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Guest Opinion: In West Virginia, we check on each other

Local Columns

This past week was Mental Illness Awareness Week, and World Mental Health Day was Wednesday. It’s a helpful reminder, but the truth is West Virginians don’t wait for a calendar to do the right thing. We check on our neighbors. We bring a casserole and we bring a phone number. We don’t look away when someone’s struggling. We lean in. That’s who we are and how we live. Over the past year, the work of the National Alliance on Mental Illness in West Virginia has expanded with that same spirit. We’ve grown education and peer support so families have somewhere to turn. We’ve ...

Bad Bunny could provide a good show

Local Columns

Those complaining about the selection of Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show in 2026 should probably take some time to look up the history of the feature. From Super Bowl I in 1967 to XXVI in 1992, these performances were primarily provided by college and high school marching bands, with the occasional guest performer or two. Many had special themes, such as the 1992 salute to the Winter Olympics with appearances by the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, or the 1990 Salute to Peanuts, or the 1987 salute to 100 years of Hollywood. In 1981, there was a Mardi Gra theme. That changed ...

A lesson in political thought

Letters to the Editor

To the Editor, Democrats smear the American political right as fascists and Nazis. How true is this, in point of fact? Benito Mussolini, founder of what we call fascism, regarded it as an organic, regional ideology. Specifically, in his era, post-World War I, it grew and developed as it did in Italy, becoming Italian fascism. What was called Nazism was Germany’s fascism. What became Japanese imperialism was Japan’s version. It’s harder for such extremist ideologies to sprout in countries like, say, the United States, where individual liberties are guaranteed by ...

Guest Opinion: Politicians fight culture wars, W.Va. loses jobs

Local Columns

A recent local news headline read: “Manufacturing plant moving from West Virginia to Ohio, creating new jobs.” This is an unfortunate sign of the times for our state, which has lost the job-creating momentum created after business-friendly Republicans took control back in 2015. Unfortunately, a lot of Republican politicians seem more focused on fighting culture wars and creating new opportunities for lawsuits than growing our economy. Even though a majority of West Virginia voters want their leaders focused on economic growth, many legislators prioritize hot-button social ...

Get your exam, help raise awareness

Editorials

Pink is a prevalent color around our communities this time of year — it serves as a reminder that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. One in eight women will develop invasive breast cancer in her lifetime, according to medical experts, and the most significant risk factors for breast cancer are gender — being a woman — and growing older. According to the American Cancer Society, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States, with the exception of skin cancers, and accounts for 30 percent of all new female cancers each year. Only lung cancer kills ...

It’s “perfect”ly fine to just be good enough ...

Local Columns

We all strive to make every situation perfect, don’t we? We try so hard to make our life the best that it can be. But we have to realize that nothing is perfect, and “good enough” is good enough. When we are born, our parents immediately begin to instill in us all types of values. We are taught to be honest. We are told to be kind. We are instructed to sit up straight. We are reminded to always use the terms “please” and “thank you.” That one is something my grandson, Layne, has been doing since he first started to try saying words. We learn how we should ...