This week's cocktail is quite an honor. The West Virginia Weakly asked me to pen a recipe and write for their paper and for the Mountain State Apple Harvest Festival in Martinsburg, WV today. Thanks to my good friend @gilessnyder.bsky.social. #cocktails open.substack.com/pub/wvweakly...

West Virginia’s Medicaid system faces significant changes through the recently-passed “Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” including implementation of a work requirement structure, a state agency leader told lawmakers.

Parties in WV vaccine case differ on how religious freedom should apply to philosophical beliefs westvirginiawatch.com/2025/10/06/p...

Happy autumnal equinox everyone!

Forgot how much I love sitting in my rocker on the front stoop, drinking coffee and watching the neighbors come and go. Anyway, this collage of photos will be in tomorrow's West Virginia Weakly as well as an essay on the fight in #WestVirginia over childhood vaccines.

Some retired state employees in West Virginia are struggling after a 12% increase to the Public Employees Insurance Agency went into effect in July. via @westvirginiawatch.com

Elizabeth Hardy is resigning as the state’s foster care ombudsman, a job created by the Legislature to investigate ongoing issues with children, families and workers in West Virginia’s overwhelmed child welfare system, reports @amelianews.bsky.social.

On the regular walk each morning, this cat waits on her perch for my wife to greet her. Every. Morning. Without. Fail.

Sunrise over Charleston, #WestVirginia’s capital city.

Look at that monarch caterpillar!

This keeps up, I might have to start wearing socks again.

Trump-Putin documents left on hotel printer

Although "dog" is ubiquitous today to describe man's best friend, it remains a mystery where the word originally came from.

A radio cooperative serving Pocahontas County expects to lose more than half its annual budget after Congress passed a bill rescinding $1.1 billion previously approved for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, reports @lorikerseywv.bsky.social. westvirginiawatch.com/2025/07/31/a...

Take the #WestVirginia Weakly’s poll and help settle a dispute over whether today’s “Pic that says West Virginia” would make a GREAT tattoo, because — of course it would (not to put my thumb on the scale …)

Turns out wilted lettuce is a #WestVirginia thing. Find out how to whip up this old fashioned dish in today's newsletter. open.substack.com/pub/wvweakly...

Just realized I've become that old guy whose kids wish he'd stop sending them reels he thinks are funny.

Apparently, I have a particular affinity for journalists who have been dead for a while. The latest Sunday #WestVirginia Weakly. Maybe subscribe?

Congress must meet a Friday deadline to pass funding cuts to NPR/PBS and foreign aid, otherwise the funding must be released. www.npr.org/2025/07/15/g...

Today's reader-submitted cover photo comes from #WestVirginia's Cranberry Glades.

Today’s #WestVirginia photo comes to us from the Cranberry Wilderness.

This is the forge that the future of the state is going to be formed in: School choice in West Virginia is politically untouchable, and increasingly fiscally unaffordable. A whole lot of other things are going to have to give to keep it going, & they will wvmetronews.com/2025/07/08/p...

Today's reader-submitted photo made for a GREAT cover for the #WestVirginia Weakly! open.substack.com/pub/wvweakly...

Not exactly sure where my fascination with long dead journalists comes from. Maybe my gr-grandfather, who was a small town newspaperman. Anyway, discovered a Substack publishing the work of the famous WW2 correspondent Ernie Pyle.

Drat ... I have to work. wbmc2025.com

The Mexican sunflowers my wife has been nurturing are starting to bloom. I look forward to them every year.

If you're out and about in #WestVirginia tomorrow, send the Weakly your fireworks photos and pics of Independence Day celebrations. Would love to feature them Saturday morning. Email to [email protected]

I kind of like this photo we used in this morning's #WestVirginia Weakly. It's the street sign marking WV Avenue in Washington, D.C.

First post here on Blue Sky. I'm an NPR newscaster who aspires to be a more local journalist. Somehow seems more important these days. @davemistich.bsky.social and I curate a local journalism newsletter, The #WestVirginia Weakly, wvweakly.substack.com. Anyway, happy to be here!