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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 ...

Don’t miss the Real ID deadline

It seems like a lifetime ago — back in 2005, as a response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Congress passed the Real ID Act. At the time, the idea was to have the program implemented by 2008, but opposition and other delays pushed the timeline. Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic extended more than once the deadline for individuals getting identification documents that satisfy Real ID Act standards. But now, the agreed-upon deadline is approaching rapidly. It is a mere three months away. Across the country, states are urging residents who have not already done so to collect the ...

Don’t forget our local non-profits

Those who took a deep breath and exhaled upon learning a federal Office of Management and Budget memo to pause federal assistance had itself been paused might want to take another look at what happened anyway. According to a report by WCHS, some nonprofits in West Virginia are being forced to scale back and lay off employees, despite the OMB memo being rescinded. The Appalachian Center for Independent Living told WCHS it had to begin staff layoffs Jan. 31. “Despite the withdrawal Tuesday night of the OMB Memo freezing all federal grant payments, the Center has received no ...

Giving your future a chance

It would be hard to blame high school seniors and their parents for being uncertain about the financial aid landscape for post-secondary education right now. But it still might come as a surprise to know that now — and for years — fewer students are applying for available college scholarships. The National College Attainment Network examined the number of completed Free Applications for Federal Student Aid as of June 30 before each academic year, as a percentage of the number of high school seniors in each year. Back in 2018-19 (the high school class of 2018), 54% of seniors ...

West Virginia must focus on education

In one of his first actions as West Virginia’s new governor, Patrick Morrisey ordered an economic “Backyard Brawl” with our neighboring states. That’s a great goal, as the least we can do is be competitive with our border states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky and Virginia — when it comes to both retaining and attracting residents and businesses. But perhaps the place to start if we want meaningful comparisons with our border states would be in public education. According to the latest results from the 2024 Nation’s Report Card, as administered by the National ...