By Leann Ray | Editor-in-chief
“This is a real issue where childcare providers have closed and are continuing to close across the state. This bill is supposed to be a lifeline for them. It’s disheartening that we have a lot longer path to fix our childcare system, and if we can’t even take one step forward together, it’s not going to be a great collaboration.”— Sen. Joey Garcia, D-Marion
By Amelia Ferrell Knisely
Senate Majority Whip Ben Queen, father of a young child, stood on the Senate floor in March to celebrate the Legislature’s first-ever hallmark childcare bill.
“If we want people to go to work in this state, then we have to make sure they have somewhere safe and reliable for their kids to go during the day,” said Queen, R-Harrison. He smiled as he talked about his son’s childcare provider.
Like many miners with advanced black lung disease, Tim Balthis looks healthy, sitting with his wife Fran Balthis on their porch in Pound, Va. But a scan of his lungs shows so much fibrotic tissue a doctor told Balthis he was surprised he was still alive. (Photo by Roger May of NPR, published through the Appalachian News Exchange.)
By Justin Hicks and Howard Berkes
Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs, all for former patients at her pulmonary rehabilitation clinic in Norton, Virginia.
A pile of ruined furniture sits outside of Pop’s Furniture in Buckhannon, West Virginia, on Thursday. (Photo by Lori Kersey/West Virginia Watch)
By West Virginia Watch Staff
People in Upshur and Lewis counties who lost employment because of last month’s deadly storms and flooding are eligible for disaster unemployment assistance, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office and Workforce West Virginia announced Thursday.
NATIONAL
Preschool children line up to go outside at the Ralph Hawley Head Start Center in Emeryville, Calif., in December. The Trump administration has proposed major changes to the Head Start program. (Photo by Florence Middleton for CalMatters)
By Carolyn Jones
The Trump administration appears poised to gut the central policies that shape Head Start, a popular and long-established early childhood education program that serves the country’s neediest children.
By Jacob Fischler
WASHINGTON — Republicans on a U.S. Senate panel voted Thursday to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he declined to answer any questions at a hearing last week about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
By Ariana Figueroa
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders in his second attempt to deny citizenship to babies born to noncitizens, following the Supreme Court’s defeat this summer of an earlier order to redefine birthright citizenship.
COMMENTARY
Medicaid sign at U.S. Senate Democrats’ press conference on Feb. 19, 2025. (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
By Lida Shepherd
Last week marked the 61st anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, and with so many dire threats to both health care programs, we would do well to reflect on their history and the promises delivered to millions of Americans since they were signed into law six decades ago in Independence, Missouri.
ICYMI
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