Breaking News

Editorials

State of the City Is Powered by People

Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder hit the nail on the head when, in his State of the City Address this past week, he said that it was the people of the Friendly City that power the engine of its success. At the end of his speech, Magruder reviewed the many investments that have been made in the Friendly City. “These investments matter,” he said, “but they are not our greatest asset. That distinction belongs to the people of Wheeling — resilient, hard-working and deeply committed to this community.” Much of Magruder’s speech was focused on triumphs of the last year and ...

Remembering Rusty Jebbia

The City of Wheeling lost one of its best public servants with the passing of Rusty Jebbia at age 71. Jebbia spent 44 years with the city in numerous roles, starting as part of Wheeling’s engineering department, moving to assistant city manager and wrapping up his career as the city’s director of public works. Those who knew him remembered him as a cherished wealth of information, someone always willing to help, even if it was in the dead of night. “Rusty was an incredibly dedicated public official who loved this city wholeheartedly,” Wheeling City Manager Robert Herron ...

Pats on the Back

- To St. Mary’s Central School eighth-grader Adeline Jackson, who, took home first place at the Times Leader Belmont County Regional Spelling Bee at the ECO Center on Thursday night. - To Chalmer Moffett, the former assistant principal at Triadelphia Middle School who was named this week as the new principal at Woodsdale Elementary School. - To West Liberty University, which recently cut the ribbon on the new Hilltop Center for Biomedical Research on its campus. - To Moundsville city employees, who logged more than 250 overtime hours to make sure the city’s roads and sidewalks ...

A Winning Team-Up for a Key Concern

It’s good to see Ohio County Schools and the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese come together for a cause, especially one as serious as with their latest collaboration. The two organizations had two of their most visible students ­— Wheeling Park High School football player Brennan Wack and Wheeling Central Catholic High School boys basketball player Eli Sancomb — unite for a video cautioning young men about the dangers of “sextortion.” It’s a growing issue in this age of technology, when a teen sends someone they just met online a compromising photo, only to find out it’s ...

Streamlining Ohio Schools

Lawmakers who were sent by voters to Columbus to cut wasteful spending and unnecessary layers of government have an interesting idea in front of them in state House Bill 520. The measure, now sitting in the House Local Government Committee would “establish and convene a Blue Ribbon Committee in each county to review and assess each taxing unit within the county and each county program or department to identify duplication of services and generally to streamline and improve county efficiency and effectiveness.” One could point out the irony of attacking inefficient, multi-layered ...

Finding Ways To Make West Virginia Fitter

As a few attempts to address West Virginia’s woeful health indicators and perpetually bottom-of-the-barrel quality of life rankings have made their way into public policy over the past year, lawmakers have continued to look for new ways to address the matter. As it seems these days everything must have a call back to some other well-known political slogan, the Make West Virginia Healthy Act of 2026 is meant to get ahead of some of our state’s worst health challenges. “We all know the numbers … West Virginia leads the nation in chronic disease, disability, preventable ...