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Crossover Day nears

We’re on the countdown to Crossover Day Wednesday, when state Senate bills must cross over to the House of Delegates and vice versa in order to ensure these bills have a chance of making it to passage by midnight on Saturday, April 12, when the 2025 legislative session ends. That means we have slightly less than two weeks until the 60-day regular session ends. For some, that day could not come soon enough. For others, such as Gov. Patrick Morrisey, he is already clamoring for a special session “The more work the Legislature gets done now, the less time it will spend in Charleston ...

Liberal luminaries defend their partners

Down in the basement of the Capitol on March 26, I witnessed in person an episode of government accountability that upset liberal journalists. That’s because it was conservatives holding leftist “public” media networks accountable. The House DOGE subcommittee questioned PBS CEO Paula Kerger and NPR CEO Katherine Maher about their daily deluge of leftist bias. Here’s how the New York Times article on the hearing was summarized online: “Dark pronouncements by Republicans about a ‘communist agenda’ espoused by public media were intercut with lighter references to ‘Sesame ...

‘Everything bagel’

“Imagine boarding a train in the center of a city,” former President Barack Obama rhapsodized in April 2009. “No racing to an airport and across a terminal, no delays, no sitting on the tarmac, no lost luggage, no taking off your shoes. Imagine whisking through towns at speeds over 100 miles an hour, walking only a few steps to public transportation, and ending up just blocks from your destination.” It’s a curious statement to find one-third of the way into a book titled “Abundance.” Not 10% of Americans live or work in the middle of a city within walking distance of a ...

Focus on continuous improvement

(This is part two of a two-part series on innovation.) Innovation often comes from outside an organization. Why? “Outsiders” have fresh eyes and are not undoing something from the inside. As discussed last week, people are comfortable with things staying the same (assuming what is taking place works to a degree). In a session on change, the presenter asked us to cross our arms. We did this easily. For me, it is my left arm over my right. We were then asked to change it. For me, it meant putting my right arm over my left. Changing it up was not easy or comfortable. (Try it ...

Rescuing schools without ruining system

Randolph County is at the epicenter of the public education earthquake in West Virginia. The shock waves of this cataclysmic situation ripple throughout this state, and similar seismic conditions exist wherever small populations try to operate schools with limited funding in the computer “Information Age” when adults are moving to urban areas and having fewer children. Recognizing demographic reality is essential for the survival of local communities. The current conditions that exacerbate the Randolph County problems are the national political pressure for “School Choice,” ...

Schumer’s surprise

Democrats were stunned by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s sudden decision to support Donald Trump’s budget. The decision threw the party into disarray and seemed a betrayal of Hakeem Jeffries in the House of Representatives, where all but one Democrat voted against the GOP budget. What made it worse was Schumer’s explanation of why he capitulated. He called it a “Hobson’s Choice.” Either way you figured it out, it was all bad. If you voted against the budget, Elon Musk and company would get a green light to ride roughshod over the government. There was no symbolic ...