Breaking News

Local Columns

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 ...

Pressing issues with the Justice administration

We reporters like to think we have a thick skin. Being yelled at by politicians or their supporters, sometimes anonymously on social media, is par for the course in this business. Cat-and-mouse games between administrations, departments and lawmakers is common. But I’m kind of at my wit’s end. The attitude by Gov. Jim Justice and the communications officials in his administration and his departments toward the press, especially regarding issues within the governor’s control, has reached nearly a point of no return and I’m not sure what they can do to repair things beyond putting ...

A few odds and ends from recent weeks

There’s been a lot going on in the last few weeks, and, sometimes, there are decisions and observations that don’t always qualify for a full news article. I’ll occasionally use this opportunity to go through a few here and there. This is going to be one of those times. It would be helpful if the West Virginia Division of Highways would find a better way to describe the location of their projects than using milepost numbers. I realize the DOH communications staff has a lot of information to process, and I’m willing to bet most of them aren’t actually familiar with the ...