Breaking News

Columnists

Doing the impossible

Once again, Donald Trump has done the impossible. He has managed to make John Bolton a sympathetic figure. Bolton, who served as the President’s National Security Advisor during his first term, did not share Trump’s views on foreign policy. Bolton is hawkish, and Trump has problems with that approach to foreign affairs. Indeed, Bolton has never seen a military solution that he disapproved of. Bolton has a long record of militancy, which he has often and loudly expressed. The actions that led to Trump having his house in Bethesda, Maryland, inspected were his sharp criticism of the ...

Are we smart enough to save schools?

These days must be particularly troubling for Dr. Dilly as Superintendent of Randolph County Schools. We learned last week that Randolph County ranks 55th among the 55 counties in West Virginia, and WV has a strong hold on the title for the worst state on several educational ranking systems for the United States. Now the WV Board of Education has issued a state of emergency for Randolph County, and the State will take over the management of our county schools unless our Board of Education has a plan to improve the financial situation by December. The State sent efficiency experts to ...

West Virginia moving to offense in Backyard Brawl

For too long, West Virginia has sat at the bottom of health, education, and economic rankings. Policymakers have spent decades trying to solve these problems, but frustratingly little progress has occurred. Action, not platitudes, is needed for true growth. If we want to truly move the needle, we must stop treating the symptoms and instead focus on the real disease: for too long, our state simply didn’t do enough to create an attractive enough investment and regulatory climate. That’s why I signed an Executive Order establishing an economic Backyard Brawl on my first day in office. ...

Return to campus

There’s a certain magic in the air when students return to campus. Suddenly, Davis & Elkins College comes alive — footsteps echo across sidewalks, laughter spills from residence halls, and the familiar beehive of energy swirls through the mountains once more. The 121st academic year is underway, and students have traveled from across town, across the country, and even across the globe to begin—or continue—their journey. New friendships are forming, old ones are rekindling, and the campus feels whole again. I asked one of our resident assistants if he was glad to be back. ...

Road tripping across WV

One of the great things about being a news reporter is getting to sometimes hit the road and explore parts of the state I’ve never been to, as well as meeting the people who make this state go. Last Wednesday, I hopped in my car and drove from Charleston to Mason County. I’ve been reporting about the impending sale of West Virginia’s state-owned long-term care facilities, so I wanted to take some photos of the one closest to me, which is Lakin Hospital a few miles outside of Point Pleasant along Route 2. I was only a few miles away from Lakin when there it was: a pothole right ...

Peace dividend

Remember the peace dividend? With the end of the Cold War, it was surmised that monies lavishly given to the military would be diverted to peaceful purposes. After the atomic bomb was dropped, Harry Truman optimistically predicted in 1945 that such “power” could be used to create “a paradise” in this world. None of this happened, mainly because the United States began to set its course towards Empire. After Franklin Roosevelt died, his successor, Truman, began to follow Woodrow Wilson’s example of selective moralizing rather than FDR’s pragmatic world vision. Instead of ...