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Not the best choice

Columnists

If you were looking for a great choice for a terrible Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth was always your man. It was entirely unsurprising that President Donald Trump picked him. No rational person could want Hegseth anywhere near America’s chain of command, and it’s unclear that any rational person ever has. For starters, there was highly credible evidence, including from his former Fox News colleagues, that the out-of-central-casting bro drank excessively, to the point of open intoxication. There was the 2017 accusation that he had sexually assaulted a woman, and the $50,000 ...

Melting pot boiling over?

Columnists

In one sense, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are the foundation of the country’s government. The Declaration laid out the principles we aspire toward. The Constitution established the three branches of government. It contains many brilliant mechanisms to check the government’s power. The Bill of Rights offers another layer of protection. But mere words -- even some of the most brilliant and influential words ever written -- didn’t create America’s greatness. Americans did. Imagine you could magically impose America’s system of government in Somalia, ...

How Trump can help Argentina’s comeback

Columnists

President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei have a special relationship. Each is engaged in a crusade to make his respective country’s economy great again. Trump was all in on helping Milei win his elections earlier this year, and he has also offered the Argentines a $20 billion “lifeline” as they adjust to the bumpy path to needed free-market reforms. The stakes are gigantic because the whole world is watching Milei’s embrace of free-market “shock capitalism,” which so far is working. He has restored sound money (by linking to the dollar) and taken a ...

Protection

Editorials

Nearly all of us have been on the receiving end of an attempt to scam us out of our hard-earned money — particularly in the digital age. Utility scams are fairly common, and many of us probably think we know how to sniff them out. Still, according to American Electric Power — which does business as Appalachian Power in West Virginia — more than 2,000 scam attempts have been reported to that company alone so far this year. That’s 2,000 the company knows about. Who knows how many have gone unreported, or who might have fallen victim? AEP was issuing its reminder on Utility Scam ...

Shameful

Editorials

On Sept. 18, a school aide at McNinch Primary School in Moundsville reportedly witnessed a horrifying incident in which a teacher grabbed a 6-year-old girl — nonverbal and on the autism spectrum — by the neck with both hands and squeezed. That aide took the girl to the nurse’s office, where photos were taken of red marks on the girl’s neck. Then, the aide took the correct next step: reporting the incident to the school’s principal. After that, it seems, Principal Jane Duffy and Erin Cuffaro, district director of special programs, did not have the sense of urgency or desire to ...

Boss Trump?

Columnists

Perhaps a fedora or a bowler hat should replace President Donald Trump’s omnipresent MAGA cap. In recent months, he seems more like an old big city boss than the head of the world’s premier power. Trump continues to dole out pardons, first to a convicted drug dealer who was once president of Honduras and Henry Cuellar, a former Democratic Congressman from Texas, as per usual, justifying the actions with a snappy explanation. Take your pick of which former New York mayor Trump resembles. He favors Jimmy Walker, who mixed his actions with both panache and style. His public ...