News

100 Days in Appalachia1d
W.Va. Opioid Settlement Funds are Supposed to Reverse Years of Crisis. In Several Counties, They’re Being Used to Pay Regional Jail Bills.
In rural Wyoming County, West Virginia, Ann Reed is the sheriff’s department’s only social worker. Funded through a temporary ...
100 Days in Appalachia1d
W.Va. Counties Set the Rules for Opioid Funds — with No One Watching
For two hours every Thursday and Friday, Randall Brown gathers a handful of people in front of a whiteboard. They sit on a ...
100 Days in Appalachia1d
The Price of Recovery
As millions in opioid settlement funds reach West Virginia, counties are making high-stakes choices about how to spend it — ...
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North Carolina County Wanted New Court to Stem Its Opioid Crisis. Then Came Trump’s Cuts.
This article was published in partnership with The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on ...
100 Days in Appalachia2mon
Big Tech Comes to Tucker County, WV
Tucker County is home to the popular Blackwater Falls State Park and features a dozen rivers. They include the Blackwater River watershed, home to diverse microhabitats and recreational opportunities.
100 Days in Appalachia3mon
‘Hell or High Water’: Southern W.Va. Three Weeks After the Flood
On February 15, 2025, a catastrophic flood ravaged McDowell County, West Virginia, and much of the state’s southern coalfields. At least three people were reported dead due to the flash flooding, with ...
100 Days in Appalachia4mon
In West Virginia’s Southern Coalfields, a Grassroots ‘Jubilee’
On a late spring day in 2022, Rev. Brad Davis was riding along the twisting roads of McDowell County, West Virginia. Davis was soon to start his current job pastoring five United Methodist churches ...
100 Days in Appalachia5mon
‘They’re All Damaged.’ Despite Progress, West Virginia is Still Failing to Get Foster Kids the Mental Health Help They Need
And though the state has trumpeted increased enrollment in a new program to help kids access mental health care in their communities, in practice it has fallen short of giving biological, adoptive and ...
100 Days in Appalachia5mon
‘An Ecosystem of Dysfunction:’ West Virginia Still Has a Child Welfare Worker Shortage, and It’s Taking a Toll on Foster Kids and Families
Reporting Highlights Continued shortages: West Virginia is still struggling to hire and retain child welfare workers, with wide-reaching consequences for kids in the foster care system. Permanency: ...
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Tyler Childers’ Appalachia: How the Country Singer Challenges our Relationships with Addiction and Religion
The first time I heard Tyler Childers’ voice I was riding in the passenger seat of a 15-year-old car late at night through the back roads of West Virginia. It was 2019, and I was 17 years old. And ...
100 Days in Appalachia8mon
Front Porch Politics: JD Vance, Tim Walz, and Appalachian masculinity.
From an attempted assassination and an historic withdrawal from the race, the 2024 election has already had more twists and turns than an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. I should be forgiven, then, for how ...
100 Days in Appalachia9mon
A Survivor Recounts His Escape From Impact Plastics
A sign at the entrance of Riverview Industrial Park in Erwin, Tennessee, where Impact Plastics is located. On Friday, September 27, 2024, intense rainfall from Hurricane Helene flooded the Nolichucky ...