Mountaineer News Service-West Virginia News -

Prison Overcrowding Still a Major Problem in West Virginia

By: Kiley Putnam, Christopher Tomes and Nick Jandora Just last month, Amin Matthews was arrested for possession of marijuana and incarcerated in the West Virginia Eastern Regional Jail, one of the many overcrowded jails in the state. Matthews, a 21-year-old Martinsburg resident, ended up sharing with another prisoner a cell...

Private developers in Morgantown benefit from university’s tax-exempt status

By Ryan Petrovich, Kevin Hooker and Courtney Tranter University Place, a spanking-new, 900-bed student housing complex, sits high on a hill of Morgantown looking over the campus. Inside, retail shops, eateries, a fitness center, study lounges and roomy apartments make University Place a coveted environment for students to live. But...

Morgantown Officials At Odds with Fracking Company Over Drinking Water Risks

By Erin Irwin, Nick Villano, and Steven Laks Fracking may soon resume in Morgantown’s industrial park, which straddles a hill just above the Monongahela River and lies a half mile away from where the city’s drinking water supply is gathered in and treated. That geographic proximity has raised concerns among...

Morgantown city officials plan to use home rule to curb couch burnings

By: Danielle Mastro, Andrew Jones, Matt Mister and Charles Clarke After West Virginia University’s football team defeated Oklahoma State University in the fall of 2013, a crowd of students danced around a fire they had set in the middle of the street in downtown Morgantown, chanting as they celebrated the...

Possible Fracking Hazards Worry West Virginia Residents

By Joseph Lipovich, Jacqueline Sagar and Samantha Valentine For over a decade, West Virginia officials have been touting the benefits of fracking for creating jobs and boosting the state’s economy. Executives in the natural gas industry also promote it as a cleaner, safer source of energy than coal. Now, however, some...

Downtown Farmers’ Market Expands Into Westover

By: Kaity Wilson, Whitley Rose and Jimmy Scott A local city that has been considered a food desert now has a new option for purchasing fresh produce. The Morgantown Farmer’s Market has expanded to a second location in Westover, and will give the community, which has no grocery stores, somewhere...

Renewable Energy Source for West Virginia is Blowing in the Wind

By: James Dutton, Adam King and Catrina Sedgwick When Barbara Broxterman and her husband decided they wanted to improve the energy efficiency of their farm, they considered several alternative energy sources before deciding on wind power. Four years ago, they installed a 33-foot tall wind turbine for $40,000. The three...

Native American burial site bulldozed over for Suncrest Towne Centre

By Noelle Harris, Jeff Thomas and Zachary Voreh More than 10 years ago, Wal-Mart wanted to build a $15 million mega-store on the land on which the Suncrest Towne Centre, a mall containing over 80 stores, now sits. However, after Wal-Mart discovered that it was the site of an ancient Native...

Morgantown at high risk of a contaminated water supply

By Bart Keeler, Gus Willis, Shanna Rose and Brian Thorpe The Monongahela River was once used to transport coal from the mines of north-central West Virginia to the steel mills in Pittsburgh. Today, it pushes over 900 tons of hazardous waste downstream to Pennsylvania each year. The same river supplies...

Juggling classes and extra-curriculars

By Joe Mitchin, Ryan Fadus and Dan Ingham MORGANTOWN, W. Va.- At 10:25 a.m., Kevin White ran off the bus, dodging students like he was dodging defenders on the field, hustling for the doors of the Business and Economics building. His Econ 202 test would start in five minutes. One...

Businesses want to keep downtown locally owned

By Joshua Cooper, Hayley Clover and Allyson Parrish MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If you walk in downtown Morgantown, you will see local store after local store, but corporate restaurants are coming. Concerned that Panera Bread and Sheetz will squeeze out local businesses, Mountain People’s Market Co-op has started a petition to...

Once a Mountaineer, Always a Mountaineer

Pride of West Virginia: Then and Now By: Allyson Parrish, Hayley Clover and Joshua Cooper Dawn West has been a member of the West Virginia University marching band for over 30 years. She’s seen changes from different band uniforms to multiple different band directors. West first joined the band...

Close to 1,000 children available for adoption in West Virginia

By Kristen Basham and Tiet Tran In early October, 15-year-old, Davion Only approached the pulpit at St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church and made a public plea to be adopted. In the weeks after his public address, hundreds of families reached out hoping to welcome Only into their home. Only’s story...

Health Insurance Mandatory for WVU Students in 2014-2015 Academic Year

By Michelle Deehan, Joe Nelson and Laken Vita Tyler DeAntonis is a college student with money issues other than textbook fees on his mind. He is part of a distinct statistic. According to The United States Government Accountability Office, 20 percent of college students in the United States between the...

West Virginia Cyclist among those eyeing national cyclo-cross competition

By Josh Ewers Morgantown,W.Va. – On Saturday Nov. 16, White Park, in Morgantown, W.Va., was transformed into a cycling course as hundreds gathered to find out who, among the varied in style racers, competing on equipment ranging from mountain bikes to road bikes, would become the Appalachian Bicycle Riding...

West Virginia’s Urban Deer Hunting Programs provide for the less fortunate

By: Amit Batra, Taylor Eaton and Will Hirsch For years, hunting has been an integral part of the West Virginia community. For hunters around Morgantown, in addition to recreation, hunting offers a way to give back to the community. The Urban Deer Archery Hunt program in West Virginia began in...

Food for thought: Organic farming at WVU

By Dave Marnell and Kayla Marley In the organic farming community, “you are what you eat” isn’t just a saying, it’s a manifesto. “Food choices say a lot about one’s education on life,” said Melvin Krambule, 36, operations trainer at Organically Grown Company in Portland, Ore. Krambule is one of...

Scars of Deerbourne

By Kayla Marley and Dave Marnell For some people, they can never really grow until they lose something they love. In this sense it was the night of Nov. 29, 2012, that Kevin Merrill, a 23-year-old senior at West Virginia University and budding musical artist, found out what really matters....

How Facebook can cost you your dream job

By Brooke Burton, Joshua Young and Stephen Sleeper Brett Phillips knows the hazards of social media all too well. A few years go, he was fired as a residential assistant for WVU’s honors dorm after being tagged on Facebook photos showing him partying with students from his dorm. Yet there was no alcohol, drugs or inappropriate behavior in the photos. “[The photos] were just a lot of people solidifying memories in film,” says Phillips. Being fired “was the last thing I expected after a fun night with my students,” he adds. Phillips is one of an increasing number of people whose use of social media has gotten them into trouble with current or prospective employers. Indeed, 69 percent of employers surveyed in a recent study say they have rejected a job candidate because of something they saw on the candidate’s social network. Reppler, the social media monitoring service which conducted...

WVU baseball team shakes up the Big 12

By James Michael Carvelli, Matthew Fouty and Shelby Toompas West Virginia University’s baseball team had spent the better part of the last decade near the bottom of the Big East Conference, and its fans didn’t think things could get any worse. They were wrong: the Mountaineers finished the 2012 season...

Federal ruling on emergency contraception could spark local backlash

By Michael Stahurski, Laura Clark and Kelly Dugan In early April, a federal judge ruled that the emergency contraception known as Plan B can be sold over the counter to anyone. overturning an existing ban on sales of the morning-after pill to girls under the age of 17. This week,...

West Virginia’s problems more than a century in the making

By Stephanie Aikin, Omar Ghabra and Kelsea Lynch When Liyang Yu graduated from high school in a small town rooted in Southern West Virginia’s coalfields, he only knew one thing about where he was going to college: it wouldn’t be in West Virginia. Yu, a first generation American of Chinese...

Man camps from natural gas boom cause headaches for local officials

By: Lydia Nuzum, Carly Runquist, and David Perry Triadelphia, West Virginia – Just outside of Wheeling on a busy stretch of Route 40, rows of RVs and campers line a gravel campground across from a distribution plant. Pick-up trucks parked beside most of the RVs boast identical front plates that...

WVU students chosen to conduct key NASA space experiment

By: Sarah Cordonier, Hunter Homistek A team of West Virginia University engineering students will battle history and microgravity this summer when they represent their school in a national NASA project designed to improve the use of high-powered computers during space travel. The 11 students who are going to NASA this...

Taxi service in Morgantown spinning its wheels

By: Katherine Heath, Jesse Tabit and Brad Eischenseer Greg Olenik, a senior at West Virginia University, often has to wait up to an hour to get a cab back to his Lofts apartment after carousing in the bars downtown. Even though Yellow Cab, the only cab company in Monongalia County,...

Natural gas industry challenges coal’s dominance in West Virginia

By Omar Ghabra, Laura Clark and Sarah Davis For decades, coal has been king in West Virginia. The coal industry has dominated the state’s economy and its money has bought the acquiescence of generations of politicians at the state and federal level. But with the rise of the natural gas...

Can Morgantown officials ban trucks clogging downtown roads?

By Bryan Popkin, Kelsea Lynch and Stephen Sleeper For years, Morgantown residents have complained about the large trucks that clog traffic downtown as they rumble by on Beechurst Avenue and Walnut Street on their way to deliver coal and gravel to the coal-powered plant on Beechurst or to various construction...

Pageantry in West Virginia is not all Glitz

By Shelby Toompas, Michael Stahurski, Brooke Burton For Louisa Gates, the best part of owning a monogramming shop in Bridgeport was providing the traditional quilt squares for contestants in the Miss West Virginia pageant. The squares, which depict a unique characteristic of each contestant, are sewn into a quilt that symbolizes...

Will Morgantown’s late-night food trucks be rolled out of town?

By Stephanie Aikin, Karissa Blackburn and Joshua Young When Burke Manning and his family opened The Pita Pit on High Street in 2006, he says there was just one street vendor, a guy who sold hot dogs in the same spot for 15 years. Then two years ago, another vendor...

Prescription drug abuse a growing problem at West Virginia University

By Katiann Marshall, Katherine Heath and David Perry Last semester, a student at West Virginia University passed out in class, slamming his head face down in the desk. He was unconscious for two hours. The night before, he and a couple of his friends had snorted Klonopin, a powerful anti-anxiety medication....

Is the indoor tanning craze responsible for West Virginia’s high skin cancer rate?

By Miriah Lee, Rachel Simpkins and Michael Carvelli When Marissa Biller, 18 of Baker, West Virginia, received a phone call from her doctor telling her she had skin cancer, she was stunned. Biller had started tanning at the age of 13 and tanned almost every week until she received her...

WVU to compete in global contest to build solar-powered house

By Sarah Cordonier, Kelly Matava and Hunter Homistek For the first time ever, students from West Virginia University will participate in a prestigious competition among 20 universities worldwide to build a solar-powered house that wins points for being cost-effective, energy efficient and attractive. They will be up against academic powerhouses...

In West Virginia, every dog doesn’t have its day

By Stephanie Aikin, Michael Stahurski, and Sarah Davis Four years ago, Brittni Spedding was driving down a Morgantown road on a rainy summer night when she noticed a skinny dog emerging from the bushes. The dog looked badly malnourished and he was shivering. “I called him into my car,” Spedding...

Air pollution in Morgantown is reaching dangerous levels

By Laura Clark, Kelsea Lynch, and Matthew Fouty If you walk down Beechurst Avenue on a daily basis, you’re taking your life in your hands — and it has nothing to do with getting hit by a car. Your health is being compromised daily by the noxious fumes emitted by...

West Virginia gets F for inadequate tobacco prevention efforts

Tim Creighton started smoking when he was in the second grade after seeing his classmates light up; he felt it would help him fit in. Now a 22-year-old student at West Virginia University, Creighton acknowledges that he is addicted to cigarettes. “When everyone around you smoked and used dip,...

Members of popular Morgantown band make sacrifices now for success later

By: Brad Eichenseer, Kyleigh Razmic and Hunter Homistek Most afternoons, Matt Marion, a recent graduate of West Virginia University, can be found taking orders and tossing dough at the Mountain State Brewing Company in Morgantown. A trained professional in the field of public relations, Marion could earn more money elsewhere,...

Weakened labor unions in West Virginia mean fewer decent-paying jobs

By Lydia Nuzum and Andrew Kloc In January, 10 members of the United Mine Workers of America, including several West Virginia miners, were arrested in St Louis, Mo., following a protest outside of Peabody Energy headquarters. More than 1,000 miners were protesting the possible loss of pension and health care benefits...

Why West Virginia’s rate of gun violence is above the national average

By: David Perry, Sarah Cordonier and Katherine Heath Jeron Hawkins, a 19-year-old Charleston resident, had no idea that bringing a gun into a Morgantown nightclub in September 2011 would cost him his life. Hawkins got into an argument with another man at Karma, a club on High Street, and when...

Making Morgantown a greener community and saving the planet while we’re at it

Every day, rain or snow, Nickolas Hein rides his bike more than 15 miles from his home in the Cheat Lake area to downtown Morgantown. Hein works for Positive Spin, a local nonprofit dedicated to what he calls green transportation: biking, walking, carpooling or taking the bus. He says biking...

Last call for Morgantown’s bar scene

Morgantown — In the early morning hours of September 26th, 2011, an argument over a spilled drink in one of Morgantown’s private clubs turned deadly. Jeron Hawkins, an 18-year-old from Dunbar, West Virginia, shot and killed another young man who had followed him out of Club Karma on High Street...

WVU’s renovation plans for Sunnyside generate outrage

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Najeen Guest, a junior at West Virginia University, had no idea the university planned to raze her house as part of a large-scale renovation of the Sunnyside neighborhood – until she read about the plans on the internet in late October. She is among many students who...

WVU Proves Good Investment in Bad Economy

When Christina Kast graduated from West Virginia University’s School of Journalism in 2008, she had grand dreams of working in television. And she did get several job offers but felt that the salaries weren’t enough to enable her to pay off the thousands in loans she had amassed to...

Controversy over drilling for natural gas reserves sweeps West Virginia

By Sean McNamara, Erika Blatt, Ilyssa Miroshnik Morgantown,WV — When some residents of Morgantown learned that a gas company was drilling for natural gas in a local industrial park last year, they panicked. Would water contaminated with toxic chemicals used in the drilling process leach into natural groundwater sources...

The P-Squad

By Andrew Silva, Jamie McCracken, Megan Hudock After an 8-hour journey and fresh off an upset win against second-ranked Notre Dame, the West Virginia women’s basketball team had finally arrived at the Coliseum. Rather than the darkness and silence usually associated with 2:30 a.m., the Lady Mountaineers stepped of the...

WVU Rifle: Shooting Under the Radar

MORGANTOWN – The Mountaineer, the mascot of West Virginia University, carries a rifle at his side, but it’s the university rifle team that generates the biggest bang around campus. The 14-time national champions are currently ranked No. 1 in the country. They’re also shooting some of the best scores collegiate...

Morgantown’s Budding Marijuana Business

By Conor Griffith, Elizabeth Hurst and James Yaria In Morgantown drug paraphernalia is more accessible than a Happy Meal. The downtown area is filled to the brim with “head shops” that legally sell the accessories to use marijuana, though the vendors officially state that their devices are for tobacco use...

Mountaineer Tailgate Guide and Tips

By: Andrew Silva, Jamie McCracken and Megan Hudock Transportation and Parking Free parking is offered for cars at the Coliseum, with a shuttle service to the stadium provided for a $4 charge. The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is available on Saturday game days from 9:30 until an hour after the...

How WVU’s couch-burning tradition spawned riots

Produced by: Krista Baker, Terry Fletcher, Jonathan Nelson MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In the hours after West Virginia University’s football team beat the University of Texas Oct. 6, more than 1,000 students filled the streets of Morgantown, toppling a light pole and setting fires to the pole and nearby cars....

Slum landlords make life difficult for WVU students

By: Jane Abenir and Dan Sweeney MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – From the outside, the house looks a little worse for wear, nothing out of the ordinary. The paint is dull and chipping; the chips create a tree-like texture on the front wall. Inside, however, wet rust-colored spots are visible on the...

Poverty and poor health go hand in hand in West Virginia

By Katherine Murdock and Jack Burgess Morgantown, W.Va.— When Tom Terrarosa, a 21-year-old student at West Virginia University, first began eating on a college student budget, he gained about 60 pounds. He says he found it difficult to eat healthy on a limited budget. “When you go into a grocery...

Morgantown’s Roads: A gravelly state of affairs

October 28th, 2012 By Ilyssa Miroshnik, Michael Ploger, and Ian Grimley Morgantown Roads Morgantown, W. Va. – Every year, Robert Hayes needs a new set of tires for his car because of the sorry condition of the roads in Morgantown. Hayes, a former West Virginia University student who now works...

Parking frustrations mount at West Virginia University

By Emily Dick, Will O’Neill and Ashley Sturm MORGANTOWN, W.Va.- Searching endlessly for a parking spot is a dilemma we all face at points in our lives. But for faculty, staff and students at West Virginia University, it is a way of life. WVU is home to more than...

Local Stores Promote Local Arts

By Marisa Matyola, Samantha Redd and Curtis Tenney Morgantown, W.Va. — For local artists in Morgantown, finding exposure for their work can be as easy as walking downtown. Several stores and galleries in Morgantown utilize local art to accent their window displays and dramatize their exhibits. Jeannie Kuhn, executive director...

The Battle for Avalon: LARPing in W. Va.

By Conor Griffith, Elizabeth Hurst, and James Yaria On a colorful autumn Saturday, Chris Colland and Crystal Harper arrive at a small clearing along Fine Arts Drive, where they transform into Kael Ravenwind, the warrior, and Catriona Sorcha, the healer. Although Colland, Harper, Ravenwind and Sorcha all hail from different...

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“It’s just food” — Clean eating is more than a trend

By Carlee Lammers, Nicole Curtin and Renata Di Gregorio Eating clean, organic food wasn’t a conscious choice for Morgantown resident Ruth Haas –– it’s the only thing she’s ever known. Growing up, Haas’ family had a greenhouse, where her parents grew most of the food...

WVU Students Showcase Dance

By Lauren Caccemo, Katie FitzGerald, Maurice Matthews, and Zach Oser. Morgantown, WV — In the past, Dance Now! has acted a showcase of West Virginia University students’ talent and original work. This year, the annual performance will demonstrate the product of an unusual and exceptional...

WVU Therapy Dogs All Have Their Own Story

By Steve Accardi, Edward Santiago and Shane Price

Local Career Closet Helps Uplift Morgantown Residents

By Alexa McClennen, Erika Bibbee and Emily Denman Located on the third floor of Christian Help is the women’s Career Closet, filled with heels, purses, designer business suits, scrubs and jewelry. The room is decorated to simulate a personal walk-in closet, with painted flowers on...

How Meals on Wheels helps local seniors stay healthy

By Callie Clendenin, Nickalas Holstein, Dillion Durst and Iman Hasan Without the Meals on Wheels program, Cindy Gay’s mother would struggle to properly feed herself. Gay, a 35-year veteran with West Virginia University’s Nutrition Services staff, said her mother is unable to prepare meals herself,...

The Mountaineer Among Us

By Chloe Dawson, Jessica Rangel and Sara Wells By the end of this year’s Mountaineer cheer-off candidates were visibly exhausted after going up and down the stairs yelling. The job requires the mascot to spend most appearances on their feet, leading chants and greeting fans,...

John Williams, WV House of Delegates

Video link for John Williams. Williams is a West Virginia University student who is running for WV House of Delegates. Are you in high school? It’s a question few politicians have to answer, but for John Williams, a West Virginia University undergraduate student running for...

New Gun Law Asks Whether West Virginians Will Be Safe Or Sorry

By Abby Campbell, Jeff Thomas and Anthony Pecoraro Mass shootings at a movie theater in Colorado, a school in Newtown, Connecticut and at a Washington, D.C. naval yard have prompted many Americans to call for stricter gun control. But here in West Virginia, state politicians...

The Future of Social Media on Campus

Not only is social media a common pastime, it is also used in professional setting as well. West Virginia University students have been taking advantage of social media campaigns to turn around the school’s image since making national news for rioting after the Baylor home...

West Virginia native left for dead in China

https://jamierobinson.creatavist.com/untitledproject-wzq1d On March 13, John Berisford talked to his sister over the phone as he was getting ready to leave China and go home to West Virginia later that day. But Berisford never made it to the airport and it may have been the...

From first hit to return to play: the life of a concussion in college football

By Brandon Vansickel, Emily Giangreco, and Ryan Glaspell The quarterback snaps the ball. You backtrack, following the play. As you begin to pursue the wide receiver who just made the catch, a flash of jersey streaks into your vision. A blocker’s shoulder connects with your helmet...

LiveSafe: A new way to keep our campus safe

By Lacey Palmer, Jennifer Clarke and Nick Shnider With the multitude of crimes occurring on campus and the amount of WVU Alerts we receive on a weekly basis, the safety of West Virginia University’s campus is certainly questionable. Many students know the dangers that accompany...

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