By: Andrea Lannom, Register-Herald Reporter | Posted: Mar. 19, 2018 | Source: The Register-Herald
CHARLESTON — After spending 20 years in the Army, Eric Grandon didn’t picture himself getting into agriculture. He never even had a family garden.
However, now, he credits agriculture with saving his life. (more…)
News Release: March 19, 2018
Media Contact: Samantha Smith, Commerce Communications Director
(304) 957-9364 | samantha.smith@wv.gov
Contact: Paul Johansen, Wildlife Resources Section Chief
(304) 558-2771 | DNR.Wildlife@wv.gov
HOLDEN, W.Va. — Fifty-one elk completed their journey from Arizona and were released into a holding facility in Logan County earlier this month.
The elk, which are part of West Virginia’s elk restoration project, were captured in late January and held near Flagstaff, Arizona for disease testing. The elk arrived at the holding facility near Holden, West Virginia, late on March 4.
“It has been a wonderful experience working with the wildlife professionals in Arizona and all of the private supporters who are helping make West Virginia’s elk restoration project possible,” said DNR Director Stephen McDaniel.
DNR Law Enforcement and Wildlife Resources staff transported the elk through a partnership with Energy Transportation LLC of Bridgeport, and EQT Corporation. David Alvarez, owner of Energy Transportation, and Greg Hoyer of EQT donated use of their company’s trucks and expenses from transporting the elk to West Virginia. The trip took 31 hours.
This group of elk will join more than three dozen elk previously brought in from Kentucky over the past two years. The Arizona elk will be quarantined until they are released onto the Tomblin Wildlife Management Area in Logan County, as directed by the United States Department of Agriculture.
Each elk is equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) radio transmitter to monitor its movements. All GPS transmitters were purchased and donated by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
Read more about the WVDNR’s Elk Management Plan at www.wvdnr.gov/Publications/
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West Virginia forward Esa Ahmad (23) dunks during the second half against Marshall on Sunday in San Diego. AP photo
By: Mitch Vingle, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 19, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
SAN DIEGO — Jarrod West Sr. was in the Viejas Arena here on the campus of San Diego State University for Sunday night’s special matchup between Mountain State teams West Virginia and Marshall.
It was almost 20 years to the day he helped WVU stun then-Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins and the Bearcats with a 25-foot bank shot, sending the Mountaineers into the Sweet 16.
On Sunday, however, with West’s son Jarrod Jr. in Marshall’s lineup, there was no buzzer-beater. There was, in fact, very little drama whatsoever.
That’s because the Mountaineers (26-10) thoroughly dominated the Thundering Herd in the paint and everywhere else in a 94-71 rout, sending West Virginia to its third Sweet 16 appearance in the last four years. The fifth-seeded Mountaineers will now travel to Boston for a Friday matchup with No. 1 seed Villanova. The Big 12 will be sending one quarter of the teams to the Sweet 16, with WVU, Kansas, Kansas State and Texas Tech all going.
Sunday’s late affair was somewhat surprising not because West Virginia won — the Mountaineers were, after all, a 12.5-point favorite — but because of the decisiveness. After MU stunned No. 4 seed Wichita State here Friday, many expected a tight, emotion-filled battle. It turned out, however, to be much like the prior game before the controversial ending to the series. Back in 2015, Jevon Carter had 15 points to lead the Mountaineers to an 86-68 victory. MU standout and Charleston native Jon Elmore was then held to 14.
This time it was much of the same — and more for WVU. Carter led the Mountaineers in scoring with 28 on 10-of-18 shooting, while Elmore was held down for most of the game and finished with 15. West Virginia outrebounded Marshall 40-24.
“My teammates did an unbelievable job of getting me open,” Carter said. “I came off a lot of screens. I just played within the game. I just let the game come to me. I just let my defense turn into offense.”
“You’ve got to give them credit,” said MU coach Dan D’Antoni of WVU. “They’re tough.”
In sum, it was a runaway.
With 5:58 remaining, WVU was up by 31. And perhaps two second-half plays symbolized this one.
The first was when WVU was coming out of a timeout at the 13:46 mark. Junior Esa Ahmad threw an alley-oop pass to sophomore Sagaba Konate for a thunderous dunk.
The second was with 8:13 remaining. It was when red-hot Carter, deep in the left corner, took a pass, put up a trey and was fouled by Ot Elmore. The shot went in. And Carter gave a death stare to the crowd. He completed the 4-point play to give West Virginia a 30-point 77-47 lead.
The only bad note for the Mountaineers was Wes Harris’ clash with MU’s Jannson Williams at 8:21 of the first half. Harris was held out the rest of the game with concussion-like symptoms and Williams was reportedly sent to the hospital.
Otherwise, the night was almost completely owned by WVU.
“We did it for the state,” said Mountaineer forward Lamont West, who finished with 18. “We just wanted to go out there and play hard. We didn’t want to go home with an ‘L.’ We just did what we do. We played hard and came out with a ‘W.’”
As has been the case, it seems, in every WVU game of late, the Mountaineers had a cold hand shooting early. Marshall, meanwhile, hit three of its first four attempts – all treys – and moved out to an 8-point, 16-8 lead on a Darius George 3-pointer at 13:56.
The icebreaker for West Virginia, though, was Lamont West’s three right after that of George.
The Mountaineers were then off and running, both figuratively and literally.
The press was working to the tune of 11 first-half Marshall turnovers, which turned into 15 points. Also, Sagaba Konate’s presence at the back end of the press appeared to bother Marshall’s shooters. The Thundering Herd converted just 8 of 26 (30.8 percent) of their shots in the span and failed to score a field goal in the last 4:14.
West Virginia, meanwhile, got 3-pointers from West, James “Beetle” Bolden, Daxter Miles and Carter to fuel a 23-2 run (which, on the back end, was 19-0), completed on an Ahmad tip-in. MU’s C.J. Burks hit a pair of free throws at 4:39 to snap the run.
West Virginia, though, wasn’t done. The Mountaineers stretched their lead to 42-25 points at the end of the half. They took 38 shots in the half compared to the Herd’s 26. They outrebounded Marshall by a whopping 27-11 and had 18 points in the paint. Carter had 11 points to lead seven WVU players in first half scoring. The Herd’s leader, Jon Elmore, was 1 of 5 shooting and had but three points. MU’s lowest first-half point production before West Virginia was 26 versus Old Dominion.
West Virginia outscored MU in the second half by 52-46.
“Just happy to be able to keep playing,” Carter said. “This is March. We did what we came here to do. But we don’t want to just go to the Sweet 16, we want to win it all. We’re going to watch a lot of film and get ready for the next one.”
All-time, West Virginia now leads the series with Marshall 34-11.
Mitch Vingle can be reached at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter@MitchVingle.
Posted: Mar. 17, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
West Virginia American Water has issued a boil-water advisory for 21 customers on Elk River Road from Walker Street (not included) to Pleasant Island Road (not included) in Elkview. The advisory follows a water main break. Customers in these areas should boil their water for at least one full minute prior to use until further notice.
West Virginia forward Teddy Allen (13) shoots as Murray State forward Terrell Miller Jr. (0) defends during WVU’s win over the Racers on Friday in the NCAA tournament’s first round. Photo by: Denis Poroy
By: Staff Reports | Posted: Mar. 16, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
The Capital Classic lives again, albeit in California.
WVU got 21 points and eight assists from Jevon Carter to cruise past Murray State 85-68 in the first round of the NCAA tournament in San Diego. That sets up a second-round showdown with in-state rival Marshall, a game that hasn’t been played since 2015, but will have its highest stakes Sunday.
The winner of Sunday’s matchup earns a berth in the NCAA’s Sweet 16.
Return to wvgazettemail.com later this evening for more coverage of this game.
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.
Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni reacts during the first half of a first-round game against Wichita State at the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament, Friday, March 16, 2018, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
By: Doug Smock, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 16, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
SAN DIEGO — For perhaps the first time in his 70 years on this Earth, Dan D’Antoni didn’t know what to say.
CLENDENIN, WV (The Clendenin Leader) – Shafer Equipment, LLC of Clendenin, will be in attendance and will have an exhibition booth available at the 2018 West Virginia Construction and Design Exposition to be held on March 21-22 at the Charleston Civic Center. Referred to simply as “EXPO”, this is the only West Virginia trade show for the construction, engineering, and architectural industries. Attendees will be present from over 25 states and multiple countries, and it will draw nearly 5,000 regional attendees. It is one of the largest of its kind east of the Mississippi.
Attendees of this show are Architects, Engineers, HVAC Practitioners, Landscape Architects, Lawyers, Surveyors, Water and Wastewater Treatment Plant Operators, and more. EXPO has become a meeting ground for numerous trade associations and professional societies as well. Various seminars will be available, many offering continuing education credit.
Shafer Equipment will be located at Exhibition Booth #724 and would like to extend an invitation to all attendees, to stop by and visit, plus sign up for their raffle; a chance to win a Full Day Lower New River Rafting Trip for Two People at Adventures On The Gorge!
EXPO charges no admission fee to qualified attendees. Qualified attendees are those directly engaged in construction; design; public works or infrastructure construction and maintenance; others actively engaged in procurement of these goods or services; owners demonstrating a need for these goods and services; trade professionals and others who play a role in supporting the design and construction industries. For more information on EXPO, visit their website at http://wvexpo.com.
Established in 2011, Shafer Equipment is a family owned and operated heavy equipment company that offers sales, rentals, parts, and service, of heavy equipment for pipeline, construction, and environmental work. They serve customers throughout West Virginia, as well as Southeastern Ohio and Southern Pennsylvania. Shafer Equipment is a full-service dealer for Terramac crawler carriers, and they stock a diverse selection of specialty attachments such as hydroseeders, personnel carriers, tack welders and more, which mount to the unit’s chassis. They are also an Okada attachment dealer with a wide range of Okada Hammers in various sizes. In addition, they provide parts, service and warranty repairs for Cummins certified engines and carry a wide variety of top of the line Excavators, Komatsu, CAT, John Deere Pipelayers, and Dozers as well.
Shafer Equipment, LLC is located at 1420 Bufflick Road, Clendenin, WV. For more information visit their website at www.shaferequipmentwv.com or you may contact them at 304-548-4300.
By: Mitch Vingle, Staff Writer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
SAN DIEGO — The WVU’s men’s basketball team had no problems getting to the Pacific Coast and this sun-splashed city.
It’s landed. It’s practiced. It’s met the media.
Now, though, the goal of the No. 5 seed Mountaineers is simply to make a splash at the NCAA tournament — beginning at approximately 4 p.m. Friday at the Veijas Arena on the campus of San Diego State University. The game will be televised by TNT.
“We’re ready,” said WVU guard James “Beetle” Bolden. “We talked a little bit as a team. We’re focused and I think we’re ready to go out there and play.”
The Mountaineers (24-10) enter with a final Associated Press ranking of No. 15 and a current USA Today coaches poll ranking of No. 14. WVU’s opponent is No. 12 seed Murray State (26-5), which won the Ohio Valley Conference regular-season and tournament championships.
The focus in WVU’s camp, however, has been squarely on the practices leading into the first round. Mountaineer coach Bob Huggins this week pointed back to 2016 and the less-than-stellar practices heading into the loss to Stephen F. Austin. On Thursday, though, he seemed somewhat pleased.
“We’re better than we were then,” he said. “They could have been better. They could have been worse. … We were OK [Wednesday]. Actually, I thought we were pretty good. Most of us. Everybody wasn’t, but most of them were.”
Where it appears West Virginia will have to be very good on Friday is against Murray State’s trio of 3-point shooters. The Racers are led by point guard Jonathan Stark, the OVC Player of the Year and tournament MVP. He led Murray State’s league in scoring for a second straight year at 21.8 points a game.
Also, though, Terrell Miller, a 6-foot-8 wide body, can step out and hit the trey. He’s averaging 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds. MSU as a team is hitting 37.9 percent of their 3-point attempts (WVU is at 35.3), but Stark (41 percent), Miller (39.2) and Hawkins (39.5) combine to hit 40.2 percent of the time.
“We worked a lot on getting back in transition,” said Mountaineer forward Teddy Allen. “Getting to the shooters. Know who the shooters are. We went over the scouting report a lot, so we know who can shoot and who we need to find in transition.”
On the other end, Murray State will have to handle West Virginia’s press. The Racers run a two-point-guard offense, which should help break that, but MSU coach Matt McMahon said Thursday his team must be prepared.
“We haven’t played anyone to the level of what they do,” McMahon said of the Mountaineers. “They’re second in the country in forced turnover percentage — and they hit you for 40 straight minutes. We’ve played against pressing teams, but we know this will be different.”
WVU is now No. 10 nationally in turnovers forced at 16.5 a game. Murray State is averaging 11.9 turnovers.
McMahon, meanwhile, pointed to rebounding as a key.
“I think it’s a big factor in winning,” he said. “We’ve been a good rebounding team all season long. Now this is about to be another level.”
West Virginia is No. 5 nationally in offensive rebounds, averaging 14 a game.
In addition, there are individual matchups. WVU team leader Jevon Carter and Daxter Miles will have to contain Murray State point guards Stark and Ja Morant. And vice versa. Also, Mountaineer sophomore Sagaba Konate will have to handle Miller. And vice versa.
“He’s a big body,” Miller said of Konate. “He plays hard. That’s all I’ve seen on him on film.”
Aside from all, though, there’s a matter of how each team handles the spotlight of March Madness.
“I think that’s been one of our strengths of our team,” McMahon said of MSU. “The ability to focus on the next most important thing, the task at hand, not getting too caught up in the moment and the hoopla that surrounds this great tournament.”
Huggins was asked about the hype as well as the travel.
“I think if anybody is equipped to do it, we can do it after what we do in our [Big 12] league,” Huggins said. “We fly across the country constantly, so our guys are pretty used to it.”
Last year, the Mountaineers were eliminated in the Sweet 16 in San Jose, California, by tournament runner-up Gonzaga, 61-58. It was West Virginia’s seventh Sweet 16 appearance since 1998 and 10th overall.
Mitch Vingle can be reached at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.
By: Jessie Shafer | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 at 8:41 p.m. | Source: WOWKTV
Derrick Shaffer is facing a number of felony charges following the March 15 incident.
ROANE COUNTY, WV (WOWK) – A Roane County man is facing a number of felony charges following a violent attack on a family member, deputies told 13 News.
According to court documents, a female family member of Derrick Allen Shaffer called 911 around 2:06 a.m. on March 15. The incident happened along Hershberger Road in the Clendenin area of Roane County.
The victim alleged that Shaffer headbutted her and stuck a handgun in her mouth, court documents state.
The victim then told 911 dispatchers that Shaffer had fled the residence they were in, and he was headed down Thorofare Road in a maroon, Toyota Tacoma. The victim requested an ambulance. She said she was bleeding from the nose, mouth and eye.
The victim was transported to Roane General Hospital via ambulance, where a statement was taken by deputies.
The statement included graphic details of what Shaffer allegedly put the victim through the night prior. Those court documents state that the victim had locked herself in her room, and Shaffer forced himself in. He then slammed her on her back and began to choke her.
When she asked him to stop, that’s when Shaffer allegedly headbutted her in the face. He choked her again, and she lost consciousness, she told deputies.
She regained consciousness, and Shaffer placed a firearm in her mouth and “down the back of her throat”. He removed the gun from her mouth, and then placed it in his own mouth and began choking her again, according to the criminal complaint in the case.
He headbutted her two more times, according to the victim.
Court documents state that the victim was about to run out of the home with a car key while Shaffer was on the phone at one point.
Deputies investigating the case said they observed heavy bruising and swelling on the victim’s face, as well as red marks on her neck that support her statements regarding being headbutted and choked. The victim also had a defensive wound on her right hand.
Shaffer is charged with strangulation x4, malicious or unlawful assault, wanton endangerment, unlawful restraint, domestic battery, domestic assault, brandishing, and interfering with emergency communications.
The suspect turned himself into deputies with the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office in the afternoon hours of Thursday, March 15. His bond was set at $70,000 cash only.
Stay with 13 News for more on this developing story.
Frontier Communications workers and supporters demonstrate outside the Frontier building in Charleston on March 5. About 1,400 Frontier Communications employees in West Virginia and Ashburn, Virginia, have been on strike since March 4. On Thursday, Frontier asked a judge for an injunction against the striking workers. CRAIG HUDSON | Gazette-Mail file photo
By: Max Garland and Lacie Pierson, Staff Writers | Posted: Mar. 15, 2018 | Source: WV Gazette-Mail
Frontier Communications asked a judge Thursday to stop its striking workers in West Virginia and Ashburn, Virginia, from engaging in what the company calls “rampant unlawful activity,” as well as abuse of other Frontier employees, including workers brought in to fill the strikers’ jobs.
