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Our Veterans Are Struggling. West Virginians Can Help

The 988 suicide crisis hotline marked a one year anniversary recently. Reporting shows it received 5 million contacts in its first year, further evidence of America’s complicated mental health challenge that the U.S. Surgeon General recently identified as a crisis. A driving force is often disconnection from friends and family, and that isolation is commonly felt by military veterans, which have a storied history and major presence in the Mountain State. Data shows that two-thirds of veterans who die by suicide have had no contact with support services such as the Department of ...

Wacky Weekend at the Capitol

Well, last week’s special session might be the most unusual special session I’ve seen in 13 years of being beneath the golden dome of the State Capitol Building. I’ve never seen a special session proclamation released giving lawmakers a mere 30 minutes to gavel in. Sure, lawmakers were already in Charleston for August legislative interim meetings, but certainly not all of them. There were only four interim committee meetings scheduled Sunday, so many lawmakers were going to wait to come to Charleston Sunday evening or first thing Monday morning. I’ve even heard tell of ...

Marshall Memo: Activity Passes; School’s Back; and a Personal Note

If you happen to be one of the Marshall County citizens who missed the deadline for a free Activity Pass, I’ve got good news for you. There will be two more opportunities; one will be Aug. 23, and the other Aug. 30, from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on both dates at the school board office. All Marshall County citizens are eligible for the free Activity Pass. Marshall County School employee IDs and high school/middle school school-issued IDs may be used for free admission. The Activity Passes provide entrance to every Marshall County school-sponsored event, including musicals and plays, ...

Federal Asset Tax Would Penalize Americans for Investments

President Joe Biden, still intent on destroying the value of a dollar you earn, has proposed a new tax that would initially fall on both the income and unrealized asset gains of upper-income taxpayers but ultimately pass through to your families as a rise in the cost of goods. It’s a terrible plan that would close many small businesses, further compromise supply, inflate product price, and discourage new or expansive private-sector investment. Long championed by left-wing denizens of the Beltway swamp, a tax on assets (something they call a wealth tax) exemplifies their failure to ...

Sen. Shelley Capito Is Bipartisan Leader for Seniors

When our leaders in D.C. accomplish something bipartisan that helps people, it is worth talking about. Earlier this year, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito led a group of 60 of her colleagues to sign a letter in support of Medicare Advantage. In these political times, getting more than half of the Senate to agree on anything is a real achievement. The fact that the agreement was around a program as important as Medicare Advantage makes it even better. Medicare Advantage is a public-private partnership to provide high-quality and affordable health care coverage to seniors like me. I get to ...

Is West Virginia’s Higher Education Market Saturated?

I was probably a bit harsh in a lead I wrote for my story last week where I accused Gov. Jim Justice of inserting himself in the attempt by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission to pull the degree-granting authority for Alderson Broaddus University in Barbour County. However, I didn’t really know any other way to accurately describe it at the time. I was also mildly annoyed I had to write about the issue to begin with. My beat is state government, and while I do cover the HEPC from time to time, I usually only cover it as far as its broad actions overseeing the ...