Charleston | featured news

By Ken Ward Jr.

Two explosions that killed a total of three workers at a Barbour County industrial site occurred while the workers were draining cleaning chemicals from tanks used to store the materials that give natural gas its distinctive odor, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said in a brief update issued Friday.

By Ryan Quinn

Richwood Mayor Bob Henry Baber's city purchasing card has been shut off amid an investigation by the West Virginia State Auditor's Office, and Baber said he's now on paid administrative leave after declining the city council's request for his resignation Thursday night.
State Auditor JB McCuskey said he got a complaint Aug. 23, and his office shut off Baber's purchasing card, also called p-card, the next day. McCuskey didn't reveal who made the complaint.

By Lacie Pierson

A federal judge ruled Friday he will not recuse himself from a heroin trafficking case after the defendant claimed the judge formed a negative opinion of him based on information available in court documents.
U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin declined a motion from Charles York Walker Jr.'s attorney to recuse himself from the case, saying legal precedent shows recusal of judges is applicable only when the judge's impartiality is affected by information outside of the boundaries of the court.

By Giuseppe Sabella

A firefighter hopes to improve emergency response times by seeking funding for a new ambulance for the Walton area, starting with a public meeting in the Walton Volunteer Fire Department at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Chris Collins said he is a volunteer firefighter in Walton, and a professional firefighter in Kanawha County. His goal for the last four years has been to bring another ambulance to Roane County.

n West Virginia American Water has issued a boil-water advisory for customers on Lewis Street, Hasting Street and Gay Street in Chelyan. The advisory follows a water main break.
n West Virginia American Water has issued a boil-water advisory for customers on Gillespie Drive in Dunbar. The advisory follows a water main break.
Customers in these areas are urged to boil their water for at least one full minute prior to use until further notice.

By Phil Kabler

A massive project to repair severe water leaks and major structural problems in the Capitol dome took a step forward Friday with a pre-bid conference for contractors planning to bid on the contract for the project.
For ninety minutes, more than 30 representatives from several construction firms were briefed on the details of the project, and then broke into groups for on-site inspection tours of the Capitol.

By Max Garland

The Robert C. Byrd Institute has landed a grant that will go toward the development of an aerospace training center at its Huntington location, the Marshall University-based nonprofit announced Friday.

By Jake Zuckerman

A law school professor from West Virginia University announced her plans to run as a Democrat in West Virginia's first congressional district Thursday.
Kendra Fershee, who is also an associate dean for academic affairs at the WVU College of Law, said she plans to enter the primary to run for the seat currently held by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va.
In a phone interview Friday, Fershee said she's running because the 2016 electorate wanted change, but she thinks what it got is different than what it had in mind.

By Giuseppe Sabella

A Charleston man pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding on Friday after authorities accused him of shooting a man and taking him to the hospital in a U-Haul truck.
Mark E. Broat, 27, avoided other severe charges when he accepted the plea agreement in front of Kanawha Circuit Judge James Stucky.
Though he entered a guilty plea, Broat maintained that he shot James B. Green in self defense.
"With those charges that they have on me, it's 22 to life - better this than risking that," he said, addressing the judge.

By Douglas Imbrogno

Dave Evans' life didn't end the day he lost both his legs below the knees in Vietnam.
But the explosive booby trap the Cabin Creek native stepped on along a rice paddy dike on Dec. 4, 1970, would determine the course of his life to come.
Evans looks back at his experience as a soldier in the new Suzanne Higgins documentary, "Vietnam: West Virginians Remember," which screens tonight at 8 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting, as a companion piece to the Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary, "Vietnam."