I’m back from vacation just in time for the resumption of the special session today. Some Florida sun and surf did me some good. I even encountered some charter school students at Disney World and didn’t yell at them for ruining education or for not being silver bullets or something. Of ...

What do the Wheeling Park High School Speech and Debate Team, the Cameron and Sherrard Middle School history bowl teams and the U.S. Army have in common? Not much, except for one very important attribute: They all produce winners. Think about this: Retired U.S. Army Col. Gregory Gadson, ...

A few weeks ago, my daughter, Dannielle and I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles) at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It was a beautiful course running through the battlefield and farm country. The course was hilly. We expected that and trained accordingly. I had a good finishing time for me. Dannielle ...

“‘Bring Back the East End Playground!” No, the East End Playground hasn’t gone anywhere. Instead there are concerns pertaining to this facility — the number of attractions offered there and the number of people utilizing the Park. City Manager Rick Healy and parks and recreation ...

Considering the importance of small businesses, we wanted to remind everyone that it’s never been easier to start or grow a business in West Virginia, thanks to the state Legislature’s initiative creating the WV One Stop Business Center.   The first center of its kind in the nation and ...

It appears Republican leaders in the West Virginia Legislature are doing precisely what I suggested last week that they might. They are pulling the rug right out from under the feet of the state’s three big public school employee unions. Union leaders are not happy about that. In March, ...

Standing in the parking lot at the Burger Chef on National Road, a group of teenagers gather to do nothing. Well, sort of nothing. In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, the “Chef” was one of the places young people gathered on sultry summer evenings, much to the chagrin of a certain ...

Sometimes, it’s not a bad thing to put off getting a Mother’s Day gift until the last minute. It gives you time to come up with the perfect present. It came to me Thursday night, while I was watching a softball game between two teams of little girls. My, were they having fun! A glance at ...

Late last month, former Ohio County Magistrate Harry Radcliffe pleaded guilty in federal court to a single charge involving a tax conspiracy. His attorney said the case was about failure to report some income on his tax return. Other charges against Radcliffe, including one of soliciting ...

Many of those who serve and protect us as police officers, sheriff’s deputies, state police troopers and in other law enforcement capacities will gather for a somber ceremony at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, at the Heritage Port in Wheeling. It will be the seventh annual memorial ceremony honoring ...

How old am I? One of the big stories of last week was that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s presented their two-day-old son to the world. His name is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. This maybe the first time in recent history that an interracial child has been born into the royal ...

Members of the city of Cameron Historical Society were unaware that a road sign named for Civil War veteran Uriah “Duck” Alley was in the sign shop of the state Division of Highways in Charleston until a local resident called that agency about another matter. When Calvin Moninger was ...

Across the country, millions of students, families and educators are celebrating National Charter Schools Week and how they transform communities by bringing educational opportunities to students. Unfortunately, our students are left out of these celebrations because West Virginia is one of the ...

Public school shutdowns in 2018 and earlier this year were masterful displays of strategy and tactics by the three unions representing many West Virginia public school employees, as I’ve written previously. The 2018 effort garnered national attention and served as a template for unions in ...

This is a tough one. Today would have been our mother’s 93rd birthday. And with Mother’s Day weekend upon us, we are doubly reminded of the nearly two-year absence of our matriarch. Mother’s Day always focused around all the moms in our families and she was the center of the attention. ...

I’m starting to feel more hopeful that the re-start of the special session won’t be as contentious as I thought it might be, though I still think some of what the governor and lawmakers want to do is on the ambitious side. The hope continues to be that state Senate and House of Delegates ...

Every student must first live a humble life. They should always take their studying, athletic and later vocational endeavors seriously. However, they should avoid taking themselves too seriously, for that is the beginning of arrogance. Arrogance offends other people and has no redeeming ...

Marshall County Planning Commission recording secretary Marilyn Thalman was honored last weekend at the MCPC’s annual dinner meeting at the Prima Marina in Moundsville. Thalman has been the planning commission’s recording secretary for 48 1/2 years. She was appointed to the position on ...

As a member of the bipartisan Congressional Families Cancer Prevention Program® of the Prevent Cancer Foundation®, I want to share the following information as we observe Skin Cancer Awareness Month. You may know about melanoma — the deadly skin cancer that more than 96,000 (650 in West ...

When it comes to promoting youth, the Ohio Valley stands out. From the George C. Stifel Awards in Ohio County to the People’s Bank Academic Awards handed out each year in our region, there’s no shortage of organizations and businesses that recognize youngsters for their achievements. One ...