West Virginia

PSC Investigating Utility Service Outage Notification Systems – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Published

12 months ago

April 9, 2024

PSC Investigating Utility Service Outage Notification Systems – West Virginia Public Broadcasting

West Virginia’s Public Service Commission has ordered 14 regulated state utilities and cable providers to explain how they notify their individual affected customers of service outages and what plans they have, if any, to add, expand, modify, or improve notification systems

The order also asks the utilities to describe any technical or physical barriers that exist to providing electronic notifications by email or text message; and describe procedures in place to notify mass communication media of outages.

PSC Consumer Advocate Robert Wiliams said different utilities have different capabilities to identify outages.

“When you have a massive storm that blows through, it takes them a while to identify what areas have been hit the worst and where they have outages, electric utilities can see things a little bit easier,” Williams said. “The commission is trying to get a feel for their methodology and get some clarifications on that. When you have a water outage, that’s something that sometimes may not be noticed until they’re doing the work.”

Williams said power companies notify their customers by texts or emails with contact information on file. But with gas and water utilities, a mass outage like the recent one on Charleston’s West Side, he said there’s not always underground technology to tell them when certain areas are out.

“When you have a gas system buried in the ground and the water systems are out, these lines are 100 years old,” Williams said. “They don’t have the telemetry in the ground to give them that kind of detailed information.”

Williams said as technology constantly improves, the PSC is working to get a gauge on better informing the public of a service outage.

“As you upgrade collector systems where you have more feedback information provided along the line, you can identify the individual customers that are out and the individual lines that are down a little bit better,” Williams said. “Right now, they have people that call in and their calling centers might get overwhelmed. With a mass outage like they had during the recent storms, it takes a while to notify, but you want to get the best information out as quickly as you can to the affected customers.”

West Virginia Rural Water Association, West Virginia Municipal League, and the West Virginia Internet and Television Association were provided copies of the order so they can inform their members of the general investigation.

Susan Economou is the deputy executive director of the West Virginia Municipal League. She said cities in the municipal league that are running utilities are already required to have notifications for boil water advisories and other issues with their utilities.

“We will forward the information of the investigation to our members,” Economou said. “So they can be involved in that and keep up with what’s going on, even though they’re not the named utilities in the order.”

Economou said utilities advancing communications technology for service outages can come with a price.

“There’s always that balance of, we could have a huge state of the art communication system and everyone’s rates would go up to pay for it,” Economou said. “There is that balance of trying to keep everything modern but also be conscious of what the ratepayers are going to have to do to absorb any of those extra costs.”

To see the PSC order and a listing of the West Virginia utilities involved, click here.

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West Virginia

West Virginia Takes Series from BYU in a Wild Game 3

Published

9 hours ago

March 30, 2025

Press Room

West Virginia Takes Series from BYU in a Wild Game 3

Provo, UT – In a wild afternoon at Miller Park, the West Virginia Mountaineers (22-4, 4-3) popped out to a seven-run lead but had to rally from an eight-run deficit to take the series deciding game three from the BYU Cougars (14-11, 4-5) Saturday afternoon 19-16.

West Virginia senior Jace Rinehart was 3-6 at the plate with a home run and six RBI and sophomore Armani Guzman was 2-5 with a home run and four RBI.

West Virginia jumped out to an early 7-0 lead.

Senior Grant Hussey hit a one-out double and redshirt junior Chase Swain followed with a single to and sophomore Armani Guzman put the Mountaineers on the board with three-run home run in the top of the second inning.

In the third, Logan Suave blasted a leadoff home run. Senior Kyle West dropped a double in left-centerfield. Then, freshman Gavin Kelley and Hussey hit consecutive RBI doubles before Guzman came back around with a line drive RBI single to right field for the seven-run advantage.

BYU responded with a five run third inning, starting with an RBI triple from redshirt sophomore Keoni Painer. A slow roller to short by junior Luke Anderson was good for an RBI single. Then, with two outs on the board, junior Bryker Hurdsman and senior Brock Watkins delivered RBI doubles and sophomore Ryder Robinson singled to right field for an RBI to cut the WVU lead to two, 7-5.

After West Virginia starting pitcher Carson Estridge allowed the five-run third, head coach Steve Sabins opted to send him back out in the fourth and the junior walked the first two Cougar hitters before he exited the game as two Mountaineer relievers would come into the game and BYU posted a ten-run fourth inning on just four hits. In total, the WVU arms gave up three walks, two hit batsmen, and three hits.

The Cougars took advantage of the Mountaineers’ mistakes. Anderson recorded a two-RBI double and an RBI single, Hurdsman registered an RBI single, and junior Easton Jones hit a two-RBI single up the middle to take a 15-7 lead.

West Virginia answered with a six-run fifth inning. Hussey smacked his third double of the afternoon, then with two on and one-out, Spencer Barnett lined a single back up the middle to score the first run. Sauve worked a walk with the bases loaded before West slapped drove a double to right-centerfield and Jace Rinehart followed line a two-RBI single to left to cut the deficit to two, 15-13.

The Mountaineers reclaimed the lead in the seventh when senior Jace Rinehart delivered an opposite field three-run home run for the 16-15 advantage.

West Virginia added three insurance runs in the eight. Swain led the inning with a single, Barnett line a one-out RBI single to centerfield, and with two outs on the board West and Rinehart produce RBI singles for the 19-15 lead.

West Virginia freshman Mac Stiffler took the mound in the fifth and cooled the BYU bats, holding the Cougars to one hit in two innings.

Then, senior Jack Kartsonas entered in the seventh and faced the minimum with two strikeouts but found himself in a bit of trouble in the eighth after giving up a hit and a walk. However, the senior hunkered down with a strikeout and got Anderson to hit into an inning double play on the 0-2 pitch.

Kartsonas left two on and an out on the board before sophomore reliever Chase Meyer shut down any opportunity for the Cougars as the Mountaineers held on for the 19-6 decision.

West Virginia

‘You look like you ate…’; RFK Jr publicly fat-shames West Virginia Governor, vows to put him on ‘carnivore diet’

Published

21 hours ago

March 29, 2025

Press Room

‘You look like you ate…’; RFK Jr publicly fat-shames West Virginia Governor, vows to put him on ‘carnivore diet’

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the US Health and Human Services, trolled West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey by poking fun at his weight.

RFK Jr asked the audience if Morrisey should make a commitment to weigh in publicly every month. He also mentioned that if the governor lost thirty pounds, he would come back to West Virginia to join him in celebrating and weighing in.

In a public event on Friday, Kennedy emphasised on West Virginia’s leadership in the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” campaign. Kennedy made a number of fat jokes about Morrisey during his address, even implying that the governor should take part in monthly public weigh-ins.

“I said to Governor Morrisey the first time I saw him, I said, ‘You look like you ate Governor Morrisey,”” Kennedy stated, prompting laughter from the crowd.

He went on to quip that he would be Morrisey’s “personal trainer” and even offered to put him on a “really rigorous regimen” that includes a carnivorous diet.

Kennedy then asked the audience if Morrisey should make a commitment to weigh in publicly every month. He also mentioned that if the governor lost thirty pounds, he would come back to West Virginia to join him in celebrating and weighing in.

Despite the criticism, Morrisey responded with humour, saying that Kennedy’s plan was “a little more than I bargained for.”

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Social media reacts to RFK Jr’s remarks

RFK Jr’s remarks went viral on social media, with netizens giving mixed response over jab at Morrissey’s weight.

“Public shaming is just bullying. RFK Jr. isn’t wrong about Morrissey — it just should have been voiced privately,” one X user wrote.

“Nope, telling the world publicly, one obese person at a time, that being obese is unhealthy is the only way the obesity will become an undesirable state again,” another commented.

“Bullying works. Embarrassment and humiliation is a very powerful teacher,” a third user said.

“It’s not public shaming. It’s called leaders being asked to lead by example,” one more chimed in.

West Virginia has highest obesity rate in US

Apart from fat-shaming, the event highlighted new health efforts in West Virginia, such as limiting the use of SNAP to buy soda, increasing job requirements for SNAP benefits, and outlawing specific food dyes in school lunches.

West Virginia currently has the second-lowest life expectancy and the highest obesity rate in the nation.

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West Virginia

West Virginia Routs BYU to Even Series – West Virginia University Athletics

Published

1 day ago

March 29, 2025

Press Room

West Virginia Routs BYU to Even Series – West Virginia University Athletics

PROVO, Utah – The West Virginia University baseball team put up a season-high 20 runs against BYU on Friday, defeating the Cougars, 20-6, at Miller Park. The Mountaineers improve to 21-4 and 3-3 in the Big 12 while BYU falls to 14-10 and 4-4 in conference play.

The Mountaineers pounded out 19 hits on the night, led by three each from the eight and nine hitters, sophomores Armani Guzman and Spencer Barnett. Barnett drove in four runs while Guzman and freshman Gavin Kelly each had three RB. Junior Skylar King added a home run, his second of the season.

On the mound, junior Gavin Van Kempen threw 4.2 innings and struck out four while allowing two runs. Sophomore Chase Meyer picked up his fifth win of the season with 2.1 perfect innings while striking out four.

West Virginia took the lead on a Guzman RBI single in the second. After BYU tied it up in the home half, King put the Mountaineers back on top with a solo home run in the third. Kelly tacked on another run later in the inning with a single.

Barnett had a two-run single in the fifth before belting a two-run triple in the seventh. Senior Brodie Kresser, senior Jace Rinehart, and Kelly added RBI singles to round out a seven-run seventh inning.

The Mountaineers followed the big seventh with an eight-run eighth inning, getting RBIs from junior Ellis Garcia, senior Kyle West, freshman Jorge Valdes, and senior Grant Hussey, before back-to-back two-run doubles by redshirt freshman Alex Marot and Guzman.

West Virginia will look to take the series on Saturday. Because of possible inclement weather, first pitch for game three has been moved up to 2 p.m. ET.

For more information on the Mountaineers, follow @WVUBaseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.