Latest news with #Martinsburg
Wall Street Journal
5 days ago
- Politics
- Wall Street Journal
Podcaster Tim Pool Wants Answers—and Trusts No One
Outside of Martinsburg, W. Va. — Tim Pool, the beanie-wearing YouTube personality who has developed an audience of over 2 million with his contrarian Democrat-turned-right-winger persona, settled in one evening last week to evaluate President Trump's hands. The White House had disclosed that day that Trump had been diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, an ailment that Trump's press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said was 'consistent with minor soft tissue irritation from frequent handshaking.'
BBC News
25-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Americans brace for welfare cuts in Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill'
Elizabeth Butler goes from one supermarket to the next in her hometown of Martinsburg, West Virginia, to ensure she gets the best price on each item on her grocery with 42 million Americans, she pays for those groceries with federal food subsides. That cash doesn't cover the whole bill for her family of three."Our food doesn't even last the month," she says. "I'm going to all these different places just to make sure that we have enough food to last us the whole month."But that money may soon run out, as Congress gears up to vote on what US President Donald Trump has coined his "big beautiful bill". The food subsidy programme that Ms Butler uses - called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as SNAP - is one of many items on the chopping block, as Congress tries to reconcile the president's seemingly conflicting demands to both lower taxes and balance the Senate is due to vote on their version of the bill by the end of the week. If it passes, it will then be voted on by the House, at which point it will be sent to Trump to sign. He has pressured both chambers of Congress, which the Republican Party controls, to pass the bill by 4 sticking points in Trump's 'big beautiful' tax bill The politics behind cutting SNAP SNAP offers low-income households, including older Americans, families with children and people who are disabled, money each month to buy groceries. In West Virginia, one of the states with the highest rates of poverty, 16% of the population depends on the state is also a reliable Republican stronghold and voted overwhelmingly for Trump in November, when he ran on the promise of reducing the cost of living for Americans, including the price of groceries."When I win, I will immediately bring prices down, starting on Day One," he said at an August press conference surrounded by packaged foods, milk, meats and eggs. Months after the president made that pledge, the prices of commonly purchased groceries like orange juice, eggs and bacon are higher than they were the same time last a fact that has not gone unnoticed by Ms Butler: "The president hasn't changed the food prices yet and he promised the people that he would do that."Trump has argued, without providing an explanation how, that spending cuts in the 1,000-page budget bill will help bring food prices down: "The cut is going to give everyone much more food, because prices are coming way down, groceries are down," Trump said when asked specifically about cuts to have long been divided on how to fund social welfare programmes like SNAP and Medicaid. While many think the government should prioritise balancing the budget, others, especially in impoverished regions, support programmes that directly help their the bill stands, Senate Republicans are proposing $211bn (£154bn) in cuts with states being partly responsible for making up the theory, passing the bill should be an easy political lift, since Republicans control both chambers of Congress and the White since the bill includes cuts to programmes like SNAP and Medicaid, which are popular with everyday Americans, selling the bill to all factions within the Republican Party has not been an easy of private frustration and dissent about potential cuts to Medicaid and SNAP have leaked in recent weeks, showing the internal wrestling happening within the Virginia Senator Jim Justice told Politico in June that he has warned fellow Republicans that cutting SNAP could cost the party their majority in Congress when voters head to the polls again in 2026."If we don't watch out, people are going to get hurt, people are going to be upset. It's going to be the No.1 thing on the nightly news all over the place," Justice said. "And then, we could very well awaken to a situation in this country where the majority quickly becomes the minority."A recent poll by the Associated Press/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that 45% of Americans think food assistance programmes like SNAP are underfunded, while only 30% think the funding levels are adequate. About a quarter of respondents found programmes were overfunded. This is not the first time the party has wrestled with cuts to SNAP, said Tracy Roof, a University of Richmond professor who is currently writing a book on the political history of the Biden administration, Congress allowed expanded benefits implemented during Covid to be phased out, despite both Republicans and Democrats warning Americans could go hungry. "One thing about [SNAP] is that it has bi-partisan support, more than any other anti-poverty programme," Prof Roof told the this time feels different, she said."One thing that kind of distinguishes this period from the previous efforts to cut social welfare programmes has been the willingness of congressional Republicans to vote for things many of them apparently off the record have many concerns about," she said. "Before, there were always moderate Republicans, particularly in the Senate, but in both Houses that held out for concessions."She attributes that submission to two things: Fear of getting on the wrong side of Trump and a lack of fear of public backlash for representatives who hold congressional seats they can easily get re-elected BBC contacted Congressman Riley Moore, who represents Martinsburg, West Virginia, about the impacts of the cuts to his constituents, but he did not voted for the initial House bill, which included the cuts to SNAP. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, who had been one of the more vocal critics of the cuts, has since softened: Hawley told the news outlet NOTUS he has "always supported" most of the Medicaid cuts and he would "be fine" with most of what's in the bill. 'The only thing that kept me and my family alive' Father of two Jordan, who asked that his last name not be used, has spent the past three years surviving on SNAP and his wife get about $700 a month to feed their family of four, but they still 26-year-old says his wife has struggled to get work and take care of their two children simultaneously, so if changes to SNAP impact his family, he is prepared to act and get a second job."I'm going to make sure that I can do whatever I can to feed my family," he and other West Virginians are following what happens to the bill in Whetzel, 25, grew up in a family dependent on SNAP. But when he and his wife tried to apply for SNAP, he learned that making $15 a hour was too much to qualify, he said."It's not great the fact that I need to double my salary in order to be able to afford groceries," Mr Whetzel said, adding "we have not bought any eggs in four months just cause they're too expensive".He is frustrated that officials in Washington do not understand the impacts of the cuts they are backing in Congress, he said."To make a federal cut that then would be put onto the state that's already struggling it just kind of feels like kicking a horse while its down," Mr Whetzel says. "Whether you believe in small government or big government, government has to provide for somebody, somehow."
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Washington County home listings asked for more money in May - see the current median price here
The median home in Washington County listed for $365,000 in May, up 3.8% from the previous month's $351,495, an analysis of data from shows. Compared to May 2024, the median home list price decreased 2.8% from $377,000. The statistics in this article only pertain to houses listed for sale in Washington County, not houses that were sold. Information on your local housing market, along with other useful community data, is available at Washington County's median home was 1,887 square feet, listed at $188 per square foot. The price per square foot of homes for sale is mostly unchanged from May 2024. Listings in Washington County moved briskly, at a median 36 days listed compared to the May national median of 51 days on the market. In the previous month, homes had a median of 30 days on the market. Around 156 homes were newly listed on the market in May, an 11.4% decrease from 176 new listings in May 2024. The median home prices issued by may exclude many, or even most, of a market's homes. The price and volume represent only single-family homes, condominiums or townhomes. They include existing homes, but exclude most new construction as well as pending and contingent sales. Across the Hagerstown-Martinsburg metro area, median home prices rose to $364,990, slightly higher than a month earlier. The median home had 1,918 square feet, at a list price of $189 per square foot. In Maryland, median home prices were $452,800, a slight increase from April. The median Maryland home listed for sale had 1,900 square feet, with a price of $240 per square foot. Throughout the United States, the median home price was $440,000, a slight increase from the month prior. The median American home for sale was listed at 1,840 square feet, with a price of $234 per square foot. The median home list price used in this report represents the midway point of all the houses or units listed over the given period of time. Experts say the median offers a more accurate view of what's happening in a market than the average list price, which would mean taking the sum of all listing prices then dividing by the number of homes sold. The average can be skewed by one particularly low or high price. The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Please leave any feedback or corrections for this story here. This story was written by Ozge Terzioglu. Our News Automation and AI team would like to hear from you. Take this survey and share your thoughts with us. This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Washington County home listings asked for more money in May - see the current median price here
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- General
- Washington Post
West Virginia governor implements policy changes in embattled foster care system
CHARLESTON, — West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey vowed Wednesday that his administration will improve transparency and policies within the state's embattled foster care system. Morrisey, a Republican, announced the changes after eight listening sessions statewide to identify areas of improvement and a review of critical cases. Morrisey said he heard attendees at one such session in Martinsburg discuss 'a broken system.'
Dominion Post
08-05-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Morgantown cruises into state lacrosse semifinals with 18-4 defeat of Martinsburg
MORGANTOWN – After a heartbreaking end to its season a year ago in the semifinals of the WVSLA state playoffs, the Morgantown High School boys' lacrosse team entered this postseason with one goal: winning. The Mohigans worked hard on that goal on Wednesday night at Pony Lewis Field in the opening round of the playoffs, leaving no doubt in an 18-5 victory over Martinsburg to advance to the semifinals. There, they will await the winner of University and Fairmont Senior on Thursday evening. MHS was again led in attack by senior Aydan Shepard, who scored six goals against the Bulldogs. He capped the regular season, scoring eight against UHS in a 14-7 win. Luke Quigley added four goals, and Nate Lindsay netted three to join Shepard with multiple scores. Luke Stahara, Matt Brown, Jacob Hollander, Nash Coffman, and Cooper Cox were the other goal scorers for MHS. 'I thought we came out and did what we talked about last game, which was controlling what we can control,' MHS head coach Jeremy Bennett said. 'We talk about mental toughness and focusing on what we need to do, and our guys went out and did their jobs well tonight.' Martinsburg was the team out to an early lead with a goal less than 60 seconds into the game. Shepard answered with his first two goals, the second coming with 7:08 left in the quarter, to give his team a 2-1 lead. The Bulldogs responded with their second goal to tie the game a minute later, but that would be their final goal until the final stages of the second quarter, as Morgantown exploded for a 10-1 scoring run to lead 12-3 at the halftime break. Lindsay and Quigley got the run started with their first goals. Shepard completed his hat trick in the first with his third goal while Brown and Coffman added the sixth and seventh goals for Morgantown to lead 7-2 after the opening 12 minutes. 'Again, like I said, controlling what we can control,' Bennett said about his team's response to falling behind early on. 'And of course, putting the ball in the back of the net when we need to.' The scoring run continued into the second quarter as Cox netted the eighth Mohigan goal and Shepard added two more to push the lead to eight, 10-2. Martinsburg finally found a goal with its third to stop the bleeding, but the Mohigans ripped the band-aid right back off with two goals to end the half. Quigley added three in the third, Lindsay finding his third, and Hollander adding his goal. Stahara capped Morgantown's night with the 18th goal of the contest as the hosts defended their turf with a dominant victory over Martinsburg. Morgantown will face the winner of University/Fairmont Senior in the semifinals.
