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The Credit Card Competition Act is a win for West Virginia

Small business owners in West Virginia are eager for Congress to pass legislation with positive, tangible effects on our economy. Sen. Justice is no stranger to serving the people of West Virginia, and as he pivots from his strong tenure as governor to the halls of Congress alongside Sen. Shelley More Capito, I hope they’ll both work to lower costs by tackling the out-of-control credit card swipe fees that continue burdening small businesses and consumers. Swipe fees are no joke, especially when you consider they cost the average household in nearly $1,200 per year. That’s ...

How will you express your thanks this Easter?

I could not possibly let this Sunday go by without telling all of you, who continue to read this little section of the newspaper, that I hope your Easter will be a beautiful one. And why shouldn’t it be? It’s spring. Everything is once again in bloom. For some reason, nature appears prettier on this particular day. As if everything is brand new. Like everything is going to be alright. Easter just gives us that feeling –– like the world is a little more beautiful today than on any other day of the year. Yes, this holiday does bring up a few depressing, personal reminders ...

Thoughts on the 2025 legislative session

The 2025 regular session of the West Virginia Legislature is finally done, wrapping up midnight Saturday after 60 days of floor sessions, committee meetings and debates. I get asked a lot during a session about whether I think a session was good or productive. This year I was asked for letter grades in regard to specific public policy items and how the Legislature did. I kind of regret having done that. Honestly, only you, the public, can decide whether your lawmakers adequately addressed the issues you are concerned about and voted for these people to solve. The entire 100-member ...

The annual look back at the prior year

I’ll most likely be spending a good portion of this weekend, and a few additional nights over the coming week, at the office putting in some longer hours than usual. The time has come, once again, for the West Virginia Press Association’s Better Newspaper Contest, and I, unfortunately, am nowhere near as complete with gathering our entries as I would like. Compiling these entries typically involves a full review of every newspaper published in the previous year. I will admit, it has become a little easier over the years, as we can go through digital copies of the newspapers, ...

Trump administration calls for rate cuts as part of plan

Watching and listening to the interview on Sunday, April 6, 2025, with NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called it a “false narrative” that people close to retiring may be reluctant after their retirement savings dropped last week because of the stock market downturn. Once again, the elite fail to understand how the wage workers’ 401k retirement plans work. When a retired employee separates from the employer who does not have a Defined Benefit Pension, which more than 90% of private sector workers do not have, the 401K is used to create an income ...

A defining moment for college sports and West Virginia’s youth

The recent $2.8 billion settlement in House v. NCAA is more than a headline—it’s a seismic shift in the landscape of college athletics. This case, which directly confronts decades of inequity in student-athlete compensation, is the latest in a series of defining moments forcing us to rethink how we value the young people who power billion-dollar sports industries. The settlement compensates former athletes for lost opportunities dating back to 2016 and introduces a groundbreaking model that allows schools to pay athletes directly starting in 2025. But while the college world is ...