Breaking News

Be Careful During This Fall Fire Season

Though it may seem as though it has rained enough in our region over the past month or so that the ground will never dry out, it will. Eventually. Meanwhile, the change in humidity and all those crisp fall breezes we love so much mean it is time once again for fall fire season in West Virginia. It begins officially Thursday and continues through Dec. 31, according to the state Division of Forestry, as the accumulation of dry leaves on the ground are perfect fuel for a wildfire. Those same leaves and other fall yard debris may be the reason you are tempted to strike up a burn pile or ...

Building The Workforce

Want to know what Ohio employers need? Ask the employers. A novel idea, maybe, but doing so helped the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association complete its Good Jobs Challenge grant eight months ahead of schedule, while blowing past every performance goal set. In 2022, the U.S. Economic Development Administration supported the $23.4 million initiative with the largest workforce investment in the association’s history. The idea was to scale up WorkAdvance, which lets employers take the lead in building the short-term job-skills, technical instruction and other supports that get them the ...

Washington Ave. Bridge Thankfully Near Return

Motorists who frequent Wheeling’s roads, especially those in the Woodsdale area, recently got some great news. The Washington Avenue Bridge, which has been closed since last December, is on track to reopen in October. That’s music to the ears of many. For nearly a year, one of the most used throughways in the city has been blocked as a bridge that was working on borrowed time was replaced. It was the artery that got people to National Road from Interstate 70, and vice versa, without having to drive several extra miles one way or the other to get to that connection. It’s often ...

Please Get Vaccinated

Have you gotten your annual flu or COVID-19 shots yet this season? It’s a good idea, both because it protects you and your families AND because it helps protect those in more vulnerable populations. For many of us, getting those two protections has become simply part of the fall routine — and rightly so. Similarly, for most families, making sure everyone is up to date on other vaccinations, such as against measles, is an important item to check off the list. An alarmingly increasing number of people are failing to take that step, however, and Ohio’s third measles outbreak of ...

Cautious Optimism In Ohio

It’s easy to understand why Honda was reluctant to confirm reports out of Japan that it is planning to build a $2.5 billion hybrid vehicle plant in Ohio. Though the Nikkei Business Daily said the company is in final preparations to expand its manufacturing footprint in the Buckeye State, a Honda spokesman told Reuters “No decisions have been made at this stage regarding a new plant in the U.S.” At the same time, SK hynix is reportedly in talks with Intel about making memory chips in the U.S. for the first time with what MarketBeat called Intel’s “long-delayed ‘Ohio One’ ...

Solve Healthcare Worker Shortage In W.Va.

Among the projects under West Virginia’s Rural Health Transformation Program is Mountain State Care Force, which is meant to address the shortage of healthcare workers in many of our communities. This week, the initiative awarded $201,403 to the WVU Medicine Center for Nursing Education, where it is expected to increase capacity for approximately 100 additional nursing students each year and increase access to nursing education for students from “rural and Health Professional Shortage Area communities, including Hancock, Ohio, Marshall, Tyler and Wetzel counties,” according to a ...