West Virginia
Officials say list of unmet school safety needs in West Virginia adds up to $258 million – WV MetroNews
State education officials told lawmakers that $258 million is needed to complete the many upgrades that local school system leaders believe are necessary for safety.
“When you look at that total request for state funds, that’s a pretty large number obviously,” said Jonah Adkins, director of the Office of Safety & Tiered Support Systems. “But we would love to work with Homeland Security and a team of your choosing to kind of take a deeper look and further prioritize these needs because we know we would never be able to meet all of this at once, but if we could chip away a little bit each year I believe we could make some good headway.”
He told lawmakers that local school systems spent $23 million to address security needs, “so our school districts are working with the resources that they have available to them to address those needs as they arise. But obviously there is a greater need. It’s the unfortunate reality of our society that we live in that we have people targeting our children and targeting our schools to do bad things.”
Among the most expensive improvements widely needed are entrance systems consisting of a small space and two interlocking doors, commonly called man-traps. One set of the doors must close before the other one can be opened, so the person entering is briefly “trapped” in between before clearing the second door.
There are 272 West Virginia schools trying to make those upgrades, according to a presentation made to lawmakers during interim meetings on Sunday.
That represents some incremental progress from the 299 schools that said they needed the safer entrances last year and 327 the year before that.
“So they are trending down. It’s just maybe not as fast as hopefully we could,” said Micah Whitlow, director of the Office of School Facilities.
The annual school facility safety and security measure report was presented during a meeting of the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability. Speaking for the state Department of Education were Whitlow and Adkins.
“I find it quite astonishing that we still have 272 schools that don’t have the mantrip,” said Delegate Joe Statler, R-Monongalia, vice chairman of the House Education Committee.
“What is causing us to have so many at this point in the game that don’t have the safe entrance way?”
The report described an average of $319,000 for upgrades to school entrances.
“It’s just expensive so it’s hard to pay for a whole lot of those, especially if a county doesn’t have a levy or a bond or those extra ways of building things,” Whitlow said.
Whitlow said, from experience, it’s clear that the “mantrap” improvements could cost between $300,000 to $500,000. “Some of them could be super complicated and be a million (dollars), depending on the configuration and age of the building and some might be very simple and be $100,000,” he said. “It’s a wide range number due to the different building circumstances.”
He said factors can include requirements for the number of doors, glazings necessary for the work and needing to move office space closer to the front door. “In some cases it might be as easy as adding a layer of doors, but in most it’s quite expensive the amount of work you have to do,” Whitlow said.
Senator Robert Plymale, D-Wayne, said the need for school safety upgrades became clearer after the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999. But he said school systems went into those improvements without a clear idea at the time of how extensive or expensive they would be.
Now, Plymale asked, “of all these priorities, what is the number one need of what we need to do? Is it the entrances?”
“I would say that’s a great place to start,” Adkins responded.
House Education Chairman Joe Ellington, R-Mercer, expressed exasperation over how much work on school safety still must be done.
“My concern is, I would imagine most of us here would think this is one of the priorities for the school system — the safety of our children. You’re asking for a quarter of a billion dollars here. I mean, why haven’t we been addressing this over the previous years to this to that level?”
Ellington went on to ask what to expect in coming years. “If we give you a quarter of a billion dollars, what are we getting next year? Recurring requests for needs? Because obviously things need to be updated, changed.” He asked, “Is this just a wish list or what?”
Senator Mike Oliverio, R-Monongalia, asked a series of questions focused on what financial resources local school systems have — and whether those options are actually limited.
“Let’s say I’m in a county that can’t really extract much from the local share, can’t get a levy passed — you know, the voters don’t want to pass a levy. Then can I come to the state for money as a county superintendent?” Oliverio asked. “Can I go to the federal government? Do we have a pattern of our 55 school systems of any type of consistent funding from the federal government?”
The answers he received were not particularly solid.
“Is there anywhere else that I would go as superintendent to try to make my school safer?” Oliverio asked.
“Nothing right off the top of my head, no,” Adkins replied.
“But we’re providing nothing, the state Legislature, to support schools?” Oliverio wanted to confirm.
Adkins responded, “Correct.”
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, followed up by asking whether any shortfalls on school security funding would be the responsibility of the county.
“That’s on the county to pay for, correct — so whether it’s additional access road or metal detectors or cameras in these schools, if these counties can’t afford it then they don’t have it,” Pushkin said. “And basically, it’s on us, the Legislature, to provide this.”
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The heavily-publicized NextEra Energy MidAtlantic Resiliency Link (MARL) project being considered by the state Public Service Commission may have the Monongalia County Commission as an intervenor.
The county commission unanimously agreed earlier this week to consider the move.
The commission heard more more information at this week’s meeting from groups opposing the project that will encompass parts of three states and cut through nearly half a dozen counties in West Virginia.
Commissioner Tom Bloom read from a letter.
“On behalf of all the residents in the four affected counties, (the commission is asked) to please help us fight the proposed transmission line and consider Mon County becoming an intervener,” said Bloom. “So I did want to put that on the record.”
The approximately 107-mile-long MARL project would be powered in Greene County, Pennsylvania. The 500-kilovolt line would support data center development in Virginia and would also include crossings in parts of Maryland, with the state portion expected to cost approximately $482 million.
According to Monongalia County resident Juliet Marleer, one of many who have vocally opposed the project moving forward, aspects related to costs have continued to change in the negative as well as additional parameters that would make areas affected by the planned power line much worse. Aspects of the project that have been pointed out by organizations like West Virginia Against Transmission Injustice in recent weeks.
“It has gone up from the original $440 million to $1.16 billion (price tag),” said Marleer. “So right now, my question is, how do we find out exactly what’s going on here?”
Bloom said he’s concerned about recent adjustments about the width of property needed for the line.
“That’s the one that bothers me the most, the siding corridor width is 200 to 500 feet, however, with aerial easement blowouts, the maximum width could be 715 feet,” said Bloom.
The county commission plans to make a decision on intervenor status in the near future. The state PSC is expected to schedule public hearings on the MARL application as early as May or June.
“I think that the commission can play a part in helping with that lift in regard to making sure that we have competent legal counsel representing us and our citizens,” said Commissioner Sean Sikora. “It’s been on our list of things to do and something we’ll certainly have a conversation about.”
An informational meeting for those in opposition of the MARL project will be hosted at the Cheat Lake Volunteer Fire Department sometime later this month. A specific date has not been announced.
West Virginia
West Virginia Lottery results: See winning numbers for Mega Millions, Daily 3 on March 6, 2026
The results are in for the West Virginia Lottery’s draw games on Friday, March 6, 2026.
Here’s a look at winning numbers for each game on March 6.
Winning Mega Millions numbers from March 6 drawing
08-19-26-38-42, Mega Ball: 24
Check Mega Millions payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Daily 3 numbers from March 6 drawing
9-9-6
Check Daily 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Daily 4 numbers from March 6 drawing
6-9-5-6
Check Daily 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Cash 25 numbers from March 6 drawing
05-13-16-19-23-25
Check Cash 25 payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the West Virginia Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 11 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 10:59 p.m. ET Tuesday and Friday.
- Lotto America: 10:15 p.m. ET on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Daily 3, 4: 6:59 p.m. ET Monday through Saturday.
- Cash 25: 6:59 p.m. ET Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a USA Today editor. You can send feedback using this form.
West Virginia
DNR Releases total deer whitetail numbers for 2025, down significantly from 2024 – WV MetroNews
DNR PRESS RELEASE
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) today announced that hunters harvested 92,553 white-tailed deer during the 2025-2026 seasons, which is a 17 percent decrease from the 2024 deer harvest of 111,646 and 14 percent below the 5-year average of 107,434.
This year’s decreased harvest was caused by an increase in hard mast production, which often results in decreased harvests due to the difficulty of tracking and targeting game species spread out over a landscape. Several counties also experienced an outbreak of hemorrhagic disease, which likely impacted hunter success, especially in the western part of the state.
According to preliminary numbers collected through the WVDNR’s electronic game checking system, hunters harvested 33,823 bucks during the traditional buck firearm season, 25,453 antlerless deer during all antlerless firearm hunting opportunities, 29,654 deer during the urban and regular archery/crossbow seasons, 3,102 deer during the muzzleloader season and 501 deer during the Mountaineer Heritage season.
Click here to download county-by-county 2025-2026 deer harvest numbers.
Antlerless Deer Season
Hunters harvested 25,453 deer during the 2025 antlerless deer season, which includes the youth, class Q and Class XS deer season. The harvest was a 23 percent decrease compared to the 2024 harvest of 33,057 and 13 percent below the 5-year average of 29,303. The top ten counties for antlerless deer harvests were Preston (1,442), Upshur (907), Greenbrier (877), Monroe (876), Mason (841), Lewis (836), Hardy (775), Randolph (774), Barbour (695) and Braxton (680).
Archery and Crossbow Deer Seasons
Hunters harvested 29,654 deer during the 2025 archery and crossbow season. The 2025 harvest was an 8 percent decrease over the 2024 harvest of 32,240 and 5 percent below the 5-year average of 31,139. The proportion of the archery harvest taken using a crossbow has stabilized and was greater than deer reportedly taken by a bow.
The archery and crossbow harvest does not include the 29 deer taken with recurve or longbows during the Mountaineer Heritage season. The top ten counties for archery and crossbow deer harvests were Preston (1,573), Raleigh (1,378), Wyoming (1,224), Kanawha (1,045), Fayette (1,032), Mercer (892), Nicholas (889), McDowell (876), Randolph (860) and Monongalia (842).
Muzzleloader Deer Season
Hunters harvested 3,102 deer during the 2025 muzzleloader season, which was 26 percent less than the 2024 harvest of 4,173 and 22 percent below the 5-year average of 3,979. The muzzleloader deer season harvest does not include the 472 deer taken with side lock and flintlock muzzleloaders during the Mountaineer Heritage season. The top ten counties for muzzleloader deer harvests were Nicholas (186), Preston (179), Randolph (158), Greenbrier (131), Upshur (115), Fayette (111), Raleigh (95), Mason (93), Barbour (90) and Kanawha (88).
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