As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, one of my primary responsibilities is ensuring that our government is responsibly funded so it remains open and working for the people we represent, including the hardworking West Virginians. That’s why I’m deeply disappointed ...
Much like a lot of things these days, a speech given last week by West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty has become a Rorschach test depending on where you stand on the issue of public education versus “school choice.” During the state Board of Education’s regular meeting last week, Hardesty’s message was simple: If you believe in the notion of competition improving the quality of education, then lawmakers need to untie the hands of their local teachers and educators so they can better compete with private schools and home schooling. To demonstrate how ...
“Take the backroads, not the highway.” — Minnie Pearl On Sept. 4, we cut the ribbon on something I believe will change lives: a new, $37 million, state-of-the-art outpatient clinic in Elkins, West Virginia, a part of a broader, nearly $1 billion initiative that WVU Medicine is taking to expand healthcare access across our state. The WVU Medicine Elkins Corridor Medical Center represents more than bricks, mortar, and medical equipment. It’s a physical expression of our mission to change the trajectory of healthcare in West Virginia by bringing world-class care to places where ...
Freedom of speech has always demanded courage, and courage is the one virtue universities cannot delegate. When free speech becomes fatal speech — as it did recently with the assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus — Americans demand, and deserve, a change. As president of Youngstown State University, I feel compelled to make a commitment to help make that change, and I believe our nation’s university presidents like me can lead the way. The facts already announced by authorities are enough to deduce that the killer of Charlie Kirk opposed the viewpoints he (civilly ...
We are more than three months away from the candidate filing period for the 2026 midterm elections. All 100 members of the House of Delegates and 17 members of the 34-member state Senate will be up for election next year. Unfortunately for the West Virginia Democratic Party, most if not all — of those elections will be settled during the party primaries on May 12 and the early voting period that precedes that. Republicans control supermajorities in both bodies, with 91 Republicans in the House and 32 Republicans in the Senate. That’s the peak of GOP legislative control at the ...
It was several years ago we heard the sad news of a comedic genius death in the person of Robin Williams. I was talking to someone about Robin Williams, and they were telling me they remember him from TV, but they only saw the shows in re-runs. I told them that I was old enough to remember seeing it in its original season. Anyone who has been on the planet and watched TV or went to the movies, saw talk shows and news programs has seen Robin Williams. He was born in Chicago on July 21, 1951, studied theater at The Juilliard School before taking his stand-up act to nightclubs. ...
