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Recent incidents leave questions

Editorials

Our region is blessed with many wonderful entertainment venues. They’re places to relax with members of our families and friends, spots where young and old should be able to take performances from top entertainers and enjoy a thrill ride. Sadly, nights at two of the most popular spots in the Tri-State Area have been disrupted during the past several weeks, incidents that have led to injuries and raised questions about security measures and what makes some people behave so badly in public settings. Those incidents — which included a man being hit in the head with a beer can ...

Life is based on certain once upon a times ...

Local Columns

Once upon a time ... there was a 19-year-old girl. One Friday, she decided to go to her local mall with her best friend. She didn’t know why, but there was something inside this girl that told her she had to get to the mall as quickly as possible. Again, she wasn’t sure why she had ...

Working to live united

Local Columns

The cooler weather we experienced during the last several days of August and the beginning of September have once again served as a reminder that we are headed into a different time of the year. Students are settling into classrooms for the year, we’re three weeks or so into the high school football season, pumpkin-spiced everything is available just about everywhere and store shelves already are filled with Halloween candy and decorations — as well as items for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It all means we’re headed into a busy time of year, when activities seem to stack on ...

Guest column/Some information to consider about carbon capture

Local Columns

I’ve lived in the Ohio River Valley for 70 years, in Jefferson and Harrison counties. For decades, the residents of the Ohio Valley have been paying for the aftermath of extractive industries. That “beautiful clean coal” President Donald Trump refers to took lives, and left a legacy of mine shafts and acid mine run-off. Taxpayers continue to foot the bills to plug orphan oil and gas wells and clean-up un-reclaimed strip-mined lands. Recently, the Ohio River Valley was targeted to become a carbon capture and sequestration hub. This hub will consist of a series of pipelines and ...

Guest column/Explaining county water, sewer rate increases

Local Columns

We understand that no one welcomes an increase in water and sewer rates, and we want to be open and honest about why this adjustment is necessary. Our duty as a county is to ensure that every household and business connected to the system has safe, reliable and affordable service. After careful review, we must adjust rates to keep that promise. We must also think about not leaving future generations with these infrastructure issues. Nobody will want to move to a community with poor infrastructure. To put this into perspective, sewer rates have not been raised since 2009. That means ...

Guest column/West Virginia cannot afford to lose another person

Local Columns

September is National Suicide Prevention Month, and in West Virginia, the urgency couldn’t be higher. Our state is no stranger to hardship, but the current mental health crisis demands clear-eyed attention and bold action. In 2023, West Virginia’s age-adjusted suicide rate stood at 18.6 per 100,000 people, among the highest in the nation and significantly above the national average. That is 349 West Virginians we have lost in one year alone. Though this is slightly less than 2022, West Virginians deserve more. The numbers are more than data — they are human lives. In the ...