Two good and one bad and creepy

El Cabrero has been trying to focus whenever possible on positive things in WV. One such example is the effort to make sure that kid not in school can enjoy good nutrition. Another is the effort to build a grassroots and grasstops ground game to fight child poverty in the state.

AS FOR THE CREEPY, check out this New Yorker article about how the private corrections industry has taken vampirism to a new level. Not in a good way.

Good news and a less than flattering portrait

The thing to keep in mind in WV is that things aren't all bad all the time. In fact, some really good things are happening. The last post mentioned the minimum wage increase bill that was signed by Gov. Tomblin yesterday.

Here's another example:  thanks to a stellar enrollment effort by the WV Department of Health and Human Services, around 105,000 low income working West Virginians have signed up for the expanded Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. An additional 20,000 signed up for private coverage via the marketplace/exchange. When you consider that a good number of other folks found out they were eligible for other programs as a result of all the outreach, I think it's safe to say that the number of uninsured West Virginians has dropped by about 60 percent this year alone.

THAT WAS THE GOOD NEWS. Here, via The  New Yorker, is the unflattering portrait. I think the writer nailed it.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED