As we Americans celebrate the beginning of a new decade, we continue to allow a serious challenge to escalate to crisis proportions. It is the national debt — $23.2 trillion as 2020 began. Thoughtful Americans understand the perils of a big national debt. It can increase inflation. It ...
Our grandparents survived the roaring 1920s. Will our grandchildren survive the dis-empowered 2020s? Welcome to the liberal 2020s. Frankly, it is time to end the dumbing down culture in West Virginia. Our imperative should be to instill personal pride in learning. This new form of patriotism ...
Most if not all of the Democratic presidential candidates want the “Green New Deal” and “Medicare for All” to headline their agenda once elected. The cost estimate is over 50 trillion dollars for these two programs alone, not even considering other programs they plan like free college ...
The end-of-year/New Year holidays seem to whiplash us from one extreme to the other: eat, drink and be merry vs. the customary New Year’s resolutions: reduce social media, reduce weight, and embrace a plant-based diet! One third of consumers already report reducing their consumption of ...
Legislators of both major parties delight in being able to hand out tax breaks. But priorities have to be set. For example, tax relief that can help create jobs ought to be high on lawmakers’ lists. Fiscal realities enter into the picture, too. A tax break approved last year by West ...
Many West Virginians, both Roman Catholics and others, remain outraged about former bishop Michael Bransfield. Virtually every new report concerning him reveals some new outrage. But Bransfield is history. It has been well over a year since he stepped down as bishop of the Roman Catholic ...
Some school systems in West Virginia offer reasonably good education to students. Others leave much to be desired. Yet state Board of Education members are considering a plan to, in officials’ word, provide more “flexibility.” For what? More mediocrity? Public high school students in ...
More than a year after Alan Larrick resigned as West Virginia Lottery Commission director, it finally is official: Larrick broke the law by practicing law at the same time he was being paid as a state official. That was common knowledge in Charleston at the time, however. Larrick headed the ...
A new government report presented to the West Virginia Legislature recommends removing public notices from your community newspaper and placing them on a state government website to reduce state spending. Reducing government spending is important, but it should not come at the expense of an ...
Hello and happy new year from Barbour County! I hope that you all had a very merry Christmas. School resumes in Barbour County on Jan. 6. There will be a Food Service Worker Permit Class on Jan. 7 at the Market Place in Philippi. Registration begins at 5:15 pm, with the class ...
At last, The Washington Post did Donald Trump a favor. After a three-year struggle to obtain a secret history of the Afghanistan War, the Post won its case. In the report, the follies of U.S. policy were exposed. The failures of nation building, the isolation of the Afghan government and the ...
Applause to the legacy Dr. Samuel Kump “Sam” Roberts leaves this community as he ventures on a new journey. For those who grew up with Sam Roberts, they most likely remember a fierce competitor on the football field. But for the past 40-plus years, Dr. Roberts has been delivering babies and ...
President Donald J. Trump will soon stand trial in the Senate of the United States, charged with abusing the power of his office and for obstructing the legal responsibilities of the United States Congress. I pray that our two United States Senators will do all that they can to ensure that ...
Today is the day to make real change. As difficult as an impeachment would be, we cannot set a precedent for future leaders to act like children and tweet out disastrous policy. It is a time for change, we need to move forward and show the world that we are not the laughing stock that Trump ...
About 1,060 West Virginians entitled to state assistance with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities would like to receive that aid in their homes rather than institutions. Despite the fact that would save taxpayers’ money, those men, women and children have had to wait, some for ...
Some West Virginia politicians are hoping you will fall for their claim that saving money for taxpayers is the reason they want to be less transparent about government. They would make it more difficult for Mountain State residents to learn of important matters ranging from coal mining near ...
The following is from The Gospel According to Luke 2:1-20: And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed. (And this taxing was first made whenCyrenius was governor of Syria.) And all went to be taxed, every one ...
Editor’s Note: Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper ...
Regulation of toxic chemicals ought to be handled by the federal government, which has the resources and expertise to handle the job better than any state. Still, it is understandable that a group of West Virginia legislators is proposing a state government initiative on one class of chemicals ...
Unfortunately, the volume of political junk mail we receive these days sometimes makes it difficult to notice when something important from government arrives in our mailboxes. So keep your eyes open for something from West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner. About 75,000 households ...