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Keep Ball Rolling On W.Va. Business

Editorials

Frontieras North America’s announcement that it has closed on 183 acres in Mason County with a plan to build an $850 million coal reformation facility appears to be wonderful news for those communities. It’s a big project that, if all goes as planned, could result in 2,000 construction jobs and 200 permanent jobs. Gov. Patrick Morrisey says many of those jobs are expected to be more than $100,000 per year. Company officials say the construction could begin later this year and the plant could be up and running by the middle of 2028. Those same officials also claim the project will ...

King’s Legacy Is a Lesson for Youth

Editorials

The celebration in the Ohio Valley of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King through this past weekend and into Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday was inspiring, especially in the way that so many celebrations invited our community’s youth to participate. The Belmont County NAACP honored middle schoolers within its county at a Saturday luncheon, choosing students who their teachers and counselors believed best exemplified the leadership qualities King espoused. In Ohio County on Monday, students were honored for their winning work in West Virginia’s Martin Luther King Jr. State Holiday ...

Keep the Judiciary Neutral

Editorials

Former Ohio Supreme Court Justice and lieutenant governor Maureen O’Connor is certainly not resting quietly in her retirement. Though she left her seat on the court in 2022 because of age limits, she is still active in matters such as redistricting and protecting the judiciary from politicization. It’s easy to understand why that is important to her. When she was on the court, she repeatedly stood with the majority in rejecting clearly unfair and unconstitutional redistricting maps. For doing so, she faced insults and threats of impeachment from fellow Republicans — for not ...

Small Businesses in West Virginia Need Help

Editorials

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy, small businesses generate 44% of U.S. economic activity, though that contribution has gradually been declining as small business growth has slowed in recent years. It takes brave entrepreneurs to launch a small business. Some states are better environments than others, and according to at least one study, West Virginia has an enormous amount of room for improvement. In WalletHub’s “Best and Worst States to Start a Business (2026),” the Mountain State ranks 44th. For business environment, we rank 46th; ...

Drama Beneath the Gold Dome

Local Columns

Last week was an interesting start to the 2026 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature. In my previous column, I told you about the comments from former state Senate Finance Committee chairman Eric Tarr, R-Putnam, when he told attendees of the West Virginia Press Association’s Legislative Lookahead on Jan. 9 that the Republican caucus in the state Senate had no consensus regarding a public policy agenda. Now, that seemed a bit crazy to me. I’m a former Senate communications staffer, working the last two years of the Democratic majority and first two years of the new ...

Moving West Virginia Forward

Editorials

If Gov. Patrick Morrisey is looking for a West Virginia comeback, it’s a good indication he understands the struggle has been overwhelming for far too long and hope is still hard to come by for too many Mountain State residents. But during his State of the State address Wednesday, Morrisey was determined to focus on “a West Virginia we can be proud of,” for our children and grandchildren. As he rightly pointed out, that means being honest about the fact that many in our state are still struggling to make ends meet. They are dealing with “sky-rocketing grocery bills, crushing ...