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Letters to the Editor

Putting Children First in School

Editor, News-Register: There has been lots of disagreement over the question of whether our students (and our staff) are at greater risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus given the Ohio County school board’s recent decision to reject their superintendent’s recommendation for mandating masks for all. Even though most if not all of our local pediatricians and emergency medicine physicians and nurses have advocated for universal masking, and the national association of Children’s Hospitals published an open letter to all school systems asking them to please require ...

Teaching 9/11 to America

Editor, News-Register: Many years ago, in 2011, my students asked me about the terrorist attacks of September 11th. The class had a lot of questions about Al-Qaeda and Afghanistan. After I recommended reading “Reaping the Whirlwind” by Michael Griffen, the superintendent stopped by to tell me that several parents had called. They had never heard about the Tengiz oil field, nor the BP, Unocal, and Chevron pipeline project in Afghanistan, which had started during the 1990’s, prior to the Taliban takeover. That one book opened the eyes of several students’ families in a single ...

Restore Public Library Funding

Editor, News-Register: The Ohio County Board of Education confirmed a disastrous decision in the late spring to cripple the Ohio County Public Library with an immense cut to funding, going against a proud history of public support for this most honored of Wheeling’s public institutions. President (David) Croft showed absolutely no interest in evaluating the numerous articulate and cogent testimonies given by the public regarding why such cuts should not go forward. A strong leader would have, at the very least, made a show of having a more considered analysis. It was quite clear his ...

New Historical Markers in City

Editor, News-Register: You might have noticed a greater number of historical highway markers around Wheeling recently. Mark Musilli and his crew from the West Virginia Division of Highways have been busy setting posts and affixing signs at the site of the old North Wheeling Hospital (two signs), one near Rebecca Harding Davis’ home in Center Wheeling and five near the Madonna of the Trail on National Road. Placing all these signs is a lot of work and we are grateful to Mark and his men for their efforts to help emphasize Wheeling’s rich history. Margaret Brennan Wheeling

DOH, Fix Local Roads, Please!

Editor, News-Register: Hey state highways workers! This is your friendly neighborhood taxpayer with a question: Why can’t you fix the road by Kroger — it wouldn’t take much to grind down the speed bumps that are there. If you don’t feel safe doing it in the daytime, do it at night. Also, 20th Street Extension by the newspaper’s printing plant has to be the worst street in Wheeling. Try doing a little work, if you please. J. Myers Wheeling

Open Letter to Sen. Joe Manchin

Editor, News-Register: As an intern at The Borgen Project, a national nonprofit organization that works on making global poverty a focus of U.S. foreign policy, I have been educated on the many benefits of sending aid to developing countries. Not only does it improve the global economy and save millions of lives, but it also advances the U.S.’s own interests, such as national security and job creation. Less than 1 percent of the national budget is spent on foreign aid, compared to a massive 54 percent being spent on the military. So why are we spending so much when it is clear that ...