Gov. Jim Justice did the right thing — in consultation with legislators of both parties — to delay the primary election in West Virginia. It will be held June 9 instead of May 12, as had been scheduled previously. Timelines presented by medical experts suggest West Virginia could be ...
UP: To Dr. Clay Marsh, who has delivered thoughtful, measured, fact-based briefings that give West Virginians the information they need as we face this pandemic. Marsh is an important balance to Gov. Jim Justice’s (understandably) emotional approach to his press briefings. Marsh does not ...
West Virginia’s first death from COVID-19 occurred Sunday. An 88-year-old Marion County woman died from the virus, at a hospital in Clarksburg. Had she become ill just a few weeks ago, the woman might have been treated at Fairmont, in her home county. But there is no hospital there, now. It ...
As bad as it is to spread false information and rumors at a time like this — and don’t get us wrong, that is awful — it is even worse to put a drain on first responders and tie up our emergency lines by making excessive and unnecessary 911 calls to tattle on folks who are out and about ...
Pastor Tony Spell, of the Life Tabernacle Church in Central, La., is intentionally putting the lives of his parishioners and the rest of the East Baton Rouge Parish community in danger. He — and a few elected officials and church “leaders” here in West Virginia who are pretending they ...
A few days ago, President Donald Trump made a statement that may have been more a reflection of his hopes for the progression of COVID-19 in our country than reality. He spoke of his hope that the U.S. would be “opened up and just raring to go” by Easter — less than two weeks from ...
In an odd turn of events, the federal mechanism for determining how many people are living where — and therefore how to distribute, for example, healthcare funding — has been derailed a bit by COVID-19. Census 2020 workers have already been told to temporarily suspend field operations and ...
DOWN: To those in positions to give residents of our region information that will help them not only understand the situation they face, but keep themselves healthy or seek testing, who instead choose to hide behind privacy regulations in releasing as little information as possible and in an ...
We in West Virginia have been relatively fortunate, so far, in the COVID-19 outbreak. But if we are to avoid a tragedy such as that in Washington state, we must redouble vigilance regarding the most vulnerable among us. At last count, 20 people at the Sundale Nursing Home in Morgantown had ...
West Virginia now has community spread of COVID-19, and in fact saw its number of confirmed cases nearly double in one day earlier this week. There is no more pretending we have managed to avoid the monster that is attacking the rest of the nation. According to Dr. Jeff Coben, dean of the ...
So your gym is closed, and you stocked up on enough non-perishable foods to last quite some time, maybe not spending as much money on the fresher, healthier stuff. Now what? How do we stay active and healthy while sticking to the governor’s stay-at-home order? Some local gyms have begun ...
Gov. Jim Justice was absolutely correct over the weekend in describing how the upheaval of COVID-19 is affecting many West Virginians. “It’s like we’re all lost in a movie that we can’t relate to in any way,” Justice noted. By Monday, Justice was giving the stay-at-home order to ...
West Virginia’s state budget, already in the doldrums, is about to take a severe beating. More important, many Mountain State residents are facing serious, perhaps financially catastrophic, trouble. State officials should be finding a way to help them financially. We are not alone, of ...
Members of Congress and federal officials who dragged their feet at the end of last week in developing and presenting language for an economic relief package should be ashamed of themselves. If nothing else, it shows how little they care about seeming absurdly out of touch with ordinary ...
UP: To the City of Parkersburg, which was informed of no major issues or findings in its 2018-19 fiscal year audit. Mayor Tom Joyce is right. “I would think that the public should be pleased with the fact that it was a clean audit, there were no findings, which is rare when you consider the ...
Just a month ago, students and, no doubt, teachers in West Virginia and Ohio were looking forward to nice spring breaks and classes ending for the year in late May or early June. Mother Nature had been good to us, after all, with few instructional days lost to bad weather. Then Mother Nature ...
In these extraordinary times, nearly every one has faced some kind of challenge as a result of the attempt to stem the spread of COVID-19. Among the hardest hit will be small business owners — especially if those small businesses are restaurants, bars, or depend on larger gatherings of ...
West Virginia’s primary election is scheduled to be held May 12, less than two months from now. Though it we all hope COVID-19 will be a much less serious concern by then, it is beginning to seem more likely it will still be with us. Monday, Ohio officials decided that, to safeguard the ...
Our West Virginia representatives and senators in Congress have crucial roles to play in the COVID-19 outbreak. Much of what needs to be done will have to happen in Washington — and lawmakers are our eyes, ears and voices there. Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., ...