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I remember a time, not so long ago ...

Local Columns

I remember a time, not so long ago , when the church pews didn’t just hold people — they overflowed with them. It was a specific kind of closeness unique to Christmas Eve. Families were pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with coats piled high. Voices rose in unison to the holiday favorites we all knew by heart. I remember a time, not so long ago … The way the candlelight flickered across the faces throughout the congregation. The profound hush that fell across the church just before the first notes of “Silent Night” were sung without hymnals. Those lyrics carried a ...

A day we will always remember

Editorials

The words President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered to a joint session of Congress on Dec. 8, 1941, remain as powerful and meaningful today as they were when they were first spoken some 84 years ago. Americans were stunned and still reeling from the news that Japanese forces had attacked our Pearl Harbor naval base at Oahu, in the then-Territory of Hawaii, on Dec. 7, 1941, when Roosevelt spoke for a little more than seven minutes, including breaks for applause, the following day: “Yesterday, Dec. 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was ...

Journalism can also be like a box of chocolates

Local Columns

I had an entirely different thought for this column leading in the end of the week, and then Friday happened. That’s not to say that Friday was a disaster of a day necessarily, but it was a reminder of just how a typical day in this business can be anything but typical by most standards. Sure, there are some routine meetings. I know when school board and council meetings are, and can put them on my schedule, but, most of the time, we never really know what’s going to happen at any given point. I got into the office at around my usual time, having taken a few extra minutes to ...

The local holiday festivities continue

Editorials

Our region will continue to celebrate the magic of the Christmas season during the next couple of weekends. Thousands of residents from across the Tri-State Area are expected to pack the streets of downtown Steubenville at noon Saturday for the annual Sights and Sounds of Christmas Parade. The parade will feature marching bands and cheerleaders, dancing groups, homecoming queens, colorful floats sponsored by community organizations and local businesses and, of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus. The parade is just one of many things happening downtown. Already, thousands of visitors have ...

We need clarity on the mission

Editorials

“We are a family, 6,000-plus strong,” said Maj. Gen. James Seward, adjutant general of the West Virginia National Guard. “And so, when we lose one of our family members, I can tell you that every guardsman I’ve talked to is grieving.” In the case of Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, the family of those grieving her death extends across the Mountain State, as does those praying for the recovery of Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who was also shot during an attack in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday. But the initial shock of that horrific event has rightly evolved to include a desire to know as ...

Department of Ed fails in what is ‘professional’

Editorials

U.S. Department of Education officials missed the mark badly when they decided, purportedly in a revision that is part of the Big Beautiful Bill, to eliminate nursing, physical therapy, public health and other fields from those graduate study fields in which students are able to borrow loans up to the cost of their degree. Those programs are not, in the opinion of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., “professional.” In fact, only the following fields are now defined as professional programs, according to the Education Department: pharmacy, dentistry, veterinary medicine, chiropractic, ...