Good morning. Here is your West Virginia State Roundup.
In higher education, West Virginia University has officially opened the first phase of a major renovation at its School of Dentistry in Morgantown. As reported by WVU MetroNews, United States Senator Shelley Moore Capito joined university leaders to cut the ribbon on nearly thirteen million dollars in federally funded upgrades at the Evansdale Health Sciences Campus. The initial phase introduces four state-of-the-art clinics—including pediatric, orthodontic, and innovative dental spaces—bringing students into closer collaboration with other health sciences programs.
In federal legal news, a former Kanawha County sheriff's deputy has been indicted by a federal grand jury on civil rights charges. According to reporting from WCHS Network, fifty-six-year-old Cass Close is accused of sexually assaulting a female inmate while working as a court bailiff at the Kanawha County Judicial Building last year. State charges were dismissed to allow federal prosecution, where a conviction could carry up to a life sentence.
Also in federal court, former state lawmaker and teacher David Pritt faces a three-count felony indictment in the Southern District of West Virginia. Federal prosecutors accuse thirty-six-year-old Pritt of child sexual exploitation, coercion of a minor, and witness tampering tied to incidents between twenty-twenty-four and early twenty-twenty-six. Pritt resigned from the House of Delegates and was terminated from his teaching job following his arrest last month.
Turning to utility updates, Appalachian Power reports that electrical service has been fully restored to fifty thousand customers affected by severe weather. Crews repaired over one hundred forty spans of downed power lines and navigated high water to complete final restorations across heavily impacted areas in Kanawha and Wayne counties.
In Charleston, emergency crews responded to a severe traffic crash after a tractor-trailer flipped off an elevated stretch of Interstate Seventy-Seven near Leon Sullivan Way. The vehicle fell onto Summers Street below, ejecting the driver and trapping a passenger. Both individuals were rushed to the hospital in critical condition.
And the Mountain State is mourning the loss of Logan County basketball legend Willie Akers, who passed away at age eighty-nine. Akers won four state championships and over four hundred games as a high school coach following an outstanding playing career at W-V-U.
For more news from across the state and your local community, download the radioNOVO app. I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News, a service of Seven Mountains Media.
