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Addressing Challenges With Health Care Staffing in W.Va.

The core mission of hospitals is caring for people. To fulfill that mission, hospitals need compassionate, skilled, trained, and dedicated professionals. In West Virginia, more than 49,000 compassionate caregivers are employed by hospitals, representing the largest segment of health care in the state. In fact, new data from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that West Virginia employs the highest percentage of individuals in health care compared to its total workforce. Our hospital workforce is our most precious resource. That’s why to gain further insight into hospital employment in ...

Money Issues Complicate Justice Campaign

I feel like I haven’t written about West Virginia politics in years, but it has only been a few weeks. I’m almost away in May, between my annual Florida vacation that takes up much of the middle of the month and an annual Memorial Day weekend trip to my friend’s Kentucky cabin to help clean grave sites. I feel like during that time away, however, just about anyone who has a debt owed by Gov. Jim Justice and his family-owned businesses have come collecting, including now the federal government. Last week, the Justice Department filed a civil case on behalf of the Office of ...

Marshall Memo: ‘Kids’ Of All Ages To Perform Live Show At Strand; Glass Show Set

The Missoula Children’s Theatre Company will return to the Strand Theatre in Moundsville on June 19-24 offering a free acting workshop for children who have completed kindergarten through age 18 and seniors! New this year, will be the intergenerational program “King Arthur’s Quest” including actors age 55 and up. During the week, participants will be immersed in many aspects of production of a live stage show, culminating with two public performances. Pre-registrants/on-site registrants will audition from 10 a.m. until noon June 19. Those auditioning should arrive at 9:30 ...

Could the EPA Really Break America’s Power Grid?

As policymakers in Washington like to point out, America is undergoing an “energy transition.” But as Washington embarks on a major national shift toward renewable energy, there’s a serious question — can we manage this wide-scale transformation without losing the security and reliability of our existing power grid? The answer, according to the nation’s grid reliability experts, is that we’re on the verge of catastrophe. But instead of smart policies to address this looming crisis, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually issued a blitz of new rules that could ...

March for Freedom Is Not Forgotten This Memorial Day

Sometimes on one of those late spring days when Memorial Day comes, you can almost see them, marching, marching onward, the legion of the forgotten dead. In the soft stillness and solitude of a country graveyard in the evening hush, occasionally you can hear the muffled beat of a drum as the endless ranks of that forgotten legion slip by, file after file, in ghostly procession never ending. They materialize, these war dead whom we honor Memorial Day, somehow, when the eye wanders idly across old grave markers to halt at a small obelisk with worn carvings making the words almost ...

‘West Virginia First’ Agreement To Help All Mountaineers

The opioid scourge is one of the greatest challenges West Virginia has ever faced. The vast oversupply of prescription opioids caused or contributed to too many senseless deaths, and too many broken families, over many, many years. We have fought hard—and we’re still fighting—to bring a sense of healing to the state. While litigation and settlements will not bring back the lives lost from the opioid epidemic, our hope is that the monies garnered will provide much needed help to those affected the most. Gov. Jim Justice recently signed into law Senate Bill 674, which codifies ...