Police and Peers to help with drug problem

April 13, 2024

KINGWOOD — Kingwood City Council members are giving the Police and Peers program a try. Tonya Helmick, a member of the program who was at the Tuesday evening meeting, will work alongside the Kingwood Police Department to help with drug and homeless problems. According to the West Virginia Office of Drug Control Policy, Police and Peers (PNP) is a grant-funded program aimed at sharing the workload placed on law enforcement when responding to a nonviolent, non-law enforcement-specific incident. The concept of PNP is to pair an embedded or co-responding Peer Recovery Support ...

Justice wants money for storm victims but leading lawmakers say he already has it

April 12, 2024

CHARLESTON — Gov. Jim Justice said he could be helping victims of last week’s storms had the legislature agreed with his $50 million allocation in his proposed state budget for disaster assistance. Justice said during his Wednesday media briefing the money could have helped victims like those of last week’s tornado in the Fayette County community of Lavista. “That $50 million would have been sending dollars and be able to help that man today, today, but we cut it out of the budget,” Justice said. Justice said the fund could get assistance to victims more quickly while ...

Governor says he doesn’t know details of tax liens

April 11, 2024

Two months ago, the state tax department overseen by Gov. Jim Justice’s administration filed seven liens for unpaid sales taxes amounting to $3.5 million owed by The Greenbrier Hotel Corp., which is owned by Justice’s family. Merchants collect sales taxes from customers but that’s ...

Bloom touts new DOH contact, commission approves courthouse bid

April 10, 2024

MORGANTOWN — Monongalia County Commissioner Tom Bloom said Wednesday he’s not sure what’s changed at the West Virginia Division of Highways, or why, but he hopes it continues.  Days after it was learned the DOH is reversing years of precedent by contracting some core maintenance ...

Treasurer bans 4 financial firms from state banking services

April 10, 2024

Four financial institutions have been cast into darkness for state banking services over their environmental policies. State Treasurer Riley Moore’s office this week said it has placed Citigroup Inc.; TD Bank, N.A.; The Northern Trust Company and HSBC Holdings, PLC onto the state’s ...

DOH looks to private contractors for help

April 9, 2024

BY MIKE NOLTING The state Division of Highways is turning to contractors to do what has typically been regular maintenance work in north-central West Virginia. In an effort to relieve some of the core maintenance workload for DOH workers, bids have been received to complete ditching in ...