Breaking News

Editorials

Make Public Schools An Attractive Option

As if our county boards of education did not have enough to worry about, a recent report by The Reason Foundation suggests a trend may present big challenges for West Virginia public schools. In a look at public school enrollment across the country, the foundation said West Virginia was one of only four states with public school enrollment that decreased by more than 5% between fiscal years 2020 and 2024. Certainly, the COVID-19 pandemic had something to do with that, but the Mountain State has not bounced back. At the beginning of FY2020, West Virginia had 263,485 students enrolled ...

Take Advantage of All Flood Benefits

Ohio County flood victims are now seeing exactly what a federal disaster declaration provides. On Monday, it was announced that those affected by the deadly June 14 floods can now apply for disaster unemployment assistance benefits, as well as a one-time $300 payment for cleaning and sanitation supplies. That’s on top of the benefits already available to those folks, including emergency repairs to homes and private roads and bridges, personal property losses and medical services, just to name a few. There are so many avenues for help for flood-affected residents. Those people ...

Protecting Our Children

Earlier this week, the Jackson Township (Ohio) Police Department conducted “Operation Unsportsmanlike Conduct,” in which it targeted predators traveling in an attempt to solicit sex from children, over a multi-day operation. According to a report by WOIO, the operation resulted in the arrests of seven men who were allegedly trying to engage in sexual activity with girls they believed to be under the ages of 13, 14 and 15. Stark County court records showed those girls were actually undercover police officers being contacted through cell phones, thank goodness. But think about that ...

Spend Our State Dollars Correctly

In announcing that it turns out there WILL be a larger-than-predicted surplus to start fiscal year 2026 in West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said “We’re saving money, we’re running government more efficiently, and we’re making decisions to say when we’re going to spend money, let’s make sure we spend it on the things that really matter and drive economic growth.” So what really matters? A few studies released recently might give us some clues. West Virginia is 46th in the country for state health care systems, according to WalletHub — ranking 49th for cancer rate, ...

Extend Tax-Free Holiday in W.Va.

Shoppers around West Virginia have been able to take advantage of the state’s tax-free holiday that started Friday and is set to end at 11:59 p.m. Monday. It’s a great opportunity for parents and students to finish up —or start — their back-to -school shopping where they’ll lose a little bit less in their wallets. Yet that begs a question: Why stop at just four days? State officials who traveled across West Virginia last week touting the tax-free weekend would have even more to crow about if they added more days to the benefit. It gives those shoppers more flexibility to ...

More Intel Issues in Ohio

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall when Gov. Mike DeWine, leaders of the Ohio Department of Development and JobsOhio learned the “well, actually …” that should have been attached to news a couple of weeks ago that Intel was going to “further slow the pace of construction in Ohio.” It was a red flag then that the company did not announce a new expected completion date. Now we know why. According to a report by WCMH, Intel also said it might have to stop work on the Ohio facility altogether if it cannot find external customers for its new 14A technology, which will not even ...