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History in the Hills: Remembering D-Day

This past week marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasions in Europe during World War II. On that day in June 1944, the world changed. The allies began the operation to take back Nazi-held Europe and liberate the many under their rule. My grandfathers were in the Army then, too, although they did not take part in the invasion. My grandfather, Joseph Carpini, was in England in June 1944 training and serving as a military policeman. He landed at Omaha Beach about a month or so after D-Day and saw firsthand the destruction and evidence of the great battles that took place in the ...

Father’s Day should have been more important

Next Sunday is Father’s Day. To be painfully honest, it has never been a day I thought too much about until, say, a week prior to its arrival. (Kind of like this column.) It is nothing like Mother’s Day. We know it is coming and always order our gifts and flowers well in advance. We actually buy her a card as soon as they become available in the aisles. Why is that? What makes Mother’s Day more meaningful than Father’s Day? I truly have no idea. But I will speculate that mothers usually don’t leave. Some do. But most stay for the duration. Now, in no way am I ...

Manchin’s declaration of independence

I’m a news reporter, which means that rumors make me uncomfortable. I don’t usually report rumors. I like to have hard information in the form of documents and multiple sources, including sources willing to go on the record. This is why I have largely avoided the recent rumors being spread over the last couple of weeks about an alleged plan by some moderate Republicans and Democrats in West Virginia to pressure Huntington Mayor Steve Williams, the Democratic candidate for governor, to drop out of the race and be replaced by none other than outgoing U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin. In fact, ...

My effort to protect your electric supply

A sworn statement I issued recently on behalf of the Public Service Commission is at the heart of a multistate effort, led by West Virginia, to limit efforts of the federal government to wreck our state’s economy. While that is an important element of my work, it is even more crucial to protect and defend the nation’s electric energy supply. I’m angry. And I am determined to protect the reliability of that energy source to the maximum extent I can. I confess this latest assault by the federal government on coal-fired electric energy generation has deeply upset me. But we are ...

Warm weather brings out the events

The summer months are approaching, and that means there will be more activity in our communities as we see fairs and festivals, yard sales, concerts and more scheduled. Our area includes so many communities, each offering something special, and many of them not too far away from each other. That means it’s not too much trouble to find something to do no matter where you live. Weirton’s summer concert series kicked off Friday night with performances by 40+ and 7 South, along with a car cruise on the grounds of the Weirton Event Center. This series is organized each summer by the ...

Where will our area be in another year?

It’s amazing what can happen in a year. I was looking back through a few files in recent days, and realized this weekend (May 26, to be precise) marks one year since the ceremonial groundbreaking for Form Energy’s Form Factory 1 facility. It was, without a doubt, one of the biggest economic development events Weirton has hosted in some time, with Form Energy representatives joined by local elected officials, company stakeholders, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and many more. To see the changes of that site over the last several months has ...