Breaking News

Editorials

Growth Tops Needs for the Ohio Valley

As the calendar turns to 2026 in the Ohio Valley, it’s fitting that we all look to the future. What is it that this region needs in the new year? What will push it into a better place? There’s a short, but important answer: growth. It’s not growth in any one specific area. It’s growth in every area — population, economics, you name it. For decades, the Ohio Valley has been shrinking with no real evidence of an upturn. Take Wheeling, for example. The 2000 census had The Friendly City at 31,419 residents. In 2010, that total dropped to 28,486, and then to 27,062 in 2020. ...

Getting Healthy in 2026

The calendar has turned to 2026. The Christmas desserts are long gone. The New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day celebrations — and the calories that often come with them — are over. Now many of us are looking in the mirror and wondering how we can shed some of the holiday pounds we packed on over the last few weeks. The solution comes not just from thought, but from action, as in getting up off the couch, getting mobile and burning some of those added calories. Some people might already have started on detailed regimens to whip themselves into shape. Good work, guys. For ...

Pats on the Back

- To the winners of the Wheeling Elks Scholarships for 2025-26, Wheeling Park High School students Grace Tamburin and Owen Dobrzynski Hines. Their commitment to their studies and their community is worthy of recognition. - To the Ohio Valley community that gave the Zhu family a hand after a house fire and supported them through buying meals from their St. Clairsville restaurant Zhuzi. That’s exactly the spirit that makes the Ohio Valley a great place to live. - To Community Coffee & Tea Shop in Bellaire and friends of World War II veteran Wayne Hill, who surprised the 98-year-old ...

Remain Sober, Focused Behind the Wheel

Winter can make driving more challenging anyway in our region, but West Virginia Department of Transportation officials suggest drivers are also having a hard time navigating worksites and the presence of non-civilian vehicles. Between Dec. 12 and 19, the department reported five separate accidents in which civilian motorists were at fault when they hit DOT vehicles. “If you’ve been out in the last couple of weeks you’ve seen the traffic, you’ve seen the congestion. If you couple that with any kind of impaired driving, reckless driving, speeding, or distracted driving, it ...

Protecting Ohio Waters

Ohio’s Environmental Protection Agency has extended the public comment period to Jan. 16 as it considers fast-tracking a general wastewater permit for new data centers in the Buckeye State. Right now, the state EPA’s draft permit includes “a lowering of water quality of various waters of the state associated with granting coverage under this permit necessary to accommodate important social and economic development in the state of Ohio.” But among the questions such a statement raises are WHY it is necessary. WCMH spoke to water quality advocate Amy Swank, of Dublin, who said ...

Resolve to Grow In the New Year

As we wrap up one year and look hopefully ahead to the next, most in our region are looking forward to the possibility of peace, prosperity, success … all the good things that are possible when the blank slate of an entire year stretches out before us. Sure, we take some accountability by assigning resolutions to ourselves — improvement plans to which we say we will stick for 365 days. (On the other hand, some eat their pork and sauerkraut and hope for the best knowing they’ve done their part.) But it is worth asking ourselves: What do we truly want for ourselves, our families, ...