Black lung is a devastating disease that has plagued Southwest Virginia for years.

Between 2020-2025 Stone Mountain Health Services says 14% of miners seen at the clinic were diagnosed with complicated black lung.

“Black lung are small opacities or smaller spots scattered out throughout the lungs,” said Black Lung Director for Stone Mountain Health Services, Bradley Johnson. “Complicated black lung is when those spots have come together and made a big mass at least the size of a quarter of 50 cent piece.”

Sen. Mark Warner sat down with United Mine Workers of America, healthcare workers and community members to talk about the effects of black lung as well as what lawmakers can do to help.

“End of the day it was coal miners and the energy that came from coal that built America in World War II and afterwards and I think we owe an obligation to honor those commitments,” Sen. Warner said.

Six years ago, Pam Stacy lost her husband to black lung. She says after he passed away, she was denied his benefits. Stacy tried to repeal during a 2023 hearing but hasn’t been contacted by the courts since.

“It’s hard, I struggle. With just me I only get social security and his little bit of retirement and that’s it,” Stacy said.

She now uses her story to advocate for what’s called the widow’s bill. Something Warner says he will continue to push.

“You hear these stories and they deserve better,” Sen. Warner said.

During the roundtable, it was also brought up that young people diagnosed with black lung do not qualify for disability on their social security.

“At least getting the designation on somebody’s social security form and if that would put an extra $3,000 a month in somebody disabled’s pocket because social security would recognize black lung in younger miners, that’s something tangible that we can work on,” Sen. Warner said.

Warner says the concerns discussed at the event will be taken back to Washington. He also made the promise to return to Southwest Virginia soon with an update.

A gunman is dead and two people are hurt after a shooting at Old Dominion University on Thursday morning, the Virginia school said.

ODU said a gunman opened fire in its business school building, injuring two people who were sent to the hospital. It wasn’t immediately clear how the shooter died.

READ MORE: Georgia high school shooting suspect’s father convicted of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter

The two people injured are in critical condition, said a spokesperson for Sentera Health, the health care system that oversees the hospital.

Within about an hour of the shooting, ODU declared that there was no longer a threat on the campus.

The public university in Norfolk canceled classes and suspended all operations on its main campus for the rest of Thursday and urged people to avoid the area in and around Constant Hall while emergency officials continued to work.

In a message to the university community, ODU President Brian Hemphill said the school faced a tragedy on campus. He expressed gratefulness for the swift emergency response and thoughts and prayers to those impacted.

“The safety of our campus community is my top priority,” Hemphill wrote. “We are deeply committed to safeguarding all Monarchs and ensuring a secure learning, living, and working environment at all times.”

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on the social platform X that it had agents on scene supporting the response.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger said in social media posts that she was monitoring the situation and that “state support is being mobilized” to help ODU. She didn’t provide specifics.

Located in coastal Norfolk, Old Dominion University has about 24,000 students, 17,500 of them undergraduates. The school has around 240 degree programs, and is known for its research spending and doctoral programs. Nearly 30% of its students are military-affiliated, according to the university website. The area is also home to Naval Station Norfolk, the largest naval station in the world.

Associated Press journalist Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

KANSAS CITY — Eleven days ago, the then-ranked BYU Cougars were “punked,” in the words of coach Kevin Young, in a puzzling loss at West Virginia.

Coming on the heels of a blowout loss at home to UCF, it felt like the 2025-26 season had hit rock bottom for Young’s crew. But it hadn’t. Three days later, BYU lost by 22 points at Cincinnati, and prospects for a decent postseason run looked dim.

But the Cougars have suddenly rattled off three straight wins, most recently Wednesday night’s 68-48 romp over that same WVU team that beat them 79-71 in Morgantown by simply out-hustling the favored Cougars at Hope Coliseum.

“It feels like we are a completely different team,” center Keba Keita said after AJ Dybantsa turned in another magnificent outing — 27 points, seven rebounds and three assists — and the Cougars held the Mountaineers to their lowest scoring output of the season.

Forty-eight points is also the fewest scored against BYU this year.

Welcome to the new-look Cougars, who a night ago scored a season-high 105 points in a free-wheeling 14-point win over Kansas State. Just like Dybantsa has many ways to make buckets, BYU has found new ways to win in March, when it matters the most.

“We just played them 10 days ago, we felt like we left a lot to be desired in that game,” Young said. “I thought our guys came out with a 40-minute effort and had a will to win that was kind of unmatched.”

It was reminiscent of that game that turned it all around last Saturday, the 82-76 conquest of No. 10 Texas Tech in which BYU simply imposed its will on an overmatched team playing without its star, JT Toppin.

What has gotten into these guys?

“We took that loss at their place personal, and we came out tonight and just overpowered them,” said Keita, who blocked a couple of shots and had seven rebounds and four points.

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The Cougars held WVU to just 16 field goals — Dybantsa had 11 baskets on his own — after giving up 15 second-chance points in Morgantown. Turns out, that strategy of throwing anything at the rim and then chasing down the caroms for easy putbacks a la San Diego State has its limitations. Wednesday, those bricks fell into the hands of the Cougars.

West Virginia shot 36.4% from the field, BYU 46%.

“You saw (that will to win) in a lot of different areas as far as the rebounding (35-30) and how active our defense was,” Young said. “I thought our defense was tremendous tonight, arguably the best it has been all year.”

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It was the first time in two months that BYU has won three straight games. More importantly, the run at T-Mobile Center in the Big 12 tournament has shown that Young has righted the ship after the loss of Richie Saunders.

That excuse is now out the window. Lofty expectations are back, although No. 2 seed Houston — which BYU has never defeated in a Big 12 game — now stands in the way. The blue Cougars meet the red Cougars in a quarterfinal game on Thursday at 5 p.m. MDT on ESPN2.

Indeed, BYU (23-10) has a somewhat new identity in the post-Saunders era, and it is being redirected by guys such as Dominique Diomande and Khadim Mboup — and their defense. They are lanky, athletic dudes who take offense to being scored upon. They play with an edge on defense and chase loose balls with abandon.

Diomande and Mboup played about 15 minutes each and combined for nine rebounds and three steals. It was exactly what Young needed out of them.

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“It was definitely something that we can look at moving forward as a benchmark for how good our defense can be,” Young said.

BYU forced 14 turnovers in the first half and finished with 22 takeaways, scoring 17 points off those turnovers. In Morgantown, WVU committed just eight turnovers all game.

“Those two guys are dogs, naturally,” Young said. “I think it inspires the rest of the group.”

At one point, BYU had attempted 50 shots to WVU’s 33.

The thing is, BYU should never have lost to WVU in Morgantown. It was a fluky game that saw Dybantsa and Rob Wright combine for 14 of 30 shooting and 43 points. But those superstars got little help.

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Times have changed in Provo, out of necessity as much as anything else. In particular, Southern Illinois transfer Kennard Davis Jr. has finally come alive and shown that promise of a two-way player that accompanied him out of Carbondale, Illinois.

With some courtside BYU fans — no, not Andy Reid, who was on the other side of the court and next to the Cougars’ bench — urging him to shoot almost every time he touched the ball, Davis delivered one of his best games of the season.

The 6-foot-6 junior scored a season-high 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting (5 of 6 from 3-point range) and combined with Wright and Aleksej Kostic to play some lockdown defense on WVU’s Honor Huff, who was a frosty 3 of 13.

Davis has made nine of his last 11 3-point attempts.

Davis was so “locked in,” he said, that he didn’t notice the Kansas City Chiefs coach near the BYU bench — Reid is a BYU graduate — nor quarterback Patrick Mahomes in the crowd.

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Of course, BYU still has Dybantsa and Wright, the cornerstones from Day One. As long as those two are on the floor, the Cougars will be able to score points. Dybantsa fought off some early no-calls to post another solid game — not the 40-point effort he had against K-State, but fairly close.

Wright was more of a facilitator than usual, posting six assists and 11 points a night after leaving the first-round game early with a lacerated lip and loosened tooth.

“Rob is one tough dude,” Davis said.

How BYU plays against No. 5-ranked and well-rested Houston (26-5) should go along way in showing how it will play in the NCAA Tournament, and whether it can repeat last year’s run.

Yes, expectations have been dampened with the loss of Dawson Baker and now Saunders, so a reasonable goal right now is the Sweet 16. The Cougars have come a long way in a short amount of time, a credit to Young’s ability to adjust and try a different approach.

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“I personally had to look myself in the mirror after that East Coast trip,” Young said. “Actually, it was the trifecta — it was the UCF game and then the trip out East against Cincy and West Virginia. It was a dark moment for our season. I just had to figure it out. We have too much talent. … We took it back to the basics and we just dumbed it down with our defense, got a lot less coachy.”

And a lot more balanced, on both ends of the court.