Miners in Central Appalachia who are responsible for digging up that coal are being left with fewer resources to protect them thanks to fede
worth noting is that the rate of black lung is drastically increasing, even among younger miners. NIOSH, which is experiencing drastic cuts, discovered the largest cluster of black lung cases ever from 2013 to 2017 in three clinics serving west virginia, kentucky, and virginia. west virginia has a long and tumultuous history with silicosis, most notably the hawk's nest tunnel disaster in which 500 to 1000 (potentially more!) workers—mostly black workers—who were forced to work at gunpoint and without breaks developed silicosis and died during and after the construction of the tunnel.
Just found out that one of my state's reps who voted in favor of the BBB was almost definitely bribed by the trump administration because right after she announced that she voted for it she made a post thanking Trump for appointing her son as a U.S. attorney. Love that.
Charleston police arrested 16 unsheltered people the day before the city’s multi-million-dollar annual festival. Records not only show polic
In January 2022, a few months after Charleston Mayor Amy Goodwin unsuccessfully called for a special session of the West Virginia Legislature to deal with homelessness, Charleston police started using a handful of low-level offenses (the parks curfew, littering, and jaywalking laws) to embark on a spree of giving tickets to and arresting unsheltered people.
Over the last year and a half, the enforcement of these laws has climbed 2,600 percent. By comparison, the enforcement of most other crimes has remained consistent according to a review of five years of CPD data obtained by Dragline through a Freedom of Information Request.
Officers Cooper and Harper – the police who arrested the 16 unhoused people in the parks – were listed as the primary officers for nearly half of these charges during this wave of enforcement. And according to people interviewed for this story, the way these two officers (and a handful of others) are enforcing these charges is custom-tailored to target unhoused people.
Through background conversations with service providers, Dragline was able to independently verify that all but one of the 98 instances of people being charged with the parks after hours ordinance over the last year and a half involved people who were unhoused at the time of being charged.
During this time, Charleston police have also begun giving jaywalking tickets to people who are panhandling. One man, who spoke on condition of anonymity after pleading guilty in municipal court moments earlier said, “I was holding a sign. Then, when I stepped out to take the money from a car, an officer rolled up and hit me with jaywalking.”
Despite two proposed anti-panhandling ordinances failing to pass when introduced to Charleston City Council members in recent years, police in the city have found a workaround.
Four other people who appeared in municipal court on recent jaywalking charges and several unsheltered people said they too had only been ticketed for this offense exclusively while panhandling.
Charleston police have also begun handing out littering citations to people who have simply set their belongings down by their feet or by their side when they sit down. Some have received littering tickets just for being near trash that was already on the ground.
In recent years, it was common for police in Charleston to write one littering citation every two months across the entire department. Since the beginning of 2022 however, officers have been writing 20 times that amount.
It’s a big day across West Virginia — Primary Election Day. I want to take this time to thank everyone who has supported me thus far. I am grateful beyond words. I have made some great new friends along the way, and that makes me a winner already. Now, make sure to get out and vote for the future of the Mountain State!
