Welcome back to EP Digest. Every Thursday morning, the best local news, events, and happenings from Morgan, Berkeley, and Jefferson counties — tailored to what you actually care about. No doom-scrolling, no algorithm. Just the stuff that matters in the Eastern Panhandle. Let's get into it.

A Records Fight at the Jefferson County Commission Spills Into Public View

A dispute that had been simmering inside the Jefferson County Commission is now out in the open. In a lengthy investigation, the Spirit of Jefferson laid out Commission President Pasha Majdi's public accusation that a regional attorney is misusing the state's Freedom of Information Act — filing more than 18 records requests in recent months, which Majdi says ran up thousands of dollars in county legal fees — to apply pressure amid a fight over a planning-commission appointment.

The attorney — a former county planning commissioner — sees it differently. He says he filed the requests before the commission president's public criticism, seeking records on open-meeting compliance and administrative decision-making, and calls it “a right that any citizen may exercise.” He has also been posting AI-generated videos of commissioners and county staff, which he defends as protected satire: political commentary, he argues, “has long relied on hyperbole, caricature, and irony,” and artificial intelligence is “simply a modern tool of creative expression.” Majdi, for his part, says he isn't trying to ban satire — he says he enjoys it — but wants disclosure of who is paying for it. Commissioner Steve Stolipher was the lone dissent on a 4–1 vote to ask the Legislature to tighten the FOIA law.

Strip away the personalities and it's a real civic question: where's the line between a public-records law that keeps government honest and one that can be turned into a weapon? Both sides are on the record, and both make a case worth reading in full. Spirit of Jefferson • The Journal • Observer WV.

What's FOIA? West Virginia's Freedom of Information Act gives anyone the right to ask a public body — a county commission, school board, or agency — for its records, and requires the body to hand them over unless a specific exemption applies. Agencies can charge for the actual cost of copying and, in some cases, staff search time, but they can't refuse simply because a request is inconvenient. Changing who can request, how often, or what they pay would take an act of the Legislature.

Herb Snyder, 72

Former state senator Herb Snyder died at his home in Shenandoah Junction on Monday, Aug. 3, at 72. A chemist by training, he built and ran a laboratory business in Jefferson County for close to four decades — and gave the better part of his life to public service alongside it.

He was elected to the Jefferson County Commission in 1990 and served six years, then went on to 16 years in the West Virginia Senate across two stints (1997–2005 and 2009–2017), where he chaired the Government Organization Committee and served as vice chair of Judiciary. Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Snyder “devoted decades to public service, representing the Eastern Panhandle with dedication while also building a successful business in his hometown.” He was predeceased by his wife, Stephanie, and is survived by five children and seven grand- and great-grandchildren. WV MetroNews • Obituary.

Two Big Projects Move Through the Pipeline

The Bedington data center just took a concrete step. Penzance has filed a stormwater construction-permit application with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for its planned $4 billion campus in the Falling Waters district — the roughly 548-acre, 600-megawatt project we've been tracking since spring, and the state's first “high-impact” data center. A stormwater permit is early-stage plumbing, not a groundbreaking, but it's the kind of filing that signals a developer is moving from planning toward dirt. Observer WV.

And Berkeley County is now formally on record against the Valley North power line. The Berkeley County Commission has adopted a resolution opposing the proposed 765-kilovolt line as currently drawn, arguing that the easements, clearing, and construction would fall on county landowners while the benefit accrues to “out-of-state load centers.” The line would run roughly 260 miles from Putnam County to Frederick County, Maryland. The vote doesn't stop anything — that call sits with utility regulators — but it puts the county squarely on the record before the review advances. PNN.

Got a tip? Send it over.

Story, event, business, government, school, neighborhood, weird-and-wonderful — if it's local, we want to hear it. Saw a new sign go up? Heard about a meeting no one's talking about? Know of a shop opening, closing, or expanding? Spotted something on your street that turned out to be interesting? Send us a note at [email protected] — tips of every kind keep the Digest sharper than any source list could. We protect our sources, and we verify before we publish.

Know someone who should be reading EP Digest?
Forward this email. It takes 10 seconds and you'll be helping us build something great for the Eastern Panhandle.