Breaking News

Local Columns

Guest column: Mediation: A huge step in the right direction

We strive at the Public Service Commission to resolve complaints in the simplest, fairest, and most expedient manner possible, consistent with your concerns. One very handy tool we have been able to use is the mediation process, which is handled by the Commission’s Division of Administrative Law Judges. The dedicated lawyers who populate this office handle any number of cases that are referred to them by the three-member Commission. The cases before the judges involve many different issues and are often complex. The Division also resolves cases through mediation. In Mediation, ...

Guest column: Tax credit program will be good for all West Virginians

I am proud to be the Business Manager/Secretary-Treasurer of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) District Council 53, representing construction workers in the finishing trades in parts of Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky, Virginia, and right here in West Virginia. Workers in our state have a long and storied history of working hard, organizing for our rights, and contributing to the entire nation’s energy stores and economy. We are also no stranger to changing industries and, unfortunately, to job loss. But our state’s workers are some of the most determined and ...

Guest column: Fix the GOP tax bill before it hurts West Virginian families

In my work across West Virginia as a deacon and nonprofit director, I meet families every day who are doing everything right—raising kids, working long hours, pinching pennies—yet they still struggle to put food on the table. That’s why I’m so troubled by proposals in the tax bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid in our state. For thousands of families in West Virginia, SNAP is the difference between a parent putting food on the table and an entire household going to bed hungry. But ...

To Whom it May Concern … Happy Father’s Day

To Whom it May Concern … I would like to wish you a Happy Father’s Day. I want to thank you for all of the years you awoke before dawn — before the sun even thought about rising in the morning sky … if only for the sake of your family. For the years that somehow became decades doing a job you didn’t much care for. One that was not only physically tolling — but mentally exhausting. Yet, you never complained. Never thought about quitting, despite the fact it took you away from the people you loved the most in this world. I thank you for being the kind of father who ...

Reporter’s Notebook: Tackling CON, by appointment only?

Continuing on from last week’s column on the certificate of need repeal drum beats, Gov. Patrick Morrisey added new appointees to a board that makes decisions regarding certificate of need applications submitted by current and potential health care providers for new services. Last Tuesday, Morrisey appointed former lawmaker Heather Glasko-Tully, former West Virginia Republican Party chairman Doug McKinney, and former Attorney General staffer Robert Cheren to the state Health Care Authority. According to State Code, the Health Care Authority – created by the Legislature in 1983 - ...

Trail paving a step in the right direction

A promise years in the making has been completed with the final stretch of paving to the Panhandle Recreation Trail. Managed under the auspices of the Weirton Board of Parks and Recreation, with support for many years from a group of dedicated volunteers who have provided much of the labor and maintenance, the trail was established on a former rail line (something which has been done in many communities across the nation over the last 30 years or so). I grew up, and still reside, near the trail, and can still recall seeing the train traveling along that particular corridor in my ...