WV MetroNews
The Voice of West Virginia
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Sissonville woman accused of locking her two adoptive children in a shed last year will remain on home confinement after previously posting a $200,000 bond.
Kanawha County Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers on Tuesday denied a request from Mark Plants, an attorney representing Jeanne Whitefeather.
“I am not inclined to lift the home confinement provision of Mrs. Whitefeather’s bond,” Akers said.
Whitefeather, 61, and her husband Donald Ray Lantz, 63, were each charged with felony gross child neglect creating a substantial risk of injury.
The couple was taken into custody in Oct. 2023 after a neighbor reported the two teenagers were locked in a shed outside a home on Cheyenne Lane in Sissonville.
Akers said it would be irresponsible to allow Whitefeather to be released on anything other than home confinement.
“I do find that they had only lived in Kanawha County a short time. They had moved here from another state. They had property in other states. They had family in other states. I don’t think it’s much of a jump to say she is a flight risk,” Akers said.
Jeanne Whitefeather, charged with locking two of her adoptive children in a Sissonville shed, was back in Kanawha County Circuit Court today. Judge Akers denied a request from her attorney to lift her home confinement. She and her husband each posted a $200,000 bond in February. pic.twitter.com/ofdPvjZu2Y
— Carrie Hodousek (@CarrieHodousek) April 30, 2024
The defense for Whitefeather previously also had her request to have bond lowered from $200,000 to $50,000 denied. Plants argued there was not a proper investigation when Whitefeather was arrested.
Prosecutors said the children were in poor living conditions.
All five of their children are now in the care of Child Protective Services.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Kanawha County judge says a man deliberately got high on THC and marijuana before crashing his car into another vehicle and caused the deaths of a mother and daughter.
“This was an intentional act. You intentionally got high. You intentionally drove in a manner that cost the lives of two people,” Judge Maryclaire Akers said Tuesday before sentencing Andrew Wyrick, 26, to the maximum prison time.
Wyrick, of Culloden, received 3-15 years in prison for each of the two DUI causing death charges he pleaded guilty to in March.
The crash happened in Oct. 2022 along U.S. Route 60 west of St. Albans and claimed the lives of Dotty Lou Hayes, 73, and her daughter Sherri McClanahan, 53, both of Hurricane.
For the first time since the crash, Wyrick apologized to the family in court Tuesday.
“I am sorry for the tragedy that took place for my actions and my choices,” he said. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I do know that if I never ended up smoking Delta 8 or even smoking weed that those lives could still be here today.”
John Hayes, the husband and father of the victims, addressed Wyrick directly to forgive him for what he did.
“I want to look him in the eye and forgive him for what he’s done, but I will not forget. He caused me a lot of problems,” Hayes said.
Andrew Wyrick, of Culloden, appears for his sentencing hearing today. He previously pleaded guilty to 2 counts of DUI causing death after killing a Hurricane mother and daughter in a crash along US Route 60 in St. Albans in Oct. 2022. He faces 3-15 years in prison on each count. pic.twitter.com/94TbfbiY1L
— Carrie Hodousek (@CarrieHodousek) April 30, 2024
Hayes’ daughter Autumn Ortiz also testified, remotely, and said her mother and grandmother were resilient women who overcame several life-threatening illnesses.
“My grandmother survived two heart attacks, open heart surgery twice, breast cancer, bladder cancer, she survived all of those. My mother survived having meningitis. They survived so much, but they couldn’t survive you,” Ortiz told Wyrick.
Judge Akers ordered Wyrick’s sentences to be served consecutively.
“I cannot ignore that you cost the lives of two human beings. You demolished that family with your choices,” she said.
But Wyrick’s defense attorney Jeff Woods said the crash was not intentional.
“Did he intend to do it? Absolutely not,” Woods said.
While Woods claimed his client has been remorseful, Akers didn’t buy it.
“I still haven’t seen really seen a whole lot of emotion out of you. You say you’re sorry, but I don’t see that,” Akers said.
Two others were injured in the crash. Wyrick was also charged with two counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury, but prosecutors dropped those charges as part of his plea deal.
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Senator Shelley Moore Capito drilled the U.S, Education secretary on the oversight of how colleges are handling protests on their campuses.
“I want to ask you to take action to protect Jewish students and restore order on college campuses across America. Discrimination based on national origin violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and your department is required to enforce the law,” Capito, R-W.Va., said to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona today.
Capito also questioned Cardona about sluggish progress on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
This all took place Tuesday morning during a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies. Capito is the ranking Republican on the panel.
Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., is also on the panel and offered criticism to Cardona about yet another topic, student loan forgiveness.
College campuses across the country have been roiled by protests of how Israel’s operations in Gaza are being conducted. In most cases, protesters are pushing college officials to “divest” from companies that do business with Israel or that could benefit financially from the military operations.
Typically that refers to college endowments that are invested in stocks, bonds or other financial instruments.
Protests have involved encampments or, at Columbia University in New York, occupying a building. Some of the statements, chants and signage have been criticized as crossing into antisemitism.
That’s what Capito and other senators on the panel wanted to know about, asking Cardona what his agency is doing to ensure college officials protect Jewish students. Cardona has already made official statements to say “This Department of Education won’t tolerate hate, discrimination, and threats of violence that target students because of who they are.”
Capito commented, “No student should feel unsafe on their campus. Yet just last week, Columbia University had to move classes online and Jewish students were told by a campus rabbi to go home because it was no longer safe for them on their campus. And late last night, protesters took over Hamilton hall on campus and the university is locked down today with access limited to only residential students.”
She asked, “Do you believe what is happening to Jewish students at Columbia and other colleges and universities across this country is OK?”
Cardona responded that it is not OK.
“I think what’s happening on our campuses is abhorrent; hate has no place on our campuses and I’m very concerned with the reports of antisemitism. I’ve spoken to Jewish students who have feared going to class as a result of some of the harassment that they’re facing on campuses.”
He went on to refer to a Department of Education statement “that being unsafe on campus is not going to be tolerated and that we do not condone and we definitely reject any calls for genocide or any calls for antisemitism or any antisemitism on campus.”
FAFSA
Capito went on to ask about FAFSA, the financial aid program for higher education that has been rocked by frustrating delays and technical problems. Capito displayed a chart showing that FAFSA completion is down 36% nationally among freshmen and down 40% for West Virginia high school students.
“Have you apologized?” Capito asked. “Have you said ‘We know we’ve really screwed this up and we need to make it better not just for the students but the institutions as well?'”
Cardona said he has offered apologies. “I’ve spoken to parents and students directly. I’ve sat with them while they’re filling out FAFSA,” Cardona said, also referring to attempts to improve the process, getting the application process down to 15 minutes and improving processing to the point that if a student applies today then colleges would have the information by Friday.
He added, “I would welcome an opportunity to engage with folks in West Virginia, to share the strategies that we’re doing. And I would love together with you to make sure West Virginians have access to higher education.”
Student loan forgiveness
Manchin used his time for criticism of the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness policies. Manchin spoke favorably about ways to reduce debt through work programs, but he said that is not what the administration is pursuing. He also advocated financial literacy programs for students taking out loans.
“We’re spending more on giving money away than we ever did on education. It makes no sense to me at all, and you have done nothing as the Department of Education showing me how I can take this burden off of me while I still get paid and I’m contributing to society,” Manchin said.
With some loans, Manchin said, “They think it’s all free money because they have no payments at all; there’s no accrued interest whatsoever. But when it comes time to pay the piper it hits them hard because we don’t require any financial interest on the front end. This is stupid and we just keep piling it on like there’s no end to it.”
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— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — For many college football players, achieving goals of championships on a national or conference level and proving themselves against quality competition are at or near the top of a wish list.
For many others, a primary goal is extending their love of football into a pro career, be it in the National Football League or elsewhere.
Marshall’s fourth-year head coach Charles Huff believes the results of last weekend’s NFL Draft show the Herd program is doing a good job of preparing football players for the next level.
“I will always cherish these guys and what they meant to this program and this university,” Huff said. “I can’t wait to watch all these guys chase their dreams at the highest level. They stayed committed to us, trusted us in their development and created value for themselves and their families.”
Running back Rasheen Ali and defensive back Micah Abraham were selected Saturday on the third and final day of the draft. Ali was a fifth-round pick of the Baltimore Ravens while Abraham was taken in the sixth round by the Indianapolis Colts.
At the conclusion of the draft, four Marshall players signed free agent deals with NFL teams — veteran linebacker Eli Neal signed with the Los Angeles Rams, while defensive end Owen Porter inked a deal with the Minnesota Vikings. Two Marshall offensive lineman also signed with NFL teams — Ethan Driskell with the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and Dalton Tucker with the Indianapolis Colts.
“I’m really excited for all our guys who get to continue their football journeys,” Huff said. “All these guys are special to me and to this community. What they have been through in their college journey — from coaching changes to COVID-19 to conference changes, NIL, the transfer portal and more — and to be in this position has been nothing short of amazing.
The attention from NFL organizations is gratifying, knowing the grind of operating a Division I football program.
Marshall and Troy were the only Sun Belt Conference teams with multiple players picked in the draft.
In all, six Sun Belt players were selected this year. In addition to Ali and Abraham, defensive lineman Javon Solomon and running back Kimani Vidal from Troy were taken, along with Georgia State offensive tackle Travis Glover and Louisiana offensive tackle Nathan Thomas.
Solomon was a fifth-round selection of the Buffalo Bills and came off the board three picks after Ali. Vidal went in the sixth round to Los Angeles Chargers, while Glover was a sixth-round selection of the Green Bay Packers.
Thomas went to the Dallas Cowboys in the seventh round.
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BLUEFIELD, W.Va. — Mercer County sheriff’s deputies have charged a Bluefield woman in the death of another Bluefield woman.
Deputies said Crystal Copley, 36, and Debbie Olivo, 62, were fighting Monday over a cigarette lighter leash at a residence on old Bramwell Road when Copley allegedly shoved Olivo into a brick wall on the porch.
Authorities said Copley took off and Olivo called 911. During the call, Olivo fell to the ground unconscious. She was pronounced dead a short time later.
Copley was arrested and charged with second degree murder. She’s being held in the Southern Regional Jail on $100,000 bail.
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Today on MetroNews This Morning:
–A stolen ambulance is under investigation in Huntington
–The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with another ruling which counters West Virginia’s laws regarding trans gender policy
–Senator Capito reacts to Pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses nationwide
–In Sports: WVU Baseball will play Pitt at PNC Park this evening in Pittsburgh
Listen to “MetroNews This Morning 4-30-24” on Spreaker.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Public Service Commission has granted a siting certificate for a planned $3.3 billion natural-gas turbine power plant in Doddridge County.
The PSC announced Monday that its approved the site at Blandville for the CPV Shay project. The commission decided to cancel a public comment hearing and two-day evidentiary hearing, both set for next week.
“West Virginia is pleased to welcome yet another business to our state,” PSC Chairman Charlotte Lane said.
Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) announced its plans for the plant in September 2022. The company is taking advantage of the Inflation Reduction Act that expands 45Q federal tax credit for carbon capture.
The plant, which will be called Shay No. 5 after the steam locomotive at Cass Scenic Railroad, will contain a 2,060 MW combined-cycle natural gas power station utilizing carbon capture technology, CPV said.
“CPV is pleased to announce the selection of Doddridge County and looks forward to working with its leaders to advance this monumental project in the coming years,” CPV Executive Vice President of Project Development Peter Podurgiel said in a news release last fall. “The County has been extremely professional and receptive to the CPV Shay project which represents a key pillar in CPV’s vision for a reliable low carbon future.”
Monday’s PSC news release said CPV is not a West Virginia public utility, and has told the commission that the construction and operation of the combined facilities will not impact West Virginia ratepayers. The electricity produced will go to the electricity grid.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the latter part of 2025. The company continues to seek several other required approvals for the plant.
The project will also include a 9-mile, 500-kilovolt high-voltage line that will go to Mon Power’s Flint Run substation.
There will be 1,300 construction jobs and 60 permanent jobs created, CPV has said.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Cabell Midland’s first three batters of the game reached home plate and senior pitcher Jared Nethercutt went the distance on the hill as the Knights defeated St. Albans, 4-1 in the second semifinal of the Mountain State Athletic Conference Tournament.
The second-seeded Knights (18-7) will face Spring Valley (18-8) Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the championship game at GoMart Ballpark.
Nethercutt retired the Red Dragons in order in the first inning and the Knights wasted no time getting on the scoreboard. Their first two batters — Landon Nida and Ray Ray Williams — worked out bases on balls and Kenyon Collins followed with a double to open up the scoring.
“That was very important,” said Cabell Midland head coach Tracy Brumfield. “To get that kind of support early in the game, that kind of relaxes a pitcher a little bit. And getting that fourth run was big in the last inning.”
St. Albans answered with a run in the third inning when Brogan Samms drove in Beau Kelly with a run-scoring single. That would be the only run allowed by Nethercutt. He tossed a 5-hitter while striking out seven batters.
“He has been getting stronger as the year has went on.”
Nida made a pair of sliding catches in center field for the Knights to take away base hits in the third and sixth innings.
“He saved our butts a couple times in the outfield. He almost had another where it popped into his glove and popped out. But he made three or four great plays in the outfield.”
The defending state champion Knights split a pair of regular season meetings with Spring Valley. The Timberwolves defeated George Washington, 12-7 in the opening semifinal.
“It is a goal you want to have every year. You want to go out there and win your conference. You want to win your section, region and you want to win your state. That’s what everybody’s goal is. Coming up tomorrow against Spring Valley, it is going to be a tough game.”
Cade Johnson went 2-for-3 for Midland.
Will Curry was effective in relief of Noah Reed for the Red Dragons (18-6). Curry allowed one run and two hits in three innings. He did not walk a batter and he struck out four.
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Appeals judges ruled that West Virginia policies that don’t cover sex transition surgery through Medicaid violate federal law, and the state’s attorney general vowed to take the question to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The judges in the majority concluded that West Virginia discriminates unfairly against transgender people because the state’s policies allow coverage for the same procedures to other people for different medical reasons.
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the region that includes West Virginia, entered an 8-6 ruling Monday. Appeals judges considered policies in North Carolina and West Virginia in their ruling.
“Decisions like this one, from a court dominated by Obama- and Biden-appointees, cannot stand: we’ll take this up to the Supreme Court and win,” said Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican who is running for governor.
The West Virginia aspect of the case involved plaintiff Shauntae Anderson, a transgender Medicaid patient who has been diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Anderson sued in the Southern District of West Virginia on behalf of herself and others in a similar situation, arguing that the state’s coverage exclusion discriminates against transgender people.
Anderson was represented by the national Lambda Legal organization.
“West Virginia’s denial of medically necessary care just because of who I am was deeply dehumanizing. I am so relieved that this court ruling puts us one step closer to the day when Medicaid can no longer deny transgender West Virginians access to the essential healthcare that our doctors say is necessary for us,” Anderson said today.
The North Carolina case also involved transgender people who were denied coverage for healthcare prescribed for their gender-dysphoria diagnoses. That case focused on the policies of the North Carolina State Health Plan.
“These two cases present the same question: Do healthcare plans that cover medically necessary treatments for certain diagnoses but bar coverage of those same medically necessary treatments for a diagnosis unique to transgender patients violate either the Equal Protection
Clause or other provisions of federal law?” wrote Judge Roger Gregory for the majority.
“We hold that they do, and therefore affirm the judgments of the district courts.”
Gregory was joined by Fourth Circuit appeals judges Diaz, King, Wynn, Thacker, Harris, Heytens and Benjamin.
Six other appeals judges — Richardson, Wilkinson, Niemeyer, Quattlebaum, Agee and Rushing — produced dissenting opinions.
West Virginia’s part of the case focused on coverage available under the state’s Medicaid plan, the federal-state program that provides health insurance for low-income people. West Virginia’s Bureau for Medical Services administers the state’s Medicaid Program and receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The state’s Medicaid Program covers some gender-affirming care, including counseling, office visits, hormones and lab work. It does not, however, cover gender-affirming surgery — “regardless of medical necessity.” The coverage exclusion was adopted around 2004 and has been maintained since without review.
However, the federal case notes that West Virginia partially or fully covers procedures for diagnoses that are not gender dysphoria.
Those include mastectomies, breast-reduction surgery, chest reconstruction following a mastectomy, hysterectomies, removal or creation of the vagina and removal or creation of male reproductive organs.
The West Virginia plaintiff, Shauntae Anderson, began taking birth control pills for estrogen before going on Medicaid. Once she was on Medicaid, her doctors recommended hormone replacement therapy, and she started that in 2019.
Doctors have not yet recommended her for surgery; to the extent they have discussed it with her, they have simply said that Medicaid does not cover the surgeries, so “there is nothing that they can do about it.” according to the federal case.
Anderson argued in the federal lawsuit that the coverage exclusion discriminates against transgender people in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Medicaid Act and the Affordable Care Act. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment forbids a state from denying “to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
The appeals court majority ruled, The North Carolina State Health Plan and the West Virginia Medicaid Program discriminate on the basis of gender identity and sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause.”
Dissenting judges countered, “In the majority’s haste to champion plaintiffs’ cause, today’s result oversteps the bounds of the law. The majority asserts that the challenged exclusions use medical diagnosis as a proxy for transgender persons, despite the complete lack of evidence for this claim.”
Morrisey vowed to fight the appeals court majority’s ruling.
“We are confident in the merits of our case: that this is a flawed decision and states have wide discretion to determine what procedures their programs can cover based on cost and other concerns,” Morrisey stated.
“Just one single sex-transition surgery can cost tens of thousands of dollars—taxpayers should not be required to pay for these surgeries under Medicaid. Our state should have the ability to determine how to spend our resources to care for the vital medical needs of our citizens.”
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WESTON, W.Va. — Class AAA No. 2 Bridgeport started Monday’s matchup at Class AA No. 4 Lewis County in the exact fashion it hoped not to — stranding a pair of runners in its first trip to the plate, and then allowing two runs when the Minutemen came to bat.
When LCHS scored twice more in the home half of the second, the Minutemen were in the driver’s seat to claim the Big 10 Conference Championship, which they would have secured with a win.
Instead, Bridgeport answered the call and capitalized on several defensive miscues, while utilizing four shutdown frames from relief pitcher Carson Currey to reel off nine unanswered runs and battle back for a 9-4 victory.
“Here we are down 4-0 and I liked the fight in our kids,” Bridgeport head coach Robert Shields said. “They went up there and had a different approach after we got behind.“
Lewis County (15-5) capitalized on Brayden Carder being hit by a pitch to open the bottom of the first inning, and after Joey Aman’s double to left, Carder and Aman scored courtesy of Trenton Hunt’s two-run single to left.
Bridgeport (24-4) left the bases loaded in the second, then allowed another two-run single from Hunt after the Minutemen made the most of a Tribe error to start the second — Bridgeport’s only defensive miscue of the matchup.
Trailing by four, BHS ran into its final out of the second inning at third base, and starting pitcher Rowen Michaelis ran into more trouble in the bottom of that inning, but induced a pivotal inning-ending double play to second off the bat of Ryder Aman with the bases loaded.
“It was a big 4-6-3 double play to get us out of that inning,” Shields said. “Lewis is a very good hitting, aggressive team and to hold them to four runs is a credit to our pitchers.”
Michaelis escape the third with no damage done became even more vital when Mark Biafore laced an 0-2 pitch over the left field fence to start the top of the fourth, cutting the Indians’ deficit to 4-1 in the process.
Biafore’s home run was the start of a five-run inning that featured a costly Minutemen error as well as three BHS batters being hit by a pitch, including Brody Pierce and Ben Bifano, both of which came with the bases loaded and forced in a run.
“Mark Biafore starts with that leadoff home run and everything fell into place,” Shields said.
Leading 5-4 in the middle of the fourth, the Indians removed Michaelis in favor of Currey, who induced two fly ball outs and struck out Hunt in his first inning of work.
“He hits his spots and does a good job,” Shields said.
With all the momentum in its favor, Bridgeport began the fifth with a Conner Blake single, Ashton Curry bunt single and Michael Romano base-on-balls to load the bases.
Kasen Baun was then hit by a pitch to bring in the Tribe’s sixth run, and later in that inning, Romano hustled home from third to score on a wild pitch and Zach Rohrig belted a ground rule double to left-center, scoring Baun with he team’s eighth run.
“We got complacent. We’ve talked for a few weeks about not getting complacent,” Minutemen head coach Tyler Wood said. “We’d won a lot of games and we got a little too comfortable and that’s what we did tonight. We were right there with the foot on the neck and couldn’t press down on it. As far as the energy goes, it has to be there the whole game. It can’t be there one inning and gone the next.”
That was more than enough support for Currey, who retired the side in order in the fifth and sixth innings to keep the four-run advantage intact.
Bifano lifted a sacrifice fly to plate Rohrig with the final run of the game in the top of the seventh, and Joey Aman’s seventh-inning single marked the lone Minutemen baserunner against Currey. He struck out four over his four scoreless innings.
Biafore, Blake and Curry recorded two hits apiece as the trio finished with all but two of its team’s hits.
Joey Aman led all players with three hits and Hunt added two in defeat. Hunt took the loss after allowing eight runs on seven hits and three walks in four-plus innings. He was replaced by Joey Aman, who limited BHS to one run in three innings.
The Minutemen hurt their case with five errors.
“It’s just not having your head in the game and not being present. You can’t be looking ahead or looking back,” Wood said. “You have to be where your feet are at and be present. Right now, we have a lot of guys that are not present.”
The Indians and Minutemen both entered the matchup with one loss in Big 10 Conference play. With the result, Bridgeport takes sole possession of first place in the league and can wrap up the Big 10 championship Tuesday by defeating Grafton.
“It’s something that’s kind of got away from us the last couple years, but we’re not playing for conference championships,” Shields said. “We’re playing for something bigger than that.”
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