A new social space for the LGBTQ+ community will open this spring in Charlottesville
Moments after the U.S. presidential election was called for Donald Trump last November, Ellie Picard knew that she had to act.
As a transgender woman and co-founder of The Beautiful Idea, a queer bookstore and market located on the Downtown Mall, Picard wanted to prepare for the slew of anti-LGBTQ+ changes that Trump promised during his campaign. His proposals included “keeping men out of women’s sports,” banning taxpayer funding for sex-change surgeries and stopping taxpayer-funded schools from promoting gender transition.
“It’s time to start planning in earnest for how we provide for all of our community’s needs,” said Picard. “Especially for trans folks, we’re going to be the target of some nonsense.”
Trump’s return to power prompted Picard and other members of Charlottesville’s LGBTQ+ community to mobilize. Blake Walker, a transgender woman who serves on the board of the Charlottesville Gender Expansive Network, was among them.
“In the immediate wake of the election, I felt compelled to sidestep the pit of despair and channel my frustration into something productive,” Walker said in an email to Charlottesville Tomorrow.
Soon after the election, Walker contacted Picard and The Beautiful Idea’s other owners – Joan Covatch, Senlin Means and Dylan West – about creating a space that would be a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community. The idea appealed to Picard, who, when opening The Beautiful Idea in 2023, had imagined such a space.
Members of the Charlottesville LGBTQ+ community are transforming the building at 801 West Main St. into the Rivanna Area Queer Center, a social and community space for LGBTQ+ people in Charlottesville and the surrounding area. Kori Price/Charlottesville Tomorrow
Within three months of discussing what the facility could look like and gathering feedback from potential patrons, Picard, Walker and others leased a building at 801 West Main St. Formerly a Kicks Unlimited sneaker store, the space is now the Rivanna Area Queer Center, a community and social space intended for LGBTQ+ people in Charlottesville and surrounding areas.
With construction of the center and its plans for opening still underway, some of the reasons behind its creation have dominated national and local news.
Meanwhile, the Virginia General Assembly has seen its own set of anti-LGBTQ+ bills during this year’s session. Ten bills targeting transgender youth and individuals have all failed on the General Assembly floor, many of which involved banning minors from receiving gender-affirming medical procedures, prohibiting transgender girls from playing in sports, and allowing healthcare officials to deny care to patrons who are transitioning, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, a research organization that tracks bills involving transgender and gender-expansive individuals.
In Charlottesville, UVA Health said Jan. 31 that it would pause any kind of gender-affirming care for individuals under 19 years of age following an executive order from President Trump and guidance from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. Miyares warned UVA Health that they would be at risk of losing critical funding, such as money from Medicare and Medicaid programs. On Feb. 13, a federal judge temporarily blocked Trump’s executive order, and UVA Health resumed care that was previously paused.
Fighting such legislation and policies remains at the center of why Picard, Walker and other queer people in the area decided to create the Rivanna Area Queer Center.
“Folks need a beacon of hope in the midst of all that noise,” said Walker. “Something to remind them that they are safe, loved and worth protecting.”
On Feb. 7, Ellie Picard, one of the founders of the Rivanna Area Queer Center, tours a room that will be converted to a free apparel closet. The Rivanna Area Queer Center is set to open its doors within “the next couple of months,” said Picard. Kori Price/Charlottesville Tomorrow
Similar spaces in other localities are committed to offering support to the queer community as the nation debates legislation that could harm such people.
Rev. Lacette Cross is executive director of Diversity Richmond, a bustling facility located near Interstate 95 that describes itself as “the hub for the LGBTQ+ community of Greater Richmond connecting people, partners and programs through our work as a catalyst, a voice, a place and a resource.”
Rev. Cross explained that establishing spaces such as the Rivanna Area Queer Center in Charlottesville is a reminder to people outside of the LGBTQ+ community — supportive or not — that queer people are not going anywhere.
“These spaces are so critically important in times like these, because they are a reminder that we exist, and that nobody can legislate our existence,” said Cross. “We’re here, and we’re a part of this city, this town, this country.”
In addition to Diversity Richmond, the Queer Center’s founders modeled the site after similar businesses in the state, such as the Shenandoah LGBTQ Center in Staunton, Lavender Lodge in Lynchburg and the Roanoke Diversity Center in Roanoke, said Picard.
The Rivanna Area Queer Center founders want the site to be more than a place for people to hang out. Picard said the center plans to provide an apparel closet for people — such as those who are in the early stages of transitioning — to obtain free clothing. Inside the space, there will be three separate rooms, which Picard envisions having mental health providers and other LGBTQ+ groups use for queer-centered work.
Fewer venues exist locally for queer communities
The Rivanna Area Queer Center will not be the first dedicated space for the LGBTQ+ community in the city. However, such spaces have struggled to stay open over the last decade.
Umma’s, a popular Japanese-Korean-American fusion restaurant that was considered to be a safe haven for queer people in the city, closed last September as the owners were set to move from Charlottesville.
The city also was once home to Impulse, a membership-based queer social club located on Emmett Street where Super Amanecer currently sits. Impulse closed in 2020 after being in operation for seven years, according to a News Leader report.
Despite the closures, other businesses, such as Firefly Restaurant and Game Room, have opened their doors for LGBTQ+ patrons and events. In addition, Out and About and Queerish Cville often serve as venues for events hosted by local residents or former queer establishments.
As the Rivanna Area Queer Center’s founders prepare for its opening within the next two months, they are seeking input for community members who plan to make use of the facility. Bailey Pleasant, a 25-year-old transgender man, looks forward to having an established setting to meet other queer people rather than meeting them by happenstance.
“I think there is a lot of value in finding other people that are like you and being able to be as true to yourself as you’re capable within that kind of company,” said Pleasant.
Take Action
The Rivanna Area Queer Center, a community space for LGBTQ+ individuals in Charlottesville, is developing a dedicated space for queer people in Charlottesville. The center will host a visioning session at 801 W. Main St. on Sunday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. If you are interested in contributing to the center, or giving insight on what you would like to see, you can submit a Google form on the center’s LinkTree.
Constitutional issue impedes elimination of Wyoming’s protected wildlife list
A bill to authorize game wardens to deal with sometimes-pesky otters turned, for a moment, into an effort to altogether eliminate Wyoming’s 72-year-old “protected” wildlife list.
The state designation, two decades older than the Endangered Species Act, was “archaic” and unneeded, Sen. Larry Hicks, a Baggs Republican, argued in the Senate Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee on Tuesday. Hicks successfully amended House Bill 45, “Removing otters as protected animals,” so that it would also apply to pikas and fishers. (The state’s other “protected” species — black‑footed ferret, lynx and wolverine — would retain federal ESA safeguards.)
Casper Republican Sen. Bill Landen stood alone in opposition to the change before the committee he chairs OK’d it. He reiterated his concerns the next day on the floor of the Wyoming Senate.
“I have to admit, fellow senators, we got out over the tips of our skis a little bit,” Landen said, calling out his committee’s potentially unconstitutional actions. “We made some changes that, I have to say, probably run us afoul of something that we hold quite dear here in this Senate chamber. That is, pursuant to the Wyoming Constitution, no … bill shall be so altered or amended to become a different bill.”
Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, sits at his desk during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
He questioned whether a bill with a title focusing on otters could alter policy related to other species.
His colleagues in the upper chamber were evidently listening.
The amendment OK’d in committee — which would have also retitled the bill — was overwhelmingly voted down.
House Bill 45 was back to being just an otter bill, which several senators seemed to enjoy.
“On and for this bill,” Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Casper, said. “I think we ‘otter’ pass it.”
But the otter measure hasn’t been without its own controversy. Brought by Jackson Republican Rep. Andrew Byron, who’s a former flyfishing guide, the idea emanated from an angling experience in Teton County’s beleaguered Fish Creek, which isn’t living up to its name. The sophomore representative saw an otter family and called up the local warden to inquire about relocating them.
Sota the pudelpointer and a river otter share a Pine Creek meadow within the town limits of Pinedale in January 2024. (Mike Koshmrl/WyoFile)
“He goes, ‘Andrew, we can’t touch those,’” Byron testified Tuesday in the Senate committee. He went on to learn about the 72-year-old protected species statute, which precludes relocating or killing conflict-causing otters.
Byron bemoaned how the public has perceived his bill.
“There are fears out there that this is an all-out attack, this is a free-for-all, anyone can do anything with otters,” he told the senators. “It’s really, really not the case.”
House Bill 45 would not greenlight recreational otter hunting or trapping seasons. Instead, otters would default to being a non-game species that could be killed with a permit. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has supported the potential measure, which would give its biologists and wardens flexibility.
“As we get species recovering in the state and spreading out, we often do see isolated conflict,” Game and Fish Director Angi Bruce said. “I personally believe that when we are able to go in and address conflict situations with landowners, it helps build support for that species.”
Sen. Tara Nethercott, R-Cheyenne, stands during the Wyoming Legislature’s 2025 general session. (Mike Vanata/WyoFile)
On the Senate floor, Cheyenne Republican Tara Nethercott encouraged her counterparts to steer clear of the euphemisms.
“I would appreciate it if we stopped talking about relocating them, nobody’s going to relocate an otter,” Nethercott said. “They will be killed, and they’ll be trapped for their pelts. And so let’s just have an honest conversation.”
A leading otter expert, University of Wyoming professor Merav Ben-David, has opposed HB 45.
“I think this bill is premature,” she testified Tuesday to senators. “Removing otters, at this point, from the protected list, puts at risk [their] expansion to other places in the state.”
Wyoming’s otter population, according to Ben-David, is slowly crawling its way back from being effectively wiped out during the fur trade era. Lontra canadensis only hung on in Yellowstone National Park, though they’ve since reclaimed old haunts in the Snake, Green, Wind and Shoshone river basins and are beginning to show up in the North Platte River watershed.
Opposition notwithstanding, the otter-specific version of HB 45 is on a glide path through the Legislature. It passed its committee votes easily, and the Wyoming House by a 52-8 margin. After 30 minutes of debate on Wednesday, senators in a voice vote gave the proposal the initial OK. It also passed its second reading in the Senate on Thursday. Now only one vote by the Senate stands between the measure and the governor’s desk.
Although Hicks’ proposal to do away with the state-protected species list fell flat, it’s potentially not dead for good. Landen, co-chair of the Joint Travel, Recreation, Wildlife and Cultural Resources Committee, expressed a willingness to explore the idea during interim meetings between the Legislature’s 2025 and 2026 sessions.
Maine’s childhood vaccination rates have benefited from the elimination of nonmedical exemptions
Editor’s Note: The following story first appeared in The Maine Monitor’s free health care newsletter, Health Monitor, that is delivered to inboxes every other Thursday. Sign up for the free newsletter to stay informed of Maine health care news.
As the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary heads to a final vote, and the national conversation around vaccines intensifies, it’s worth examining Maine’s childhood vaccination rates.
During the last school year, vaccination rates among kindergartners across Maine were around 97 percent for all four mandatory vaccines. The rates have increased steadily since 2019, when the state passed legislation ending nonmedical exemptions. But some public health advocates worry that vaccine hesitancy could increase under the Trump administration.
Under state law, all kindergarten students in a public or private elementary school must have the following vaccines: Diphtheria/Pertussis/Tetanus (DTaP), Poliomyelitis, Measles/Mumps/Rubella (MMR) and Varicella (VAR).
In 2019, Maine passed a law that eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions in response to dropping rates of vaccination among schoolchildren. At the time, Maine was one of only 17 states that allowed exemptions if a parent or guardian cited a personal reason, according to reporting from the Bangor Daily News.
Since then, annual vaccination data shows that exemption rates have dropped across the board for the four required vaccinations. The exemption rate for the polio vaccine dropped from 5 percent in 2019-20 to 0.6 percent last year.
Before the law went into effect, Maine had one of the highest opt-out rates in the country: it was 5.3 percent in 2017-18 when the national median was 2.2 percent. Last year, Maine’s opt-out rate was 1 percent compared to the national median of 3.7 percent.
A student who isn’t vaccinated can still be enrolled in school under certain conditions: a parent or guardian provides written assurance the student will be vaccinated within 90 days; a licensed physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant provides a written statement noting that immunization may be medically inadvisable; or students have an individualized education program that began before September 2021 that included a philosophical or religious exemption.
Last year, 19 schools had kindergarten exemption rates above 5 percent (it’s worth noting that in some of these schools class sizes are quite small).
Ashwood Waldorf School, in Rockport, had the highest vaccine exemption rate for kindergartners last year at 33 percent – four out of 12 students.
Jeremy Clough, school director, said all four of the exemptions last year were temporary and at least two of the students are now caught up on their vaccines. These temporary medical exemptions often apply to new students who were previously homeschooled and are behind on their vaccinations.
Clough said most of the conversations he’s had with families about vaccines involve explaining the law.
“There’s really no pushback that the families can have because it’s like, ‘Here’s the law and … you either need to be caught up or you need to talk to your health care provider,’ ” he said.
He said it’s helpful that there’s no gray area in the law. “We’re not doctors,” he said. “I feel like we have no idea what is appropriate medically for anyone. What we know how to do is educate children. So yes, I think it is helpful to have something that’s very clear.”
Jay Corbin, teaching principal of Penobscot Community School, agreed that the law makes conversations more straightforward. He said there wasn’t much resistance from families when the nonmedical exemptions were eliminated and he doesn’t anticipate more pushback going forward.
Penobscot Community School had among the highest exemption rates last year at 14 percent, but that was due to one exemption out of seven kindergartners. Corbin said the school has historically had high vaccination rates.
The county with the highest exemption rate for kindergartners last year was Piscataquis County at 3.7 percent.
Sue Mackey Andrews, who was a national consultant to health and education departments for 25 years and now is active in public health efforts in Dover-Foxcroft that include childhood vaccine initiatives, said she was surprised the exemption rate wasn’t even higher in her county because Piscataquis has historically had low vaccination rates.
One factor Mackey Andrews pointed to is the lack of access to health care. The closest pediatrician may be in Bangor, which could make it hard to keep kids up-to-date with their vaccines. She said she has also seen the anti-vaccine movement grow in her area due to a “phenomenal” amount of misinformation and fears it could increase under the Trump administration.
In the years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mackey Andrews said there’s been a “dramatic increase” in homeschooled families in the region.
“I suspect that some of it, at least, is vaccine related,” she said.
Mackey Andrews said she would urge people who have concerns about vaccines to listen to their doctors and ask questions.
“That’s a lifelong, perhaps critical, decision that you’re making,” she said.
Teachers’ union negotiations to be livestreamed in historic first
ITHACA, N.Y. — For the first time, union contract negotiations between the Ithaca Teachers Association and the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) will be open to the public to watch live online.
Ithaca Teachers Association president Kathryn Cernera said the union had suggested the unusual approach in the name of fiscal transparency.
ICSD Superintendent Luvelle Brown announced the change at the school board’s Jan. 28 meeting. He said he was “looking forward” to the contract negotiation process. The first session is taking place Feb. 13.
“It is unique, and it is new and different,” Brown said. “But it demonstrates a commitment from the teachers, the leadership of their association, our leadership team, and a community that expects transparency and wants [a] very open dialog around these complex issues facing us all.”
The move comes after last spring’s high-profile battle over ICSD’s annual budget vote, during which voters consistently called on the school district to be more transparent about its spending.
Contractually obligated salary increases are a significant factor driving yearly school district spending. Of the five unions representing ICSD staff, the Ithaca Teachers Association is the largest by membership.
The union’s contract is set to expire on June 30.
The first bargaining session is set for Feb. 13 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The video will be posted to the school district’s website and YouTube channel.
Digging In: How will Trump’s immigration plan impact Kentucky?
(Courtesy White House via Flickr)
President Donald Trump’s immigration plan aims to deport thousands of people that are living in the United States without proper documentation.
We wanted to get an idea of how Trump’s plan will impact Kentucky, a place that’s home to nearly 200,000 immigrants, according to the Migration Policy Institute, an independent, nonpartisan immigration policy think tank based in Washington, D.C.
So, we called more than 40 local law enforcement operations — the sheriff’s and police agencies that could be tapped to assist federal immigration agents. And we went inside the state’s only full-time immigration detention center — the Boone County jail, where federal agents can hold up to 175 people to await deportation.
KyCIR reporters Morgan Watkins and Jared Bennett discussed what they found with LPM’s Bill Burton. You can listen to the conversation by clicking the audio player above, or you can read more below.
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Bill Burton: Jared, has the jail been holding more people since President Trump took office?
Jared Bennett: TheBoone County jailer, Jason Maydak, told me he hasn’t seen any evidence of raids or increased enforcement here in Kentucky.
And actually he wasn’t really expecting any in this new Trump administration.
So far they have seen a slight bump, though. There were 131 people held for ICE there when I visited. That was January 28. And by February 3rd, that number rose to 175 people, which is the jail’s capacity for ICE detainees.
BB: How long are people held there?
JB: The jailer told me the average stay for ICE detainees at the Boone County jail was around 45 days, that’s a month and a half, but some people are there for much, much longer, and that’s one of the main issues with ICE holds right now.
People are held for ICE either waiting deportation or for their cases to move through immigration courts, and that can take a really long time. There was a backlog in immigration courts of 3.6 million cases at the end of the 2024 fiscal year.
A federal judge this past August found someone’s year-long stay at the Boone County jail without a bond hearing was unconstitutional. There’s no hard and fast rule about when detainment becomes problematic, but lawyers told me that courts start to get skeptical around six months.
And when I looked at the records I found 20 people had been at the Boone County jail for over six months, and three people for over a year.
Jared Bennett(J. Tyler Franklin / LPM )
BB: You got to tour the jail, what’s it like?
JB: For the most part, a jail is a jail. It’s a big facility, it’s clean, a lot of fluorescent lighting, and it was pretty quiet when I visited. It was below capacity. The jail performs pretty well on ICE inspections, they have a lot of different standards they have to meet to hold people for ICE. That inspection found only three deficiencies that the jailer told me were addressed right away.
But the ICE detainees themselves, they tell a different story. I wasn’t able to talk to any directly, but two filed a complaint with the U.S. Office of Civil Rights in 2021 and said the jail wasn’t taking COVID-19 seriously, didn’t provide translators or regular access to outdoors and recreation. One man from East Africa said he was called racial slurs at the jail.
The Office of Civil Rights investigated and in 2024 made 34 recommendations to address civil rights violations they found. We only have a summary of the findings, so we don’t know what all of the findings were, but we do know ICE only agreed with 18 of the recommendations.
BB: Morgan, Trump wants local police to help ICE enforce federal immigration laws. What do Kentucky officers say, though?
Morgan Watkins: I contacted over 40 police departments and sheriff’s offices and a majority of them got back to me. None of them reported having a formal agreement to partner with ICE, but none said they’d refuse to work with the agency, either.
Morgan Watkins (J. Tyler Franklin / LPM )
Several officers said they’d have to consider their available resources – which are limited, especially for small police departments – if ICE asks them for help with an immigration operation.
BB: Do the law enforcement agencies have official policies on working with ICE?
MW: Most of the ones I talked to do not have a policy on ICE, specifically. Louisville Metro Police is an exception. LMPD has policies that limit how and when it can help ICE. A couple of Republican state lawmakers are proposing bills that could force Louisville to drop the restrictions, though.
Millions earmarked to keep rural hospitals open, recruit health care providers in Shapiro’s $51.4B budget proposal
BELLEFONTE — Rural health services would get an injection of taxpayer dollars to keep their doors open and recruit more professionals to work in remote communities under Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s proposed budget.
The $51.4 billion pitch unveiled to lawmakers earlier this month also includes a $25 million expansion of an agriculture grant program and increased spending on outdoor recreation that local officials say is key to boosting local revenue.
The Democrat’s proposal — which Republicans say uses inflated revenue projections — marks the beginning of months of hearings and budget negotiations. Pennsylvania lawmakers have until June 30 to send a finalized spending plan to the governor’s desk for approval.
Officials plan Palmer Courthouse expansion as caseloads swell
What you need to know:
Alaska state court officials are seeking $22.2 million in state funding to add three new courtrooms, offices and judges’ chambers to the Palmer Courthouse. The project would also add an enclosed second-floor shell on top of a portion of the new expansion for finishing later.
The expansion is needed because of the current large caseload at the courthouse and the region’s growing population.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s FY 2026 budget does not include funding for the expansion. Securing money for the project is a budget priority for state Sen. Shelley Hughes, who represents Palmer.
PALMER – A major expansion planned for the Alaska State Courthouse in Palmer would add courtrooms and chambers for more judges, an update court officials say is desperately needed to accommodate the region’s growing population and caseload.
The project would be the courthouse’s first expansion since 2008, when a $5.3 million project added about 15,000 square feet.
If approved as part of the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget, the new $22.2 million expansion would add about 17,000 square feet, including three courtrooms, bringing the total to 11, and space for three additional judges and their support staff, according to Alaska Court System officials. It would take up to four years to complete, according to project documents.
The expansion would also include a 9,900-square-foot second-story shell built over the new addition. That floor would be ready for interior finishes as part of a future, as-yet unplanned project and could accommodate up to nine additional courtrooms, according to a project master plan published in early 2023.
“We all know that the Mat-Su area is the fastest-growing population in the state. The Palmer courthouse already doesn’t have enough room for the judges who are there,” Alaska Chief Justice Susan Carney told lawmakers during a State of the Judiciary address Wednesday. “Palmer Superior Court judges have the highest per judge caseload of any judges in the state. We need more judges to serve the Mat-Su, but we need a place to put them.”
Alaska Chief Justice Susan Carney speaks to lawmakers during a State of the Judiciary address on Feb. 11, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini/Juneau Empire)
Last year about 2,700 new filings were split among four Superior Court judges assigned to Palmer, or about 660 cases per judge, according to state court system data. The average caseload per judge statewide is 459, court officials said.
The facility’s eight current courtrooms also host proceedings before a District Court judge and three magistrates, said Rebecca Koford, a spokesperson for the Alaska court system. More than 9,000 district court cases were filed at the facility in 2024, including about 1,880 misdemeanors, according to court data.
That caseload is anticipated to grow as the region’s population increases, Koford said. About 15,000 new residents are expected to move to the region over the next decade, bringing the population to about 131,000, according to state estimates.
The expansion project is the court system’s top need, Carney told lawmakers Wednesday.
“I do want to stress that the Palmer Courthouse is our number one capital priority this year, and I hope that you will very seriously consider this request,” she said.
Although the facility hasn’t seen a major expansion in more than a decade, it has received several renovations, including one to clean up flooding caused by a major windstorm in early 2022. The building was first constructed in 1987.
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Under the expansion master plan, the three new courtrooms would be built on the south side of the existing building, near Courtroom 8. Two of the rooms would be separated by a folding partition that could be removed for larger trials, while the third could be designed to accommodate traditional, hybrid or remote trials, according to project documents.
Last year, the court system was given $7.5 million for some of the first steps of the planned project, including some utility work and the creation of a final project design. The state awarded a $2.6 million contract late last year for the design to architecture and engineering firm Stantec.
If lawmakers grant the $22.2 million for the upcoming fiscal year, court system officials plan to next year request a final round of construction funding for a $6.3 million project to expand the Palmer Courthouse entrance, security area and clerk’s office, including additional file storage, Koford said.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal did not include funding for the expansion.
Securing money for the project is a budget priority for state Sen. Shelley Hughes, who represents Palmer. Hughes said she discussed the project’s importance with state Rep. Delana Johnson, who represents Palmer and oversees capital project funding as co-chair of the House Finance Committee.
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment.
— Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com
A tech future powered by coal: Five takeaways from Gov. Morrisey’s State of the State address
From coal to education to deregulation to drugs, Gov. Patrick Morrisey covered a lot of ground as he laid out his legislative agenda to a packed House chamber during his State of the State address on Wednesday night.
Here are five things you need to know about what Morrisey hopes to see this year:
1. Use West Virginia’s coal to fuel a “Mountain State comeback”
Selling a vision where children will grow up to live and work in West Virginia, Morrisey described a future economy powered by supercomputers, data centers and cryptocurrency.
And like the heyday of steel in the 50s, Morrisey said this new economy will rely on electricity, and that electricity will come from West Virginia coal and natural gas.
In many ways, a large component of all his plans — whether it was education, cutting business regulations, speeding up permit processing and cutting taxes — is to continue the tradition of the same extractive industries that have left streams polluted, men dying in their 50s and towns with soot in their attics.
“West Virginia has power, and by God, we are going to use it,” Morrisey said, “We’ll use every last ounce to fuel our Mountain State Comeback.”
He vowed not only to continue with coal, but with natural gas, hydropower and nuclear energy – an idea that has, at times, been derided by pro-coal lawmakers.
To get there, he wants to cut taxes, regulations and make it easy for industries to set up shop.
2. Work closely with President Donald Trump
When Morrisey first mentioned President Donald J. Trump, the 123 Republican lawmakers in the room erupted in applause, rising from their seats in a standing ovation.
He positioned West Virginia energy as a major power supplier for Trump’s charge to take on China. Echoing a line from the president’s inauguration last month, he said:
“I know our state and our nation are on our way to a resurgence and a golden era unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
Throughout the night, Morrisey vowed to work closely with the Trump administration on a range of issues from energy to education to drug abuse.
West Virginia depends on federal dollars for nearly 50% of the state’s overall budget. Morrisey didn’t mention how potential moves to close the US Department of Education or cuts in federal programs could affect basic services people rely on, like school lunches or seeing a doctor.
At a hearing held earlier on Wednesday on federal block grants, government employees gave five minute speeches about the programs they administer with federal funds.
Anti-smoking and vaping campaigns, assistance for heating and utilities, help for sickly children and subsidies for childcare and many other programs are all funded by federal dollars.
But like Morrisey, not one Republican in the room stopped to ask how any freezes to grant funding could affect those services. Only one Democratic delegate piped up to ask the question.
3. Cut taxes while closing a $400 million state budget gap
Like Gov. Jim Justice before him, Morrisey said he’s inherited an economic mess.
He said the state’s got a $400 million budget hole coming up that could get bigger over time. His answer is to cut.
He touted audits and reviews of spending decisions across state government. He said the state would not fund new programs without new revenue. And he said he would propose consolidating departments in state government and eliminating numerous boards and commissions.
“We are going to uncover all of the waste and abuse that hides in the dark corners of state government, and we will root it out,” Morrisey said. “If you like what President Trump is doing in DC, you’re going to love what we’re doing right here in West Virginia.”
Now where those cuts will be made will be seen in the budget. Morrisey didn’t mention it, except to say he wanted a “permanent fix” for the state government health insurance.
While lawmakers have talked about a permanent fix for almost a decade, what they’ve done from time to time is just throw money from the surplus at the insurance program when it came up short.
Even with all those money problems, he still called for more tax cuts.
“I’m renewing my call to ensure we have the lowest income tax of all the states that we touch.”
4. Target trans rights and the “woke virus”
And while Morrisey wants to loosen up mandatory vaccination laws for actual viruses, he vowed to continue to eradicate West Virginia of the “woke virus.”
“We stand for God, for life, for the second amendment, for religious liberty, our Constitution and our freedoms,” Morrisey said. “And we will always fight for those values.”
Morrisey took a victory lap on the closure of DEI offices on the biggest universities in the state, following his executive order banning it from state government.
“That’s a win for West Virginia, and we’re not done yet,” he said.
He bragged about attending a signing for Trump’s ban on transgender children in sports. Morrisey asked the Legislature to pass a bill that would ban transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms for the gender they identify with.
5. Get rid of cell phones in schools and government permission slips for hospitals
But in a speech replete with platitudes, catch phrases, personal stories and broad visions of policy, Morrisey did not give a laundry list of bills for lawmakers to pass.
He asked for a ban on cellphones in classrooms – garnering one of the few bipartisan applauses of the night. He said he’ll be introducing legislation to start a “one-stop shop” to streamline permitting for industry.
But the biggest legislative request was to repeal “certificate of need.” The governor characterized it as a “government permission slip” to allow new hospitals and healthcare facilities to open.
The niche piece of policy is divisive in policy circles – some say it kills competition that could lower healthcare costs. Others say it ensures healthcare systems can keep profitable services and use those to subsidize needed care that operates at a loss.
He said will be introducing a bill to eliminate it, calling it “a big step forward to improve care for our most vulnerable citizens.”
President Trump’s tariffs bring return of uncertainty for America’s farmers
Bob Hemesath has spent his entire life on his Northeast Iowa farm, raising corn and hogs alongside his brother. His business depends on open global markets and stable trade agreements.
But under Donald Trump’s second term, that stability has once again been disrupted with the president’s push for higher tariffs on some of the nation’s most important trading partners.
“Anytime that a tariff is put on goods that I sell or export to those countries, that’s going to put me at a disadvantage to the marketplace,” Hemesath said.
Bob Hemesath, Iowa farmer and president of Farmers for Free Trade. photo by Bob Hemesath
A few weeks after returning to the White House, Trump threatened a 25% tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports. He also imposed a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, prompting retaliatory tariffs from Beijing and escalating tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
On Monday, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports.
Mexico, Canada and China account for more than 40% of total U.S. trade, valued at more than $2 trillion. As these trade relations become increasingly strained, economic uncertainty has deepened in rural America, leaving farmers bracing for a financial blow similar to what occurred during Trump’s first-term trade war.
“It certainly does increase the level of uncertainty,” said Ernie Goss, an economist at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, referring to the Trump administration’s tariff policies. “This uncertainty manifests itself in areas such as purchasing farmland and agriculture equipment.”
Mexico is the United States’ largest agricultural trading partner in terms of total exports and imports, with Canada following closely behind, according to the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Agricultural trade with Mexico and Canada is crucial for U.S. farmers, particularly in the exchange of grains and meat products.
Meanwhile, China is also one of the United States’ top agricultural trade partners, especially as an importer of soybeans.
Trump has claimed any financial harm will be short-lived.
“WILL THERE BE SOME PAIN?” Trump wrote on social media this month. “YES, MAYBE (AND MAYBE NOT!). BUT WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, AND IT WILL ALL BE WORTH THE PRICE THAT MUST BE PAID.”
But Hemesath, who is also president of Farmers for Free Trade, a national non-profit that mobilizes farmers to support trade agreements that expand export opportunities, said trade wars have a lasting impact.
“Those other countries are going to start looking elsewhere for those products, and if they can find them, that’s a market that I lose as I as a farmer. And that directly affects my bottom line,” Hemesath, a fifth-generation farmer, told Investigate Midwest during a phone interview.
During Trump’s first-term trade war, China imported fewer soybeans from the United States as it turned to other countries, including Brazil, which emerged as China’s primary soybean supplier. Much of that business didn’t return to American farmers once the trade war ended.
“During the previous U.S.-China trade war, China learned a valuable lesson: diversifying supply chains to reduce dependency on U.S. agriculture,” Julien Chaisse, a trade expert and professor at the City University of Hong Kong, said in an email to Investigate Midwest. “Brazil and Argentina were already beneficiaries, and this move will deepen China’s commitment to alternative suppliers.”
“Beijing does not treat agricultural imports as purely economic transactions but as strategic tools,” Chaisse added. “This shift is unlikely to be reversed, even if tariffs are later lifted.”
Facing economic uncertainty, farmers curb their spending
Retaliatory tariffs from other countries can also increase costs for American farmers.
In response to Trump’s recent 10% tariff, China imposed 15% tariffs on coal and liquefied natural gas, along with 10% tariffs on crude oil, agricultural machinery and pickup trucks.
China has also responded with expanded export controls on rare earth minerals, an antitrust investigation into Google, and the addition of two U.S. companies to its Unreliable Entities List, which tracks and penalizes foreign companies deemed threats to its national interests.
Meanwhile, Canada’s proposed retaliatory tariffs, currently on hold for a month, would impose a 25% surcharge on a wide range of U.S. products, including live poultry, dairy products, vegetables, coffee, tea, sugar and milling industry products.
Trade uncertainty and higher import costs can cause farmers to curb their own spending, which can have a negative impact on rural communities.
“If some of (a farmer’s) machinery was getting old, they need a new tractor or combine harvester, they’re not going to buy it in this environment,” said Colin Carter, a professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California, Davis. “They’ll delay the purchase because if we get into a large trade war, revenues are going to go down. Who knows whether they’ll be compensated this time? It’s just not a good environment to make investment decisions.”
With high fixed costs — land, machinery and loan payments — farmers don’t have the luxury of sitting out bad years, Carter added.
“They don’t have a lot of flexibility,” Carter said. “Even if tariffs are imposed, they still are going to have these large costs. So they have to plant crops, even if they lose money doing it. These lose less money by planting compared to not planting”
For Hemesath, the Iowa farmer, that’s not just a theoretical concern — it’s his daily reality.
“We sit here now with margins that are still negative margins on raising crops,” he said. “Any loss of market share is only going to make that worse.”
Last week, during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, agricultural leaders voiced their concerns about the potential return of Trump’s tariff policies.
Farm & ranch families answer the call to feed America’s families & the world, and the tariffs and promised retaliation will put further stress on their livelihoods. The uncertainty hits as operating loans are being secured & planting approaches—leaving farmers in a tough spot.
Josh Gackle, chairman of the American Soybean Association, warned that U.S. soybean farmers are facing significant uncertainty.
“With the new administration threatening tariffs on major export partners, our access to global export markets is in jeopardy,” Gackle said.
The concern is backed by a 2024 study from the University of North Dakota, which found that if China implemented a 20% tariff increase on U.S. soybeans in response to a new trade war, North Dakota’s soybean exports could drop by 59.1%, amounting to an estimated $639.9 million in losses. Nationwide, the study predicts a 32.4% decline in soybean exports, a blow that could devastate farmers already struggling with tight profit margins.
“I don’t want to be too extreme,” Gackle told Investigate Midwest during an interview in August, “but it creates a lot of anxiety and uncertainty for U.S. soybean producers, especially those in North Dakota.”
Trump’s unconventional trade war
Ron Baumgarten, a former deputy assistant U.S. trade representative who currently works at the Washington, D.C.-based firm BakerHostetler, said Trump’s tariff-driven trade strategy is a fundamental shift in U.S. economic policy.
“One of the reasons for the tariffs is to get leverage,” Baumgarten said. “Trump’s theory is that U.S. tariffs are historically low compared to other countries, so why not use them as a negotiation tool?”
During Trump’s first term, he weaponized trade policy through Section 232 and Section 301 tariffs — key measures used by the United States to address economic and national security concerns. Now, in his second term, he is taking this approach even further.
By using the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) — a never-before-used legal tool to impose tariffs under the guise of national security — Trump has bypassed public comment periods and regulatory hurdles, making trade decisions without the required checks or balances.
Trump has threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada in an effort to tighten border security and curb drug trafficking.
“This is the first time trade policy levers have been used on unrelated issues,” Baumgarten said. “We’ve always sanctioned countries like Russia over Ukraine, but using trade tools for domestic issues like immigration or fentanyl overdoses? That’s a completely new approach.”
During his first-term trade war, Trump offered billions in farm subsidies to offset the damage. While some farmers appreciated the aid, Hemesath saw it as a short-term fix for a long-term crisis.
“Certainly, it helps, but it doesn’t compensate fully for what you lose in the market, Hemesath said.
“Ag trade is basically 30% of the farm net income so anytime we lose any trading, any ability to export our products affects the bottom line of our country and our fellow citizens and fellow communities.”
Study: Rural Homelessness Is Underestimated and Exacerbated by Opioid Epidemic
Opioid abuse and rural homelessness create a spiral for some rural residents, a new study has found.
For the study, researchers with the Rural Opioid Initiative at Georgia State University interviewed more than 3,000 people in rural communities across 10 states who had used drugs. Of those, more than half (54%) said they had experienced homelessness in the last six months.
April Ballard, assistant professor at the Georgia State University School of Public Health, said the research suggests that the number of rural homeless is significantly larger than federal data suggests.
“Houselessness is an issue in rural areas, but it’s not talked about,” Ballard said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “That’s largely because it looks very different than in urban areas. It can look like couch surfing, or moving from place to place. It’s hard to count in the same way that we do in urban areas.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires a nationwide “Point in Time Count” of people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January. On that day, groups of volunteers spread out to count and talk to homeless people in a community. However, Ballard said, because of the nature of rural homelessness, getting an accurate count is difficult.
“In an urban area, there are groups of people that get together and they walk around the city and they talk to people (to get the homeless count),” she said. “That can be challenging, obviously, for urban areas that are really spread out or not walkable. But in rural areas, obviously, you’re not going to go climb mountains and go in the backwoods to count people. That’s just not feasible.”
Rural people without housing may live in different situations — with relatives, or in tents, or in cars, Ballard said — instead of living in shelters or on the street. That makes finding and identifying them difficult at best. And there is a greater prevalence of homelessness because of the nature of rural community economics, she said.
“In some rural areas there are fewer economic opportunities and more economic disparities,” she said. “There’s insufficient public housing infrastructure and a limited acknowledgement of rural houselessness, which means that less money and resources go toward it.”
In one case, the researchers counted up to five times as many people experiencing homelessness in Kentucky than the “point in time” counts had identified. In three counties, the research found, the “point in time” counts estimated there were no people who were homeless, while Ballard and her group found more than 100 people in those same counties who said they had used drugs and experienced homelessness in the previous six months.
Mary Frances Kenion, vice president of training and technical assistance with the National Alliance to End Homelessness, agrees that homelessness in rural communities is undercounted.
“Every year, communities conduct an annual ‘point in time count, which is comparable to what we see in the Census —where folks go out knocking door to door to count people,” she said in an interview with the Daily Yonder. “But how do you count people that don’t have a door to answer?”
Rural homelessness, she said, stems not only from lower economic opportunities and a lack of affordable housing, but a lack of support services as well.
“We see a lack of service providers that are really responsible for a whole range of services to the community,” she said. “We do not seem to see the same concentration of service providers that you would see in, say, metropolitan Atlanta or Washington, D.C., or New York City.”
Ballard said her team’s research also indicated that there is a link between opioid use and rural homelessness, each one feeding off of the other.
“Obviously, it’s very clear that the opioid epidemic, as well as other sorts of drugs, has just been wreaking havoc on rural America for a while now. And I would say that houselessness has been an issue in rural areas, but it’s not talked about,” she said. “These two things, I think have been happening in parallel, and as the opioid epidemic has dramatically increased, it [has led] to that kind of cycle.”
The social losses that accompany opioid use disorder, Ballard said — such as unemployment, financial ruin, and the loss of family and social networks — can lead to housing instability and homelessness. In turn, the harsh living conditions presented by homelessness can perpetuate drug use as a coping mechanism. Together the two can create a self-reinforcing cycle that contributes to poorer health and shorter lifespans.
Homelessness can also inhibit treatment and medical care, Ballard said. People without stable housing were 1.3 times more likely to report being hospitalized for serious bacterial infection and 1.5 times more likely to overdose, the study found. Ballard said the lack of access to clean water contributed to a higher infection rate, while the prevalence of homeless people to use drugs alone increased the risk of accidental overdoses.
Although the two often overlap, Kenion cautioned against equating homelessness with drug addiction.
“I would be really careful about drawing parallels to the narrative that sometimes takes over that the majority of people experiencing homelessness are addicted to opioids or other substances, because that’s not supported by the data,” she said.
Rather, many homeless people across the country have experienced financial hardships — even one unexpected expense —that spiraled out of control and forced them from their homes, she said.
“Not a lot of people realize how folks are just often one crisis away from experiencing housing instability and homelessness, but that is felt more acutely in rural communities,” she said. “If you look at the overall snapshot, rural homelessness has actually increased by 17% between the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and 2023. And 42% of people experiencing homelessness in rural areas are in unsheltered situations, with women and families with children being far more likely to be unsheltered outdoors.”
Both Ballard and Kenion agree that accurately counting the homeless in rural communities in necessary in order to ensure they have the services they need to get back on their feet.
Additionally, Ballard said, having an accurate count can help ensure the rural homeless who have drug abuse issues can get the help that they need.
“I feel like without that awareness, we are not allocating resources to this,” Ballard said. “From a policy standpoint, it’s incredibly important for us to be capturing accurate information and accurate estimates, so that we’re actually dedicating the right amount of resources to communities. If we are trying to stop deaths related to drug use as well as other epidemics related to HIV and hepatitis C, and we’re not considering housing status, efforts to mitigate that are not going to be as effective or as efficient.”
