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Thank You for Support of Steubenville-Jefferson County Library

Letters to the Editor

Editor, News-Register: Thank you to those who took the time to vote yes for the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County’s 1-mill, five-year operating renewal levy once again. The Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County is a county-wide library system with branches in Adena, Brilliant, Dillonvale, two in Steubenville, Tiltonsville, Toronto and bookmobile service. We look forward to the opening of the Bergholz branch next year. Our mission is simple. A public library serves all people of all ages and all viewpoints. It is the library’s commitment to provide ...

West Virginia Is Subsidizing Instead of Treating Addiction

Local Columns

West Virginia spends enormous sums on Medicaid-funded drug treatment, yet overdose deaths remain the highest in America. Addiction-driven homelessness is rising and our workforce participation is the lowest in the nation. Last year alone, the state spent more than $240 million on Suboxone and methadone-based programs. A system this expensive should not produce results this poor. It is time the state of West Virginia demanded accountability. And yes, there will be pushback from the industry. The truth is unavoidable: our treatment system is failing, and we are paying for failure. ...

Eliminating Safeguards Puts Animals at Risk

Letters to the Editor

Editor, News-Register: The Marshall County Animal Shelter’s decision to eliminate essential safeguards — such as background and veterinary checks — puts animals at grave risk. This change was apparently made at the behest of Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS), a multimillion-dollar Utah-based group that pressures shelters nationwide to adopt reckless policies aimed at meeting arbitrary “no-kill” targets. In Indianapolis, a BFAS partner shelter fired two employees for trying to prevent convicted abusers from adopting animals. The facility had started conducting criminal ...

Finding a New Approach to Homelessness

Local Columns

On Dec. 1, the city of Wheeling withdrew its only legal encampment zone’s exempt status, continuing to employ restrictive actions against people suffering from homelessness. As updates continue to emerge about Wheeling’s homelessness issue, it is safe to say: encampment bans do not solve the issue of homelessness. It only makes the path to escaping homelessness even harder through criminalization. Because one in three people experiencing homelessness have substance abuse issues and two-thirds of those people have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, barriers to accessing housing and ...

Preserving Ohio’s Nature

Editorials

Work to preserve our region’s incredible natural treasures and the environment that sustains us all is most effective at the local level. Through the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio, that work gets done with the help of grant funding for “locally led conservation and environmental stewardship efforts that advance the greater well-being of the region.” This year, with the help of the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District, the group awarded more than $120,000. Grants included Base Camp Alpha in Jackson County, Caldwell Exempted Village School District in Noble County, Camp ...

Stay Safe During the Holiday Season

Editorials

’Tis the season … for the potentially nasty combination of holiday parties and weather-affected roads. And while we should bear in mind Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over all the time, local law enforcement agencies will be increasing efforts to stop impaired driving over the next few weeks. According to the Governor’s Highway Safety Program, there are some disturbing trends in West Virginia, where there were 58 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2023. Of the DUI arrests in the state since Jan. 1, 2025, 43% were double the legal limit or higher, 21% were 0.20 or higher and 1.6% ...