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A welcome to 2025

Welcome to the new year. The future looks better for developments in West Virginia, with a change in administration taking place in Washington. Our Commission has engaged in several battles over the past year with the Environmental Protection Agency. Those disagreements primarily involved proposed federal pollution regulations, many adversely affecting our coal-fired plants. All of them ended up in court, and we lost most, if not all, of the first rounds of arguments. Regardless of one’s stance on pollution controls, coal still remains a vital part of the energy makeup of West ...

Not everybody celebrates another new year

Well, we blinked. And another year has come and gone. So, with that, I believe I am supposed to say, Happy New Year! Of course, I, for one, am not someone who celebrates the start of another year. To me, it is just another day — not the beginning of something different. I am that person who is usually asleep before midnight, the one who even if they are awake, does not watch the ball drop on television. I can’t get excited over things like that. I’m sorry. I have never been someone who pays tribute to a new year by attending a party. I have never gone drinking with ...

History in the Hills: New Years of the past

Just a few days ago, we ushered in 2025. I didn’t do much, to be honest, on New Year’s Eve. My wife and I spent the evening at home with our son Paul and watched some coverage of the events going on in Times Square. Life with small children makes it impossible to go out to celebrate the New Year like we did years ago, but that’s OK. I am quite content to stay right at home with those I love and welcome the new year together. At New Years Eve, I always get more nostalgic than I already am, and I find myself reflecting on the previous year or years that have gone by. For this ...

Mission accomplished: Confidence regained

I have thoroughly enjoyed my tenure as Secretary of State. I love serving with the office’s professional staff, our hard-working county clerks, and our dedicated legislature. It has been the highlight of my career to serve the wonderful people of WV for the last eight years. Before being elected in 2016, I served five years with the U.S. Department of State in Afghanistan and 23 years in the U.S. Army assigned to military hotspots all over the world. I can assure you, there is no place like home in WV! At West Point and in the Army, I learned the value of teamwork. When people work ...

Multiplicity in the Governor’s Mansion

There is a popular meme often shared on the internet of two individual Spider-Men pointing at each other. Sometimes the meme includes four Spider-Men or more. Replace the Spider-Men with Gov. Jim Justice, outgoing Senate President Craig Blair, incoming Senate President Randy Smith, and Governor-Elect Patrick Morrisey all pointing at each other. The one thing all four have in common is one is the current governor, one is the incoming governor, and the two senate presidents might have had to briefly act as governor. But that possible Golden Horseshoe question is no longer a ...

Hoping for more opportunity in 2025

In our offices, our staff typically has two times where we have an opportunity to take stock in some of the moments of the previous year. One is when contest time rolls around, usually February or March, when we work to look for potential entries to send up against other newspapers in the state. The other, of course, is the end of each calendar year when we put together our annual Year in Review section. Our executive editor, Ross Gallabrese, spent quite a few hours this year going through stacks of newspapers, picking out a variety of events featured in both The Weirton Daily Times ...