Jessica Lilly

Updated on Monday, April 4, 2022 at 8:35 a.m. Kelsie Dolin made it into the next round of the American Idol singing and performance competition on Sunday. Viewers learned the Boone County native made it through the duets part of the competition.

Each year, the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection selects a Teacher of the Year in the elementary, middle and high school high school levels. In 2021 it wasn’t a science teacher who won but a tourism instructor.

To help get an idea of reentry after correctional system, Concord University is hosting a re-entry simulation in April. Participants will be given a biography and assigned tasks. The challenge will be to complete the tasks while encountering barriers typical after incarceration.

Michelle Martin is leading a charge to clean up the Little Coal River and turning the trash into treasures.

State projects selected are meant to provide training, support tourism and leverage private investments. All three POWER Initiative grants went to organizations in Kanawha County totaling $2,085,225.

Wyoming East’s Friends of the Earth club submission took top honors in the PepsiCo Recycling Innovation Challenge. The students created contests expanded from the high school to social media accounts on Tik Tok, Facebook and Instagram challenging friends and answering recycling trivia questions.

The Big Coal River flows 40 miles through Boone and Lincoln Counties. John Slack Memorial Park is one of nine river access points on the Big Coal in Boone County. The UMWA hosts an annual rally at the park each year. It’s a hotspot for politicians but that’s not all you’ll find in Racine.

Governor Jim Justice joined the Bluefield community Tuesday to celebrate Omnis Building Technologies’ decision to manufacture products in Mercer County.

Beginning this week, Harmony for Hope in Fayette County is sharing clues on Facebook and their website. The clues reveal the location of the golden egg in the town of Mount Hope.

In Lincoln County, creating and cleaning up the access points along the Guyandotte River turned out to be more than a way to get on the river, it was also a way to unite the community.