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Opinion

Jobs First

Editorials

Though the usual suspects have tried again this year to get a few bizarre socio-cultural bills in front of lawmakers, the majority have displayed an impressive dedication to the goal set at the beginning of the session: put Jobs First — Opportunity Everywhere. In fact Senate Bill 1, the Small Business Growth Act, made its way to the governor’s desk unusually quickly. In a nutshell, the act establishes the West Virginia First Small Business Growth Program, with specialized growth funds collecting capital from investors to provide financing to eligible small businesses that ...

High Stakes

Editorials

If you’re beginning to feel as though the stakes in this year’s elections are unusually high, you are not alone. Even a cursory glance at newspaper opinion pages or social media feeds will tell you there are strong feelings on many important issues — and plenty of people believe they must weigh in on the candidates who might address those issues. Here’s the problem. When it really counts — Election Day — those opinion pieces or social media posts will not move the needle. Your vote will; and primary elections are closer than you might think. According to the West Virginia ...

All downhill from here

Columnists

Last Thursday marked day 30, the halfway mark of the 60-day annual legislative session. It’s all downhill from now to midnight on Saturday, March 14, when the regular session adjourns sine die. At the beginning of the session, I had a hard time predicting whether this session would be a flurry of action or be slow, but it appears slow and steady wins the race. That’s not terribly surprising given that this is a midterm election year. Lawmakers want to do enough to look like they’re doing something, while also not doing things to avoid rocking the boat. The House of Delegates ...

Task Force

Editorials

A local task force, which is now in its fifth year of working to find solutions to thorny community issues, recently hosted its annual public forum in Elkins. The Regional Task Force on Addiction, Homelessness and Mental Health offered its forum last week at the Phil Gainer Community Center, with more than 25 community members turning out for the event. Two guest speakers addressed the crowd: Joshua Barker, the director of Substance Abuse Prevention and Recovery under the Office of the West Virginia Attorney General, and Dr. Stephen Loyd, the director of the Office of Drug Control ...

Shrill and strident

Columnists

Pam Bondi’s performance before the Judiciary Committee made a compelling case for her removal as Attorney General. Her tone was shrill, and her style resembled that of a gangster’s moll at an interrogation rather than that of the highest legal officer of the United States. Perhaps she is rehearsing for a melodrama; if Donald Trump thinks he is being well served, he is mistaken. What was more, Bondi’s testimony was bedeviling because she not only violated rules and decorum but also appeared silly. Jamie Raskin apparently got under her skin by pointing out the rules of the House of ...

Assessment

Editorials

Sian Leah Beilock, president of Dartmouth College, a private Ivy League research university located in Hanover, N.H., presented a bold assessment of higher education in this country in an opinion article she wrote for the Jan. 26 edition of the Wall Street Journal. No doubt the bold assessment presented by Beilock was not received kindly by many educators across America. Therefore, Beilock’s views should be a starting point for in-depth discussion and debate even in places like the six-county Southern Alleghenies region (Blair, Cambria, Somerset, Bedford, Huntingdon and Fulton ...