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Culture wars, losing jobs

Columnists

A recent local news headline read: “Manufacturing plant moving from West Virginia to Ohio, creating new jobs.” This is an unfortunate sign of the times for our state, which has lost the job-creating momentum created after business-friendly Republicans took control back in 2015. Unfortunately, a lot of Republican politicians seem more focused on fighting culture wars and creating new opportunities for lawsuits than growing our economy. Even though a majority of West Virginia voters want their leaders focused on economic growth, many legislators prioritize hot-button social ...

Decency on the ballot

Columnists

In 2017, in a special Senate election in Alabama to replace Jeff Sessions, Alabama’s electorate sent Democrat Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate after a series of disturbing allegations about Republican candidate Roy Moore. In 2022, Georgia voters elected every statewide Republican candidate for office except Herschel Walker, after a series of disturbing accounts of his prior behavior circulated. Now, the question is if Virginia has the same moral integrity. In Virginia, statewide elections are in odd-numbered years. The state has not split tickets for statewide offices since 2005. This ...

Strong public schools vital to WV future

Columnists

Well-educated students who are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century are vital to our success as a state. Today’s students will have unprecedented opportunity to succeed in life if they are properly educated and prepared. Earlier this month, West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty pointed to important facts regarding the West Virginia school-age population and regulations regarding school funding. Mr. Hardesty correctly points out that in order to improve public education, legislators must remove regulations put in place by their predecessors that ...

Safety

Editorials

Every once in a while, politicians will float the question of whether drivers should have to retake their tests as a requirement for license renewal after a certain age. With age comes the possibility of reduced vision, perhaps hearing loss, reduced reflexes and other changes we all laugh about as a fact of life until someone mentions them in the context of affecting a person’s ability to drive safely. Then pride kicks in. Well, pride and a little stubbornness as most of us bristle at the idea of the government telling us it’s possible we are less able to do something we’ve done ...

Is this all necessary?

Columnists

As the retribution tour hits the road in cities such as Chicago and Portland, tensions are increasing between Democrats and Republicans. The question must be asked: “Is all this necessary?” as well as the use of National Guard personnel, which is an unnecessary strain on the military. Soldiers are not police officers, and this places them in a vulnerable position. And of course, the role of ICE in all this places the military in a dicey situation due to the public reaction. Now the Trump administration has a point in arguing that open borders made all this necessary. Moreover, ...

Vaccines

Editorials

Despite a delay while unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., argued over messaging and content, the West Virginia Department of Health has finally been able to release its annual respiratory vaccine guidelines for health care providers and patients. That is a relief to health care professionals who had been worried about having the guidance they needed to properly advise patients about how to stay healthier and safer. “We have had so much different messaging given to us, much different information. People saying this. People saying that. We didn’t have a set group of ...