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Certificate of Need Vital Safeguard for West Virginia Communities

As debates rage about health care regulation, West Virginia’s Certificate of Need law has come under increased scrutiny, but the reality is this program plays an important role in helping ensure access to care. Critics argue that this program stifles competition and drives up costs. However, removing the CON program would devastate our state’s delicate rural health care ecosystem and ultimately harm the very communities these critics claim to champion. West Virginia’s rugged geography and sparse population create unique health care challenges. Our rural hospitals operate on ...

Is Wheeling’s New Mayor up to Task of Moving City Forward?

As Wheeling’s new mayor, Dennis Magruder, holds his first State of the City address today it is important to acknowledge the new mayor’s unprecedented weaknesses. This is a part of healthy governance and not an attack (which we acknowledge this administration is sensitive to). It’s not even about Magruder as much as it is about the mayor of Wheeling. Indeed, lack of objective criticism might well indicate a complacency that could cost our city greatly at this critical inflection point. And instead, by accurately acknowledging, balancing, and compensating for one person’s ...

House Flipping

The fight over whether to appoint a Republican or a Democrat to the 91st District House of Delegates seat is a fascinating one for me, a former legislative staffer who nerds out on these kinds of questions. But we will have to wait until May for the matter to be decided. I’ve had a story in the papers nearly every other day regarding the writ of mandamus lawsuit filed by the West Virginia Democratic Party, so I won’t go into the minute details. But here is a summary: Voters in the 91st District in Berkeley County vote for Republican Joseph de Soto in the May over Tammy Hess and ...

Informed Electorate More Important Than Ever

I read an opinion piece by Keith Raffel titled “Evidence Points to the Supreme Court as Real Enemy of Democracy” printed in the Jan. 13, 2025 edition of this paper. I’m tired. I’m tired of reading opinion pieces based on some unstated and assumed facts. I’m tired of reading opinion pieces where the author presumes that he, or she, is both smarter than me, and knows better than me what is good for me and for the whole country. I find the premise that the author is smarter than all of us, and knows what is best for all of us, writing about democracy absurd. Still, let me ...

The Moundsville City Council meeting was held this past Tuesday with City Manager Rick Healy updating those in attendance about multiple issues related to the City. This past week, a bid opening was held for the Shelter Project at Riverfront Park. Part of the funding for the project would be through the Land and Water Conservation Grant. Unfortunately, only one eligible bid was received, and that bid was much higher than the estimated project amount. City Manager Healy, Director White, and the architect will be looking at options related to value engineering and revisiting the scope of ...

Executive Privilege

I praised Gov. Patrick Morrisey in a recent column for his candidness regarding future issues with the general revenue budget. I once again have to praise Morrisey for laying more of his cards out on the table. Morrisey held a press conference Thursday providing an update on the general revenue budget for fiscal year 2026 beginning in July. That’s the budget Morrisey will present to lawmakers on Feb. 12. According to Morrisey’s new revenue team, they are projecting a $400 million hole in the FY26 budget as of Morrisey’s first day in office last Monday — around $100 million ...