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Reporter's Notebook: To The Moon

If you're reading this today, I am in George Town, the capital city of the Cayman Islands in the middle of my third Royal Caribbean cruise. I'm writing this column before shipping off from Port Canaveral in Florida along the Space Coast, a short drive away from the launchpad where the Artemis 2 mission to orbit the moon took off. It seems every time I leave for my annual vacation, which sometimes is a cruise but usually is a week’s stay at my mother-in-law's timeshare in Kissimmee, I miss witnessing a rocket launch of some sort. These days, it's usually a SpaceX launch. In fact, ...

Pope Urging Leaders To See Wisdom Of Christ's Words

Columnist Cal Thomas fired his guns at Pope Leo XIV for his comments on the armed conflict going on in the Middle East and the Pope’s preference for negotiation over war (The Intelligencer, April 10, 2026). A rebuttal is in order. First, this Pope or any Pope’s comments on a political situation are not infallible. Papal infallibility in Catholic practice is very rare and is carefully circumscribed to deal only with matters of faith and morals that can affect the eternal welfare of the faithful. Pope Leo has not claimed his views are infallible. Second, Mr. Thomas seems to think ...

Touchstone Helps To Boost West Virginia's Technology Landscape

For a long time, West Virginia leaders have said that, in order for the state to grow and thrive, it must embrace and continue to advance in the technology field. The next step in that process happened this Friday in Triadelphia. Touchstone Advanced Components, located on Middle Creek Road in Triadelphia, cut the ribbon Friday on a new 12,500-square-foot manufacturing facility. This new facility will allow the company to expand its operations in using C-foam, a coal byproduct created by Touchstone about 20 years ago to create tools, molds and parts needed in the aerospace ...

Safe Haven Baby Boxes Important For Community

There are some things in life that we hope are never used, but we’re much better off as a community that the option is there. Such is the case with the latest Safe Haven Baby Box that was blessed this past week at the headquarters of the Wheeling Fire Department. Safe Haven Baby Boxes allow a struggling mother wishing to surrender a child do so anonymously in a temperature-controlled and alarmed box. That box also will alert first responders, who will come and check that the child isn’t suffering any health issues. This is the second Baby Box at a Wheeling fire station, the ...

Consider Being An Organ Donor

As flags climbed flagpoles at hospitals throughout the Ohio Valley this week, the message was clear — organ donation is one of the most important decisions one can make for others. The “Donate Life” flags are flying in celebration of National Donate Life Awareness Month, a reminder of the need for organ donors across the country. In the Ohio Valley, guest speakers offered examples of how organ donation can change lives for the better. They talked about their family members who have been donor organ recipients and the years those gifts have given them to spend more time with their ...

Solid Energy Plan Needed

State senators have plenty of work to do — for their constituents, they must remember — and among those tasks is understanding Ohio’s energy landscape and the demands we are placing on our power grid. Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chair Jenifer French spoke to the body recently about the benefits of shorter regulatory timelines, noting that last year the commission signed off on 2,000 megawatts of behind-the-meter power (standalone power serving a facility) and 2,755 megawatts of traditional gas-generating facilities. She told the committee, “This is more gas-fired ...