(AUTHOR’S NOTE: I published this column last Memorial Day. This coming Memorial Day will be quite different, with most events and parades canceled. Even Alumni Weekend in St. Marys is canceled, where I would have celebrated the 20th anniversary as a member of the Class of 2000. The ...

The sky is always a unique shade of blue when it’s Memorial Day weekend. It’s crisp, inspiring, full of promise. There’s just something extra special about it. That’s always been my theory anyway. And I don’t think I’m the only one who sees it that way or feels out of sorts ...

Last week, I wrote about some of the differences in the “reopenings” of our local states. West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania are following different schedules and using different techniques in their efforts to bring the states back to some sort of normalcy. One of the big components is ...

Hello everyone. This day the Lord has made is the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. Since many of us are not back to worshipping collectively, I want to give us some encouragement to help us personally during these new days. I really miss not getting to see my church family in person, ...

It’s been a tough couple of months as our nation-and the entire world-deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Many of us know someone who has been infected by the virus and some of us have lost loved ones as a result. We’ve become accustomed to the new norm of social distancing, ...

We cannot delay progress — particularly with vital infrastructure — in West Virginia. Earlier this year, I stood shoulder to shoulder with dozens of pipeliners, laborers and business leaders to underscore the importance of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to West Virginia. The gathering, ...

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the newest front in the culture war between the left and the right: the coronavirus. As things begin slowly to reopen and as we learn to live with COVID-19 floating around out there, this battle shows no signs in slowing down. Both sides are foolish. On one ...

It doesn’t take a lot to make me happy. The hair appointment that’s in my very near future elevates me to the ecstatic-happy level, but as a rule I’m a basically content, happy person for no particular reason at all. But then along came this hunker-down response to the coronavirus ...

The state’s are beginning to ease off of the restrictions put in place in their efforts to “flatten the curve” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This has, no doubt, been a difficult couple of months for many of us. Businesses have been closed, people have not been working and much ...

Christians around the world, and all-around social media, have spent a lot of time in the past months talking about the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ death and resurrection. During the week leading up to Easter we talked about the familiar stories; about Jesus arriving in Jerusalem for the ...

One of my pastimes, if you could call it that, is visiting old cemeteries. I think it stems from the fact that these places are untouched by time. Stones that are placed there to honor the dead are in most cases unchanged, depending on the materials they are made from. For me, this a very ...

I was washing dishes the other evening when I thought about her. Mrs. Marie Della Penna was my home economics teacher when I was an eighth-grader at Jefferson Union High School. I seem to remember her offering advice in a class once about the best way to wash a dish with dried scrambled egg ...

A little over a week ago, officials with the City of Weirton organized a press briefing and site tour with representatives of the Frontier Group of Companies and others to announce a planned development project in the city. The proposed creation of a solar farm on Brown’s Island has been ...

I have to keep telling myself that our country is not as divided as a country as we appear to be, but with the loud voices on the fringe left and fringe right regarding the coronavirus, it’s easy to be a little disheartened. I have no idea where the middle exactly falls on the scale, but I ...

We’re all in the same boat, so the consensus seems to be. But some of us are getting a bit more seasick than others. Honestly, there are times during these abnormal living circumstances brought on by the coronavirus pandemic restrictions that I feel like a character in a movie or TV ...

In a normal year, this next week would have been a time for us at the newspaper to remind everyone about the importance of going to your polling location in a little over a week. West Virginia’s primary election was supposed to be held May 12. The biggest item on the ballot, of course, will ...

I remember a priest once saying that we do not go boldly into foolishness in order to see if God will follow. In Matthew 4, Jesus is tempted by Satan, and in one of the temptations, Satan takes Jesus up to the highest pinnacle on the temple, and tells him to jump off. Jesus says that we are not ...

Most small children are excited by buried treasure, and my 6-year-old son Paulie is no exception. There is something exciting about hearing a story, finding a treasure map and following it to “X marks the spot.” It is the adventure of the hunt, and the hope of discovery of something lost ...

Sometimes you can’t fight the inevitable, and that’s what happened last week when the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals — after nearly five years with the case in limbo — ruled the state’s Right to Work law was constitutional and valid. It was really the only decision that ...

One of the things I most enjoy about my job is seeing and visiting our community events. There always has been something special about the various festivals, fundraisers, parades and other activities offered in the Upper Ohio Valley. They have a unique flavor and a history we all can ...