Breaking News

Opinion

Xylazine

Editorials

It is breathtaking to watch the manner in which the substance abuse epidemic in our region continues to evolve. Just last month, officials in Gallia County, Ohio, warned a growing danger has reared its head — Xylazine. The powerful veterinary sedative, which is, of course, not intended for human use at all, has been found in the region; sometimes mixed with fentanyl and other opioids. This is a drug meant for large animals such as horses. There is no safe dosage of “tranq” for humans. In fact, overdosing is all too easy. The Gallia County Health Department says symptoms of an ...

Tobacco

Editorials

Initiatives such as the Mountaineer Mile walking program or efforts against certain food dyes and sugary sodas may have West Virginians thinking more about their health habits these days, but a report last month from the West Virginia Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation Task Force suggests we’ve got a long way to go to tackle our unusually high tobacco product usage rates. Tobacco and nicotine product use here is among the highest in the country, with MORE West Virginians (10.1%) reporting use in 2023 than in 2022 (9.3%). “While the use of traditional tobacco products in the ...

Murky politics

Columnists

Donald Trump’s decision to snatch Nicolas Maduro and his wife completed a largely smooth military operation. His choice of General Dan Caine as the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff appeared to be an excellent decision. Technically, it went off without a hitch, but the politics are murky. What Trump did, however, was not without precedent in American history, even of the most recent variety. Joe Biden’s administration did not recognize Maduro’s government because they believed it was illegitimate due to vote rigging. Trump added the charge of drug trafficking even though he ...

Deregulating Broadband

Editorials

Did economists underestimate the damage of the Biden regulatory barrage? One reason the U.S. economy is outperforming expectations may be that the Trump Administration’s deregulation is offsetting tariff harm. Consider how it has uncorked broadband investment and saved taxpayers billions by slashing the Biden team’s red tape. Congress appropriated $42 billion in the 2021 infrastructure bill for states to expand broadband to “unserved” and rural communities. The spending was unnecessary since satellite services like SpaceX’s Starlink and 5G fixed wireless services were rapidly ...

Harvard is saying yes to discrimination

Columnists

At Harvard University today, professors who teach Western history “are” history. James Hankins, a specialist in Renaissance thought, was one of the last holdouts. Now Hankins, who has just published a hefty book that teaches what Harvard doesn’t — “The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. Vol. 1” — has decamped for the University of Florida’s Hamilton School of Classical and Civic Education. It’s not the warmer weather that’s drawn him away from Cambridge, Massachusetts. It’s the contrast in intellectual climates: frozen and dead, where ...

Foundation

Columnists

As December 2025 draws to a close, we find ourselves at a historic milestone. One fourth of the 21st Century is now behind us. For many, the last 25 years have flown by, as it inevitably does, but with a speed that’s hard to fathom. Even so, the years in West Virginia have been marked by progress. At the dawn of this millennium, West Virginia faced what many called “insurmountable” financial hurdles. Our state had massive unfunded liabilities in retirement plans maintained for schoolteachers and other state retirees. We were, quite literally, mortgaging our future to pay for ...