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Letters to the Editor

Publicity Stunt

Editor, News-Register: Once again, our wayward Congressman Riley Moore has introduced a misguided proposal—this time co‑sponsoring legislation to create a campaign medal for military personnel stationed at the Southern Border. At best, this initiative is ignorant; at worst, it amounts to political theater, reducing our troops to props in a publicity stunt. Campaign medals carry deep and specific meaning in the U.S. military. Historically—from the Spanish‑American War to the present—they have been reserved for service members deployed to combat zones on foreign shores and ...

School Leaders Must Explain Test Scores

Editor, News-Register: Together we achieve! The West Virginia Department of Education this past week released the newest statewide proficiency scores for 2025. The scores for Ohio County Schools in total were basically the same as last year. My hope is that this year, just this once, our elected board of education members demand an explanation as to how our countywide math proficiency scores go from 66% in 3rd grade to 37% in 6th grade to 27% in 11th grade. That’s right, only 27% of our graduating seniors at Wheeling Park High School are considered proficient in math by ...

Reminder To Practice What You Preach

Editor, News-Register: I and many of my neighbors of Penco Estates received a letter on Aug. 1, 2025, from Mark E. Brennan, Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston Diocese, concerning a Miracle Field and playground to be placed in our neighborhood within the city of Weirton. This letter was in response to a petition sent to the Diocese regarding the proposed Miracle Field to be built adjacent to St. Joseph the Worker School. Bishop Brennan’s letter was condescending and implied that the neighborhood residents have no Christian love for young people with disabilities. That is an absurd and ...

Dangerous Merge Area Needs Attention

Editor, News-Register: When traveling east on I-70, I hold my breath as I approach the on-ramp from Wheeling Island. While there is a yield sign, drivers punch the accelerator and force a merge. Perhaps a STOP sign is needed, then maybe drivers merging from the Island would at least slow down and, yes, YIELD! Patricia Byrd Bridgeport

Finding Joy In Life’s Small Acts of Kindness

Editor, News-Register: Tears in her eyes, the Crying Girl in “Mean Girls” once wished she could “bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles and we’d all eat and be happy.” While her classmates laughed, I have always admired the sincerity behind her words. After more than a decade of participating in GISH, a global scavenger hunt that raised money for various charities through creative and quirky challenges, and now the Rogue Hunt, a similar event that supports nonprofit causes, I truly believe she was onto something. Small, sincere acts of kindness and joy really ...

Are We Losing That Wheeling Feeling?

Editor, News-Register: TJ’s Sports Garden closed this past week. It’s sad to lose another establishment that occupied a niche of Wheeling’s personality. Since childhood, I loved to pass by TJ’s mural and marvel at the sports legends that have come from the Ohio Valley. My parents would point out some of the names and tell me their stories. Bill Mazeroski, Lou “The Toe” Groza, Bobby Douglas, The Wheeling Ironmen — they all became part of my personal history because we shared the same birthplace and because someone had found a creative way to remember them to the ...