KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. –The new Kanawha County elementary school, which will house students from four consolidated schools, now officially has a name.
Paula Potter
On Thursday, during the Kanawha County Board of Education meeting, members voted unanimously to name the school Country Roads Elementary.
The new school will serve students from Belle Elementary, Mary Ingles Elementary, Malden Elementary, and Midland Trail Elementary. Last year, after four emotional public hearings, the board voted to

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — 2025 was another successful year for the Charleston Sternwheel Regatta.
City officials announced Thursday that the four-day event generated a return on investment and economic impact of $40.1 million, which is up slightly from 2024.
Amy Shuler Goodwin
In addition, the Regatta welcomed an estimated 225,000 attendees, with 78 percent of those coming from out of state.
“That’s what we want to see, especially those hotel numbers,” Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin said.
Data presented

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The latest U.S. Drought Monitor posted Thursday shows drought conditions worsening in the Mountain State.
The map shows parts of 10 counties in extreme drought including Hancock, Brooke, Barbour, Braxton, Nicholas, Webster, Pocahontas, Randolph, Upshur and Lewis counties.
The rest of the Northern Panhandle and most of the Eastern Panhandle are also getting drier.
This week’s reports for Charles Town, Martinsburg, Berkeley Springs, and Paw Paw have upgraded conditions in those

Senator Shelley Moore Capito indicates increasing concern about a federal government shutdown at the end of the month.
Shelley Moore Capito
“So a shutdown is a misery march,” Capito, R-W.Va., said on MetroNews Midday. “Nobody wins and it really upsets people, and I don’t blame them.”
Congress has until the end of this month to pass legislation keeping the federal government open or trigger a partial shutdown.
Congress is supposed to allocate funding to 438 government agencies before Oct. 1, the

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Like many across America, the prominent Booker T. Washington would not have achieved what he did without a strong motherly influence.
Washington’s mother, Jane Ferguson, was honored Thursday with a special monument in Charleston’s Spring Hill Cemetary. Ferguson is buried in an unknown location within the cemetery.
Ferguson is a bit of an unknown hero in the country’s post-emancipation history. Ferguson, with her three children, walked over 200 miles from Salem, Virginia,