Well it’s the weekend after Thanksgiving, are the leftovers gone? Did you partake in Black Friday deals on and offline? Is your Christmas tree now up and glowing in your family room? The days leading up to Thanksgiving seemed to go at warp speed. I swore I was not going to have to go to the ...

I will be the first to admit that I have been stuck in the past. It’s what I know better than what lies ahead. I’ve been accused of a lack of forward thinking because I tend to reminisce a bit too much in this space. Many of you, my readers, often let me know that you, too, enjoy looking ...

Sometimes I ran. Other times, I skipped. More often than not, I had to walk slowly as I pushed a younger sibling in a stroller. Where was I headed you ask? It was just a short walk down the block to complete an errand for our mom. She was a big believer in the written word and was diligent ...

There was a period of my newspaper career that I covered Wheeling city government. Every morning, I would leave the news building, step out into the alley known as 15th Street Place, and walk east toward the City-County Building on Chapline Street. Once I reached the building, I would begin ...

Horrific. Mind-Numbing. Bloody. With Halloween right around the corner, you might think I am describing the latest scary costumes or those over-sized, life-like monsters gracing the front yards of homes near and wide. How I wish that were the case. But it’s not. Last Saturday morning, as ...

He’s a big man with an even broader smile. His voice, while strong, often carries quiet but resounding messages. Rabbi Joshua Lief leads the congregation at Temple Shalom in Wheeling. This small, tight-knit Jewish community has been a part of the Northern Panhandle for 175 years. Growing up ...