Finger-pointing and a botched blame game have marked the testimony regarding the riot and breach of the U.S. Capitol complex Jan. 6. Before a Senate Homeland Security, and Governmental Affairs and Senate Rules and Administration joint hearing this week, the people who were in charge of security ...

Most conservative lawmakers at one time branded themselves as being in favor of small government, particularly when it came to the federal government meddling in state matters. In fact, plenty of state lawmakers across the country still bristle when they believe Congress or the executive branch ...

West Virginia is at its lowest level of COVID-19 cases since November. We are, according to NPR, ranked among the highest vaccination rates in the world. The Mountain State is making great strides in fighting back the pandemic. It is wonderful news, and cause for celebration. But let’s not ...

By now, most Americans understand something went very wrong in Texas last week. Early efforts to play the blame game were off the mark, as some wanted to spread the idea the entire fiasco was the fault of wind and solar energy operations that had been frozen by an unusually harsh and ...

UP: To Gov. Jim Justice, for easing pandemic regulations and rules for restaurants, bars, businesses, grocery stores and schools in our state. Without taking his foot fully off the brakes, Justice appears to have given some hopes to business owners working to stay afloat after nearly a year ...

Lawmakers are being asked to consider whether West Virginia needs two new cabinet positions as the state aims to diversify and jump-start its economy, and attract new visitors who might one day become residents. House Bill 2019 would make the West Virginia Development Office and the Division ...

HB2012 to adjust the public charter school pilot program in West Virginia has been handed to the state Senate. It could ensure Mountain State parents have choices for their children’s education, but House Education Committee Minority Chairman Sean Hornbuckle, D-Cabell, is right: “ ... slow ...

How do most of us react to news of impending bad winter weather? We stock up on groceries and hunker down. For many who have spent the last several months working or learning remotely, anyway, being snowed in does not mean much of a change, after all. But what about the folks who learn there ...

West Virginia’s Department of Highways is running into a problem that affects many private employers. A generation of experienced workers is nearing retirement, and when they leave their posts, they will take a wealth of institutional knowledge with them. Officials are pulling out all the ...

When acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega rescinded a directive from former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt last week, he appears to have steered a federal program back to operating as Congress wished. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were caught off guard in November — a week ...

UP: To outgoing Parkersburg Development Director Rickie Yeager, who has accepted a position to keep doing his good work in Morgantown. According to Mayor Tom Joyce, Yeager has been part of the realization of more than $150 million in investments in the city, working with employers such as Hino ...

Gov. Jim Justice has a way with words, doesn’t he? “We are on the launch pad right now. In fact, we’re airborne right now,” he said Wednesday during his annual State of the State address. “And that’s why tonight, I am asking all of you to join me to repeal the income tax in the ...

Try to remember what is was like, perhaps many years ago, to go to bed at night after having finished your homework, or to wake up in the morning and join the family rush to get ready and get out the door to school. Think about having friends over. Think about knowing you had the same safe ...

For decades, Americans have understood there is a great deal of work to do to both clean up and make our oceans safer for marine creatures. A great deal of progress has been made, but some industries have clung to outdated methods. It is encouraging, then, that Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, ...

Parkersburg city government continues to demonstrate the priority it places on helping those in our area who are homeless and struggling. With a recent allocation of $20,580, Parkersburg City Council aimed to reimburse the West Virginia Coalition to End Homelessness for services provided in the ...

If we agree we are at war against the spread of COVID-19 — and we are — it is good to know the Pentagon is sending out more than 1,100 troops to the first five mass vaccination centers planned by the Biden administration. Perhaps they are taking some cues from how well the National Guard ...

UP: To Lacey Cale at Emerson Elementary School, Edna Ruth Patrick at Madison Elementary School, Deanna Cunningham at Kenna Elementary School in Jackson County and Lori Franks at Tyler Consolidated High School, for being among the recipients of the 2021 STEM-Minded Educator Grants. The awards of ...

It sounds as though leadership of the West Virginia House of Delegates are on board with this year’s theme of making West Virginia the kind of place that attracts and retains residents. As House Speaker Roger Hanshaw, R-Clay, put it during last week’s West Virginia Press Association ...

As lawmakers, lobbyists and members of the press gathered virtually this week for the annual West Virginia Press Association Legislative Lookahead, a familiar phrase popped up — quietly and infrequently, but it was there. Once again, Republican lawmakers are going to be “finding ...

Think for a moment about the 9-year-old girls you have known. Any of them seem as though there is the remotest of possibilities they could have been a threat to a fully equipped group of police officers? Of course not. But for multiple officers in Rochester, N.Y. (the city will not say how ...