Free Republic

The head of the Catholic Church in West Virginia — who was expelled over sex harassment allegations — spent millions on luxury travel and doled out lavish gifts to fellow clergy, a report said Wednesday. Bishop Michael J. Bransfield, 75, showered $350,000 in gifts to others in the church — including some he is accused of abusing and one archbishop who was overseeing a probe into his conduct, according to The Washington Post. “Everybody’s trying to destroy my reputation,” Bransfield told the paper when asked about the allegations. “These people are terrible to me.” It wasn’t clear what people Bransfield...

Deceased mobster James “Whitey” Bulger revealed his thoughts about President Donald Trump and Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation in a series of letters written to a juror who voted to convict him. The handwritten letters, obtained by NBC News, touched on a variety of issues, but politics was a topic the “notorious Boston crime boss returned to again and again,” NBC reported. “Trump is tough and fights back instead of bowing down to pressure — and caving in to press!” he wrote in a letter dated August 2018, just two months before he was murdered by fellow inmates at West Virginia’s...

COAL GROVE, Ohio (CNN Newsource) - The water in Coal Grove, Ohio turned purple overnight! The purple water impacted hundreds of people in Lawrence County.

LEWISBURG, W.Va. — A financial services company coming after Gov. Jim Justice personally for $2.79 million is asking the Greenbrier County sheriff to seize personal property and for Justice assets in a dozen banks to be checked. Meanwhile, a legal ad says the sheriff of Logan County has been authorized to sell shares of two Justice-owned companies to settle yet another debt in the court system. This has been quite a week for Governor Justice and his family’s vast holdings. Court cases, including some from afar, keep resulting in local law enforcement officers being asked to assess what personal property...

June 7 (UPI) -- Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday will launch what he calls the largest ever coordinated campaign to beat climate change, which will close all U.S. coal plants by 2030. Bloomberg said the $500 million program, Beyond Carbon, will put the United States on track toward a 100 percent clean energy economy by working with advocates to "build on leadership and climate progress already underway." Bloomberg and his foundation joined with the Sierra Club in 2011 to launch Beyond Coal with the goal of closing at least a third of U.S. coal plants. "With...

GORMANIA, W.Va. -- Life here along the North Branch of the Potomac River is very different than life 162 miles downriver. There is raw natural beauty that takes your breath away. Under your feet flows the Potomac, above you the Allegheny Plateau, and the ascent toward Mt. Storm beckons with forests filled with red spruce, balsam fir and mountain ash. Hawks and eagles float above you. Snakes, deer, squirrels and bears walk or slither past you. Then there's the tragic beauty in town. Along U.S. Route 50, buildings that once held banks and stores and homes stand as memorials of...

BERKELEY COUNTY, W.Va. - The Berkeley County Board of Education has filed a lawsuit against Amber Pack, the mother of Adri Pack. Back in October, Amber Pack placed a recording device in Adri's hair after she noticed bruises when she came home from Berkeley Heights Elementary School. According to Ben Salango, Pack's attorney, the Board of Education is claiming the recording is illegal and should be excluded from evidence in the case.

MOUNDSVILLE, W.Va. — Thirty-seven hospitals in two states have filed a lawsuit in Marshall County against numerous opioid manufacturers, distributors, and several individuals. Stephen Farmer of law firm Farmer, Cline, and Campbell announced the suit, calling it the first of its kind in the United States, Tuesday afternoon. The complaint filed in court Tuesday claims evidence of a criminal conspiracy that has devastated West Virginia and “tens of thousands of its families.” West Virginia University Hospitals, United Hospital Center, and Charleston Area Medical Center Health System are among three of the largest hospitals to attach their name to the suit...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A subpoena requesting information about Gov. Jim Justice’s private properties did not come from federal prosecutors in West Virginia. Instead, the subpoena is addressed from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Public Integrity Section, a designation that may reflect the investigation is high-profile and sensitive. The Public Integrity Section’s own description of its role says it “oversees the federal effort to combat corruption through the prosecution of elected and appointed public officials at all levels of government.” Mike Stuart, the U.S. Attorney for Southern West Virginia, has talked proudly of his office’s efforts to challenge public corruption. ““Public...

April 17 (UPI) -- In one of the largest federal crackdowns on opioids yet, prosecutors said in an indictment Wednesday investigators uncovered a vast illegal prescription scheme in which physicians traded painkillers for sex and money. The federal indictment involves 350,000 illegal prescriptions in Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Alabama and West Virginia. "That is the equivalent of one opioid dose for every man, woman and child in the five states in the region that we've been targeting," Brian Benczkowski, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department, told The Washington Post. "If these medical professionals behave like drug dealers, you can rest...

The U.S. Senate confirmed Fort Wayne attorney Holly A. Brady as a federal judge for the Northern District of Indiana on Wednesday afternoon, a year to the day after she was nominated by President Donald Trump.The Senate voted 56-42 in favor of confirming Brady. Three Democratic senators – Doug Jones of Alabama, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Krysten Sinema of Arizona – joined majority Republicans to approve her appointment.Brady fills a vacancy left by the senior status of Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen and the pending transfer of Northern Indiana District Chief Judge Theresa Springmann from the U.S. District Court's...

"There is a petition for Marshall [University] to end their contract with the restaurant" CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WOWK) - A State Delegate and his business are under fire after a Facebook post made after a Vigil in Huntington. Del. John Mandt Jr, (R-Cabell) wrote in the Facebook post in part "Anything Muslim is going to be associated with Democrats. It's better to stay away than be associated with them." Mandt was talking about a vigil held in Huntington to honor the lives lost in a mass shooting in New Zealand. "No matter your beliefs but to come out so publicly and...

Joe Manchin is considering challenging Jim Justice in 2020 for West Virginia governor, telling Politico that he's "thinking about" running for the "best job in the world." Manchin told Politico he will make a decision this fall. "I don't think there's any hurry at all," Manchin said. The Democratic senator served as West Virginia's governor from 2005-2010. He won a special election in 2010 to serve the remainder of Robert C. Byrd's term in the Senate, following his death in June of that year. Manchin defeated Attorney General Patrick Morrisey by 3 percentage points in 2018 in his bid for...

Full title: West Virginia mom pulls out a GUN and stops man 'trying to kidnap her daughter' inside an Old Navy store An Egyptian man is behind bars after he allegedly tired to kidnap a five-year-old girl at a West Virginia mall. The young girl's mother reportedly thwarted the kidnapping attempt by pulling a gun out and scaring off the man. Mohamed Fathy Hussein Zayan, 54, has been charged with attempted abduction after he allegedly grabbed the girl at Huntington Mall in Barboursville on Monday night. The girl had been shopping with her mother inside an Old Navy store when...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia has a mountain of borrowed money on hand for “Roads to Prosperity” highways projects. Should a slice of that money be diverted to fix bumpy, bouncy secondary roads? West Virginia went to market with $800 million in bonds last May. Because of advantageous interest rates, the state actually wound up with bonds valued at $915 million. Since then, very little has been used. According to documents available through the state Auditor’s Office, only $11,133,309.19 had been spent as of earlier this week. Meanwhile, the money in reserve generated $13,666,081.46 in interest. So what’s been spent...

PRESTON COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) - West Virginia State Police said a man arrested on Interstate 68 Wednesday was pulled over for driving 130 mph and told a trooper he was late for a dinner with President Trump. The man, identified as Eric Leonard Charron, 42, of Kansas City, Mo., also reported he had “special hearing” that would tell him to do bad things when he arrived at the White House or the Pentagon, according to a criminal complaint filed in Preston County Magistrate Court. State Police said he had a handgun, 300 rounds of ammunition and gunpowder in the vehicle....

KINGWOOD, W.Va. - UPDATE (March 27, 2019 3:05 p.m.): The closure on I-68 in Preston County Wednesday was due to threats that were made to kill President Donald Trump and to blow up the Pentagon, according to Captain Shallon Oglesby of the West Virginia State Police. Oglesby said a search of the vehicle revealed a firearm and an explosive powder. A 42-year-old man has been detained for questioning, Oglesby said. West Virginia State Police, in conjunction with the FBI and Secret Service, is continuing to investigate this incident, according to Oglesby. The interstate was reopened at about 2:30 p.m.

PRESTON COUNTY, W.Va. (WCHS/WVAH) — West Virginia State Police said Interstate 68 was shut down several hours Wednesday near the border with Maryland after threats were made to kill President Donald Trump and to blow up the Pentagon. A 42-year-old male has been detained for questioning after a search of the vehicle revealed a fiream and explosive powder, State Police said. State Police, the FBI and Secret Service are continuing to investigate. Troopers conducted a traffic stop about 10:30 a.m. for speeding in the eastbound lanes near Bruceton Mills. The traffic stop resulted in an investigation that led to the...

Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed on Tuesday not a single Senate Democrat voted in favor of the Green New Deal because she asked them to vote “present.” “Because I encouraged them to vote present, along w/ others,” Ocasio-Cortez responded when Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso asked her why Democrats ducked going on the Senate record in support of her radical anti-climate change resolution. The New York congresswoman’s response came only hours after the Senate voted 57-to-0 to kill the Green New Deal, which was introduced by Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey. Three Democrats voted against the...

The Senate voted Tuesday to confirm a 37-year-old Washington lawyer whose nomination drew vociferous opposition from LGBTQ and some civil rights groups, to a lifetime appointment on a federal appeals court.