The mass murder of 17 people, most of them students, at a Florida high school last month probably could have been prevented. A substantial number of people seem to have been aware the man accused in the killings was deeply enough disturbed to be capable of homicides. But no one with the ...

It has been known for nearly a year that state officials were negotiating with American Electric Power to create a new state park in East Ohio. During his State of the State speech this week, Gov. John Kasich made it official. Kasich also put some icing on the cake, revealing the new Ohio ...

Public school employees in West Virginia should be outraged, not to mention suspicious, that their record-length work stoppage is being used by some for purely political reasons. Democrats in the Legislature have wasted no opportunity to blame the core problems that caused the strike — ...

As it became apparent the strike by school personnel was over on Tuesday, Gov. Jim Justice suggested efforts should be made to ensure children do not have to attend classes any longer than absolutely necessary this spring. Agreed. But students have missed nine days of school because of ...

Give West Virginia legislators credit for pulling off something of a fiscal feat on Monday and Tuesday. They managed to provide a 5 percent pay raise for state employees without a tax increase and without wrecking the state budget. A 5 percent salary increase for all state employees costs ...

As much as we might hope and pray an easy answer could be found to preventing mass killings in our schools, it will not happen. Tackling the threat will require real, thoughtful effort. Good for U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and a bipartisan group of other lawmakers who have stopped ...

It should come as no surprise that tensions have grown steadily worse as the strike by public school employees has stretched into, now, 13 days. The potential for violence has reared its ugly head. In Moundsville, school employees in a group of pickets reported someone in a vehicle waved a ...

Give Belmont County’s Major Crimes Unit credit for targeting the right people in their ongoing battle against drug abuse. The unit, composed of law enforcement officers and officials from throughout the county, has a good record of arresting out-of-town pushers. As drug abuse goes, ...

High school seniors are among those whose lives have been disrupted by the school employees’ strike in West Virginia. It comes at a particularly difficult time for those trying to make arrangements for the future. Normally, the deadline to apply for state PROMISE scholarships is March 1. ...

When disasters strike, causing unusually heavy damage to infrastructure such as roads, local governments cannot hope for a knight in shining armor to come rescue taxpayers. That’s one reason we have state and federal government disaster recovery programs. It is their responsibility to ...

One of the nicest, most compassionate women in Wheeling called us Friday to alert us that a new round of “grandparent scam” calls is being made. She received one, but refused to cooperate. Here’s how it works: A scam artist calls an older woman, claiming her grandson has been arrested ...

The movement to remove statues honoring flawed Americans — those who fought on the wrong side during the Civil War, for example — has gained strength. That should make it especially jarring that the city of Washington, D.C., has just erected an 8-foot bronze statue of Marion Barry, ...

For people scrambling to find money to run state government, while increasing pay and benefits for public school employees, West Virginia legislators are strangely uninterested in a source of millions of dollars a year. On Friday, the House of Delegates approved a bill to allow wagering on ...

Republican state senators were criticized by some this weekend for not allowing an immediate vote on a plan formulated by Gov. Jim Justice to augment pay raises already granted to West Virginia public school employees. But senators were right to insist a committee look into Justice’s ...

There are no good answers to questions about how someone’s failure to pay a delinquent tax bill caused West Virginia Northern Community College to lose control of property for which $240,000 was paid. Yet the questions need to be answered. As we reported, the WVNCC Foundation spent ...

Perhaps Ohio County Board of Education members Shane Mallett and Tim Birch thought they were doing the right thing Friday. They were not. A board meeting had been called for 7:30 a.m. that day. Board President Zach Abraham and member Sarah Koegler attended in person. Member Christine Carder ...

Many Ohio Valley residents remember a time when the water in the Ohio River was terribly polluted. Decades of effort by industries, municipal wastewater treatment systems and other former polluters have changed that. Let’s not turn back the clock. Responsibility for setting water quality ...

Members of the state Senate Finance Committee were to meet today to start going through the proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Their task is to ensure $58 million will be available to help end the strike by public school employees throughout West ...

West Virginia public schools were supposed to be open today. Yet in not a single one were classes in session. Nearly 208,000 children missed one more day of learning. Today is the sixth day of the strike by members of the state’s two teachers’ unions and that representing school service ...

Imagine everyone who lives in Wheeling suddenly being told their incomes are being cut off. Imagine them being old enough that they had few prospects of replacing that loss. Now you have some idea of the disaster facing families throughout our state and in other coal mining ...