Breaking News

Urgency: Officials must work fast for health funds

“The program tackles the root causes of rural health care failure. It gives states the tools to design solutions that last, not Band-Aids that fail.” That was Dr. Mehmet Oz, on the speedily unrolled Rural Health Transformation Program that will make available $50 billion — a possible ...

Citizenship: Educate yourself on the issues and vote

Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day. Today is Constitution Day and Citizenship Day. In other words, it is a week during which Americans are asked to think a little harder about what our founders had in mind when they were signing the Constitution back in 1787, and whether we are ...

Outcomes: Family Treatment Courts deserve funding

State lawmakers created the Family Treatment Courts program in West Virginia back in 2019. Two years later, they were pleased enough with the program to make it permanent — under the state Supreme Court of Appeals’ supervision. For a while, this important program — 14 Family Treatment ...

High Points of the Valley

* U.S. Sen. Jim Justice, R-W.Va., made an important statement last week regarding our state elected officials’ focus on religious vaccine exemptions for school-age children. “I think it’s plain out-and-out nuts. That’s all there is to it,” Justice said. “These vaccines are proven ...

Outbreak: Be responsible this deer hunting season

Southeast Ohio is facing the largest outbreak in the region’s confirmed cases of epizootic hemorrhagic disease in deer. An Ohio Division of Wildlife deer biologist told The Columbus Dispatch this year’s outbreak is the largest he has seen in his career, and that hundreds of dead or sick ...

Staffing: Lawmakers must address DCR challenges

West Virginia’s Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation continues to face a challenge experienced by many private employers: staffing shortages and pay rates that haven’t been able to keep up with inflation. David Kelly, commissioner of the DCR, reported to lawmakers this week that as ...