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Editorials

Investigation

More than a year ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Norfolk Southern celebrated the “last load of contaminated soil” being removed from a site near the derailment of an N&S train in February of that year. Now, Chris Hunsicker, overseeing remediation efforts in East Palestine, has had to go before the Village Council to report that exceedances of vinyl chloride, benzene, trimethylbenzene and 2-butoxyethanol have been detected through confirmatory sampling. “We are not saying it’s perfect. Nobody is saying that, but we are getting toward the end of the process,” ...

Progress

For decades, West Virginia’s representatives in Washington, D.C., tried to impress upon their colleagues the importance of directing more research funding to West Virginia University — where great progress is being made in fields ranging from neuroscience to forensic science to education. Though the folks in D.C. have been slow to understand, others are taking note. West Virginia University is now part of the Center for Clean Hydrogen, a partnership that includes not only WVU but the University of Delaware, the Chemours Company, Plug Power and the National Renewable Energy ...

End of an Era

This week West Virginia prepared for the end of an era, as U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin gave his final speech on the floor of the Senate after having devoted his life to serving the state’s residents for more than 40 years. Manchin has been a stalwart for the Mountain State, at all levels — the House of Delegates, the state Senate, West Virginia’s secretary of state, our governor and, since 2010, a powerful voice for us in Washington, D.C., as one of our U.S. Senators. Filling the shoes of the late U.S. Sen. Robert C. Byrd might have been a daunting task for some, but Manchin did not ...

Inappropriate

Now that the dust has settled, responsible adults have a duty to look back on what we witnessed during college football’s rivalry week and understand it was all part of a larger and very disturbing trend we MUST reverse. The Atlantic Coast Conference fined four of its schools — North Carolina State, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech for in-game scuffles. But those didn’t top what happened after the Michigan Wolverines beat the Ohio State Buckeyes and violence broke out midfield to the degree that pepper spray was employed, one police officer suffered a head injury and ...

Obstacles

Mountain State residents who have — for years now — been waiting for the fulfillment of promises that high-speed broadband access would be brought to all of us were likely not surprised to learn there is another obstacle to overcome. “It’s still very complex, but if all the parties have a commitment to trying to solve the problem, then it can get solved,” said Mark Polen with the Cable Telecommunication Association of West Virginia last week. He was referring to overcoming the hurdle of actually attaching the new fiber lines to poles owned by other utilities. Believe it or ...

Responsibility

Next week, the West Virginia First Foundation will meet again — this time to start determining who will receive a share of the $19.2 million in Initial Opportunity Grants. It is a heavy responsibility. According to a report by WV News, more than 170 applications came in from across the state. Not only must the foundation determine which projects are worthy of support, they also must distribute the funding evenly: $3.2 million to each of the six regions. Mid-Ohio Valley counties are in Region 3. “We’ve applied a very fair and equitable approach to make sure that every voice is ...