West Virginia
Ex-West Virginia health manager scheduled for plea hearing in COVID-19 payment probe
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A former West Virginia state health office manager who was indicted on charges related to coronavirus pandemic relief payments is due to enter a plea later this month.
Timothy Priddy is set to appear in federal court on Jan. 22, a day before his trial had been scheduled to start. Federal prosecutors said he is expected to plead guilty. U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston scheduled the hearing on Tuesday.
An indictment filed in October charged Priddy with making false statements about the payments to federal agents in August 2022 and in grand jury testimony the following month. On both occasions, Priddy knew his statements were false because he made no efforts to verify the invoices before approving them, according to the indictment.
Priddy held various manager positions with the state Bureau for Public Health’s Center for Threat Preparedness. He was promoted to deputy director in March 2021 and to director in January 2022, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said the federal investigation was trying to determine whether one or more vendors providing COVID-19 tests and mitigation services to the state overbilled or otherwise received payment from federal funds disbursed through the state’s main health agency, the Department of Health and Human Resources. That agency was reorganized into three separate departments effective Jan. 1.
Prosecutors said the vendor reported the results of about 49,000 COVID-19 tests between October 2020 and March 2022 but submitted invoices reflecting the cost of about 518,000 test kits. Despite the discrepancy, Priddy certified at least 13 of the invoices totaling about $34 million, they said.
The indictment did not name the vendor but said the company was from out of state and provided test kits, laboratory analysis and community testing events throughout West Virginia.
The health agency had said previously that a contract with the company for diagnostic testing services ended in October 2022 and that the agency cooperated fully with federal investigators.
According to its contract, the vendor was required to provide nasal swab diagnostic testing for COVID-19 and upload test results immediately. The tests were for specific DHHR programs and initiatives, including residential youth facilities and hospice agencies, locations such as pharmacies where people go to get tested for COVID-19, and kits for emergency medical services workers who were required to be tested frequently.
Vendors contracted by the state were required to report the test results so that officials would have accurate information on the number of active COVID-19 infections and geographical areas experiencing outbreaks, the indictment said.
Nearly 8,900 people have died from COVID-19 in West Virginia since March 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
West Virginia
NC restaurant owner drives to West Virginia to fulfill woman’s wish for last meal
A North Carolina restaurant owner drove six hours to deliver a woman’s last meal, according to a Instagram post.
The post said Heather Bowers had one last wish, a pork plate from Outer Banks restaurant Mama Kwans – but she was in West Virginia.
“Her best friend called up the restaurant, and the owner was already packing up food for a road trip before they even hung up,” the Instagram post read.
Mama Kwans owner Kevin Cherry said in the post that he was emotional but wanted to show her a “happy, fun side in her final hours.” She died the next day, according to Instagram.
The post said Bowers was a loving wife, mother of two and devoted friend who died of stage 4 cancer.
West Virginia
West Virginia 2024 primary results
Tuesday is primary day in West Virginia.
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the only major candidates still running. They clinched their parties’ respective nominations earlier this year.
Polls are open in the state from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Beyond the presidential race, other candidates will be on the primary ballot including those running for the Senate and House.
In-person early voting opened on May 1 and closed on Saturday.
Voters could request an absentee vote-by-mail ballot if they qualified under certain circumstances, and the ballots must be postmarked by the day of the election or received by Wednesday if not postmarked.
State significance
In the Republican presidential primary, the winner will pick up all of the state’s 32 delegates to the Republican National Convention. There are 20 delegates up for grabs for Democrats.
The state has voted for the Republican presidential nominee in the general election since 2000.
The Senate primary is to choose the candidates running to fill the seat being vacated by centrist Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who announced last year that he is retiring from Congress.
West Virginia
Is Trump still as popular in West Virginia as he was in 2016? – WV MetroNews
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — It all seemed to come together that May 5th night in 2016 when thousands of West Virginians rallied with then-candidate Donald Trump at the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center.
There was Trump, best known before his unlikely presidential run for his reality show The Apprentice, on a stage in West Virginia where those in the sell-out crowd were completing with him almost every familiar line he delivered during that rally.
Republican political consultant Greg Thomas remembers it well.
“It was exciting. It was awesome. It was the best political event I had ever been to. It’s the best political event I will ever go to,” Thomas said. “I was really proud to be part of that campaign, I thought it was awesome and that’s Trump at his best.”
There was something about that night that seemed to cement the relationship a majority of West Virginians have continued to have with Trump now four years removed from his only term in office. Support that seems just as strong despite Trump’s well-documented troubles.
Why?
Former Wood County Republican Party Chairman Rob Cornelius said it’s simple.
“Biden has proved the other side can’t get the job done,” Cornelius said. “Ninety percent of you are saying you aren’t better off than you were four years ago.”
Thomas sees Trump’s support in West Virginia in three groups.
He said first there are those who liked him eight years ago and still like him today because he is a disruptor. Secondly, there’s a group that don’t care much for his behavior but that like the policies that were produced in his first administration and then lastly, there’s a group, familiar to Cornelius’ description, that don’t like what the Biden administration has done.
“I think you get these groups that keep layering onto each other and that’s why I think his support is higher than it was eight years ago,” Thomas said.
Trump garnered 68% of the vote in the 2016 general election. In reelection bid four years later it was almost identical.
Act of faith
There’s strong support for Trump among conservative church goers in the Mountain State.
“It’s an act of faith,” former Charleston Mayor Danny Jones told MetroNews. “I don’t think people hold something against people forever. He’s vulgar but they just move that part over. People like President Trump because he is enemies with people that don’t like them.”
Thomas said the seemingly mismatched relationship is based on policy.
“It’s the policies. I’m as pro-Trump as anybody but there are things he says that I say, ‘I wish he wouldn’t have said that.’ If you really are a person of faith and you really care about family values, it’s the policies.”
Fairmont State University University Assistant Professor of Political Science Greg Noone said the biggest thing Trump has been able to do is to connect with people who feel like they’ve been left behind or left out of the economy.
“There’s that disaffected feeling that others are rocketing ahead and they’re being left behind,” Noone said. “I think he speaks to that on a gut base level and I think that’s the connection he makes,” Noone said.
Post-Trump
Trump will win West Virginia in November with the national race once again expected to be tight. Some are wondering where West Virginia will look post-Trump, whether that’s in November, four years down the road or eight years from now.
Cornelius called it a heavy lift because it will be difficult for anyone to match Trump.
“Politicians are boring by nature and that are risk averse, Trump is neither one of those things,” Cornelius said.
He said Trump has been popular, especially in 2016, with people who don’t usually vote. Again, he said any further GOP candidate will have a tough time matching that.
“It’s hard to find someone that interesting,” Cornelius said.
Thomas said Trump won’t always be there but if he’s reelected then he can get his policies in place that will impact the country for years to come.
Jones said Trump’s popularity, that many West Virginia candidates in this election cycle are latching themselves to, is not going to last.
“I don’t buy into it. It won’t work the next time,” Jones said. “If he doesn’t win this election he’s probably going to prison.”
Prediction
How will Trump do Tuesday?
“Sixty-eight percent,” Jones said.
Thomas said Trump will once again show how strong he is in West Virginia despite his issues. He said a large majority of West Virginians seem to be able to choose policy over person. He said that was on display during that Charleston rally eight years ago this month.
“That was Trump at his absolute best and he has those moments but he has some moments that are not his best. But that’s the thing with Trump–you’ve got to take the whole thing,” Thomas said.
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