Spring training is right around the corner

February 9, 2026

Are you tired of the cold and snow? Have you had it with experiencing, day-after-day, weather forecasts that call for overnight temperatures that start close to zero and afternoon temperatures that are consistently below freezing? Have you resorted to cursing the groundhog and started to wonder out loud how the woolly bear caterpillars you so carefully studied last fall could have been so wrong? Relax — spring is on the way. And while we haven’t seen the grass in a couple of weeks and the trees are still waiting for their first buds, we would remind you that there’s an even ...

How do we recharge West Virginia?

February 7, 2026

Governments have only a limited number of ways to support private businesses — large or small. Whether we like it or not, spending taxpayer money is one of them. The question becomes whether the return is larger than the investment — whether that money is being spent prudently. So, one can understand one of the objections to state House Bill 4004, to create the Recharge West Virginia program, from a few who wondered whether it was a good use of taxpayer dollars to support private businesses by incentivizing them to upskill existing employees. (It is harder to understand those who ...

Continue our focus on dental health

February 6, 2026

Mountain State residents grew up knowing there were certain jokes that would be made at their expense once a person from another state found out they were West Virginians. Some variation on the “but you’re wearing shoes!” or “but you look like you have all your teeth!” was not uncommon. And we laughed it off. But the reality is West Virginia HAS struggled for generations — and still does struggle — with making dental health a priority. That’s backed up by a recent WalletHub study, “2026’s States with the Best and Worst Dental Health,” in which West Virginia ranks ...

Some answers given, others still needed

February 5, 2026

Hancock County residents were able to get some of the answers sought over the last several months during Monday’s meeting of the county board of education. It was the first meeting of the board since the local school system was taken over by the state last month. Featured at the meeting was the long-awaited report from Jeff Davis of Education Consulting Team LLC and Uriah Cummings, school financial operations officer for the West Virginia Department of Education, who discussed some of their findings after reviewing Hancock County Schools’ financial books in an effort to find out ...

Income tax cuts must be sensible

February 4, 2026

Though Gov. Patrick Morrisey may have had the weight of Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist behind him on his recent visit to Parkersburg, the reality is unchanged: Lawmakers have already put in place a mechanism to reduce what West Virginians pay in income tax, and the state did not meet markers to trigger another cut as recently as August. Despite that, Morrisey has gone from pitching a 5% to 10% income tax cut to going all-in at 10%. “West Virginians deserve to keep more of what they earn,” Morrisey said. “We tightened the budget, made tough choices, and put ...

Silly debates only hurting West Virginia

February 3, 2026

The West Virginia Legislature is approximately three weeks into its 2026 session. Both the House of Delegates and Senate have brought several bills to the floor of their respective chambers. The House has already passed multiple bills in the “Jobs First — Opportunity Everywhere” platform it touted before the session even began. One updated the state’s financial support for industrial access roads, doubling it from $3 million to $6 million. Another increased the caps on microgrants for the West Virginia Business Ready Sites program. Were those earth-shaking advances? Probably ...