MetroNews This Morning
MetroNews This Morning 6-26-24
Today on MetroNews This Morning:
--Nicholas County is ready to get the final project started stemming from the 2016 flood
--Secretary of Arts, Culture, and History Randall Reid-Smith defends the decision to include Babydog in the historical murals in the Capitol Rotunda
--Some West Virginia auto dealers are impacted by a global software hack
--In Sports: Summer workouts are in full swing for high school football teams
- Duration:
- 15m
- Broadcast on:
- 26 Jun 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
This is Metro News this morning bringing you this morning's biggest news headlines from across the state. It is Wednesday, June 26, 2024. Good morning. I'm Chris Lawrence and we are ready to roll with all of the information you're going to need today in the mountain state. We begin with that forecast calling for a possible break in this heat with thunderstorm activity. But be aware those could be violent thunderstorms packing some high winds and maybe even some hail in certain places. And for the most part, things are still going to be hot with highs today in the 90s. We'll have that full forecast for you coming up in a moment. Right now, let's check out what's been happening across the mountain state. At the Metro News anchor dance this morning is Kerry Huda said. Good morning, Kerry. Good morning, Chris. Nicholas County School Superintendent Terrence Beame says he hopes that within a month there will be construction taking place at the Glade Creek site where a long-awaited new school will be built. Beame says bids for the project will be open tomorrow. He has his fingers crossed. They'll have enough money. We have approximately $95 million that's available towards this project. We're of course hoping that these bids come in under that because we all want to do some additional things in that project. You don't want to have to get back to project in any way. The State School Building Authority awarded an additional $3.5 million for the project on Monday. Beckley is in the middle of transitioning to a city manager style of government. The first city manager is a familiar name to Beckley residents, Billy Trump has served for years as the city recorder and treasurer. Trump says the search for the permanent city manager is ongoing and he's confident they'll get some good candidates. There's a lot of confidence that this group will find not just one but several qualified candidates and then the council and the committee can look at choosing from among those candidates. A long time Mayor Rob Brappold's final day in office is this Sunday. A global computer hack is impacting the ability of some West Virginia automobile dealers to conduct daily operations. West Virginia Automobile Dealers Association President Jared Weyrich says the hack was a ransom attack on a software program called CDK Global. What CDA has officially confirmed is that it was a ransom event. There are reports that it is a black suit software or ransomware in black suit that they are formerly known as royal in this sector. This originates out of an Eastern Europe crime center. The attack which started last week accessed the software data, locked it up with an encryption key and is now demanding payment before allowing it to be accessed by the owners. A St. Albans man will be sentenced on drug related charges this October. 44 year old Carlito Carter admitted to the charges in federal court Tuesday. Carter pleaded guilty on Tuesday to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl. The charges coming from a January arrest where law enforcement executed a search warrant and found 300 grams of meth, 200 grams of fentanyl and 300 grams of marijuana in Carter's residence. Also found in the home was ammunition, firearm components and over $1,600. Carter will now stand before a judge on October 3rd of 2024 facing a maximum of two decades behind bars as well as a minimum of three years of supervised release. I'm Aaron Parker WV Metro News dot com. A man is dead and another person is injured after an ATV crash near the Lewis-Dodrich county line. It happened along Think Creek Road Tuesday afternoon. Names have not been released. Stay police are investigating. There's no convincing state Department of Arts, Culture and History Secretary Randall Reed Smith that it was wrong to include the governor's dog Baby Dog in one of the new state capital murals that were dedicated last week. Reed Smith says it was the right call. I'm very happy that this is done. And yes, I think it's appropriate because Baby Dog is history and people will see this in 20, 30 years. And that'll be a story that they can talk about that, you know, people were talking about this. A committee reviewing the original designs for the mural agreed to add several things, including an image of Baby Dog. A federal judge in Delaware is ordering Bluestone Mineral, a company owned by Governor Jim Justice and his family, to be moved toward a sale over a tangle of debt. Metro News statewide correspondent Brad McElhaney explains why this is happening. The company suing over the debt and attempting to liquidate the justice assets characterizes the family businesses as "indire financial shape." We have more from Brad and a story posted this morning at wgvmetronews.com. Governor Jim Justice is set to have a media briefing this morning. His office has announced it will start at 1045. US Attorney for Southern West Virginia, Will Thompson says child pornography and child sex trafficking continues to be a growing concern with more arrests being made. Thompson says many of these cases are very difficult due to the technology. I tried one of these cases myself last year. I thought I knew a lot about computers. I had to learn a lot more in order to try the case. So they are difficult to investigate, but they're certainly worthwhile investigating. Thompson was a guest on Tuesday's Metro News talk line. There's some interesting research from Marshall University assistant professor Brittany Black on the impact social media is having on children. Black says a social media warning label would be a good idea. It does have potential effects on things like self-esteem and potentially body image. And, you know, just the fact that so much of social media, we engage in social comparisons and some of that can lead to a lot of difficulty. The US search in general last week urged congressional action on tobacco style warning labels on social media, citing mental health risks for young people. Underground breaking ceremony will be held today for the new Eastern Panhandle multi-modal transit center in downtown Martinsburg, officials receiving $20 million in federal funding to get that project done. Today, ceremony begins at two o'clock. Thank you, Kerry. Coming up in our Metro News background. We will hear more from Randall Reed Smith, the secretary of arts, culture and history talking about that decision to put baby dog on the historic mural in the Capitol Rotunda that was unveiled last week. And then Kyle Wiggs will be by with a check on sports as high school football teams are going through those summer workouts. We'll get an update from Kyle on how those are going plus the rest of the day sports. Stay with us. West Virginia outdoors is the mountain states only hook and bullet radio show dedicated to the more than quarter million hunters and anglers across the state award winning host Chris Lawrence has been tracking down hunting and fishing stories for more than 25 years. Stock fish for repatriation purposes. So that's reintroduction reestablishment of Brooktrough and two of those streams, the oldest that we have worked on the earliest ones that we started putting fish into. We've noticed natural reproduction in both of those streams. Whether it's hunting and fishing news or just compelling stories about the enjoyment of the great outdoors. It was a pretty good flight. It took me about 10 minutes to get it in. My dad actually had to run to the truck and grab a necklace with my wife. I could lift him up over top of the rail. West Virginia outdoors covers it all Saturday mornings at 7.06 a.m. And for your daily fix outdoors today brings you two and a half minutes of news and notes from the woods and water. Every weekday morning on Metro News, the voice of West Virginia. Coming up, Kyle Wigs. We have an update on sports for us right now in our background. West Virginia Secretary for the Arts, Culture and History Randall Reed Smith. Explaining how baby dog made it into one of those new state capital murals. He had a conversation Tuesday on Metro News talk line with host Hoppe Kirchvel about it. Why was baby dog or a dog not in the mock-ups? Didn't you all display the mark? I just told you this. In the renderings when they brought them in, this was what they had talked about putting in there. We looked at there. There was a blank space. You can see the original rendering there. There was no wildlife at all. And so, you know, we talked about first maybe a deer. Then I said, let's do the up because, you know, we have that big elk project. Every introducing the elk when Governor Tomlin was here. There was not a cardinal. My favorite thing actually is the cardinal. It looks like it's flying. And then, you know, a dog. And so, we all said baby dog. Why not? You could do a hunting dog. I mean, West Virginia's we have hunters. You could do any other animal. You could do any other animal other than baby dog. You're right. You could have. Well, you could have. You could do anything. I mean, you know, but I don't see what's wrong with having baby dog here. I love baby dog. A lot of people do Hoppe. A lot of people do. A lot of people do. So, is there anything else that you want to stay? Look, as I wrote about this today, this is not going to be a grand controversy that goes on forever. Okay? This is a one or two off thing, I think, about baby dog and the murals. And I do love the murals. I think it's a great addition to the capital. We see the next four. They're gorgeous. Okay. Is there any surprises in those? We should know about. They're allegorical. I'll tell you what the four subjects are. All right. I love education, commerce, justice, and liberty. All right. And any scene like West Virginia scenes in there? No, no, no, no, no. They're all like very like Romanesque, Greek figures. My favorite. Well, there's something on them that I like. I love that they're in the education one. It's like that central figure that you see in the, you know, our seal that's up there, the lady there. It's sort of a figure like that. She's reading to a child. The one that's liberty, I love the robe is blue, and then you have the flag there. My only question was, is the 35 star flag? And you really can't see how many stars it is. Justice is the scales of justice, of course. And then the commerce is like doing math. So, and they're all very similar. Those original murals were unveiled last week on West Virginia Day. To the sports desk now, cow eggs is in. And cow, we've not talked much about it, but the big thing happening right now in sports is those summer workouts for high school football. Yes, we are in June. Obviously it used to be the three week June practice period. And coaches have so much more flexibility now. In fact, they're flexed days. They have 32 of them to utilize really at any point. So, a lot of high school football teams, most high school football teams getting their work in June, and I think most sports work heavily in June. They take much of July off so the kids can have their summers and families can travel. And then the preseason camps for the fall sports crank up in August. But the 32 flex day formula, that's year two of that system. And the coaches seem to be acclimating to that very, very well. The new head football coach at Cabell Midland High School, John Ashworth. He was a guest on the Metro News statewide sports line. On Tuesday, talking about his vast experience as a high school and a college assistant coach, he takes over that Cabell Midland program that's been very, very good. 118 and 37 since 2011. Morgantown High Girls basketball coach Doug Goodwin has stepped down following 28 seasons of coaching as an assistant, mostly the last two as head coach at Morgantown High. That team won a state championship two years ago. Thank you, Kyle. You can follow all of today's news and sports as it happens online at our website, wvmetronews.com, a constant stream of news and sports stories updated throughout the day and night across West Virginia. Plus, you can stream all of our live Metro News programs there or download them as podcasts to listen or watch on your schedule, wvmetronews.com. Now with today's commentary, here's the voice of Metro News, Hoppy Kirchable. Chris, the investigation into the death of 14 year old Kennedy Miller revealed that although the Boone County child was home schooled, her parents did not turn in her eighth grade assessment as required and there was no follow up by the Boone County school system. Police say when they found Kennedy dead on the bathroom floor for home, she was emaciated to a skeletal state. Her mother and grandparents are charged with child neglect resulting in her death. Now, again, to be very clear, homeschooling did not cause her death. However, it has resulted in questions about how the state education system keeps track of these students and whether the assessments are completed as required. West Virginia law states that the parent or guardian of a homeschool student must provide to the county school system an academic assessment of the child at grade levels 3, 5, 8, and 11. However, new data from the State Department of Education suggest that more often did not. The assessments either are not done or there's incomplete records of them being done. The figures obtained this week that show over the last four school years, 17,000 students were actively homeschooling in the four grade levels that require the end-of-year assessment. However, these records show only 37% of the homeschool students in those grades had assessments submitted. School superintendent Michelle Blatt cautioned that these statistics come with a number of caveats. She believes counties are doing their best to keep accurate records. But she said, "We have not put quite as great an emphasis on ensuring that the assessment data are tracked within the system." She went on to say, "We also can't be certain that districts know or enter information about when students leave homeschooling, whether by termination or completion. So we should not take that 37% number as gospel. However, it is an indicator that the system set up in state law to ensure that homeschool students are learning at grade level is not functioning as it should. Theoretically, when there's no assessment, it should trigger a review by the county school system and potentially lead to the child returning to the public school classroom or to a different home school. And anecdotally, I hear that rarely happens. One of the reasons is, the law states a county superintendent may seek a court-ordered, denying home instruction, but they're not required to pursue it. Homeschooling has taken root in West Virginia, and there are currently 27,000 students whose families have opted out of the public schools. That is their right. And many of these schools are finding new and exciting ways to educate their children. But there's also growing evidence that some parents are misusing the law to keep their children out of school for whatever reason. The most recent data from the Department of Education suggests that many of these parents are failing to follow even the most basic assessment requirements. Chris. Thanks, Op. And Hoppy returns at 10.06 this morning with the show Metro News Talk Line. Now today's weather forecast for West Virginia, above normal temperatures are expected today along with additional rounds of shower and storm activity. In the afternoon and evening hours, a cold front is approaching, and some of those storms, as a result, are going to be strong to severe. Damaging winds and large hail are impossible out of these. More seasonable temperatures are returning for Thursday behind the front. Mostly dry weather expected Friday, but then there's another system to provide a chance for shower and thunderstorm activity for the weekend. And now you're up to date. Have a great day for Hoppy Kerchable. Kyle Wigs and Carrie Houdiseck. I'm Chris Lawrence and this is Metro News. The Voice of West Virginia. Metro News This Morning is an exclusive production of the Metro News Radio Network. All rights reserved. (upbeat music)