News from the South - West Virginia News Feed

Lawmakers gave Birth to Three workers a raise, but WV cut pay for program’s virtual therapists

Published

17 hours ago

July 21, 2025

westvirginiawatch.com – Amelia Ferrell Knisely – 2025-07-21 05:00:00

by Amelia Ferrell Knisely, West Virginia Watch
July 21, 2025

West Virginia lawmakers put $17 million in the state budget for a pay increase for Birth to Three workers, who hadn’t seen a raise in more than two decades. The successful program provides free services to babies and toddlers who have developmental delays.

And, while most workers are getting a raise, the state Department of Health is going to cut pay for virtual therapists, who often provide services to children in rural areas where there’s a shortage of local therapists.

The pay cut — especially as the state is struggling to retain its workforce — came as a surprise to lawmakers.

“I don’t think I will speak for myself when I say I didn’t hear from a single legislator who was in favor of cutting the pay to any Birth to Three service provider. This was a department decision,” said Sen Ben Queen, R-Harrison, who serves on the Senate Finance Committee. Queen’s 1-year-old son is receiving services through the program.

“It does disappoint me,” he added. “I think the department celebrated and spiked the football that they got pay raises for their employees and then passed down a pay decrease.”

Katie Comer Reidy has worked as a speech therapist with Birth to Three for nearly 10 years and now provides virtual services. It’s “such a happy job,” she said. She uses Zoom to coach families on how to help their children reach milestones.

According to the state health department, the rate for virtual providers will decrease by 15%.

“I was excited to see that Birth to Three got a raise … but I was disappointed to see that the virtual providers took a bit of a cut. I do feel that the virtual providers are a big part of Birth to Three now,” said Comer Reidy, who lives in Charleston. “I fear that it will decrease the amount of virtual providers, and then, because of that … some of these families in rural counties might have a harder time getting the services that they need.”

Birth to Three started offering virtual services to children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gailyn M. Markham, director of communications for the state Department of Health, said that while determining the pay rates, the agency wanted to “ensure the state’s budget for the Birth to Three program could meet the growing needs of children and families in West Virginia.”

Birth to Three served 8,510 children in 2023. The program’s budget needs to account for the growing number of children, as well as a decreasing number of Medicaid-eligible children following the “unwinding” of Medicaid post-pandemic and increasing costs of assistive technology, Markham explained.

“The funding provided by the state Legislature was based on the department’s projected need after these factors were evaluated,” she wrote in an email, adding that the state also receives $2.2 million in federal funding for the program.

“To meet the needs of families during the pandemic, virtual services were permitted and reimbursed at the in-person rate. Post-pandemic, virtual services will remain allowable but the rate was reduced by 15%, recognizing that services provided virtually and at the service provider location are able to be offered at a lower cost than in person services,” she continued.

Sen. Ben Queen, R-Harrison, speaks during a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee on April 2, 2025. (Will Price | West Virginia Legislative Photography)

‘It’s a serious issue’

Not every state has a no-cost program like Birth to Three, which can be especially critical as West Virginia has the highest rate of prenatal exposure to drugs. This puts these children at a higher risk for a variety of physical and mental disabilities, and experts say early intervention is key.

Birth to Three uses 900 practitioners to provide physical, speech and occupational therapies and other services to children in all 55 counties. It served 16% of the state’s zero to 2-year-old population in 2023.

Comer Reidy said one of the most rewarding parts of the job was connecting with parents — not just the child who is being helped. “You then become a person that moms and dads will call when they’re having a hard time, and you [are] able to be a support system for somebody,” she said.

During the legislative session, the House of Delegates and Senate each pushed bills that specifically gave Birth to Three workers a raise.

Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette

Sen. Brian Helton, R-Fayette, introduced a version in the Senate, and it passed through the chamber unanimously but got held up in the House Finance Committee, where state budget concerns regularly stalled bills with price tags.

His bill proposed a 25% increase raise for all workers; he said the allocated money in the final state budget would give in-person therapists around a 15% raise.

“These are the most vulnerable children in our society, the ones having problems getting off to a good start,” Helton said. “When you look at inflation over the past decade or so, and you consider the fact that in today’s environment, it’s hard to find good quality, skilled people from lots of positions that we as a state, we just couldn’t afford to take chances to lose these workers who provide such valuable service.”

Helton was also surprised to learn that pay had been cut for virtual providers, saying, “You never like to see anyone get a decrease.” But he said that in-person therapy offered benefits for children, and the pay increase could push more therapists to provide in-person services.

“When you look at all the numbers, my understanding was some of that was done just to drive more people out into the field and to ensure that they’re actually getting … in person with people that work with these babies,” Helton said.

Queen said the Senate Finance Committee will be looking into why the pay was cut for virtual providers.

“It’s a reality of some sort of a budget issue that they didn’t share with us in a hearing process. And I hope we can get to the bottom of it sooner than later and not discourage people from leaving the system,” he said. “I haven’t personally heard of anyone jumping ship, but I can tell you that when you decrease someone’s pay in 2025 when the rest of the folks inside the very same department got a pay raise, it’s very discouraging.”

He continued, “It’s a serious issue, and I hope that this creates more conversation and transparency. We want departments to be successful.”

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West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

The post Lawmakers gave Birth to Three workers a raise, but WV cut pay for program’s virtual therapists appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This article presents the issue of Birth to Three pay structures in a largely factual and balanced way, quoting both state legislators and program participants. However, it emphasizes concerns about cuts to virtual therapist pay and highlights the voices of affected individuals, which may suggest mild sympathy for public service workers and social programs—an approach often aligned with center-left perspectives. The article avoids overt editorializing, but its focus on the impact of budgetary decisions on vulnerable populations and rural families lends a subtle tilt toward progressive social advocacy.

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Arrest made in school break-in, theft; another suspect still on the loose

News from the South - West Virginia News Feed

Arrest made in school break-in, theft; another suspect still on the loose

Published

3 days ago

July 18, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – WCHS Eyewitness News – 2025-07-18 10:01:36

SUMMARY: An arrest has been made in the Kanawha County school break-in and theft at East Bank Middle School. Mark Cameron Mullins, 36, was charged with grand larceny for stealing $6,500 worth of electronics, including laptops, a radio base station, and a tablet, on July 1st. Mullins was identified and reported by his own mother, who found stolen items in her garage. Held on a $100,000 cash bond, Mullins’ arrest followed public tips and social media-shared security footage. The school system plans to reuse the recovered equipment for students transitioning to a new school. Authorities are still seeking a second suspect seen in video footage.

One of the two suspects accused of breaking into East Bank Middle School and stealing several thousand dollars worth of items has been taken into custody.

MORE: https://wchstv.com/news/local/deputies-searching-for-two-men-accused-of-breaking-into-kanawha-county-school

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News from the South - West Virginia News Feed

Christian's Morning Forecast: Strong Storms and Flood Watches Persist

Published

4 days ago

July 18, 2025

Staff Editor

www.youtube.com – WOAY TV – 2025-07-18 06:33:56

SUMMARY: Christian’s Morning Forecast: Strong Storms and Flood Watches Persist. A flood watch is in effect for all counties in the viewing area, with widespread storms expected today. Morning shows scattered showers mainly north near Durban and Huntington, with more storms arriving from Kentucky later. Highs reach 82°F, with western winds 5-10 mph and higher gusts during storms. There is a marginal risk of isolated severe storms, featuring high winds and flooding, especially in Nicholas, southern Koffields, and Taswell County. Rain totals over the next 48 hours will be around 0.75 to 1 inch, with heavier amounts locally. Rain and flooding concerns continue through the weekend before improving early next week.

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News from the South - West Virginia News Feed

Trump’s DOJ wants states to turn over voter lists, election info

Published

4 days ago

July 18, 2025

Staff Editor

westvirginiawatch.com – Jonathan Shorman – 2025-07-18 05:00:00

by Jonathan Shorman, West Virginia Watch
July 18, 2025

The U.S. Department of Justice is seeking the voter registration lists of several states — representing data on millions of Americans — and other election information ahead of the 2026 midterms, raising fears about how the Trump administration plans to use the information.

The DOJ is also demanding Colorado turn over all records related to the 2024 election, a massive trove of documents that could include ballots and even voting equipment. The Colorado inquiry, the most sweeping publicly known request, underscores the extent of the administration’s attention on state election activities.

At least nine states have received requests for information over the past three months, according to letters from the DOJ obtained by Stateline. Some states also received emails from a DOJ official last week asking for meetings to discuss information-sharing agreements.

The department’s focus on elections comes after President Donald Trump directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi in March to seek information about suspected election crimes from state election officials and empowered her to potentially withhold grants and other funds from uncooperative states.

For years, Trump has advanced false claims about elections, including the idea that the 2020 election that he lost was stolen. Now back in power, his administration is taking a new level of interest in how states — and even local authorities — administer elections.

Colorado-Letter-SoS-Griswold

Last week, a political operative approached several Republican county clerks in Colorado to enlist them in election integrity efforts in light of Trump’s sweeping March executive order overhauling elections administration. One clerk told Stateline the operative claimed to represent the White House.

“Whatever the Trump administration tries to pull is very unlikely to be successful,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, a Democrat, said in an interview, calling Colorado elections very secure. “With that said, do I think they are trying to undermine our elections at large in this country? Absolutely.”

DOJ has sent letters to Alaska, Arizona, Minnesota, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, in addition to the request to Colorado.

The letters have typically asked election officials to describe how they register voters and work to identify duplicate registrations and individuals not eligible to vote, such as people with felony convictions and those who have died. The Washington Post earlier Wednesday reported on the letters; Votebeat and NPR previously reported on some of the letters as well.

Most letters also ask about each state’s process for flagging noncitizen applicants. Noncitizen voting is against federal law and incredibly rare, but Trump and his allies have promoted false claims about its prevalence. The Trump administration is also conducting a general crackdown on illegal immigration.

The letters call on election officials to turn over voter registration lists, which in some instances contain data on millions of residents in their states. This request has raised the most concerns, with some experts saying it’s unclear exactly why the DOJ wants the information.

“They don’t make much sense as law enforcement investigations. That makes me think that there’s some other purpose,” said Justin Levitt, who served as senior policy adviser for democracy and voting rights in the Biden White House and is now a law professor at Loyola Marymount University.

While many states make their voter registration lists available to the public, Levitt emphasized the data could still be largely off-limits to the federal government. Federal privacy law sometimes restricts how the government can use data that’s publicly obtainable. The DOJ may need voter information in some individual circumstances, but “that’s not blanket permission to go vacuuming up data.”

The DOJ didn’t respond to questions for this story.

Federal laws restrict the federal government’s ability to centralize information on Americans, said David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research. Even if states provide voter registration information to the public, they often redact sensitive information.

In Orange County, California, the DOJ sued local election officials in June, seeking unredacted voter registration information, such as Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses, as part of an investigation into noncitizen voting.

More than 350 election officials from some 33 states participated in a conference call about federal actions on Monday hosted by Becker, who was previously an attorney in the DOJ Voting Rights Section during the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. He said the interest in the call shows the level of uncertainty and anxiety over the current “federal imposition” on election administrators.

“The DOJ seems dead set on acquiring personal information on voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth — records that are highly protected under federal law and under state law and which state election officials are sworn to protect,” Becker said.

Sweeping Colorado requests

In Colorado, the amount of data the DOJ wants is enormous. On May 12, Harmeet Dhillon, an assistant U.S. attorney general in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, sent a letter to Griswold, the secretary of state, asking for access to “all records” related to the 2024 election.

Federal law requires state election officials to preserve records related to elections for 22 months. Typically, the rule ensures records are preserved in case any lawsuits are filed over an election. In the letter, Dhillon referred to a complaint against Griswold’s office alleging noncompliance with records retention laws, but provided no details.

The DOJ seems dead set on acquiring personal information on voters, including driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers and dates of birth — records that are highly protected under federal law and under state law and which state election officials are sworn to protect.

– David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research

Experts on election administration who spoke to Stateline expressed shock at the scope of the demand to Colorado. The request encompasses a vast trove of material, potentially including ballots.

“The amount of records being requested from a place like Colorado … it’s really, really significant in terms of the volume of materials that are required to be retained,” said Neal Ubriani, a former voting rights litigator at the DOJ during the Obama and first Trump administrations and the current policy and research director at the nonpartisan Institute for Responsive Government.

Colorado elections have previously drawn Trump’s attention. Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, a staunch Trump supporter, is serving a nine-year prison sentence after a conviction in state court for allowing unauthorized access to voting equipment in 2021.

On May 5 of this year — a week before the Dhillon letter to Griswold — Trump posted on social media that Peters should be released, calling her a “political prisoner.” Griswold noted the timing.

“I think the bigger picture is Donald Trump is continuing to try and rewrite the 2020 election and destabilize the ’26 and ’28 elections,” Griswold told Stateline.

The Colorado Secretary of State’s Office responded to the DOJ by providing copies of the state’s master voter file and voter history file. All of the information provided is also available to the public.

Some Colorado Republican county clerks in recent days have also been approached by Jeff Small, a political operative who worked at the U.S. Department of the Interior during the first Trump administration. Stateline and Colorado Newsline spoke to three GOP clerks who said they had spoken to Small last week.

Steve Schleiker, clerk of El Paso County, which includes Colorado Springs and is the most populous county in the state, said that on July 9 he received a text and call from Small, who introduced himself in a voicemail as someone who “works for the White House.”

Schleiker said that when he called back, Small said he wanted to build relationships with clerks because the Trump administration was unhappy with progress on the president’s elections executive order. He later connected Schleiker with a Homeland Security official who wanted to test the security of El Paso County’s election systems, said Schleiker, who added that he opposed the request.

Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes said she also heard from Small, but that Small told her he wasn’t under contract or being paid for the calls. Small indicated he was making the calls on behalf of former colleagues, Koppes said.

Small, a former Capitol Hill chief of staff who now works for a Colorado-based government affairs firm, didn’t return a call to his office on Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the agency works with local partners to ensure elections remain safe.

“We don’t disclose every single conversation we have with them,” an unidentified DHS spokesperson wrote in an email.

Matt Crane, executive director of the Colorado County Clerks Association, said he was aware of 10 clerks approached by Small. He noted that every clerk approached by Small hails from a county that uses Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems.

While Dominion is widely used in Colorado, it’s also been the subject of election conspiracy theories. A former candidate for county sheriff in southwest Colorado was arrested in June, accused of firebombing a clerk’s office. Colorado Public Radio reported the suspect, according to law enforcement, had spoken publicly about trying to get rid of the county’s Dominion machines.

“I think the really important thing to say here is that it was Republican clerks who stood up to a Republican administration and said, ‘No, we’re going to follow the law,’” Crane said.

The intent of the efforts by Small and the federal government “has been muddied up it seems,” Montrose County Clerk Tressa Guynes said. Based on her conversations with other clerks, she said, it appeared Small represented one thing to other clerks and then “represented maybe a watered-down version by the time it got to me.”

Guynes said Small wanted to discuss Trump’s elections executive order. She said Small asked whether she would be willing to support a federal task force’s efforts in an advisory role.

“I said absolutely I will advise,” Guynes said. “I said I’m frankly glad that they’re finally reaching out to the boots on the ground, the people who actually conduct the elections, instead of listening to those who have never conducted a Colorado election.”

Letters to other states

As Colorado grapples with the most far-reaching request, other states are choosing how to respond. In Wisconsin, the state election commission responded to a DOJ request for the voter registration list with instructions on how to request public voter data.

Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, responded on June 2 — after DOJ in a May 20 letter told the state to ensure voter registration applicants provided a driver’s license number, if they have one, instead of a partial Social Security number. The DOJ also wanted Arizona to check voters against a state database to look for noncitizens.

Fontes replied that Arizona complies with federal law and conducts checks using a state motor vehicle division database.

HAVA-letter-redacted

“We are focused on dealing with DOJ in a good faith manner while ensuring we are following the letter of federal and state laws,” Fontes spokesperson JP Martin wrote in an email to Stateline.

More recently, Arizona received a letter July 10 from DOJ about implementation of Trump’s elections executive order. Rhode Island Democratic Secretary of State Gregg Amore also received an email about the order the same day, according to a copy provided to the Rhode Island Current.

In the email, Scott Laragy, principal deputy director in the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, asks for a call to discuss a possible information-sharing agreement to provide DOJ with information on individuals who have registered to vote or have voted despite being ineligible, or those who have committed other forms of election fraud.

The email echoes the language in Trump’s elections executive order, which calls for DOJ to reach information-sharing agreements with states. While much of the order, which focused on proof of citizenship in elections, has been struck down in federal court, provisions related to information sharing remain.

The executive order directs Bondi, the U.S. attorney general, to prioritize enforcement of federal “election integrity laws” in uncooperative states. It also requires her to review grants and other DOJ funds that could be withheld from states that resist.

Some states have already struck deals with the Trump administration. Indiana Republican Secretary of State Diego Morales announced an agreement last week with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services allowing the state to access a database to verify the citizenship of registered voters. Alabama Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen has signed a similar agreement.

“With your cooperation, we plan to use this information to enforce Federal election laws and protect the integrity of Federal elections,” Laragy wrote to Rhode Island.

Janine Weisman of the Rhode Island Current and Lindsey Toomer of Colorado Newsline contributed to this report. Stateline reporter Jonathan Shorman can be reached at jshorman@stateline.org.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Stateline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Scott S. Greenberger for questions: info@stateline.org.

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The post Trump’s DOJ wants states to turn over voter lists, election info appeared first on westvirginiawatch.com

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

The article reflects a Center-Left perspective, primarily through its language and framing. It emphasizes concerns from election officials and experts about the Trump administration’s motives behind broad voter data requests, highlighting skepticism and distrust toward federal overreach. The inclusion of Democratic voices like Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, and references to “false claims” promoted by Trump, further frame the administration’s actions critically. While it quotes some Republicans and election officials from both parties, the overall tone leans toward cautioning against federal intrusion and voter intimidation, consistent with Center-Left journalistic norms.