Breaking News

Editorials

Donating Blood Is As Important As Ever

There’s a lot to be cheerful about, as the end of the school year, warmer weather and the arrival of the travel/vacation season have most people in more chipper moods. But for some, summertime coincides with the “100 deadliest days,” the period from approximately Memorial Day to Labor Day during which there is a dramatic increase in serious incidents such as car accidents, ATV crashes, sports-related injuries and other summertime activities. Sharon Kesselring, executive director of the American Red Cross of the Ohio Valley called it “trauma season.” Meanwhile, Kesselring ...

One Year After The Ohio County Floods, We Remember

On June 14, 2025, lives changed forever in Triadelphia, Valley Grove and throughout our region. In a matter of minutes late that Saturday evening, a catastrophic flash flood tore through neighborhoods, swept away homes and vehicles, and left devastation unlike anything that community ever had experienced. When the water finally receded, nine people were gone. Dozens of families faced the heartbreaking task of rebuilding not only their homes, but their lives. A year later, that pain remains. There are empty seats at family gatherings. There are birthdays that arrive without a ...

WVU Baseball A Hit Thanks To Support

On Friday, the West Virginia University baseball team will clear a new horizon ­— the Mountaineers will play its first College World Series game in program history. To understand the importance of this moment is to understand from where this program came. In 2012, disbanding that program was an option legitimately on the table. Hawley Field, the Mountaineers’ former playing grounds, was nothing worthy of a power-conference baseball team, much less one that would play in the Big 12. Scholarship allotments were rarely at their maximum. WVU had a baseball team, but it was debatable ...

Make Public Schools A Top-Line Choice

We can argue about funding and vouchers, transportation and transparency, but West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty is right. There is no going backward from school choice in the Mountain State. His message last week to public school systems in the state was blunt. “You might not like what I have to say, but I don’t really care. School choice is here to stay,” Hardesty said. “Our 55 county superintendents and boards need to understand that. We are one of the school choice options. We need to make our option more accommodating to parents and ...

Politicizing Our Healthcare Hurts

Politicizing healthcare — from vaccines to research and safety net funding — has led to some dangerous changes in public health in this country. Among them is the surge in measles and whooping cough cases. Vaccine hesitancy fueled by intentional misinformation and disingenuous religious freedoms outrage has resulted in significant increases in the two potentially deadly illnesses. Across the country, there have been 1,983 measles cases in the first half of this year, according to an Ohio Capital Journal report that used U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The ...

Homeless Task Force Needs To Work

The announcement this week of a new task force to address homelessness in the city of Wheeling was met with hope from some, skepticism from others. Both of those emotions have been prevalent when it has come to previous attempts to address the issue. There are plenty of Wheeling residents who want to see those who are homeless in our city find they help they need to find homes, be it here or elsewhere. Yet there are others who don’t feel the issue has ever been addressed properly, and they’re waiting with wariness to see if this attempt is any better than they others. From what ...