress return to Capitol Hill this week for a brief session before heading back to the campaign trail until mid-November.
By Jacob Fischler
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will revoke limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants that run on coal and natural gas, according to regulatory documents Administrator Lee Zeldin signed Monday.
By Shauneen Miranda
WASHINGTON — With the U.S. Senate set to hold a procedural vote in the coming days on a sweeping bill to overhaul college sports, dueling press conferences Monday underscored the fierce debate over how to tackle the biggest issues plaguing that landscape.
ICYMI
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