Breaking News

Local Columns

History in the Hills: Union Cemetery talk

This Saturday, I am excited to take part in the annual tour of Union Cemetery in Steubenville as hosted by the Friends of Beatty Park. The event begins at 10 a.m. and will feature many speakers including historians Jeff Evans and Flora VerStraten-Merrin. There will be musical selections and lots of great history to be shared. Flora did a wonderful job planning the event and putting it all together. During the last few years I have participated, attendees went from grave to grave learning about the many notable people that are interred there. This year, however, we are just going to ...

Age may be just a number, but 32 is pretty good

Well ... I blinked. And my first-born son turned 32 on Wednesday. *Sigh* Wasn’t I just 32 the other day? I could almost swear I was. At 32, I was taking care of a 12-year-old, a 7-year-old and a 5-year old. Thirty-two and going back to college. Being a member of college clubs like Phi Theta Kappa and Fine Arts. Cooking, baking cakes to sell, cleaning, studying. Being a mom. Where did all that time go? I miss being 32. That’s a pretty good number in my opinion. No part of my body was broken. It didn’t hurt when I would bend over. I was able to accomplish so much on ...

Guest column/Halloween tales of ghosts, the vampire craze and witches

The new, multi-million-dollar Brooke County Judicial Center in Wellsburg was built on disturbed ground to hide the deep haunted history of the witch trials that took place at the old courthouse, by those black-robed justices who fear the spirit images of the secret truth that has been purged from the court records. The former museum was a spooky land, the site where people gathered during these times torn down in hopes that people would forget and discourage visitors to the troubled patch of sod. It is said, that parallel time is known to exist where you can see the vapor of the ...

Guest column/When it comes to W.Va.’s Issue 1, it’s really us vs. them

There are states where it is acceptable for a family to discuss whether one of their members should kill themselves, and there are states where it is not. There are states — like Oregon, California, Vermont, Washington and many others now — where insurance companies can deny people end-of-life care — but offer to cover the cost of their suicide. And there are states — like West Virginia — where they cannot. I am proud to be a son of West Virginia, where suicide is known as a problem and not pushed as a solution. But well-funded liberal interest groups — like Portland, ...

It’s time to enjoy fall

Depending on when you are reading this, you are either enjoying the last few hours of summer or looking forward to fall adventures. That’s because the autumnal equinox officially will occur at 8:44 a.m. Sunday, and will mark the passage between the seasons. This past week was interesting for those who like to look to the skies. On Tuesday evening, we had the opportunity to get a glimpse of a fairly unusual event. We had the chance to not only experience the Harvest Moon — the full moon that comes closest to the beginning of fall — but also a super moon and a partial lunar ...

Guest column/Business community must reject corporate transparency act

As a former member of Congress and president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, I’ve seen many bad bills enacted into law. The Corporate Transparency Act is one of the worst. Why is it so bad? The CTA is the first law I have ever seen that explicitly exempts big businesses while targeting Main Street job creators. It applies to entities with 20 or fewer employees or $5 million or less in revenues. Treasury estimates more than 32 million entities will be required to file this year, including hundreds of thousands located in Ohio. Most of these businesses have never heard ...