In Around West Virginia today: Byrd's appropriations exceed $10 billion, a Catholic committee supports social justice, some doctors refusing to prescribe naloxone, and more.
n The late Sen. Robert Byrd's appropriations to West Virginia totaled more than $10 billion. Ray Smock, the director of the Robert C. Byrd Center for Congressional History and Education, told WEPM, an affiliate of MetroNews, that they are still totaling a final number. "It's $10 billion and growing," he said.
n MetroNews spoke with the parents of Carli Sears, a 20-year-old woman from Charleston who died in what police said was a hit and run in Morgantown on Sunday. "She brought a smile to the room wherever she went, whatever she did," Brent Sears said. "Love them as much as you can, because it can be gone in a nanosecond."
n The Catholic Committee of Appalachia published a pastoral letter focused on achieving social justice and spreading a message of inclusivity, according to West Virginia Public Broadcasting. The committee first held listening sessions with groups that have historically been subject to discrimination, such as women, the homeless, people of color and the LGBT community. While the first and second pastorals were endorsed by church leadership, the letter is not endorsed by any bishops, although some bishops in southern Appalachia helped fund it.
In one section entitled "The Voices of Coalfield Residents," the authors wrote:
Extreme mining activity destroys
a person's sense of place and of home
along with the landscape.
People living in mining areas
in Appalachia and beyond
often grieve the loss of home
as they would the loss of a dear friend,
a condition some are calling
solastalgia
Studies have confirmed higher rates
of depression in the coalfields,
often related to this loss of place.
People of faith would be right
to consider this grief
a kind of spiritual death.
n Some doctors are not prescribing naloxone because they don't want to be labeled as the only doctor who will prescribe the opioid overdose blocker, according to Dr. Rahul Gupta, Commissioner for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources Bureau for Public Health. C.K. Babcock, a professor from the Marshall University School of Pharmacy, told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that sometimes no one shows up at the naloxone classes he offers because doctors aren't prescribing the drug. He said some doctors are also worried about liability.
n A group of fraternity brothers attacked a man with a hammer in Buckhannon, according to WDTV. Jackson Dalton Tyler is being charged with malicious wounding, while others are being charged with aiding and abetting malicious assault.
Reach Erin Beck at erin.beck@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5163, Facebook.com/erinbeckwv, or follow @erinbeckwv on Twitter.