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Time. It is a gift from God. A gift that no one really understands. Why are some people blessed with many, many years? And some, all too few? Why do our teenage years seem to be never-ending? We are always waiting for the day when we will become an adult. That 21st birthday? Or that 18th birthday? It couldn’t get here soon enough. We waited. And waited. And time passed by ever-so-slowly. But the older we became, the faster the hands on the clock seemed to tick. Physically impossible, I know. But it appeared as if those hands had been wound too ...

Dispatches from the Greenbrier Resort

I’m writing this week’s column sitting at a fancy writing desk off of the lobby of the historic Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs. No, I am not staying at the Greenbrier. I’m just a humble newspaper reporter who is staying at a nearby Super 8 Hotel. But I have been attending the 88th West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Summit. The Business Summit is probably one of my favorite events to cover. My beat is covering state government, but my beat often intersects with business, whether that means lawmakers crafting bills to draw more businesses ...

We’re all frustrated by bridge project

The work on and around the Veterans Memorial Bridge has continued this week, with a few other aspects thrown at the motoring public. As you probably expect, it hasn’t been going over well with a lot of residents. Construction zones on the bridge, which now is the only connecting point between Weirton and Steubenville, has been a regular event over the last few years. It’s not going to be anything that gets less stressful just because we “get used to it.” Full lanes have been closed at various intervals, exits have been shut down, and even ramps have been blocked off from ...

Integrated Care: A lifeline for West Virginia’s opioid crisis

By DR. JORGE CORTINA UniCare of West Virginia Opioid use disorder (OUD) is one of the most pressing public health crises in the United States, with more than 75% of the nearly 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2022 involving an opioid. West Virginia is at the epicenter of this crisis, as the state’s fatal opioid overdose rate was nearly three times the national average in 2020. A new initiative is saving lives by integrating behavioral and physical health care, an approach that has been widely successful in West Virginia. This initiative, led by Unicare, has reduced the rates of ...

History in the Hills: Labor Day Pageants

This past week, my daughter, Stella, attended Weir High School’s youth cheer camp, hosted by the high school and Weir High cheerleaders. She couldn’t wait until cheer camp started this year and was so excited to show us all that she had learned when she got home. This is her third time attending. I appreciate the efforts of the school and the cheerleaders for putting this event on. We can’t wait until the students of the camp perform all they learned at a home football game at Jimmy Carey Stadium. As an attendee of the camp, she has performed with the group at a Weir High ...

October has always been my favorite color

Fall has always been my favorite time of the year. My being born in October has nothing to do with it. For me, Autumn is more than just a season. It is a feeling ... Something which is not experienced or felt during the other three. It is timeless. And yet, it goes by far too fast. I always begin the fall season early. Even though the summer is not quite finished with itself, just yet. The calendar may still say August, but my heart is telling me that autumn is right around the corner. So I begin my preparations. I purchase mums — which are already out in ...