As 2025 winds down, we’re taking a moment to look back on some of Mountain State Spotlight’s biggest stories of the year.
These aren’t just the stories that were read by the most people. These are the stories that stand out to us as truly exemplifying our mission to make our state better by producing accountability journalism that exposes abuses of power, explains complex challenges and highlights potential solutions.
In a state with a desperate need for foster families, West Virginia officials frequently tout the high numbers of kids placed in kinship families, meaning in the care of grandparents, other relatives or close family friends. But, Erin Beck reported, relatives can face more mental health strain than other caregivers, and state health officials don’t offer the extra assistance these caregivers need to help themselves and the children in their care heal.
And older caregivers, like grandparents, are also more likely to face existing challenges, like living in poverty with their own health struggles.
Lawmakers during the 2025 legislative session moved forward with a proposal the chemical industry asked for, that could have allowed more pollution in West Virginia’s rivers and streams.
Sarah Elbeshbishi reported that the push to strip long-standing drinking water protections from some waterways by downgrading their use designation came at the same time Chemours Company was appealing a permit that limited the amount of pollutants it could discharge in a creek.
During this year’s session, the House Republican supermajority eliminated public hearings on bills in favor of a new committee process and public comments. House leadership said the new process would allow greater public participation, but Henry Culvyhouse and Duncan Slade found that the deliberation process was dominated by lobbyists, representatives of associations and business executives, not regular citizens.
Henry reported that West Virginia Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Jim Justice said they wouldn’t vote to kick West Virginians off Medicaid, then voted in favor of a budget plan that would slash billions of dollars from the program.
For years, Monroe County was one of the many counties in West Virginia with no public transportation. Residents who couldn’t drive relied on friends and family to get to work, make doctor appointments and visit grocery stores.
Tre Spencer highlighted how a health department worker, a 911 operator and a Head Start teacher led a grassroots effort to apply for state and federal funds to bring a bus system to their community, and how other counties in the state can do the same.
Cuts to food stamp funding, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, passed by Congress were all over the news this summer.
Erin Beck highlighted a cut that got less attention: Republicans stripped funding for SNAP-Ed, a federal program aimed at teaching low-income people to eat nutritiously with little money and prevent health problems.
Over the summer, a hopeful data point took the West Virginia media ecosystem by storm: Overdose deaths in West Virginia had plummeted since their peak during the opioid epidemic. It was good news.
But Erin Beck reported that a bill passed in Congress with the support of all four of West Virginia’s federal representatives put at risk key drug treatment and recovery programs that helped lead to the decline, even as overdose deaths remain far above pre-epidemic levels.
Earlier this year, community members in Tucker County realized a proposal was quietly moving forward for a data center complex to be built between Davis and Thomas. Sarah reported that the community raced to fill in details about the project and reached out to their local, county and state officials.
But by the time residents knew what was happening, state lawmakers had stripped what authority and oversight locals had over data center projects.
Lack of available and affordable child care is one of the biggest obstacles to improving West Virginia’s workforce participation rate. A pilot program with 17 providers in eight counties splits the cost of care between workers, employers and the state.
But Tre reported that the program is set to run out of money in August without more investment from the state to continue and expand.
West Virginia’s essential facilities — including fire departments, police stations, schools, hospitals and nursing homes — are increasingly vulnerable due to growing climate threats. Sarah Elbeshbishi reported that a quarter of these essential facilities face a moderate-to-significant risk of flooding.
Despite past flood devastation and a state flood plan that outlines protective actions, Sarah reported that implementation has long stalled due to a lack of funding from the state.
Henry reported on how an AR-15 manufacturer, at the center of several school shooting-related lawsuits, helped shape the state’s gun laws. His investigation started as routine public records requests to Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office for the governor’s visitors log. Henry saw Daniel Defense founder Marty Daniel’s name on the log.
He spent months sifting through lawsuits, YouTube videos, and Congressional testimonies to stitch together the story of how Daniels, along with a Louisiana attorney, a gun industry lobbyist and a young “gun nut” state delegate, reshaped West Virginia gun law to protect gun makers and their profits.
Erica Peterson has spent more than a year reporting on the extent of the failures of West Virginia’s broken foster care system. She analyzed federal data and spoke to young people who said they had never heard of the program. Her latest reporting revealed the state returned nearly $7 million from the federal government between 2010 and 2023 meant to help current and former foster kids transition out of the foster system and into adulthood.