Jessica Lilly

The Beckley VA Medical Center wants more people to know about the resources available to prevent veteran suicide. Suicide rates among veterans are more than 50 percent higher than civilian adults. The VA is hosting events in September, which is Suicide Prevention Month.

The National Park Service is hosting several events this week to celebrate the “hidden histories” of southern West Virginia. It’s part of the 16th Annual Hidden History Happenings.

Two of coal’s pollution legacies are acid mine drainage, the waste from mining coal, and fly ash, waste from burning coal. For years, some energy companies have put the waste into wet or dry storage impoundments.

A festival in Greenbrier County is celebrating West Virginia heritage and culture by offering tours of a fish hatchery. The Freshwater Folk Festival is intended to encourage visitor appreciation and conservation of freshwater resources.

As President Joe Biden is expected to end the nation's public health emergency later this year, pandemic related relief programs are going back to previous levels.

West Virginia has been awarded an additional $15.4 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration as part of the American Rescue Plan. The plan was created to help ease economic impacts from the pandemic.

This weekend, organizers with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum located in Matewan will uncover monuments meant to provide permanent markers about the Battle of Blair Mountain and other related events.

Development in the southern coal fields has often run into issues of trust and sustainability. For the New River Gorge Regional Development Authority, business development in Nicholas, Summers, Raleigh and Fayette Counties began with relationship building.

Southern West Virginia has new hiking trails located just minutes off of Interstate 77. The trailhead to the Gardner Center's hiking trails is located less than a mile off of exit 14, or the Athens exit, just behind the former U.S. Forestry Service Building.

The beautification project is part of the 32nd annual Great Kanawha River Cleanup and the Make It Shine program.