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The highs and lows of election events

A few weeks back, I mentioned how we would be seeing the start of major campaigning as we inch closer to the Nov. 5 general elections. The first big event took place a little over a week ago with a “Meet the Candidates” event hosted by the Hancock and Brooke County Democratic executive committees and the Democratic Women organizations from both counties. The event at the T. Kosciusko Hall in Weirton included candidates running for U.S. Senate, as well as a couple of statewide offices and one Hancock County office, among others. In an effort to be transparent, some contacts of ...

Parents on front lines in flight against online threats

A new school year is underway for children in West Virginia, many of whom have their own smartphone. By age 11, about half of the kids in America have one of these powerful devices so that they may stay connected with friends and family. However, smartphones also create the opportunity for connections to be made by people who could harm them, and thus parents must be vigilant. According to the F.B.I., more than 500,000 online predators are active daily and many are engaging with youngsters via Instagram, Snapchat, and gaming platforms. Parents are the first line of defense and need to ...

Time. It is a gift from God. A gift that no one really understands. Why are some people blessed with many, many years? And some, all too few? Why do our teenage years seem to be never-ending? We are always waiting for the day when we will become an adult. That 21st birthday? Or that 18th birthday? It couldn’t get here soon enough. We waited. And waited. And time passed by ever-so-slowly. But the older we became, the faster the hands on the clock seemed to tick. Physically impossible, I know. But it appeared as if those hands had been wound too ...

Dispatches from the Greenbrier Resort

I’m writing this week’s column sitting at a fancy writing desk off of the lobby of the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. No, I am not staying at the Greenbrier. I’m just a humble newspaper reporter who is staying at a nearby Super 8 Hotel. But I have been attending the 88th West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Summit. The Business Summit is probably one of my favorite events to cover. My beat is covering state government, but my beat often intersects with business, whether that means lawmakers crafting bills to draw more businesses ...

We’re all frustrated by bridge project

The work on and around the Veterans Memorial Bridge has continued this week, with a few other aspects thrown at the motoring public. As you probably expect, it hasn’t been going over well with a lot of residents. Construction zones on the bridge, which now is the only connecting point between Weirton and Steubenville, has been a regular event over the last few years. It’s not going to be anything that gets less stressful just because we “get used to it.” Full lanes have been closed at various intervals, exits have been shut down, and even ramps have been blocked off from ...

Integrated Care: A lifeline for West Virginia’s opioid crisis

By DR. JORGE CORTINA UniCare of West Virginia Opioid use disorder (OUD) is one of the most pressing public health crises in the United States, with more than 75% of the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022 involving an opioid. West Virginia is at the epicenter of this crisis, as the state’s fatal opioid overdose rate was nearly three times the national average in 2020. A new initiative is saving lives by integrating behavioral and physical health care, an approach that has been widely successful in West Virginia. This initiative, led by Unicare, has reduced the rates of ...