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Reject vaccine measure

West Virginia’s children and families have long benefited from the state’s strong immunization laws requiring children attending public school to be vaccinated. Now, an effort to reverse that is gaining momentum in Charleston, where it appears the pretense of “personal freedom” trumps public health. The Senate Health Committee on Thursday amended and approved Senate Bill 460, which allows a parent or guardian to simply present a written statement to the administrator of the child’s school or child care center that the mandatory vaccination requirements cannot be met because ...

Groceries shouldn’t be a luxury

If you have experienced pain at the grocery check-out lately — and not because you still haven’t mastered ringing up your own produce — you’re not alone. In fact, according to a WalletHub study, “States Where People Spend the Most and Least on Groceries,” West Virginia is second only to Mississippi for the cost of groceries as a share of median monthly household income. Here, the average spending on groceries is 2.57% of the median monthly household income. By contrast, the lowest percentage is in New Jersey, at 1.5%. Ohio shoppers spend 2.19% of the median monthly ...

Morrisey lays out his plan

During his first State of the State address Wednesday, Gov. Patrick Morrisey painted West Virginia as being at the start of a “comeback.” If that is the case, it is a resurgence long overdue. Our challenge now is to engineer that comeback with a focus so strong it is not slowed by those elected officials whose mission extends no further than pushing the Mountain State backward at any chance presented. To that end, Morrisey was right to understand our obligation to build a West Virginia in which young people want to stay, raise families and thrive. In fact, Morrisey hit on ...

Seeing premium growth in our area

The Weirton area received more good news late last week with the announcement Premium Guard Inc. would be locating a new operation in the community. As part of its plans for growth, which includes expanding its market into Canada, the Memphis-based company, which manufactures, automotive filters and other parts and accessories, has decided to set up shop in the Upper Ohio Valley, moving into a facility once home to the rue21 distribution center on Park Drive. This is good news for two major reasons. One, it fills space which has been vacant for the last several months, thus ensuring ...

Setting the stage for West Virginia

Tonight, Gov. Patrick Morrisey will deliver his first State of the State Address to lawmakers and West Virginia residents from the state Capitol. There will be the usual pomp and circumstance surrounding such events, but Morrisey has much work to do in the months ahead — there will be no time for folksy sayings or shenanigans, as the state was forced to deal with the prior eight years. No, first on Morrisey’s list must be how to address the $400 million hole in the state budget left by the Justice Administration. Morrisey has said the budget hole comes from a combination of ...

Baseball season is around the corner

There has been plenty of evidence during the past month or so that winter continues to hold its grip on the Tri-State Area. We’ve seen snow, bitter cold and freezing rain — a pretty good sampling of what winter has to offer. And even though the region’s groundhogs offered different outlooks on what lies ahead (Punxsutawney Phil said six more weeks of winter, while Buckeye Chuck and French Creek Freddie both called for an early spring), a glance at the calendar reminds us that spring will arrive in a little more than a month — at 5:01 a.m. March 20, to be precise. If you ...