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The possibilities of the road not taken

Despite all the culture war bills getting most of the attention over the last several weeks, the 2024 session has been very slow. That’s given me time to be nostalgic, thinking about the path that led me to this career in journalism. I’ve been listening to a podcast called “Finding Matt Drudge,” talking about Drudge’s impact on news reporting since breaking the story about the investigation into former President Bill Clinton’s relationship with a White House intern. The Drudge Report was revolutionary in the mid-to-late 1990s. Drudge showed that one person – not a news ...

Support to address dilapidated properties

A state grant program designed to put funds toward the demolition of abandoned and dilapidated properties will continue to help some of our local communities. This past week, an announcement from the Governor’s Office noted the Hancock County Commission, City of Weirton and City of Chester will be receiving a portion of $15.6 million set for distribution through West Virginia’s Reclamation of Abandoned and Dilapidated Properties program. The program was created by the Legislature in 2021 and overseen by the state Department of Environmental Protection, with an initial funding of ...

It takes very little effort to show a little kindness

When you think you’re having a bad day — perhaps you woke up late, spilled your coffee, got stuck in traffic, overdrew your bank account, couldn’t find a babysitter and had to cancel weekend plans — stop for a minute. Just stop. And think about this ... Your day didn’t begin with your owner not wanting you any longer. Your life isn’t a matter of being completely alone and unloved every single day. Someone didn’t wake up and decide today was the day to throw you out of a moving vehicle, leaving you to die in the middle of the roadway with nothing but land and woods all ...

History in the Hills: Life is a garden

February is here and usually at this time of year I am longing for the cold days to end and dreaming of warmer days ahead. It’s usually about this time that my wife and I begin to think about a garden. I know we are quite a way off, but we like to plan ahead and think about all the things we want to plant this year. I always find that we plan too ambitiously and by the time our plan is done, we have accounted for every square inch of the little plot we have. If we actually went through with all our plans, our plot would resemble a jungle, not to mention it would be unlikely that ...

The power found under the reading rainbow

I’ve been reading as long as I can remember. To the point that I didn’t sleep in the dark until my late teens because I had gotten used to falling asleep with the touch lamp on because I’d stay up late reading. I spent so much time of my youth at the Pleasants County Library checking out books about science, history, biographies, books about unexplained phenomena and science fiction. The knowledge I learned helped me co-captain my middle and high school quiz bowl teams. In my 20s, I spent much of my time at the Parkersburg and Wood County Public Library. I used to walk from ...

An early morning of council goal setting

I spent the early part of last Saturday morning at the Weirton Municipal Building for a council workshop. Covering one of these roundtable discussions is seldom an exciting experience, especially when it starts at 8 a.m.on a Saturday, but there I was, listening as most of council and the mayor discussed projects they would like to see addressed this year. I don’t know how realistic it will be to see many of the projects discussed actually completed before the end of this council’s term in December, and there is certain to be a different mix when the next administration takes over ...