By Steven Allen Adams For The Parkersburg News and Sentinel Charleston – With the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence 36 days away, Gov. Patrick Morrisey and Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby announced new merchandise for West Virginians to buy and called on state communities to ring their bells to celebrate on July 4. Morrisey and Ruby made the additional announcements for the state’s part in America 250, the national celebration semiquincentennial celebration, at a press event...

By Rick Steelhammer For HDMedia Imagination-inspired artwork by nearly 200 students at Charleston’s Edgewood Elementary School is now on display on a series of 30-inch diameter metal discs that spell out “EDGEWOOD” and hang from a tennis court fence at Edgewood Park, at the intersection of Edgewood Drive and Washington Street West on Charleston’s West Side. Last October, after being encouraged to tap into their imaginations and emotions — rather than the familiar and mundane — for inspiration, the Edgewood...

By Maj. Gen. Bill Crane, retired guest commentary For The Register-Herald National security doesn’t begin at the Pentagon. It begins at the factories and power lines that keep America’s defense industry running. It begins right here in West Virginia. According to the U.S. Department of Defense’s “Defense Spending by State” report, companies operating in West Virginia receive more than $1 billion annually in defense contract obligations in some recent years, supporting aerospace manufacturing, advanced materials and other critical elements of...

By Matthew Young For HDMedia If the U.S. Supreme Court’s forthcoming decision makes 2026 the last year of competition for Bridgeport High School sophomore Becky Pepper-Jackson, then the 15-year-old transgender athlete made the most of her final season of interscholastic sports in West Virginia. With a personal shot put best of 38 feet, 11¾ inches, Pepper-Jackson edged out runner-up Paislee Babiczuk of John Marshall High School by just over 2 feet in the sixth and final round to claim the WVSSAC Class...

By Esteban Fernandez For Times West Virginian Fairmont — State Sen. Joey Garcia, D-13, owns up to his vote on House Bill 2014. HB 2014 set the rules by which microgrids that power data centers would be regulated, as well as created rules governing how tax money collected from data centers would be distributed. Garcia voted for the bill last year. However, outcry from his constituents has him reconsidering his stance. Del. Phil Mallow, R-75, made an oblique reference to...

By Jim Bissett For The Dominion Post Fairmont – Merchant Street on Fairmont’s East Side is a pretty percolating place these days. The bustling commercial strip is right down from the Interstate 79 and the city’s Gateway Connector, and come June 2, it will be percolating even more. Just ask Taylor McCartney. Percolating, she knows. She’s the founder and chief barista of Groove Coffee, the mobile coffee trailer that will be a fixture of the Fairmont Farmers Market, which launches...

By Rick Steelhammer For HDMedia Clay — A railbed over which the Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad once “shipped the coal that helped the United States reach its highest industrial heights” in the early 20th century is now supporting a new wave of development in West Virginia in the form of tourism, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Thursday at a dedication ceremony for the new headquarters building and visitor center for Elk River Trail State Park. The new building, designed to resemble a...

By Kim North For The Intelligencer Wheeling — Nailers fever is spreading quickly throughout the Ohio Valley, and it’s a condition local hockey fans hope sticks around a while longer. The Wheeling Nailers have reached the ECHL Kelly Cup Eastern Conference Finals, beginning a best-of-seven series Friday night against the Florida Everblades in Estero, Florida. While Nailers fans will have to wait to see their team in person this round, they can still watch the game locally in a few...

By Charles Owens For Bluefield Daily Telegraph Bluefield — The countdown to the start of the 2026 Cole Chevy Mountain Festival is now underway. Crews with the James H. Drew Carnival will be setting up their massive display at city park in Bluefield this week in advance of Friday’s opening of the 10-day festival, which is now in its 42nd year. Residents attending this year’s festival can expect to see returning favorites such as Rock-it the Robot and the Wheels...

By Mike Tony For HDMedia The teetering business empire of Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., faces a new legal challenge responding to one of its units reporting a systematic failure that has cast doubt over more than two years of patient health assessments. The Greenbrier Clinic, a self-billed, all-inclusive medical services unit at the Justice family’s Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, was hit with a federal class-action lawsuit Wednesday. It’s the second class-action lawsuit to be filed against the clinic...