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Take us out to the ballgame

There’s a certain magic about the start of the baseball season. It’s fitting that the game returns in the spring, the season of beginnings. It’s a time for optimism, as fans in cities across the United States and Canada are certain that their team will get to the playoffs, and even the World Series. Baseball is a game that brings people together. It offers the chance for a family to enjoy a day at the ballpark. It provides the opportunity for friends and neighbors to spend a warm summer evening on the deck, enjoying each other’s company while listening to or watching a ...

Support those who are there to support us

When the Red Cross of the Ohio River Valley needs our help, it is often in the form of blood donations and filling volunteer opportunities. But Wednesday, is Red Cross Giving Day — a chance for us to support this vital organization with financial donations, too. “This year’s disasters have set a whirlwind pace, displacing thousands of people from their homes across the country and disrupting the nation’s blood supply for patients,” said Erica Mani, chief executive officer for the American Red Cross Central Appalachia Region. “As we enter spring disaster season, families are ...

Legislators need to stop the stunts

One is tempted to wonder who in the motorcycle insurance industry got hold of state lawmakers this year, after discussion of a couple of motorcycle-related ideas in the House of Delegates. House Bill 2752 has actually been dubbed a “freedom from leg cramps bill” by state Del. Chris Philipps, R-Barbour, who was a co-sponsor. It would let riders operate motorcycles or mopeds while standing as long as the rider faces forward and their feet are on the pedals. That passed the House 80-17. Meanwhile, Del. David Foggin, R-Wood, offered an amendment that would have let motorcyclists ride ...

Education needs less input from legislators

For a group so fond of dragging out terms such as “nanny state” and “overreach” when the mood suits them, it should be more of a surprise when they push measures meant to claw control of local decision-making back for themselves. But members of the West Virginia Legislature have attempted such maneuvers often enough that it is no longer a surprise — just a head-shaking disappointment. Neither the state Constitution nor previous West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals rulings — not even the full knowledge that their action virtually guarantees a return to the courts — can ...

Remember the health of all West Virginians

Members of West Virginia’s House Health and Human Services Committee have injected a measure of common sense responsibility into the conversation about vaccine requirements for public and private school students in the state. When state Senate Bill 460 made its way over to the House of Delegates, it included dangerous exemptions for religious and philosophical reasons. In an 18-7 vote, members of the House committee removed them. Good. The amended version of SB 460 that will now go before the full House still would allow a licensed physician, physician assistant, or nurse ...

Jobs, not sports, should be priority for Morrisey

Mountaineers — always free, sure; but also, always willing to be good sports, take responsibility, accept when things don’t go our way without whining about it, and focus on what is really important for our state and our families. We don’t run to legal action and investigations every time we’re disappointed in the way things have turned out. In fact, here, we frown upon frivolous legal action and wastes of time and taxpayer dollars. There’s difficult work to be done, after all. There are needs upon which those we elected to serve MUST be focusing. Unless, apparently, ...