Breaking News

Opinion

Flooding has devastated area

Editorials

As the rain kept coming down over the weekend, West Virginians watched in horror while the number of deaths ticked up and damage mounted because of flash flooding in the northern part of the state. At least six people are dead, and others are missing. Buildings have collapsed; thousands are without power; homes, businesses and cars have been washed away — the devastation has been painful to witness. Gov. Patrick Morrisey wasted no time declaring a state of emergency to get what resources are available to where they are needed. The National Guard is ready to help. Meanwhile, ...

Annual drive a chance to help

Editorials

Area residents will have an opportunity to perform a simple and selfless act Wednesday. That’s when this year’s Jefferson County Media Day Blood Drive is scheduled to be held at the St. Florian Event Center in Wintersville. The doors will be open from noon to 5:30 p.m., and we hope that everyone who is eligible will participate in the annual event. Late spring and early summer often bring a need for blood that sometimes isn’t met. Regular donors might be on vacation or involved with other activities that keep them away from donation centers. That said, the need for blood ...

To Whom it May Concern ... Happy Father’s Day

Local Columns

To Whom it May Concern … I would like to wish you a Happy Father’s Day. I want to thank you for all of the years you awoke before dawn — before the sun even thought about rising in the morning sky … if only for the sake of your family. For the years that somehow became decades doing a job you didn’t much care for. One that was not only physically tolling — but mentally exhausting. Yet, you never complained. Never thought about quitting, despite the fact it took you away from the people you loved the most in this world. I thank you for being the kind of father who ...

Guest column/Consumers shouldn’t subsidize needs of data centers

Local Columns

Driven by the explosive growth of artificial intelligence and data centers, U.S. electricity demand and electricity prices are rising rapidly. Dozens of new data centers — each with the electricity needs of a small city — are gobbling up the nation’s power supply. Forecasters see U.S. electricity demand growing 25 percent by 2030 — and nearly 80 percent by 2050. In some regions of the country, it will be far more and even faster. The nation’s largest regional electricity grid, PJM Interconnection — which stretches from Virginia to Illinois — expects that, by 2030, new ...

Every day’s the Fourth of July

Letters to the Editor

To the editor: The Upper Ohio Valley is a special place to me, filled with boyhood memories. The band Chicago sang “Old days ... Take me back to a world gone away,” with the Fourth of July celebrations eagerly awaited, where the beginning of an early morning raising of Old Glory, a day filled with laughter and stories; burgers and hot dogs on the grill, warm buns bursting with flavor, with ketchup, mustard, and onions, relish piled high; so much laughter and good times you would think every day is the Fourth of July. As the sun makes its way into the western sky, then comes ...

Fathers help to shape children

Editorials

Fathers don’t always receive the attention they deserve, often because many fathers garner attention that isn’t so good. Tales of single fathers and stay-at-home dads are not as common as tales of fathers gone wrong, fathers who succumb to the terrible pressures of supporting a family in a tight economy or fathers who simply never even tried to meet those pressures in the first place. But all fathers don’t simply act as a genetic donor who then goes away or goes wrong. The fathers who stick around, who work at the job of caring for and supporting children while trying to ...