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Vape Laws

In December, the West Virginia Tobacco Use and Prevention Task Force issued its annual report, and it is not comforting reading. According to the Task Force, West Virginia has one of the highest rates of youth vaping in America.  Nearly one in three West Virginia high school students admits to vaping within the previous 30 days—more than triple the national average.  Half of West Virginia high school students admit that they have tried it at least once.  Youth vaping at this scale does not happen by chance. It reflects the widespread availability of illegal ...

Jim Crow smears allowed by Democrat-aligned ‘Fact-Checkers’

The people who call themselves the “mainstream media” have a remarkable tendency to take the minority position on an 80-20 issue, most recently on requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls. House Republicans have passed the SAVE Act, while Democrats have almost unanimously opposed it. But the American people do not. Gallup pollsters report 84% of Americans support requiring photo ID to vote — 98% of Republicans, 84% of independents, and 67% of Democrats. Large majorities of blacks and Latinos back it. Separately, 83% support the SAVE Act requiring proof of citizenship when ...

Gambling on hope

Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but on first glance it sure seems like both the Senate and House Finance Committees are sending messages to Gov. Patrick Morrisey. Perhaps the message is this: You can have a 10% personal income tax cut, or you can have the Hope Scholarship educational voucher program, but to have one, you’re going to have to accept changes to the other.  Morrisey’s general revenue budget proposal for fiscal year 2027 beginning July 1 is $5.493 billion, which is roughly 3.2% more than he proposed last year and the Legislature passed for the current fiscal ...

Equal, fair and farce

When NBC affiliates in Tennessee showed the movie “Necessary Roughness” in 1994, those affiliates were required to give a Democrat Senate candidate 4 minutes and 13 seconds of free airtime. The Democrat was running against Fred Thompson, the actor turned Republican Senate candidate. When Thompson ran for President in 2008, NBC stopped aired re-runs of “Law & Order” that featured Thompson, who had been the District Attorney on the show. The Equal Time Doctrine is not new. But the national press corps, always ready to pounce on President Donald Trump and Republicans, has suddenly ...

What would MLK say today?

February is Black History Month and Martin Luther King has been on my mind during this long, cold winter.  I have been thinking about nonviolent Civil Rights activities in the last century. MLK helped this nation to face the fact that our people of color, poor people, and women were living with injustices daily. Civil Rights were essential to define the truly American Century. King encouraged Americans to make legal and social changes that have helped more people to live the “American Dream.”  I have been wondering what MLK would say about events happening now in our nation ...

Saga of MAGA

During Donald Trump’s stormy career, he built or seemed to construct a movement which he called Make America Great Again. However, this was Ronald Reagan’s 1980 slogan and not a Trumpian original. In 2016, it was a slogan; by 2024, it became a movement with a legion of influencers masquerading as political philosophers. Consequently, MAGA remains a “concept” rather than a definable movement. And it gets even murkier in the new age of Jeffrey Epstein. Stephen Bannon, once hailed as the chief spokesman for MAGA, has seen his reputation taken down a notch because of his ...