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John McCabe: Wheeling’s Pension Success Was Not An Accident

There may be no more impactful topic over the past quarter-century than how the city of Wheeling handled its police and fire pension issues. This past Tuesday morning, as I read Eric Ayres’ story on the current state of Wheeling’s police and fire pension funds, I recalled my first real introduction into municipal pensions — and their problems — in the early 2000s. I found a news story I wrote in October 2000 outlining how the city then was being required to ingest additional money into the funds — at the time, the annual contribution was about $750,000 each — and then ...

Why Humanity Opposes Data Centers

Polls from Fox to Gallup keep rolling in and the results are clear: more than seventy percent of Americans oppose data centers. For good reason. As Assaro notes, opposition is even greater in neighborhoods like Warwood getting AI data centers. Nearly every Wheeling City Councilor acknowledged the immediate reasons for opposition: significant local harms, with little to no local benefit. Massive energy, water, and noise problems, with fewer lasting jobs than a Sheetz. With scale, those local harms balloon. An entire Wheeling-sized city usually uses closer to 10 MW of power than the ...

John McCabe: Gateway Center in Wheeling’s Next Step ­— But Not Its Last

Foundation. Gov. Patrick Morrisey, during a stop here Tuesday, used that word to describe many of the things he said his administration has been doing over the past 18 months — including providing a $3.2 million grant for the Wheeling Gateway Center and, just recently, state loan guarantees ...

Hoppy Kercheval: Another Defining Moment in American History?

Socialism is having a moment in the United States … again. Recent election wins by candidates who identify as Democratic Socialists have generated interest in what supporters believe is a new and better way of governing. The movement has gained momentum among younger voters in ...

Reporter’s Notebook: Thoughts and prayers

I have covered many legislative committee meetings in my time under the golden dome, but I have never seen a worse outing for a new cabinet secretary than I did last week for Carl Ayers, the new secretary of the Department of Human Services. Ayers is only 23 days in, with his first day the same day as the start of the delayed School Clothing Allowance program on July 20. I have to wonder if he would have taken the job knowing he would be walking into a mess created by Gov. Patrick Morrisey His first real brush with lawmakers came Tuesday when he testified before the Legislative ...

John McCabe: Wheeling Can’t Afford To Automatically Say No

There’s still plenty we don’t know about Silicon Foundation’s proposed data center and energy technology campus at the former Centre Foundry property in Warwood. And there are plenty of legitimate questions that need to keep being asked. But after Tuesday night’s Wheeling City ...