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State’s child abuse information startling

The West Virginia Child Advocacy Network has released its annual statewide data report for the 2024 fiscal year. Though most of us have some idea of the damage being done to Mountain State children, the report is eye-opening and horrifying. The network’s child advocacy centers provide services in 47 of our 55 counties — safe facilities where children can interact with child protection, criminal justice and child treatment professionals. The work is done both to further investigations AND to help our kids heal. Horrifyingly, the need for such services is only growing. Back in ...

Dental health is also healthcare

We’ve all heard the jokes — nasty little jabs about West Virginians’ dental health that plenty of us rushed to call unfair and untrue. They’ve been around for generations. The problem is, there is some truth to the idea that we’ve got a problem here. According to WalletHub’s “States with the Best and Worst Dental Health (2025),” the Mountain State is not quite dead last, but close. We are 49th, ahead of only Mississippi and Arkansas. We are 38th for dental habits and care, and dead last (51st) for oral health. West Virginia is 50th for the percentage of adults who ...

Black history is American history

Black History Month 2025 is a chance to consider the ways work and working of all kinds intersect with the collective experiences of Black people. “African Americans and Labor” is the theme that has been selected by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, the founders of Black History Month, which runs through Feb. 28. It’s a multi-layered topic, and one that allows for study and discussion on many levels because, the association writes, of the many levels — free and unfree, skilled, and unskilled, vocational and voluntary — of life that labor ...

Looking toward the valley’s progress

As you look through the pages of the first installment of our annual Progress Edition that is inside today’s paper, you will find a real sense of optimism — a great deal of which is being driven by the men and women who have important roles in the region’s economic growth. “We need to think regionally, not just in terms of our own city or county,” explains Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli. “We’ve been preaching a regional approach to development,” adds Brooke County Commissioner A.J. Thomas. And, according to Hancock County Commissioner Eron Chek, “I’m ...

Pinewood Derby teaches vital skills to our youth

The Pinewood Derby is a piece of Americana that hearkens back to a treasured time when fathers taught sons about working with their hands and with tools to create something of value. That piece of Americana nowadays involves moms and sons and daughters, brothers and sisters or uncles and nephews and nieces or grandparents and grandchildren — anyone who is willing to invest a little time in the life of a young person — but the concept remains the same: Teach a young boy or girl about using the skills of their own handiwork to enter a competition that is all about fun and ...

Coal numbers can be eye opening

Most West Virginians likely believe they have a general understanding of the significance of our coal industry in keeping the lights on for the rest of the country, and the size of its role in ensuring domestic energy security. But sometimes hard numbers make us take a step back from what we thought we knew. According to CSX Corp.’s fourth quarter earnings report, the railroad has seen a 14% decline in domestic coal shipments for the full year — but a 9% increase in export shipments. “Export coal decreased primarily due to reduced production, including planned and unplanned ...