Free Republic

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ/Gray News) - Two brothers were killed in a head-on crash Saturday night in West Virginia, WSAZ reports. According to the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, two motorcycles collided in a head-on crash, and brothers Shawn Dakota Roseberry, 24, and Michael Lee Roseberry, 26, both died at the scene. Deputies said they believe that speed and wet roadways played a role in the crash, but noted the motorcycles were not street legal, had faulty equipment and neither driver was wearing a helmet. No other vehicles or people were involved in the crash.

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources contracted with a company in 2017 to develop a system, known as WV PATH, to help the agency better manage programs including Medicaid, food assistance and its child welfare system. With less than four years left on the contract, the project still isn’t complete. Senate Finance Committee Chair Eric Tarr, who has questioned DHHR about the missing database, said the project has cost $173 million as of July 2022 based on information from DHHR. “The first risk is harm to kids,” Tarr, R-Putnam, said. “The larger risk is that the feds...

CHARLESTON — A bill that creates a process for workers in West Virginia to seek exemptions to COVID-19 workplace vaccination requirements passed the state Senate on Tuesday after more than two hours of debate and bipartisan objections. House Bill 335, relating to COVID-19 immunizations requirements for employment in the public and private sectors, passed the state Senate 17-16 Tuesday afternoon with only state Sen. Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, absent. However, the bill failed to get the two-thirds vote needed to make it effective from passage, meaning the bill could take 90 days from passage by the Legislature before it can become...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — The Kanawha County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has dismissed two charges against a man arrested last week who was accused of assaulting an 82-year-old volunteer at the Women's Health Center in Charleston, according to an order filed Wednesday in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. Christopher McComas, 52, of St. Albans was charged with assault and disorderly conduct after incident that occurred on July 25 outside the health center at 510 Washington St. W., according to a criminal complaint filed in Kanawha County Magistrate Court. In the motion to dismiss, prosecutors indicated that, "after careful review of the report,...

KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WOWK) – A man was placed into handcuffs this morning in the capitol city while protesting outside of a health clinic. The man, identified as Christopher McComas, 52, of Saint Albans, was arrested after having two warrants issued for him stemming from last week for disorderly conduct and assault. He was arrested while protesting abortion in front of the Charleston Women’s Health Center around near the corner of Washington Street and Greendale Drive. He had been protesting there for several weeks.

For more than 100 years, an order of Capuchin Franciscan priests has prayed and preached in the Kanawha Valley, celebrating baptisms and marriages, comforting the bereaved, ministering to the needs of generation after generation of Catholics, always based in a small church on the West Side of Charleston. As of today, the Capuchin presence on the West Side, in Charleston, in the Kanawha Valley and in the state of West Virginia, is no more. The order’s provincial minister, based in Pittsburgh, made the decision to reassign the two remaining Capuchin priests in the state after concluding the community here could...

After more than a century of ministry and service to West Virginia, the Capuchin friars are leaving the Mountain State this month. Vows as Capuchin friars require they live together in community as brothers, sharing a prayer life and meals. A minimum of three brothers is necessary to fulfill this supportive environment. The area has two Capuchin friars serving five Catholic parishes in Kanawha and Putnam counties. The Rev. James Kurtz serves St. Anthony on Charleston’s West Side and Our Lady of the Hills in Elkview. The Rev. Joseph Tuscan serves Holy Trinity in Nitro, Christ the King in Dunbar...

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV - Despite Rod Jones of South Charleston being told his region could start flushing and using his water again, he still experienced symptoms after using his water. "My stomach was upset within seconds and my hands broke up in a rash," he said. He did all of the flushing procedures twice, and did it longer than what West Virginia America Water advised. It's something health experts told us they expected to see as people began turning on the water again. "We've seen about a couple dozen in the last couple of days," said Megan Evans, a physician's...

Chemical Spill Spurs Action Thursday morning a chemical leak into the Elk River occurred from the Freedom Industries in Charleston. The leaked product is 4-Methylcyclohexane Methanol, which is used in the froth flotation process of coal washing and preparation. Since the West Virginia American Water Treatment plant is just downstream from the spill, this "contaminated" water flowed into the Charleston water plant. From there Laura Jordan of WV American says the "octupus-like" pipelines of WV American feed water to 8 counties in Southern and Central WV. That means even areas that are not on the Elk or Great Kanawha Rivers...