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Thank you for letting me be your Community editor

Last week, it was brought to my attention that I have been the newspapers’ Community editor for an entire year, as Janice Kiaski was kind enough to bring in doughnuts for the office in celebration of her one-year retirement anniversary. I had no idea it had already been a year. It sure has gone by rather quickly. Janice stopped before I arrived at work. I missed the opportunity to let her know that her gesture was truly appreciated. I could tell someone had been to the office, as there was a box of k-cups waiting for me at my desk. Thank you, Janice for the wonderful ...

EPA short-circuits the U.S. power grid

On April 25, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a blitz of regulations targeting the nation’s fossil-fuel power plants. In the center of the EPA’s crosshairs is America’s coal fleet, which remains a workhorse source of power across the country—and the leading source of electricity in more than a dozen states. EPA’s suite of rules—anchored by a series of unachievable and exorbitantly expensive technology mandates—will force the closure of the nation’s existing coal plants nearly overnight. They’ll also make it all but impossible to build new ...

Going into the primary election homestretch

I had a wonderful vacation and cruise of the Caribbean, but after being back to work as of last week, part of me wishes I was still at sea. If I took a drink every time a candidate said “woke” or “radical,” I’d have alcohol poisoning. The plus side is we’re 16 days out from the May 14 primary. Early in-person voting in West Virginia begins Wednesday and continues until Saturday, May 11, excluding Sundays at county courthouses and other designated polling locations. If we can just get through the next couple weeks, our mailboxes and airwaves should return to normal for a few ...

What we do without genuine leadership

“People want leadership, Mr. President, and in the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone. They want leadership. They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.” This line spoken by the character of Lewis Rothschild, portrayed by Michael J. Fox in “The American President,” has resonated with me at various points over the years, and especially as I’ve been more surrounded by those who want to be considered as our ...

He may be small, but he holds my whole heart

A word to the young people out there ... when someone says to you that life is short and you should enjoy every moment because time goes by too fast ... listen. I never believed I could be a grandmother. I knew it was possible. Even plausable. But I didn’t believe it. I still feel as if I am 23. I do not move like I am 23. I do not think like I did when I was 23. I do not look anything like I did when I was 23. But in my mind, when I am just sitting around, not aching or in severe pain, my brain tells me I am around 23. So, it’s hard for me to wrap my head around the ...

Uncertainty as we go into a new chapter

Anyone who has lived in our region over the last 100 years or so has been affected in some way by the operations of Weirton Steel Corp. or its successor companies. Whether you’ve worked there yourself, had a family member or friend employed in the mill, or even operated another business in the community, you have benefitted from the manufacturing of steel, tin or other materials from within those walls. This weekend, for all intents and purposes, that appears to be coming to an end as the Cleveland-Cliffs Weirton tinplate, the final vestige of the company founded and named after E.T. ...