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Honoring those who go above and beyond

If you checked out our front page this weekend, you will have seen that tickets for the Weirton Hall of Fame induction ceremony are now on sale. Organized by the City of Weirton, the Hall of Fame seeks to recognize current and former residents who have made significant contributions to the community or who have distinguished themselves within a specific field or career. This year’s ceremony will be held Aug. 16, with a class of eight set to be inducted. They include Daniel L. McCune in the category of philanthopy; Gabriel “Gabe” Arlia for public service; Dr. Jasbir Makar and ...

First six months of the Mountain State comeback

When I addressed my fellow West Virginians upon taking the oath of office, I said it was the dawn of a new era. A time to set our sights on something truly great: a future where West Virginia thrives as that shining state in the mountains. We pledged to move the needle on the things that matter: lifting our standard of living, driving educational attainment, and growing our workforce, all while defending and advancing West Virginia conservative values. Promises made, promises kept. We’ve proven that West Virginia can rise. We will rise. And not only that, we are ready to lead. We ...

Musk’s American Party could be interesting

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is about to form a new third party after announcing his plan on the social media platform X, which he owns. It is registered with the Federal Election Commission and is expected to focus on two or three U.S. Senate races and about eight or 10 House seats in the 2026 election cycle. Heading up DOGE and wielding a chainsaw as he slashed one government program after another, Musk, before his fallout with President Trump, was dubbed the first buddy after pouring millions into Trump’s campaign war chest. In the previous elections, he had supported ...

Hope Scholarship participation set to double in size

With the Hope Scholarship application period underway, we at the Treasurer’s Office expect the number of participating students to increase this fall. Currently, we have about 10,500 students enrolled within the program and expect that number to nearly double for the 2025-2026 school year. That means about 7% of school-aged children in West Virginia will be participating in the program. Nearly 15,000 applied for full funding of the scholarship for the 2025-2026 school year. For those who support options in education, this is huge news. But numbers alone can’t tell the whole story. It ...

Resolution rates on informal complaints to the PSC are 98 percent

The statistic that astounds me yearly at the Public Service Commission of West Virginia is our ability to settle thousands of cases on an informal basis and without resorting to lawyers or litigation of any kind. Our most recent report shows that we received more than nine-thousand-five-hundred informal complaints last year. These types of complaints happen when you have experienced a service interruption, when the service you have is poor, when you can’t get service, or if you have a billing issue that you cannot get resolved. You want to talk with somebody about it. You have ...

Reminded how I omitted something last week

Last week, my column was written a little differently than those you have read these past two years. It wasn’t written how I usually express myself in this little corner of the paper. Yet, it was still something personal about my life. And it was still being able to share some of those little moments which I believe we all have in common. Either way, it was different. Maybe that was a good decision, or maybe it was an awful one. I can never be quite certain. I was explaining to a friend of mine who doesn’t read the paper what my column was about. I told him how the radio ...