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Festival City

Editorials

The 87th Mountain State Forest Festival got off to a rousing — albeit rainy — start on Saturday morning with the official opening ceremony for the 87th Mountain State Forest Festival at the Jennings Randolph Federal Center in Elkins. A large group of spectators turned out for the opening ceremony, despite overcast skies and rain falling throughout the morning. Rain definitely made its mark on the first weekend of this year’s festival. Mountain State Forest Festival officials announced Saturday that the Forest Festival Kickoff Party and Chili Cook-Off Festival Feud had been ...

Republicans vs. Republicans

Columnists

We are more than three months away from the candidate filing period for the 2026 midterm elections. All 100 members of the House of Delegates and 17 members of the 34-member state Senate will be up for election next year. Unfortunately for the West Virginia Democratic Party, most if not all — of those elections will be settled during the party primaries on May 12 and the early voting period that proceeds that. Republicans control supermajorities in both bodies, with 91 Republicans in the House and 32 Republicans in the Senate. That’s the peak of GOP legislative control at the ...

Can Americans right this listing ship?

Columnists

There are few things the old me liked more than a meaty discussion about the American Founding. The history was interesting for its own sake but also essential guidance for the present and future. Or so I believed for decades. The other day, a podcast in my feed addressed these matters and I had to turn it off. Reflections on the Founders no longer feel energizing. Instead, it now feels to me as if we’re seeing the end of the story. Perhaps we will right the ship, but that’s by no means clear, and at this moment of crisis, it’s impossible to think about the Founding without ...

Forest Festival history of chivalry

Columnists

The tradition of chivalry was very much alive in the West Virginia hills when future Governor Kump and his brother were young. The knightly code of honorable conduct got its name from the French word cheval meaning horse, and horses were rural transportation and entertainment in the late 1800s when the Kumps participated in tournaments at Capon Springs Resort. In her book “Capon Notes” Debbie Boyce quoted a newspaper article printed November 2, 1893: “The lads and lassies of the valley, after toiling industriously with the wheat and corn … conducted a little recreation. They ...

Vaping

Editorials

As though West Virginia’s young people don’t have enough challenges to overcome, an American Lung Association representative suggests we’re failing them on another front: vaping. Though it has been evident for many years that vaping is not even remotely a safe alternative to smoking, tobacco companies have continued their marketing onslaught — and access is easy. “We are talking about one of the most deadly products currently on the market … and hooking and addicting our kids,” Jennifer Folkenroth with the ALA told WCHS. “There is no safe alternative. The only true ...

Lost at sea

Columnists

Foreign policy requires a delicacy that ideology cannot provide. With the United Nations meeting in New York, American clumsiness, indeed childishness, is on full display. And it is not just the administration that is to blame. Congress, in its zeal to carry water for Ukraine and partially for Israel, limits the United States in the methods that can be employed to preserve its influence, not only because of its power, but also as the premier moral leader in the world. Confusion reigns with Trump and the Congress resembling the St. Vitus’ dance. In the Middle East, Trump backs ...