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Here’s to your health

Last week, I covered the final two days of permanent injunction hearings to block a June directive from the West Virginia Board of Education to county boards of education to continue to enforce the state’s compulsory vaccine law and not accept religious exemptions approved by the Department of Health and made possible by Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s January executive order. I’m not going to rehash all of the particulars. You can read my coverage of both days. But I wanted to use my column to focus on last Thursday morning’s testimony by Dr. Mark McDaniel, the acting state health ...

Culture wars, losing jobs

A recent local news headline read: “Manufacturing plant moving from West Virginia to Ohio, creating new jobs.” This is an unfortunate sign of the times for our state, which has lost the job-creating momentum created after business-friendly Republicans took control back in 2015. Unfortunately, a lot of Republican politicians seem more focused on fighting culture wars and creating new opportunities for lawsuits than growing our economy. Even though a majority of West Virginia voters want their leaders focused on economic growth, many legislators prioritize hot-button social ...

Strong public schools vital to WV future

Well-educated students who are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century are vital to our success as a state. Today’s students will have unprecedented opportunity to succeed in life if they are properly educated and prepared. Earlier this month, West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty pointed to important facts regarding the West Virginia school-age population and regulations regarding school funding. Mr. Hardesty correctly points out that in order to improve public education, legislators must remove regulations put in place by their predecessors that ...

Decency on the ballot

In 2017, in a special Senate election in Alabama to replace Jeff Sessions, Alabama’s electorate sent Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate after a series of disturbing allegations about Republican candidate Roy Moore. In 2022, Georgia voters elected every statewide Republican candidate for office except Herschel Walker, after a series of disturbing accounts of his prior behavior circulated. Now, the question is if Virginia has the same moral integrity. In Virginia, statewide elections are in odd-numbered years. The state has not split tickets for statewide offices since 2005. This ...

What being a lifelong learner looks like

When it comes to learning, technology can be very helpful. But we can’t put so much emphasis on tech that we stop learning from others in our field. We win on ideas and what we can learn from each other. We need to be lifelong learners—and it’s important to go to where ideas are flowing in our industry.  Yes, reading and listening are big parts of lifelong learning. That means books, blogs, articles, and podcasts both in your field and outside of it. Find a few authors and podcasters you like and commit to regular reading or listening—however you best learn—about issues ...

Barbour County welcomes in Barktober, Halloween

Hello from Barbour County. We have received some much-needed rain recently, but the river is still pretty low. Animal Friends of Barbour County will be having Barktober Fest today at 17 North in Philippi. Come on out for music, food and fun. Festivities begin at 6 p.m. The Mikey Hart Memorial Scholarship Fund will be having its annual purse Bingo at the Junior Volunteer Fire Department on Sunday, Oct. 12 at 1:30 p.m., with doors opening at 12:30. For more information, contact Judy at 304-614-3118. Out of the Darkness Community Walk is coming to Philippi on Sunday, Oct. 12. ...