Across the nation, more than 390,000 children rely on foster care. However, a shortage of licensed foster homes is creating a national crisis. While official foster care cases are carefully tracked, many informal examples of kinship care aren’t part of the data. For this Us & Them episode, we hear the experiences of those who’ve been part of the foster care system.
Southern W.Va. HS Students Shine In National Spotlight For Environmental Work
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A high school in southern West Virginia is getting national attention for a recycling program that rewards people who share recycling stories.
Wyoming East’s Friends of the Earth club submission took top honors in the PepsiCo Recycling Innovation Challenge.
The school program rewarded people who recycled the most with prizes like gift cards. The student created contests expanded from the high school to social media accounts on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram challenging friends and answering recycling trivia questions.
The Friends of the Earth program received $5,000 for the actionable submission in the Recycling Innovation Challenge. Next up, the students are creating selfie stations at recycling bins across the county.
The students at Wyoming East are also representing West Virginia in the national Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition after winning state honors last year. Students submitted a video but found out on Thursday, March 17, their project did not make the top 10. The program will still recieve $6,500 for participating in the national competition.
Students are working with leaders to make recycling possible across the county. They met with the county commissioners in December and Mullens Town Council in February.
Two of the six contests set up by the students are currently active on Instagram.
In Pineville, West Virginia, a town of 500, residents filled up the front rows of the county courtroom recently. They came to hear the latest legal update on a battle some have been fighting for generations - securing clean water. Bobby Lee Keen and his wife Patsy attended the hearing.
“How come they have people living like they're in a third world country and the United States of America?” asks Bobby Keen.
Two deer tested positive for chronic wasting disease in Harpers Ferry National Historical Park, marking the disease's first documented occurrence in the park.
On this West Virginia Morning, as the primary race for governor enters the home stretch, some candidate’s negative attack ads running endlessly on broadcast and social media target a minority group – transgender children. But what is the fallout from these ads for this vulnerable group, and West Virginia children and families in general? Randy Yohe has the story.