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Spring fun in Barbour

Hello and happy spring from Barbour County! Today, Saturday, March 22, the Junior Volunteer Fire Dept. is hosting their Spring Bash. Doors will open at 9 a.m. and drawings will be held from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. There will be a pulled pork BBQ lunch, free drinks and donuts. Come on out and support a great group of men and women who are always there when we need them. On March 31, from 6-8 p.m., Sugar Creek Church will be presenting a free evening of roller skating at Skatezone in Belington. Bring the family and a friend and come on out and enjoy the evening. There will be a Spring ...

Best leaders are ‘unsettlers’

(This is part one of a two-part series on innovation.)  March 20th was the first day of Spring. I find people are psychologically motivated this time of year to take a fresh look at how we do things and make positive changes. That’s why this felt like the perfect time for a two-part series on innovation.  “The six most expensive words in business are: ‘We’ve always done it that way.’” Abby Spence, the CEO/Administrator for Signature HealthCARE of Cleveland in Cleveland, Tennessee, posted this on LinkedIn. This came on the heels of my spending a day with many leaders at ...

Philosopher returns

“Learning in life never stops, even though the student grows older. And if so, the older I become, the younger I am.” These words of wisdom are penned by Dr. David Morrison, a Davis & Elkins College student from 1975-1979, a trustee from 2015-2024, and a Visiting Scholar on campus during the current academic year. David offers a unique perspective of D&E; its past, present, and future. As a student in the 1970’s, David and many of his classmates believed they were a part of a movement to launch something new and bold. Now, 50 years later, Dr. Morrison finds himself back on the ...

Due process for all, or none

President Trump is using an 18th-century law — the Alien Enemies Act — to justify the deportation of hundreds of people he says are members of a vicious Venezuelan gang. That law was last used during World War II by the Roosevelt administration to justify the internment of Japanese Americans. The government later apologized for that action and paid reparations to the survivors who were detained, but not until 1988 in the last year of the Reagan administration. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., ordered a halt to ...

Democrats should stop rescuing Republicans

Chuck Schumer is right, and James Carville is right. They don’t want the Democratic Party getting pulled into MAGA’s cyclone of ruinous policy. To get to safety, they are reining in the left flank for whom the fight is all. The hotheads don’t recognize that bad timing loses battles. Senate Minority Leader Schumer took a good deal of incoming after he pushed his caucus to help pass the Republicans’ continuing resolution, thus not causing a government shutdown. The ensuing chaos would have rattled Americans more than Donald Trump and Elon Musk have already done. Do Democrats want ...

Taking the clickbait

Last week, we had the first of Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s bills be signed into law. Senate Bill 456, the Riley Gaines Act that defines “male” and “female” in State Code, is now the law of the land. We in the media are sometimes criticized by lawmakers for focusing on the social conservative bills over the other work that lawmakers are doing during the legislative session. And no doubt, some in the media do focus on bills with no chance of being taken up that are easy clickbait for people who wish to be outraged. But it is very hard to say that the press are unfairly shining a ...