Barbour Co. Prevention Works Pathways helps area youth
PHILIPPI, W.Va. – The Bright Futures Barbour County Youth Prevention Coalition met Thursday at the Epicenter in the Chestnut Ridge community of Moatsville to mark the commencement of the Prevention Works Pathways Youth Employment Program.
The program is a 10-week initiative designed to empower young people through practical work experience and skill development. As part of the Bright Futures Barbour County Youth Prevention Coalition, the program has assembled a team consisting of five job coaches, 21 youth participants aged 15–18 and a program director, along with 12 business partners.
Senator Capito visits Braxton County Middle School for 'West Virginia Girls Rise Up' event
'Our goal is just to help people make a step into the world of work and responsibility. We all know that the sooner you learn how to show up for work and work well, life is better,' director of New Vision, Ruston Seaman said.
All of the current youth participants in the program were born during the height of the opioid crisis, which drug prevention experts stated has had a huge effect on Barbour County, both directly and indirectly.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Yahoo
Decision on Bluefield's federal funding request will come later
bluefield — It could be a while before a decision is made on a federal funding request for a new combined EMS facility in Bluefield. City Manager Cecil Marson announced last month that officials had submitted three projects for potential funding through a Congressionally Directed Spending award, formerly known as the federal earmark funding process. The city's funding request was sent to U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, as well as U.S. Senator Jim Justice, Those projects are the combined EMS facility for police, fire and rescue, the Union Street Sewer and Stormwater Project and a second stormwater project planned for the Midway area. But a funding decision won't be made immediately. The funding requests are for fiscal year 2026, according to Kelley Moore, communications director for Capito. Moore said Congressionally Directed Spending awards will be considered by the Appropriations Committee in the coming months as the committee members draft Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bills. 'Senator Capito carefully reviews each request individually, as she always has with this process,' Moore said, adding that Capito is familiar with the combined EMS project for Bluefield. 'She is aware of the project you referenced, but is still in the process of reviewing all of the requests. So it's too early to discuss support,' Moore said. The city announced the combined EMS facility project in 2024 when a legal advertisement for architectural and engineering consulting firms to aid in designing and constructing a campus that would serve the Bluefield Rescue Squad, the Bluefield Police Department and the Bluefield Fire Department was published in the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. At the time, the city said the idea behind the campus is to relocate the city's fire and police departments as well as emergency services to a more centralized location in Bluefield so they can have quicker response times. A final location for the combined EMS campus has not yet been announced by the Bluefield Board of Directors. The amount of federal funding that will be available for the next cycle of Congressionally Directed Spending, or CDS awards, is not immediately known, according to Capito's office. 'In terms of how much funding will be available for the next round of CDS awards, CDS funding is capped at a certain percentage of total discretionary spending — typically around 1%,' Moore said. When the project was announced, officials said both the Bluefield Fire Department and the Bluefield Police Department had outgrown their existing quarters at Bluefield City Hall and were in need of more room. The Bluefield Rescue Squad, which is located next door to Mitchell Stadium off Stadium Drive, can also have problems sending ambulances on calls when events like the Beaver-Graham Game or the annual Holiday of Lights at city park create traffic backups. The federal funds being sought for the combined EMS facility would cover various expenses associated with the construction of the new campus. Although officials are seeking a federal CDS award, City Manager Cecil Marson said in an earlier interview that the city is applying for various grants for the projects with the CDS awards being just one funding option. Contact Charles Owens at cowens@
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Yahoo
CDS funds can be used on CFX, King Coal
bluefield — Years ago it was a common practice for lawmakers to use federal earmarks to help build highway projects across West Virginia. Locally, some of the earliest segments of the Coalfields Expressway and the King Coal Highway were started as a result of federal earmarks secured by lawmakers, including the late U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd. Byrd, a powerful Democrat in Washington at the time, faced frequent criticism for his efforts in securing federal earmarks for West Virginia. A number of years later the use of earmarks fell out of favor with Congress, and the practice was ultimately supended. However, in more recent years, earmarks have returned with a new name. They are now called Congressionally Directed Spending awards, and are considered on an annual basis. U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, was recently asked by the Daily Telegraph why Congressionally Directed Spending awards are not currently being used to help with highway projects like the Coalfields Expressway in McDowell County and the King Coal Highway in Bluefield. Capito said the West Virginia Department of Transportation is, in fact, seeking Congressionally Directed Spending awards for those and other highway corridors across the Mountain State. She was also asked whether or not elected officials in Mercer and McDowell counties had requested such federal funding support for the highway projects in their respective counties. 'There is no reason why I cannot ask for a Congressionally Directed Spend in those areas,' Capito said in reference to the Daily Telegraph question during a recent media call with West Virginia reporters. 'Whether it is King Coal or Coalfields Express or Corridor H or whatever — Route 2 has some issues too on expansion.' Capito said her office is in regular contact with the West Virginia Department of Highways with regards to the transportation needs of the Mountain State. 'I am generally working with the West Virginia Department of Transportation to see where their priorities are so they can get, so we can cobble together the funds to actually have success,' Capito said. 'I know we just got recently a grant for the King Coal Highway. It came through. It was a discretionary grant. So that is good news. And we just gotta keep plugging away. These are massively expensive highways but they need to be completed.' Capito said the DOH will sometimes ask the counties to join in on funding requests for specific transportation projects. 'Mainly the big ones you are talking about will come from the West Virginia DOT and we work hand in glove with them.' Capito said. 'And they have requested these.' The Daily Telegraph has asked the DOT for information on the recent funding award for the King Coal Highway project, but has not yet received an answer. Years ago the local DOH offices were able to answer media questions, but in recent years all such questions must now be forwarded to the DOH's public relations office in Charleston. That practice was in place during the administration of former Gov. Jim Justice and is now continuing with current Gov. Patrick Morrisey. The King Coal Highway is West Virginia's local corridor of the future Interstate 73/74/75 routing. In West Virginia, the King Coal Highway will ultimately extend 95 miles through Mercer, McDowell, Mingo, Wyoming and Wayne counties along or near currently existing U.S. 52 from U.S. 119 near Williamson to Interstate 77 in Bluefield. In the bigger picture, the final Interstate 73/74/75 routing will extend from Detroit, Michigan to Myrtle Beach, S.C, opening up a large swath of Southern West Virginia to interstate access. According to the National I-73/74/75 Corridor Association, the project will bring growth along the interstate within six states: Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Sections of the interstate corridor are already open in other states, including North Carolina and South Carolina. The Coalfields Expressway is a new four-lane corridor that will extend through both West Virginia and Virginia. The full West Virginia routing of the Coalfields Expressway will take the new four-lane from Welch in McDowell County toward Pineville in Wyoming County and Beckley in Raleigh County. In neighboring Virginia, the Coalfields Expressway will extend through Buchanan, Dickenson and Wise counties. Contact Charles Owens at cowens@
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Republicans avoid direct clash with Senate parliamentarian on California EV mandate
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) on Wednesday maneuvered to avoid a direct clash with the Senate parliamentarian over whether the Congressional Review Act can be used to overturn California's electric vehicle (EV) mandate. Thune did so by setting up an elaborate series of procedural votes to allow the Senate to settle the controversial question. Thune brought to the floor a joint resolution sponsored by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito ( to disapprove of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's rule on safety standards for hydrogen vehicles. That bill will serve as a vehicle to expand the reach of the Congressional Review Act (CRA). With the procedural move, Thune threw a last-minute curveball at Democrats, who had expected him to first bring to the floor Capito's other joint resolution, which has already passed the House, to repeal California's EV waivers that prohibit the sale of new gas-powered light-duty vehicles by 2035 under the review act. Democrats were planning to use the parliamentarian's ruling that the EV waivers did not constitute rulemaking under the law to try to defeat the resolution. But instead, Thune decided to move first to the Capito resolution on hydrogen vehicle standards to pose several questions directly to the Senate that would take the question of whether the EV waivers are eligible for CRA review out of the parliamentarian's hands. He did so because some Senate Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), were uncomfortable about the prospect of flat-out overruling the parliamentarian, Elizabeth MacDonough. One GOP senator praised Thune for finding an 'elegant solution' to what could have been a thorny political problem. Thune argued the Senate had to weigh in because it was a 'novel' procedural question. 'I believe that when the Senate is facing a novel situation like this one with disagreement among its members, it is appropriate for the Senate to speak as a body to the question,' he said on the floor. He noted that the Senate voted last year on the question of whether a resolution that came to the floor qualified for fast-track treatment under the War Powers Act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), however, argued on the floor that the procedural shell game couldn't obscure what he called a blatant end-run around the parliamentarian's earlier ruling that California's EV waivers do not qualify as a rulemaking eligible for review under the CRA. He accused Republicans of 'going nuclear' by breaking established Senate precedent. Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) then stood up on the Senate floor to argue that Republicans were twisting the facts to claim that it's a 'novel' question to ask whether the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) waivers constitute a rulemaking that could be overturned by congressional resolution. 'The facts at heart here are quite simple. The waiver at issue is not a rule and was never a rule. Thirty years of precedent and practice at EPA and in this body prove that,' he said. Thune and other Senate Republicans, however, argued that it should be a matter for the Senate, not the parliamentarian to decide. Republican procedural experts say that it was common practice decades ago to refer difficult procedural questions to the Senate to decide as a body, instead of relying on the parliamentarian for advice. First Thune raised a point of order that 'points of order are in order under the Congressional Review Act' to allow the Senate to vote on the question of whether the waivers provided by the EPA are eligible for disapproval under the CRA. Schumer made a motion to table Thune's point of order, but it failed on a 46-52 vote. Then Schumer appealed the ruling by the Senate's presiding chair, who happened to be Capito, submitting the question of whether points of order are allowed under the CRA. That appeal was expected to also fail on a party-line vote. A Senate Republican source familiar with Thune's strategy said he will then offer a point of order to make the resolution disapproving of California's EV mandate eligible for fast-track consideration in the Senate. It is expected to pass. Once that's done, Senate Republicans are expected to pass Capito's resolution to overturn the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's rule for hydrogen vehicles. Then Thune will hold a vote on Capito's second CRA resolution, the disapproval required to repeal California's EV waivers affecting gas-powered vehicles. Democrats won't have an opportunity to ask the parliamentarian to rule that the resolution is not eligible for fast-track treatment under the CRA because the Senate will have already decided that matter by voting on the point of order raised on the hydrogen vehicle-related resolution. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued that the elaborate floor moves won't change voters' minds that the Senate ignored the parliamentarian to help the fossil fuel industry. Blumenthal said Republicans wanted to avoid a vote on directly overruling the parliamentarian, but he declared 'it fails to give them anything more than a false fig leaf.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
