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Marshall Memo: Hefty County Budget; Community Night; and Fundraisers

The Marshall County Commission on Wednesday adopted the Fiscal Year 2025 levy for submission to the West Virginia Auditor’s Office. The county’s budget for the coming year is set at $47.9 million, with an additional $5.1 million in coal severance. “We believe this budget serves the needs of our elected officials so that they may operate their offices in an efficient manner,” Commission President Mike Ferro said. “We also believe we have projected sufficiently for potential increases in the cost of insurance, regional jail expenses, and fuel for vehicles—all of which are ...

Poll Results Show Changing Dynamics in West Virginia Governor’s Race

Finally, the first new polling in the West Virginia Republican primaries for governor and U.S. Senate is out, and while it needs to be taken with a grain of salt, it does provide some interesting perspective. According to a poll conducted between March 19 and March 21 by Emerson College Polling and Nexstar Media (the owner of several TV stations in West Virginia, including WOWK, WTRF, WBOY, WVNS, as well as neighboring WDCW which covers the Eastern Panhandle from its Hagerstown bureau), Morrisey continues to lead in the GOP race for governor, but Huntington business Chris Miller is ...

The Alabama Supreme Court, IVF and Catholic Doctrine

The Alabama Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision, declaring that an embryo is a human being and is protected under state law from mistreatment, has brought to public scrutiny the procedure called in vitro fertilization. The media generally has derided the decision, saying that the Court’s decision makes embryos equivalent to “people” or “children.” Many politicians, both conservative and liberal, have taken a stand in favor of IVF and say it must be protected in law. The Alabama legislature quickly passed a bill giving legal immunity to facilities that perform IVF and to those who ...

Marshall Memo: Smarts for Life; Natatorium; Cleanup; and a New Roof

A team from John Marshall High School won the 2024 West Virginia LifeSmarts Championship, which means they will travel to California next month to compete for the 2024 Life Smarts Varsity Team National Title. The JMHS LifeSmarts team includes: Alina Holliday, Maria Huck, Jasper Murrin, and Ethan Pekula. They are coached by Business Teacher Megan Pintus. With the state competition win, the team qualified for the 30th LifeSmarts Championship to be held April 18-21 in San Diego. Fifty teams will be taking part. John Marshall teams have been competing at the national championship for six ...

It’s Time for Americans To Prepare for Electricity Rationing

In the hours before President Biden delivered his State of the Union address, the Washington Post ran a front-page story titled “Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power.” What the Post and other national outlets have discovered is that America’s electricity demand is soaring. And our electricity grid is in no shape to handle it. None of this was in the president’s address before Congress because it doesn’t fit the administration’s narrative of a smooth and painless energy transition. But the inescapable reality is that the reliability of our power supply ...

The Curious Case of Caiden Cowger

When writing about lobbyists in my column last summer, I wrote about Caiden Cowger, a Republican political operative and the president of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia. While Cowger’s predecessor at the Family Policy Council, Allen Whitt, was a registered lobbyist with the West Virginia Ethics Commission, Cowger has never registered as a lobbyist. As such, he also provides no expenditure reports to the Ethics Commission. Yet, Cowger actively lobbies on specific issues directly to lawmakers during legislative sessions and has acted almost as an unpaid staffer for ...