Students at Kump Education Center will engage in a little Egyptian engineering for the final Main Street First Friday activity Sept. 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. We hope families will come to see what can be done with a three-sided Pyramid and a build-it-yourself Sphinx. We want students and parents to ...

Perhaps the biggest amount of collateral damage from his playing to the “base” has been Donald Trump’s foreign policy. Which is a shame because in theory it was the most original aspect of his administration. But as he has hit pothole after pothole on immigration and race, Trump has seen ...

When I became Senate President three years ago, one of my highest priorities was changing the trajectory of our state’s K-12 education system. My colleagues and I have big dreams for West Virginia: a stronger economy, more and better jobs, healthier citizens and communities. But if we ...

Appalachian Forest National Heritage Area (AFNHA) is a shared dream that is becoming a reality. Such large dreams do not come true without a great deal of collaborative work on the part of local people. Much of the credit for the vision and organizational skills needed to build this project ...

Perhaps the wanton murder of 20 people in El Paso, Texas will finally force Donald Trump and his Republican enablers to mute the hateful rhetoric against immigrants. The shooter posted an attack on the internet blasting immigrants before he carried out his lethal assault. Moreover, he parroted ...

Hello from Barbour County! Summer may not be officially over according to the calendar, but for students and teachers, it has come to an end. School begins in Barbour County on Wednesday. I wish you all a great year! There was a good turnout this past Sunday for the Ride 2 Dive in Junior. I ...

Well, surprise, surprise! Bids for a major Interstate 70 Bridge project have come in very close to state estimates. Either West Virginia Division of Highways engineers are very good at estimating the cost of complex construction work or ... I’m not accusing anyone of anything nefarious. ...

Musing on Republican prospects in 1968, Democratic Chairman of the National Committee John Bailey made what would be seen as a disastrous prognostication. “We know who our nominees will be,” he stated. “I’m happy to be able to say the Republicans have all their bloody infighting to look ...

Randolph County Assistant Superintendent of Schools Joseph Arbogast visited Kump Education Center this week, and we talked about different ways teachers and students could use the facility. We are seeking new ways that KEC can serve the Randolph County community now that the heating system ...

Much of what President Donald Trump had to say during a fundraiser at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling pleased the nearly 1,000 people in the crowd immensely, because Trump was talking to them, not a national audience focused on the Mueller investigation or “the squad.” His audience here wanted ...

In 1968, Douglas Kiker filed this report on the state of the nation during the presidential campaign. “It is as if somewhere a while back,” Kiker stated, “George Wallace had been awakened by a white, blinding vision: they all hate black people, all of them.” He concluded, ...

Hello from Barbour County! Summer might have gotten off to a cool, rainy start, but this past week sure has made up for it! Last weekend, the temperatures were in the 90’s. I sure was glad to see the rain come again and cool things back down a bit! When you fish at Teter Lake, you might ...

What a delightful 90 minutes of Shakespeare we saw Sunday night! The Augusta Pavilion at Davis & Elkins College was the perfect place to imagine that we were in a sylvan setting like the Forest of Arden back in merry old England. The Shinnston-based Rustic Mechanicals Troupe under ...

In both our states, something interesting has occurred regarding public schools during the past year or so. Whether it is good or bad is a matter many may dispute, but it marks a sea change in attitudes among policymakers. Ohio legislators are considering a change in the requirements to ...

I have a confession to make: I understand how the fellow in the Starbucks in Tempe, Arizona, felt. Sometimes I, too, am seized by an almost uncontrollable fear of police officers. It makes me very uncomfortable. Usually, it happens when I notice a police or sheriff’s cruiser parked near the ...

Led by conservatives in the West Virginia State Senate, the entire legislature passed The Student Success Act that provides much needed reforms to the state’s public education system. The Student Success Act will help improve outcomes for students all across this state, it gives parents ...

When it comes to shooting himself in the foot, Donald Trump has few peers and no equals. After a good week at the G-20, he decided to personalize the 4th of July while delivering a boiler plate speech. Moreover, his grasp of history was bizarre, with him placing airports in the Revolutionary ...

Hello from Barbour County! Summer is ticking away quickly. School starts next month! There will be a hotdog social at Kasson UM Church today, beginning at 5 p.m. Hotdogs, green beans, baked beans, potato salad, scalloped potatoes, cole slaw, homemade pies and more will be on the menu. The ...

It took the late U.S. Senator Jennings Randolph (D-WV) nearly 29 years to get it passed. But Randolph’s persistence paid off in the end when President Richard Nixon signed the 26th Amendment into law on July 5, 1971. Sen. Randolph was Congressman Randolph on November 11, 1942 when ...

What we overlook so often in celebrating Independence Day is that the Founders’ anger with King George III’s government had as much to do with money as personal liberties. London was taking too much of our hard-earned cash. Dumping tea into Boston Harbor was all about taxation. George III ...