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Hunger

West Virginia is considered to be the fourth “hungriest” state by organizations such as Feeding America and the U.S. Department of Agriculture studying food insecurity in this country. Certainly, Appalachia is hit hard. The food insecurity rate in southeast Ohio is 17.4%, though some counties in the region are much higher. In the Mountain State, the rate is approximately 16.67%. A significant number of those affected are children. Homegrown efforts such as those of the Highmark Foundation and WVU Medicine are a lifeline for families in need. For that reason, the Highmark Foundation ...

Consequences

Twenty years ago, no one really knew where social media was going to go. Facebook had just dropped “The” from its name. It was not yet ubiquitous. It was only beginning to move beyond college campuses and into broader public use. By 2006, it opened the doors wide. There were just two requirements: have an email address and be at least 13. It was a revolution without a war. We can remember a time when we weren’t in years-long WhatsApp group chats or documenting every sandwich on Instagram. But the inch-by-inch way social media’s before and after bled together can obscure how ...

Highways

West Virginia’s roads haven’t quite driven us to prosperity just yet, but they ARE better than they used to be, according to a report by the Reason Foundation. Its 29th Annual Highway Report showed the Mountain State moved up just a little — from 33rd to 30th. That still leaves us worse off than Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, but better than Pennsylvania and Maryland. (Would that be the Blacktop Brawl?) Tragically, West Virginia worsened in its urban fatality rate, from 13th to 34th. The state also ranked 49th in the other fatality rate category. But, West Virginia improved in ...

Screenings

If the sight of a giant inflatable colon catches you off guard, good. Perhaps the image will stick and serve as a reminder to keep up with colon cancer (and other) screenings. WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center is using the prop to help raise awareness about colon cancer and colon health, and encourage them to ask questions in an atmosphere that is perhaps a little less daunting than the doctor’s office. The “Strollin’ Colon” is hard to ignore. Colon health is nothing to ignore, either. “Everybody, regardless of family history, should start screening for colon ...

Serious Issue

On its face, copper theft is a dumb crime, culprits breaking into homes, business or other areas to yank out that metal and sell it somewhere else. It’s just scummy. Yet someone in West Virginia found a new way to make that crime even scummier. Wheeling police were called out to an Appalachian Power substation near Elm on Friday morning after someone had broken into it and absconded with the copper inside. That theft created another, much larger, problem. With that copper gone, the substation went down. And at the outset, 7,700 Appalachian Power customers were without ...

Red Cross

“We never take a holiday because disasters never take a holiday.” As Wood County Commissioners recognized American Red Cross Month, Sharon Kesselring, executive director of the American Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley, reminded them just how vital the organization is to our communities. All across West Virginia, the Red Cross provides services to the armed forces, disaster services, training for CPR and first aid and, of course, blood and blood product services. Kesselring said the Red Cross in her area helped 81 people, and “put more than $22,000 into the pockets of ...