radioNOVO News for WV for 08-20-26

Good morning. Here is your West Virginia State Roundup.School districts across West Virginia are starting the new academic year without their fleet of electric school buses. Nearly one hundred electric buses manufactured by GreenPower Motor are sitting idle statewide as federal regulators with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration conduct a safety compliance investigation. Officials cite ongoing concerns over overheating brakes, unapproved emergency exits, and poor battery performance in cold weather.Meanwhile, in Kanawha County, ten public schools will remain closed for the first three days of the school year following severe weekend flash flooding. A storm system dumped more than four inches of rain across the region, triggering the heaviest single-day rainfall since nineteen-sixty-one and prompting county commissioners to declare a formal state of emergency. Affected school buildings are serving as emergency resource centers for local families as cleanup efforts continue.In business news, the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs has finalized a major five-hundred-million-dollar joint venture to secure its financial future. Under the agreement with New York investment firm Kennedy Lewis, the new partner will take a fifty-one percent controlling stake in the resort. State leaders say the capital injection resolves outstanding debt and paves the way for facility upgrades and workforce expansion.Turning to foster care reform, a major initiative is advancing in Jackson County to help address West Virginia’s foster housing shortage. The non-profit board of One-Eighty Ranch has agreed to purchase the two-hundred-fifty-acre Rippling Waters Camp in Kenna, launching a three-and-a-half-million-dollar campaign to construct ninety-six new bedrooms for children entering the system. State officials estimate keeping foster youth in West Virginia facilities could save taxpayers up to sixty million dollars annually.And Governor Patrick Morrisey has officially named former state delegate Kayla Kessinger as West Virginia’s new Secretary of Tourism. Kessinger, who served eight years in the House of Delegates representing Fayette and surrounding counties, succeeds long-time secretary Chelsea Ruby.For more news from across the state and your local community, download the radioNOVO app. I’m Codi Gaboff, radioNOVO News, a service of Seven Mountains Media.