UP: To local teachers, who are busily preparing for next week’s start of the school year by attending their own training sessions. Among the topics covered in training were state testing requirements, dual credit courses for high school students, legal issues and responsibilies, technology and transportation policy. That’s just the start of what these men and women have to keep in mind as they also work toward providing the best education possible for local students. Our hats are off to them!

UP: To Marietta’s designation as a Purple Heart City, signifying its citizens’ willingness to be supportive of and honor those military veterans who were wounded as a result of hostile enemy action. We should all remember what Purple Heart recipient Wilbur Spindler, 98, of Marietta said during the ceremony ” … if this will teach some of the younger people that all of this freedom and everything they have cost a lot of heartache and lives, it’s a good thing to have.”

UP: To news that West Virginia’s revenue growth carries on, with a reported $36 million surplus for fiscal 2018. According to officials, it was the first budget surplus in six years without mid-year budget cuts. Gov. Jim Justice spread the credit liberally, as he wore a celebratory Hawaiian lei for the occasion: “It would be impossible for someone to say that the Republican effort has not been successful. It would be impossible to say that since I walked through this door that things haven’t started to get better. It would be impossible to say that Donald Trump’s impact on this state and nation and tax reform has not had a positive impact on our people.”