MetroNews This Morning
MetroNews This Morning 7-11-24
An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's Extra Help Program, my premium is zero and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year or a married couple who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp paid for by the US Department of Health and Human Services. How many times a day do you compare yourself to others or wish your life looked like someone else's? We all do it sometimes because it's easy to envy friends' lives on social media when you only see the good parts. But you know what they say? Comparison is the thief of joy. And in reality, nobody has it all together. Online therapy can help you focus on what you want instead of what others have, like that career goal you set your sights on, or that relationship you want to grow, or that daily habit you want to get into. Because your best life is always better than the idea of someone else's. Better help makes therapy more accessible and less overwhelming with affordable online sessions that you can do anytime anywhere. That's why over 4 million people have used it for mental health support. So stop comparing and start living with Better Help. Visit BetterHelp.com today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelpHELP.com This is Metro News this morning, bringing you this morning's biggest news headlines from across the state. It's July 11, 2024 and this is Metro News this morning. Over the next 15 minutes, we'll get you up to date on what's happening across the state of West Virginia. I'm Jeff Jenkins. Good morning. Happy Virtual. We'll be by with his morning commentary. Kyle Wigs will have sports, the mountaineers peering at big 12 media days, and Kerry Huda Sec is at the anchor desk. It'll be another steamy day here in West Virginia, but a little more comfortable than in recent days, and we'll check the weather coming up in just a couple of minutes, but get started now at the Metro News anchor desk with Kerry Huda Sec. Good morning, Kerry. Good morning, Jeff. Lawyers for the State Department of Human Services say West Virginia has steadily improved its child welfare system and that a federal judge should knock out a long-standing lawsuit saying it has no merit. Metro News statewide correspondent, Brad McElhaney says the state wants a summary judgment getting rid of the lawsuit and that they have a strong defense. The lawyers for the state say they have filed more than 3.2 million pages of documents and made dozens of state employees available for examination, concluding that there is no scenario under which the plaintiffs would win if the case were allowed to proceed to trial at taxpayer expense. The plaintiffs have not yet filed responses, but their representatives indicated they would oppose the motion. A former Republican candidate for mayor in Huntington is now facing charges after allegedly threatening to kill current mayor Steve Williams. 70-year-old Richard Luther is charged with intimidation and retaliation against a public official. The incident happened Monday afternoon at Huntington City Hall when Luther allegedly made verbal threats against Williams. Luther has posted a $25,000 bond and has been ordered not to contact Williams and to stay away from City Hall. U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capita will be at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next week, where she expects to hear who former President Donald Trump's running mate will be. I would say the front runners at this point are Senator Scott, Senator Rubio, Senator Vance and Governor Burgum from North Dakota. Meanwhile, a national outlet is reporting that Governor Jim Justice is a scheduled speaker at the convention on Tuesday with Baby Dog. The governor holds a statewide media briefing today at 11 this morning. State Attorney General Patrick Morrissey holds a news conference this afternoon to provide an update involving the U.S. Supreme Court on the ongoing fight to defend West Virginia's Say Women's Sports Act. West Virginia State University women's soccer alumna will join Morrissey at the state Capitol at 1.30 today. Middle and high school students in Ohio County will not be allowed to use their cell phones in class this fall according to a new policy being considered by the Ohio County Board of Education. Board President David Croft says the policy would apply to students in grades 6 through 12. It's a little different between 6 through 8 versus 9 through 12, 6 through 8 that the concept is the students aren't to have their phones out at all during school time. Grades 9 through 12, the high school, they'd be able to use the phones in between classes and before school and course after school. Croft says banning phones will help eliminate distractions. WVU's Milan Postcard Stadium could soon see some changes. The WVU Athletic Department is beginning the process of adding premium seating options to Milan Postcard Stadium and they're doing so by way of survey. The survey, which will be sent out to donors, mountaineer athletic club members and a sample of single game and season ticket holders, will ask subjects to provide feedback and opinions on the topic of premium seating and potential locations for those new seats. Mountaineer Field, as it's commonly referred to, has been open on WVU's Evansdale campus since 1980 and while there have been plenty of changes over the years, there have not been any new premium seats added in two decades. WVU Director of Athletics, Rin Baker, says there's a demand for these additions. There will be demand and we hear it a lot. We could fail. I know another dozen are so sweet today if we had them because I've had that many people ask to buy them since I've been here. WVU's last premium seat addition was the diversified energy terrace in the north end zone. I'm Aaron Parker WV Metronews.com. A man's body has been found in the Ohio River in Mason County. The state DNR police tells Metronews the body of a 78-year-old man was discovered just before 1130 this yesterday morning in the community of New Haven. Police say the man's boat was located several hundred yards downstream on the Ohio side of the river. Foul play is not suspected. The drive is a lot smoother northbound along Corridor G through Julian and Boone County this morning. After state DOH crews repaired part of the road that buckled upwards due to the heat. That section of concrete was permanently fixed on Wednesday. Chief Engineer of Operations Joe Pack says this is nothing they haven't seen before. It is a common occurrence when you have extreme increases in heat because that expansion causes the materials to change files literally. The northbound lanes are back open this morning. FEMA is closing one of its disaster recovery centers in Nicholas County, the center located at the Nicholas County Office of Emergency Services in Summersville. We'll shut its doors at six this evening. Appalachian Power Company spokesperson Karen Whissing says the utility will be cutting back on their planned maintenance-related power outages as this week's heat wave continues. We're going to look at what's scheduled outages that we can do in the early morning hours before those temperatures reach daytime highs. And that's to keep our employees and our customers comfortable and safe. Whissing suggests keeping your air conditioning above 68 degrees when it's over 90 degrees outside to avoid paying high electric bills. Thank you, Kerry. Coming up in our background, we'll hear more from Brad Michael Haney on that motion for summary judgment from the state. He says there's no need for that foster care lawsuit any longer. We'll hear from Brad coming up. In our background, Kyle Wicks with sports, the mountaineers has spoken. At the big 12 media days, Kyle will have that story and more coming up. Thanks for joining us this morning. Good morning. Hi, it's Tony Kariti. If West Virginia matters to you, then downloading the all-new MetroNews TV app onto your connected devices is an absolute must. You will gain access to both live and archived content, including talk line, sports line, pre-guys before the game, and so much more. It is MetroNews for your ears and eyes. Download the free app. It's available on Roku, Amazon devices, Apple TV, iOS, and Android. It's MetroNews TV. And now you can watch the voice of West Virginia. It's two hours of sports conversation to wrap up your weekend. It's the sitting at Sunday night sports line. Hey, this is Travis Jones. Join myself and Greg Hunter every Sunday night from 606 until eight o'clock. As we wrap up the sports weekend, we talk mountaineers, high school, mountaineers conference, and the latest in the national scene. The Sunday sports line is Lister Interactive. You can call or text the show at 304 talk 304. It's a perfect weekend sports wrap up on your favorite Metro News affiliate or watch the show at www.metronews.com. Thanks for joining us this morning. Kyle Wigs with sports in just a moment in our background or a long-standing case in federal court continues against the state over its foster care system. But now the state says it's made the improvements. It would win the case and it wants a federal judge to enter a summary judgment. MetroNews statewide correspondent Brad McElhaney tells us more in today's background. Lawyers representing the State Department of Human Services are asking a federal judge to knock out a long-standing lawsuit over the foster care system saying it has no merit. The attorneys for the state this week filed a motion for summary judgment in US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. On the accompanying memorandum makes an argument that West Virginia has steadily improved its child welfare system to the point of undermining the plaintiff's allegations. Such a motion asked the court for a ruling on the merits of the case before it ever goes to trial. The lawyers for the state say they have filed more than 3.2 million pages of documents and made dozens of state employees available for examination, concluding that there is no scenario under which the plaintiffs would win if the case were allowed to proceed to trial at taxpayer expense. The foster care lawsuit was filed in 2019 on behalf of thousands of children. The lawsuit alleged rampant issues with institutionalization for children, moves outside of West Virginia, available community-based mental health services and overextended caseworkers. The case has been moving along in the courtroom of US District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin. The plaintiffs have not yet filed responses, but their representatives indicated that they were to pose the motion. You can read more in Brad's story. The lead story posted this hour at wvmetronews.com. Kyle Wigs checking in with sports and Kyle, the mountaineers have spoken at Big 12 Media Day and they say, hey, what about us? We're ready. Yeah, they were a slighted last year, picked last, of course, one nine games this year. Coming off that nine win season with a lot back, the mountaineers were picked middle of the pack seventh and that kind of bothers the players and the coaches. Now, West Virginia has a huge opportunity right off the bat. That contest against Penn State, WVU coach Neil Brown saying the Penn State game could be a landmark contest for his program and for a new formulated Big 12 conference. Penn State game is huge for us. That's a regional rivalry. That's not a rivalry that's gone in West Virginia's favor very often. And so that's a great opportunity for us. It's the Fox News kickoff. Our fans will be ready for that too. I think we'll show really well in national television, but it's not just a big game for West Virginia. You're correct. It's a big game for our league and it's an opportunity for our league in this new Big 12 without a couple schools that have been a part of the Big 12 for a long time and that first weekend on a marquee stage to show what kind of football that we play in this league. And so without a question, whether it's West Virginia or any other program in the Big 12 gets those kind of marquee wins, our brand will continue to grow. And then we've got to make some noise in the playoff and commissioner, your mark spoke about this yesterday is we are the most competitive league. I would say we're the deepest football league in the entire country, but we've got to go. TCU had a nice run, but we've got to have more wins in the playoff until we get in. Not near head football coach Neil Brown from Big 12 media days. You can read more at wvmetgronews.com. They'll talk more about it on the sports line. Marshall's football program has agreed to a deal to open the 2025 college football season at Georgia. That game will take place at Sanford Stadium August 30 2025. That'll mark the second match up between Marshall and Georgia. The teams played in 2004 with Marshall hanging tough. They lost to Georgia and that one 13 to three baseball Colorado edge the red six to five reds, three run ninth inning comeback falling short Milwaukee beat the pirates by final of nine and up in cubs over the Orioles four to nothing. Thanks, Kyle. Don't forget to follow the sports at wvmetronews.com Metro News statewide. Sportsline is tonight at 606 and there is a new three guys before the game podcast posted at wvmetronews.com. They take a lot of tweets and a lot of questions in this particular edition of three guys before the game. So that's at the website wvmetronews.com. This is Metro News this morning for Thursday morning, July 11, 2024. I'm Jeff Jenkins on Metro News the voice of West Virginia and the voice of Metro News is happy Kirchivol. Jeff, like many West Virginians, much of my early childhood was spent in a house without air conditioning. My father built our house, a two story block structure with garages on the first level and the living quarters on the second. Of course, heat rises and with the sun beating down on the tin roof, our apartment, as we called it, was like an oven on sizzling summer days and nights. We had one window fan in the living room. It was a beast of a machine that when running on high, sounded like an airplane. I had trouble understanding why it blew air out instead of in, but my parents reassured me that it was better to work as an exhaust fan rather than just blow in more hot air. And it did help. Some, we were reasonably comfortable at times and I suppose one of the reasons was we didn't know any better. I remember visiting a friend whose family had just built a new house and noticing how uncommonly cool it was in every room. They had something called central air, magical, but certainly not something our family could afford. Then one summer, as the days grew longer, the temperature got even hotter. Our mighty exhaust fan roared, but there was only so much it could do. Faced with the prospect of sweltering days and sweat soak nights, my parents broke down and bought a window air conditioner. It was a putty brown hot point, about the size of a small oven. My father thanked the tired exhaust fan for its dedicated service and wedged the air conditioner into the same window. He plugged it in, turned it on, and it roared to life. Within seconds, a wonderful dry chilled air was pouring out of the top vent. It had different settings for fan or AC, high, medium or low, but that summer we pushed the button for high and there it stayed. We lived on a farm, so there was lots of work outside in the hot sun. It was such a joy to come in the house soaked with sweat and stand in front of the air conditioner, letting the cool dry air wash over us. Of course it was just a room air conditioner, but my mother got the idea of setting up box fans strategically around the house to try to circulate the cool air. If no one interfered with her ventilation plan, the bedrooms would be tolerable by bedtime. A few years later we left the farm and moved to town. The air conditioner, now an integral part of the family, came with us, and took its rightful place in the dining room of our new home, which also did not have central air. During the heat of the summer, the only time my mother would turn the AC off was for a few minutes at dinner time so we could hear each other talk. But immediately after dinner the old boy was back on high, cranking out waves of cold air. I don't know when the air conditioner gave out, but it was long after I moved away. My parents replaced it with a smaller unit, and handed a couple of other window units around the house. The old hot point had given all, and I suppose it was unceremoniously discarded, along with broken stoves and faulty refrigerators. I can't help thinking it deserved better. Today I have central air conditioning everywhere, at home, at work, in my car. I enjoy the cool air, but there is something very impersonal about it. You don't see the air being chilled, and you're barely aware of the sound of air coming through a vent. I take it for granted. I'm not as grateful for the air conditioning now as I was back then, but sometimes on a scorching summer day. I think about how that hot point battled against the heat and humidity, and gave the grateful, curtival family cooling relief. Jeff. Thanks, Hop, and don't forget, Hoppy's on the air at 10.06 this morning across the state of West Virginia, and streaming live at wvmetronews.com. You can always read Hoppy's commentaries too, at our website. Today across the state of West Virginia, we're beginning today with clear skies in most areas. It won't be as windy today as it was yesterday. Temperatures in the mid to upper 80s, and then the heat wave returns beginning tomorrow with temperatures getting in to the 90s. For Kerry and Kyle and Hop, I'm Jeff Jenkins. Have a great day. Metronews this morning is an exclusive production of the Metronews Radio Network. All rights reserved. An official message from Medicare. A new law is helping me save more money on prescription drug costs. You may be able to save too. With Medicare's extra help program, my premium is zero, and my out-of-pocket costs are low. Who should apply? Single people making less than $23,000 a year, or married couples who make less than $31,000 a year. Even if you don't think you qualify, it pays to find out. Go to ssa.gov/extrahelp paid for by the US Department of Health and Human Services. It is Ryan here, and I have a question for you. What do you do when you win? Like, are you a fist-pumper? A woohoo, a hand clap or a high-fiver? If you want to hone in on those winning moves, check out Chumba Casino. Choose from hundreds of social casino-style games, for your chance to redeem serious cash prizes. There are new game releases weekly plus free daily bonuses, so don't wait. Start having the most fun ever at Chumba Casino.com. Sponsored by Chumba Casino, no purchase necessary, VGW Group, void work prohibited by law, 18-plus terms and conditions apply.