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Looking at progress

If you haven’t had the chance to see the first installments of our annual Progress Edition, you owe it to yourself to find them and take a look at their content. Once again, the annual look at businesses and organizations that help to keep our area strong is being presented in five segments, a series that began on Feb. 2 with a section dedicated to the region’s economic outlook. You’ll find some interesting reading, including a look at how Form Energy’s facility in Weirton figures to have a big impact on the commercial battery industry in general and employment ...

Thankful to those of you who read my column

So this week, I am including in this little corner of the paper ... my little section of the world, a photograph. Not the best picture, by any means. But still, a moment captured of the three people who mean the very most to me. They are my reason for saying what I say. They are the ...

Guest column/Explaining our health care free speech movement

Why should you join America’s health care free speech movement? You may have already enlisted if you’ve had the gnawing feeling that the well-known patterns of health care debate conceal some as yet unrevealed primal reality that block important issues from being joined. You’d be right. There may be a few thousand people nationwide who are occasional health care free speechers, although they don’t call themselves that. Among them are a few lawyers, some academics, a handful of medical doctors and independent theoreticians and citizen-dissenters. Consider this: ...

Ballots are looking thin

One of the biggest concerns that comes up with every election is the lack of voter turnout. If you look at the numbers from Jefferson County during the last couple of presidential elections, you will find that about 69 percent of registered voters vote. Those numbers are a little bit lower in nonpresidential years. According to statistics from the office of Secretary of State Frank LaRose, in November 2023, only 43.66 percent of the registered voters in the county cast ballots. In November of 2022, that number was 49.74 percent, while in November 2021, that number was 23 percent. ...

Guest column/World’s biggest business needs W.Va. common sense

Parts of West Virginia are less than an hour’s drive from Washington, but the two places could not be any more different. It’s not about the size of the cities or how many people live there, it’s about the way we think. It’s about culture, priorities and how we approach government. Inside the beltway, everybody is too busy worrying about the next election. But I never approached things that way. Back home, sure, people are busy. They’ve got plenty to do. But there’s this feeling of community, of belonging, of we are all in this together. And that is sorely lacking in a ...

Merry Christmas and Happy Presidents Day

Merry Christmas! No, I haven’t lost my mind. (Completely.) I know that the calendar tells me it’s Feb. 14 ... Valentine’s Day. And if, by chance, you happen to be reading this column, it will already be Feb. 15, even though the newspaper indicates at the top of the page that it is Feb. 16. Are you still with me? OK. Good. Anyway, the reason I am wishing you a Merry Christmas is because my youngest son, Noah, will be coming home from Poland this week. As I have mentioned a time or two before … actually, more like three or four times before ... that upon his ...