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How To Keep Your Heating Costs Down

Editorials

The temperatures around the Ohio Valley are starting to slide from crisp to downright chilly as the months creep from fall to winter. Households have started turning on their furnaces and many of us are doing so with our heart rates rising. We know a hotter furnace will lead to a skinnier wallet due to escalating heating costs. The United States Energy Information Administration says heating costs are on the rise. Residential propane is costing 21 cents a gallon more year over year. Residential heating oil is at $2.59 more a gallon year over year. We can’t freeze ourselves solid, ...

School Book Bans Are Silly

Editorials

School book ban trends come and go, but there are always groups of people who want to keep their children from having access to reading material that might expose them to new ideas or, worse, ask questions. The problem is particularly bad in Ohio, which ranks third among the states in PEN America’s study of school book bans for the 2025-26 school year. The free-expression advocacy group counted 117 instances of school book bans in the Buckeye State during that period. Only Texas and Florida were worse. Across the country, 11,982 books — 7,370 unique titles — were banned in public ...

Now Is The Time To Get Out And Vote, West Virginia

Editorials

If you’re a West Virginia voter, the time to head to the ballot box is actually now. Early voting began in the state today and will run weekdays and Saturdays through Oct. 31. In Ohio County, the public may cast ballots from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day in the municipal courtroom of the first floor of the City-County Building, 1500 Chapline St., Wheeling. In Marshall County, the hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays, and voting takes place in the basement at the courthouse. And, according to Ohio County Supervisor of Elections Erin Allietta, now is a great time to ...

Washington Ave. Bridge Is Thankfully Back Open

Editorials

Want to know how much everyone in Wheeling missed the Washington Ave. Bridge? The city put on a party on the bridge and hundreds of people showed up. Throngs enjoyed live music, inflatables and face painting for the kids and food truck lining brand spanking new span, which replaced the deteriorating structure that could no longer hold ambulances or school buses. But both are ready to roll across that bridge now. There’s the popular saying that you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Wheeling went without the Washington Ave. Bridge for 10 months, and drivers felt the brunt. ...

John McCabe: Public Trust Begins With One Thing: The Truth

Local Columns

Election night 2008 will always remain as one of the more interesting days in my career. Outside of the actual presidential election taking place that evening, I had received an invitation earlier that day to meet privately with the then-members of the Ohio County Commission — David Sims, Tim McCormick and Randy Wharton — to discuss an important matter concerning The Highlands. The timing of the meeting was less than two months after the U.S. housing market crashed in September 2008, and as I learned over an hour with the commissioners, the county was not spared. There had ...

Wheeling Park High School An Example Of Vision And Initiative

Editorials

Fifty years ago, Ohio County high school students stepped into the next era of education when they first walked through the halls of the new Wheeling Park High School — and the school, its staff and its students have kept marching forward ever since. When the school opened in 1976, it was a marvel. Three levels of classrooms across nearly 273,000 square feet of space brought Warwood, Triadelphia and Wheeling high schools together to offer new facilities, new classes and new opportunities for thousands of students. It would have been easy for the school district to dust off its ...