Sam Workman

We're back! After working overtime on public-facing scholarship and fulfilling our land-grant mission, we're here with a taste of fall. This week at the 𝘼𝙥𝙥𝙖𝙡𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. Join us for festivals, fall, and some Appalachian satay. 🍹#cocktails

Hey folks, the Mountaineers are hiring. If you are a judicial, public law, or law and courts person, I'd love to have you as a colleague. Even better if "policy" is helpful in understanding your work. Check out the ad here:

Love the idea of exploring the night sky but not sure where to start? Read this handy guide to getting started – and get ready to embrace autumn’s darker nights.

Ever wonder about the effects of budgetary processes, including the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, on health policy & the social determinants of health? With coauthors @hjarman.bsky.social, @mirandayaver.bsky.social, & @scottlgreer.bsky.social, in Lancet RHA, we show there's little good news.

Was curious about how housing prices are trending in WV, given population loss alongside an affordable housing crisis. Pulled these from Zillow with GPT. WV #housing #appalachia

Both of these are bad for different reasons. Water systems can't sustain the former, and the latter should stop protecting the wrong subgroups.

Your phone, your location, your browsing history: companies are turning it all into a profile of how much you'll pay, then charging you exactly that. This is surveillance pricing, and it replaces the market price with a number engineered for you alone.

If you know me at all, you know I won't miss the sun and warmth. I will miss these folks though. Bring on the dying of the light and end the Tryanny of the Sun. #fallvibes #fallcolors

Water everywhere. None of it drinkable. Inevitable.

Good. Bring on standard time. #fall 🍂 🍁

"The upshot is that even some data center development projects advanced enough to appear in utility load forecasts with a named hyperscaler attached are not certain to move forward." www.utilitydive.com/news/the-dat...

And local govts, even super progressive/liberal ones, are lining up for it. Not a dimes worth of difference in the red and blue on these in my region.

Yep, in the general lay of the land, gas is front and center in powering them. 🔌💡

I agree with this. I would add that, in general, there is no inherent, intrinsic value of democracy for the average citizen. It's value, like with all govts, is dependent on the problems it solves for people. If it's not solving them, it's value tends toward zero pretty quickly.

In the mail: The Fog of Accountability by the excellent @jdbk.bsky.social on how "urban politics is defined by minimally effective competition, complex institutions that confuse voters, and a lack of effective media coverage"

This is everywhere, and shocking to people. But if you live where I do, this is the norm, accepting bad things here for good things for people anywhere and everywhere else. #WestVirginia #appalachia

Gonna be a lot more of this. #datacenters 🔌💡

🔌💡

For my journo friends, some helpful, digestible stuff on the (un)realities of voter fraud. WV #WestVirginia #journalism #Election2026

Microplastics in soil pose global threat by acting like ‘Trojan horse’ to deliver toxins. Exclusive: Plastic surfaces form hotspots with an increase of antibiotic-resistant genes, study finds. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

How 'bout 'em 'Eers? #wvumountaineers #WVUFootball #WestVirginia #WVU #WV

Tightening state fiscal conditions — combined with other budgetary pressures, like federal Medicaid spending cuts in the 2025 reconciliation law — may increase the likelihood of states enacting Medicaid restrictions: https://on.kff.org/3SVUbIB

The Mountain Mama was looking pretty good this evening. #WestVirginia

As a cocktail guy, I can say that 5 of these are not, in fact, worth trying.

I do a lot of translation in my job. The issues important to average people are actually really easy to understand. He does too. Just doesn't want to do his job.

One thing I hate about college football season is the media's compulsory human-interest stories. I just can't bring myself to care who their girlfriends/boyfriends are, the bar fights that put them in jail, etc. I'd just as soon watch AI slop cause it's about as compelling. #endrant

New from us: Anthropic just published scenarios for AI’s possible economic impacts, which range from minimal, to explosive GDP growth of 15% by 2030 as knowledge-worker unemployment hits 18%. I sat down with their co-founder Jack Clark to pick his brains on how they’re thinking about all of this.

Yep. The answer is at our fingertips. That ain't changing though, not in our lifetimes.

Important 📃

#APSA2026 - pillowy whitecaps hide the darkness beneath.

This guy knows stuff. Epic 🧵.

Rest in Power, Dolly. You were the best of us. 😭

👀 #Appalachians

How many episodes of extreme heat can Europe(or anywhere) endure before we see mass climate migration? If we could accurately measure climate migration, it is surely already happening all over the world. apnews.com/article/ital...

Huntington community organizers start ballot initiative to prohibit Flock cameras westvirginiawatch.com/2026/08/06/h...

A massive data center is being built in Tucker County, WV - one of the most beautiful, pristine areas in the east. But even worse, state govt passed a bill eliminating local govts authority to regulate such projects. How Tucker residents lost any say on a data center share.google/Roa23mEhGWgi...

Let me add that knowing for sure you need to find your own water and proper rural waste disposal is infinitely better than trusting a failing utility with your health and paying for the privilege.

COMMENTARY: Beautiful clean water. Four counties. Two days. Hardly any notice. That describes the water listening tour Gov. Patrick Morrisey announced Tuesday morning in Huntington, West Virginia, an area we all of course associate with bad water, I guess, writes Quenton King.

Everyone wants econ development and growth. But, in the era of decreasing population, esp for small and mid-size towns, this isn't very responsible thinking. Need good thinking on how to do govt smaller and better or if need be, not at all.

www.alcoholprofessor.com/blog-posts/a...

If my cats are an indication, the perspective and scale here represents a worldview they actually hold.

Flock cameras in WV, courtesy of deflock.org.