I’ve been fascinated with emergency services ever since I was a young kid. My father was a 911 dispatcher in my hometown of St. Marys as well as a member of the volunteer emergency squad in Pleasants County. Growing up, it wasn’t uncommon to walk into the St. Marys Police Department to ...

My life generates constant deadline pressure, and not just at the newspaper. This is especially the set of circumstances when Better Half and I are grocery shopping and a quart or two of Breyer’s chocolate peanut butter ice cream is on the list of things to get. This is a very strategic, ...

The condition of our local roadways has been a focus on the news in recent weeks, and serves as our annual reminder to always be diligent while behind the wheel. A few weeks ago, as a result of our regular spring rains, we began having some landslides resulting in road closures, including on ...

All I can say about last Tuesday’s primaries is “wow.” I would have never thought that Rep. David McKinley would have lost by such a margin as he did to Rep. Alex Mooney in the 2nd Congressional District Republican race. I typically keep my predictions out of this column and off public ...

I remember sitting on the back porch one day last summer thinking to myself how blessed I am. That’s for a lot of reasons, including that I live in the built-in-the-1880s Hout House family homestead where I grew up in the company of loving parents and in the midst of four older siblings ...

The primary election is essentially over. Canvassing will need to be done in the coming days to make everything official, but, for the most part, everything seemed go as smoothly as can be expected. Local results were finalized and announced by about 9:30 p.m., then came the interviews with ...