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Opinion

President Trump’s tirades

Columnists

Boy, can he get sore. Donald Trump’s tirades are sharp and rancorous. Because the Bureau of Labor Statistics adjusted an employment statistic to the low side, he fired the director for rigging the results. When the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, failed to lower interest rates, he was suddenly labeled a “moron.” Not to mention his accusation of “treason” against former President Barack Obama. Sometimes his actions are as comical as they are dangerous. When former Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, now Deputy Chairman of the Federation Security Council, denounced ...

Regulations

Editorials

It feels as though we are still in the thick of summer now, but West Virginia’s hunting seasons start at the end of this month, with the Aug. 30 kick off of the early split of the black bear firearms season. Then there’s squirrel season; bow season for deer, black bear and wild boar; turkey season; early firearms season for antlerless deer and of course, traditional buck firearms season running Nov. 24 to Dec. 7. If the thought of all those excuses to spend a little time in the woods has got you ready to break out the orange, hold on a minute. Have you completed your hunter ...

Why are we already fixating on 2028?

Columnists

August is usually downtime in Washington. Congress is in recess, the heat and humidity contribute to the desire to escape town for cooler weather, the president is normally somewhere else and cable news is focused on shark attacks. Not this August. Cable news, especially, along with some newspapers, seem to be fixated on the person Democrats will nominate for president in 2028. We are eight months into President Trump’s second term and we are being forced to listen and read speculation about an election a political lifetime away. Part of it can be blamed on former Vice President ...

Keeping elections safe

Columnists

West Virginia is a place where people know their neighbors, and that’s exactly what makes local elections work. When voters walk into a polling place and see a familiar face, a teacher, a pastor, a coach, a neighbor, a parent, it builds trust in the system. It reminds folks that elections aren’t run by distant bureaucrats; they’re managed by people right here in our own communities. We West Virginians pride ourselves on being a state full of hard-working, community-minded people. From the southern coal fields to the beautiful river views of the northern panhandle, Mountaineers ...

Driving a wedge

Columnists

Remember when then-candidate Donald Trump said during a rally in 2016 that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” I quickly put that aside as just another example of the New Yorker’s outlandish braggadocio, but like other political observers I have since been impressed by Trump’s seeming wall of invulnerability to scandal. However, as the Jeffrey Epstein scandal boils up around our ears, I have begun to notice some cracks. The difference is apparent as new questions about Trump’s relationship with the late ...

Dragging Feet

Editorials

Give them a hot-button topic that doesn’t actually affect the lives of ordinary people and politicians will waste no time hopping on and digging in. But when the issue is something of great significance to the rest of us — individuals and their employers — they drag their feet. That is the case with permitting reform. Last time it got any serious traction in Washington, D.C., former U.S. Sen. Joe Machin was leading the charge on the Energy Permitting Reform Act. Now, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is bringing lawmakers’ attention back to the matter in the hope ...