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Warner expresses frustration over Morrisey’s veto of election transparency regulation

Democracy dies in darkness. Elections are influenced by money. When those two altruisms converge, we’re left with a society that is subject to the desires of the wealthy elite who know how to “play the political influence game.” On April 1st, Governor Patrick Morrisey, my colleague on the Board of Public Works, vetoed a rules-bundle bill containing dozens of agencies’ rules that have been published for public review and comment for at least 8 months. Included in that rules bundle were updates to long-standing, common-sense campaign finance rules that aim to increase ...

If you had three wishes … what would they be?

When we are little, our parents tells us fairy tales as we lie awake in bed, listening to their every word. We are young. We are impressionable. We believe their every syllable. Why? Because they are our parents, our first teachers. They provide the first values that we have. And while we are lying in bed, listening to their voice, they impress upon us thoughts of princesses and magical kingdoms. Happy endings, always. But then we grow up. We ultimately learn that life is not a fairy tale, and many of us are filled with disappointment. We discover that those happy ...

Broad-strokes, unintended consequences could harm West Virginia

On March 26, 2025, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) filed an interim final rule that substantially relieves undue burdens on domestic businesses previously imposed by the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). Along with 19 of my colleagues in other states, we wrote a letter encouraging President Trump to prevent federal agencies from pursuing or punishing hardworking Americans with which they disagree. We were successful, and now FinCEN will focus only on foreign businesses, which was the initial purpose of the regulation. This limited ...

Will legislators go to summer school?

We’re on the countdown to Crossover Day Wednesday, when state Senate bills must cross over to the House of Delegates and vice versa in order to ensure these bills have a chance of making it to passage by midnight on Saturday, April 12, when the 2025 legislative session ends. That means we have slightly less than two weeks until the 60-day regular session ends. For some, that day could not come soon enough. For others, such as Gov. Patrick Morrisey, he is already clamoring for a special session “The more work the Legislature gets done now, the less time it will spend in Charleston ...

Festival a reflection of our community

Last weekend saw the return of the Festival of Nations in Weirton, following a gap of about six years. I previously wrote about how this had become one of my favorite events over the years, and, I must admit, it didn’t disappoint. The modern version of the festival began in 2009 and ran until 2019, stopping only because of COVID. It was revived, again, through the efforts of the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center, with close to a dozen entertainment acts representing cultures from around the world. Many of them were long-time participants for the Festival of Nations, with ...

Tell your friends you care this Easter holiday

It’s hard to believe it is almost Easter. We blinked. And that new year we were all celebrating just yesterday? Well, that year is already a fourth of the way over. If you made a New Year’s Eve resolution, did you stick to it, or did you abandon it weeks ago because it was harder than you realized? Maybe it was a resolution you wish you wouldn’t have made. But don’t worry. You can always make another one in only a matter of blinks. It’s rather frightening how quickly life passes us by –– especially the older we get. I heard this saying plenty of times ...