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Make use of early voting period

While West Virginia’s primary election is exactly two weeks away, the state’s voters will be able to begin casting their votes this week. Our state has offered an in-person early voting period for several years, providing voters who may not be able to make it to the polls on the dedicated election day with an avenue to still cast their votes for their preferred candidates. This year’s in-person early voting period begins Wednesday, with registered voters able to visit their county courthouses every weekday and Saturday through May 11. Hancock County voters may cast their ...

Obstacles persist for Appalachians

How much money must the Appalachian Regional Commission have spent on a “collaboration with Next Street” that produced “Access to Capital and Credit for Entrepreneurs and Small Businesses Across Appalachia?” Takeaways for the ARC include acknowledging that small businesses drive “economic and cultural vitality across the Appalachian Region,” and finding that there are “significant barriers” for those businesses to access capital and credit. Earth shattering. Challenges discovered in the report include: a gap between capital supply and demand, geographic constraints, ...

Roll up your sleeve and give

Responding to emergency calls for blood and platelet donations is an important way to support the American Red Cross and those who receive those blood products. But even when there is no crisis, it is still important to answer the call for donations. Keeping the supply stable is essential. As always, donors of all types are needed, but the Red Cross says type O blood donors are crucial to keep up the supply. “When it comes to lifesaving care, there’s no letting off the gas — the American Red Cross needs donors to come to give blood over the next few weeks to keep the blood ...

A close look needed at state budget

Gov. Jim Justice claims there was no reason for lawmakers to have cut so much from the budget after learning the state was waiting for a federal waiver they say they knew nothing about. But taxpayers can’t blame them for it. They did exactly the right thing. Now, with waiver in-hand, Justice would like lawmakers to come back to Charleston to restore what they cut. Maybe there are easy line items to restore. The attention-grabbing Medicaid and intellectual and developmental disability waiver program shouldn’t be too tough for politicians to work out. But that doesn’t mean they ...

More needed to protect our children

One has to wonder what it would take to shake politicians and bureaucrats out of their default mode of protecting themselves before protecting children or holding themselves (or their friends) accountable. Clearly not even the death of a child in Boone County is enough. For years now, too many public officials have chosen to misinterpret the law — and to improperly instruct their staffs — under the pretense of protecting children. It’s their go-to excuse these days, isn’t it? But now, the law they say protects kids is being used to hide information that might prevent another ...

Getting college costs under control

Yet again, the Biden Administration is trying to use executive action to reduce student loan debt. This comes as the president works to find ways to connect with younger voters prior to the November election. And once again, the White House’s approach fails to address the root causes of this problem — and sets an expensive precedent in an age of a $34 trillion national debt. As we’ve previously written, “any proposal to cancel or forgive student loan debt without addressing the underlying problem — that for decades college tuition has increased in cost at a rate much ...