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Teaching Public Safety

Editorials

Martins Ferry Police Officer Jon Young doesn’t want the kids in his community to feel afraid of law enforcement. “When I am in a store, sometimes a parent will point to me and say to their child, ‘If you’re not good, he will arrest you.’ And they learn to be afraid of us,” Young said. “We don’t want kids to be afraid of us. We want them to know that cops are here to help.” So Young has put together a great program to help children learn not just about the police department, but other public safety organizations as well. He has established the Martins Ferry Junior ...

Kudos for Funding West Virginia EMS Workers

Editorials

There is good reason House Bill 5168 passed out of the House of Delegates without a single vote against on Monday. It is one of the very few, genuine no-brainers to come before lawmakers in recent years. HB 5168 would establish a permanent funding stream for EMS workers across the state — $12 million annually from lottery net profits. According to House Finance Committee Chairman Vernon Criss, R-Wood, it brings EMS funding in line with a formula used to support fire departments. The bill mandates the first $1 million of the $6 million Salary Enhancement, Crisis Response, and Mental ...

Hope Stays Intact

Local Columns

Much as I predicted last week, the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program remains intact for the next fiscal year. Instead of recommending its first originating bill to reform the Hope program, the House Finance Committee recommended a new originating bill that only changed the payment frequency to Hope families from two times per year to four times. Some are saying the committee buckled under pressure from current home school and private school families. That’s a complete misunderstanding of what happened. The reason the first originating bill was drafted was to deal with ...

Railway Safety Act Must Gather Steam

Editorials

More than three years after a disastrous derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Congress has continued to sit on its hands rather than upset its friends in the railroad industry by implementing desperately needed rail safety reform. Well, most of Congress, anyway. A few have repeatedly tried to push change. Most recently, a bipartisan group that includes U.S. Sens. Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, both, R-Ohio, has introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2026. Buckeye State residents are more concerned about whether he and Moreno can help this bill finally gain the momentum the effort ...

Praying for Change In Steubenville

Letters to the Editor

Editor, News-Register: Steubenville is on the threshold of a historic transformation. Having completed our Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant, our city is now eligible for a $26 million federal Implementation grant. While $26 million is a massive sum, its true power is its ability to act as a magnet. By securing this grant, we unlock a capital stack of state and federal loans and tax credits totaling over $76 million for the North End. With careful stewardship, this investment will turn our vision into reality: 256 new or modernized dwellings. We already possess one of the finest ...

Governor’s Tax Cut Won’t Move Needle

Editorials

It’s a story common for regions of West Virginia that border Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky. A recent college graduate of West Virginia University lands their first job in Pennsylvania. When it comes to deciding which state is more appealing on the income tax front, the choice is clear: Pennsylvania. The same goes for Ohio and Kentucky. How many professionals work in Wheeling, Parkersburg or Huntington, yet live in Ohio or Kentucky because of a lower personal income tax burden? And now, instead of proposing a meaningful plan to make West Virginia more competitive with its ...