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Statistics

Editorials

Politicians are abundant in putting their self-serving “spin” on issues, circumstances and new developments good and bad, and they’re not shy about voicing rosy predictions and making promises for if they are successful at the ballot box. People who follow politics closely recognize that, but so do many people who have what they consider to be “better things to do” than monitoring closely the issues on the political and governmental landscapes. But although statistics can be “shaped” to benefit one’s own viewpoints and advantage, it is “stats” as a whole, without ...

Avoid Scams

Editorials

Across the country, scammers continue to find success — particularly with older residents and their families — with a seemingly endless supply of techniques for separating people from their hard-earned money. Among the latest efforts is a scam in which a person receives a phone call, email or text that says they need to pay a fine, but that they should do so with Bitcoin, a gift card or other virtual currency. And yes, the wording is confusing and aggressive enough that people continue to fall for these scams in droves. In Ohio alone, between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, ...

Road tripping across WV

Columnists

One of the great things about being a news reporter is getting to sometimes hit the road and explore parts of the state I’ve never been to, as well as meeting the people who make this state go. Last Wednesday, I hopped in my car and drove from Charleston to Mason County. I’ve been reporting about the impending sale of West Virginia’s state-owned long-term care facilities, so I wanted to take some photos of the one closest to me, which is Lakin Hospital a few miles outside of Point Pleasant along Route 2. I was only a few miles away from Lakin when there it was: a pothole right ...

Peace dividend

Columnists

Remember the peace dividend? With the end of the Cold War, it was surmised that monies lavishly given to the military would be diverted to peaceful purposes. After the atomic bomb was dropped, Harry Truman optimistically predicted in 1945 that such “power” could be used to create “a paradise” in this world. None of this happened, mainly because the United States began to set its course towards Empire. After Franklin Roosevelt died, his successor, Truman, began to follow Woodrow Wilson’s example of selective moralizing rather than FDR’s pragmatic world vision. Instead of ...

Still Working

Editorials

Ohio State University isn’t letting its former President E. Gordon Gee rest for long, after his departure as president of West Virginia University. They’ve asked him to return to Columbus for a one-year consulting role. According to a report by The Columbus Dispatch, that role will include working with OSU’s new Salmon P. Chase Center to recruit faculty and increase the center’s presence on campus and nationally. Chase was Abraham Lincoln’s secretary of the treasury and later the sixth chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, serving in that role until his death in 1873. ...

Battle on two fronts

Columnists

When it came to personal relations, the Anchorage Summit went perfectly for Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. Trump played gracious host, and Putin was a grateful guest. Despite the best efforts of Volodymir Zelenskyy and the European Union to stop the meeting, they failed utterly, as usual. However, their skepticism was somewhat warranted. The summit was unproductive, but it was a beginning. As well, Trump never promised a done deal. He essentially probed Putin’s position, weighing his concerns and assessing the potential benefits for the United States for a new ...