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Take Time To Celebrate

What a milestone we’re able to experience, the 250th birthday of the United States of America. What we’re seeing is a literal once-in-a-lifetime happening, the quarter millennium of the nation. It’s a cause for celebration. So let’s celebrate it. There will be plenty of opportunities to do so. Communities throughout the Ohio Valley will hold events throughout the weekend honoring America and its historic birthday. There will be parades, rides, food and, especially, fireworks in multiple towns on both sides of the Ohio River. Everyone should take advantage of that. Go to an ...

Rabbi Lief A Great Choice To Lead Wheeling Homelessness Task Force

In choosing the inaugural chairperson for his homelessness task force, Wheeling Mayor Denny Magruder needed to find someone who is a proven unifier, someone with compassion for their fellow man and someone who can guide a diverse group of people to seek solutions to a very difficult subject. In Rabbi Joshua Lief of Wheeling’s Temple Shalom, he found someone who checked all of those boxes. The city announced earlier this week that Lief would be the chair of the city’s homelessness task force, a group whose roster will be led by members of the clergy in the city and include members ...

Finding Pockets of Success in W.Va.

While the narrative tends to focus on the rapid rate at which West Virginia’s population is shrinking, there are some spots in the state where population is actually growing. It’s worth taking a look at why. WorldAtlas compiled a list of the communities bucking the trend here, noting something that should be common sense, but seems to have escaped many policy makers: “Jobs and housing explain why these towns add residents while the rest of the state loses them.” So which communities are growing? Martinsburg, Charles Town and Ranson, in the Eastern Panhandle, which has ...

An Inspiration For All West Virginia

Sometimes it is the legislation that seems smaller — perhaps grabs fewer headlines — that can make the biggest difference for individuals. That is the case for state House Bill 4089, which recently became law in West Virginia after legislators finally supported it during this winter’s legislative session. Also called Jessica Huffman’s Law, the effort was inspired by Huffman’s own experience while receiving chemotherapy treatments a couple of years ago, according to Wrap Up, the West Virginia Legislature’s official blog. Though Huffman was unprepared by the loss of her ...

Facts Matter — So Does Communication

The conversation this past week on a proposed data center project at the former Centre Foundry site on River Road in Warwood has been dominated by something other than facts — primarily, speculation. Since Saturday, rumors on the potential project spread very quickly. Information found online about data centers amplified concerns. An impromptu town hall even took place at the Warwood Vets on Tuesday, with a state senator and state delegate in attendance. Both admitted they knew absolutely nothing about the proposed development yet offered their thoughts anyway. In the absence of ...

‘The Hole’ Has No Place in Our Schools

Every few years an issue arises within Ohio County Schools that demands a full explanation from school administrators. Several years ago it was a kindergarten student that walked out the front door of the Warwood School and headed for home in the middle of the day. School administrators never fully explained how that occurred. There also was an incident years ago on a local school bus carrying a sports team back to Wheeling from a West Virginia University basketball game in Morgantown where a student alleged inappropriate sexual behavior. Again, no explanation was given to the ...