radioNOVO News for Parkersburg, WV 07-06-26

Good morning.West Virginia House Democrats and state legislative candidates are formally calling for an immediate special session to address a growing crisis in public education. Lawmakers requested that Governor Patrick Morrisey convene the Legislature as soon as possible to overhaul the state's decades-old school aid formula and prevent widespread school closures. Officials warn that declining enrollments and a mounting two-hundred-twenty-four-million-dollar deficit in special education funding could force upwards of twenty additional local schools to permanently close their doors over the next two years.Meanwhile, thousands of regional visitors gathered over the holiday weekend for a series of historic events marking America's two-hundred-fiftieth anniversary. Blennerhassett Island Historical State Park hosted a traditional thirteen-bell-ringing ceremony and a living history program. Separately, the sixty-fourth annual Mountain State Art and Craft Festival wrapped up at the Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley, where organizers successfully hosted over one hundred thirty artisans despite hazardous afternoon temperatures that climbed well into the upper nineties.And a local mother is speaking out after her thirteen-month-old infant underwent five emergency surgeries due to repeated medical equipment failures. Parkersburg resident Kaitlyn Beazel reports that a specialized feeding tube device manufactured by Applied Medical Technology has suffered weekly connector breakages since February, forcing frequent emergency room visits and medical transports for her son. The family states that both the manufacturer and the Food and Drug Administration have yet to provide a resolution.For more news, download the radioNOVO app. I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News, a service of Seven Mountains Media.