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Need for blood donations great

The American Red Cross Ohio River Valley Chapter is looking for some help from its “Friends” in another plea to get potential donors to step away from their busy schedules to roll up their sleeves. As a celebration of 30 years since the start of the beloved sitcom “Friends,” the Red Cross hopes donors will grab a friend “and be there for patients by making a blood donation.” Those who do so between today and Dec. 8 will get two pairs of Friends+Red Cross socks. Think of it as being an act in the spirit of “Friendsgiving.” “Festive activities and busy calendars ...

Holiday events take center stage

We’re solidly into November, and, while the weather has not really offered much to indicate it, the calendar reminds us that the spirit of the holiday season is ready to shine brightly in communities throughout the Tri-State Area. Area activities got underway Wednesday in Weirton, when the annual North End Christmas Tree Lighting was held at the corner of Main Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. That spirit will continue to shine in Weirton on Nov. 23, with the Christmas on Main Street event. Scheduled to run from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. in front of the Millsop Community Center, it will ...

Spirit of giving alive in region

Tri-State Area residents take pride in doing what we can to take care of one another. If there is a need, we try to meet it. Given that there are still so many struggling throughout the region, that need is not likely to lessen any time soon. It is fortunate, then, that according to WalletHub’s report on Most Charitable States, that our region has a couple of the highest-ranking states: Pennsylvania is ninth, according to the Washington, D.C.-based personal financial website, while Ohio is 16th. West Virginia ranks 44th. Pennsylvania ranks 10th for volunteering and service, and ...

SSAC debacle is troubling

Across West Virginia, boards of education are showing students where their priorities lie — and the rest of the country can see it, too. Movement to address chronically low performance — bottom of the barrel in a significant number of categories for so many years that it has become a running joke — has come at a pace that gives lawmakers time and reason to expand access to charter and non-public schools. Meanwhile, some could argue the flurry of legal filings that has led to this week’s mess in high school sports could have come at the beginning or at any point in the ...

W.Va. high school sports in chaos

Chaotic. Is there a better term right now to describe the situation with high school sports in West Virginia, where the start — and the matchups — of the football playoffs and the small-school volleyball tournament remain in doubt? Who would have imagined that, in 2024, local judges would be asked by county boards of education to order the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission to not only change its rating system to determine the playoffs pairings, but to determine exactly which teams make postseason play? Who would have imagined that these judges — ...

Fair maps still must be goal

Whether it was confusion over ballot language or truly a desire to maintain the system already in place, Ohio voters on Nov. 5 rejected an amendment that would have established a citizen-led commission to produce the state’s political maps. Though voters decided the Citizens Not Politicians effort was not the right way forward, it should not mean advocates give up the fight for a system that produces fair and constitutional voting maps. “In analyzing the vote tonight, it is clear that the millions of Ohioans who voted yes want to end gerrymandering,” former Ohio Chief Justice ...