Free Republic

A pro-abortion “health education” group has launched an ad campaign this month in an attempt to reach women in rural West Virginia and Kentucky. Key Takeaways: * Mayday Health was formed in June 2022 in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Its founders are well-connected in the journalism and financial sectors. * Mayday places billboards and ads in areas where abortion is restricted, under the guise of providing “preventative reproductive health information.” * Its latest ad campaign targets rural women in Kentucky and West Virginia with a series of ads placed at gas stations. The Details: An article...

Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) sent a letter to President Donald Trump Thursday urging him to award Patrick J. Buchanan the Presidential Medal of Freedom, The American Conservative has learned. “Honoring Patrick J. Buchanan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom would recognize his role as one of the truest patriots of the past century,” Moore told TAC in an exclusive statement. “His unrelenting focus on the forgotten men and women of America paved the way for President Trump’s America First Movement. He was right about pretty much everything 20 years before most people realized it and should be honored for defending...

A federal court has upheld West Virginia’s abortion, ruling the state can continue protecting babies. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected a bid by GenBioPro—the generic manufacturer of the abortion drug—to federalize the regulation of prescription drugs, including the abortion drug mifepristone. Then-West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, now governor, assisted by Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, asked a federal district court in February 2023 to uphold the state’s Unborn Child Protection Act against a preemption challenge. In August 2023, the court partially dismissed the lawsuit challenging the law, and GenBioPro appealed the case to...

West Virginia’s pro-life Governor Patrick Morrisey conducted a bill signing ceremony at Cross Point Church in Beckley, West Virginia,, on May 29. One of the key pieces of legislation that West Virginians for Life (WVFL) supported, SB 537, allows for expansion to The Support for Mothers and Babies Act, which was established in 2023 under legislation passed while current US Senator Jim Justice was governor. The new amendments permit funding to eligible pregnancy help organizations (PHO) for capital expenditures; expenditures associated with adding additional services; expenditures associated with meeting the requirements established by relevant licensing, accreditation, or standards setting organizations;...

Hundreds of billions of screaming insects are emerging from the ground throughout the US in a jarring sight that hasn't taken place in 17 years. The long-awaited cicada invasion is here, and the bugs have already been spotted hatching in at least three states: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Scientists are also expecting billions more to emerge at any moment in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This startling awakening of cicadas is referred to as Brood XIV. The insects last appeared in 2008, and now the next window in their synchronized...

MORGANTOWN, West Virginia — According to multiple reports, legendary gymnast Mary Lou Retton has been arrested. Retton, 57, was arrested for driving under the influence in Marion County earlier this month. According to a report from WDTV, Retton “was charged with one misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances or drugs on Saturday, May 17th, according to magistrate court records. A judge gave Retton a $1,500 personal recognizance bond, court records state.” Retton was also recently in the news after suffering from a very rare form of pneumonia and was “fighting for her life” in 2023....

Morgantown, W.Va. -- The U.S. Forest Service has turned dozens of campers away from a Rainbow Family gathering in the Monongahela National Forest, saying the counterculture group has not signed a group-use permit for the event. Although the gathering does not officially begin until June 25, campers have already begun streaming into West Virginia. The Rainbows estimate as many as 17,000 people could attend the event. On Wednesday, a team of Forest Service officers began turning campers away, citing a noncommercial use permit for the park that is required for groups of 75 or more.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed four executive orders Tuesday promoting the deregulation and expansion of the “beautiful, clean coal” industry in the U.S. The first order White House Staff Secretary Will Scharf said might be “one of the most significant executive orders” the president has issued so far. “This directs all departments and agencies of the federal government to end all discriminatory policies against the coal industry. This ends the leasing moratorium that prevents new coal projects on federal land, and it’s going to accelerate all permitting and funding for new coal projects,” Scharf said. The other...

The president will direct agencies to boost coal leasing, mining and exports. But these steps are unlikely to usher in a coal renaissance.President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order Tuesday aimed at boosting the struggling U.S. coal industry, according to White House officials.Flanked by coal miners wearing hard hats at the White House, Trump will direct federal agencies to loosen various restrictions on coal mining, leasing and exports. He will instruct the Interior Department to resume coal leasing on millions of acres of public lands, and he will order the Energy Department and other agencies to study whether...

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:Section 1. Purpose. In order to secure America’s economic prosperity and national security, lower the cost of living, and provide for increases in electrical demand from emerging technologies, we must increase domestic energy production, including coal. Coal is abundant and cost effective, and can be used in any weather condition. Moreover, the industry has historically employed hundreds of thousands of Americans. America’s coal resources are vast, with a current estimated value in the trillions of dollars, and...

Lawmakers in the West Virginia Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would impose civil and criminal penalties upon individuals who violate the state’s law prohibiting abortion pill distribution. Senate Bill 85 adds the penalties to the current law by making it a felony to mail or distribute abortion pills, including from outside jurisdictions. Nearly all preborn children are protected from abortion in the state. The bill passed the Senate with a vote of 28 to 5, with one member absent. “This important legislation is designed to protect life in West Virginia and stop the practice of abortifacients being sent and...

BELINGTON, W.Va (WDTV) - An Elkins police officer was arrested Sunday after assaulting a woman. Christian Mayle, 25, of Belington, has been charged with domestic battery, according to the Belington Police Department. According to an official with the Barbour County Sheriff’s Department, Mayle left their department in September 2024 before joining the Elkins Police Department. Elkins Police Chief Travis Bennett said their department is aware of Mayle’s arrest and that he is on administrative leave pending an investigation into the matter. At approximately 2 a.m. Sunday morning, police responded to a home on Centre Avenue in Belington after a woman...

West Virginia has become the latest state to prohibit trans-identified males from using sex-segregated spaces designated for women by enacting a measure seen as “common sense” by supporters while denounced by opponents as “an attempt to force trans people back into the closet.” On Wednesday, West Virginia’s Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed the Riley Gaines Act into law. The measure is named after Riley Gaines, a prominent former female swimmer who spoke out against having to compete against and share a locker room with a trans-identified male swimmer. Gaines, who was present when Morrisey signed the legislation that bears her...

West Virginia House members have introduced a bill to remove rape and incest exceptions in the state’s pro-life law. State law currently protects most preborn children from abortion, but House Bill 2712 would extend those protections. Under the bill, an induced abortion — the direct and intentional killing of a preborn child — would not be allowed unless a licensed medical professional determines the “embryo or fetus is nonviable,” “the pregnancy is ectopic,” or a “medical emergency exists.” West Virginia law defines abortion as “the use of any instrument, medicine, drug, or any other substance or device with intent to...

West Virginia senators passed a bill that would define “man” and “woman.” “This is good legislation that protects the women of West Virginia from the cultural war being declared on them,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Mike Stuart, R-Kanawha, told his colleagues. “I urge passage.” SB456 passed the Senate 32-1 with one absence. It now goes to the House of Delegates, which has been advancing its own version of the same policies. The bill literally carries the short title “Defining Men and Women.” In it, “A ‘woman’ is an adult human of the female sex, and a ‘man’ is an adult human...

A group of elementary school principals, preschool and kindergarten teachers this week told members of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability one classroom horror story after the next of violent and often uncontrollable student behavior. The educators detailed their graphic tales in an effort to lobby for help, to urge legislators to bolster and pass 2024’s Senate Bill 614. The bill – which passed the House and Senate earlier this year but died in the final hours of the legislative session – would offer some of the behavior intervention and safety measures now in code for middle and high...

A new bill introduced in the West Virginia House of Delegates could bring back corporal punishment in public schools, reversing a long-standing prohibition. House Bill 2545 aims to permit school principals to administer moderate corporal punishment under specific policies set by the State Board of Education and county boards. If passed, the bill would amend the Code of West Virginia to include the following provisions: Authorization for Principals: School principals would be allowed to administer corporal punishment, provided they follow policies established by state and local education boards. Parental Involvement and Alternatives: The bill encourages county boards to consider alternative...

A Republican lawmaker in West Virginia has introduced a bill to require a moment of silence at the start of every school day. The pause as their busy day begins would allow students the opportunity for reflection, prayer, or personal meditation, WV News reported on Thursday, noting that State Sen. Patricia Rucker (R-Jefferson County) introduced Senate Bill 80. Article two of the bill’s text reads: In order that the right of every pupil to the free exercise of religion be guaranteed within the schools and that the freedom of each individual pupil be subject to the least possible pressure from...

A Mercer County grand jury has indicted Christopher Chad Butler, a former officer with the Princeton Police Department, on multiple charges related to sexual abuse and child neglect. The charges stem from incidents that allegedly occurred while Butler was working as a school resource officer at Princeton Senior High School. Authorities accuse Butler of engaging in or attempting to engage in sexual activity with a minor student under his temporary supervision between August 2023 and January 2024. Under West Virginia law, individuals in positions of trust, such as school officials and law enforcement officers, are prohibited from such conduct. In...

On CNN This Morning, Jonathan Kott, a DC lobbyist and former aide to senators Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), predicted that Trump supporters will give him six to eight months, but then "turn quickly" on him when the improvements in their lives he promised don't materialize. That's soothing speculation for CNN's base, but Kott's powers of prognostication have a questionable track record. Less than two months before the 2024 election, here's what Kott, in a Fox News appearance, predicted: "I think voters are still getting to know Kamala Harris. And she's introducing herself. And the more she does,...