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Essay’s truth evident 60 years after written

Local Columns

When I was a teenager in the 1980s, I came across a copy of an essay in the newspaper that made me sit up and pay attention. It was pretty much the reason I began writing in the first place. You see, the words were so impactful, so truthful, that it made me stop and think — really think about the world, about life. When I first read it, the essay was only about 20 years old. But still, it was dead-on accurate and so well-put that I decided to cut the article out of the newspaper and I placed it among my poems, my keepsakes. I still have it to this day, 40 years later. ...

Guest Opinion: The original AI: Newspapers run on accurate information

Local Columns

Artificial intelligence is going to transform everything we watch, hear and read. You can already see it happening. Asking and AI search engine a question about an obscure fact can yield quick and surprisingly detailed responses. Type in a cellphone model number and you’re suddenly a highly informed consumer. And when it comes to transforming legendary television show casts into babies, AI is world-class. But news? AI-fueled news poses problems. The first is that news is about reality. AI provides tools to bend reality. We’re seeing a wave of AI-abetted falsehoods and deepfakes ...

Making government more accessible

Local Columns

In my mind probably the only thing worse than having to attend/cover/participate in a meeting at 8 a.m. on a Saturday would be having to do so for a meeting at 7:30 a.m. on a Monday. Some of you may remember my frustration in January 2024 when Weirton Council decided to hold a work session early on a Saturday morning to discuss planning for the year. It was cold, and I was in no mood to be social anyway, let alone to listen and report on an essentially lame duck council throw out a series of ideas (many of which were never accomplished). We’ll see how I handle things this coming ...

Guest Opinion: Reforms to West Virginia’s education laws are necessary

Local Columns

Well-educated students who are prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st Century are vital to our success as a state. Today’s students will have unprecedented opportunity to succeed in life if they are properly educated and prepared. This week, West Virginia Board of Education President Paul Hardesty pointed to important facts regarding the West Virginia school-age population and regulations regarding school funding. Mr. Hardesty correctly points out that in order to improve public education, legislators must remove regulations put in place by their predecessors that hamper student ...

Guest Opinion: Energy growth through 2026

Local Columns

Projections for increased electric usage this year and next remain strong. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says American electric consumption this year and in 2026 will exceed the record for usage reached last year. Until 2024, the electric market essentially had been flat for most of this decade and at a very low point in 2020. The demand for electricity during the first two decades existed. But consumption levels were offset by efficiency improvements and other structural changes in the economy. Those changes included a shift away from traditional manufacturing in the ...

Guest Opinion: Local newspapers keep communities strong

Local Columns

Strong communities don’t just happen. They rely on connection — residents knowing what’s going on, businesses reaching the customers who keep them open and citizens having the facts to make good decisions. Local newspapers provide that connection in ways no other source can. In today’s fractured media environment, trust is the rarest commodity. Confidence in “the media” is low. Only 18 percent of Americans say they trust news on social platforms, and fewer than one in four trust cable networks. But nearly two-thirds say they trust their local newspaper — more than double ...