Authorities and the City of Morgantown confirmed Friday morning that a pet snake, a python, escaped its confines early Friday morning on Earl L. Core Road.

Sen. Bob Beach, the Democratic incumbent who was raised on his family’s farm just outside of Morgantown, is vying for his third term. His opponent is the man he succeeded eight years prior — former Delegate and State Senator Mike Oliverio, a financial adviser and Democrat-turned-Republican who nearly became the 21st man to be elected to Congress in West Virginia’s first district in 2010.

Long a Democratic stronghold featuring names like Jeff Kessler and Larry Edgell, the state’s de facto natural gas hub borders Ohio and Pennsylvania in multiple parts of the district — a place booming with potential due to the natural gas boom of the past decade.

City Council members in Morgantown have a significant decision facing them later this month — and so, potentially, do their constituents. A public hearing is scheduled June 19 on the acquisition of land by the City of Morgantown that would potentially complete the city’s desired “green belt.”

Even those without skin in the game braved the cold Saturday, joining public employees to rally in Monongalia and Harrison counties. Around 200 people, including teachers, cooks, bus drivers, janitors, and even several state legislators, were rallying on Emily Drive in Clarksburg before temperatures had even cracked 30 degrees.

Appalachia Service Project, based in Johnsonville, Tennessee, has dedicated a large chunk of their organization to the ‘Rebuild Rainelle’ project. For Schroeder, who is the group’s flood recovery coordinator, it’s a very different experience compared to his previous work with ASP.

The one year anniversary and memorial service Friday in Rainelle was just as much about the four people lost in the June 23, 2016 floods as it was about those who are helping build Rainelle’s future.

Nearing the one-year anniversary of historic flooding that claimed 23 lives throughout the state, Rainelle’s “Mayor Andy” said she’s going to take a brief pause for reflection later this week.

One of the nation’s leading physicians and opioid addiction researchers is not a fan of the initial seven-point action plan released by Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Cole.

There are a number of answers to that loaded question, and FEMA’s Mobile Disaster Assistance Teams are attempting to provide the public with those answers in a painstakingly thorough manner: going door-to-door in the impacted communities.