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A transition of public leadership

With the beginning of a new year also came a transition for some of those representing our residents in local government. At the county level, Hancock County said goodbye to Jeff Davis as he took part in his final county commission meeting after 24 years. Also a local business owner, Davis’ political career spans almost three decades, first being elected as a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, where he spent four years representing the county, before being voted into a position closer to home. In Weirton, Harold “Bubba” Miller departed the mayor’s office after ...

Questions remain over college’s grant

At a time when both public and private colleges and universities in West Virginia are struggling financially, does it make any sense to gift $5 million in taxpayer dollars to a private vocational college based in Steubenville, Ohio — essentially to move into West Virginia and offer the same services as the state’s community and technical colleges? Of course not. But that’s where we stand today, as the West Virginia Water Development Authority in October improperly approved a $5 million grant for the College of St. Joseph the Worker to expand into West Virginia. The college’s ...

Working detectors essential in homes

Though the winter has been mild over the last several days, we have entered a season during which we have even more reasons to be cautious about how we heat and light our homes. Working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are essential. On Christmas Day, four adult family members died in New Hampshire. “While the investigation remains active and ongoing, at this time, investigators believe the victims died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning,” said New Hampshire State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey. Part of that investigation involves examining the home’s gas heating system — ...

Fixing homelessness must begin at home

“No American should face homelessness,” reads the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s news release accompanying the January 2024 Point-In-Time Count Report. Yes, the data is a year old, but each year’s snapshot give us a better understanding of how many in our communities are facing just that. During the look at the number of individuals in shelters, temporary housing and unsheltered settings, researchers found more than 770,000 people were experiencing homelessness on that one night in January. That was an 18% increase from the same point-in-time in ...

Looking forward to an interesting year

With the beginning of every year comes a sense of hope and the feeling that the future ahead of us is at least a little brighter than the past that is behind us. That’s the case as we say farewell to 2024 and welcome 2025. We see that there are plenty of positive things on the horizon. Construction work continues at the site of Form Energy — the Massachusetts-based company is looking forward to opening a manufacturing facility that will produce specialty batteries on former Weirton Steel property in Weirton. Full production is scheduled to start later this year at the plant, ...

The losses of 2024

It’s likely that you lost a cultural icon who meant something to you during 2024, whether from the world of science, politics, the arts or sports. Whether they helped to keep us informed; entertained us on stage, on film or on television; whether they dazzled us through their accomplishments in athletics; or whether they helped to change the course of the world, each reminded us about the importance one person can make on many lives. Two of those who died in the past year helped to entertain us in many different ways, but a couple of characters portrayed by Dabney Coleman and ...