Editor, News-Register: Open letter to Gov. Jim Justice: Governor, I’m writing this to you because of the report that you want to re-settle refugees into our state. On the surface, this looks good, at least for you. However, and I can’t speak for everyone in the state, I believe most ...
Obviously, more oversight of management is necessary at Eastern Gateway Community College. During their meeting this week, members of the Steubenville institution’s board of trustees, meeting at the Youngstown campus, voted to fire EGCC President Jimmie Bruce. He had been placed on ...
An ongoing debate about public schools involves how to allocate scarce resources. Some critics complain about expenditures for athletic facilities, insisting the money should be used instead for academic programs. There should be no debate on that score in Toronto City Schools. Last ...
For nearly a century, Wetzel County Hospital has served people in the New Martinsville region — and done so well. Never intended to compete with larger operations, it has served as a hometown health care facility providing some services residents of the area would have had to travel to ...
Good for state senators for acting quickly on a bill that fills a need for a substantial number of West Virginians. It is SB 94, which passed the Senate by a vote of 33-0 (with one senator absent). SB 94 provides that disabled Mountain State residents who are registered to vote can cast ...
An East Liverpool school bus driver arrested Saturday on a drunk driving charge faces more severe penalties than if he had been in his private car, we are pleased to report. Still, legislators in both our states ought to consider even harsher penalties for similar offenses. On Saturday ...
Using a cellphone while driving, except with a hands-free device, already is a crime in Ohio. But drivers can be ticketed for it only if police or deputies spot them doing something else that is illegal. Since 2013, 305 people have died in Ohio accidents caused by “distracted driving,” ...
Links between black and Jewish Americans have been significant in the past because both groups have been victims of severe bigotry. But here in the Ohio Valley, we think a different relationship is even more important. It is the one among neighbors connected not through our addresses but ...
Many of us have concerns from time to time about how our state legislators handle the public’s business. But there can be no question about whether one, House of Delegates member Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, is a good man. Hornbuckle missed the first few days of the annual 60-day session of ...
Everyone makes mistakes. But as most of us learned early in our working careers, holding those who err accountable is a key means of limiting blunders. Clearly, someone is at fault for a problem that has closed the indoor swimming pool at Wheeling Park High School. The failure forced WPHS ...
Mention $32,000 couches, and the five members of the West Virginia Supreme Court are likely to wince. Good. Irresponsible spending — by, it should be noted, some of their predecessors, not them — was allowed for too long on the state’s highest court. But the current justices have ...
Many senior citizens in West Virginia rely on various organizations, many of them dependent themselves on state funding, for important services. They range from hot meals to help with household tasks and even medical care. Organizations and quasi-government agencies providing the help often ...
Among the good reasons for getting a flu shot is to keep yourself healthy enough to be there for the folks who need you this time of year. That is true in a larger sense when it comes to those in need of donated blood — and there are many more than we may think. According to blood banks, ...
State officials’ announcement that West Virginia’s Medicaid program next year will require $309 million less than had been anticipated earlier is good news, no matter how one views it. But keep one thing about the funds firmly in mind: It is not “found money” for state government. ...
West Virginia state Treasurer John Perdue certainly deserves credit for prudent management of our money. It is our money, of course, because we all pay taxes in the Mountain State. But on Monday, Perdue was praised by Gov. Jim Justice for agreeing to transfer $20 million out of the ...
For decades, the old Satralloy plant in Jefferson County’s Cross Creek Township provided good jobs to a number of area residents. But when the plant was shut down many years ago, it left behind an large pile of waste, containing a substance called hexavalent chromium. Among other toxic ...
Some people prove by single acts that they are permanent dangers to society. Richard Smith II, of Kanawha County, is one of them. Smith was convicted of multiple charges last week in Charleston. The charges all involve him sexually abusing a 1-year-old girl — and videotaping the sickening ...
State officials point to “natural growth” in government revenue as the way they expect to have enough money to phase out a $100 million-a-year tax that hampers economic development. That is not an unrealistic expectation; during the past decade, general revenue fund collections have ...
The last time West Virginians elected state Supreme Court justices, the two winners received only fractions of the total vote. Justice Tim Armstead was the choice of 26% of voters in his race. Justice Evan Jenkins was picked by 36%. What gives? In the Armstead and Jenkins races, each one ...
Though the condition of West Virginia’s State Road Fund improved during December, it was due to higher-than-expected collections of taxes from state residents. That still left the $1.32 billion fund with $75.5 million less in revenue than had been expected. Blame the federal government. ...