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Technology … where would we be without it?

Technology. Where would we be without it? Technology. Where would we be without it? No, I didn’t accidentally write that sentence twice. It’s written to mean two different points of view. Go back and read it again. I’ll wait. Can you see the difference? On one hand, technology has drastically changed the way we do practically everything. The world is pretty much at our fingertips. Life has become so much easier — perhaps too easy. We no longer have to try to read a map or stop and ask directions at a gas station, even though some of us may insist we never get lost. ...

Putting a freeze frame on federal funding

I typically don’t write about national politics in this space. When I do cover national politics, it is usually through the lenses of West Virginia’s congressional delegation. My focus tends to be on state-level politics. However, last week’s temporary freeze on federal grant funding by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) – now stayed and rescinded - really brought together national and state politics, because probably no other state would have been affected by that freeze more than West Virginia. According to the memo, federal agencies were to review ...

Knowing the difference between fact and fiction

I remember in grade school being taught about the dangers of rumors and mishearing information; how things can be twisted around when details aren’t understood appropriately – or worse, when people intentionally twist those details around the suit their own needs. The lesson was taught, as some were back then, through a game. During “Telephone,” we sat in a circle, with one person given a message, and then each of us taking turns telling the person next to us what we thought the message was. Almost always, by the time the last person was asked to say what they had heard, it ...

Remembering a hero from Tough Man

Roger “Cookie” Wallace passed, a longtime friend I met through his brother, Richard “Dick’ Wallace, who was a Brooke County school bus driver who listened with encouragement about my aspiration to be in the fight racket. When I was working in Wellsburg back in the late 1970s, his brother would come from a long day’s work at Eagle Manufacturing to do his banking when I was a teller. But Cookie enjoyed unclaimed fame in the glove game having been the wheels in 1980 for the Ohio Valley Tough Man contest at what was then Wheeling Civic Center. In what was a rather tense drive, ...

Education matters: The importance and value of having school choice

According to the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE), 241,024 children receive an education within the Mountain State. However, do they all thrive under the same educational model? How does the state’s education system impact family decisions to move here? As reported on the WVDE zoomwv website, with overall enrollment in steady decline over the past seven years, a vibrant and adaptable education system made up of a variety of school models is essential to attracting and retaining families and businesses. The traditional “one-size-fits-all” school model no longer serves ...

Sorry Mr. Groundhog: Still six more weeks of winter

So, today is Groundhog Day. It’s one of the lesser-celebrated holidays of the year, unless, of course, you happen to live in Punxsutawney, Pa. Then, it’s a celebration unlike any other. I know this because I watched the movie “Groundhog Day,” with Bill Murray several times. Now, I have never been one to pay very much attention to what the groundhog tells us. Why? Because even before he comes out of his tiny hole, his cage or whatever it is they have that poor little guy contained in, I already know that there will be six more weeks of winter. How do I know this? ...