The lions and lambs of the WVa Senate

January 12, 2026

The West Virginia Senate is losing two giants with the resignation of Senate President Pro Tempore Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, and the retirement at the end of 2026 of Senate Minority Leader Mike Woelfel, D-Cabell. Boley, 90, has been a state senator since her appointment by the then-Gov. Arch Moore in 1985 and has remained there for 41 years and through 11 elections. She has been a force in West Virginia Republican politics and played a large role in slowly turning West Virginia into a red state. She’s the longest serving state senator in West Virginia history and at one point was ...

Preparing myself for a busy week of news

January 10, 2026

I was speaking with a colleague recently who observed I should have a “fun” week coming up. I think our ideas of fun are different. It also could be the age difference speaking, as an increasing number of my colleagues are now young enough to be my kids – if I had any. I don’t know about fun, but the coming week is certainly going to be busy. Some of that already has begun with assignments Friday, which you’ve hopefully, already read about in this edition. Those assignments included attending and covering the Weirton Finance Committee meeting and a special meeting of ...

The economy is the boulder for West Virginia

January 10, 2026

One of my clients is an excavation contractor. He told me a couple of years ago his business was robust because of a steady supply of what he characterized as “boulders, rocks and pebbles.” When I smiled, he explained how the big, complex, well-paying jobs were the boulders. They made up the baseline of the business, and by doing them, he was able to pay employees, provide their healthcare benefits and take on other projects while investing in better equipment and more supplies. Then, he explained the rocks: the somewhat smaller, but still very important, jobs that consistently ...

Taxes, teachers and term limits: What lawmakers should focus on this session

January 10, 2026

For eighty plus years, West Virginia’s leaders ignored innovation and ingenuity as the U.S. economy moved into the 21st Century. By taking an approach that gave preference to the status quo, our leaders failed to forecast necessary policy changes that could modernize West Virginia’s economy. All the while our neighbors focused on new opportunities allowing them to rocket past the Mountain State. These failures have created many of the issues that continue to hold our economy back. Since the Republican takeover ten years ago, we have seen the Legislature and the Executive branch put ...

Can the United States solve its electricity crisis?

January 10, 2026

As America moves into 2026, consumers are looking for relief from an ongoing affordability crisis. While prices for some key items have mercifully held steady—or even come down—other costs such as rent, dining out, and hospital visits continue to climb unabated. U.S. electricity—the one sector that affects all consumer industries in some way—is also racing upward. America’s electricity costs have jumped 32 percent in just the past five years. That’s a major problem for our new digital economy. Why are electricity prices rising so rapidly? Soaring power demand—particularly ...

These Nobel-prize-winning economists have a timely lesson for Congress

January 10, 2026

We live in arguably the most innovative and prosperous era in human history. My lifetime alone has seen numerous technological leaps that past generations could never have dreamed of, including the moon landing, the birth of the internet, and now the rise of artificial intelligence. But this pace of transformation is historically the exception, not the rule — and it may not continue much longer if the infringer lobby gets its way. That’s the lesson to be drawn from last year’s Nobel Prize in economics, which was awarded to Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt for ...