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This time of year is always a look at the past

It’s hard to believe it has already been an entire year since I wrote a column about my oldest son, Dylan, turning 32. I blinked. And this week, he turns 33. Still a good age, although it reminds me of how quickly time passes. It also shows me how I am really no further ahead than I was more than three decades ago. And it can hurt terribly. It truly does sadden me at times to realize I didn’t use the life I was given here wisely. But then again, how many of us really do? How many of us take advantage of the life God gave us and use it to our fullest potential? I ...

Here’s to your healthcare, West Virginia

Last week marked the first legislative interim meetings since the end of June, with lawmakers getting a two-month summer break. Well, some lawmakers. Much of Republican legislative leadership spent their summer in planning meetings for a possible special session that did not happen. At one point, there was a hard date set for a special session in July. But then that was moved back to September coinciding with last week’s interims. It should be obvious that a special session – which was to be focused on the Public Employees Insurance Agency (PEIA) – did not occur. While ...

Wrapping up one season, beginning another

This weekend, for all intents and purposes, served as the end of the summer season – at least when it comes to local events. Friday saw the final installment of the City of Weirton’s inaugural summer event series, with a performance by Let’s Groove Tonight, an Earth, Wind, and Fire tribute group. The concert had been scheduled for earlier in the summer season, but was postponed out of concern for potential weather that never really arrived in the area. Saturday (today for some of you reading this) brought us the final Second Saturday event of the year, organized by the Top of ...

Guest Opinion: Presentation will remember a witch’s Halloween

I am not sure how many families in the Upper Ohio Valley can claim documented proof of a witch’s spell being cast. This Halloween Thursday, Oct. 30, between astronomical twilight and midnight, the veils between the spirit world are thin in the darkness. The apparitions that make their way into your home can be found in stories told in front of ancestors’ hearths that date back centuries. I will be presenting a program at 5 p.m. in the Vincent Room of the Brooke County Library in Wellsburg. I am under a generational witch’s spell cast under the celestial clock of the late 18th ...

School attendance matters — much more than you may think

There is no “secret sauce” when it comes to performing well in school, but a good place to start is the data that tells us students who show up tend to do better. An increased focus on school attendance in West Virginia would likely have positive results, as we work toward the further development of economic diversity in the state. We have many contributing factors to low educational performance, but we need a solid starting point. With the new school year here, a focus on attendance could be the momentum we need to address those other issues. Attendance is a particularly ...

A reminder of what you don’t hear enough of

This week, I would like to tell you something you do not hear enough of. Something that perhaps no one ever bothered to ever tell you. Or, something some of you may already know. Today, I want to tell you … the world is a good place. Yes, you can go back and reread that sentence again, if you’d like. The world is a good place. You see, we always talk about, think about and hear about the negatives. And there are a lot of negatives. But, for the most part, the world is a good place. Think about what is our source in discovering what is going on in this world? For the ...