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Justice needs to cut it out on tax battle

It appears as we get closer to the end of Gov. Jim Justice’s final five months as the chief executive of the State of West Virginia, he may be ending his tenure the same way he began it: with a showdown with the Legislature. Of course, there are differences between now and the 2017 legislative session. Then, the governor was a Democrat dealing with a Republican legislative majority and even a Democratic minority who all were distrustful of Justice at the time. Democratic lawmakers were reluctant to follow his lead, and Republicans had no reason to. Now, Justice is on his way out ...

The ballots are just about ready to go

The calendar is moving forward for our general election in November. According to the West Virginia Secretary of State’s website, this past Thursday (Aug. 1) was the deadline for those with unaffiliated candidates (those with no party organization) to file their paperwork and pay their fee in order to be placed on the ballot. For President, West Virginia currently has three candidates listed: Republican Donald Trump, Mountain Party candidate Jill Stein, and Libertarian Chase Oliver. I’m assuming that will be updated once the Democratic National Convention is held later this ...

History in the Hills: Appreciating old buildings

I have spent some time in downtown Steubenville during the last few days and I am always impressed by the historic buildings and homes that are there. Steubenville certainly is an old place and the buildings that are there exude that age. That is not to say that they are somehow lacking in any way because they are old, but in fact it makes them more charming and appealing, in my opinion anyway. When I was working at Historic Fort Steuben, I had the chance to visit some of the old buildings in town. One specifically was Mayor Jerry Barilla’s store, Frank and Jerry’s on Fourth ...

The Festival of the Arts is still a part of my life

I can remember going to the Toronto Festival of the Arts when I was little. I recall walking around through a huge crowd of people. There was hardly space in which to move. There were people everywhere. Crafters everywhere. So much to look at that there simply wasn’t enough time to see it all in one day. This was probably in the early 1980s being that the festival is 46 years old this year. I would have been around 10. There was a small pizzelle stand in the parking lot of the First Presbyterian Church. The man who ran it made different flavors of the Italian ...

A match of presidential ping-pong

The evening of July 21 when national media outlets were reporting that sources close to U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin said he was considering switching back to being a registered Democrat to challenge Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic nomination for president, I knew to wait a day. Earlier that day, Manchin, I-W.Va., had hit the Sunday morning talk shows to urge President Joe Biden to suspend his candidacy for president, calling on Biden to “pass the torch.” By that afternoon, succumbing to weeks of pressure from actual Democratic leaders following a disastrous debate with ...

Announcement brings thoughts and observations

Monday was a big news day for our area as Cleveland-Cliffs announced plans to bring a transformer manufacturing operation to Weirton, with a goal of establishing around 600 USW-represented jobs. According to everything sent out by the company Monday morning, the plan is to have everything set up in the Half Moon Industrial Park. That still leaves up in the air what the fate of the tin mill will be, although CEO Lourenco Goncalves pretty much confirmed in his opening speech Monday that tin production was finished in Weirton. I’ll be perfectly open about this. I had heard a few ...